Vivian:
We are actually doing our own version of myth busters today. The myth that we are going to be busting today is that when you decide as a small business owner to DIY your marketing, do it yourself, that for whatever reason you think that equates to actually doing it all by yourself, okay? That is not true.
We're gonna get into that nitty gritty conversation about the resources and just stuff that you have out there that you should be taking full advantage of so that way you don't feel like you are alone in the trenches.
Chelsea:
Absolutely. Before we get into this, I just want to say y 'all, you're never completely alone. I'm thinking about last year for Christmas, we had done a Christmas in the park sort of thing. So we built a Barbie box. Really cool. If you guys haven't seen it, go check out our social media. But you had Alex build the box.
I had Tim doing stuff too. Like it was not just you and I doing something. We got everyone involved. Mom and dad showed up. They were helping us put everything together while we were there. Like you are not alone and owning a small business can be really lonely, but it doesn't have to be.
Vivian:
Yes. I think the one thing that we all get caught up in and y 'all, I say this because I do this. Okay. I'm not ragging on anybody because this is me. I'm describing me. There are people out there who just don't want to ask. Okay. That's the biggest hurdle. I think the thing is there's some form of pride that we get out of just handling things on our own. The truth is that as humans, I don't for one second believe that we weren't intended to do life alone. Whether that equates to having good friends that grow with you over the years and into adulthood or finding a significant other that can help with alleviating a lot of this.
The other thing is just having a support system of random people that over the years you have collected in your life to help, you know, be cheerleaders and to help with your ideas or whatnot. Like Chelsea said, when we took on that initiative of actually putting something together in downtown Summerville and having to build out a Barbie box, first of all. Listen, Chelsea and I are great for painting. We're not going to be over there drilling stuff. I have a husband that is a woodworker by trait and he likes drilling stuff all day long. So that was something where easily I could say, hey, if it's not too much trouble, do you mind doing X, Y, and Z? Tim, your significant other, Chelsea, was out there helping as well, putting stuff together. There are times where you do have to ask for help.
I think that's the biggest thing going into this conversation, I just want to say, you guys don't get an award. None of us get an award for making things harder on ourselves. Okay. The award that you get from doing something like that and not asking for help when you need it is actually stress and making yourself sick and worrying over things that are unnecessary because other people may have a viable option that you just haven't thought of because you're keeping everything inside and you think you have to do it alone.
Anyways, that's my little rant and I'm off of it now.
Chelsea:
Well, I am very excited to have this conversation. I want to make it very clear to everyone that we're not just going to have like a frou-frou conversation like "don't do it alone, yada yada". We are going to give you options. We're going to give you actual resources. So don't just be like, I don't feel like listening to people tell me don't be alone and don't do it alone. We're going to give you actual resources. So listen to this conversation.
I want to say, starting off, if you are not using your team, your small business team, what are you doing? You hired these people because you had faith in them. Use them to your advantage.
Vivian:
This can be a couple different scenarios. You have a brick and mortar store and you have a team of whether that be sales associates or people that you have hired to, just, you know, make that transition or to sell your products and services, right? If that's you, if you do have team members, whether that be two or 20, then one of the ways that you can effectively do that is, and Bre` from our last podcast episode talked about this, how she has very clear communication and is pretty open with her team. Now being open doesn't mean you have to share everything, but being open does mean that you give opportunity for feedback. And so that's one of the things that she said she has found extremely useful is that she says, Hey, what ideas do you guys have? Because she knows that her waxers are going to get more tips if the company in general and the business is flourishing and doing better. And so they have skin in the game to want to give good useful tips for getting people in through the door. So if you're not leveraging your team members, like Chelsea just said, that's one way to do it. Now, Chelsea, let's talk about if you're an online business and you have a virtual assistant, you have one person that's maybe helping you and you don't meet with them, you know, on the daily, you're not face to face with them. What would that look like?
Chelsea:
I think the number one rule in this scenario is communication and having a very open relationship when it comes to, hey, can you give me some feedback? What are we doing that is not working for you? What are we doing that is working for you? Have you noticed anything that maybe we should pivot and it could help this business grow?
Allowing them and giving them the chance to interact with you and voice their opinions is going to be huge. And I want to go back real quick to Bre`. I think no matter even if it is brick and mortar or an online store, allowing people to give their opinions is going to help you. Do you need to listen to their opinion? No, I mean, you don't have to.
