Can you believe that the key to effective marketing may lie in doing less, not more? That's the ground-breaking approach we unpack in our latest episode with the dynamic duo, Melanie Boylan and Esther Ocampo, from the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. We dig into the art of identifying the social media platforms your target audience frequents and focusing your efforts there, rather than stretching yourself thin across all platforms. A crucial but overlooked tip we also discuss: secure your handles across all platforms to prevent impersonation, even if you're not active on them.
The power of understanding your audience through focus groups is another potent topic broached. Melanie and Esther candidly share their first-hand experiences, including the transformational changes their businesses underwent due to feedback from focus groups. We also stress the importance of constant testing and evaluation of your marketing strategies, ensuring they continue serving your business effectively.
We then shift gears to handle the beast that is scaling a business. It's a journey filled with the challenges of trust, team growth, and salary management. However, we offer tips from our personal experiences to help you navigate this path with less stress. In addition, we delve into the importance of boundary setting and the undeniable power of an online presence. Finally, we touch on the role of SWOT analysis in business growth and the significance of regular strategic planning. So buckle up and join us, as we share these nuggets of wisdom to help your business flourish.
Resources:
The Monday Morning Marketing
IPA Group
SWOT Analysis
Show Notes Page
Website: https://www.sarahnoelblock.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnoelblock/
Newsletter: https://tinymarketing.me/newsletter
Tiny Marketing Community
Click here to ask a question about the episode
Can you believe that the key to effective marketing may lie in doing less, not more? That's the ground-breaking approach we unpack in our latest episode with the dynamic duo, Melanie Boylan and Esther Ocampo, from the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. We dig into the art of identifying the social media platforms your target audience frequents and focusing your efforts there, rather than stretching yourself thin across all platforms. A crucial but overlooked tip we also discuss: secure your handles across all platforms to prevent impersonation, even if you're not active on them.
The power of understanding your audience through focus groups is another potent topic broached. Melanie and Esther candidly share their first-hand experiences, including the transformational changes their businesses underwent due to feedback from focus groups. We also stress the importance of constant testing and evaluation of your marketing strategies, ensuring they continue serving your business effectively.
We then shift gears to handle the beast that is scaling a business. It's a journey filled with the challenges of trust, team growth, and salary management. However, we offer tips from our personal experiences to help you navigate this path with less stress. In addition, we delve into the importance of boundary setting and the undeniable power of an online presence. Finally, we touch on the role of SWOT analysis in business growth and the significance of regular strategic planning. So buckle up and join us, as we share these nuggets of wisdom to help your business flourish.
Resources:
The Monday Morning Marketing
IPA Group
SWOT Analysis
Show Notes Page
Website: https://www.sarahnoelblock.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnoelblock/
Newsletter: https://tinymarketing.me/newsletter
Tiny Marketing Community
Click here to ask a question about the episode
In your experience? What issues do entrepreneurs have most often when they're trying to figure out how to market in the first place? They launch their business and then they're like I need to do this first and it might be the wrong move.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think they try to do everything at once. So they sign up for all the social media platforms, they are on every single one and trying to update every single one, and then they realize that they don't have time to update every single one. So top tip number one is stick to one to start with and then build from there, but start on one, not on the 20,000 that there are available.
Speaker 1:So many of us see what the big guys are doing or what our competitors are doing, and we think I need to do that too, but that is not the case. Bite-sized marketing works perfectly fine. This episode is dedicated to those solo entrepreneurs who have tiny teams. They rely on themselves and you need to figure out exactly what marketing you need to do to get the results you need, but with the resources and the time you have. So today is a pretty awesome episode. It is special because we are collaborating with the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I chatted with Esther and Melanie from that show and we dig into bite-sized marketing strategies and tactics that work for solo entrepreneurs. I cannot wait to share it with you, so stay tuned, listen up and enjoy. Okay, so first can you introduce yourselves?
Speaker 3:Okay, so my name is Melanie Boylan and my business is Stump Social Media Training, and I'm based in the Republic of Ireland.
Speaker 2:And I'm Esther Ocampo. My business is IPA Group. We do all things digital marketing and I'm based in Northern Ireland.
