224 – A Plan for Your Marketing Plan! with Heidi Thompson of Evolve Your Wedding Business

Heidi Thompson of Evolve Your Wedding Business

Heidi Thompson is the best-selling author of “Clone Your Best Clients” and the founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business where she specializes in business and marketing strategy for the wedding industry.

She helps wedding professionals grow their businesses and reach their goals without going crazy in the process.

Her business and marketing expertise has been featured on several wedding and business outlets including The Huffington Post, Wedding Business Magazine and Honeybook, and she’s an advisory board member for the UK Academy of Wedding and Event Planning.

Business Building Insights

  • When you’re open to opportunities they’re more likely to show up because you’re looking for them.
  • Marketing is the way you bring people to you. Be intentional through creating a marketing plan.
  • You don’t have to do all the things. You just have to do the key things that drive results.
  • Be clear who you’re marketing to.
  • Analyze your competition not to compare yourself to them but to differentiate yourself from them.
  • Marketing is psychology. You persuade someone to come to you as opposed to someone else. by standing out and offering something they need or want.
  • Put intention, effort and budget behind what’s working.

Resources Mentioned

Clickup – Project management tool

Asana – Project management tool

Lead Pages – Landing Page creator for lead generation

Heidi’s Free Training

Free Training – How to Squash Overwhelm with a Marketing Plan

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Gift Biz Resources

Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community

If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you.

Thanks! Sue
Transcript
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 224 You don't have to do all

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the things.

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You just have to do the key things that really drive

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results. Attention,

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gifters, bakers,

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crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

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Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

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now you are in the right place.

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This is gift to biz unwrapped,

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helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

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Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

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resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

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Here is your host gift biz gal,

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Sue moon Heights.

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Hi there,

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it's Sue and thank you.

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Thank you so much for joining me today.

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If you happen to be in the San Diego area and

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you're listening to this episode the week that it's gone live,

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what do you do in Thursday night?

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That's July 25th I'm going to be in town.

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I'm organizing a somewhat last minute meetup and if you're around

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in the LA Jolla area and would like to join me

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on Thursday night,

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email me,

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sue@giftbizonrapt.com and I'll tell you the details to come and we'll

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all get together,

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talk business and just enjoy ourselves for a little while.

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I'm doing more and more of that these days because I'm

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traveling anyway.

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I'm out exhibiting for the ribbon print company or speaking on

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behalf of gift biz unwrapped and I'm trying to integrate into

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my schedule either a day before or a day after when

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I have a chance to meet up with you and I

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absolutely love it.

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There is nothing like being across the table face-to-face,

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enjoying a cup of coffee,

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glass of wine,

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maybe a margarita.

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It's just the best.

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So stay tuned for further announcements of other cities that I'm

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going to.

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Phoenix is coming up in a few weeks as well.

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I also announced this in my Facebook group gift biz breeze,

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so if you haven't joined us over there,

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make sure to check that out.

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A quick and easy link that will get you there is

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gift biz breeze.com

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also, I want to make sure that you have subscribed to

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gift biz on wrapped.

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When you do that,

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when you hit that little subscribe button on your podcast player

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of choice,

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you'll be downloaded automatically every single episode once it goes live

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so you don't miss a single thing.

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So that's your homework for the week.

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If you haven't done that already,

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and now let's talk about the show.

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I am thrilled to bring you someone who is going to

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help you create a plan to make your marketing plan.

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I know it sounds kind of meta,

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but what it means is so many people know about needing

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to have a marketing plan,

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but what's your structure?

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What's in the plan and how do you do this in

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a simple and easy way,

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something that's not going to take you hours to construct and

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then you never implement because it's just too complicated.

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Heidi, it all down to really understandable and more importantly,

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doable steps.

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She talks about three avenues and one experiment that should be

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part of your marketing plan.

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Keeping it simple,

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keeping it actionable and most importantly bringing results.

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Let's get right over to Heidi's interview Today.

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I have the pleasure of introducing you to Heidi Thompson of

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evolve your wedding business.

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Heidi Thompson is a bestselling author of clone,

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your best clients and the founder of evolve your wedding business

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where she specializes in business and marketing strategy for wedding professionals.

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She helps wedding professionals grow their businesses and reach their goals

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without going crazy in the process.

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Oh my gosh,

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you dies.

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Doesn't that sound refreshing?

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Her business and marketing expertise has been featured on several wedding

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and business outlets including the Huffington post wedding business magazine and

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HoneyBook and she's an advisory board member for the UK Academy

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of wedding and event planning.

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Heidi, welcome to the gift biz unrepped podcast.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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I am so excited that you're here and I know we're

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going to talk all about marketing strategy and planning and all

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of that fun stuff,

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but before we do,

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I'd like our listeners to understand who you are in a

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little bit of a different way and that is through a

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motivational candle.

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So if you were to describe what your candle would look

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like by color and quote,

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tell us about your candle.

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Okay, so my candle would be like a really Juul tone

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turquoise. And my quote would be clarity comes from action.

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Share with us what that means.

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So I feel like we all get in these ruts in

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our business where we're trying to figure out what to do

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next. We're trying to get some sort of clarity.

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It happens all the time,

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but you don't get that in your head.

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You get that from actually doing and seeing how things go.

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And I think it's way too easy and I do this

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myself to forget that.

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And that's why people just never start or never take any

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action at all.

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Yeah, they're not ready or they don't have all the information

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and it's like,

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well you can't figure it out unless you start doing something

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in order to figure it out.

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I often coach new people that when they're starting their business,

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you want to have a vision of where you think you're

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going. But then once you take action,

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things might change and you might tilt a little bit one

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way or another based on your learnings.

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So I think that is exactly what you're talking about here

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in terms of you only get clarity as you go,

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so you're probably never going to actually reach what you initially

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thought you were doing because it always changes.

