Crack open the secrets to marketing success with Shelby McFarlane and guest mastermind Schell Gower as we pour out our insights over cocktails in the latest episode of the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. Discover how zooming in on your niche can catapult your brand above the digital din, and why making friends within the industry can be your best business move. We'll take you behind-the-scenes of our own marketing journeys, sharing tales of triumph and collaborative cheers that prove when you narrow your focus, your opportunities widen.
Ever wondered how setting your prices can spell out the caliber of your clientele? Raise your glass and your expectations as we discuss how catering to customers who crave quality over cost can redefine your business's prosperity. We'll reveal why charging your worth and avoiding the price war can draw in those who appreciate exclusivity, and how high stakes can mean high rewards. Get ready to clink to the psychology of pricing and the magnetic pull of luxury that's sure to bring the ideal customers to your yard.
Serving up the final round, we spill the must-knows of vetting potential clients and the art of owning your business's worth. Saying no to misfit clients isn't just a power move—it's a strategic dance that leads to more desirable partnerships. Hear how letting go of a demanding client led to a tripled income, and why guarding your business assets, like your stronghold website, is non-negotiable. We also tap into the wisdom of strategic outsourcing, because when it comes to running a successful business, it's about working smarter, not harder. Join us for this episode where we mix up a cocktail of marketing savvy, storytelling, and strategy to get you toasting to your own success. Cheers to that!
Crack open the secrets to marketing success with Shelby McFarlane and guest mastermind Schell Gower as we pour out our insights over cocktails in the latest episode of the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. Discover how zooming in on your niche can catapult your brand above the digital din, and why making friends within the industry can be your best business move. We'll take you behind-the-scenes of our own marketing journeys, sharing tales of triumph and collaborative cheers that prove when you narrow your focus, your opportunities widen.
Ever wondered how setting your prices can spell out the caliber of your clientele? Raise your glass and your expectations as we discuss how catering to customers who crave quality over cost can redefine your business's prosperity. We'll reveal why charging your worth and avoiding the price war can draw in those who appreciate exclusivity, and how high stakes can mean high rewards. Get ready to clink to the psychology of pricing and the magnetic pull of luxury that's sure to bring the ideal customers to your yard.
Serving up the final round, we spill the must-knows of vetting potential clients and the art of owning your business's worth. Saying no to misfit clients isn't just a power move—it's a strategic dance that leads to more desirable partnerships. Hear how letting go of a demanding client led to a tripled income, and why guarding your business assets, like your stronghold website, is non-negotiable. We also tap into the wisdom of strategic outsourcing, because when it comes to running a successful business, it's about working smarter, not harder. Join us for this episode where we mix up a cocktail of marketing savvy, storytelling, and strategy to get you toasting to your own success. Cheers to that!
Welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where we stir up the perfect blends of insights, strategies and trends to quench your thirst for marketing and business success. Join us every week as we pull up a chair pour out the latest business innovations and mix in some expert advice from industry leaders. I am your host, shelby McFarlane, ceo of Shelby Company Incorporated. It's time to shake things up, stir up some creativity and sip on success. Welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. Hey y'all, this is Shelby, your favorite boss babe here, and I am joined by one of my absolute favorite marketing boss babes, michelle Gower. Hello, hey, girl. How's it going? Oh, so great Y'all. We've been talking so much smack. Before we hit record, we probably should have recorded all that. Then we would have heard some feelings.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, you got to do what you got to do, sometimes as marketers, Sometimes you got to let off a little steam with some other marketers, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So Shelly and I met through our B&I group. Well, she's no longer a member, but she's still part of my life, so I enjoy our conversations and talking about marketing and she's probably one of the first people that I actually liked that was in the marketing industry. I used to think that we were all like competitors, right, and I was like I don't want to talk about anybody that does marketing, like screw you guys. But then Shell came in my life. I'm like I mean, you're kind of cool. Okay, I can, I can dig it. I can dig it. So tell us a little bit about what you do and the name of your business.
