The Tech Smart Boss Podcast

We talk about using content marketing and inbound marketing as a core Tech Smart Boss strategy. Done properly, this leaves you with a lot of great content, known as evergreen content, that you can share over and over again. You can also repurpose it (and you should) for your sales team. In this episode, I discuss the concept of reusing your content and converting it into sales and marketing collateral to help increase your sales. https://www.techsmartboss.com/135

Sadly there are only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and not even a Tech Smart Boss can do anything about that. But guess what, that is plenty of time. The key is to work smarter, not harder, so there's no excuse for not having time to get stuff done. One method that I use is called Time Blocking and it can help you clear out all the distractions and get to what needs to be done, but it takes some process, some discipline, and some tech. In this episode, I explain the concept of time blocking and how to implement it for yourself as well as your team. https://www.techsmartboss.com/134

Trying to participate in social media these days is like trying to drink water out a fire hydrant. Everyone's doing it and for the few people out there actually trying to listen, you have a million people screaming "Hey, look at me!" So if you're going to do it, you don't want to do it alone, you need to bring your entire crew with you, and in business, that means your employees (and your extended network of partners, friends, and maybe even family). Google uses social shares as part of its magic box methods to influence search engine rankings. You want your team to know what amazing content you are publishing, ideally, it helps them offer better services to your customers and informs them on your message. But having them pay attention to your blog doesn't just happen, you need a process and a system. In this episode, I go through my process and some tools that I use to get your entire team on board with sharing your business content on social media and becoming aware of your content. https://www.techsmartboss.com/133

I just went through the nightmare scenario we all dread, my laptop got completely wiped. Everything gone, brand new OS installed, all data gone. But being a Tech Smart Boss, I was able to get my entire workspace back up and running, without losing anything, in less than a day (and now my laptop is working better than ever). In this episode, I go through the various tools and processes that I used to restore and rebuild my laptop from scratch when I surprisingly lost all my data while getting a repair. https://www.techsmartboss.com/132

I talk about being customer-centric all the time and frequently complain when I deal with companies that don't have the same approach to customer service that I believe should be delivered. But I've never gone into a step by step on how to become a customer-centric organization. It's like common sense, it's not so common until someone explains it to you. In this episode, I go through my 5 key steps that your organization should do (and continue to do) if you want to become a customer-centric organization. You don't want to miss this one. https://www.techsmartboss.com/131

There are lots of ways to give poor customer support, and one way, to send a canned response to your lead or customer the wrong way. And yes, there is a right way. Leveraging canned responses is a key business process that you need to implement in your business, but done incorrectly and you could be ruining your brand. In this episode, I go over the canned responses that you should implement in your chat, help desk, and sales teams, and how to do it in a way that delights your customers, not upset them. https://www.techsmartboss.com/130

You've probably heard the saying "It's cheaper to keep em" in reference to marriage, guess what it applies to employees as well (but only the really good ones, you have to let the bad ones go fast or they can cost you quite a bit). Seriously though, one of the best signs of a mature and profitable company is the retention rate. And in many cases, it's not the salary (alone) that determines if your best team members stay or go. In this episode, I go over 7 tips to show appreciation to your team and try to keep them happy, content, and not looking to leave your business. https://www.techsmartboss.com/129

When you're hanging out at a social engagement, we all see the same types of people. There are those who talk about nothing but themselves. Those that make boring small talk about the weather and other topics we don't care about. And then there's that person that tells stories, talks about engaging stuff you've never heard of before, and everyone just wants to hang around him (or her). Yes, I'm talking about the most interesting man in the world. Your social media channels are a lot like this. What are you posting as part of your social media strategy? I think is a pretty smart strategy of posting a little about yourself and a little about engaging topics that you curate around the interwebs, the best parts of the interwebs. But you may be thinking, who has time for that? In this episode, I talk about why you should add curated content to your social media strategy and how to go about finding it and some tools you can use to make the process easy. Https://www.techsmartboss.com/128

We talk a lot about project management technology (and we mention a bunch in this episode), but we never talk about perhaps the most important part of successfully managing projects, the project manager! And over the many years of managing and hiring project managers, this is probably the area where I have made my best hires, so I feel confident in sharing my experience in what you should look for when hiring a project manager. In this episode, I go over the soft skills and the technical skills you should look for when hiring a project manager to join your team. https://www.techsmartboss.com

The human brain is hard-wired to relate to stories. And what makes a billion dollar movie like Avengers: Endgame succeed is sticking to a tried and proven storytelling method. The same process of telling a story that helps Hollywood be successful can also be applied to your business, even a small business. In your content and marketing, you can build a brand and engage and convert brand ambassadors, using the same storytelling techniques. In this episode, I talk about the concept of leveraging storytelling in your marketing and content creation and point you to a few good resources to learn more about the topic. https://www.techsmartboss.com/126