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Yeah. It's kind of like going on a road trip and

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then you completely fall in love with this one particular city

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and completely rebuild your agenda around it because you didn't know

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how much you were going to enjoy being in this particular

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place. So the other places become less important.<inaudible>

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which I guess brings up the idea that you don't want

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to be too rigid either or you could miss a huge

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opportunity. Yeah,

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I think that is incredibly important.

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It's largely a mindset thing,

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but I really love being open to that.

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And when you're open to opportunities being around you everywhere,

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they are like they show up because you're looking for them.

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I know.

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How does that happen?

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I have no idea.

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Isn't that crazy?

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Yeah, I guess it's kind of like when you buy a

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car and then suddenly it seems like everybody has that car,

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right? I think it must be the same kind of thing,

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like you're focusing on it.

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I know.

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It's weird though.

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I actually think about that a lot and we're already getting

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a little off topic.

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Jump right in,

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in a minute.

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But I often think about that.

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Like I was reading a book and I'm trying to remember

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the name of it.

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I can't remember it right now,

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but they said,

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let's prove this.

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You think of a word and I guarantee you tomorrow there

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you will see that word.

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Somehow something will remind you,

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you'll see a picture of it,

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like whatever.

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And I'm like,

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okay. Yeah.

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Right. So my word was rainbow and it was winter in

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Chicago. So that's not going to happen,

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right? Wouldn't you know?

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Do you use lead pages?

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Are you on lead pages?

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I have.

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I don't currently.

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Okay, so lead pages get biz listeners is a landing page

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platform builder for the most part.

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Let's just describe it as that.

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So the very next day I'm on lead pages and you

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know how a site loads,

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it says hold on,

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we're building the colors of the rainbow for you or something.

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And I'm like,

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wait, what did that just happen?

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And I just saw it for the first time now.

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Right. That's so funny cause you probably saw it a million

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times. It just didn't clock I guess I guess,

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but I didn't remember.

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So anyway.

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Anyway, so let's get back on the right road here and

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tell us a little bit about how you got into evolve

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your wedding business.

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Were you a wedding planner before?

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So I have worked as a wedding planner.

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My journey goes back to when I was in college and

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fresh out of college,

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working in nonprofit events and I loved the event space.

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So I started working as an assistant planner and this whole

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new world of the wedding industry opened up.

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And while I loved it,

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it took me a while to figure it out.

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But I finally figured out that what I really enjoyed about

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the nonprofit event space wasn't so much the event planning.

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It was the marketing,

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it was getting people to these fundraisers.

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It was making people care.

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So long story short,

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I have marketed everything in my career from beds to education

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to software to actual poop.

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I bet that's a story,

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but we're not going there today.

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And I noticed when I was living in the UK,

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because I'm a marketing nerd and I noticed things like this,

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that there was this gap in the market.

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So what the media in the wedding industry was doing and

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what all of the wedding fairs were doing were like fluffy

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Cinderella. Cause that's the dream,

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right? For that industry.

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That's the dream Fry.

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But what people were actually doing at this point in time

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were taking like a hard left turn into offbeat bride land

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and like everything quirky and different and personalized to you and

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your interests.

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So I took it upon myself to create a wedding fair

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that brought these couples and these vendors together.

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And I found myself spending a ton of time coaching my

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exhibitors on how to get a better return on their investment.

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That's when I realized,

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Oh, okay,

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I can help these amazing creatives with the marketing and business

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side so that they actually can make the kind of money

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that they should be making.

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And so what happened when you,

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they started employing your techniques?

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So it's really interesting.

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I get told a lot by my clients that I have

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a way of breaking things down that makes it easier to

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understand. And I think that was one of the biggest breakthroughs

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for the first people that I worked with,

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that it was like,

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Oh, okay,

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this is what marketing is.

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It's not this like weird amorphous thing that I'm supposed to

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be doing,

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but I don't know how to do it.

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There is science behind it,

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there's psychology behind it,

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there's structure behind it.

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So being able to give people that and then watching them

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take that and implementing it and having their businesses like seriously

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grow from it has been incredibly fulfilling for me.

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I love this.

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I love this so much because first off,

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you're getting resolved.

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So that's important obviously.

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But second of all,

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I would say for the listeners who are here,

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and it goes past the gift or Baker craft or maker

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industry, but we're focusing on that here is I often feel

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like marketing is just a catch all word.

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Like someone's having an event over the weekend and they're putting

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out advertising.

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So they're saying they're marketing right or that type of thing.

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So tell us what the real definition of marketing is.

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So marketing is kind of a broad umbrella term,

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so it really is the way that you bring people to

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you. But what I think most people leave out is the

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intention. And you can do random acts of marketing where you're

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just kinda throwing stuff everywhere.

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That's where everyone starts.

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And that's where a lot of people get stuck.

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But when you actually apply,

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being really intentional about what you're doing and being strategic,

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who am I talking to?

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What am I trying to communicate here?

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Where are these people?

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It works so much better and it becomes so much easier.

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Well, and I think there's a lot more clarity in what

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you're trying to accomplish overall too.

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Oh, absolutely.

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So you're not just doing piecemeal here a little bit here.

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Everything is marching toward a common goal.

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Would that be a correct statement?

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Yeah, exactly.

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And you know that what you're spending your time on actually

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has a purpose.

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Got it.

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Okay. A purpose and hopefully a numeric result or some type

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of a tangible result,

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right? Yep.

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Something you can measure.

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Okay. So marketing's just not throwing something out there and doing

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a lot of things.

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It's how you bring people to you and for what reason

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towards a particular result.

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Absolutely. Got it.

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Okay. Perfect.

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See, I'm sometimes a quick student.

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It must be the key lime LaCroix I'm drinking over here.

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That's why.

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Okay. So tell us about how you,

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cause we were talking before about what we should talk about

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because you're an expert in a lot of different things around

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here, but around this whole marketing space.

