Services

Do you feel stuck or overwhelmed?  I can help you lighten your load and be more efficient.  What are you waiting for – let’s succeed together!

Meet James St. John and I on the Not Just Another Business Podcast on Pod-o-matic! #NJAB

If you have any questions or just want to say hello, please use this form to contact me, Yomar Lopez, resident geek at your service! My core services, beliefs, and values are listed below…

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Here is a more focused look at what I do and how I deliver “the goods”. I invite you to peruse my blog to learn more about my motivations. From there, we can figure out if we are meant to work together or just be chummy (both are great in my book)!

In addition to the below, there are services offered through our referral network over at GeekyAntics.  Everyone we have on our team or refer/outsource business to has been vetted: they are proven, reliable, and AWESOME at what they do!

What I Offer (To The Willing)

• Personal Branding & Self Marketing:  If you’re shifting careers or want to re-invent yourself, I can help you tweak your resume, improve messaging, and make yourself more marketable.  This also helps small business owners!
• Idea Mapping: Got a broad strategy or vision? Let’s fill in the blanks. Together, we flesh out your ideas to drive action (and keep you from going crazy).
• Strategic Planning: We do the extra research, planning, and strategizing that will help your brand be more agile, proactive, and effective.
• Online Marketing: We leverage social media, game mechanics, inbound marketing/SEO, and interactive marketing systems to boost conversions, create buzz, and bolster brand awareness all in one fell swoop.  We’ll help you manage your reputation, build a community, and meet all your marketing goals.
• Life & Business Coaching: I keep you motivated and focused, even on those not-so-great days.  Heck, we all need a little nudge every now and then!
• Analytics & Insights: Identify the metrics that matter so you can focus on the right things and not be so overwhelmed.  Also, learn more about the marketplace, trends, and best practices with our competitive intelligence reports.
• Content Development: We offer copywriting, compelling stories, technical documentation, and all that good stuff, managing all content as needs and ideas continue to evolve.  Only need a little editing and short-form work?  No problem!
• Site Management & Optimization: We do all the things your webmaster or web designer may have missed. Make your web site into a dynamic value center, not a static brochure.
• Project Oversight: We coordinate and document all teams, resources, and standards to achieve consistent results and deliberate direction.
• Virtual Assistance:  Sometimes, all you need is someone to do the grunt work.  Maybe you can’t afford to hire people, certainly not specialists.  This is where having virtual assistants shine.  We’ll connect you with the right people for the right tasks and, since they’re busy serving other clients, rates will always be competitive and fair.
• Game Design & Gamification:  Whether you need help with spec docs, storyboarding, testing, character design, concept art, or actual coding, we have access to the right talents.  Want to apply game theory to real-world systems such as loyalty programs, badges/achievements, social networking, and giveaways?  We can help there too!
• Humor: I make you laugh and remind you not to get yourself stressed out over every little detail.

In a few words, I take an end-to-end approach to business solutions, whether you need some coaching (a little nudge in the right direction) or something more.

My experience is that most consultants focus on one area but the online arena has so much overlap that you can’t isolate processes. Departmentalizing marketing is a big no-no in my playbook. Let’s look at the “big picture” together.

I’ve failed.. A lot. Being involved with many start-ups and small businesses, I’ve seen what makes businesses fail too. I believe that rare insight gives us a valuable edge.

I know the traditional business world avoids mentioning failure and bad things but let’s be honest here. You have to take some risks or you’ll be left behind. I’m not scared of failure and neither should you – it’s possibly the best way to learn!

Ever see/read “Too Big To Fail”? The massive bail-out/buy-out scenario happened because people feared change.. Or were too arrogant to listen to good advice.

Embrace change. Break some rules. I offer you some courage and hope in a scary world.

Why Work With Me?
I only work with people and products that I absolutely love.  If we’re not a right fit or I can’t get the job done, I’ll point you in the right direction.  Time is our most precious resource and I don’t believe in wasting my time or yours.  It may be worth noting…

• If you need an expert communicator, many have said that my command over the English language is strong, something you won’t get if you cut corners and offshore (there’s quite a bit of bad copy and writing online so the good stuff will definitely get you noticed).
• I am very fluent in Spanish, which may help you open new doors.
• In 2011, Unbounce.com recognized me as one of three top marketing professionals participating in the ConversionFest event.
• With a mere fraction of the audience of my colleagues, I’ve boosted higher conversion rates (well above industry standards) because my methods are more about quality than quantity (be wary of vanity metrics pretending to be KPIs).
• I am a NISM-certified Social Media Strategist and currently serve on their advisory board.

Why YOU Matter To Me
Your vision excites me. I want you to succeed. Competition keeps other businesses honest and pushes innovation forward. I love sharing success stories and knowing I had some part in them.