Speaker 1:I guess I kind of assume that you guys worked together, but you just host the podcast together. How did you meet, yeah?
Speaker 2:Oh, many, many years ago we met through a mutual friend who then at one point said you guys should do a podcast together, and it started from there.
Speaker 1:I love that. I have always talked about how much fun it would be to have like a co-host so you can banter and you have that fun where it's just me yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not the same, but then you have. You have fabulous guests.
Speaker 3:I do so it is fun I do and she has an amazing voice. Let's not forget that. Oh my gosh, I forgot you know what?
Speaker 1:That same week I sent someone a voice message and they said the same thing and I was like what's going on? I've never been complimented on my voice before twice in a week. It's going to get to my head.
Speaker 2:You should apply to do those voiceovers, for like meditation, ops and stuff.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm going to be on call. Yeah, or maybe I'll just I'll go straight to audiobooks and start reading like smut in my calming voice.
Speaker 3:I wasn't going to go that far, but there is some audiobooks that you can get paid to do as well. So there you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of my friends who was in content marketing. That's now all she does is. She's an audiobook narrator. Wow yeah, which I think would be kind of fun reading books all day. I can get behind that, but that's not what this subject is. Let's focus. We're talking about bite sized marketing for entrepreneurs. Let's get into that In your experience. What issues do entrepreneurs have most often when they're trying to figure out how to market in the first place, they launch their business and then they're like I need to do this first and it's might be the wrong move.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I think they try to do everything at once. So they sign up for all the social media platforms, they are on every single one and trying to update every single one, and then they realise that they don't have time to update every single one now. So top tip number one is stick to one to start with and then build from there, but start on one, not on the 20,000 that there are available. There's so many.
Speaker 1:There are.
Speaker 3:And just a little addendum to Esther's suggestion there is absolutely, I completely agree, go on the one, but go on the one that your audience is actually going to be on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So if your audience is under 30, you need to be probably on TikTok, instagram and that sort of Snapchat, yeah, that kind of platform. But if they're over 30, then you definitely need to have a presence on Facebook and probably Twitter as well, because the youngsters are all off of that now, not that they weren't in the first place, sorry.
Speaker 1:X. Yes, it is X now, as then everybody is saying I am no longer on Twitter, it's my X. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And obviously if you're B2B, then LinkedIn would be the place to go. But, like Melanie said, first figure out who your audience is, where they hang out and then go there. So don't just jump feet first into I'm online and here's all my social media platforms, when some of them probably won't actually get you any clients at all.
Speaker 1:Oh, you are very correct. I definitely made that mistake early on, because I was just already on all of the social media platforms because I'm like we were talking about it earlier I'm a chronic beta tester. I'm like, oh, that's new, I'm going to try that it's only one gives me business and it gives me the most business. But now it feels like an obligation because I have all of those profiles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, when I was starting out, I was recommended to get all the profiles, just so somebody else couldn't go on and impersonate you. So you had the same handle across all the different socials. And therefore then if somebody else popped in and decided that they wanted to be tiny marketing with an extra G on the end, then people would realize that oh, that's not Sarah. So that's the one reason why I have all the platforms but I do not post them all.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask, so you've been told that, but do you follow that? I don't? No, suspension, dairstrike, google Um.
Speaker 2:Google. I'm not soon, I do. I did Like I do have. You know Instagram, twitter. You know all the big ones plus some of the little ones, but just mainly because I didn't want somebody else to steal the thing. And if your audience changes and grows into a different platform, like you were saying, you know everybody's leaving X, where are they going Then if you already have the handle that relates to your business, then it's easier to continue on over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, melanie, you went. Hmm, you had a. Hmm, let me hear what it was.
Speaker 3:Well, I think when everybody first starts, you do follow all the suggestions that people it's repeated frequently at events, downloads, webcasts, podcasts, and so I think the only reason why we're cynical now is because we've been doing this a while. So if everybody is signing up to everything and trying to do everything, I totally get it. I do, but nobody really genuinely expects you to do all of them and do all of them well.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it's impossible to do them all well. The algorithms are so different and the kinds of content that work on each platform is so different.