Speaker 2:Well, all righty, I am Shell, I am with ClearMark and I'll sling into my old BNI chapter sales manager moment and say that one of the things I talk about a lot is that customers don't buy products and services. They buy solutions to the problems that they have, and companies who can communicate that the clearest are the ones that win. So what I do basically is I work with companies on their messaging and their strategy, marketing strategy and looking at their analytics kind of a high level view of what companies need to do to win in the marketplace. And you know, one of the things we talk about often is there is so much the overwhelm of marketing, of things that you can do, and so what I like to do is look at companies, helping them determine there's what I can do, there's what I want to do, what I can do and what needs to be done, and so we try to create a strategy, a messaging and marketing strategy, to help them get their message out there and generate leads. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So the way that just to kind of educate our listeners here, the way that we work together is you create the strategy, you help them niche down what that process is and, like you, know who they're trying to reach, and then you guys will hire people like me and my agency and we actually go out, we do the social media stuff. You have awesome website designers, so you help with the website, copyright, all that kind of stuff. So she is the overall umbrella, works with them, strategizes with them, and then she hires a bunch of different little minions, as you would say, and I love being your minion, I love working with your clients because they've already been vetted by you.
Speaker 2:You're a minion that wears pink.
Speaker 1:Yes, a pink minion all the time, but really today, what we want to talk about and educate you guys on and Shell is the number one person I know that can help you with this is niching down your client. This is something that I've had eight years of experience and kind of like trying to figure out on my own. I get frustrated whenever I get hired by someone that I should have been like gosh. I told them no, I should have vetted you a little bit more. So what does that process look like when you are helping someone niche down who their clientele is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I think the biggest mistake and and as business owners, um, we know it's important to niche down and also we're scared to fricking death to niche down Cause we're like anybody could use my services and, um, I the quote, I don't even know, but it's like if you're messaging to everyone, you're really messaging to no one. Um, in the digital age that we are in, um, the more specific that you can be about who you serve, the clearer your message is and you actually stand out better than if you're saying, for example, I'm an HVAC company, like, if you have an air conditioner, I can help. Well, yeah, do you know how many air conditioning service people are in a city? I mean it's ridiculous. But if you said I am an HVAC company who specifically works with homes built before the year 2000 and helping replace old units that are on their way out, now you've defined your niche or niche, niche, niche, whatever all of it, whatever all the things, but it's it's about being extremely specific, and that could be, you know, every industry is different, but it's really sitting down and going okay, who's your favorite client?
Speaker 2:I mean, that's one of the first questions that I ask who is your favorite client? If you could, 10 X, 20 X, a hundred X your favorite client, 10 X 20 X a hundred X your favorite client. Who is that person and what are what? What is it that you love about them? So, as, um, you know providers, service providers in the marketing space it's talking you know, hey, who's the people that you love? I know, um, it's kind of cliche in the marketing where we're like people who pay you that was great, the people that pay. But really, you know, for Shelby, I'm sure you could say the same thing For us. As marketers, we have a specific expertise. We've read books, we've talked, we've listened to podcasts, we've attended webinars and seminars, we've gotten certifications. So there's certain things that we have learned, and so I would say, like, the favorite client is those that trust that we know what we're doing, you know, that in a service providing space, that's who your favorite client is.
Speaker 2:And so that's once we figure out and this is kind of the bridge right, which is once you figure out, hey, who's your favorite client, what makes them your favorite client or what makes them your favorite customer? Let's go back to the HVAC. What makes your favorite customer? Then you start asking those questions of well, why, why are they your favorite company customer? What is it that they do that makes them their favorite? Is it because they trust you? Is it because they're more focused on quality versus quantity, right? So price doesn't necessarily matter.
Speaker 2:You know, thinking of a local HVAC company that I'm really good friends with and he said look, I'm not the cheapest person in the in in the city. If you need plumbing work or you need HVAC, I'm not necessarily your fate, your cheapest option. But here's what I will tell you we're going to do it and we're going to get it right. And if we don't get it right, we're going to come back. And so that's what they're looking for. They're working, looking for people who are willing to trust that if you're going to pay a little bit more than somebody who's cheaper, that you're going to be happy with the results. So that's why I talk about niching down is so important, because it's how you break out of everybody else who's saying this is what I do, this is what I do, this is what I do.