They are the ones in the trenches, right? They are the ones actually interacting with your customers, interacting with your clients, seeing the nitty gritty. Your personal assistant, if you have an online assistant, they are the ones doing the nitty gritty stuff that you're not doing. So they might notice something that you haven't noticed yet. So giving them the option to say, Hey, you know what? I actually think you would benefit from doing this, this way instead. Give them the option. Yeah.
Vivian:
There are definitely ways to, I think, in all my years of being a member of a senior exec team and also having the opportunity to give feedback. I think there are ways to confine this. So if you're thinking, if you're a small business owner and you just think, well, that's going to be giving my employees way too much string. When I ask them for their feedback, I'm going to hear a lot of complaining. If that's what you think, there are ways for you to queue it up and tee it up to a confined type of feedback. And so maybe that's just, go ahead.
Chelsea:
Y 'all, if you ask for feedback and you get just only negative reactions and negative feedback, you might be the problem. Like, I'm not trying to call you out, but I've witnessed this real time, okay? So I worked somewhere and no one was happy to be there, okay?
And my boss was like, hey, I want to get feedback from everyone. I want to know what we could be doing better. And I knew this was not going to go well. But she was like, let's make it anonymous so people feel comfortable and can say whatever they want.
It was so negative that she just shut the whole thing down. She was like, well, obviously people are just using this as a way to say mean stuff about me. So we're not going to listen to any of this at all. We're just going to ignore it. Don't look at any of the responses. And she just completely wrote it off, got rid of it. Y 'all.
Vivian:
they didn't even do anything with it?
Chelsea:
Nope. If the only response that you're getting is that negative. I mean, maybe take a good look at what's going on in your business.
Vivian:
Yes, because two things can be true at the same time. Yes, you could be the problem. And you also, I think to me, that's a sign that as a leader, you didn't put enough, you didn't give enough guidance as to what the purpose of the feedback was. So for example, the approach I possibly would have taken is to say, Hey, you know, it's really important to us as a small business to make sure that this is a place that, you know, we honor your opinions and we want to get feedback from all levels. So therefore, you know, sending something out that maybe has four questions. And the first question is, what do you think we're doing right? Right. Because then you start to set a positive tone, like, tell me the things that this business is doing good.
Chelsea:
Yeah. Vivian, I created this quiz. Do you think I didn't put that in there?
It was, what are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? How can we improve? And then one other thing, I don't remember what it was. According to her, it was just such a negative response that she was like, we're not looking at this at all. So I don't know.
Vivian:
And it does, I think it does hurt people when they are in management roles to hear that maybe they're not doing stuff correctly. So I will say, and as a small business owner, amplify that by 20. Okay. Because this is your business, your livelihood and your baby that you have started from, you know, inception up to now. So it can be difficult to hear some of what people have to say. And I do think that, you do have to take things with a grain of salt because, there are people too that will claim something and die on a hill because they don't want to accept responsibility in their life about something. Right. So there, there can be two things there, but I will say to your point, if you are creating these opportunities for feedback, then it is important that you do take the feedback, you read it, and you're like, okay, well, is this something that I need to move on? Right? We need to change something. Is there enough people saying this? Right? If people are saying, hey, people just don't know that we're here, right? They're driving past us, then what can I do to show them that I've taken that feedback and that we are working on that. So what's the next tip, Chelsea, now that we've kind of gotten on this little tangent about people and responsibility and whether or not they accept feedback well?
Chelsea:
Okay, so Vivian, really important, it depends on the initiative. If you're trying to create a billboard, if you are going to send out postcards, these are examples of initiatives where you can actually get help from experts. So for example, when you're reaching out to the billboard company, they usually have a graphic designer on hand. So they can help you with the process and help you with creating that billboard. For postcards, now we've done an episode on direct mail, so if you're interested in postcards, interested in direct mail marketing go listen to that episode but for direct mail you can DIY it, you can do it all yourself you can also reach out to the printing company and say hey can I have help can I have a designer. They have one on hand to help you, you don't have to do that but you know what you can also go on to USPS and they have guidelines and they have steps to walk you through the entire process.
Vivian:
Yes. And I want to make a clarification here in case anybody's wondering when we use the term do it yourself DIY, what we're talking about is not hiring an expensive, fancy marketing agency. And so that's yes, to Chelsea's point, that's the thing is if you're like, you know what, I'm not going to hire a marketing agency to do my postcards. You still have support.
