Have you ever wondered why your emails go straight to the spam folder? In this Expert Insight Interview, Gary Chan discusses how to optimize emails to be as deliverable as possible. Gary Chan is Information Security Specialist and President at Alfizo, helping businesses to meet security compliance and improve their security awareness.

The interview discusses:

• Why is it hard to pass the spam filter?
• How to optimize email?
• Technical part

Why is it hard to pass the spam filter?

The easiest way to learn what is happening with your email is to set up an Outlook or Gmail account and send it out to that address. That way, you will see if your email comes through or gets filtered by spam. Computers are getting only smarter, especially with artificial intelligence categorizing emails. Thus, business people sometimes get labeled as spammers only because they do not know how to trick the technology. For example, spammers misspell words on purpose because a computer has a list of keywords used too often. Nobody knows the exact rules because the computer changes them all the time, and it looks at so many variables to determine whether the sender is legitimate.

How to optimize email?

The good thing to start with is to separate your marketing emails from transactional and personal ones because spam filters look for patterns. Thus, if you send mass marketing emails and then send a couple of personal ones from the same account, all of them might get suspicious as spam. Another trick is to put your physical address with your other contact information because it looks more valid that way. Some categories are crucial to understand and implement to optimize your email deliverability, and one of them is setting up configuring service.

Technical Part

When it comes to a technical set up, small business owners should look for expert’s help. An expert will make sure to do everything to increase the legitimacy of emails. There are some things that you can control on your own as configuration settings. That ensures that nobody uses your domain when sending emails. However, people get a CRM system and make the common mistake of just inserting an email address when signing up without configuring it first. Thus, the system’s chances to get filtered as spam increase.

Moreover, a thing you cannot control is, for instance, buying an email service from a company and using the same server as spammers. That would very likely make the computer categorize you as a spammer as well. Thus, it is best to ask for the expert’s help to prevent you from making little mistakes that might harm your email deliverability.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

For years, the Internet has been the number one place for marketing. However, the rise of social media provided small brands with the best opportunity for effective online marketing. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, David Emmons discusses the path for artists and specialty small business owners to achieve sustainable online business success. David Emmons is a President at Artist Marketing Formula.

The interview discusses:

• The key components to online success
• Maximizing your marketing strategy
• Connecting with the customers
• Integrating marketing in daily practice

The Key to Online Success

Artists usually like to focus on art and not on being marketers. But, to sell your work, you have to promote it online. And the key to succeeding in a virtual environment consists of two simple components: being authentic and staying focused. Thus, show your passion online and do not let the Internet distract you from your main goal.

Maximize Your Strategy

For promoting your work on platforms like Facebook or Instagram, you have to make sure to put the right thing in front of the right people. Narrowing down your target market and understanding your target audience is essential for the right marketing strategy. That could be anything from images to live videos or videos behind the scenes. For example, a restaurant owner could do the live video from the kitchen listing or showing tonight’s specials. The point is to post something that encourages engagement with the audience. When your audience likes, comments, or shares your picture or a video, it creates the traffic that the algorithm recognizes. Afterward, algorithms will do their magic, and they will grow your network for you by finding more people with the same interest.

Create Connection

Today, people like to connect and to know more about the product and the brand they use. As a small brand, you have the advantage over a big company to create better relationships with your customers. You can easily show up that unique component that makes your brand authentic. For you, having a little store in the mountains in Vermont might not be anything special because you live there your whole life, but for the city people, it might sound astonishing. Big organizations invest a lot of money trying to create a sense of authenticity. But for them, that does not come as naturally as it does to a small business owner.

Daily Marketing

Integrating marketing in your daily practice can be simple. You do not have to do much to do things right. Create content to serve as your profit producing ad while you are in your studio painting or doing anything else that you like.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Six core practices can help you to control your thoughts and reactions in any situation. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Darcy Luoma discusses the Thoughtfully Fit leadership model of solving people-problems with confidence. Darcy is a founder and CEO of Darcy Luoma Coaching & Consulting firm.

The interview discusses:

• Steps to do internally
• Steps to do externally

Internal Steps

In today’s world, where everyone is so distracted and reactive, there are ways to learn how to be mindful and thoughtful of your actions. The first three steps are internal. Firstly, you should learn how to find stillness in situations when you have so many things to do that you are becoming overwhelmed. The ability to quiet your mind at that moment will help you find creativity and strategy to finish up all the things.

The second step is to practice choosing how you want to show up in situations. Choosing how you will show up at any moment is a sign of power, and it can change the dynamics of your entire life. To do so, you have to master the “pause, think, act” process. Instead of reacting automatically to a given situation, take a pause and think. Think of why this triggers you, how you want to show up, and what you need to do to bring the energy you desire. The pause can be only a couple of breaths or one sip of coffee long, but it will be very beneficial for you because it will enable you to act thoughtfully.

The third step is to find endurance to overcome the feeling of being stuck. This step calls for embracing the growth mindset because only the mindset shift can help you see new opportunities where you once saw no way out.

