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She is sure, she is true, she is strong. She
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is strong, she is true, is true, she is praise, pray,
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she is she is you.
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Hello, everyone, welcome to today's Word of Mom Radio Here
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on the Word of Mom Media Network. I'm your host,
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Dori Di Carlo. And you know we are here week
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after week, show after show breaking those myths that mompreneurs
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and business women, especially those of us building our businesses
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from home. You know that we're just dabbling in between
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big sales and getting our nails done. We're not. We
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are smart, we are savvy, and we are sharing the
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wisdom of women in business and in life. And I'm
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looking forward to bringing today's guest into our show. Rachel Allen,
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in her own words, is a fast thinking, deeply nerdy
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marketer with a broad ranging experience in not for profit
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and for profit sectors. She's written for some of the
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biggest and smallest names in business and excels at marketing
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that equals parts driven, data and human centered. Having run
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a marketing business for seventeen years with clients in over
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twenty one countries, Rachel's written for some of the top
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names in entrepreneurship as well as influencers brick and mortar
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businesses and nonprofits around the world. Her work has contributed
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directly to high ROI launches, leaps and audience engagement, industry awards,
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relationships with top venture capital firms, and national level honors.
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And I could keep going on and on, but I'd
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much rather have Rachel come in and share her journey
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with us. So, with all that being said, Rachel, welcome
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to the Word of Mom Radio.
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Thank you so much for having me. That was such
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a lovely intro. It's cool to.
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Listen to the stuff that you've done. It's like, wow,
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I've right out about that. Cool. Yeah, I would love
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for you to take us on your journey that led
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you to the work that you're doing now.
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Well, I actually didn't know about I didn't have any
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plans on being a marketer. I didn't know what copywriting
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was until the day I started doing it. I had
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gone to college for journalism, and then I graduated into
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the two thousand and eight recession, and so of course
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no one's hiring, and I sent out a whole bunch
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of resumes, couldn't get a job. The only place that
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I could find work was unpacking boxes in the old
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Navy warehouse in the five am shift, and I didn't
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want to do that for the rest of my life.
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So in my twenty two year old brain, I was like, well,
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what's the furthest place away from Tennessee. It's Hong Kong.
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So I bought a plane ticket and then went to
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Hong Kong, landed with about two hundred dollars in my
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bank account and didn't bother getting a work visa because again,
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you know, twenty two and I had to figure out
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a way to make rent. So I started googling how
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to make money online, which is only slightly less ridiculous
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then than it would be now. And I found this
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job that popped up, a freelance job for something called copywriting,
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and I was pretty sure it had to be a scam,
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because I wish I just couldn't imagine that anyone would
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ever pay me to write, But it turns out they did,
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and I just loved it, and I've built a business
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off of that amazing.
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And you know, it's funny because copywriting, writing that collateral
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material and finding the way to speak in that person's
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voice is something that is really important to find. So
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as you were doing this, what was the biggest challenges
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for you when you first really started doing this and
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getting yourself deeper and deeper into copywriting.
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So there were, of course the technical challenges I think
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of just learning the craft, because it's different than journalistic writing,
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it's different than literature writing. But honestly, the main challenges
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I had, I think were mindset based because I was
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so convinced that I could never be a business owner
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or run a business because like, I'm not a math person.
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I would have never majored in business, and none of
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the women in my family had ever been in business.
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They'd all been employed, and so it just never occurred
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to me that I could build this thing for myself
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and that it could work and be okay and be
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an acceptable way of moving throughout the world.
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Amazing, it really is, and I love them moving about
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the world as somebody who has been on the road.
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When my kids all moved out, I put my stuff
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in storage and they looked at me and they were like,
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where are you going? I said, hey, I let you
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guys go. It wasn't my job to keep you right.
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It's a phone call away. And I've taken my life
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on the road for years, and it is awesome. In
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looking at the marketing trends, what are you seeing now, Rachel?
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So there's the obvious one of AI, right, I think
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that's impacting everything right now. But what I'm really excited
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to see is actually a swing away from automation to analog.
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People talk a lot about, you know, we talk about
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AI slop, We talk a lot about market, the market
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being jaded. And so if you're trying to sell anything
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right now that is even the least bit, you know,
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anything that's not crazy cheap, you need it to be
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high touch, you need to be non scalable, and you
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need it to be in some way analog. So I
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know a bunch of people are going back to in
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person meetings and local business. In one of the offers
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that I do, what we would just put together one
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hundred and fifty page magazine, like it's a chunky, you know, lead,
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leave it on your coffee table, get it in the
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mail type magazine. And people seem to be really loving
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just things that you can touch and hold.
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I'm happy to see that back. We interview a lot
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of authors, and I love to read, and I truly
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love a book in my hand, but honestly, I might
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read eight or nine books a month from guests, So
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I started doing the e books or PDFs. Yeah, and
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I miss it. So I love that you're creating a
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coffee table magazine, you know, instead of the online ones
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that are going on. Why does I'm going to go
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in a different route? Why so often does the marketing
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advice out there actually set people up to fail?
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So I've actually been shouting about this on the internet
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for like five years, and I finally was able to
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articulate the reason why, because I kept seeing people being
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sold these courses, being sold these processes and it works
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for like two people and everybody else just feels bad.