Chelsea:
Yes.
Vivian:
Yes, the expensive marketing agency is going to be able to have their own graphic designers. They can help you with the branding. They can help you with all this, but you still have access to experts for that specific thing through the vendor that you're using. So postcards, you contact your local print company and you say, Hey, by the way, I'm a small business owner. I would like to do postcards through you. What do you need? What do I need to supply? Just ask them for that basic information. Like Chelsea said, you can go onto the website for the United States Postal Service and it has great information on there. But even if you're working directly with that print company, they handle all that. And the best part is they have their own graphic designers. So you don't have to go employ a marketing agency to do that. You can do that.
You can manage it, you can direct it on your own. This is also the same for, I know Chelsea, you said billboard companies, print ads. So let's say you want to take out a old school print ad in a local newspaper that you know people read. The newspaper will have people on hand as well.
So another important question for you to ask is don't just assume that they'll do that for free. I would always just follow it up with, is that a free thing that you offer to me as a small business owner or as someone that's going to be spending money to put an ad out?
For the most part, in all of my experience, it's always been free, just because they know that sometimes people aren't gonna be working through agencies and that they're gonna be placing ads, you know, directly one -on -one on their own in that you more than likely may not have a graphic designer helping you with the ads that you're doing.
Chelsea:
Pro tip though, in my experience, it is free up to a certain amount of changes. Yeah. Like it's free until like the third change. And then they're like, you're changing too much stuff. Like they don't want a constant back and forth and you saying, you know what, just here's a little tweak. Here's a little tweak. Here's a little tweak. You know, cause they also are very busy and they have things going on too. So.
Vivian:
It's hilarious to me that we always make rules for the exceptions, right? So for the people that are a pain in the butt or people that just can't get their stuff straight. Listen, another pro tip here, since Chelsea started on the pro tips, is communication is going to be key in that instance as well. So what I personally like to do is, I like having an idea already of what I would like it to look like or what we are targeting or promoting.
Then kind of packaging it up in a way to send to them. So the way you package it up is you send one consolidated email. In one email, you're going to say, this is the name of my business. This is the phone number I want on the ad. This is the general idea I have, maybe include a stock photo of a mom laughing with her baby or whatever. Also here's my logo. You have all of that in one package, your logo attached, and that way you eliminate a lot of that back and forth and the graphic designer is able to give you the best idea that they have. There likely is going to be communication after that. You know, you may look at it and say, everything's great, but can you change out the graphic? Or everything's great, but I don't like the color scheme. Can we make this banner a different color? But at least you're giving them enough information upfront that they could give you a good solid idea.
Chelsea:
Yeah, a starting point.
Vivian:
When they're having to piece all that together, I think it just gets frustrating on their end. And then they're like, well, I really don't know. I don't know what they want from me. I don't know what to promote.
Chelsea:
Yeah, well, that's really important. People cannot read your minds. They can't give you what you want if you don't tell them.
Vivian:
Yeah and can we say amen to that? Because I don't want anybody reading the intrusive thoughts I have going through this head of mine. I'd be locked up in like two seconds.
Chelsea:
Isn't that true for everyone? You know what? That's probably not true for everyone and that's why you and I are related.
Vivian:
Yeah.
Chelsea:
Okay, my next resource is gonna be one that everyone's like, yeah Chelsea, no duh, but you know what? We're still gonna say it, the World Wide Web, okay? It's easier to DIY literally anything, easier than ever. There is content out there for everything. Everything, y 'all.
Vivian:
Yes. And if you did not learn this from our previous SOB marketing episode where we had Jessica from Southern Curiosities on who did whimsical taxidermy. Yes. Whimsical taxidermy. There are resources for every single niche and every single thing that you're trying to do. And I just want to remind you guys that we actually have under The Seasoned Marketer, we have a whole YouTube channel with five plus years. I think we're going on seven years now of marketing videos. That's over 200 videos on marketing topics and tutorials, things that we walk you through. So we know for a fact, our channel alone has a plethora of information regarding marketing that you could go tap into, but we're not the only ones. There are so many podcasts, so many YouTube channels, blogs. There are people that will show you step by step how to do what you need to do. So if you're feeling a little overwhelmed, but you don't have the funds to go out and hire that marketing agency, so you're in that weird position of like, I don't enjoy doing my own marketing, but I need to because right now I can't go out and hire someone that's going to charge me $3 ,000 a month then there are tons of resources for you to tap into. So utilize that to your full advantage.