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But we decided we were going to talk about how to

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create an overwhelmed smashing marketing plan.

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So you caught me at those words right away,

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obviously. Oh,

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good. Obviously.

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So share with us how that would be accomplished.

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Right. So,

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and I point out the overwhelm squashing part because I think

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a lot of people,

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well I know a lot of people get very overwhelmed by

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the idea of marketing and having to do all the things.

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And I want to tell you that you don't have to

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do all the things.

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So you just have to do the key things that really

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drive results in your business and then you're free to not

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do the rest,

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which is very,

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very nice.

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Okay. I'm breathing a sigh of relief over here.

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Right. So I love that.

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I love that you have my permission to continue cause I'm

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already happy.

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Alright, So the way I teach putting a marketing plan together

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is that it only has five pieces.

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Now this still takes thought,

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it still takes intention,

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but once you put this together once it tends not to

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change a ton and it's only five parts and it's not

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this gigantic document that you're never going to use.

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You're going to fill out and put in a drawer somewhere,

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like a business plan or something.

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Right? This is actually a living,

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breathing thing that you're executing on and seeing how it works.

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It's an experimental process.

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Okay. So when you say you only to put it together

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once And then you're done once for a calendar year once

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for a certain marketing goal.

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Like what do you mean by you don't have to touch

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it again.

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So there are certain pieces of the marketing plan,

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so maybe we should walk through those.

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Okay. Take it away.

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Alright. So part one is your goal and that's going to

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change. But for the most part your goal has something to

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do with growth.

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So that's not a huge shift every time you review this.

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So a goal could be a revenue number.

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You're trying to grow your company by a certain revenue number.

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Could a goal be introducing your existing audience to a new

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product line,

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for example?

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Would that be a goal?

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Yeah, and I think it's really important to have your revenue

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number in mind for the year.

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But keeping in mind these other things.

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So like maybe next year you have all of these shifts

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planned for your business.

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So, for instance,

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one of my clients is a stationary designer and she has

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been doing custom wedding stationary for a long time now and

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she this year decided that a really big goal for her

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was to create a line of greeting cards that gets picked

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up by retail.

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So her revenue goals for her service based business were pretty

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much the same as the previous year because she was shifting

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her focus to,

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you know,

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really investing the time to build this thing that will grow

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her revenue in the future.

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Okay. She was switching audiences then?

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Well, she's continuing to do both,

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but if you're going to build something like that,

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that may change the amount of time you have for the

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other parts of your business.

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You have to be realistic about what that revenue goal is

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going to be if you're also going to accomplish the bigger

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goal. Okay,

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gotcha. So yeah,

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it could be,

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I want to extract myself more from my business to share.

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I want to delegate more,

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I want to outsource more,

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I want to build a team,

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but I also have this revenue goal that I'm looking to

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reach. So you have that and then you have part two

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and part two and part three are the ones that always

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get skipped and people go right into,

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Hey, what do I post on Facebook?

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What do I post on Instagram stories?

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But none of that matters if you haven't done part two

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and part three.

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So part two I call your research.

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Now in part two you're really getting clear on who it

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is that you're marketing to.

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You're getting clear on your market and your competitors,

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not to compare yourself to them,

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but to differentiate yourself from them.

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So if all of your competitors are marketing themselves a certain

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way, you can Zig where they Zack or you may find

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that who you thought were your are actually not because they're

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serving a different ideal client.

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And that could be a good collaboration opportunity.

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But it's really,

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really hard to market to anyone if you don't know who

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you're talking to because we all make purchasing decisions based on

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our values and based on our identities and what we care

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about. And if you don't understand that about who you're marketing

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to, it's just going to fall flat.

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And I think you would also agree when that you can't

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market to too broad a group because then you don't really

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stand for anything.

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Right? You water it down.

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Yeah. Because the point that you just made about your competitors

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and maybe you'll find that they really aren't your competitor,

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they might sell the exact same thing that you do,

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but they sell to a different audience.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And I think that really opens up opportunities that could open

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up collaboration opportunities that could just make you feel better about

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the fact that you have fewer competitors than you thought.

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But I really like to encourage people to try to put

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themselves in a category of one.

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So you're not a stationary designer,

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you are a watercolor stationary designer for people who think regular

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greeting cards are lame.

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You become the go to person,

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you become kind of the lighthouse for those people.

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So they are much more willing to choose you over someone

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else because it's apples to oranges and they're more willing to

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pay more because it's not a clear comparison.

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It's the person who really gets me the person who I

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really want to buy from and work with and these products

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that I love,

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that they make and everyone else.

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Yup. Makes total sense.

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Okay, so you're researching your customers,

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your competitors against the product that you're offering.

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We're like whatever the goal is of the campaign,

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right? Yeah.

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Okay. I'm with you.

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Okay. Yeah,

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those are the two biggest research areas and a lot of

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things come out when you start to do this kind of

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analysis. You notice things like maybe all your competitors are entirely

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focused on Instagram,

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which leaves Pinterest for you to completely dominate.

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So you can make a decision to focus on that instead

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of just doing what everyone else is doing.

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Okay, so you're not just researching who the competitor is and

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what at that moment in time they're trying to do in

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terms of selling something.

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You're also looking at the channels that they're using,

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the different platforms and how they're using them,

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that whole thing,

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right, Exactly.

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Yup. And even things like what do they offer?

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Because maybe the way that they are offering our services totally

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different to you.

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Maybe their products are totally different,

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but you don't know until you start to really dig into

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this and see what they're doing.

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So I really think this is a most important piece because

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this is the foundation of all marketing.

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So marketing is psychology.

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You are persuading someone to come to you as opposed to

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someone else.

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You're trying to stand out to them,

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but you can't do that if you don't know who they

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are, if you don't know what they care about.

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Because context is everything.

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The way you talk to your grandma's very different than the

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way you talk to your best friend.