Speaker 3:And you do have to repurpose a huge amount of stuff and that can take an awful lot of time. I mean, I know for a fact that Esther's done it, and you've likely done it as well, sarah where you've met somebody and you said look, you're actually doing too much, you don't need to do this much. I highly recommend you don't do this much and you take people off platforms. I have done that before. I've done that quite a few times actually. Because they're not. They're spreading themselves so thin that they're forgetting to meet people and shake hands and be real with people, because they're so big doing the Insta life or the Twitter life or the TikTok life that they're not being authentic anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is, you're doing nothing well if you're on all of the platforms and you're actually active on all of them, because you're never going to be able to understand how to do it well and how to you're not going to have the time to spend to build those relationships with people. Like for me, I'm all B2B, so I'm on LinkedIn and I have met so many people that way that have become actual friends because I have the time to connect. But I do agree with you, esther, that having all of those profiles is beneficial because you no one's going to take that over, but also the SEO juice of it, because you fill up more of that first page, absolutely. Yeah, I go with what you said, melanie, and I focus on the one platform and then I repurpose to all of the others. I don't, I'm not active unless I'm doing some sort of partnership where I have to be active on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's another tip we were going to say, just to repurpose the content that you already have. Even if you send it out six, seven, 10, 12, whatever number of times to the same platform, you're the only person that sees all your content. Yeah, so when you post it, new eyes will be on it or they'll be seeing it with a fresh perspective, where they weren't the first time they saw it. So they might not need your services or your product the first time, but the next time or, the like I said, the fifth, sixth, twelfth time that they see it, they might actually be going. Oh yeah, I do actually need that. I need to talk to her, or I need to talk to you know, I need to phone them, email them. So definitely send out your content more than once.
Speaker 1:It really is a waste of time if you're creating content and you're only sharing it once. It's all about distribution. So two questions with that One how do entrepreneurs figure out what platform makes sense in the first place to focus on?
Speaker 3:I'll field that one. I think the best way to do that is to do a little bit of research before you get started, and that doesn't have to be an expensive thing to do. It's referred to as primary or secondary research. A lot of us entrepreneurs do secondary research, first and foremost, and that's through organizations, through mentoring, through speaking to other professionals. Heck, you might even use a census or literature that you found online. The only downside to all of this is it could be a little bit out of date and, especially if you're dealing with mentors or, you know, dealing with another human, there may be a bias that you're also absorbing.
Speaker 3:That's true, potentially, whereas if you're doing primary research, that's normally getting a third party involved and then you have to pay for that third party, which makes it a bit more expensive. Or, if you can try and detach yourself, you can arrange for focus groups. I did a focus group for my business in the first year. Eye-opening, that's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1:I'm very curious about that, but we'll stay on topic.
Speaker 3:So you know, if you're open to criticism, be ready for it. In a focus group. In a focus group.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to rabbit hole a little bit. Please tell me more about what it was, how you figured out how to do it in the first place.
Speaker 3:Well, the reason why I considered it is I was called Stomp Marketing in PR when I first started and I thought I was going to be doing press releases and marketing as well as social media training. But I noticed really in the first year that the social media training was doing so much better than anything else and I wondered why. I mean I was kept on telling people about it. I thought I was marketing to the right people, but I wasn't. But I didn't know that initially and you know, just because I know how to do it now, it doesn't mean I knew how to do it when I first started. Unless you've been in the industry before, none of us know how to do it when we first started.
Speaker 3:So I didn't just do a focus group in isolation. I did surveys, I had a stand, I met people, spoke to people, got general feedback and I also noticed my testimonials were also saying social media and not really anything else. So when I sat down for this focus group and I was asking people so when you see this logo, when you hear this phrase, what does it make you think of? And they said social media when it comes to you and I said well, actually I've been thinking about this. I've been thinking about changing my name, and there was 11 other people in the room I was 12. And they all picked their ears up and I said, OK, so what are you proposing? And I'd got my logo ready, blown it up, bought the website. Yeah, hadn't built it, but, you know, bought the website. You had the domain, Ladies and gents, social media genie. And they all fell over the floor laughing their heads off.
Speaker 3:Laughing their heads off Absolutely laughing their heads off. I'm enthralled. And they said why would you get rid of stomp? I still don't know your name and I'm here, but I know stomp.
