Being an entrepreneur is an enormous challenge. In my experience with entrepreneurs, the hardest part is to connect the dots between the vision, idea, and product development, to actually make things happen: gain substantial awareness, customers, and revenue.

I got a surprising phone call on a Monday evening a few months ago. One of the most promising entrepreneurs I worked with asked to meet early the next morning; he had lost a closed agreement of 3 million dollars investment he had been negotiating over the last twelve months.

From the first day of my podcast REACH OR MISS for a customer focused entrepreneur, I knew I would interview Mark Schaefer.

As I see it, Mark Schaefer is the leading marketing expert today. He connects the dots between the powerful and proven “old” marketing he took active part and succeeded in, and the new world of entrepreneurship, search engines, and social marketing inflation we are experiencing today.

When I interviewed Mark, I asked him what he is most passionate about today. Mark talked about the challenges he sees and said he believes that marketing is sick right now. “It’s too tech-centric instead of human-centric! Entrepreneurs, and other businesses as well, need to understand that if you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business.”

Marketing is about gaining customers, revenue, and brand value.

I got 2 letters from startups that are shutting down this week   A short story and a checklist Chapter 1: 2 Shutting down letters This morning (July 1st 2018), I received a letter from StumbleUpon, saying its shutting down. Earlier this week, I got a letter from a local education company saying that, after…

Photo by Colton Jones on Unsplash In March 2007, I formally left my job as Nokia’s VP for marketing in the Israeli market and part of the global team. Jobs  hadn’t launched the iPhone yet and our market share was rocking its highest point since Nokia took the leadership in 1998. I already told you…

I get these looks over and over. Whenever I tell entrepreneurs, startup founders, and most business people that a big marketing budget is not needed today to succeed globally. They look at me like an alien (in the best case scenario) or like someone who doesn’t understand marketing (at worst).