Speaker 1:Everybody else who's saying this is what I do, this is what I do, this is what I do. And I've noticed, like you know, on social media, when people are asking for recommendations, lately there have been so many people that go well, then we'll just keep on with the HVAC, right, I'm looking for an HVAC company that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So these are the mentality, like that's the mentality of so many customers and clients these days, and I see that when I'm tagged on posts that say I'm looking for a door decal that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, like, literally, that's the phrase they keep using. My response to that when people tag me on that, hey, you know what it's going to be at least $200. Guess what? I'm going to go up on that person because I don't want to deal with somebody that has the mentality of like I'm just looking for a cheap service, I'm just looking because that's what they're going to get.
Speaker 1:And I think as small business owners, we kind of get overwhelmed with, oh, but this person's cheaper. Or oh, but they do more than what I do for the same price. You know, and just owning our value and knowing what we're worth, and that's something that you've helped me with tremendously, because when we first started working together, you're like girl, you have got to charge more and I'm like I'm so afraid to charge more, like I don't understand. But think about how much I have received and how much abundance has come in my life because I've increased my worth.
Speaker 2:You know, with your help, of course, and I think, as business you know we're talking to business owners here. So one of the things I would say about about niching down, is it helps you. One, it helps you clarify who you serve, right, yeah. Two, it helps you look at excuse me, helps you look at how much you're charging and whether those people will pay Right. So I'll give you another example.
Speaker 2:I had a, a, a perspective meeting with a client yesterday actually, and she is in the luxury travel space, interesting, and she, her, she, she's kind of a little bit all over the place, which is part of why she, she reached out to help her with strategy. But she's in the luxury travel space. One of the things that she offers is a concierge service that you pay $6,500 a year and she's considered an expense for, just like your high-end clients, so high net worth clients that are willing to have her on retainer, just like a lawyer, just like her tax, just like an accountant, she's, she is a travel on retainer so that when you're going let and he, her example was, let's say that you know the husband or the wife is traveling to Europe for work and he'll call her and say hey, would you, I would like to extend my trip for 20 days and bring my wife over. Can you just plan that trip for us? Or we're going to be in California so I'd like to fly. You know, let's extend my trip.
Speaker 2:So it's a retainer and and I said you think about it and and I worked with a luxury brand several years ago and I told her you should go up on your price. Why should you go up on your price? Well, because somebody who's going to put you on retainer to manage four to six trips a year money is not an option, right, money is not that. That doesn't matter to them. And so sometimes, in her particular case of a luxury travel agent, her, her retainer price should go up, because if somebody who makes, let's say, their net worth is $2.5 million and they're able to take four to six trips a year, their network, if you're too low, people go, oh, like, what's wrong with?
Speaker 1:you.
Speaker 2:Like what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1:that you're not charging enough.
Speaker 2:I have another friend of mine who does websites and she got bit. She put in a proposal for a really huge website and and um, the client that she was working with said, are you sure that's all it's going to cost? And she wasn't legitimate because the wet. Because even though she thought, hey, this is a really good price Like you know, I'm making good profit margin Her client was at this point.
Speaker 2:When you know your niche that you're working in and you know your client, then you can say, okay, if I want to play with the luxury market, or I want to play with a big pharma, or I want to play with a big pharma, or I want to play with in this high space, I need to raise my rates even though I could charge less.
Speaker 2:I need to charge more because then it's showing that I know what I'm talking about. From an other perspective, you know you don't want to be a race to the bottom because nobody wins, and so understanding your niche kind of bringing it all home understanding your niche helps you go back and look, and this is part of what I do is I say, okay, who is it that you serve and what products or services do you provide? And then are you charging too much or not enough? Nine times out of 10, you're not charging enough, and if you are charging the right price, then it is are we reaching the right audience? Because you could be doing all the right marketing tactics and still not getting the results. For example, going back to the luxury travel agent, she was on Pinterest, she was on Facebook ads and Google ads and every person that she got in her funnel were all people that were looking to spend $5,000 in Miami for a destination wedding and she's like that's not who I want to serve.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I want to serve the people that want to go to Europe for a month or, you know, bali for 10 days, like you know, with a group of 20 people. That's that's who I want to serve. So that's where we look at this. Then that goes. When you know your niche, then you can go into the strategy. Okay, then we need to adjust the strategy. How do we do that so that you're getting the right clients in the door?