External Steps

The first external step to do is to find the flexibility to accept others the way they are. The highest performing teams in the top organizations have cultures supportive of diverse styles. Different styles and perspectives create conflicts, and healthy conflicts lead to exploration and innovation.

Furthermore, finding balance in your relationship is an important step to create a win-win situation for both sides. An imbalanced relationship creates feelings of resentment, anger, and overall destruction for one side. Thus, both sides must express and satisfy their wants and needs for the relationship to balance.

And the last step is to practice agility to stop defending yourself and others from reacting poorly. We all have reactions that are typical for us, but we should try to change that behavior. Thus, next time, instead of overreacting, pause for a second and think about how you can thoughtfully react to the situation instead of overreacting.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Last year, the whole society had to make so many changes due to the unpredicted circumstances. Hence, in this Expert Insight Interview, Marie Hale discusses changes in the sales leadership caused by the pandemic. Marie Hale is co-Founder and visionary at @revenue company, revolutionizing sales and marketing for small businesses.

The interview discusses:

• How changes enforce innovation
• Effective communication with customers and within the team
• Sales process towards customers and within the team

Time for Innovation

Adapting to changes has left many people emotionally and mentally exhausted. People receive information and act on it differently now because they do not have the same resources and conditions they had before. However, now more than ever, we have to leave the past and think about maximizing our efforts in current conditions. Since we had to make a radical shift in how we do business, this is a great time for innovation and new habits to be born. As sales leaders, we have to empower our team to accept and embrace the fundamental changes that we experience.

Communication

Ensuring proactive communication within the team is essential so that the team can function well under any circumstances. In communication, only seven percent are words. The rest of the 38 and 55 percents are tonality and body language, respectively. Thus, we have to adjust all three – vocabulary, tonality, and body language in virtual communication. Using Zoom all day every day makes people exhausted and unable to concentrate sometimes. If that situation happens, call it out, be vulnerable, say that you are struggling at the moment because probably the person on the other side feels exactly the same. That way, you can create a better relationship with a client, find out more information about his or her personal and professional life, find more compelling reasons, build a stronger business case, and finally close the sale.

Sales Process

The sales process is a dynamic process that should always match the buyer’s buying process. And buyer’s buying process has changed since many buyers feel afraid to commit to a purchasing decision in a time of uncertainty. Thus, doing many micro agreements is crucial to make buyers feel comfortable with going to the next phase. We have to make sure that we get emotional and mental permission from a customer to move to the next stage because otherwise, it will look like we are forcing the deal to close.

Furthermore, there has to be constant internal checking. We have to revaluate our pipeline to make sure that our forecasting is right. Equally important, we have to check with the team members if they are doing good and have all the resources beyond basic sheets and presentations to work effectively.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Emotional intelligence is indeed the most contributing factor to success in career and life in general. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Jennifer Chapman discusses emotional intelligence and how to operate in different environments. Jennifer is the founder and executive leadership coach at Ambition Leadership.

The interview discusses:

• Interaction with people
• Different aspects of emotional intelligence
• Self-awareness

Interaction Matters

The way how you interact with people has an impact on getting the results you want. People like to use the excuses like “well, that’s just who I am ” or “I am a direct person.” But the key is to find a way to deliver your message to the people without getting them offended or defensive. That way, you have more chances for others to like and accept your idea. Too many good ideas get shut down right at the beginning only because people do not understand that they need to approach different people differently.

EQI 2.0

There is an emotional intelligence assessment, EQI 2.0, which focuses on fifteen competency groups, including some less popular aspects of emotional intelligence such as assertiveness. While some people lack being assertive and have to work on being more confident, others are too assertive, so they have to work on being approachable to people. Another aspect is the ability to work independently as well as in a group. People tend to gravitate to whichever they feel more comfortable. However, by working too much in a group, we become dependent on people who are more skilled than us. Also, too much independent work makes us struggle to collaborate with others later. Thus, we have to master to work in both environments.

Self-Awareness

The actions we take and the words we say have an impact on the people around us. Thus, it is essential to work on our self-awareness. By increasing our self-awareness, we can manage relationships in our personal and professional lives better. Discovering yourself demands having some tough conversations with yourself and accepting your strengths and weaknesses. But it also leads to understanding so many of your current relationships and why they are good or bad.

Moreover, the good practice is to ask yourself whether you like to blame the external factors for your circumstances or feel like you are in control of your life. The world treats us exactly how we perceive it. Sometimes, we are not aware of how much we are in control of our own lives. We can do so much even if we start with little, but we have to believe in it.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

There is a seven-stage business growth method that helps people maximize their efforts. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Carl Gould discusses the seven stages of growing a business. Carl Gould is the CEO of 7 Stage Advisors, business growth strategist, author, speaker, and an award-winning coach.

The interview discusses:

• Early stages
• Stages of scale
• Salability and succession
• Common mistakes

Early Stages

The first stage is strategic planning, which means having a compelling business idea to put on paper. This step does not require complexity. You only have to identify where you are right now with the company, where you want to be in the future, and how to get there. In the second stage, you should choose your specialty – niche, and focus on becoming an expert in it. In an economy as volatile as it is today, people are willing to pay more if they believe that they are getting a higher value in return. In order to be considered an authority in your niche, you have to charge higher prices. For example, companies such as Apple or Tesla never offer discounts because they are confident that they provide higher value than competitors. The third is the synergy stage, in which you build a team that aligns with your mission, vision, and core values.

