Marketing Automation Consultant, Writer, Musician and Father

I'm Mike, a marketing automation consultant with a love for analytics and data combined with a bit of a creative streak.

In almost 10 years of my professional online experience, I've gone from working at an online publisher that specialized in content farms and arbitrage to working in digital marketing agencies and SAAS businesses.

I like working the gap between automation technology and human creativity to improve customer experiences while increasing online business growth at the same time.

Articles

I was walking today and this concept popped into my head - "Work More, Make Something"...and I was compelled to[...]

Goal setting is in the air at this time of the year. We reflect on the year that just passed[...]

Post Book Launch 2017I'm looking to do a wrap up post of the full experience of self-publishing a book; it's[...]

Today we're talking about social media silos costing you business and also we're going to talk about "landing the plane".[...]

When it comes to getting traffic to your website, just about everybody is obsessed with getting more of it. It's[...]

About Me

Career
Creative
at home

Since You're probably going to "Google" me anyway...

I'm not as creative these days as I would like, this is something I am striving towards and it will happen.

Here are some of the creative projects that I've been involved with in the past....some of which I hope to revisit in the near future.

Writing Related - Deverath: The Chronicles of Ragnarok

In 2016 I published a short story I wrote in the late 1990's about a character called Deverath.

This was a character that came to me during a daydream in the middle of my grade 11 English class years earlier.

Later, in college, I was introduced to an online text-based role playing game called a "MUD" (multi-user dungeon). I had to come up with a name for my character on the game, so I chose "Deverath".

The game itself was called "Ragnarok" and I played it religiously for several years. This story is set in the Ragnarok game world, which is why I added the subtitle "Chronicles of Ragnarok".

Not to be too confusing, but my original story that featured Deverath has yet to be written, though I've been chipping away at it over the years.

This was a fun project. I found my old manuscript, edited it several times...then enlisted fellow gamer from Ragnarok to also edit it. I sourced out an artist, formatted everything for Kindle and then published it. It was very rewarding to see something I created that had previously only existed in a very raw form become a finished story.

I self published the book on Kindle and while I have done little to promote it, I still get the occasional sale from points around the world which is pretty cool.

Check it out on Amazon.ca
Check it out on Amazon.com

Future plans for the book include an audio version and a paperback version.

Music Related - Omega A.D.

As a teenager I fell into becoming a musician at the urging of my brother and my best friend. They needed a bass player to be the "peanut butter" to the "chocolate" of their drums, guitar and vocals.

Little did I know it would turn into a significant creative outlet for me and that I would become a lifelong bassist.

Starting out playing Metallica cover songs (eventually expanding to a few non-metal bands) we began writing our own music as two members were heading off to college and the band went on hiatus for a year.

As fate would have it, year two of college actually brought all the band members back together again and we began excitedly writing music.

Omega A.D. went on to record three demo tapes and 3 CDs worth of music and played well over a hundred shows. Highlights included our first tour to the United States and opening for bands like Nazareth, April Wine, Helix and The Killer Dwarfs.

I ended up wearing many hats in the band; songwriter, lyricist, producer (a hat we all wore), promoter and booking agent. I also was "the guy" to figure out a website for the band and how to get a CD made on a budget (back when it wasn't so easy to do).

But all good things come to an end, even if it is temporary.

As myself and the singer/guitarist started raising families, it became less and less practical to keep the band going.

At this point, we haven't performed in over a decade...but hope remains that a reunion cold happen once the kids are a little older?

You can check out Omega A.D. music here.

I'm a single father to two boys and have called Guelph, Ontario, Canada home for two decades.

When not at home, I'm probably at a hockey rink (hockey dad for my eldest son who is a goalie) or outside on a hike with my youngest...who is an avid climber (and is probably going to give me my first heart attack).

While I don't perform much anymore, I still catch the occasional concert and cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs during hockey season.

I generally consume a steady diet of business or marketing books, but every so often also read sci-fi or fantasy.

"Within the first month and the revenue generated was larger than the previous 3 months combined."

(Mike) provided an unbiased, outsider view on my problem and suggested that I should switch from a yearly 'bundle' to a yearly 'membership' and work on building recurring revenue for my business. Mike not only provided validation, he provided all of the necessary information that was required to get things started and finished. He also helped with copy, email automation, landing page optimization, pricing, and setting up the back end.

The average customer spend went from $17 to $64 within the first month and the revenue generated was larger than the previous 3 months combined.

Tom Chalky - Designer/Founder

"I had been investing in ActiveCampaign for over 3 years and did nothing with it."

I had been investing in ActiveCampaign for over 3 years and did nothing with it. I did not find the system to be intuitive in the least and needed more help than A/C was willing to provide. I know A/C was an amazing service and I did not want to drop it, so I decided to hire an A/C and marketing expert. That's where Mike came into play.

The thing I liked most about working with Mike is that he has both a birds eye view and a worms eye view of marketing. He helped me with the big marketing picture and he helped me understand how to implement ActiveCampaign to accomplish my goals to win new customers.

Bob Sommers - Owner

"I now reap the full rewards from my ActiveCampaign account, at a fraction of the price."

The problem I had was with understanding the various triggers used for different kinds of automations, which made it quite difficult to get the full potential out of ActiveCampaign.

Mike was able to break down and simplify alot of what would be a complex process. Mike was attentive, and stayed patient to make sure I completely understood the process.

The result of working with Mike is I now reap the full rewards from my ActiveCampaign account, at a fraction of the price.

Balcom Fantroy - Digital Marketer

Heard enough? Want to work together? Don't be shy...

Contact Mike

Contact the Guy