Hey guys, how are you? Welcome back to the podcast. Amazing to have you here. I hope that you are having a good week. I am excited to share today's episode with you we go deep into some of the things that you can really be thinking about when it comes to creating intentional marketing. And as I say in this episode, sales, marketing and branding are like three peas in a pod that you really need to understand how they all work together and what you can do in a really simple way to help you grow your business, your brand, your sales, your revenue, all of those things, you know something, I always want to try and keep it as simple as possible for you. And so when it comes to developing a great marketing strategy, being intentional and not just kind of trying to throw everything at the wall is so important. So Lauren and I met on clubhouse which I've mentioned but a little bit about her. Lauren is a maker, a retail shop owner, a podcast host and marketing coach on a mission to help small business owners do better marketing more consistently. She believes that one of the best ways to have a positive impact on the world is through great marketing. As an ex corporate marketer, Lauren fell in love with small business through her first business, the plant inspired stationery business called good Sheila. A couple of years after starting good Sheila, she took the reins of the retail shop her mom owned station seven and as of 2020, she hosts making good a podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact. So we talk all things marketing in this episode, I know that you're gonna love it. So make sure that you stick around, listen up and let us know if there's any questions that you've got. But otherwise, let's dive in. Lauren, welcome to the brand builders lab podcast.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me Suze. I'm thrilled to be here.

You're so welcome. Now I have to say my listeners have not heard me say this for a while. But Lauren and I met on clubhouse.

Yes, I know. Back in. Back in that era. I know. It's crazy.

And I love that we're still in contact. I do have to say that that's one of the things even though I'm not really on clubhouse anymore. I'm still like fully connected and chatting and with everybody that I met so it was such a great meeting. It was such a great melting pot have amazing.

Yeah, and I think it was just like kind of the timing. Everyone was home more often or lockdowns like we all have no commute some a lot of time to fill. So yeah, it makes sense that people have drifted away from it a little bit. But I agree. Like I've made so many awesome connections in there. And yeah, so glad to still be in touch with you.

I know also so good. So I wanted to get you on because I've not had somebody on the podcast for a while, who's talked about marketing. And it is a topic that I love. I feel like marketing brand. And sales are like three little peas in a pod that, you know, we need to kind of talk about all of them. And as a marketing coach, I thought I want to have you on and let's have a chat about it. Because one of the other things that I really love that you talk about, which is around consistency, and intentional marketing. And when you do that, how that can help you grow your sales, your audience and your impact as well. So that's what we're going to dive into today. But for my audience, do you want to just let us know a little bit about you your business and kind of how you got here as well?

Yeah, absolutely. So this is always the hardest part of any conversation is figuring out how to consolidate it all. I run a couple of businesses, so maybe I'll just do chronologically to kind of fill you in on the evolution but I worked in corporate America for a bunch of years after graduating from college and most of my roles are in marketing and events. And so I did a lot of organizing things, but primarily copywriting and email marketing was really my focus by the end of my career there but I got very burnt out. I think like probably a lot of your listeners. I was one of those people who really needs to really like on a heart level care about what you're doing for work and I was not work I worked in the market research industry which was interesting and I had great jobs but it was not my passion. So it really burnt me out because I was working hard but like my heart wasn't really in it. So in 2017, I gave my boss a lot of notice like seven months notice and quit my job and didn't really have a plan B I was lucky to be my partner had a really stable position where like my income going away for a while was fine. Because I like just couldn't wrap my head around what was possibly next I was I just so needed a break. And after I was free, like completely on my own, I started a stationery business I was playing around a lot with watercolor and calligraphy for my wedding, started a stationery business selling greeting cards. And that business is called good Sheila, I still have it. It's it's, I would say my like in third place focus right now. But I sell to retail stores around the US and through my own retail store. So So that's the second business is a Seattle retail store. I love buying from small businesses. We sell a lot of gift and home goods and jewelry and all kinds of like handmade really intentionally made products from people who aren't always represented. So you've got a physical store

as well.

Yeah, I know you that. Yeah. Really? Yeah, it's, it's an old fire station, or retired fire station that was built in 1920. And then it was decommissioned in 1970. And now it's this. I mean, it's been a ton of things over the years. But since 2015, it's been station seven, and it was my mom's and then I bought it from her in 2019.