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And so what I figured out is that for a
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sale to happen, you have to have four elements in place,
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and they all have to happen, which is, you have
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to have the right thing in front of the right
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person at the right time and in the right way. Now,
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out of that, you can only control like maybe two
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of those elements if you're lucky. Do you don't have
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any control over the timing with which someone sees your marketing.
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You don't have any control over the way in which
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they prefer to get the data given to them. But
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marketing advice is predicated as though you do have control
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over all four of those factors, and if it doesn't
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work for you, well, then there's something wrong with you. You
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didn't want it badly enough, you didn't hustle hard enough,
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you didn't follow the process. And that drives me so
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crazy because it's just not your fault. You just can't
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control every factor that goes into making a sale.
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It's true, and again it's those pain points. You know,
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it is really reaching that person, and people forget in
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marketing what's in it for me?
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Right?
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You can have all the marketing you want, but ultimately
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the consumer wants to know what's in it for me?
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Why you, why your product, why your service? And you
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have to find that way to show them that you
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are that person that can solve their problem. And I
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think that that's why copywriting, finding those words, find it
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a way to craft somebody's message, to make you effective,
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to make you be that person, because there are so
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many people out there. There are you know, no matter what,
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there are very few things that there is only one of. Right,
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how do you deal with that challenge when you are
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working with a client.
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I mean, I think while it is true that there
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are multiples of everybody. I mean there's thousands, tens of
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thousands of marketers out there, tens of thousands of coaches.
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There is something unique about every person or every product,
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and that is the person who's presenting it. You know,
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there is no one who can dory like you do.
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There's no one who Rachel's like I do. And if
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you can bring that, and if you can bring your
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values in your human quirkiness and complexity and those things
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that you truly care about, that's where I always start
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with differentiating because, as you said, there's only so much
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difference you can bring to say, a coaching session. There
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are only so many different ways you can make a candle.
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But if you get into like why did I do this?
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Why does this matter to me? Why does this matter
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to my family? How do our values align here, that's
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when people start to resonate with you. And studies have
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shown that that's what people are most focused on right now. Actually,
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they want to buy from brands they feel values aligned with, no.
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Like and trust, right, those very very important things, especially
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intoday's world. We are looking at who we are buying
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from supports what their values are. Because our values I
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think are being so challenged right now. And it's hard
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because so many people have gotten into the convenience of
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online shopping, this and that blah blah blah, and the
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mom and pop markets dried up so much, and now
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people are cognizant of it. They're really aware of the
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fact that you contributed tremendously to these businesses closing and
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that focusing on that small business being able to to
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go name brand coffee stores. You can go to mom
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and pop coffee store and get wonderful products and things
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like that, And I think more and more people are
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circling back to that. Yes, I think it's people like
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you that are helping.
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I mean, it helps happen. That's what I've worked for
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very large organizations, and I've also worked for a bunch
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of individual people and regardless of the orientation there, what
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I love is being able to bring something to a
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local community and being able to help people find each
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other and really have a mutual win out of whatever.
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The relationship is.
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Agreed, and it is a win win, it really is.
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As you help that small business grow, as you helped
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that entrepreneur, that momrepreneur, that business owner that's out there
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doing something. Each purchase matters, It really truly does, and
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it helps the message get out there and further what
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they're doing. So when you work with somebody, Rachel, I'm
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a brand new client coming to you, I want to
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promote word of mom. Yeah, how are you going to
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work with me? How does that work with you?
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Well, the first thing that I want to know is
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just what do you want? You know, what do you
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want your marketing to do? What do you want to
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happen in your business? And let's say the next six months,
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because that tends to be enough time for people to
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hold in their heads. And then I say, okay, like,
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I understand your goals. Now what are you doing to
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reach them?
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Now?
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What have you tried before? Did it work? Did it not?
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Do you know why? Most of the time people don't.
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And then I'll come to you with a plan and say, okay,
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based on your goals, this is what I suggest we
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do and here's how we're going to see if it
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worked or not. And I tend to work in ninety
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day chunks because that gives you enough data to really
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get a good understanding of what's happened. It saves people
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from shiny squirrel syndrome where it's like, oh, we did
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this last week, but we're doing this this week and
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then ah ah, and then you don't really know if
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anything's working or not. And so we check in about
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every ninety days, and if we're doing just a one
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off project, we'll close it off then and I'll send
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you off with some lovely support and implementation. And if
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we do ongoing work, then we'll just check in about
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every quarter, maybe even sooner than that, and keep the
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project going.
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See.
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I think people don't realize how it's those chunks. Yeah,
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it's those chunks, and then the chunk moves forward and
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you can space it out more. I think very often
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when we are looking to do marketing and things like that,
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most importantly, you need to know what you want, what
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you are trying to accomplish. And I think very often,
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and correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of times
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people they have an end goal in mind, but they're
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not really sure of who they are, what their messaging
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really is.
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Right well, and especially they'll have a goal that it's
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like I want more brand visibility and I'm like, cool,
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how are you going to measure that? What does that
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actually look like? Or I want more sales? How many