Rocky Mountain Marketing- Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs

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.

In this week's episode, we have Lara Smedley. Lara is an event producer and owner of Smedley Events. She has more than a decade of experience in sports marketing and event production. Her passion for creating experiences to lasting memories pushed Smedley Events to become the go-to for most Colorado and Texas corporate, brands, and non-profit organizations.The year 2020 didn't favor the events industry so much that there was a need for her to pivot. She thought of a way to stay afloat. This is when My Fan Seat was born. She saw an emerging trend in Europe and Asia where Fan cutouts are placed in the team's stadium while in-person attendance is still restricted. This brilliant idea kept them afloat in the middle of the pandemic.Lara also talked about the importance of niching down. It's been said a lot of times that working with clients that you truly resonate with, allows you to bring out the best of your skills. With focusing only on her ideal clients, she made her business best suited to her lifestyle.Discover more of Lara's excellent journey as she keeps her business not only surviving but thriving.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Lara's website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larasmedley/Smedley Events: https://www.smedleyevents.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smedleyevents/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.

How many times were you told to work hard so you can be successful?We all work hard for our business. Who doesn't? But working hard is just half of the story, the other half is working smart.In this week's episode, we have Amanda Abella of Make Money Your Honey podcast and Persuade to Profit Training. She is a millennial personal finance and business expert who lives to work smart rather than hard. She started as a freelance writer in 2010 and worked with big financial companies for 8 years writing financial blogs and education campaigns. In 2016, she thought of scaling her business but didn't know how to do it. In 2017, she started coaching her writing clients on the side for extra income. They called it Persuade to Profit and it turned out to be a huge success. It was then that she started scaling up her business.Amanda believes that having a high-ticket sales offering should be one's goal so we can eventually live our lives the way we want. As business owners, we should know what is the life we want, and then start figuring out how to do it. Once you have identified these, think of the actual process on how to achieve these then ask yourself if you can do it.She suggested 3 ways to scale a business: intellectual property, systems and technology, and hiring people. Depending on your lifestyle and interest, you can choose any of these 3 for your high-ticket sale offering. Amanda chose the intellectual property path. She has courses and programs for people who want to learn the business and her clients pay her for it. This is how she scaled her business and it's absolutely working for her.So if you still don't have your premium package to offer, then you got to listen to this podcast now.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Amanda's website: https://www.amandaabella.com/Podcast: https://www.amandaabella.com/make-money-your-honey/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandaabella/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.

In this week's episode, we are lucky to have a wonderful discussion with Amber Sigg. Amber is the owner of The Pointe Real Estate, LLC and On Pointe Complete. She is a realtor, a business coach, a mom, and a wife. She's a superwoman! Amber started her career as early as her high school days. She was then an assistant to a realtor and eventually to the realtor's husband, who was a developer. She learned a lot from this experience and grew fond of the business.Fast forward to the year 2000, she got her real estate license and started working as a real estate agent. She found great success and eventually established her own brokerage firm. She learned a lot over the years and created effective processes and systems for her business. After a while, she learned that she enjoys supporting other realtors to find success like her.She believes that establishing a business is hard that's why she wanted to share her knowledge and experiences to other real estate professionals who are still struggling. Amber believes in the power of networking and deep connections. She calls them business power partners. With excellent networking, you can get referrals that are very good for your business. Listen and get lots of amazing tips and tools in business and life from Amber Sigg.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Amber's website: https://opcomplete.com/The Pointere: https://thepointere.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opcomplete/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.

In today's episode, we have Katie Guenther. Katie is the founder of Bela Blue Solutions. She believes that email marketing doesn't have to be complicated. It can be really simple. Her advise is to start with choosing the right email marketing platform to use. She recommended three platforms which she thinks are the simplest of all the other platforms available. These are Mailerlite, Awebber and Flodesk. Choose what's the best that suits you and your business.Once you have chosen a platform, the next thing is to establish an email list. She said that the best way to do it is to just keep it simple, collect emails, and grow your list. You will need a lead magnet in exchange of your audience's email. This lead magnet should be attractive enough that it answers your audience's pain point. It's also a little sneak peek of the value you can provide to them. It should be something that would leave them wanting more. Katie Guenther also reminds us that our email list is the only thing that we can call our own. Instagram owns our followers, Facebook owns our friends' list, and LinkedIn owns all our connections. When these social media platforms decided to stop or block our account, there's no way we can retrieve our contacts or connections there. Email marketing is about building deep relationships with your audience in a more personal way. It can do wonders to your business if done with consistency and the right strategy.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Katie's website: https://belablue.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelaBlueSolutions/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emailkatie/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.

Truly, relationship building is essential for everyone's business.For sure you've heard people telling you about the right systems, and the right strategies are the most important elements of your business. In this week's episode, our guest Morag Barrett, will smash this idea with her knowledge and years of experience managing high-performing teams. She is the CEO and founder of the SkyeTeam. She is also the author of the bestselling book Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships. She started in the finance industry where she enjoyed working with numbers. She worked with many startups and found that even with the best strategies and great systems, businesses can fail.Her long years of experience taught her that establishing deep connections with the people around you is far more important. Contrary to what many entrepreneurs believe, she advocates that business is personal and relationship matters. When asked about her advice to other entrepreneurs, she said that the best thing to do is to invest in the hearts and minds of people who will get the service or in your team who will take the risks.She believes in the importance of masterminds. There's nothing wrong with trading information to other business owners. She believes that the world has enough space for everyone and that it is our responsibility to support one another.Listen in and discover more about the importance of relationship-building in your business.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Morag's websiteSkyeTeam: http://www.skyeteam.com/Cultivate at Work: http://www.cultivateatwork.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moragbarrett/Ally Mindset Profile: skyeteam.cloud/ampLearn 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.

In this week's episode, we are joined by Stephanie Mojica. Stephanie is a book development coach who helps executive coaches, business owners, attorneys, and other decision-makers be the go-to experts in their field through writing and publishing a book. Contrary to what people thought is daunting, Stephanie makes writing an enjoyable endeavor. She grew up with families who also wrote stories and poems. When she was in high school, she is convinced that she wanted to be a journalist. She took early English courses in the summer, allowing her to take a journalism class as early as her freshman year. At the end of her freshman year, she took an internship in a large newspaper in Virginia. From the newsroom, she transitioned to publishing. One step led to another, and last 2008, she published her first book. Stephanie believes that writing and publishing your own book is essential for consultants, coaches, and other decision-makers. According to her, your book serves as your credibility marker. Books can tell what you know and how you help your clients. It is a great venue to establish your authority in your niche. She has strategies that can simplify the writing process. If you have a blog or a Youtube channel, these contents can be repurposed and turned into a book. Just make sure that your book is properly edited and proofread. It has to look as professional as possible. She ended the conversation with a reminder that it is okay not to be perfect. There's no shame in asking for help.Tune in and learn more about book publishing with Stephanie Mojica. Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Stephanie's website: https://gettheirattentionnow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemojica/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.

In this week's episode, we are joined by Omar Mo. Omar is a content marketing strategist who helps small business owners live happier, healthier, and full of freedom. After finishing his studies in Houston, Texas, he decided to travel around the East side of the world. He spent the time wandering in New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, and more. He interviews people wherever he went and finds joy in learning and discovering things about them and their culture.He started freelancing and eventually founded his own business from his laptop. He considers himself as a digital nomad and works while travelling from country to country. He dreamed of building his business around his lifestyle and was successful in doing so. His business follows not the traditional marketing that is via the different social media platforms. He discovered the potentials of podcast not just in getting more leads but also in driving revenue into the business. He believes that now is the age of video and audio marketing. Business-to-business models can benefit so much from podcasting. It allows you to have a one-on-one talk to your buyer persona and deep dive into a meaningful conversation with him or her so by the end of it he or she knows, like and trust you. He also calls this as a pillar content where a 30-minute podcast can be repurposed for a number of social media posts. It's incredible how he manages his team from his laptop. Omar believes in the power of delegation. He said that there are a lot of tools now that will allow you to communicate even you're halfway through the globe. Tune in and learn more about how you can build your business while enjoying the freedom of going to places that you only have dreamed of.Like the show? Keep Katie running and show her your support!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiebrinkleyEPISODE LINKSVisit Omar's website: https://www.nomadscast.com/Instagram: @itsomarmoPodcast: https://www.nomadscast.com/podcastLearn 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.