Journey To $100 Million

If you hire a vendor or someone to do some work for you, and you agree on a price and scope of work, you need to be inflexible when it comes to modifying it. This happened to us recently where we agreed on a price and scope then the vendor tried to modify it after the fact. We realized the new scope was not what we wanted but we had allowed it to be changed. All of a sudden we were agreeing to a price we didn’t want with the product not matching what we’d originally wanted. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organiz

Recently Erik got a call from his financial advisor and Erik told Owen that he should give him deadlines. With everything Erik’s got going on - running a business, recording podcasts, his personal life - other things will get pushed to the back burner. We’ve seen success at both Array Digital and Rival Digital when we give our clients a deadline and follow up with a phone call when they don’t follow through with them. This is especially important in the onboarding process. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organiz

Erik is currently trying to bring our new service offering to some existing clients. We updated our SEO and Google My Business offerings because we found way more effective ways to do these services that bring superior results. The previous way worked and we did a good job but now we know how to do it even better. But with the new way and the new results, comes new pricing. It’s more expensive for us to do it this way, nearly double the price. We decided that new clients definitely have to get onto the new offering. For legacy clients, we didn’t make them switch over right away. We gave them the option, they could decline or accept, and if they declined, we’d continue to do it the old way. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer &

It’s the beginning of the new year and that means new years’ resolutions. Most people write them off right off the bat knowing they’re not going to stick with them. Some people still go through the theatrics of coming up with new years’ resolutions because they feel that’s expected of them but they know they won’t stick to them. Kevin and Erik have gotten very purposeful with setting new year’s resolutions both personal and for the company. They have found success sticking to their resolutions in different ways whether that be to hold themselves accountable or to blast the resolutions out publicly. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CM

Erik is so close to getting his book out, all about his journey to building a $1 million+ business. After he wrote and edited it, he decided that he would read the audiobook and there were a lot of lessons learned as a result of reading his book out loud. Lesson #1: He found a lot of mistakes he didn’t anticipate being there. They were mistakes that, if he had gotten someone else to record the audio, they would not have picked up on them. Lesson #2: Reading out loud sucks. Lesson #3: Read out loud the book and record it *before* you conclude that the editing is done. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is al

You do not want to drive traffic from your ads to a generic landing page. Ideally, every different kind of message you have in a Google or Facebook ad, that same message is carried over to the landing page that the ad leads to. You want what the person searches for, what they see in the ad, and what they see on the landing page to all match. That’s what Google refers to as your Quality Score and you can increase that by making sure all these areas remain consistent. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of th

Many times during the course of Erik’s entrepreneurial career, he has agreed with someone - whether a vendor or an employee - on a particular scope of work. Despite having doubts going into the agreement, Erik would go with it and when that person would inevitably stumble, he would give them a pass. In retrospect, that’s a mistake. If someone tells you they can and will do something, but later try to come back and renegotiate the agreement, you have to put your foot down and hold your ground. Remind them of what they agreed to do. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Mi

Although we are a digital marketing agency, Erik believes in using snail mail to get the attention of ideal prospects. Think about it: if a postcard comes across your desk, you are likely going to take a look at it. Even if you don’t take action on it, it will likely get your attention especially if the envelope is handwritten and addressed to you. The same cannot be said for an email. Here at Array Digital, we’ve sent out postcards to ideal clients in different industries over the years. But it was always a typed out postcard sent to hundreds or thousands of people at once. The goal was to build brand awareness. At Rival Digital, they decided to take this gesture one step further and personalize it with the name of the prospect. It’s a lot of work but it’s very compelling! — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers An

When you look at growing and scaling your business, you have to look carefully at how things are built, designed, and at your processes. If you pick up the book Traction, which is highly recommended by Kevin, they cover simplicity. Most businesses are too overcomplicated to experience the growth that they want and they have a foundation that cannot be built upon. You have to streamline your processes before you can build and have the success you’ve set out for. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Mark

At Array Digital, Kevin and Erik spent a lot of time developing core values, a mission statement, a vision statement, and finally, at the end of 2020, they worked on our purpose. These are things we follow on a daily basis and are worked into the fabric of how we operate. The core focus should be simple and laser-focused on one thing. This is easy if you have a niche: “Be the best at *this*.” This will help you avoid distractions and opportunities that are outside your niche. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-org

With the start of the new year comes the time to set new goals and resolutions. Something Kevin did was planning them at the end of December, developing a system to track them every single day, and journaling throughout the day to update those goals. But he doesn’t stop there: he has another goal tracking spreadsheet as well. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!