Speaker 1:And so you did a killer job with your branding, so people remembered.
Speaker 3:Stomp. Even when they didn't remember Melanie, they remembered Stomp and they said you know, if you want to change it, then add what we feel you're best known for. So that's why I ended up with Stomp social media training.
Speaker 1:You said this is your first year of your business. That was yeah. How did you yes, that was. How did you find the focus group?
Speaker 3:Terrifying initially. But you know what I did is I put up. It was some of it was past clients, which wasn't too hard because you know it was only a year in existence, so they still remembered me. Yeah, and it was fresh. It was relatively fresh, and then the rest was. I went up into a local community group and said I'm doing a focus group, tea and crumpets available.
Speaker 1:Seriously, I wish that I would have thought to do a focus group early on in my business to better understand, because, good God, I stumbled a lot for like a year, two years, trying to figure out exactly what would work. Dang, you just like went straight for it. Exactly what you needed to do At that stage.
Speaker 3:I had nothing to lose. You know, yeah, Literally at that stage. I'm not sure I'd do it now, but at that time I literally had nothing to lose. What about you, Esther?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you didn't have like that brand equity built up yet we had some of it. They said they loved Stump.
Speaker 3:What about you, Esther? Did you ever do anything like that?
Speaker 2:Not exactly Like, not in person with tea and crumpets, but we did have people contact. We actually have changed our business name. We used to be IPA Solutions UK and because we have a company in Mexico as well, and people were just like but why? Why are you specifying UK and Mexico and stuff? So we just decided to turn it into group more of an umbrella term. So the next question was always so IPA like the beer and no, what's your sample? Innovative publicity and advertising, which means that we try to keep up with all the latest trends and stuff. So we try to implement all those things for our customers as well.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've ever asked you that.
Speaker 2:No, we've known each other for like eight or nine years at this point, but why do we need to know what our business is called? I do remember what Melanie's name is, so I don't need to know, don't need to remember.
Speaker 3:Do you remember why it's Stump?
Speaker 2:Do you remember why it's Stump? It's an acronym of social media. No, I don't remember what it stands for.
Speaker 3:Soul Trader Office, marketing and PR. There you go.
Speaker 2:Dang. I knew it was an acronym.
Speaker 1:So to scoop back on a topic of the bite-sized entrepreneurs, I mean, can they do this focus group idea to better understand like a streamlined way to market? How can they use what we're talking about today to be able to do that?
Speaker 3:Well, honestly, I think anybody can do some sort of focus group or taste panels or interviews or surveys, really every couple of years, because the hope is is your audience is going to improve and grow and develop with you. And we said to go on one social media platform initially when you first unless you're, of course, unless you're like a jewelry shop or a food shop or something like that you don't need to show up to the market with 5,000 services or products. You just don't need to. You could be known for doing one thing really, really, really well first and then add on other services as you understand your audience. I know people think, oh well, I can't just offer social media because people want websites as well. But I've been busy and I'm still here and I don't do websites Nice.
Speaker 3:So one else can also do a website, but then there's Esther, who does both, and she's still busy. Yeah, but I have a team. Yeah, but she's still busy. So the space for everyone isn't there.
Speaker 2:There is, but also, like we were saying, you can't be like I don't know how to manage every single platform. Melanie will train you in the social media platforms, but I would be more the manager of platforms. But there are some platforms that I just do not touch Because, like we were saying earlier, the algorithms are so different or the audience style is so different. So I have never managed a TikTok profile. I have never managed a YouTube channel. There are so many different things that I just wouldn't feel comfortable with doing, but I know of other people who specialize in those, so I'd be happy enough to pass them over to those people. But on that topic, we just also have to say that social media on its own is not enough. Whether you're on one platform or all of them, it's never enough, because it could get shut down at any time. It could get hacked.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately there's a lot of that going around. Yeah, I just got an Instagram, like those mirror profiles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And just having social media. It doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the Elons of the world and the Zuckerbergs of the world. And you know, having something that you own would be your website and your email list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, social media is rented space where your email list and your website that is your own space and you're not going to when to you know, invest a ton of money in a rental house. But it makes sense to invest in the home you own. You build that equity, just like with your list and your website.
