Linda M. Lopeke

What to Focus on First (and Next) When Starting a Business

Skipping steps or proceeding in the wrong order delay success. I understand your desire to focus on getting clients and making money as fast as possible when you start a business. But focusing on your strategies for learning and building…

The Entrepreneur’s Balance Sheet

Use balance sheet principles to map your business journey. The story of your business is told on the balance sheet. Reporting the assets, liabilities, and equity held at a given point in time (or at different time intervals) can help you better…

About Thought Leadership

What it is, what it means, and how to achieve it. Last week, I came across someone who defined thought leadership as “sharing your thoughts” without apologizing so you can make more money. However, true thought leadership has much greater substance…

How to Tell if You’re Working with a Good Business Coach

And yes, you’ll go further much faster if you hire one! Sometimes I’m a business coach. I say “sometimes” because it’s not the only way I spend my time for money. In the tens of thousands of hours I’ve occupied that particular role, I’ve noticed a…

Busy work comes at a cost …

How you spend your days is how you spend your life. Have you thought about how much busy work is really costing you? We all have things about our work we enjoy doing and do very well. Then there are those tasks we just can’t stand or simply suck at.…

5 Types of Revenue-Related Stress That Kill

It’s a well-known fact that stress can kill you. Not just your business. You. Owning your own business is a stressful undertaking on so many levels. Even more so when you’re dealing with revenue-related stress. A situation made far worse when you…

10 Characteristics of Genius Unrelated to Your IQ

Everyone is born with latent or underutilized genius that they can learn to identify and use to accelerate business results with less effort and anxiety. Sadly, many business owners remain unaware of or disconnected from their own genius, but that…

How to Shape Emerging Markets in Your Favor

Choosing where and how to compete. Linda M. Lopeke 4 hours ago·2 min read With many problems to be solved, the possibilities for your business in a connected world are endless. Complex markets, intense competition, expectant clients and customers,…

Email Marketing is a Privilege, Not a Right

We’re all familiar with the traditional measure of business success being s/he who makes the most sales in a given time frame wins. But digital marketing means to sell to one person who needs or wants what you offer, you interrupt hundreds of others…

How Women Devalue Themselves in Their Marketing

The phrase “boss babe,” and similar titles like “girl boss,” “boss bitch,” “lady boss”, “sexy boss,” “fempreneur,” “mompreneur” and “SheEO” devalue the idea of women being powerful in a business context. We don’t see men marketing themselves on…

How Marketing Creates Value

For your business to have a bright long-term future, you need a series of survivable short-term futures. How often have you heard the secret to business success is to “create (more) value for your clients/customers?” Often, I’ll bet, but without an…

The Difference Between a Sales Pipeline, Funnel and Process

While sales pipeline, funnel and process all describe the flow from lead to sale, there are important differences among these often confused terms. A sales funnel measures what your target AUDIENCE does in response to a marketing conversation. It…

The Two Challenges Faced by All Marketers

To improve your business results by creating more effective marketing, the first thing to look for is message-to-market fit. And the second is how clearly differentiators are presented. In most cases, when working with clients, I find the fit isn’t…

The Difference Between Marketing Strategy, Plans and Campaigns

It’s easy to confuse digital marketing strategy with your marketing plan and campaigns, but they are three different things. Here’s the breakdown: A digital marketing STRATEGY describes WHY you are taking the actions you plan to invest in. EXAMPLE:…

Stop Posting Random Content in Social Media!

Not thrilled with your content marketing results? Posting random content in multiple social media channels unconsciously does not drive sales and build profitable relationships with your target audience. Stop! This common bad behavior contradicts and…

Not Thrilled with the Results of Your Social Media Marketing?

Under-utilizing social media is why most business owners are often frustrated and disappointed in the lack of return for effort expended. Not thrilled with your own social media marketing results to date? The key to improving them is NOT creating…

Embrace the Magic of $10K/hour Work

I want you to embrace the magic of doing $10,000/hour work. Why? Because most people are mired down in $10/hour work. It feels productive and releases dopamine, but fails to move the needle on your business. What would move the needle? Cancelling…

A Brand is NOT What You Say It Is …

Are you committed to building a strong brand? A brand is not what you say it is, it’s what your customers say it is. A brand is not a logo, identity, or product. It’s a person’s gut feeling about your product, service, you and your business. Brand…

Confused by Marketing Strategy vs Tactics?

The business environment is constantly changing making a reusable marketing strategy essential to efficiently getting repeatable results. The problem is most business owners focus only on marketing tactics with no strategy behind them at all. They…

Your Content Matters

Your content matters. You may not think so as you agonize over a lack of views, zero engagement and this happens with almost every post! No wonder you ask “Why bother?” Even with no evidence your content is landing, someone IS seeing it. Every single…