Chelsea:
Absolutely. And y 'all, it's not just tutorials. Yes, you can find tutorials, but you know what? You can find design inspiration, milled.com. We've talked about it for email marketing, sending out email campaigns and stuff like that. You can go onto milled.com and actually look at what other people are sending out to help you get in the creative zone, you know?
You can come up with ideas for marketing campaigns that you never would have thought of because you looked up, low cost marketing campaigns and all of this came up and now you feel good about your marketing. Take the time, yeah?
Vivian:
And Chelsea, yeah, let's also not gloss over the fact that like y 'all the worldwide web, www. is not the same worldwide web as it was in 2014. Okay.
Chelsea:
It was in high school, in 2014. I graduated high school in 2016.
Vivian:
What? In 2014? I graduated college in 2005.
Chelsea:
What? I didn't know that!
Vivian:
Yeah. I graduated high school in 2001, college 2005. That's wild to think of that age difference. Yeah, let me get back on track. What I was saying is in 2024, when you go on Google now, if you have your search generative experience turned on S G E Google will actually package for you the answers. The response is what you're looking for. So for example, if I have that option turned on to my Google, and I say, how do I bake bread? It will actually condense. It'll crawl all the information. It will condense it. And at the very top, it's going to show me the steps to do it. So I don't even have to go clicking on like 10 different websites anymore. It condenses all of that for me.
Chelsea:
Yeah. I will say, Devil's Advocate, I would still go and click on some stuff because like, is it always right? There's a lot of examples out there of it being hilariously wrong, but yeah.
Vivian:
True story. Yeah, for sure. You always want to double check. And especially when it comes to like, I know the example I used was not a good example because I was talking about making bread, but, you know, obviously marketing your small business is a lot more important than baking a loaf of bread.
My main point is if you have something like that at your fingertips... I have friends that sometimes will get on Facebook and they will ask a random question and I'm like, do they not have Google?
Like, I'm just going to say I would rather Google than go to my group of friends on Facebook who I know are probably going to give me opinions and the wrong answer. I don't want opinions. I want facts.
Chelsea:
Okay, this is gonna make you so mad and it makes Tim so mad. I'll ask a question to Tim and he'll say, I don't know, look it up. No, I don't wanna do that. He's like, are you serious? It'll take like two seconds, just Google it. I'm like, you Google it. I don't feel like Googling it. He's like, my God, you can just ask Siri. Like you don't even have to open your phone, just ask Siri. And I'm like, that's too much work. I'm not gonna do that.
Usually he bullies me until I do it, like he won't let me leave it alone until I look up the answer, but...
Vivian:
Well, and being from the same family, I'm the exact opposite of you. Yesterday we were watching The Patriot, the movie. I went like, I started Googling all of these characters. I wanted to see the Colonel, like what the Colonel actually looked like. I wanted to know who Mel Gibson's character was actually, you know, inspired by. Went into this whole thing. So I am the Googling Queen. I love Googling.
Chelsea:
I have to be in the mood to do it. I have to really care. I have to be really interested. I will say I think part of it, and we both had different reactions to this, but growing up, I don't know about you, but for me, dad, I would ask him a question and he would say, I don't know, figure it out and then give me a 10 page essay about it front and back, 12 font times New Roman. I want it by tonight. He was kidding of course, but still.
Vivian:
See, for me, I think it's because, you don't remember this, Chelsea, but back in the day, we actually had physical encyclopedias. Listen, I love just like opening that stuff up and randomly reading things. I don't know, just, curiosity. Yeah. So I'm a big Googler. I'm a big advocate for pulling out your phone when you don't know something. I will say this, going back to the topic at hand when we're talking about leveraging Google or online resources to figure stuff out when you're keeping your marketing in house and having to figure it out as a small business owner. There are a ton of great blogs out there. I was reading a blog yesterday, just out of curiosity, that someone had written, it was a marketing agency that had written it.
They basically had like a Q&A thing, like tips on what to do and tips on what not to do when you're working with a marketing agency. They very clearly laid out all of the information and the information was really good. And so I think that, whatever it is that you're asking yourself, if you have any trepidation about going into creating postcards or, I want to try to run Facebook ads. You can find a plethora of stuff out there to help guide you, give you tips, or even show you an online tutorial of how to literally click everything you have to click on in order to launch that Facebook ad.