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So the way you work it to two different types of

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people, two different ideal clients is different because of who they

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are because of what they care about.

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And when you get down to the fact that marketing is

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just finding what people care about and connecting the dots,

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it becomes a lot simpler.

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Hmm. Like that.

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Yeah. I like that a lot.

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What comes to mind to me,

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I think it was Sally Hogshead who said different is better

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than being better if I got the quote right.

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I think you're right.

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So I think people who can identify exactly what you said

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of you finding a different way to market or a different

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angle on your product or finding that unique spot within an

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industry of the same product just makes everything so much easier

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because you're separating yourself,

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you're being different.

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You're just not being better at something that someone else is

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doing. Right.

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Because if you're going to compete on something like quality of

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material or price,

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anyone can copy that.

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But if you build your business around,

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I am going to be the go to enter whatever it

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is you do for this specific kind of person,

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your marketing is going to become so much easier and you're

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going to become a magnet for those people.

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Got it.

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So this is why your research is so incredibly important because

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it forms the basis of what do we say to these

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people because we have to connect the dots between what they

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care about,

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what they want and what you're actually providing because we're all,

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whether you sell your product or service,

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we're all problem solvers in some,

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right? Sure.

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We're not like curing cancer,

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but we are solving a problem with what it is that

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we offer.

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There's a reason why someone purchases from you and understanding that

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reason makes it so much easier to present it to them.

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All right.

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The research is done and we'll move on to step three

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right after a word from our sponsor.

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Alright, so this is our step two and then step three

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really kind of piggybacks on this and this is your messaging.

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This is okay.

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How am I communicating with these people?

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What am I saying?

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What's my language,

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what's my tone and what are the points of connection like

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that we just spoke about?

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So for instance,

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I have a wedding planner who when she first came to

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me, she was really struggling.

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She wasn't standing out.

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Her website sounded like literally any other wedding planner in the

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world. And we worked on it.

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We worked on,

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okay, who are you working with?

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Who do you want to work with,

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what are you providing?

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And I actually had her go and interview some of her

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best clients and it turned out so she was marketing on

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the classic wedding planner messaging of your busy and I can

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help you be less busy with planning your money.

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And it turned out that when she started talking to her

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clients about why they hired her,

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that these people were having an Indian wedding.

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Either both of them were Indian or one person.

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The couple was Indian or of Indian heritage and all of

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their siblings and cousins had typically already gotten married and they

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had been to the same Indian wedding like 20 times and

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they're over it and they wanted something that yes,

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incorporated their culture but also incorporated who they were so they

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didn't feel like it was boring.

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Like being busy was like number eight on their list.

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So when she started marketing based on that,

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her calendar filled up because she solved the problem that people

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wanted her to solve.

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It's actually that simple.

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Interesting. Yeah,

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it's that simple.

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But I would also suggest,

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because I was doing some research for one of the programs

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that I put out and I did go to existing clients

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and ask them why they bought or didn't,

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because that's another strategy,

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right? Whoever doesn't buy,

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why didn't you buy if they were interested in,

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then just decided not to.

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But I also know that the first answer they give you

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isn't the right answer.

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Like you have to Dick,

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right? Yeah.

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I talk about this in my book about,

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it's called the laddering technique.

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So looking at the answer someone gives you and really getting

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curious about it.

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So if someone tells you,

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I don't want to have another boring Indian wedding,

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that's the same as all my cousins and my sisters and

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my brothers.

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Why? Why is that?

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Is it because you don't feel represented in that?

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Is it because you're just bored?

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Is it because you want to one up your siblings?

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Which of course is a huge motivation for a lot of

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people, but being able to understand what that underlying motive is

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is incredibly important.

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And I think that's fun.

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I think that's exciting.

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You know,

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just getting into the psychology of,

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huh, okay,

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why did you make that decision?

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And then I can base my marketing choices off of that

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so I can help more people make that decision.

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And you can capture some unique wording that you could use

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for your copy.

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Oh yeah.

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Yes. Because we all struggled to describe what we do because

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we're in it every day.

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So true.

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But when you have a client who's like,

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Oh yeah,

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you should work with Sue,

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she does this.

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It's like,

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Oh, that was so simple.

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Why didn't I just say it like that?

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Yeah. So these are your first three pieces of your marketing

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plan. This is really the foundation and only at this point

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do we get into the fourth piece,

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which I call the how.

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This is what everyone jumps to because it's the sexy part.

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It's what do you post and where do you post it

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now? What imagery do you use?

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Well, it's also what we know It is Like if you

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don't think of doing these other things,

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and it seems like it's the closest spot to your result

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to That's true,

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and it's what you see from everyone else,

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but what you're seeing when someone posts something,

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assuming they did their homework,

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is the finished product.

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You don't see the strategy.

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You don't see the thought and the intentionality behind,

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okay, I want to reach this person who cares about this

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thing, so this is what I'm going to post.

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It's that.

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If this,

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then that kind of structure of thinking.

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So would this be true then too?

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Cause this would be a caution for everybody.

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If you think you're trying to get the same result as

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a competitor of yours doing the exact same thing that they're

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doing won't necessarily produce the same result because the people that

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you're attracting are different.

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Or what you're offering is different.

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Yeah. So nothing is identical and you should never assume that

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anyone has done the work behind the scenes.

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I was talking about this on Instagram a while back about

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pricing because I saw a conversation about when people just like

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copy their competitors pricing.

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And you should never assume that anyone has voluntarily done math

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to see if that's even a feasible price.

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Who does math by choice?

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Like no,

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no. Chances are people haven't done the work.

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So if you're seeing a finished product,

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you don't want to copy the finished product.

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Even if you're looking at someone who you know has done

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the work.

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Oh, copy of the finished products,

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cover the intention,

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look at how they're talking to their audience.

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So you can look at other brands that serve your ideal

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client. How are they talking to their audience?

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How do they describe their products?