Speaker 3:I have one more tip that I think the audience might find useful as well, and that is to remember the motivations as to why you're posting in the first place.
Speaker 3:I spent the first year doing pretty well I think I didn't do too bad and then it started to peter out a little bit, which is why this survey came up and, upon reflection and hindsight, is a wonderful thing. It was down to the fact that I was wording it wrong. I was looking for business, I was looking for security, I was looking for me, and that's not why your business is successful. You're speaking the language that your audience is speaking. If you're responding to their problems, if you're advocating for them, if you're supporting them, if you're empowering them, if you're making their lives easier and you're putting that across not just on your socials, but on your website, in your flyers, in your email list, then they feel that they're being heard and respected and valued, and that's what they come back for. They don't care that you've got a couple of kids, that you want to get through secondary school and you need to replace your car.
Speaker 1:They don't care about any of that you guys touched on two pieces that I really, really want to highlight and make sure that they don't get lost in the conversation is one Melanie, you were talking about niching in a way that a lot of people don't consider niching. They think that they have to focus in on a certain industry, for example, but you could just be known for your single offer, and that is a niche, too, being known for that thing. And then the other is customer first messaging that your customer is the star of the freaking show. You are not, and that needs to be the center of your copywriting and all of the messaging that you're using in social, your website, email, all that.
Speaker 1:I don't want those two pieces lost, because I think that they are absolute gold and make a huge difference in people's businesses. When entrepreneurs are starting out, let's revisit that, so they should be talking to their first primary customers, having conversations with them, figuring out where they're showing up online and maybe what triggers them to purchase from you in the first place, what challenges they're having, what you do. That stood out to them. Like Melanie, you had a couple different services as part of your business and then you realized everybody knows me for social media training. I don't need to do all of those other things and that a lot of us do that where we're like, but they need all of this.
Speaker 3:Well, I think everybody assumes that people want everything, the whole package, but I guess I was also. I don't have the same strong team that Esther has around her, and also Esther obviously has a lot more trust as well, the right group of people around her. She's more ambitious, she's more because she's taken on the role of being the boss and having staff under her and that sort of stuff, and that was a step that I wasn't ready to take really until a couple of years ago, and now I've got virtual assistants that I work with. So it's a very personal thing, I think. Whether you're a team player or whether you're a little bit of a hopicon, react like I am slightly. In many ways I'm quite envious of Esther's growth and trust and the fact that she can offer so much more than I can. Look at you.
Speaker 1:Esther, thank you. So tell us, how did you scale, how were you able to grow your team and be able to accommodate these other services that maybe a one to two person shop can't?
Speaker 2:do. I started my business with my husband, so it automatically started with him doing the websites and me doing the social media management. And then, as we grew, we just realized that we needed to add in extra people, and to start with that was other family members. So my sister-in-law works with us, my mother-in-law works with us, my father-in-law heads up the Mexican office. My side of the family's a bit technophobe, so that's where they work.
Speaker 3:They're all out.
Speaker 2:But then we needed a graphic designer.
Speaker 2:So one of my really good friends was the first choice there. So, like Melanie said, you had to trust the people that you're going to be working with and you have to start scaling before you're even ready to do it, because then it's the push that you need to go out and get the new clients and to go out and bring in more money and to have all the different pieces in place for the growth that actually happens. Because if you wait until you actually grow, then you're playing catch up and you're not able to fully fulfill the demands of the clients that you have. Your work starts to suffer. Your quality starts to suffer is what you're providing.
Speaker 2:So try to preempt it and, like I said, it's a really good push and motivator that you need to take that leap and take that jump into. Okay, so in order to pay their salary, I'm going to need to bring in so many more clients and you sit down every so often and go right how many more websites can you design this month? How many more logos can the graphic designer do you? And how many more social media clients can we bring in? And before we need to hire more people.
