This is the story of how GMA 2.0 Brand Ambassador, Stewart Ward from Dioptra, went from quietly relying on word of mouth to becoming a confident, visible leader in the Geospatial world.
🎥 Based on a recorded interview with Elaine and Stewart – watch or listen here.
When Stewart first joined Geospatial Marketing Academy (GMA), he described himself, with a laugh, as “just a little surveyor from Idaho.”
Today, that “little surveyor” is chairing the NSPS Marketing and Outreach Committee, enjoying his company’s threefold increase in revenue since starting GMA and getting phone calls from clients who don’t even ask for a quote… they just say, “You’re my guy, just get it done.”
When we first spoke back in 2023, Stewart’s business was solid but pretty traditional:
He knew times were changing from “analogue to digital” and that the way his business communicated had to change too. Like many in the uber‑competitive Geospatial industry, he was cautious about investing in something he might not follow through on.
Until the moment of change, when he thought to himself, “What the hell, what‘s there to lose?” and committed to GMA with one promise to himself… if he started, he would finish.
GMA didn’t magically change his business overnight, but it did change how he thought about communication, value and consistency.
Stewart realised how much jargon he and his team used day-to-day. GMA pushed him to simplify how he and his team explain what they do – using clear language that resonates with people outside the profession and answering questions in a way that actually lands.
Through GMA, he began reshaping his content and messaging: less equipment lists and more directly answering the questions clients actually have. That small tweak turned into a big win – more inbound calls from people who already understood his value.
One of the biggest mindset shifts was dropping the need for everything to be polished and perfect. Stewart began letting his own voice shine through, even using phrases that might not be grammatically correct but reflect how he really talks. The funny thing? The slightly “off” or imperfect posts often get the biggest reach, because they feel human and relatable.
Consistent posting still isn’t completely second nature, but it’s now a core habit he protects. Between running the business, family life and kids’ activities, showing up regularly online is a challenge, yet that’s where he’s seen the compound effect really kick in.
The impact of Stewart’s work inside GMA has been huge.
On the numbers side, his business revenue is now around three times what it was when he started GMA. He won’t credit the programme alone, but he’s clear that GMA‑driven changes (better messaging, clearer positioning and a unified team focus) have been a major contributor.
On the client side, the shift is obvious:
Internally, the culture has evolved too:
And personally?
When we talked about the last year or two, he summed it up in two words: growth and learning.
A great example of that is how significantly Stewart’s confidence has grown:
One of the most surprising outcomes has been what’s opened up beyond his own business.
Stewart was asked to become chairman of the NSPS Marketing and Outreach Committee, a role he’s convinced is a direct result of what he’s learned and implemented through GMA. A couple of years ago, he’s pretty sure he would have said no. Now, he has the confidence and tools to say yes to opportunities that stretch him.
He also sees his journey as part of something bigger. Surveying is a small, tight‑knit community, and most surveyors face the same marketing and communication challenges wherever they are. Stewart believes that if more surveyors can learn the same principles and language, it lifts the whole profession, not just individual firms.
That’s why, when I asked him to be a brand ambassador for GMA 2.0, he didn’t hesitate.
For him, it was a no‑brainer: if something has significantly improved his business and personal growth, he wants others to benefit too (even though he knows it means I’ll be tracking his progress and pushing him right out of his comfort zone… again!!).
When I asked Stewart to imagine a “before, after, and after-after” line for his journey, he described it beautifully:
Helping surveyors scale their marketing, systemise their efforts and step into leadership roles in the profession, without losing their personality or burning out.
Stewart is living proof that when surveyors embrace clear, human marketing (and stick with it!), they don’t just find more clients.
Everything from confidence to revenue to influence can change for the better.
Join Stewart and a community of growth-minded Geospatialers in the next evolution of the ONLY marketing academy built specifically for people like you.
GMA 2.0 is the place to be!!
Welcome to the Haunted Roundtable. Here, ghostly handshakes are never taken, and the air is thick with the chill of forgotten lessons.
