Ep. 61: Entrepreneurial Wisdom: Mastering Marketing, Networking, and Audience Building

00:00:01

Andrea Marquez: It's not easy, but you do it anyway. You do it because you believe in it so much that the thought of not trying at all feels a lot worse than trying and failing. Every day you question if you made the right choice, if taking the leap was the right decision. But then you wake up to a new day and a new challenge that you must overcome. You realize there's no other option. You have to overcome whatever stands in your way to make this successful. And if it isn't, the next idea will be or the one after that, because you're an entrepreneur and this is what you do. This is Small Business.

Hi, I'm your host, Andrea Marquez, and This is Small Business, a podcast brought to you by Amazon. Welcome to our fifth season. In the past two years we've conducted over 100 interviews with entrepreneurs and industry experts. We've won awards, reached significant milestones and it feels like we're just getting started. To kick off this season I want to share some key lessons from previous seasons, or as I like to call it, lessons I wish they taught us in school.

I've learned a lot as the host of This is Small Business, so choosing a handful of lessons from a whole season filled with knowledge wasn't easy, but I ended up picking out the lessons that stood out to me the most. They're what I believed to be essential for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners to know. And you could always listen to the episode if you want to dig deeper into some of these takeaways.  

Whether you're new to This is Small Business or returning after a break, here's a rundown of key insights you should know that'll help you start, build and grow a successful business. We'll be covering a bunch of topics today from getting into the entrepreneurial mindset, to figuring out who your audience is, to networking. Let's get started. Mindset is everything for an entrepreneur. One common piece of advice from our guests is to remember you're not alone. There are many communities of like-minded people and resources available to support you. Amy Porterfield shared how she shifted her mindset during the early days of building her business in the episode, Seven Steps to Accelerate Your Small Business Growth.

00:02:20

Amy Porterfield: I got it all through podcasts and blogs and getting into mastermind groups with other people so that I could surround myself with people that will inspire me and also support me. So, if you are just a lone wolf and you just want to build your business online and don't get support or help from anyone, it's going to be a rough road. We need that support in order to make sure that we keep moving forward when it gets tough.

00:02:42

Andrea Marquez: Maybe that's why you listen to the This is Small Business podcast, to hear stories of people, just like you, who are on a similar journey. Another way to find a community is through networking, which can sometimes feel like a chore and isn't as easy as just showing up at a conference, walking up to people or sending cold emails or DMs. It can be hard, but it's essential for growth. Robbie Samuels discusses this in his episode, How Networking Can Help You Build and Grow Your Business.

00:03:13

Robbie Samuels: The reframe is to think about what you bring. It's not that we're looking for clients, it's that we have something of value that would help people, but if we're not willing to talk about our services, if we're shy about it, then there are people who need us who don't know. They don't even know this is a skill that's out there that can help them.

00:03:32

Andrea Marquez: As an ex-wallflower myself, Robbie gave us so many helpful tips on how to make networking easier. We all have something to offer, but even if you don't believe you do yet, building a network is still beneficial. Just make sure you maintain your network to get the most out of it.

00:03:49

Robbie Samuels: If you pay in every month an insurance policy and you don't really want to need your insurance policy, right? The hope is that you'll never use it, but it's there if you need it. And that's the same thing with our network. You want to give back regularly to your community whether that's one-on-one conversations, supporting and sharing, making referrals and making introductions.

00:04:11

Andrea Marquez: When building a business, it's crucial to define your target audience. Who wants what you have to offer? Amy Porterfield gave us a little insight on how you can figure that out.

00:04:21

Amy Porterfield: If you can be your avatar just a few years ago, you'll really understand how to put together your marketing message because you lived their lives, you understand them. The people who need you will find you even if you put a stake in the ground. If your message resonates with them but doesn't fit perfectly, that's okay. If they like what you're saying and they find value, they will find you. So, don't be scared to put that stake in the ground. I promise you it's going to help you get known and seen in a very noisy online world.

00:04:49

Andrea Marquez: And speaking of the noisy online world, make sure to put yourself out there and share your own story. It's something that Indya Wright said is essential to building an audience in her episode, Why Public Relations Matter.