Speaker 1:So that's sort of take the leap and then it's a true leap of faith with that, because you're, like I, trust myself enough to bring in those clients to pay those salaries.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, it really worked out in our case because I had to take an entire year off with being sick. So therefore it didn't all fall on my husband the burden to do everything, because we had these other people already in place. So it really was that obviously, during that year I took zero salary, because you know if you're, if you're not working, you don't get to benefit from it. But if you can have the other people in place, then that meant that we weren't scrambling as well going, oh last minute dot com, bring somebody else in quickly not having the quality there that you require for the service that you give to your clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that reminds me of when I first started Tiny Marketing. It was as a side hustle. I was still working corporate and I hired immediately. I hired immediately because I was still working during the day and then coming home and finishing up. So I needed a VA who could like answer their questions during the day and, like a social media manager who could deal with all of that. So but I think that's why I had so many growing pains in the first year too is because I grew really. Actually all of the mistakes that you guys talked about I did. So I grew really fast because I was doing all of the things. I was a virtual marketing director. So people were like, yeah, I need that and it was really easy to get clients, but then I had too many, I wasn't charging enough and I hired so quickly. I didn't know how to manage people and do the client work. So how did you guys scale without like that crazy, like those growth pains that I seriously did not avoid?
Speaker 2:I think everybody goes with the growth pains. Everybody has them to some extent or another, whether it's scaling too quickly and then having to make the tough decisions of scaling back and letting a couple of people go. We've had that as well. When we first started, we actually had a physical office and hired an office manager and then decided no, actually we're going to do it all remotely, we don't actually need a physical person in the office or a physical office. That was a couple of ways that we it was the perception at the time of, if you don't have a physical office this is way before the pandemic, before it was fashionable to work from home we had you had to have that physical office, because where would you make clients if you didn't have a physical office? You couldn't just go to the coffee shop and meet them there. You had to have all these outlets. That was one of the things that we was. One of the first things that we did away with was the physical office. Therefore, we saved money, we saved commuting time, we saved childcare costs yeah, All of those things. Then we were able to hire somebody that we needed, but that person didn't have to be in the same. It helped with the pool of talent as well, Because if you're in a physical location, you are limited to the people that you can hire, Whereas if you have a virtual or online presence, then you can hire anybody in the world.
Speaker 2:Like I said, we have offices here in the United Kingdom and in Mexico. We have graphic designers and people working with us, VA's and stuff from Venezuela, from America, from England. There's people all over the world and they can also handle the different time zones as well. So think about how you want to. Rather than you being online 24-7, can you hire somebody in a different time zone that will handle that part of the business or do what normal businesses do and go. These are our opening hours, Because I think a lot of online businesses decide that they need from the very start, like, oh, we need to be on 24-7. And you really don't.
Speaker 3:No, you're good. Yeah, you can get terrible burnout from that as well. That's another really important thing, I think, for bite-sized marketing. You also have tees and seas and boundaries. I know it's not necessarily marketing, but you do reach a point where you literally cannot stand it anymore. When people, especially on social media, reach out to you and even if it's your website or emails people email you over the weekend, are you meant to respond?
Speaker 3:You know I had very young small children when I first started my business and I wanted to work for myself. I didn't want to work for somebody else and I've had to kind of teach myself to take days off when I wanted them. And, you know, respect my own self first, because I can't look after others if I don't look after myself first. And you know that was quite a slap in the face. But I felt I was getting burnt out in the first couple of years because I was just constantly on. And there is an expectation that, especially when your digital marketing like Hester and websites which is even worse because, frankly, when they go wrong, they go horribly wrong. And then you know me being a social media trainer people expected me to respond immediately. It didn't matter whether it was bank holidays, it didn't matter whether it was 10 o'clock at night, and I do respond to people who pay me. Yeah, yes, oh, what a thought I do. I do Clients of mine get that kind of response.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is exactly how I am to you. I'm like I'll prioritize my inbox clients. They get responded to right away, although I don't. I'll schedule my response to go out like Monday at 8am, even if I'm responding over the weekend, because I just want those boundaries to be clear, like I'm not working 24 hours and I don't need to be and I shouldn't be expected to be, but they're always first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I have a client who would sometimes message at you know 11 o'clock at night and there was one time I did answer and she said oh, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. She says if I didn't get it off my mind then I would never, I would forget about it. So for her it was just a okay, I'm messaging this now so that it's done. And she didn't need me to respond or even say anything. She was actually quite shocked when I answered her and she says oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry that I didn't forget, whereas I'm also the type of if I don't reply at that time, then I might forget too. That you'll forget.