In the centre of this gloomy gathering sits the Growth Grave Digger, quietly shovelling soil over your hard-won progress before it ever has the chance to bloom.
This villain is the reason why so many survey firms feel like they are constantly starting from scratch, and getting nowhere.
The Growth Grave Digger doesn’t scream or howl. He works in silence, convincing you that once a campaign is done, it’s best left for dead. He thrives when you move relentlessly to the “next big thing” without looking back at what you’ve just achieved.
You know he’s at the table when:
It’s not a lack of effort that’s the problem. It’s a lack of reflection. The Growth Grave Digger ensures you stay busy, but never truly grow.
Marketing isn’t a one-and-done magic trick; it strengthens through iteration. When you fail to reflect, you stay stuck in the mud, spinning your wheels while the Grave Digger keeps piling more dirt and worms onto your potential.
The cost of ignoring him is high:
Lay down his shovel for good! The antidote to his nasty tactics is a simple, consistent rhythm of review. It’s about building a cycle you can sustain forever, no more digging holes and abandoning progress.
Here’s how to break the curse:
👉 In Phase 9 of The Academy 2.0, we show you exactly how to build this sustainable cycle, so you stop burying your wins and start compounding them.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
Within the ghastly Content Clocktower, gears grind painfully slow, sand drips relentlessly from the ceiling and a pale, shadowy figure lurks in the rafters. This ominous presence is the reason why marketing feels like a heavy burden eating into your billable hours.
Beware the Time Vampire, who latches onto you the moment you sit down to “quickly write a post,” draining minutes into hours until your entire afternoon is gone.
The Time Vampire doesn’t suck blood; he sucks productivity. He hypnotises you into staring at a blinking cursor, convincing you that every single piece of content must be a masterpiece created from thin air.
You can feel his cold grip when:
When content feels heavy, surveyors stop creating it. It’s that simple.The Vampire wins when you decide, “I just don’t have time for marketing.” But when you stop sharing, your visibility dies. The inconsistency signals to the market that you are either too busy to care or no longer relevant.
You cannot afford to let the clock run out on your brand presence.
Vampires despise systems more than they hate garlic. You don’t need more hours in the day; you just need a stake through the heart of inefficiency. Banish the Vampire by building a system that values your time.
Here’s how to reclaim your hours:
👉 In Phase 8 of The Academy 2.0, we open the workshop where everything finally clicks.
We turn the Content Clocktower into a well-oiled machine, teaching you how to make content creation quick, confident and consistent, saving you time and money in the process.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
Welcome to the Laboratory of Experiments. Here, strange beakers bubble with volatile liquids, client names float aimlessly inside sealed jars and the Mad Scientist works in a frenzy.
He recklessly throws random campaigns into a boiling cauldron, hoping that if he mixes enough ingredients together, gold will appear.
The Mad Scientist is the reason so many survey firms burn through their budget on ideas that sound good in the moment but explode in their faces later.
The Mad Scientist thrives on impulse. He convinces you that any action is better than strategy, encouraging you to “just try it and see what happens” without any hypothesis or control.
You are trapped in his lab when:
Unfocused campaigns do more than just drain your bank account, they drain your confidence. When “experiments” fail repeatedly, survey business owners become sceptical of marketing entirely, believing it “doesn’t work” for their industry.
The Mad Scientist wins when you mistake activity for accomplishment. He keeps you busy mixing potions that never cure the problem of inconsistent revenue.
It’s time to stop guessing and start engineering your success. Marketing shouldn’t be a volatile experiment. It only works as a calculated process.
Here is how to sanitise the chaos:
👉 In Phase 7 of The Academy 2.0, we reveal the campaign formula that stops the wild experimentation.
We teach you how to create predictable revenue by building campaigns based on proven formulas, not mad science.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
In the ghastly Dungeon of Data, rusty chains of spreadsheets hang from the ceiling and charts flicker in the dim light. A cackle echoes from the damp dingy depths. Behold, the Analytics Anarchist. Dancing amidst the chaos, he thrives on confusion, tangling your numbers until nothing makes sense.
