Marshal D. Carper's Business Podcasts

Finishing law school is not easy, but it turns out that learning law is only one piece of the puzzle in becoming a successful lawyer. In Mitch Dugan's case, establishing a lasting practice meant learning to become a business owner, taking on everything from hiring staff, managing personnel, and directing a complex mix of marketing initiatives in an extremely competitive landscape. Mitch's story is a familiar one to small business owners, so even if you aren't pursuing a career in law the lessons and insights that Mitch has learned from growing his business could apply to your own work. He's had to find creative solutions to everyday challenges and has had to work diligently to stand out from a vocal crowd of competitors. There's a lot of great material in this episode. I know that I learned a lot from it, and I think you will too. Music credits: Song Title: Droplet — Artist: Jeremy L

More and more businesses, big and small alike, are moving away from in house marketing resources to instead hire freelancers or marketing agencies. The strategy is sound: For the price of one in employee on staff, a business can get access to a range of specialists and pay only for the work they need as they need it. But working with an agency does not come without it's challenges. In this episode, Marshal and Meesha breakdown their own agency experiences, giving you an insider's perspective on what to look for and what to be wary of when bringing in outside resources to work on your business, discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the marketing industry. About the Hosts: Marshal is a content marketer and founder of Carper Communications. Learn more about him and his work at marsh.al Meesha is a designer and founder of RedTree Web Design. Learn more about her and her work at redtreewebdesign.com/ Song rights: “Final Battle of the Dark Wizards” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Com

I met Dr. Joyce Heames when I attended West Virginia University for graduate school. Even though I was in the journalism program, I had a already been working in publishing for a few years, and I wanted to expand my knowledge of anything and everything business, so I took classes at the College of Business & Economics whenever I could. By luck, I heard about a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) class--a topic I had some familiarity with because of some previous work in public relations--and signed up for the class. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. The CSR class does not follow a traditional structure. The class is given $20,000 to distribute to local nonprofits. We announced a request for proposals, reviewed dozens of grant requests, met local and national nonprofit leaders, and got to experience the CSR world from the inside out. It was an incredible experience, and I hope that Universities around the country take notice of what WVU is doing and gives their students a similar opportunity.

Facebook recently rolled out their Instant Articles feature to all users. Previously limited to exclusive business pages, Instant Articles allows content creators to rapidly deliver their work to mobile Facebook users, cutting down on the load time and delay that usually occurs when users click a link on Facebook and wait for a new window to load. This change sparked a discussion about the value of content speed and the return on delivering a powerful user experience in general, covering the full spectrum of the topic, from content design to the technology under the hood. The big lesson: Every second matters, so design your content accordingly. More About Facebook's New Content Feature: http://www.jonloomer.com/2016/04/15/f8-2016/ Tools We Mentioned: https://gtmetrix.com/ http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ About the Hosts: Marshal is a content marketer and founder of Carper Communications. Learn more about him and his work at http://marsh.al Meesha is a designer and founder of RedTree Web Design. Learn more about

Imagine Careers aims to disrupt the typical job hunting process with a new approach to connecting potential employers and potential employees. Eric and his team are rethinking the traditional job board model to help every stakeholder in the process find deeper, more meaningful common ground. Instead of stopping at surface level variables like work history and skills lists, Imagine Careers strives to measure candidate and employer fit on more intrinsic factors like company culture, lifestyle, and work-life balance. Eric Harvey, co-founder, President and Chief Technical Officer, sat down with me to talk through his team's vision. Our discussion explores the challenges of competing against established Goliaths in the job board space, the technology behind his platform, and how his own company culture practices what the Imagine Careers platform preaches. Even if your goal isn't to found a start-up or to build a new piece of software, Eric's insights into betting big on his dream, finding the right partnerships, a

Welcome to Marketing with Marshal and Meesha. We talk about new developments in marketing trends and best practices to help you improve your marketing and build a successful business. In This Episode: With a number of web platforms available to small business owners, which one should you use? WordPress? Square Space? Wix? Shopify? The list goes on. It turns out that the best answer is "it depends." We walk through the pros and cons of various platforms to help you make sense of your options and to pick the best platform for your business. About the Hosts: Marshal is a content marketer and founder of Carper Communications. Learn more about him and his work at http://marsh.al Meesha is a designer and founder of RedTree Web Design. Learn more about her and her work at http://redtreewebdesign.com/ Song rights: “Final Battle of the Dark Wizards” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 2 Men Blues by Stefan Kartenberg (c) 2015 Licensed

We can all agree that running a business is hard. Making a living from art might be one of the more difficult business ventures to pursue. Josh Mason did just that. The owner of Old Soul Tattoo, Mason has spent most of his life at this point learning and practicing the art of tattoo. He went from shop regular, to apprentice, to full time tattoo artist, to shop owner. Along the way, he learned about more than making great art. He had to manage inventory, build a brand, find artists, and grow his reputation in a local community from scratch. Though the world of tattoos might seem removed from what we traditionally think of when we discuss business, the lessons Mason has learned along the way are universal, and the path he took to learn them is a heck of a story.