Speaker 1:And also, I mean that works perfectly into social. So if she wants clients that's going to spend $6,500, $8,000 a month with her, she needs to make sure that her social and her website reflect that she's worth $8,000. And that's kind of where you know people drop the ball with like oh well, you know, I'll just get referrals. Well, you know what people creep you out on social. They're going to be like all over your Facebook and Instagram and your website and Google searching you and all the things. So that's why it's so important that once you do niche down that you also have that strategy like you're talking about, and then implement something that reflects your worth.
Speaker 1:You know it's easy, whenever I'm talking about like my signs and stuff on social, to be able to show that like oh hey, look, you know I did this sign. People can see how great it looks. But then whenever you're talking about like what me and you do, it's a service based thing. So if I'm trying to sell someone on social media and my freaking social media looks like shit, like what is that? I mean that doesn't make any difference, right? Like I have to make sure that it looks good, you know. And so make sure that you know, it's also a reflection on your brand, with what your worth is and with that when you're talking to clients. We're allowed to vet clients like me, and you do this all the time to talk about, like how you're vetting clients when you have a consult with them too.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it goes again. It goes back to who's your niche, who do you want to serve, and setting your price and going and being unapologetic about it. And so it's, you know, every once, here's what I'll say Every once in a while. You may say I just really want to do this, and so you may know, their budget's a little is a little lower, and so yeah, I'll, I'll do this. And so you may know their budgets a little is a little lower, and so yeah, I'll, I'll do it. I'll take this one, you know, and shave some money off the top or whatever.
Speaker 2:But I think, knowing when you know your niche and you know your value right, so you know how much you're going to serve. That helps when vetting clients because you can say this is my process, this is what I do, and you can always ask their budget. You know, hey, what's your budget? But at the end of the day it is this is what I do, this is what you get for what I do. Are you ready to get started? And if they're like, oh, it's just too expensive, you know what can we do for less? You know, that's where you're given an opportunity to say do I really want to work with them or not? If you want to work with them, you might go okay, well, here's what I can do for this budget. Yeah, take it or leave it.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day, here's what I have found is when, over the years of owning my business, when, over the years of owning my business, the clients that I typically not all, but a vast majority of them when money has been an issue and I have bent, meaning I'll take it whatever, there's two things that happen. One, that customer client typically if I said, you know, back in my early days, if I said, hey to do this service. It's $2,500. I can't do 2,500. Can you do it for 15? Okay, sure, I end up mentally spending over $5,000 worth of value to a person who only paid me 1,500. That's number one. To a person who only paid me 1500. That's number one. And they give there's such a pain because they want so much for that dollar. And I get it. I get it Right.
Speaker 2:But the other thing is is that you start to fill your plate with these people who have undervalued what you're worth, people who have undervalued what you're worth that you can't take the people that value what you're worth and that has been, and so or you end up taking the person that values what you're worth and then you're running around with your head cut off because you got all these people and you start to really get frustrated with the people that are the nitpicky undervaluing what you're worth and so then you don't do a good service to them because they're so small when you've got this big person that you want to serve because they value what you are or what they know.
Speaker 2:So end of the day is when you know again, know your niche and you know your pricing, then the second thing or the third thing you need to do is know what questions you're going to ask to vet the client or the person oriented, but asking the right questions before you come to an agreement and just being firm and saying you know this is not this. I don't think this is going to be a really good fit for either one of us. Let me, but I have a really good connection and that's where connections come in place.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Let me, let me connect. I'd love to connect you with this person who I feel like might be a better fit for where your needs are right now and then as you grow. If there's something I can do to help, please let me know.
Speaker 1:And I found the top two questions that when I'm vetting clients or having that console, number one, of course we need to know budget. So if someone comes at me and they're like, oh, we don't really know what a budget is, okay, well, here's my general proposal to you. You can take it, look at it and then kind of see what it is. But, like, if you're trying to hire somebody in the service business, like, make sure you go in with a budget, especially marketing wise. Me and you know, understand, you've got to have a marketing budget. You know we talked about B&I being $899 and how some people don't want to spend that, you know, on their budget. And so it's like well, if your budget's less than $8.99 a year anyways for marketing, we got to reevaluate, bro, like you got to have more than that. And then I think our second, my second favorite question is asking them what their expectations are.