Kevin and Erik recently created an initiative called the Founders Club where once a year they will select a few team members from Array Digital and take them on an all-expenses-paid trip. In order to get into the Founders Club, they have to hit a few criteria: If they are a salesperson, they have to hit at least 105% of their annual sales quota, which is $5,000 of monthly recurring revenue. If they are not a salesperson, they have to have been at the company for 5 years and every 2 years thereafter. This is a good way for them to recognize people who have done more than expected or have been with the company for a long time. December 2020 was the first time this was announced. In early January, we found out that Jamal’s 5-year anniversary was not actually in December but in January. He had been announced as part of the Founders Club. This led to a debate about when someone’s official start date should be because Jamal actually started as an intern then became a full-time employee in early January of 2016.

Around May of 2020, we were awarded with our regional chambers’ small business of the year for Chesapeake. It means a lot to us and we fought hard to win this; it was not something that came easily. Kevin nominated us for 3 years. This isn’t an award that you vote for; it’s all based on financials, business strategy, company culture, growth, taxes, they look at everything. Applying is an extensive process but persistence paid off. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups

Kevin has been journaling his goals every day but there’s no use having goals if you can’t track them. There are tons of free apps to track your goals but Kevin finds it easier to track them manually. He uses a form and spreadsheet with Google Forms where you can add your own fields. Kevin has year-long goals like going to the gym for 180 days this year. When you make a Google Form, there’s an option that allows you to connect the form to a spreadsheet. He was able to then clean that spreadsheet up and pin it to his browser so that he can check his progress every day. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is al

For the last year and a half or so, we’ve been going live on social media pretty much every Friday where we invite guests from our local community to chat about different topics. It’s been interesting but we decided to drop it because we realized we expend an awful lot of effort and time creating general brand awareness. With general brand awareness, you’re getting your name out to the general public. We’ve generated a lot of business because of that but we’ve recently segmented into 3 more narrow industries. We realized that we need to be spending more time on brand awareness within our niche industries. We’re going to shift from general brand awareness to more targeted brand awareness. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & en

These are the takeaways from the Hiring and Firing chapter of Erik’s upcoming book Million Dollar Journey. #1: You can only scale so much as a solopreneur. In order to grow your business, you are going to need to hire people. #2: Hiring is a huge responsibility. As the employer, you become responsible for your employees’ financial wellbeing and their careers. #3: Create a sense of team. #4: Provide learning opportunities for your employees. #5: If an employee is not a fit, be honest. Let them know early and often about their concerns. Don’t let them be surprised that you are going to fire them. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO

The first way Erik invested in education for his employees was by buying them books in addition to taking the whole company on a trip to a conference. At the time, Erik just assumed everyone else would love this because this was how he learned best. And from a company cultural standpoint, it was great; they hung out and ate together a lot. But people came back not having taken much away from an educational point of view. He realized that's not the best way to educate his employees. So he asked them what is. Some people said they like to watch videos, others learn best by doing projects, others by hearing it from other people. Everyone had a different learning style. So he decided to create individual learning plans for each person. That worked well for a while. But once Kevin and Erik merged, they got away from that and didn't have a learning plan in place until very recently. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also th

Unless you want generic clients, stop attending generic networking events. In the last few months at Array Digital and even more so at our sister company, Rival Digital, we have been focusing more and more on niche segments. At Array, we recently selected 3 segments we’re going to focus on. Over at Rival, it’s a lot more focused just on residential HVAC contractors. For each one, we have a very specific group of people we want to get in front of. In the past, we were part of a lot of generic business groups; basically, if you were in business and you wanted to meet people, Kevin and Erik were there. They’d spend time and money to get a membership because it’s great for general brand awareness. But now, we are no longer concerned about trying to reach everyone. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous mont

Erik has recently gotten a lot of email communications from companies he, frankly, forgot about. These companies are waiting for a sales opportunity and right around the holidays is the perfect time. He was getting flooded with email newsletters that he never signed up for and he unsubscribes. Here at Array Digital, we have an email newsletter, but we don’t just add people whenever they have some sort of transaction with us. We have a double opt-in so we know that the people we send our newsletters to really want them. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash

Late 2019 Erik bought himself a carbon fiber bike to train for his Half Ironman in 2020. It served him well until very recently when he was involved in an accident and the bike was destroyed. He contacted a company called Broken Carbon, based in Colorado, to ask if his bike could be repaired. He sent them pictures of his bike and shortly after he received their response. They were honest and told him his bike was beyond repair. He appreciated their honesty and their follow-up email. They told him he could turn the bike into something new, and sent him a picture of half a bike frame they had turned into a lamp. It was clearly a joke and Erik thought it was hilarious. Humor, when used appropriately, can improve a customer service experience. It humanizes the interaction. You just have to know when to use it. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily p