Rocky Mountain Marketing- Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs

We're down to the last episode of Rocky Mountain Marketing for 2021 and all I can say is WOW!It was a crazy year but we managed to stay. YASSSS!!!We're so grateful to all our listeners, our guests, and to everyone who week after week joins us in a 30-minute of golden conversation about all things entrepreneurship and marketing.One of the highlights of 2021 was the rise of social audio. I joined Clubhouse in January and it changed the course of my business in ways that I didn't expect. I have spoken on two news channels regarding this new social audio platform and have been taking the stage daily to share social media tips, Clubhouse tips, podcast tips, and more. I’ve also closed thousands of dollars in sales, spoken at summits, and appeared on more podcasts than ever before. It was definitely a game-changer!Aside from social audio, podcasts become more popular than ever. I have guested on numerous podcasts and every single episode was full of amazing tips and lessons from other entrepreneurs' experiences. There are a lot of other business owners who are two, three, or ten steps ahead of me and it's so thrilling to get to know them, hear their insights, and learn from their stories.This year was also big in short-form videos such as Instagram Reels. There's no doubt people are drawn to catchy, fun, but informational video clips, thus Instagram announced in June that Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app. Instagram head, Adam Mosseri, said that they are now leaning into entertainment and videos like that of the competitors such as TikTok and Youtube.All these highlights and more were featured in this year's episodes of Rocky Mountain Marketing. Join us as we revisit these top 5 most downloaded episodes in 2021.#5 Donovan Dreyer - What You Should Know About Your Mental Health and Your Business Donovan discussed the importance of making mental health a priority especially when you're an entrepreneur. He shared his concept of traffic lights as a standard in categorizing one's mental condition.#4 Amanda Abella - Work Smarter, Not Harder: The Secret To Selling A High-Ticket OfferAmanda shared her top 3 ways to scale - Intellectual Property, Systems and Technology, and Hiring People. #3 Amber Sigg - Put On Your Blinders and Focus on Your Own RaceAmber reminded us that mindset is everything. We have to have faith in ourselves and in our plans. We should focus on our own journey.#2 Kendra Swalls - Do Instagram Reels Really Work For Your Business?Kendra talked about whether or not we should spend time doing Reels for our business and how we can make it work for us.#1 Sue B. Zimmerman - Top Instagram Strategies with The Instagram ExpertSue has been teaching how to use Instagram for your businesses for about 9 years now and stresses the importance of having video content in your Instagram feed to reach more people. She believes that showing up in your videos can help people "know-like-and-trust" you. The more authentic you are, the more people will love and believe in what you do, and when they do, they become your strongest advocate.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyLearn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: clubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode, Mary Gaul discussed how important it is to participate in a mastermind, which in her own words she calls Peer Advisory Board. Having a group of entrepreneurs who are willing to listen and contribute in whatever you're in right now in your business and a certified facilitator who has the right tools to bring out the best from every member and every situation. She stressed the importance of acknowledging small wins and how great it is to celebrate with people who understands your journey. According to her, a safeplace where you can contribute your stories, tips, and thoughts is very important.Mary is a strong believer of the effectiveness of having an accountability partner. She said that there are studies that shows a majority of entrepreneurs do what they do because of an accountability partner. This also helps in creating habits and microhabits. With microhabits, she goes more specific in doing your task. If you're doing marketing for an hour, you should say I will comment on 10 accounts in an hour. You go more specific and make it a habit.As the owner of Success Magnified, she also talked about her "tight-loose-tight" strategy in handling a newly hired virtual assistant. Most of the time business owners let go of their new VAs to early without really trying. By using the right strategy and tools such as Loom videos, you can achieve more things than you can expect with your VA.Listen in and gift yourself this jam packed episode with only the industry expert, THE Mary Gaul. Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Mary's website: www.successmagnified.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marygaulentrepreneursuccessmagnified/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuccessMagnified/Learn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: joinclubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podcast is definitely sweeter the second time around. In this week's episode, we have Jennie Wright. Jennie is our go-to for list building and lead generation. She is also an expert in launching summits and challenges. And for every summit, she uses a Facebook group to gather participants' email addresses, as well as engage and build a community with them. It is an amazing platform to collaborate, host masterminds, and support other members. However, Jennie reminded that in order to gather email addresses there has to be something of value that you will provide in exchange.When asked if it is better to host your own Facebook group, or just join an existing one, her straightforward answer was it depends. If you have the capacity to commit to growing the group, that is providing valuable content every day or engaging with them on a regular basis, then you might just be a perfect community manager. Otherwise, it might be beneficial to just join already existing groups of the same interest.If you're still on the fence about launching your own summit, make sure to tune in and get lots of golden nuggets from this week's conversation.