Chelsea:
I will say, a shameless plug to The Seasoned Marketer, that does take a lot of scouring the World Wide Web and finding all that information. That's why we specifically try to organize our resources in a way that you can find the information that you're looking for quickly. And that's why we have templates and downloads and stuff like that because we know that it can be a lot of work finding all that information. So we try to make it as simple as possible for all our small business owners who want to use us as a resource.
I want to talk about our next resource, which is community. And I like to think The Seasoned Marketer, I hope you guys think of us as a community because that's what we want to be, a resource hub and a community to help small business owners feel comfortable about asking all these questions. Community is a great way to get answers and get help from people who are right there with you. Like Facebook groups, Facebook groups are a great example.
Vivian:
Yeah, Chelsea, I think that's Facebook groups are a big one, especially because you guys know when you join a Facebook group, you are intentionally joining it because of the topic at hand. Okay. So one of the ones that I love here locally is I'm a part of Charleston Women in Business. So it's exactly what it says. Women in Business in Charleston. Okay. But the cool thing is that it's a great place to go and not just put ideas out there, or if you have like random thoughts, like one of the things that I've seen a lot in that particular group and now also in the Monks Corner Small Business Group is one of the girls is putting together a meetup and it's free, but it's just like, Hey, if you're a small business owner and you need to get out there and meet other small business owners to talk shop or just to spread the word about your business, then here's the date and time. And so I do think that the community, what happens for me is...All right, it's kind of like, you know when people...I don't wanna use this as an example, but you know when people go off to war and stuff and they come back? And they have this...
Chelsea:
I can see why you didn't want to use this example, but I'm sorry, no, go ahead. I'm sure it may - go ahead.
Vivian:
They have this unshakable bond, right? Because you've been through this traumatic experience and nobody else back home is going to understand what you're doing. Let's take that example down a notch, okay? Because I don't want to compare what we're doing to anything traumatic like that. Y
Chelsea:
Well, I have an example. Military spouses.
Vivian:
Yes, yes.
Chelsea:
Just military families in general. Dad was in the Air Force when we were growing up. That's a very different way to live and experience life. And so being able to form connections with other military kids and military spouses and stuff like that, those are people who understand what you're going through.
Vivian:
Absolutely. Because the thing is, the day to day to an outsider may look the same to them, but they don't know that at home you're, as a spouse, you're worried about not knowing where your husband is necessarily stationed at maybe, or that you don't know if you're going to have to pick up and move the kids within a month because you're getting TDY to another place, right? So the thing is, I do think there are just connections that are made when you experience something that is a little different. And as a small business owner, I'm telling you right now, you are living life differently. Okay? The reason I say that is because the stuff that you have signed up for, the not knowing, you know, a year from now, how things are gonna change, the amount of skin in the game that you have, right? The money that you've invested, the amount of time. Taxes is always a big thing, figuring out your taxes. The amount of having to figure out how to do your marketing, how to do your admin, whatever other hats you're wearing throughout the day, that's very different than what the person who is clocking in nine to five is experiencing in their daily life.
The advantage of that in the form of when you meet another small business owner, start to build that connection in that community. You guys are doing something that's different, right? You have that commonality and I'm not saying that you have to like every small business owner out there, certainly. Nnobody is going to want to see you win more.
Can I tell you the coolest thing I saw recently on Instagram, Chelsea? Okay. There is a gentleman that I follow who is from Atlanta and they found out that there was a small black owned business that was having a hard time. I guess maybe she had gone on Facebook and said like, Hey, we're going to close up shop. They just were not getting enough sales. He got an entire group of people together. They streamed it on Instagram and they all flooded her small business and went in and made a purchase. How cool is that? That for one, you're showing people and giving her free PR because people probably didn't know that she was there. Secondly, you are interjecting funds into her small business that day. They're all going in and purchasing one item. Then on top of it, now all of those people that were introduced, that were physically there that day, they know they can go back for repeat purchases. She was in tears at the end of the video, just thanking them and saying, thanks for bringing visibility to my business. that is the power y 'all. Small business owners, we're a community. We don't want to see any small business owner having a close up shot because of a lack of anything.