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Because the kind of wording that like anthropology uses for their

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clothing is different than like Nordstrom.

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They serve different ideal clients and they communicate in different ways.

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So copy the intention,

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copy the level underneath what you're seeing.

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And I do this all the time.

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I save Instagram posts that I think are really good and

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then I look at them and I'm like,

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okay, what is this person doing here?

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Okay. They're challenging an assumption or they're providing some tips in

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order to help people do this kind of thing.

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If you look at it that way,

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you just have the whole world to borrow from.

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You're making the assumption that there really was the strategy to

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your point earlier,

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right? Yeah.

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Okay. But even when you know a brand has done the

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work, like before we got on,

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we were talking about Pat Flynn pamphlet is another work,

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you know he has,

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right? So you can look at the kinds of things he

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posts and ask yourself why,

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why is he posting that?

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Why is he saying this like this?

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What is he promoting here and how is he getting to

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that? What objections is he challenging?

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Because everything in marketing is psychology.

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Okay. All right.

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So in the how,

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it's the intention of the copy,

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right? Is it also in,

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how is this also,

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what platforms are they using?

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I think you might've said that already.

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I just want to confirm.

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Yeah. So in the how I really push my clients to

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make a decision for the next 90 days of three platforms.

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And then you get one experiment per 90 day period.

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And the reason why I say you get one experiment is,

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I'm sure we've all done this.

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I know I've done this.

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You're like,

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Oh, I'm going to test this.

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I'm gonna start posting on Pinterest all the time.

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And then you kind of fall off of it and you

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never look at the results and you don't know if it

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actually worked or not because you had a million other irons

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in the fire.

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What we really want to do is take away the overwhelm

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by making the decision upfront.

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Okay. For the next 90 days,

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I'm going to focus on these three avenues of marketing.

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I wouldn't even say platforms because one of them might be

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in person networking.

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Maybe that's something you're really working on and you want to

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participate more in,

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but I really like to push people to limit this to

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three, three things that they've already been active in and one

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experiment for a 90 day period.

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You only have to commit for 90 days and then you

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can look and see how it worked and do more of

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what's working and do less of what isn't working And all

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of these platforms or avenues.

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I like the word avenues.

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The three avenues and the one experiment are all driving towards

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the same goal,

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right? So your messaging may or may not be different on

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each platform.

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Most of it is going to be the same because you're

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talking to the same person.

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But I would say,

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you know,

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for something like if you're going to focus on referrals from

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other vendors,

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that's going to be a little different because you're talking to

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another business owner as opposed to a client.

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But for the most part it's the same.

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And this is what I was saying about you don't,

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once you understand your ideal client,

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once you understand what they care about and you understand how

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to talk to them,

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you don't have to redo that part unless your ideal client

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changes. Well,

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yeah, and that makes sense.

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And the selection of your Avenue is going to be based

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on who your client is and where they reside anyway.

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Absolutely. You know,

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where are your clients finding you?

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And I think we love to overcomplicate things and I don't

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know why we do this,

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but it is so much easier if you just look at

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what's already working,

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even if it's only working a little bit and then really

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think, okay,

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what if I actually put some intention behind this?

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What if I put some effort behind this?

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What if I put some budget behind this,

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do more of what's working?

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And then the stuff that isn't working,

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assuming you've really tried it and tested different ways of using

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that particular Avenue,

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it's okay to stop doing that if it's not working for

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you because the whole goal is to get that result,

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right? The goal is not to just do more stuff.

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Right. Okay.

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So you've got your avenues and your experiment and you're working

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it and you're analyzing and you said keep your analysis going

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for about three months.

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That's a good amount of data then to figure out if

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you should make adjustments.

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Yeah. So what I really focused on in this part of

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the plan is making as many decisions as you can ahead

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of time.

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So where are you marketing specifically?

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What are you doing in each of those places?

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When are you creating that content?

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So is it like two days a month you block off

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in your schedule to create it all and schedule it all?

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Do you have an assistant helping you?

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Do you need photos?

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Like what needs to happen?

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Because if we can make all of the decisions and all

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of the prep ahead of time and you know that you're

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going to post on Instagram Monday,

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Wednesday, and Friday and these three kind of themes,

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it becomes a lot easier to fulfill it.

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And I think this is where a lot of people slip

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into overwhelm and the way I,

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it's really strange,

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so our businesses are weird because we have to be the

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CEO and the worker at the same time,

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but those two modes of thinking are totally different and if

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you try to do CEO level activity,

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when you're in worker mode,

Speaker:

you aren't going to make the best decisions.

Speaker:

That's when you do random acts of marketing because you feel

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like you have to do something.

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But if you've already made the decision of,

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okay, this is what I'm doing,

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this is my content schedule,

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this is when I'm posting,

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when I'm working on SEO,

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whatever it is.

Speaker:

And so you actually have a plan that you can go

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and execute for 90 days.

Speaker:

It's so much easier because you've just given yourself dates to

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attach to it and it's really hard to do this if

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you don't attach any sort of like tangible date to it.

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Makes sense.

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Okay. So I like 90 days,

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90 days I feel like is enough to get information back

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about what's working and what's not working.

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And you may decide you need more time.

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Certain things like SEO,

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that's more of a long game.

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It takes longer,

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so it's okay that that takes a little longer,

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but 90 days is a long enough period to get that

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information. But it's also a short enough period to where you

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don't feel like you're committed to this forever.

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And it helps with the shiny object syndrome because you can

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throw what you want to do in a Google doc and

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then at the end of 90 days go through like a

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buffet and decide what it is you're going to do the

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next time around.

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Okay. All right.

Speaker:

So we've gone through the first four steps and just to

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make sure that everyone's following along.

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The first was what's your goal?

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Then you do your research,

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then you check out messaging and decide on all of that.

Speaker:

Then you go through your how,

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which is identifying your three avenues and one experiment about 90

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days or so test it,

Speaker:

make any adjustments I guess.

