In this episode of Small Business Connections, we discuss referrals- asking for, giving, and growing your business referrals, with Stephen Crisp of Nerd Singing. The booming growth of Stephen's business comes from referrals, mastering his craft and his pivotability. Stephen makes disciples, not clients by helping them problem solve and his desire to be the best part of his clients' day. When you help a client solve a problem, they then tell other people how you helped solve their problem. Understanding your clients leads to more clients and ultimately builds your network and your business.

Episode 64: Decision Fatigue for Business Owners

In this episode of Small Business Connections, we speak with Sal Schittino, LCPC of Sal's Therapy Corner about limiting beliefs, dealing with difficult emotions, building resilience, and coping with rejection.

Episode 63: Business Identity

In this episode, we discuss the identity of your business and your own identity as a business owner with Dhru Beeharilal of the Nayan Leadership Group. Dhru is a leadership, executive and agile coach.

Episode 60: Applying Big Business Marketing

Today's Marketing is different and changing and pivoting is essential to building, maintaining and growing your business relationships. Carlos Gil, author of The End of Marketing and co-creator of Outlaw Masks discusses business is about relationships and how to cultivate social media as both a news outlet and escape. Carlos emphasizes the importance of and difference between social media platforms. Your clients and potential customers need to be engaged and want what is real and relatable. Carlos shares keys of today's marketing; being more human, your tone on social media, pivoting, networking and consistency.

Episode 47: The Importance Of Teamwork

Join us as we discuss teamwork, the importance of referrals, leveraging and leadership for small businesses. It's the story of everyone around me - Nikole Dickman would say if you asked her to walk you through her journey. Finding herself in a situation where she was going to be relocated and didn’t want to make the move, she took the severance package and started her own business, Envoy Managed Services. Nikole brought her team on-board, and they walked right back into their previous company as consultants to finish the project her team had started.

Episode 45: Are You Feeling Stuck

Our conscious beliefs and behavior are tied to our unconscious patterns, and Naheed’s unique process helps you uncover old stories that continue to impact and at times, diminish our success. Once these stories have been uncovered and released, her clients have grown their business by up to 400%, landed senior management positions, and significantly reduced stress in their lives.

Episode 44: Why A Business Page Is A Must To Grow Your Business

Building your Business' Social Media Presence is crucial to growing your business. It is important to build a community around your brand. In this episode, Ann shares the 3 essential techniques to build your personal brand while growing your business brand. Bonus tip- How do you analyze your marketing campaign? Ann shares the answer.

Episode 43: It All Starts With Your Employees

In this episode we discuss the difference between your vision and your mission with- Cheryl Cage and Nathan Bourne of MyCORE. Together, they explain why your business needs to invest in the employee experience in order to build the customer experience.

Episode 42: A Case Study In Content Marketing

Today's episode dives into our case study on how our staff worked together to create new content marketing ideas and strategies for our clients. Using an interview format, we highlighted our clients and their small business through daily live videos and podcasts shared across several social media platforms. We promoted our interviews on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Libsyn and our website. We discovered the best way to reach more potential clients and engage our current clients is to use all of the social media platforms and use the tools within these platforms. We have seen the power of content marketing and share our results with you.

We continue to find new ways to reach more people. ASMM Digital Campus was born as a way to share the processes of using social and digital media to reach more clients.

Episode 39 - Entrepreneurs And The Risk Of Suicide

Many of the same traits that make someone a good entrepreneur also make them prone to suicide. They are strong. They are independent. They are doers, people of action. They care deeply. Because of this, I want to tackle the subject head-on. How are you doing today? What are you doing to protect your mental health? Who do you have to tell when things are going poorly? Do you have a plan for when to ask for help?

Episode 35 - Time Management For Small Business Owners

In this episode of Small Business Connections with Ann Brennan , Laura Reiss from Crux Organizing joins us to discuss time and process management for small business owners.

Episode 34 -3 Ways To Build A Community Around Your Brand

They say that loyalty is dead. That may be so. But if it is, I believe it is because we have stopped building a community around our brands. You will hear me say, "You, as a brand, are forgettable." It's true. But you or your team as humans are not. Build a community around your brand and you will build loyalty. In this episode I give you 3 tips and a bonus tip on how to do exactly that.

Episode 33 - Marketing to Your Audience

Join us for a talk with Dan Willis, The Millennial Motivator and international public speaker. We will cover what you bottom line is, what tools you should personally use, how and why you should build a community, and the importance of learning and embracing failure.

Episode 32: Empathy in Marketing

Step two of your post-crisis marketing plan requires empathy. Ann discusses how to be empathic in your social media marketing plan. The crisis we are living through is serious. As business owners, we need to find our empathic voice. Ann can help you find that voice.

Episode 31 - A Small Business Revolution

Patrick Lee of Spark Business Institute and Chesapeake Think Tank joins us to discuss main street today. Patrick is a passionate advocate for small businesses and is asking the question, "Are we ready for a small business revolution?" A serial entrepreneur, Patrick understands the challenges leaders face as they try to maintain momentum. Through his work with the Spark Small Business Institute, he helps small and mid-sized businesses overcome obstacles to success and establish sound strategy for the future.

Episode 30 - Transparency in Marketing

Ann Brennan shares how to reposition your marketing for your reopening. Marketing post-crisis will look considerably different. We had been directing our clients towards a more human approach to marketing prior to the quarantine. Now, being more human is a must have for all small businesses. Today Ann talks about the first key to being more human in your marketing campaign.

Episode 28 - Overcoming Adversity

Vince DeCrisci of Chimneytek joins us to discuss overcoming adversity. Vince is one of Ann Brennan's mentors and a rock in the small business community. Having been in business for 25 years, this is not the first crisis Vince has seen his business through. In this episode we discuss what it takes to survive the tough times when you are a small business owner.

Episode 27 - Building a Network of Referral Partners

Jerry Schwartz, Executive Director for BNI 4 Shore, joins us to discuss how to adjust your business and your networking during these times. Jerry talks; effective Networking Groups in this new environment, how to maximize your business exposure while social distancing, proper ZOOM etiquette and how to maximize your short presentation in ZOOM rooms! Jerry is a pioneering focused goal maker who's divergent out of the box thinking makes him one of the top Networking Professionals in the United States.

Episode 26 - Small Business Ownership and Stress Management

Small business owners are facing more stress than ever before. It's never easy to own a small business but, in the time of a pandemic, everyday life is even more stressful. Charlotte Rehn, Stress Management Coach, joins us to discuss managing your stress on a daily basis.

Episode 25 - From Busy-ness to Business

Do you feel overwhelmed like there are simply not enough hours in the day? Keziah Robinson of Cassia Partners joins us to speak about how to change this and become more productive. Keziah is a business strategist and coach with 15+ years experience working with leaders and founders across multiple industries. She is passionate about leveraging capitalism as a force for good while blending finance with design thinking, behavioral science and an unwavering belief in the power and potential of human beings.