Chelsea:
Yeah. I want to take a second. This is kind of off topic, but not. The holiday season is coming up. I implore you guys to try your hardest to shop small. I know Vivian and I, I have been trying to do this for a while now. I know Vivian, you specifically last year you were like, I'm going to try to get all of my presents from small business owners. It is knowing that the money is going back to your community, knowing that my purchase means so much, not only to the person I'm giving the gift to, but to the person that I bought the gift from. Just try, I know you probably can't do all of it, but just try your best to think, can I?
Vivian:
Yeah, and I had the best time last year. Chelsea is a much better shopper than I. Y 'all, I leave everything last minute. I shop like...
Chelsea:
you mean planner. You don't mean shopper. You mean planner. I am already shopping for Christmas. Yes.
Vivian:
Okay. So I leave everything last minute because that's just the way it goes. And last year I made it a point. I was like, you know what? I'm not going to do that. I'm actually going to, like you said, I'm going to be conscious about where I spend my money and I want it to help small businesses. The thing that to me really stood out is I can buy much more cooler gifts.
Chelsea:
Yes.
Vivian:
I can get stuff that actually people will enjoy a lot more. Karen Romano, one of our friends, we went in and I had fun doing it throughout the season because I went to local like things, right? You and I, Chelsea, I think we went and stopped by Park Circle one day, at The Station. We love that place, and I was able to get some earrings and stuff like that, but I had fun doing it. So I went to these events and then Karen and I, we went to one of them. She noticed I kept looking at this painting and for Christmas she ended up gifting me that painting from a local artist that I now have in my room. It's much more meaningful to me than something she could have gotten at Target or something like that.
Chelsea:
Yeah. So just something to consider. Also real short PSA, people like me are already shopping for the holidays. So keep that in mind as a small business owner, you might want to start your holiday planning now.
Vivian:
Small business owners. You should be. I mean, it's September and I hate to say it, y 'all. It gets earlier and earlier every year, but people like Chelsea over there with cash burning a hole in her pocket, you you want to be sure that you get her in.
Chelsea:
It just works better for me financially because then I can like space out the money that I spend.
Vivian:
Yeah. Well, especially since you're going to buy your big sissy a really great Christmas gift, right? Eye roll. All right. So going back to community, you guys though, the one thing that we also want to mention is our SOB community that we're launching, Chelsea. So by the time you're listening to this episode, I can tell you that it's going to be launching this upcoming Monday. So if you're interested in joining the SOB community, you guys, we're going to put a link to it down below. can get early access to it now, even though it doesn't officially launch until Monday. But Chelsea, tell them what the SOB community is and why we created it.
Chelsea:
Vivian and I listen to y 'all, okay? And you're DIYing it, you're doing it yourself, you can't afford to hire a marketing agency, or maybe you can, but let's be honest, I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but this is a true opinion, okay? You, as the small business owner, can market your small business better than any marketing agency, better than anyone else because you understand the core of your small business. And sometimes all you need is someone to answer your question or all you need is a tutorial or a little guidance.
So Vivian and I said, how can we help small business owners specifically with this problem? And the best we could come up with, and I think it's a really good idea, so I don't like the way that I said the best we can come up with, because it is the best, because it's really smart. Anyways, sorry. The SOB community. So it is a community for small business owners, you can interact with each other, you can build that relationship, ask small business owners their opinions, you'll have access to templates, to downloads, to tutorials and lessons in marketing, and you will also have access to Vivian and I. So once a week, we're going to do an hour long Zoom call where you can ask us any of your marketing questions.
No matter how specific they are. Like if you have a question specifically for your small business and something you are trying to do, we will answer it. Because for one, that's what we're here to do. We're here to help you guys. But two, it's so likely that another small business owner is going through the exact same thing as you and has the same question and wants the same question answered.
Vivian:
Yeah. I think that the community calls, those group calls are really going to be gold because like you said, Chelsea, other people may be having the same questions or the same concerns or issues and to be able to have someone ask it directly of a marketing professional and then getting their take on it in that time. Because as we all know, marketing changes from week to week, month to month. So because we are staying up to date with everything that goes on in the marketing world, you guys won't have to. You'll have direct access to us. We're using a platform called Skool, which I'm really excited about because of the way that it's set up.
We've divided it up into areas that you could go within the community to get responses to questions, or if you've discovered something, if you need feedback for something, you can, kind of put it up in a certain section of the community. So hopefully you guys will take full advantage of that because I promise you as a marketing professional with over 15 years of experience. think I'm going over 20 years at this point. I'm actually cutting myself off of a few years. I've worked with agencies before and I've done it DIY for the longest time because the working with agencies sometimes just requires a whole lot more work than what you think. And like Chelsea said, if your communication is not on point, then sometimes things get lost in translation.