Speaker:

And then what happens?

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Number five,

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Number five is measure.

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And this step gets skipped a lot.

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I was afraid it was going to be another math related

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thing. You don't have to add the numbers together.

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You just have to look at the numbers.

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Okay, alright.

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Much better.

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So you just did all of this,

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you just did this for 90 days.

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Now you have to look to see what kind of impact

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did this have?

Speaker:

Did you get more clients by focusing more on Instagram or

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did that not pay off the way you thought?

Speaker:

Did you get more clients from a completely unexpected place?

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Maybe that's what you should focus on for the next 90

Speaker:

days. But this just really allows you to take a very

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practical look at what's happening.

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Because too often we get into the space where it's like,

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I feel like this is working but I don't actually know.

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So you want to have a number to back you up.

Speaker:

How many clients came from here?

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Where's the traffic coming from on your website?

Speaker:

Where are those sales coming from?

Speaker:

There are a lot of things that we can track with

Speaker:

free tools and it just makes making your decisions even easier.

Speaker:

This gets easier every time you do it because you rule

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things out that aren't working and then you leverage the things

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that are Right.

Speaker:

And I think,

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I'd like to make the comment here that a lot of

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people like if something isn't working they'll just do more of

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it. Cause I think if just do more Than it'll work.

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Yes. Yeah.

Speaker:

So the idea of like,

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I think I see this throughout business,

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like if I just work harder and it's usually not the

Speaker:

effort. If something isn't working it's because it's not aligned with

Speaker:

your ideal client.

Speaker:

The messaging is off.

Speaker:

You're not doing something in a particular way.

Speaker:

So like,

Speaker:

let's say you decide Instagram isn't working for you.

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Well, are you utilizing all of the things that you have

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at your disposal?

Speaker:

Are you doing Instagram stories?

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Okay, maybe not.

Speaker:

Maybe you're just posting to your feed.

Speaker:

Maybe your experiment is,

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I'm going to post three Instagram stories a week for the

Speaker:

next 90 days to see if I can improve my results

Speaker:

from Instagram.

Speaker:

But I really like to look at are you utilizing everything

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you have at your disposal?

Speaker:

Is it a strategy of just trying to kind of diagnose

Speaker:

what's going on there?

Speaker:

But certain things just don't work for certain businesses and that's

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okay. Right.

Speaker:

Okay. So we've gone through the whole plan.

Speaker:

Some things are working,

Speaker:

so we're going to keep them.

Speaker:

Some things are not working,

Speaker:

so we need to either tweak them,

Speaker:

do them a different way,

Speaker:

or change them out.

Speaker:

Totally. And then do you keep doing this every 90 days

Speaker:

or do you,

Speaker:

what do you do from here or then after your measurement?

Speaker:

Yeah, so this is a 90 day cycle.

Speaker:

So we revisit this and if you get to a point

Speaker:

where the things that you're doing are working really well,

Speaker:

it's you know,

Speaker:

this well oiled machine,

Speaker:

great. You don't really need to revisit that.

Speaker:

The only thing you might want to revisit is what experiment

Speaker:

do you want to do?

Speaker:

What do you want to try?

Speaker:

What do you want to figure out or learn over the

Speaker:

next 90 days?

Speaker:

And then creating the structure for that.

Speaker:

So if you're going to test Facebook ads,

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okay, when are you going to create the copy and the

Speaker:

image for your Facebook ads,

Speaker:

what's the due date for that?

Speaker:

It's add some structure to this so that it actually gets

Speaker:

done and it's not,

Speaker:

Oh yeah,

Speaker:

I'll get around to that kind of thing.

Speaker:

Right. Okay.

Speaker:

And I would guess if I'm just thinking about this and

Speaker:

adding it to real life,

Speaker:

like as if I were doing it after my 90 days

Speaker:

when I've got my results,

Speaker:

I won't necessarily go back and redo my goal because I

Speaker:

already, my goal is probably longer than 90 days.

Speaker:

Might not be,

Speaker:

but let's just say it is the research.

Speaker:

I might want to look at just a little bit.

Speaker:

Are my competitors doing something else?

Speaker:

Are they starting to encroach in my area?

Speaker:

Is there something else that they're doing that I should be

Speaker:

considering because it could affect what I'm doing,

Speaker:

but that could be probably pretty little versus the very first

Speaker:

time you do the research.

Speaker:

So most likely,

Speaker:

except for just a little bit of review of one into

Speaker:

two, what you were saying,

Speaker:

you'd probably start at three,

Speaker:

four, five and keep doing three,

Speaker:

four for a couple Of 90 day rounds unless your goal

Speaker:

is changing,

Speaker:

Right? Yeah,

Speaker:

and I think the important thing too is when you check

Speaker:

in on this,

Speaker:

you want to check in on where you're at with your

Speaker:

goal. So where did you think you were going to be?

Speaker:

A lot of businesses have seasonality to them,

Speaker:

so there is a busy season,

Speaker:

calmer season.

Speaker:

Maybe you just came out of your busy season.

Speaker:

Did it go the way you thought it would argue ahead?

Speaker:

Are you on par for your goal?

Speaker:

Are you behind?

Speaker:

Because if you're behind,

Speaker:

this isn't like a point for you to judge yourself.

Speaker:

It's an opportunity because you know this to decide,

Speaker:

okay, I'm behind,

Speaker:

what can I do this month to generate more sales?

Speaker:

You can create a promotion,

Speaker:

you can do a flashlight,

Speaker:

there's tons of things you can do,

Speaker:

but you can't do any of that if you don't have

Speaker:

the awareness that you need it.

Speaker:

Right. And I'm thinking also then with measurements in the evaluation

Speaker:

is having some type of log of learnings,

Speaker:

like just documenting somewhere,

Speaker:

kind of a debrief.

