Aren Johnstone is the President and Owner of Franchise Ramp, a leading marketing agency in the franchising industry that partners with the world's top fitness and wellness franchise brands. During his senior year of high school at the age of 18, Aren bypassed multiple full-ride college scholarships to purchase his first company, an ecommerce business. By 19, he ventured into marketing and software consulting, hiring his first employee. By the age of 20, his team had grown to five, and he co-founded an agency specializing in media buying for top ecommerce brands, overseeing more than $100M in ad spend.
In 2019, Aren joined Franchise Ramp to introduce cutting-edge marketing strategies from the Ecommerce world to the franchise industry. Since then, Franchise Ramp has served thousands of franchise locations and has been recognized on the Inc 5000 list for two consecutive years, achieving a notable #49 ranking in 2022. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and committed to developing products and businesses that address real-world challenges.

• Aren’s story of how he got started in business during his high school years by selling t-shirts and apparel in Tulsa and then by purchasing an online figure-staking store at 18 years old
• Aren’s journey into Facebook advertising back in 2015
• The specific challenges that come from marketing franchise businesses
• The basics of “hyper-local” ad targeting
• Ecomm vs franchising: the main differences in paid media strategies
• The essential skills needed to be a great media buyer
• The nuances behind high-performing performance creative (*now that’s a mouthful hehe)
• Changes in performance marketing that brands need to be aware of

And more!

Here’s the episode I mentioned about MasterMind groups, featuring Liz Scully - https://www.kennysoto.com/podcast/interview-liz-scully-could-a-mastermind-group-elevate-your-marketing-ep-14/

You can connect with Aren via email here - aren@franchiseramp.com

You can say hi on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aren-johnstone/

You can find me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com

Over her career, Lindsay McGuire has contributed to the content functions at the largest credit union in Alabama, the most well-known nonprofit brand in the world, and a SaaS company that made five acquisitions within two years. Now as the Associate Director of Content & Campaigns at Goldcast, her days are spent overseeing and creating content around how B2B marketers can use events as one of their top revenue-driving channels.

Her diverse background across various industries makes Lindsay a well-rounded content leader and a strategist who knows how to create a content engine, build relationships across teams, integrate holistic messaging, and think creatively while staying laser-focused on business goals.

Questions and topics we covered include:

• Lindsay’s method to recover from layoffs
• Ways marketers can improve their confidence on camera
• The lessons Lindsay has learned about marketing events and webinars by working at Goldcast?
• What’s the right strategy for promoting and repurposing events?
• What are the keys to strong customer interviews? How can marketers leverage them to improve their brand’s storytelling?

And more!

You can connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayladeroute/

And you can find me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com

Amir Shahzeidi, Head of Demand Generation at Uscreen.tv and Host of the Beyond the Funnel podcast, combines deep SEO roots with a passion for driving growth. His expertise empowers brands and creators to thrive in the digital landscape, through strategic, revenue-centric marketing approaches.

Questions and topics we covered in this episode include:

• The unique challenges you’ll face when you’re the first marketing hire
• How does Amir define demand generation and how to properly measure it
• What does a marketer need to do after demand is generated?
• Examples of short-term marketing tactics that create the wrong incentives for businesses…
• Examples of vanity metrics we need to avoid as marketers and some of them aren’t that obvious…
• What can marketing teams learn from creators?
• What has contributed the most to Amir’s success at UScreen?
• What does Amir look for in new team members?

And more!

Connect with Amir on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-shahzeidi/

You can say hello to me on LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com