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyVisit Jennie's website: https://jenniewright.com/Email: jennie@jenniewright.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennielwright/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniewrightjlw/?originalSubdomain=caFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennie.wright.50System to Thrive: https://systemtothrive.com/Learn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: joinclubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this week is Kayleigh Schadwinkel. Kayleigh is an award-winning traveling choreographer and dance teacher with over 20+ years of dance training and 10+ years of choreography. She started dancing at the age of 3. When she was in university, she organized a lot of dance programs and one of these is Put On Your Dancing Shoes (POYDS) which after a couple of years become her own dance company. After graduating from the university, she entered the corporate world and at the age of 23 became the youngest Executive Director of Crete Chamber of Commerce in Nebraska. It was a lot of 18-to-20-hour workday for her as she develop community-wide event schedules, marketing strategies, action planning for events and festivals, and so much more. But she enjoyed all of it.However, Kayleigh's heart is in dancing. She was running POYDS on the side while she was in corporate. And then one day she thought that she wanted to focus and continue pursuing her passion. With a very strong support system of friends and family, she left the corporate world and focused on her own company full-time.She reiterates the importance of vulnerability and delegation in growing the business. She said that entrepreneurship is not easy and it will help a lot if you know how to ask for help. Also, she highlighted the importance of networking. It's in networking that she gets referrals and this is where most of her business is coming from. Listen in this week's episode and be amazed on how this 28-year old business owner conquers the world one twirl at a time. Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Kayleigh's website: https://www.poydsdancecompany.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POYDSDanceCo/Learn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: clubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comhttps://linkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest today is Morgan Sutton. Morgan is the Chief Executive Officer of Sue B. Zimmerman Enterprises LLC. When she was younger, she was always the "mature kid" in the group. She was the one who takes charge. This sense of responsibility and organization become embedded in her. That's why it's not surprising to know that at the age of 29 she is already the CEO of a million-dollar company. She joined a sorority in college and found her passion in organizing and building relationships with people. When she started working with Sue, she used these organizational skills in helping her in the store. They have amazing marketing at that time and so they thought of doing workshops in Sue's vacation house. Morgan said that this was where her marketing education really started. As the world turns digital, Sue and Morgan allowed their business to evolve from their physical store to online. It was not an easy road. Every year they have new challenges to face. She said that her biggest regret was when she let her integrity be so strong that she didn't want to do traditional marketing strategies. She later realized that the marketing and sales concepts that existed way back hold true up to this point. The real challenge is how to make these work for your business. Join us as we learn more about systems and marketing strategies in this episode of Rocky Mountain Marketing.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Morgan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinstagramexpert/SBZ Team Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sbzteam/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SueBZimmermanEnterpriseLearn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: clubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comhttps://linkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You may not have the right tools, but you can find a way to make it work." - Sarah LemmonToday's episode with Sarah Lemmon is gold. As early as grade school, she saw that life is not always the good stuff and that it's very important to look at things in different perspectives. Her "Gray Crayola" story turned out to be one of her most valuable lessons in life.As she started her business, she realized that the path to success is not unique. There are different ways to do things. "It's all about perspective.", she said. You may not have the right tools for your business, but surely you can figure out a way to make it work. Sarah turned her lemons to lemonades. She started 3rd Bird Kombucha unexpectedly as she was only brewing, initially, for her son. It just so happen that a friend who has a pop-up market invited me to sell one summer. But as time goes by, she felt that she needed to define her business more. She decided to slow down and think about the business, what marketing works best, how can she differentiate her business from others, and simply, why did she choose this business. All her business tips and advice when you listen to this episode. Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Sarah's website: https://3rdbirdcollective.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3rdBirdKombucha/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3rdBirdKombucha/Learn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: joinclubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this week is Jesica Marican. Jesica is the owner and organizer of Denver Home Organizing. As a new mom with new challenges, she felt like she wanted to do more. She thought of starting her home organizing business in Denver, put it online, and the rest is history. Jesica said that when organizing homes she makes sure she creates a system for her clients to maintain clutter and day-to-day ins and outs of actual physical things in the home. She believes that our surroundings make a huge impact in our mental state. According to her, an organized home gives a calm and peaceful solution to her clients. She said that when you reduce your clutter, you are also reducing your stress.Her business is now 4 years strong and continues to thrive amid the pandemic. When the lockdown happen, she tried to switch her services online, but it didn't work. Glad there are online freelancing platforms such as Thumbtack which allowed her to post her services for everyone to see. It's best for local businesses because you only pay per lead.There are a lot of online platforms that work like Thumbtack and we believe that they are an excellent starting point for small businesses to gather leads. You have to start somewhere and these platforms give you just that.You wouldn't want to miss out on this episode!Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Jesica's website: https://www.denverhomeorganizing.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denver.home.organizing/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denverhomeorganizingLearn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: clubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now, I can honestly say that it's absolutely sweeter the second time around! This week we're lucky to have, once again, Kendra Swalls of Girls Means Business. Kendra is still our mompreneur and a strong advocate of helping women transition from survival to success mode. However, her business have grown so much since the last time we spoke. Huge part of this is how she was able to maximize Instagram Reels.In this episode, she shared her journey in using Instagram Reels for her business. It was not a love at first sight, she said. When TikTok emerged, she didn't really see herself in it BUT she saw the results and was completely in amazed. As Instagram introduced its own version of short-form video, Instagram Reels, she thought of trying it out and unexpectedly, gave her excellent results!Kendra sees Reels as a very effective strategy in reaching out to your target audience. It's short, addictive, and relatively easy to create. These 15-30 second videos are just about the perfect length for the general Instagram users to get hooked with your message. Not to mention the trending music, dance and funny acts that you can do in it.Short-form video is here to stay so don't miss this episode as she shares her top strategies in creating no-sweat Instagram Reels. Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyVisit Kendra's website: https://girlmeansbusiness.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlmeansbusiness/Learn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: joinclubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Part of being entrepreneur is that sense of unknowing." - Lida CitroënIn this week's episode, we have Lida Citroën. She was in corporate America for 20 years moving from one industry to the next. It's not that she can't do one job perfectly, it's more of accomplishing so much in that one position and then challenging herself to be as successful in another one, in a totally different industry.She established Lida360 last 2008 in the worst economy. She thought of helping businesses to do strategic branding and global positioning. Lida turned these trying times to guide other businesses on how to position themselves to be competitive in a very complicated market. Lida connected with other business owners and had informational interviews with them. Surprisingly, the advice that she got consistently from other successful business owners, was to NOT have a business plan yet. She was told that creating a business plan at the onset will cause you to miss the organic part of the business. She mentioned that as she started her business thinking that she will help businesses in doing marketing, as she was doing for years. And then personal branding found her and she fell in love with it. A personal brand is a narrative or a value proposition that defines yourself. She believes every business, in every industry, should have this. It is creating a story where you tell who you are authentically and with consistency. And this is where you connect with your people, human to human. Check out her new book entitled Control The Narrative: An Executive's Guide to Building, Pivoting, and Repairing your Reputation.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyVisit Lida's website: https://www.lida360.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lida360/Learn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: joinclubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are you on social media?What do you think you'll get from here?Most business owners find social media as an "easy way" to grow their business. Post your product then people will like it and they'll buy from you. Done.But we're here to tell you this is not, at all, true!In this week's episode, I had the pleasure of talking to Dan Peterson Owner and Founder of Flipswitch Consulting. He is a social media marketing and sales training expert with approximately 20 years of experience. They started working on website design for small businesses and eventually, branched out to social media marketing. He said that until now, there are a lot of small businesses that are not yet on social media. Either they don't have the time or can't do it. Flipswitch offers to help them but owners have to do their part as well. They launched #thinksocialfirst to encourage their clients to always take a photo or capture in video their daily milestones and activities. He also stressed out that most business owners think that social media is a quick-fix scheme. "If you are starting social media now, then you are years behind from where everybody else is.", Dan said. It is meaningful connections rooted in genuine engagement and interactions built over the years, that give you the most of your social media presence. Tune in to this week's episode and discover how huge brands and big social media accounts get to where they are now.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Dan's website: http://www.flipswitchconsulting.com/https://www.facebook.com/FlipSwitchSocialMediaLearn more about Katie and Next Step Social Communications: Clubhouse: joinclubhouse.com/@katiebrinkleyhttps://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.comlinkedin.com/in/katiebrinkleyhttps://www.instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.