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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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.
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
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:
GMA 2.0 is coming soon! Sign up to get the latest news on the release.
🎥Prefer to watch? Find the full video here.
Picture this: You’re running a surveying company, frantically plugging holes, running out of fingers and toes, but the cracks just keep on coming.
That’s exactly how Christopher Juliano, a licensed land surveyor and professional engineer from Connecticut, described what life was like before joining the Geospatial Marketing Academy (GMA). Running from one emergency to the next, wearing multiple hats in his six-person firm with no receptionist or administrative assistant – it was organised chaos at its finest.
Like many surveyors, Christopher had tried marketing before. He’d worked with a marketing consultant about 20 years ago, and subsequently carried out client surveys and gained some pretty good insights. But there was no roadmap, no follow-up and no strategic direction.
That all changed when he discovered GMA through his involvement with NSPS (National Society of Professional Surveyors). What started as support for the “Get Kids Into Survey” campaign snowballed into something much bigger.
Six months into GMA, Christopher is already seeing tangible results:
“Whether it’s due to the economy or GMA, we’re ahead of where we were last year both in number of jobs we do in a year and we have seen an increase in revenue.”
“Without GMA, I’d probably still be fumbling and stumbling my way through each and every day,” Christopher admits. “You’ve given me focus.”
One of the first (and biggest) game-changers? The 90-day planning system that GMA teaches.
“You introduced us to 90-day plans, which is great because we have small chunks to look at and focus on,” Christopher shares. “It gives us a strategy so that we can see progress.”
And here’s some of that progress they’ve seen so far:
But perhaps the most meaningful transformation was involving his entire team in the decision-making process. Before GMA, Christopher tried to do everything on his own. Now? His team is actively engaged in shaping the company’s future.
Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Christopher went from being completely anti-AI to using it almost daily.
“I never thought I would be an AI fanboy,” he laughs. “When people started talking about AI, I’m like, okay, it can’t replace actual survey work, so it’s never going to happen. But you got me into ChatGPT and Perplexity, and I use them both almost on a daily basis.”
“Those two tools are amazing. I don’t think I would have ever really found them or used them on my own without a little nudge.”
Get usage tips and AI Advice specifically for Geospatialers from Elaine Ball on our blog.
Another surprising change? Christopher’s relationship with social media, particularly LinkedIn.
“I really didn’t go on LinkedIn much. I always felt it was the professional Facebook and I just really didn’t care about it. Now I’m checking it a couple times a week and not just to lurk. I’m posting or commenting a lot more.”
The confidence to share opinions and engage professionally has opened new doors and connections in the geospatial community.
The buyer persona work in GMA completely shifted how Christopher approaches client relationships. He’s gained confidence to follow up with customers and find out what he needs to know, even when it feels tough or awkward. “I’m not shying away from asking those hard questions anymore.”
Christopher has no problems asking:
This approach has led to valuable feedback and stronger relationships. In one case, a client honestly explained they went with a competitor due to a 20-year relationship and local connections, information Christopher respected and used to maintain a positive ongoing relationship.
When asked what he’d miss most if GMA disappeared tomorrow, Christopher doesn’t hesitate: “The one-on-ones. That’s the easiest question.”
These weekly accountability sessions provide:
“You’re holding us accountable. It’s easy to use you as a sounding board for where we are. Yes, you give us homework, and I think that’s why some other people don’t show up as regularly – they don’t want to do these extra things. But it’s all for a purpose.”
For Christopher, the ROI is clear. Compared to hiring a traditional marketing company at two to three times the cost, GMA offers:
What started as a small investment in marketing education has opened doors Christopher never expected.
When describing GMA to skeptical friends, Christopher positions it as “business consulting, marketing and a sounding board all rolled into one fun, high-energy person that has our best interest at heart.”
“I don’t see myself abandoning GMA. I really don’t. I’ve definitely drank the Kool-Aid,” he admits with a laugh.
Christopher’s story isn’t unique. Across the geospatial industry, surveyors are discovering that marketing isn’t just about pretty brochures and newspaper Ads. It’s about strategic business growth: increasing sales and prospective customers by understanding your buyers and building systems that create sustainable success.
I.e. NOT just ‘colouring in’!
If you’re tired of plugging holes in the dyke and ready to build something bigger, GMA might just be the transformation you and your business need.