He is the reason you feel like you are driving your business blindfolded, never quite sure what’s working, or what’s a waste of time.
The Analytics Anarchist doesn’t steal your data; he scrambles it. He loves it when survey firms operate on “gut feeling” rather than cold, hard facts. He whispers that tracking is “too complicated” or “boring,” ensuring you stay locked in the dark.
You know you’re trapped in his dungeon when:
The golden rule of growth is simple: you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
When the Anarchist wins, you make business decisions based on panic or assumptions.
You might cut the one marketing activity that was actually bringing in leads because you didn’t have the data to prove its value. Or worse, you might double down on a strategy that bleeds money, simply because you are too overwhelmed by the numbers to notice.
You don’t need a degree in data science to bring order to this dungeon. You just need to shine a light on the metrics that actually matter. Taming the Anarchist is about stripping away the noise and focusing on the signals.
Here is how to break the chains:
👉 In Phase 6 of The Academy 2.0, we teach surveyors how to measure success with confidence.
We help you escape the dungeon so you can make smarter, sharper decisions grounded in data, not ghosts.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
Welcome to the Library of Lost Lead Magnets. Here, deep beneath the surface, rows of glowing books rest on underwater shelves, untouched and unread.
An enchanting melody drifts through the water… but all is not as it seems. Beware, the haunting song of the Sales-Conversion Siren. She hums softly as lead after lead slips silently beneath the waves, never to be seen again.
She is the reason your website traffic never turns into actual conversations. The siren lures interested prospects in, but without a lifeline to hold onto, they drift away into the abyss.
The Sales-Conversion Siren doesn’t chase your clients away, she simply lets them drown in a sea of inaction. She convinces you that “visiting your website” is enough, while she quietly ensures they leave without a trace.
You are under her spell when:
In the vast ocean of the internet, attention is fleeting. Without a lead magnet or a nurture system, your leads may never surface again.
If a prospect lands on your site, likes what they see, but isn’t ready to pick up the phone right this second, they will leave. And without a hook (something to keep you connected to them) the Siren ensures they forget you the moment they close the tab.
You are losing business simply because you aren’t offering a hand to pull them aboard.
You can break the spell of her mesmerising song. The way to defeat the Siren is to stop relying on passive hope and start building active bridges that guide your prospects safely to shore.
Here’s how to keep your leads afloat:
👉 In Phase 5 of The Academy 2.0, we show you how to build the lifelines that save your leads.
We teach you how to attract, nurture and guide potential clients so they don’t drift away, instead coming to you, ready to buy.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
In the Crypt of Consistency, solitary posts echo off cold stone walls, before fading into weeks of absolute silence. The air is stale with the dust of abandoned LinkedIn profiles, and in the corner, the Social Media Skeleton grins.
He thrives in the gaps. He waits for those long stretches when you vanish from the digital world, burying your brand alive while you’re busy out on site.
The Social Media Skeleton doesn’t attack with noise and clever tricks; he attacks with neglect. He convinces you that marketing is something you only do when you have “spare time”, which, in the surveying world, is basically never.
You’ll hear his rattling bones when:
The Skeleton cackles as your competitors take the spotlight.
In the modern market, inconsistent visibility = inconsistent trust = inconsistent pipeline.
When a potential client hears your name, the first thing they do is check you out online. If they arrive at your LinkedIn profile only to find digital cobwebs and a last post dated six months ago, doubt creeps in. They wonder if you are still active, still relevant, or even still in business.
The Skeleton makes you look smaller than you are. He strips the flesh off your reputation until there’s nothing left to engage with. Mwa ha ha ha!
You don’t need to be a content machine to banish this monster. You just need a pulse. Defeating the Skeleton is about replacing “random” with “reliable.”