Speaker 1:I used to be so scared to ask people, well, what are your expectations? Because I was setting expectations very high because I'm type A, enneagram eight, that's what I do. I set very high standards for myself. When really they're like bro, if you just do like three posts a week, we're chill, you know you're like, oh shit, I just like stress myself out for no reason. You know I didn't ask them what their expectations are or if they're paying me for three posts a week, but their expectations are. We want all this engagement. Oh my gosh, now I'm, you know, not doing what I need to do because I didn't set those expectations or ask them what they were at the very beginning. So I definitely think asking budget, asking expectations are super important when you are having those consults.
Speaker 2:And here's what I'll tell you. I'll tell you two things. One Gardner study came out last year the 2023, the two things. That goes back to what we talked about just a few minutes ago and the importance of social and website, which is almost 75% of all business to business referral or, you know, connections, right, they would rather do all their research online before they call you to close the deal. So that's why it's important to have your social aligned with who you want to serve, how you want to serve them.
Speaker 2:The second thing I would say is, if you don't know where to start with a marketing budget 10% gross or net, you decide, but 10% of your let's go with gross of your gross annual revenue should go to marketing. Yeah, 10%, and that is just to say the same. Right, if you want slow growth, 12%. If you want massive growth, 15 to 20%. Now, that varies, but you can look it up online, you can Google it. 10% is the industry standard and what I have found is that it doesn't, you know. That's why, again, going into strategy, knowing the budget translates. So all of this translates into what strategy we do.
Speaker 2:If you gave me, I've got a client that'll spend $11,000 a month in marketing strategy. Okay, now I can say I'm going to spend X amount of dollars on social ads, I'm going to spend X amount of dollars in this. I now know where I want to put that money. If they said only $5,000 a month, okay, then that strategy is going to change. I'm not going to run ads on Google and Facebook and Instagram and YouTube. I might go okay, who's your ideal target audience? Okay, we're only going to run ads on Instagram because your niche is on Instagram. Or, if your niche is an older generation, we're only going to run ads on Facebook. So, knowing your budget, knowing your niche, knowing what you're offering all of those come into play when we are starting to execute a marketing strategy for the business.
Speaker 1:And small business owners. You know, I personally understand, when I first started my window tint shop gosh 12 years ago, I didn't know anything about marketing. So I that was back in the day we did yellow page ads and I was on TV doing ads because we did house tinting, you know. So I was in the chamber, I was in leads groups. That was before social media was even around. And so now we have these different, these different areas where we can still market and to get.
Speaker 1:I would love to get your opinion, because the things that I've seen with trends and stuff like hard copy is what I kind of call that marketing. Hard copy marketing is coming back. Mailers coming back, being on TV doing the Hulu ads, going on TV shows the morning news shows, depending on if that's your market or not and, honestly, people think that going on to like it's local here, channel 7. I make sure all my fundraisers I do were on Channel 7 or were on Arkansas style, because they're also sharing that to their social and their website. People are like why do I want to be on TV? Why do I want to be interviewed? Because they share it online too, and so I think that hard copy marketing is coming back. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Um, it's finding the right, the niche for that, but um, I have, uh, my hog guys.
Speaker 1:Yes, we love your hog guys, my hog guys.
Speaker 2:They, we did a collaboration or we were doing some advertising with a big brand and that brand puts out a quarterly magazine and so we put an ad quarterly in a magazine and we're getting click-throughs. You know, we add a little QR code in the corner and we get clicks. We get people who scan that because they're sitting down in their magazine. Hard copies of magazines sit on a desk. If they're really pretty, they'll sit on your coffee table. You know the these, the guy, the, the guy at hog guys.
Speaker 2:You know that that sits at hunting camp you know that goes to the hunting camp and when they're sitting around at night they're thumbing through it. So it, yes, I would. I would 100% agree. You know digital. There's even some speculation. You know that digital is going to. I mean not speculation that digital is going to make a transformation in the next three to five years, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So you start looking at what is what makes sense for your brand. It doesn't make sense for every brand, but it does make sense for some brands to be in certain places. I have a dermatology clinic. They're in a local magazine. We looked at a couple of different ones. We picked one. Now are there five in the area? Absolutely, or more Sure, but we wanted to go which one makes the most sense for their target audience.