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Indya Wright: Everything you do consider the story you want to tell, and that's going to reflect in the content you share online, where your product or service is available, the people you serve. That all ties to the story of your brand, right? The reality is, it really truly is about the story, and more often than not people are more interested in the people behind the brand than the brand itself. It's less about the product or service, more about the person and the mission, and I feel like that's across the board. Any industry, any brand, any goal, who are you serving? Why are you serving them? I feel like that's the hook that makes things newsworthy.

00:05:42

Andrea Marquez: By identifying your target audience, you'll gain a clear understanding of how to communicate with them and recognize who else is engaging with them. Then all that's left to do is reach them. A lot easier said than done, but Liz Downing gave us some advice on where to start in, How To Build Your Marketing Strategy.

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Liz Downing: There are lots of steps to take, including what your competitors are doing, identifying what channels are successful for your competitors. That's probably the easiest hack, is look at who you're going to compete with and how they're doing it, and then figure out how you can do it better.

00:06:15

Andrea Marquez: This knowledge helps you choose the right channels and prevents you from spreading yourself too thin with strategies that might not work, and I know entrepreneurs love to do it all and experiment with different strategies, but as Amy points out, that might end up hurting your business. Here's Amy talking about some of the biggest mistakes she thinks business owners make.

00:06:36

Amy Porterfield: One of them is trying to do too many things, too many offers, too many messages, where people are very confused what they need to come to you for in order to get the results they're looking for. I think another thing is that a lot of business owners, because we're trying to do so much and wear so many hats, we lack consistency. It's very normal and human to not be consistent with these things. The people that are winning are consistent with what they're doing and they do very little, but they do it really well.

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Andrea Marquez: Consistency is key. It takes time for your audience to find you, but once they do, you want to make sure they keep coming back for more. But standing out online can be difficult. There's a ton of competition. So, last season we talked about a very powerful tool that allows you to speak directly to your customer, email lists. Jenna Kutcher shared some insights on email lists in her episode, The Growth Tool That Can Help You Increase Revenue: Email Lists.

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Jenna Kutcher: Social media is meant to be the handshake. Email is meant to be where you sell. When people go into their inboxes, they are much more poised for purchase than when they're on social media. People are on social media to be distracted, to be entertained, to be educated. They're not there thinking, “I'm going to pull up my wallet.”  When you think about an email list and serving it, it is a lot easier than you're making it out to be because instead of screaming to the masses like you are on social media, you are reaching out to the people who have already exchanged something valuable to them to get something valuable from you. These are the people that have literally raised their hand and said, “I want more of what you've got.” And so, you are speaking to the people who are already curious and invested in what you've created, and so it is an entirely different conversation than the one that you're trying to have or the one that you're trying to use to sell that is likely falling flat.

00:08:25

Andrea Marquez: This was a powerful lesson for me because I hadn't considered how emails cultivate an engaged audience. As a customer myself, I sometimes feel bombarded with sales pitches in my inbox, which can be off-putting if it's constant or coming off as salesy, but Jenna gave us some great tips on how to promote your products without making customers feel like they're being sold to.

00:08:44

Jenna Kutcher: What does the consumer truly want? Maybe they want to feel more peaceful, maybe they want to feel beautiful, maybe they want to feel calm, and so when you think of it in this way, it totally takes out this desire to be like, here are the five product features that people might not even know why they should care about those features, and it helps connect them to their true desired end results while giving them value again for free and then kind of being this breadcrumb on the path to purchase of like, “ Oh, wow, they actually have a solution for this. I might not be ready to buy it now, but when I get that email two months from now and I'm in a different position as a purchaser, I'm ready to pull the trigger.”

00:09:20

Andrea Marquez: It's not just about selling. Providing valuable resources that align with your identity, product, values and messaging and maintaining consistency can make a significant impact. Another essential tool is social media. So many customers, myself included, use it to look up brands and products before deciding on what to buy.  

So, being on social media is important for businesses, but it's a lot of work. Managing all the different platforms and keeping up with the ever-changing trends can be time-consuming and demanding. Don't worry though, because we've cracked the social media code in the episode, How To Use Social Media To Reach Your Audience.  

In that episode, Sahra Nguyen, the founder of Nguyen Coffee Supply, talked about her approach to posting on different platforms.