The Stages of Scale

In the next stage, you choose what kind of business model you want to have. Then, you systematize business processes, but just enough to stay flexible to make changes if needed. Timing is crucial here because you cannot move to the next stage without systematization. Next comes scalability, in which your company becomes known for something other than product or service, such as experience or convenience offered to customers. At that point, you start to scale your business.

Salability and Succession

The sixth stage is to maximize your salability by building a management team, going public with IPO, buying, selling, etc. And finally comes the succession stage. In this stage, you can leave the company’s day to day operations since you already have created a legacy.

Common Mistakes

Common mistakes that companies make are following the wrong vision or undercharging their products or services. Moreover, many companies do all the steps right but in the wrong sequence. A good exercise for that is to ask whether the company answers the five core market complaints. Usually, three or four of those complaints are not satisfied. Thus, by focusing on answering market complaints, we also make necessary updates within the company.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Do you like the idea of getting passive income every month? In this Expert Insight Interview, Wally Wright discusses earning passive income from 5G Towers. Wally Wright is General Manager of Spectrum Link, a wireless internet service provider.

The interview discusses:

• How does a 5G tower generate income?
• Today’s state of 5G
• Advantage of investing in the 5G tower

How to Generate Income

To generate the income from 5G towers, you would have to buy a 5G tower on a lease to purchase agreement for 35 thousand dollars. That amount would include all the expenses such as licenses, maintenance, installments, insurance, etc. The company would own the network, but you would own the asset. The tower would get installed on the building within the next three months, and the company would immediately start to sign up businesses for their newly installed network.

In the beginning, you would be getting around $350 monthly, which sums up to 10 percent annually. However, there are options for growth. Firstly, the number of end-users gradually increases, and secondly, you would still have 75 percent of the capacity to do whatever you want with it. Usually, other telecoms would try to lease the rest of the space. Furthermore, the equipment appreciates over time due to the increase in the number of end-users. Thus, another option would be to sell and get more money than what you originally paid because the value has increased.

5G Today

Even though technology innovation happens daily, around every ten years, we experience a significant technology change. So, 5G still has around seven to ten years until it gets replaced by something better and faster. Urban areas in the States already have a 5G network. It is just a matter of time when rural areas will get it too. Nowadays, most people work remotely, and there is an increasing demand for fast, reliable, and efficient Wi-Fi networks in both urban and rural areas.

Why 5G Towers for Passive Income Investment?

Investment in 5G tower is very turnkey because once you buy the equipment, the seller handles all other heavy lifting stuff like insurance and maintenance. As internet investment, this is a very safe investment with lots of growth potential. 5G connects people with lightning speed and provides the best and the most effective internet network that we can get today. Moreover, the tax law from 2018 allows you to write off up to one million dollars in equipment, including the 5G tower.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Last year, virtual events were only a replacement for in-person events, but now they are used for developing global communities with a much higher engagement rate at a lower cost. In this Expert Insight Interview, Jonathan Kazarian discusses how we can optimize the virtual experience to work to our benefit. Jonathan Kazarian is a founder and CEO of Accelevents, a company that helps event organizers to provide real experience in a virtual world.

The interview discusses:

• How to increase user experience
• User benefits
• Possibility of a hybrid model in the future
• User Engagement

User Experience

The earlier platforms were not taking advantage of modern technology in terms of affordability and user experience. When creating the virtual events, the first thing is to set up your goals. What are you trying to accomplish with the event, and how can you do it? Bringing everything and everyone to the same place is crucial so that the focus can be on the user experience. In this case, users are both attendees and exhibitors of a virtual event. Thus, the virtual event needs to provide exhibitors the opportunity to collect leads, create interactions with attendees, and have the right audience.

User Benefits

For attendees, having the virtual event available to stream and being browser-based make it user-friendlier right away. For exhibitors, virtual events offer all the things they had in-person, plus collecting much more data because virtual events provide more insights and easy tracking. The exhibitor can also gather much more leads, information about existing customers, interact with potential customers, and deepen partner relationships while being at home. Also, the return on investment on virtual events is much higher for both exhibitors and event organizers.

Hybrid Model

There are so many reasons why people would prefer virtual events in the future. Some people do not feel comfortable attending events in person. Some companies want to save on travel costs. And some people do not see the trade of anymore in being physically present at a conference. While it is still impossible to eliminate the in-person events, with a decrease in attendance over time, it will be harder to justify the costs of both hosting and sponsoring them. Besides, in-person conferences need innovation regarding the event structure, format, and value they create. Thus, most likely, a hybrid model will come into play.

User Engagement

Besides focusing on user experience, all best performing companies focus on developing a community around their products and brands. Building community means bringing together people who share the same ideas. Virtual events allow people to interact and build networks globally, more often, and at a lower cost.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.