Why prune a bush? To encourage healthier growth and rejuvenate it. It's a common thing we do to take care of our yard but it's something we rarely think about when it comes to the content on our blog. In fact, content pruning is a necessary thing, and it involves not just getting rid of old content, but in many cases, making old content better so it can grow you some more leads. In this episode, I talk about why you should content prune and how to do it. The end goal, maximize the value of your existing content and grow new leads from a little content spring cleaning. https://www.techsmartboss.com/125

A Tech Smart Boss is always trying to drive more traffic, drive more leads, and drive more sales. But sometimes, the easy place to mine for new gold is to clean up all the gold you dropped and left behind. OK, we're not talking about gold, we're talking about digital gold, website visitors who give you their email information so you can nurture them into leads. And there's a lot of things you can do on your website to improve the conversion rate of your existing traffic without spending a penny on new content or traffic. In this episode, I go over 10 (really about 15) super simple methods to help users convert more often on your website content. And we discuss some of the technology you can use to make it happen. https://www.techsmartboss.com/124

We're all about productivity and getting stuff done as a Tech Smart Boss. Finding that perfect blend of great business process and do it yourself technology to grow your business is what we're all about. To that extent, I'm a big believer that as a small business, you must embrace your strengths, and part of that is being more agile and nimble than your larger competition. You can move faster and in better communication and coordination with your team. Leveraging components of Scrum and Agile Project Management methodology, which is heavily used in software development, can really ramp up the productivity for all the areas of your business. In this episode, I talk about how to leverage agile project management in all areas of your business, including sales, marketing, operations. It's not just for software development teams. Https://www.techsmartboss.com/123

We talk a lot about content marketing, inbound marketing, lead magnets, search engine optimization, and all the things that enable you to drive leads from your website straight into your sales queue. But we've never gone deep into one of the most important pieces of the puzzle, your landing page. Without a successful landing page, you can drive all the traffic to your site that you want, drive them away that is. You have to have a great landing page to seal the deal and get that visitor to give you their information and become a lead. In this episode, we talk about the 8 essential components of a great landing page and go over some of the technology available to help you make one. https://www.techsmartboss.com/122

If you listen to the podcast, you know there are 2 things I am really passionate about, great customer support and metrics. Not just any metrics, but metrics you can use to make a difference in your business. So you know I was excited to combine both topics in the same episode. In this episode, I go over 9 customer support metrics that you should monitor in your business and most of them your help desk software will not provide you out of the box. https://www.techsmartboss.com/121

You may not know it, but odds are that you are using the Kanban project management methodology every day. In all areas of your business; sales, marketing, operations, development, and even in your own personal task management. It's a pretty simple concept, but when you combine the ability to have attributes like stages, priorities, assignees, time estimations, and more with the ease of seeing a task through all the stages of your defined process, Kanban boards are powerful. In this episode, I go over what a Kanban board is, how to get the most from it, and go over a few technology solutions that can allow you to bring this project management capability to your entire team. https://www.techsmartboss.com/120

It's been a while since I did a tech stack podcast, so since I've been using some new tools in my sales toolkit, I wanted to do a refresh episode. As with anything, a tech stack depends greatly on the type of business you're in. And in this case, what you're selling. I go over a tech stack that perfect for teams that sell products or services in primarily an Internet, digital marketing way. In this episode, I discuss 7 categories of Tech Smart Boss tools that your sales team needs to be the best they can be. And we cover a lot of options, so be sure to check the show notes for all the product websites mentioned. https://www.techsmartboss.com/119

We talk a lot about providing excellent customer support on the Tech Smart Boss podcast. It's something that should just be the standard for business, but unfortunately, for most organizations, they fall short. In this episode, I go over 8 things that you should be doing from a technology and process perspective to deliver great customer support.

A Tech Smart Boss believes in testing all things. Not just to find out what works, but what doesn't. This applies to our websites as well, but doing A/B testing can require a Ph.D. in mathematics if you do it the way some want you to. As a small business, you probably don't have the traffic to do highly scientific A/B testing and in general, your overall approach is going to be different (primarily focused on finding what works best). In this episode, I go over how to approach A/B testing when it's not your full-time job and you're not running a mega website with lots of traffic. With the ultimate objective to covert more leads and get more sales. https://www.techsmartboss.com/117

Case studies are excellent mid and bottom of the funnel evergreen content. Your potential customers may be ready to buy your product or service, they just need a little extra justification to pull the trigger. Seeing a case study that resonates with them can close the deal. But depending on your industry, it may be difficult to get customers to agree to do case studies. Especially if you are small and your customers are large. But never fear, a Tech Smart Boss always has a way to get the job done. In this episode, we cover what makes a good case study and if needed, how to take a slightly different approach and turn it into a use case so you can still achieve the goal of closing the deal. https://www.techsmartboss.com/116