Speaker 2:We chose one or two. I think we're doing two. So it, yeah, digital for sure. And, and to your point, absolutely going on to any type of new, if it makes sense. Again, going back to is it part of the strategy? But yeah, going on a news channel, cause here's what happens, like as you do you speak to that is, they share it on their social media. You can reshare it, you can embed that link on your website. Um, now that becomes social proof. Again, it's all about why do we do all this? Yeah, it's validating that you are who you say you are, that you know what you know. Yeah, it's validating that you are who you say you are, that you know what you know. And at the end of the day, when somebody is searching all over the internet to say, hey, is this company legitimate? They see you show up in all of these places versus someone else.
Speaker 1:They're like oh well, let's give them a try because they're looking and that's the number one thing that I get asked as a marketer is how can I get on Google? It's like the most generic answer ever, right? It's like how can I get on Google? It's like, well, do you have a Google business? Yes, but it's not showing up. Okay, we got to get Google reviews. Well, how do I do SEO? It's not really how do you do SEO. It just kind of does its thing. Y'all Like SEO is just like a thing. It's just there. You got to figure it out, just like the algorithm.
Speaker 2:I like to say it's a mix of what works and voodoo magic.
Speaker 1:And I don't really know.
Speaker 2:I have SEO experts that I love to death and they're really good at what they do and I still think it's a little bit of voodoo magic, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I totally 100%, because, honestly, if we knew what SEO was, you know we would not be on this podcast talking about it. I would tell you that because we'd be on the freaking beach somewhere, because we'd be so freaking rich and freaking nice little Mai Tais, yeah, exactly. Or what is the algorithm doing today? I get that question a lot too, like I don't really know. If I knew I would let you know. But I kind of have an idea. I do the research, I try to figure it out, but none of us really know. You know they can act like they do, but, bro, you don't really know.
Speaker 2:And here's what I like here's, here's what I say to people who are looking for uh, when they look to marketers, I like to say it's the practice of marketing. It's almost like a doctor, we've done, we've read the books, we've gone to class, we've performed surgery, a couple of our clients, right, yeah, but we're still dealing with humans and humans change, algorithms change, businesses change. You know, we know what works, but that's why it's called. I call it the practice of marketing is because sometimes it's taking what we know works and testing it and then going okay, well, the algorithm shifted this week or this month. Youtube, for example, made a huge shift, you know, a couple of months ago. Podcasting has made huge shifts in the last several months. Those are things that people don't notice necessarily right away and they don't always publicize when they make changes.
Speaker 1:Oh heck no.
Speaker 2:And so you're just going to want you to figure it out. Yeah, wait a minute, this worked last month. Why is it not working this month? And then you go into digging. So you know it's great. You know, ask those questions of of your professionals, whoever you're hiring, whether you're hiring marketers or someone else. Ask those questions, because what you're looking for in the answer is well, right now, this is what's working. But, as we know, things shift and change all the time. That's why you hire me is because I'm going to pay attention on a weekly or a monthly basis to see what's changing, so that we can make adjustments along the way. That's what the results, that's what you want to hear, is hey, I am learning, I am constantly evolving, I'm constantly growing as a professional, so we're going to continue to elevate or keep moving you forward. We just may have to make some adjustments.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you're in an industry that you know changes like what we're talking about with the marketing I've learned that just being straight up with people is the easiest way to sell yourself so easy, in fact. I've been so straightforward with someone. They questioned if I knew anything. I'm like I'm not selling you on crap, like with the marketing. Like there's a bunch of us and we talk about, you know, people we don't like, that we have in common, that do what we do, and so it's like you know, because that's what marketers do, y'all. Okay, we talk crap about people, but anyway, so it's like they sell themselves and they never follow through. Or they sell this dream like we talked about earlier, like the multi-level marketing dream, like you could be a millionaire in a year. Like, shut up, you know, like be realistic with your people and be authentic to who you are, because ultimately, that's what you're going to get back from your clients and you want them to respect you.
Speaker 1:And so that same person that rejected me for being too honest came to me three months later going. I'm so sorry. I hired the shiny person when really you were telling me the truth. And can we work together? I have to freaking literally for $500 more a month after my initial proposal. You know it's like no y'all. I'm sorry, but now I'm worth more because you understand what I'm worth now Sure.