Speaker 1:I do the same thing. I actually just had a conversation with my video editor yesterday. I was like you don't need to feel obligated to respond to me right away because we're eight hours apart in time zones, Like I'm just sending you things as I think of them. But just respond when you're working please, Because I know that she's responding sometimes. Well, she was telling me yesterday that she games to like four in the morning, so that's the reason she's up but she responds. She's gaming, but she responds at like 2am her time. I'm like girl, you don't need to do that.
Speaker 3:What games does she play? I'm just asking.
Speaker 1:That's a good question. I don't know. She was just telling me how she does a game streaming with her husband on Twitch, but I didn't ask what game it was that she was doing, but she's killing it on YouTube. All that gaming has helped, all right. Do you have any last thoughts that you want to leave the audience with?
Speaker 2:when it comes to prioritizing, when you're doing bite-sized marketing, I think something that people should try to implement and try to keep in mind is to plan out, with a month in advance at least, things like your content, things like what you're going to blog about. Maybe have a theme for the month or whatever, so that you're not sitting staring at a blank screen or death scrolling on social media yeah, and wasting your time because we don't have time for that. We're busy entrepreneurs, we are busy building our empires. So, having the plan and sticking to it you don't even have to stick to it all that rigidly, because events happen, things happen, you know, hurricanes happen, so you might need to verify. You know vary things from time to time, but if you at least have the basis and the start line, then you can build on that rather than going okay. So what are we talking about today?
Speaker 3:We do that every time we do a podcast.
Speaker 2:Right, I know, but that's us. We've had eight years of experience.
Speaker 1:It was nice to say not what I do.
Speaker 3:I suppose my last suggestion is to do something that's really, really, really old-fashioned and is still completely relevant, something I still do every single six months. What is it, esther Crickets? No, it's a SWAT. I do my SWAT every single six years. Oh, swat analysis for anyone listening is like what's that?
Speaker 3:So that's SWAT is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And this came about because, shortly before I did my focus group and I was thinking about changing my name, another company came along sounding very like me and you know we had, we shared a few similarities and it was purely because that came up and it came out of nowhere, very left a field. I wasn't expecting it. It made me think wait a minute, is there any other businesses that either I'm like or they're like me? And now every six months I go out there and see if anybody's using my messaging my, you know, similar logo, similar name, because that could have split my brand had I not been made aware of it beforehand. And because of that I trademarked my business, just so that it wouldn't happen again. And so, but there doesn't have to be something as scary as that.
Speaker 3:There's any number of threats, but I think the other thing is the SWAT analysis gives you a bit of accountability here. We are trying to make other people accountable all the time, but you also need to be aware of that. You also need to make yourself accountable as well. And if you're saying, like Sarah, you and I could meet up at an event and we'll say that we really must collaborate sometime and it will will. Will arrange for a coffee. That never happens, and there's an opportunity that, frankly, we're daft to miss.
Speaker 3:But we get caught up in our own, our own things family business and if we hadn't have just put that to one side and we secured a date, even if it was that we were both crazy busy right now, let's put a date in the diary for three months from now and you know we'll definitely iron something out. I'll fly over there, you fly over here, we'll meet somewhere in the middle. You know, and just knowing that that's going to happen I mean Esther and I that would never have happened. That would never have happened if we'd have just said, oh, let's talk about it some other time. We literally sat down, talked about it and six weeks later, this podcast that we've been doing has been in existence for like three years now.
Speaker 1:I want to add on to this too, because a lot of people like they come into this and they're like these are great ideas. How do I actually do this? So if you're planning out your content, like Esther's advice, a month in advance, set aside batching days, put that in your calendar, block your freaking calendar so meetings aren't getting scheduled, so you can do all of that in a day and then have it scheduled out and then, with Melanie, doing the SWOT analysis every month, like setting up even if it's just a one person business, a retreat where you're working on the business and you're doing that SWOT analysis, you're doing the hard work, but putting it on your calendar, like you said with the coffee date, that's how you get it done Is actually putting it in there, scheduling it and making sure no one's going to take that time.