Welcome to Marketing with Marshal and Meesha. We talk about new developments in marketing trends and best practices to help you improve your marketing and build a successful business. In This Episode: Meesha challenges Marshal to explain why he is so passionate about passion marketing and how exactly it applies to business growth. The conversation talks about basic definitions of content marketing, some of the common challenges and pitfalls new content marketers might face, and explores the potential return that a business could see from a content marketing campaign. About the Hosts: Marshal is a content marketer and founder of Carper Communications. Learn more about him and his work at http://marsh.al Meesha is a designer and founder of RedTree Web Design. Learn more about her and her work at http://redtreewebdesign.com/ Song rights: “Final Battle of the Dark Wizards” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 2 Men Blues by Stefan

This episode is quite a treat. In the Pittsburgh region, Sarris Candies has forged an incredible reputation for their product and for their brand. In terms of the American dream, the Sarris family has lived it. Starting his company out of his home Frank Sarris started making chocolates, and candy piece by candy piece he grew his home shop into a thriving store front and production hub. In this interview, Bill Sarris reveals one of the key drivers of Sarris growth and talks about what it's like to be the steward of his family's legacy. He discusses the economic challenges of running a candy company--in good times and in bad--and how behind the scenes decisions with hiring and supply chains have affected the growth of the company. Even if you're not going into the candy business, the insights that Bill shares into mindset, philosophy, and strategy are likely to help you see your business differently. If you're a listener from outside of Pittsburgh, shoot me a note when you're in town. We'll get a milkshake at S

Welcome to Marketing with Marshal and Meesha. We talk about new developments in marketing trends and best practices to help you improve your marketing and build a successful business. In this episode: An effective website has to look great on a range of devices, from desktops to laptops to tablets to phones. This creates a unique challenge for designers and a potentially frustrating reality for business owners. Meesha weighs in with her industry experience and recommendations for best practices. About the Hosts: Marshal is a content marketer and founder of Carper Communications. Learn more about him and his work at http://marsh.al Meesha is a designer and founder of RedTree Web Design. Learn more about her and her work at http://redtreewebdesign.com/ Song rights: “Final Battle of the Dark Wizards” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 2 Men Blues by Stefan Kartenberg (c) 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)

The Open Boardroom podcast was inspired by my insatiable curiosity. I am fascinated by the unique challenges that business owners face within their industries, so I often find myself putting on my journalist hat and conducting informal interviews with the people I meet. Along the way, I've learned a lot from seemingly unrelated business ventures that has changed the way I see the world and helped me to think more creatively about how I run my own businesses. In the first episode, I sit down with Colin McMahon of Pittsburgh Comics to chat about the state of the comic book industry, what it's like to own a comic book shop, and what he has learned from running a brick & mortar business for 10 years. As the first episode of The Open Boardroom, I was still figuring out technology and the format, so please forgive some of the interruptions in the podcast (a customer walks in early at one point and later a delivery man crashes the party), but Colin's story is no less incredible in spite of my own shortcomings. V

Welcome to Marketing with Marshal and Meesha. We talk about new developments in marketing trends and best practices to help you improve your marketing and build a successful business. In this episode: Google announces RankBrain, yet another variable in their search engine algorithm. What does RankBrain mean for your marketing? From a big picture perspective, how much should you care about search engine optimization (SEO) in general? The answers might surprise you. Articles discussed: http://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2015/10/27/google-rankbrain-what-does-it-mean-for-seo/3/#73774a7d163a Marshal is a content marketer and founder of Carper Communications. Learn more about him and his work at http://marsh.al Meesha is a designer and founder of RedTree Web Design. Learn more about her and her work at http://redtreewebdesign.com/ Song rights: "Final Battle of the Dark Wizards" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 2 Men Blues

Welcome to Marketing with Marshal and Meesha. We talk about new developments in marketing trends and best practices to help you improve your marketing and build a successful business. Note: This episode was recorded just prior to Instagram rolling out the multi-user update. So while the news we discuss is a few days old, the majority of this episode discusses Instagram marketing in general which should still be relevant to your business. In this episode: Instagram marketing. Should your business care about Instagram? How does Instagram affect your website and your sales efforts? In this episode, Marshal and Meesha breakdown the role Instagram could play in your growth strategy. Articles discussed: http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/05/instagram-confirms-test-of-multiple-account-switching-on-ios/ Song rights: "Final Battle of the Dark Wizards" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 2 Men Blues by Stefan Kartenberg (c) 2015 Lice