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Sahra Nguyen: Each platform is very unique in what works on one platform may or may not work on the other platform. I think there are instances where we can kind of use a piece of content as the root and then iterate, cut it up and repurpose for different platforms. Sometimes that works and sometimes it won't, and sometimes you'll just need a complete different content strategy altogether. We spent a lot of time just comparing content strategy and performance and data on both Instagram and TikTok, and what we often found was a piece of content that did well on TikTok would not do well on Instagram and vice versa, and then we would dissect the reasons why. Well, really short form, just like six seconds do really well on TikTok, but that may not be as engaging on Instagram because Instagram, I think, there's a little bit more space in bandwidth for maybe 15 seconds. I know it sounds wild, but 15 seconds, it makes a big difference. 15 to 30 seconds, up to 60 seconds for that more extended education of storytelling.

00:11:02

Andrea Marquez: And even though it might be tempting to follow trends, I know all the big brands do it. If you miss out on a trend, it won't hinder your growth. Trends can actually sometimes work against you.

00:11:13

Sahra Nguyen: And at times, it could be decentering in our brand identity, brand voice, brand mission. Now, we're at a place in a marketing strategy and juncture where we're not focused on trends. If something comes up and we feel really inspired and we feel like it's aligned with another pillar, we can engage, but we're no longer actively following, actively tracking and quickly creating content to hop onto that trend.

00:11:36

Andrea Marquez: But even if you choose not to follow trends, it's still a lot of work, especially if you're on multiple platforms. You're already trying to run a business, so adding more tasks can seem daunting. But all you really need to plan and create a month's worth of content can be three days. Kat Norton, also known as Miss Excel, explained how she organizes her content and how to use social media to reach your audience.

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Kat Norton: So, for me, in terms of managing my energy, I'll have days where it's just my creative flow state day, so I'm doing all different activities that are tapping into that right side of the brain. So, I'll be going through and taking a walk in nature, meditating and staying out of my more analytical mind.  That's where you got your giant to-do list, your iced coffee, you're knocking things out, and I stay more in that flowy seat, and then I find that the ideas more easily just flow right through. I mark them down, and then on another day it's more my performance day, where I'm getting all done up. You don't have to get all dressed up every day. You can just really go through and take that one day, make your setup. And then editing days look totally different too.  So, really separating it out by the different energy types helps you capitalize in each of those areas to be at max capacity versus being 50% all flowy and then trying to get on the camera and then... It really helps to separate it out that way for myself.

00:13:01

Andrea Marquez: We covered a lot and yet there's still so much more lessons to come. If being an entrepreneur is your passion, there will always be challenging days. Building a business and sustaining growth can be tough, but there will also be amazing days, days when you can't imagine doing anything else. We've touched on mindset, networking and identifying and reaching your audience. Just a few things that make up the much larger world of entrepreneurship. To wrap up, I want to leave you with one of my favorite lessons: keep going.

00:13:33

Kat Norton: Go for it. I started with, I think, two boxes of 50 paddles each. Then, obviously, it grew really quickly from there, but you can always do that and have an attempt at it.

00:13:43

Indya Wright: Do it. I say, do it. You can't go wrong. You can't go wrong.

00:13:47

Robbie Samuels: Just going to work and getting a paycheck is so much easier, right? It's just so much easier. Did I want to try something hard and hope that it went well? Yeah, that's what I wanted to do, and that's where I ended.

00:13:59

Liz Downing: Get comfortable with no. The more you hear, no, the more you can also hear, yes.

00:14:04

Brian L. Shields: There is a lot of opportunity and there's never a substitute for just trying.

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Jenna Kutcher: While we might use the word small in front of your business, no matter where you're at on the journey, I just want to remind you that what you're doing is actually really big and brave and bold, and I don't want you to ever forget that.

00:14:26

Andrea Marquez: I'm thrilled about everything we have lined up for this season. Be sure to subscribe to stay updated with new episodes releasing every Tuesday on your favorite podcast platform, and if you enjoy the show, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or now a comment on Spotify. Your feedback helps us continue delivering valuable small business content. If you want to know more about any of the topics we talked about today, make sure to give Season Four a listen.  

And as always, if you missed anything, don't worry, we've taken notes for you. You can find them at www. smallbusiness. amazon/ podcasts. Until next time, I'm your host, Andrea Marquez, hasta luego, and thanks for listening. This is Small Business is brought to you by Amazon with technical and story production by JAR Audio.