Like Guy Kawasaki, I believe in baking a bigger pie (i.e. creating win-win-win scenarios and running an ethical, people-focused, principle-driven business). You would be surprised how much market share there is to be spread out if people collaborate more rather than focusing on competition. Your tactics are not your secret sauce – YOU are!

As such, my focus is more on attracting the right people and showing how enchanting/likeable you are. Results matter but people ultimately do business with those they like. Enter authenticity: humanize your business, become more approachable, make it easy for others to relate to you, and build relationships and trust that last.

If your ideas do not excite me enough, I will tell you. If you’re open to new ideas, we’ll make things happen; otherwise, I’ll point you to the “yes man” you seek. No hard feelings. We all need a good nudge or course correction every now and then!

How I Deliver The Goods
I know many still think social media, interactive marketing, web sites, and technology infrastructure are not mission-critical areas or mere fads. Perhaps you think they are mere cost centers. Fair enough.

Slowly but surely, everyone is jumping onto the social media bandwagon. Most have it all wrong. They’re missing the essence of social media. They are just creating more noise and ignoring people.

What if you could take a measured risk and see results within three or four months?

A trial period is a MUST. We’ll start off slow, see how well we work together, make adjustments.. This should remove the fear of dealing with an unconventional thinker like myself.

In my line of work, most things take time but they build long-term value. Once things build steam, the momentum is almost unstoppable. Compare this to traditional business methods, where you invest tons of money for only marginal results. Reality check: there are no magical solutions or shortcuts.

I’m not afraid to let you know when I am NOT knowledgeable enough in a key area.

This is huge. Too many in the service, coaching, and consulting industries act like they know it all. Every new project is a learning experience. Experience gives you a starting point but being able to adapt builds progress. I have access to thousands of highly-engaged capable service specialists and brand advocates, too!

One thing I think gives me a different perspective and approach on the services I offer is that I’ve taken on some very distinct roles in my professional career. I’ve designed video games, done cartooning, performed SEO, and built web sites since the nineties. My creative passions round off my technical proficiencies, allowing me to approach projects from different perspectives.

I want to challenge our fellow entrepreneurs and creative engineers by showing them how you can have fun and be casual, yet still be a professional. I also feel that game mechanics and the massive success of the video game industry can teach us a lot about business and how the rules are changing…

What I Believe In
We all have contrasting world views. Those principles, beliefs, and values make us unique yet they make us alike too. It’s important to recognize these things to work effectively together. Here are some of my core values and underlying themes, as you’ll find here on Y3B:

• Expertise is a fallacy. As a life-long learner, I am humble and honest enough to admit that there is much I need to learn. Expertise assumes a static point in which one supposedly knows it all. A great business relationship involves mutual learning. Check your arrogance and snobbery at the door.
• Passion and purpose go hand in hand.  Passion gets you fired up but a deep sense of purpose gets the job done consistently.  Typically, brands fail because their product had no longevity or sustainability.  Honing in on your core experience and true USP is something that I truly enjoy doing because no one likes to fizzle out.
• We CAN be friends. Making friends (or “buddies” by some definitions) wherever I go has helped me experience success and fulfillment. I strongly believe that caring about people enables us to better serve each other. Do you want to be “the client” or something more?
• There is no one-size-fits-all solution. We all have our favorite tools and systems, but there is no universal fix out there. Assessing the situation and doing proper research is paramount to success.
• Relationships matter. This should be common sense, yet people are outsourcing human interaction. Really?
• Professionalism does not exclude authenticity. I have tremendous respect for real people in the business. When customers can relate to you, they care more. Let’s keep it real. Show your warts a little and be honest.  I’ll do the same and keep it on brand.
• Being first doesn’t make you the best. Copycats are unavoidable in the business world but it’s not about who came first on the scene (look at any social network, like MySpace or Friendster). More times than not, it’s the master storytellers, networkers, engagers, and innovators that win. Look at Facebook: they are hardly original but they are the industry leader and nothing looks to dethrone them, though they have lost much momentum and core functionality.
• The numbers DO lie. If you’re stuck in analytics and bean counting, good luck to you. It’s important to measure and listen, but don’t forget the opportunities to connect and re-activate your audience. To learn more about your customers and marketplace, simply ask around.
• Be a little crazy! Think about all the huge success stories dominating the Internet. They did not get there by playing it safe or doing things that made sense to most. If every good, sensible idea was a money-maker, don’t you think we’d all be successful?

You can learn more about me on the “About” page. I don’t expect many to agree with my beliefs and core values (and that’s GREAT so we can learn and grow together) but I hope you can appreciate them. They come from many years of experience in IT consulting, computer programming, web development, and sales and marketing. That said, I believe in personality fits over mere credentials. I can tell you about all my accomplishments, certifications, and stories of awesomeness but what fun is that?

Get to know me. Leave some comments, link up with me, and use my handy-dandy contact form to get in touch with me. I look forward to learning YOUR story and helping out any way that I can (or getting you to the right people)!