Speaker 2:Sure, and I think that goes back to if you find the honest people, you know we. I mean everything that we say. Kate Middleton is a wonderful case study right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's so intriguing to follow all of this. It's so intriguing.
Speaker 2:It really is, but, but there's. So you know that's a, that's a silly example, but really want people to say, I don't know, but I'm going to research and figure it out, or this is what's working today. We'll keep evaluating and trusting, you know, making adjustments along the way, the, the people that over. I'm a person that can be a visionary person, so when I work with companies, I can look at them and go hey, you guys are a $10 million company. We just got to get you there. Yeah, and there's a lot of things that need to happen before we can get you to a $10 million company, but we can get you there, you know, but it's not going to be like you're not going to go from 5 million to 10 million this year, like that's just not going to happen, right, yeah, but that's what you want is. You want people to be honest with you. You don't want the shiny, happy people. They're great for a song, but they're not good.
Speaker 1:And they may dance if you ask them to, but they're not going to perform well.
Speaker 2:Right, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Right. Or they'll lock you into contracts that are months long or take your freaking website after you stop paying. I'm like good Lord, the things that me and you've gone through with people about their websites being taken down because they stopped paying them. I mean you have to pay attention.
Speaker 2:We should do a whole podcast episode on things that you should own, that you should know. Oh, good idea. Regardless who you hire as a marketing strategist, yes, textaging, whatever.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing Always own it. Yes, I agree with that Y'all should be looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:We'll do. We'll do another podcast, because it's very important to own your stuff, and that's again a different topic. But ultimately today, like you know, we just wanted you guys to be educated on niching down your clientele, understanding how important it is and then also knowing your worth and that it's OK to say no to people. It's OK to fire clients. I fired one last week that took so much energy that once I fired him, within three weeks I had three new clients that took that same amount of energy, literally tripled my income because I fired the one asshole that I was working for that took all the energy, like she was talking about earlier. He wanted you know something for nothing, took all my energy.
Speaker 1:I was frustrated, did more work than I should have, let him go as a client and then got hired by three people that guess what. I don't even hear from them and that's my clientele. So if y'all are looking for someone to do social media for you and you don't ever want to talk to me holla, that's who my clientele is I don't want to talk to you but like I do, but like I don't. Like y'all are great, but like not. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:You want to, you want to. I'm going to still watch it and make sure it'd be like hey, shelby, you could have done this a little different, absolutely. You know, when you're hiring professionals and just think in general when you're hiring a professional, it doesn't matter whether you're hiring an HVAC, you're hiring a marketing professional, you're hiring a dentist, like whoever right, whoever you're hiring a travel agent like you, you're hiring them because your time is valuable and you want to trust that they're going to do a good job, because your time is more valuable than paying that person to do like you're hiring me or you're hiring Shelby because your time is more valuable at doing the higher level work of running a company, running a business, running whatever, managing your team, than it is sitting down and figuring out what is Google doing this week and am I pinning enough things to my Pinterest board and how many people clicked my social media posts Like? Your time is more valuable than that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, just like my time is more valuable than writing content. So that's why people that work for me to write content I'll help manage the content and the quality and the people. So I mean, ultimately I don't even work. Now that I'm thinking about it, I have clients that don't talk to me and then I hire people to write the content for those clients. So I mean, like, what do I even do? Maybe that's why I have this podcast, maybe that's it, maybe that's it. No.
Speaker 2:Not.
Speaker 1:Not at all. You are so no not at all.
Speaker 1:I wish what it is. But seriously, I really enjoyed our conversation today. Per the use, I'm sure we'll be doing more together. Um, we keep talking about doing like a separate podcast, but we both know we don't have time for that, so we'll just do multiple episodes on the marketing happy hour podcast and you can kind of have like a we'll call it the shell segment or come up with some fancy name. Actually, we should ask the other BI members to come up, since they're better at marketing than we are usually.
Speaker 2:Our group did kick tail. They do their sales manager moment.
Speaker 1:Me and Shell just wouldn't even go. We'd be like you know what, you don't even need us to do our manager moment. You guys know how to do marketing, like write hours for us. That'd be great, that'd be awesome. Yeah, they always did a good job. Well, thank you so much for being on today. I look forward to more conversations in the future and I will catch everybody next week. See y'all later.