May 1, 2023

Synergizing Personal and Business Growth with Mark Drager

Synergizing Personal and Business Growth with Mark Drager

In this episode of the Business Growth Hacks podcast, Andrew discusses a range of valuable insights and experiences with Mark Drager. Mark shares how he learned that perception is truth, and how his black-and-white approach caused arguments with clients.

They also discuss ways to be competitive in a tight job market, such as creating recruitment videos and improving onboarding. Mark shares how he recognized the various reasons why businesses needed video services, leading to their success in generating $1 million in revenue through trial and error. 

The episode also covers expanding the business from video production to marketing and advertising and the importance of operations help. Finally, they discuss tips for conducting a successful workshop, including understanding the audience and structuring the presentation accordingly.

KEY POINTS:

  • Andrew has not been in the studio for the last few weeks, but has been busy doing a lot of things.
  • The hardest lesson Mark has had to learn is that perception is truth. They used to have a black and white approach to doing things and would only go all-in or not do it at all, which caused arguments with clients.
  • Discussing a former business partner that had a similar mindset, which caused friction between them and they didn't approach things with caution.
  • Having talent and the company's interests at heart are important but so are people's feelings.
  • Ways to be competitive in a tight job market, including creating recruitment videos, training videos, and improving onboarding to reduce turnover and save money for the business.
  • How to recognize the various reasons why businesses needed video services, leading to their success in generating $1 million in revenue through trial and error.
  • Expanding the business from video production to marketing and advertising, working with big clients like the NBA and the Toronto Raptors and creating multiple video assets for different platforms.
  • Admits that their greatest strengths in the beginning, such as being able to overcome challenges with small budgets, became their weaknesses as they grew, leading to a lack of systems and operations to handle the complexity of the business.
  • Reflecting on the pain and struggle of trying to figure out how to fix their mistakes and wishes they had brought in operations help earlier.
  • A workshop for an association of auctioneers is to be conducted for four hours, and it's about marketing for their own individual businesses.
  • To avoid contradiction with other speakers, one should look at the agenda and who is going to come before you.
  • You need to have a clear understanding of the point you're trying to prove throughout your entire thing, like in a court of law.
  • Before the workshop, one needs to know the audience, what they understand about the topic, and shift the presentation's flow accordingly.
  • A four-hour workshop can feel like forever, but a keynote of 30-45 minutes, followed by 20-30 minutes of workshopping, is ideal.

 

LINKS MENTIONED:

https://www.phanta.com/

https://www.instagram.com/mark.drager/

https://www.facebook.com/markdragercom/

https://www.youtube.com/@MarkDrager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markdrager

https://www.tiktok.com/@mark.drager

https://twitter.com/abrockenbush

https://beefymarketing.com/

https://beefymarketing.com/blog/

https://beefymarketing.com/small-business-nation/

Mark DragerProfile Photo

Mark Drager

Founder

Mark founded his creative production company in 2006, grew it to a little over $2mm in annual revenue, and then slowly watched as it all crumbled around him. Through the hard lessons learned and working to not make the same mistakes twice, today Phanta Media focuses less on growth and “keeping the machine fed” and more on doing extraordinary work with really cool people.

As a brand strategist, Mark also understands the need to be courageous and has developed a killer process that can help you make your next courageous move.