Speaker 3:I know there is maybe a paid gig that will come up, but if you give enough notice I can still know that. You know. Okay, I know I'm going to be frantically busy and wait for some quotes to come back over the next couple of months. So I'm worried that if I put you in now I might get a grand for a day's work or something. So if I put you in for a couple of months from now, then I can wiggle people around that time with you and it will still happen. I won't lose out. We won't lose out.
Speaker 3:It's just that kind of mindset that we just don't have when we're first starting a business, because we're all all over it like a rash and we're really excited and passionate and you know, got all the bumps and highs and lows of being an entrepreneur. But this comes after two or three years in business. And one last thing and I'm sure you're going to advocate for this as well, sarah is don't be afraid to ask for help. Yup, we're all part of a community. We all want each other to succeed. Nobody out there wants you to fail, no one.
Speaker 1:You are completely right and, like my other entrepreneur friends are the people that I can rely on, because this is a crazy life that we live Like having your own business is a whole other thing, and they are the only people that are going to really understand it and live through things and be like OK, this is what you got to do, this is exactly happened to me and this is how you can fix it. That community is always really nice to have, yeah, definitely. So, before we wrap up, can you tell everyone how they can find you online and about your podcast?
Speaker 2:Sure, our podcast is called the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. You can find it on Spotify, apple Podcasts, all the good places like that. You can also go onto our website, themondaymorningmarketingcom and listen to it there, and you can contact us directly through that. Our links for Stomp social media training and IPA group are also on that website, so you don't even have to go looking for our individually.
Speaker 3:And, don't forget, you can sign up to our emails and we have an Etsy store.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:Ooh tell me about the Etsy store.
Speaker 2:There's merchandise so you can get some. There are some downloads for how to start your own podcast and checklists or things to do in social media, and we have t-shirts, mugs, hoodies lots of good merchandise.
Speaker 1:Cool. Thank you so much for joining me. This was a fun show. Thanks for having us. Thank you for being a fly on the wall in my conversation with Melanie and Aster, the hosts of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. If you enjoy shows like this, where we talk about effective and efficient marketing, you're going to love their podcast. All episodes are 10 to 20 minutes, so easy peasy for those who want to just start off their Monday with a quick tip on how they can improve their business marketing and laugh a little, because these girls are hilarious. I love them.
Speaker 1:You get to walk away today with some like real insights. I think the biggest takeaway is you don't need to be everywhere. It's okay to choose a channel and stick to it. It's so much easier to grow when you are focusing on growing one thing instead of growing on all of the things. It's okay if you want to just be on LinkedIn and not do TikTok, instagram, youtube. You don't have to and this is my permission for you, not that you need it to just choose one channel and focus on that.
Speaker 1:Before we go, I want to tell you a little bit about the brand messaging magic workshop that I hosted really recently and, good God, you guys were incredible. So many people showed up live and walked away with a messaging plan on a page. It was amazing. I am hosting another one in January, although next time I plan on doing it in three parts, because it was a lot to digest in 90 minutes. So I'm going to break it down into three parts so we could just dig in deeper in every stage of the messaging strategy. And if you want to sign up for the wait list, it's in the show notes. And oh, another thing November 14th, if you're listening to this episode before then, I am hosting a live workshop on crafting a killer lead magnet. So we are going to take the information we learned during the brand messaging magic workshop. And if you didn't attend but you have a good idea of who your customer is, you can still attend this lead magnet one and we're going to plan out your lead magnet, the perfect one for your ideal customer avatar.
Speaker 1:That one is coming up soon. I have the link to sign up for that and you can register today in the show notes. It'll be live. We will be working. It's a working session together, so make sure to sign up for that, and if you can't attend live, that's okay. Olly will send the replay out afterwards and you'll still get the workbook to make it all happen.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think if there's anything I'm missing. I think that's all. So. Brand messaging magic. We are re-releasing that in January, but changing it to three parts. And then my next workshop is in November, and that one is crafting your killer lead magnet. And remember, the goal here is to use a lead magnet that leads to your offer. So our goal is to make sure that you are selling. It's all about selling, all right, so head to the show notes page. Make sure you sign up for that. We'll hang out and work live. It's going to be a cool time. Thank you for joining me today and make sure, if you enjoyed this episode, just share it out, tell your friends about it. Great review, that is that. I will see you next time.