Member Since 2017
Joel Mathew
Fortress Consulting
Chicago Area
Joel Mathew is an entrepreneur with a background in media and technology. He spent several years in Chicago media working for both the television and radio industries, before founding his own digital focused agency, Fortress Consulting. Fortress Consulting is a digital marketing agency, headquartered in Chicago, that bridges the gap between creative and technology. Fortress clients range from new startups to billion dollar global corporations including All State, Nike, Acura and more. In addition to his expertise in advertising and technology, Joel is also a partner in several ventures in a variety of verticals including legal, fitness, cybersecurity, publishing and more. Joel graduated from Northern Illinois University and holds a certificate from Harvard Business School. He frequently lectures to organizations and universities on various topics including entrepreneurship and digital marketing.
RECENT CONTENT
January 24th, 2023
Eight Strategies For Avoiding Layoffs During Turbulent Times
During difficult economic times, “layoffs” are often one of the first fears that enter professionals’ minds. Whether it’s a sudden economic downturn or a looming recession, many business leaders resort to laying off staff in a desperate attempt to keep their companies afloat. Even successful tech companies and large financial corporations sometimes exercise this type of cost-cutting measure.
January 17th, 2023
11 Ways to Reward Hardworking Employees (and Encourage More Exemplary Behavior)
When an employee succeeds at work, leaders should make sure that employee feels recognized for their efforts. Rewarding your staff members for a job well done not only motivates them to continue to work hard, but it also inspires others to reach the same goal.
August 22nd, 2022
Disagree With Your Client? 11 Ways to Find a Positive and Effective Solution
Maintaining a positive relationship with your clients is important for both your business and theirs. However, there are times when your team and your client may disagree about how a project or initiative is being carried out.
June 30th, 2022
Nine Common Business Plan Mistakes To Avoid As A New Entrepreneur
Business plans are often considered an essential tool to help set a new entrepreneur up for success. This document typically encompasses the vision for your company, including your mission statement, while also pinpointing your target audience, sales projections and growth goals.
April 15th, 2022
10 Factors to Consider When Searching for the Right Freelance Talent
March 29th, 2022
Nine Effective Ways To Showcase Your Personality On LinkedIn
When you're looking to impress potential employers and business peers, it can be difficult to show off your personality on the limited pages of a resume or job application. Thankfully, LinkedIn provides a great opportunity to get more personal with your network.
March 24th, 2022
10 Entrepreneurs Share The Most Important Early Business Decisions They Made
The first few years of a company can be the most critical for its overall growth trajectory. This early stage will set the tone for the business and determine how potential pitfalls will be handled.
March 18th, 2022
Want Deeper Client Relationships? Try These Top Strategies
The relationship between you and your clients shouldn’t be solely focused on business transactions. Deeper client relationships start with a willingness to get to know your customers on a personal level rather than as a number on your invoice.
March 17th, 2022
8 Limiting Beliefs That May Be Holding Your Business Back
Self-doubt is common among entrepreneurs. When business owners are overcome with these doubts, it can hold them back from achieving their goals and reaching their full potential.
March 16th, 2022
Hiring An Executive Assistant? Eight Must-Have Traits To Look For
With so many duties to juggle and schedules to maintain, executives simply can’t do it all themselves. To remedy this, many companies will hire executive assistants to help.
March 15th, 2022
Nine Steps To Take If Your Company Rebrand Doesn't Get A Positive Response
Is your brand in need of a makeover? While it may seem as simple as something like changing your company’s name, rebranding is a complicated process with many moving parts.
March 9th, 2022
Employees Getting Stressed? Here's How To Support Their Mental Health
Workplace stress levels continue to climb across all professions, resulting in increased burnout and decreased productivity. But just because employee stress is common does not mean it should be ignored.
December 7th, 2021
15 Effective Tips to Differentiate Your Content Marketing From Your Competitors’
Every business needs to market its products and services, but there's a lot of competition out there. When you're creating a content marketing campaign for your brand, the last thing you want to do is use precious time and resources to create content that doesn't measure up to your direct competitors'.
August 9th, 2021
11 Effective Negotiation Strategies to Help You Seal the Deal
Whether it’s about a job offer or a potential business partnership, every professional will find themselves negotiating at some point in their career. The secret to achieving a positive outcome for both parties doesn’t have to be a mystery, however, and the key is often in thorough preparation and knowing some effective negotiation strategies.
August 4th, 2021
9 Tips on Finding More Diverse Candidates for Your Company’s Open Positions
July 27th, 2021
10 Business Leaders Share Their Biggest Interview Pet Peeves
February 26th, 2021
Your Personal Blog Can Get You a Job — If You Include These 11 Things
February 8th, 2021
The Worst Business Advice We’ve Ever Heard
Business advice can come from anywhere, even from those who have never owned a business. But if you’re a new entrepreneur just starting out, you tend to soak up all the information that you can. The most significant problem is there’s no simply way to tell the lousy advice from the good advice. Sometimes experience is the only way to figure out the difference.
February 2nd, 2021
12 Rules to Better Manage Client Expectations Early On
When a client signs on with your business, they have certain expectations about what your performance will be. The best way to end up with a happy client, however, is to manage these expectations early on. If you don't, and a client feels as though they should have gotten more from your business but didn't, their testimony could severely damage your future business and your reputation. To ensure you don’t end up in this situation, 12 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) share their insights on the following question:
January 27th, 2021
Eight Gadgets These Business Leaders Can’t Live Without
Every day, new devices pop onto the scene promising change and innovation. For an entrepreneur who's focused on the expansion of their organization, staying up to date with the latest technology that can support personal and business growth is essential. Whether it’s in a simple or a major way, some of these technologies carry with them the power to change how we do business altogether.
January 25th, 2021
Angry Customer? 8 Ways to Diffuse the Situation
You can't avoid the occasional upset customer, but you can quickly and effectively smooth things over.
January 22nd, 2021
18 Tools Businesses Should Leverage for Customer Engagement in 2021
Entrepreneurs share their favorite tools, apps, and software for managing and interacting with customers.
January 21st, 2021
Nine Common Mistakes People Make When Building Their Personal Brand
Establishing a personal brand is something many professionals do to get noticed by the right people and make themselves available to the right opportunities. Unfortunately, with all the different information sources out there, it's easy to get confused about how exactly to do that. Where one source would advise you to do one thing, another article may recommend the complete opposite.
January 19th, 2021
Nine Communication Habits Of Great Leaders (And Why They Make Them So Great)
Communication is one of the most essential skills that a business leader needs to master to be successful. Great leaders may develop their communication skills early on in their careers, but they also have created and maintained habits that help them communicate more effectively.
July 6th, 2020
7 Things You Should Say to Your Team More Often to Inspire Them
Leaders should seek out ways to consistently express appreciation and ask for feedback.
April 21st, 2020
Five Lessons About Business And Life From Eighth-Grade Basketball
You may be surprised at all the parallels between school sports and business success.
April 15th, 2020
10 Smart Strategies To Convert Web Traffic Into Sales
A great digital marketing strategy can drive potential customers to your website. But high traffic doesn't always translate into revenue. Once you get people on your site, you need to ensure they have a reason to follow through on their purchase. To help you do this, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council how they optimize and convert web traffic into real dollars. Their best tips and insights are below.
April 13th, 2020
Here's How To Listen To Your Customers And Give Them What They Want
Today’s consumers demand transparency and honesty in brands they buy from. They expect their voices to be heard, which means attracting and retaining customers is all about listening to your audience. It’s important to consider the interests of your consumers and, more importantly, implement their feedback into your products or business model. To help you do this, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members for their best advice on how to truly listen to your customers. Their best responses are below.
April 7th, 2020
10 Ways To Craft A Truly Captivating Brand Story
Competition among companies can be fierce, especially those in the same field with similar messages. With so many other brands out there, it can be difficult to make your story stand out among the crowd. However, you need to identify that “something special” about your business that truly makes it shine. To help you, we asked 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members how to captivate customers through the art of storytelling. Here’s how they recommend crafting a brand story that captures attention and engages your target audience.
April 3rd, 2019
You Get What You Pay For: Prioritizing Quality In Digital Marketing
Don't settle for poor quality because of a lower price tag.
July 30th, 2018
Understanding Influencer Marketing And Why It Is So Effective
Make sure to establish a relationship built on trust before having anyone market on your company's behalf.
COMPANY INFO
Fortress Consulting
Fortress Consulting Group uniquely combines the creative strengths of a full service advertising agency with the technological savvy of a cutting edge digital media firm to create engaging brand experiences. As our interaction with technology evolves and our digital media consumption grows, brands need to have a compelling digital presence that captures the attention and hearts of consumers. Our digital strategies provide businesses with a significant competitive advantage in reaching their goals. Digital isn't all we do. At Fortress, we strengthen your brand's identity not only in the digital space but consistently across multiple platforms and anywhere you can potentially interact with your target market. We stand apart from the crowd because we can take your digital strategy one step further by developing and integrating full and comprehensive marketing plans that incorporate television, radio, local customized promotions, and much more. We don't take shortcuts. We do business the right way. Our clients aren't just clients, they are a part of our Fortress family and we do what it takes to help them achieve their goals.
INDUSTRY
Marketing & Advertising