Here’s how to put meat back on the bones:
👉 In Phase 4 of The Academy 2.0, we give survey firms the strong bones of a repeatable workflow.
We show you how to build a system where your reputation continues to grow and your message keeps working, even on your busiest days.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
Welcome to The Hall of Invisible Buyers. Within these shadowed corridors, some of your most valuable clients slip by unseen, leaving no trace until it’s too late. These are the Shadow Clients.
Prospects who stalk your content, research in silence and then vanish without ever reaching out.
Most survey buyers won’t pick up the phone immediately. They linger in the background, quietly:
By the time a Shadow Client makes contact, they’ve already made their decision. Or, more likely, chosen a competitor whose content guided them in the darkness. If your insights aren’t shining a torch in those hidden corners, you’ll never even know they passed you by.
The modern buying journey has changed. Research shows that B2B buyers self-educate, consuming up to a dozen pieces of content before ever calling a provider.
What does that mean for survey businesses?
👉 In Phase 3 of The Academy 2.0, we shine a torch on these hidden buyers and show you how to win them before they ever knock.
Win business before competitors even know a deal was in play. Illuminate the path, and make every Shadow Client choose you.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
Every survey business owner knows the feeling. One month you’re flat out – quotes, site work and reports piling high. The next, silence. The phone doesn’t ring. The inbox feels like a graveyard.
That silence is the dreaded Pipeline Phantom at work.
This ghostly figure feeds on missed opportunities, half-finished proposals and over-reliance on word of mouth. He lurks whenever your business depends on luck, instead of a system. If you’ve ever wondered why projects don’t flow-in consistently, you’ve already heard his rattling chains.
It’s not that you’re bad at what you do. Far from it. Most survey businesses we meet are brilliant on site, delivering quality work that keeps clients coming back. But marketing? That often gets pushed to the back burner, until the pipeline runs dry, and the Phantom thrives.
A weak or inconsistent pipeline doesn’t just hurt cash flow. It adds pressure to every decision. Staff hours become a gamble. Equipment upgrades feel risky. Growth plans stall.
The truth is, the Pipeline Phantom isn’t some fairytale. He’s the very real cost of not controlling your visibility.
There is a way to put him back in the ground. A way to build a pipeline that doesn’t vanish at the worst possible moment. But it’s not found in random ads, guesswork on LinkedIn, or yet another dusty brochure.
That answer lives inside The Geospatial Marketing Academy 2.0, where we’ll show you how to banish the Phantom and replace him with a system that brings in clients even while you’re out on site.
👉 Step through the Academy Gate at GeoWeek 2026, or join GMA 2.0 to learn how to silence the Phantom for good.
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.
In the dark corridors of Geospatial marketing, survey firms cry out for clients, yet their message vanishes into the mist. This is where the Brand Banshee takes control, screaming your services so loudly that your real value gets lost in the noise.
Survey businesses often try to reach everyone: developers, architects, government, utilities, you name it! Casting a wide net and hoping someone bites. But when your positioning is blurred, the only thing prospects hear is chaos.
This noise means:
The Banshee thrives when your brand signals are muddled. Until you clarify who you serve and why your business is unique, she keeps howling and your expertise goes unnoticed.
Ask yourself: What do you really want to do? Set your business vision so everyone in the firm knows the destination – no more haunted hallways.
Integrate your “why” into everything you do. Purpose is your brand’s ghost-light, guiding clients straight to you.
Stop shouting to everyone. Identify your best-fit clients and craft a message just for them. Suddenly, the Banshee falls silent and only the right buyers enter your chamber.
With your message sharpened, clients finally hear you (and the Brand Banshee is banished from the building).
Inside GMA 2.0, Phase 1 will reveal the tools survey businesses need to silence confusion for good, so clients trust your voice and your pipeline fills with the right work.
Here’s how you’ll transform your business:
Explore the rest of the Haunted Academy!
Or book a call with Elaine to see if GMA 2.0 is the right fit for you.