The biggest thing is I want you guys to know that if you have the funds or if you decide to take the plunge and work with a marketing agency, it does not absolve you from actually doing marketing initiatives for your business. You still have to be engaged and involved.
What we saw was there is a gap between where you're doing it yourself, you're keeping your marketing in -house and then you're taking that leap to hire an agency to help you with it. There's that big gap in between there. So what we're hoping to do is fill that gap and we're going to be the in -between. We're going to be the place where you guys can pay $50 a month. And in there you get weekly calls with two marketing professionals, Chelsea and I, and an entire group, a community behind you.
Chelsea:
Also, those calls are going to be recorded. So if you miss a call, you can watch it. I also want to point out that marketing is different for everyone. You'll get Vivian and I's opinion. Vivian and I don't always agree. We don't always go about something the same way. So you'll get two marketing opinions. Even though we're one, The Seasoned Marketer, we are two different individuals. I know. Can you believe it?
Vivian:
I mean, attached at the hip, but still two different individuals. I think that's, extremely important because the thing is too, Chelsea and I are sisters, but we are 15 years apart. We are both marketing professionals. We have different marketing experiences. When you ask someone for an opinion, like Chelsea just stated, hers is gonna be slightly different than mine, right? And that's because she's still 20 something. She sees the world differently than I do as a 40 year old. And so neither one of them is 100 % right all the time. I think marketing is a little more of an art form than what people give it.
Chelsea:
Yeah, on God. I'm gonna start my Gen Z slang. On God, no cap.
Vivian:
please don't. I'm not going to able to understand. I'm not going to understand anything you say. If you're joining our SOB community, can tell you as a big sister, Chelsea will not be able to use lingo like that. Not allowed. Otherwise she will get kicked out. So you have my commitment.
Chelsea:
That, you know what, that's very important. I'm sure that's a selling point right now. Don't have to listen to Gen Z lingo.
Vivian:
Yeah, come to a place where the lingo safe you understand everything we're talking about but I am really excited because the other thing is if you've been if you've known anything about the season market or over the years, you know, we started a YouTube channel a long time ago and what Chelsea and I did for this particular community because we're not just linking to our previous YouTube videos because I know they can be lengthy at times and sometimes you don't need all that explanation. You just want to be able to pop in, give me the bread and butter of what I need to do and that is it. So with Chelsea, we've gone in and we've actually recorded some new videos, tutorials for this and if it's something like, hey, you're debating whether or not you want to work with the print company, great. We have a quick tutorial video on that, factors you need to consider, pros and cons, very straight to the point.
Chelsea:
And these tutorials are quick, straight to the point. I mean, for the ones that I recorded, my longest one is maybe five minutes long. Maybe.
Vivian:
Yeah, mine are a little lengthier because I'm a little long -winded. I think the videos on their average, like Chelsea said, maybe five minutes. The, other thing is a big benefit to getting in on this community now and being active in it is not just that you get to hop on these weekly zoom calls with the group and with Chelsea and I, and we get to have real discussions about your small business and what you could do to grow it. But we're also going to have guests that come in. Chelsea and I know some really cool people that have some really good experience doing stuff that, you know, that you guys can benefit from. So we're going to invite them to come talk about that. And the most important part of it is that you guys get to shape the direction of this community. Chelsea and I were just having a discussion about this, how, you know, we talked about feedback. We are also going to be asking you guys for feedback. What that's going to look like is we're going to say, Hey guys, for the next two quick tutorials that we do, what do you want them to be on? Okay. And so you get to have direct input on how we build out that library of the topics that we're covering within the SOB platform, that Skool community.
So if you guys want more information, wanna see everything that you get and want to join today, simply go to school, Skool.com/SOB. All right, and Chelsea will link it for you guys down below.
Chelsea:
Yes, I will. And just want to say the core of this conversation is DIY marketing, doing it yourself does not mean you have to do it alone. It just means that you're not hiring a big agency to do it with you. Okay. When you hire a marketing agency, that does not absolve you. That still includes you as well. Just wanted to point that out again.
But you are not alone. You have your team, you have the internet, you have community, and hopefully you'll have the SOB community to help you along the way. So guys, go out there, be the best SOB, and go check out the community!
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