Speaker:

Yes. I'd say at the very end so that you know,

Speaker:

and you can look back at it even the next year.

Speaker:

Okay. We tried this once before,

Speaker:

a year ago,

Speaker:

didn't quite work,

Speaker:

but I would also say,

Speaker:

I'm saying intentionally the word platforms now,

Speaker:

platforms change.

Speaker:

Oh yeah.

Speaker:

So what you tried a year ago might not have worked,

Speaker:

but because of such and such and such,

Speaker:

we ought to go back and try Facebook live again now

Speaker:

or whatever it is.

Speaker:

So, but then you could look at your learnings of why

Speaker:

you remembered that it didn't work or the notes that you

Speaker:

had taken and have a better thought process and decision point

Speaker:

to make because you have information like you were saying,

Speaker:

you have learning.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

And when you gather this,

Speaker:

whether it's data or it's notes chair South,

Speaker:

this means that marketing and running your business gets progressively easier

Speaker:

because you have more information to base decisions off of And

Speaker:

your own information with your own audience.

Speaker:

Yeah. Cause it's not always the same.

Speaker:

Someone else's.

Speaker:

Right. Exactly.

Speaker:

So let's talk stumbling blocks here.

Speaker:

So you already said that a place where people could stumble

Speaker:

with doing this plan is not doing steps two and three,

Speaker:

the research and the messaging,

Speaker:

right? So that could be a big stumbling block.

Speaker:

Where else do you see people getting stuck?

Speaker:

So I think a big stumbling block is doing the plan

Speaker:

without CEO.

Speaker:

You giving marching orders to work or you,

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because you really have to bridge that gap.

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So if you decide these are my three platforms I'm going

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to focus on,

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that's somewhat helpful.

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But that's not as helpful as deciding exactly what you're going

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to do on them when you're going to do it.

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When that gets created,

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if you need help,

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like maybe you're going to hire a freelancer or an assistant

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to help you with like Facebook for instance,

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determining all of that and getting it into either a project

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management tool or your calendar and really having dates attached to

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things makes it so much easier to execute.

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It's not then this abstract,

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I'm going to be on Instagram because that's not the goal.

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The goal isn't to be on Instagram.

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The goal is to do certain activities on a particular platform,

Speaker:

whether that's spending 15 minutes a day going through and commenting

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on things.

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He's a very simple executable thing that you can do every

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day to know that you are improving and really moving towards

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getting results on that particular platform.

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So it's really just breaking it down into what is the

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action here<inaudible> and when am I going to do it.

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Okay, that makes total sense.

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Okay, and you were speaking project management tools.

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Do you have a favorite?

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Yeah, so I tried to get on board with a sauna

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forever. That's mine.

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You don't like it?

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I don't know what it is.

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It's just my brain doesn't work the way a sauna does.

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I use a tool called click up.

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Oh, what is it?

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Click up.

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Yeah, and I really liked the way it works.

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It kind of just works the way my brain works,

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but I think that's the most important thing is finding a

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project management tool that makes intuitive sense to you.

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Whether that's a sauna or Trello or something like click up.

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It has to make sense to you or you're not going

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to use it.

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I did that with a sauna a lot.

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I mean,

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the tools,

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well, yeah,

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and different people,

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like different things in the tools are a means to getting

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you to an end in a more efficient or faster way.

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It's not to be using the tool.

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Right, right.

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The goal isn't to be on Instagram.

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The goal is to do specific tasks.

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Just like within a project management tool.

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The goal isn't till use it.

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Everybody else is doing it.

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It's just to get the work done Right.

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Oh my gosh.

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You know,

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there are so many just talking about tools in the right

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way to use tools.

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There are so many,

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like think of it being able to do social media that

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has video on it a little bit.

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Like with all the moving parts and all of that,

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or just any creative with social media.

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There are 7,000

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trillion million tools.

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Right. And everyone has their favorites and I know that I

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got into this for a while.

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It's like a new tool came out and everyone was raving

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about it.

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Oh my gosh,

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I've got to try it.

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Well then when you do,

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you're taking time to learn the tool and what are you

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then not doing that's closer to making a sale?

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Right. To summarize that,

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I think what I'm trying to say is if you already

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have something that's working for you,

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you don't need to go and find new tools,

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right? Yeah.

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Do's what you have that's already working.

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Yeah. I wouldn't look for something new unless what you're using

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is holding you back in some way.

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Right. Time-wise or it doesn't have some aspect that another will

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give you.

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Yeah, something like that.

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I don't know.

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I'm struggling for the right word there,

Speaker:

but it'll do something more than what your current tool is

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doing, et cetera.

Speaker:

Right. Yeah,

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that makes total sense.

Speaker:

Okay. Can you wrap up this whole marketing plan for us

Speaker:

in a little summary?

Speaker:

Yeah, so with this marketing plan,

Speaker:

so it took you the five steps.

Speaker:

The goal here is to figure out who you're talking to

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and what you're going to do.

Speaker:

That's really what you can boil it down to,

Speaker:

but the most important thing is really dedicating the time to

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do this.

Speaker:

And I think a lot of times we can get into

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the trap of,

Speaker:

I can't do this because I hit work,

Speaker:

and it's like,

Speaker:

well, you have to work on the business in order to

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keep getting the client.

Speaker:

So when you have this kind of plan is going to

Speaker:

make your marketing easier,

Speaker:

it's going to make it less time consuming,

Speaker:

it's going to make it more effective,

Speaker:

and that's the goal.

Speaker:

That's what I want for people.

Speaker:

I want them to have the results and I want them

Speaker:

to have the results without the crushing overwhelm that comes with

Speaker:

trying to do all of the things.

Speaker:

Yeah, and I think this is so helpful,

Speaker:

Heidi, just to put it in a structure,

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do this first,

Speaker:

this second and then you go back and how it evolves.

Speaker:

So it's not like you just go through this once and

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then it's done.

Speaker:

It's something that if you integrated into your business,

Speaker:

it's something you'll continue to do and grow your business.

Speaker:

Like you'll get real reach,

Speaker:

a goal and then when you do,

Speaker:

you'll make another goal but follow still the same type of

Speaker:

a structure.

Speaker:

So I think this is absolutely fabulous.

Speaker:

So thank you so much for sharing this with us today.

Speaker:

Oh my pleasure.

Speaker:

And if your listeners want to dig in more into like

Speaker:

the nitty gritty of each step,

Speaker:

I do have a free training that really dives into this

Speaker:

further. Thank you.

Speaker:

And how can our listeners get to that?

Speaker:

You can go to evolve your wedding business.com/webinar

Speaker:

Okay, perfect.

Speaker:

And what will we find on the webinar?

Speaker:

So that's going to take you through all of the individual

Speaker:

little things within each of the steps so that you have

Speaker:

a better idea of what this actually contains and how you

Speaker:

put it together.

Speaker:

Okay. So our more detailed description than what we went through

Speaker:

here today.

Speaker:

Exactly. Perfect.

Speaker:

Wonderful. And if people want to connect with you overall in

Speaker:

another way besides the webinar,

Speaker:

what single place would you send them to?

Speaker:

So I would send them to Instagram.

Speaker:

I am evolve your wedding business over on Instagram.

Speaker:

Beautiful, perfect.

Speaker:

And give business owners,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

all of this will be over on the show notes page.

Speaker:

And now what I would like to do,

Speaker:

Heidi is present you with a gift because you have just

Speaker:

shared your gift of knowledge and your system and your freebie

Speaker:

in terms of the webinars.

Speaker:

So I super appreciate that.

Speaker:

And I'd like to present you a virtual gift.

Speaker:

So this is a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your

Speaker:

future. This is could be your dream or some type of

Speaker:

goal, but I want it to be like almost unreachable.

Speaker:

So you got to reach really high.

Speaker:

Something like almost out of bounds that you would like to

Speaker:

see happen in your future.

Speaker:

So please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

Speaker:

What's inside your box?

Speaker:

You know,

Speaker:

the first thing I think of when you talk about unlimited

Speaker:

potential is just like space.

Speaker:

That's the visual I'm getting when you open this box.

Speaker:

It's just like space,

Speaker:

crazy, infinite galaxies.

Speaker:

But what that looks like for me is a larger movement

Speaker:

of creative professionals who are comfortably making the money that they

Speaker:

damn well deserve to make.

Speaker:

You know,

Speaker:

if a lot of you were paid on your talent,

Speaker:

you'd all be millionaires.

Speaker:

But unfortunately that's not the way it works.

Speaker:

So my big,

Speaker:

big picture is where every creative entrepreneur is not just scraping

Speaker:

by, but is absolutely thriving and has the freedom both in

Speaker:

terms of time and finances to really enjoy the fruits of

Speaker:

their labor.

Speaker:

Beautiful. I love that.

Speaker:

And that's so giving for us too.

Speaker:

So we'll all take that present.

Speaker:

You're sharing your gift with us.

Speaker:

I love that.

Speaker:

Wonderful. Well,

Speaker:

Heidi, thank you so,

Speaker:

so much for being on the show today.

Speaker:

I appreciate all the knowledge and give busy listeners.

Speaker:

I want you to start thinking about implementing this and creating

Speaker:

a marketing plan and starting to go through these steps and

Speaker:

if something's unclear or if you want more detail or if

Speaker:

you just want to hear it again,

Speaker:

besides going through and listening to the show again,

Speaker:

jump over in here.

Speaker:

Heidi's webinar on all of this.

Speaker:

In fact,

Speaker:

Heidi, you might have a couple of things there that we

Speaker:

didn't even talk about here that might be little other nuances

Speaker:

that will resonate,

Speaker:

so another reason to go over and listen to what Heidi

Speaker:

has over there.

Speaker:

Thanks again so much.

Speaker:

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker:

Heidi brought such great information to the show today,

Speaker:

but the thing I liked the most of everything is how

Speaker:

you don't need to be spending all your time creating a

Speaker:

marketing plan.

Speaker:

You want to be spending your time actually implementing the plan

Speaker:

and then seeing if it works and Heidi gave us all

Speaker:

the tools to be able to do that.

Speaker:

I encourage you if you don't have a plan,

Speaker:

if you're just running by the seat of your pants doing

Speaker:

one thing and another thing without really any analysis or review

Speaker:

of what's working,

Speaker:

go back and take a listen again and create a marketing

Speaker:

plan. When you have the confidence that what you're doing is

Speaker:

working and you're seeing results,

Speaker:

you'll be so glad you did.

Speaker:

Finally, a little bit about our guest for next week's show.

Speaker:

She's in a spot that I know lot of you have

Speaker:

been in.

Speaker:

You have a nine to five job that is totally different

Speaker:

than the maker hobby or business that you're already starting to

Speaker:

create. Our guest next week has been in her business now

Speaker:

just for about a year and a half and for someone

Speaker:

who's pretty new with her business,

Speaker:

I dare say she's got some pretty sophisticated and smart things

Speaker:

to share with us and we hear how her other career

Speaker:

has actually been a huge asset and really jumpstarted her new

Speaker:

business. This could be the same for you and that'll be

Speaker:

up next Monday on the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

Speaker:

I can't wait to be together again then.

Speaker:

Bye for now.

Speaker:

After you listened to the show,

Speaker:

if you like what you're hearing,

Speaker:

make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on

Speaker:

Apple podcasts.

Speaker:

That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they go

Speaker:

live, and thank you to those of you who have already

Speaker:

left a rating and review.

Speaker:

By subscribing,

Speaker:

rating, and reviewing,

Speaker:

you help to increase the visibility of gift biz on wrapped.

Speaker:

It's a great way to pay it forward to help others

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