So running a business runs in the family.

It does, yes, absolutely. Yeah. And through that through station seven, I really fell in love with small businesses, because I buy from so many small businesses there and just love the ingenuity and creativity and like all of the all of the things that are created by small businesses, but also the impact that they make, they hire people they give back they like really stand with their values. So I fell in love with small business through that and started my podcast to just explore marketing, essentially, for small businesses, because I got a lot of questions about that. So yeah, and through the podcast, I've kind of opened up a new branch where I do a lot of marketing and marketing, education. And most importantly, yes, educating on how to do effective marketing. But for me, where the rubber really meets the road is how to actually execute on your marketing plans and not simply make a plan and not stick to it, which I would imagine a lot of your listeners can probably relate to, I certainly can. That was my pattern for a long time. Really good on the planning side, not so good on the follow through sign. So that's what I do now with the small business owners that I work with is just help them create plans that are going to work but more importantly, that they're actually going to execute.

Amazing. And so really long intro. I love it. I love it. I didn't know you had a shop. So I didn't know you had a physical race step retail store. So that's super exciting as well. And so the podcast is called Making good making good. Is it the main like making good?

Yes, making good? Yeah. So it explores how to make a positive impact through small business. But really the heart of it is, I believe that one of the best ways to make a positive impact through your small business is by doing better marketing. Because better marketing helps you make more money which you can do all kinds of things in the world with higher donate advocate. It helps you make connections. So that's kind of in the beginning, the podcast was less focused on marketing. But as time has gone on, I realized I believe marketing is really maybe the strongest way that we can have a bigger impact in the world. So that's really what almost all episodes are about marketing these days.

Love it. So I got I'm yeah, I'm I love. So I love hearing I love talking about it. It's so good. And I love the fact that you know, you've got I know that you've got a membership as well. And you were saying it's kind of two thirds product of the service base, where you're helping those businesses with their marketing. But I love the fact that you've got your own stationery brand, you've got a retail store. Plus, obviously you're working with businesses that are like that. So you're not just talking to them, like you're in it. You're doing it Yeah, like you're selling your stuff and having to market it and that sort of thing. So yeah, I think that it's I think it's always so important for us to be living and doing what we're teaching our clients to do.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and for me what Fun is like I try things. And if it works, I get to tell people about it. And that that helps me too. I mean, a lot of the things that I teach about a lot are things that I just need that reminder, like every day. So yeah, you know, I talk a lot about mindset. And I think I know that you and I have talked about mindset before mindset is everything. When it comes to being a small business owner, you have to have it your mind in the right place to be able to see the results you want to see. So I am always learning things that I just want to share and remind myself of, because it's, yeah, with small business, there's never like, oh, I figured it out. I'm just gonna do it this way. From now on, we're done. It's like every day or it's a challenge. It's really challenging, but it's a blast to. Yeah, absolutely. I

love it. So I thought, good. Awesome. So tonight, we're gonna be talking about some of the steps that my listeners can implement, think about to creating an intentional marketing plan that they can stick to. And I think the sticking to it is the kind of the thing that some people struggle with, like you said at the beginning, it's like, oh, look at my plan. My plan is so beautiful. My plan is so amazing. Look at all the things I'm going to do. And we do it for a month. And then we're like, what happened to the plan? And we lost, we lost the plan somewhere along the way. So yeah, so I thought that was such a practical and a really great thing for us to talk about, how do we stick to this intentional marketing plan? And the first question I've actually got for you, Laura, before we jump into the steps, is what is intentional marketing? Yeah,

I like to think of intention as the element that we bring into planning and strategy that helps us decide how to focus essentially, like we're how to invest the limited time energy resources we have on what's most relevant to what we want our business to do for us. So I mean, this is actually a perfect segue into what I would say the first step is, which is to get really clear on what your goals are. I think before you create a marketing plan, you have to know what you want your marketing to do for you, and your business. Marketing can do so many things that can help you, you know, sell more of your products, it can help you get featured in the press, it can help you start a new business line. I mean, there's so many different objectives. And getting super clear on what your big focus is, and your marketing. And your business is step one. Because otherwise, you're just going to be kind of pulling things from nowhere and not knowing what they're going to achieve for you. So step one is to get really clear on what your business goals are, that you want your marketing to help you move toward. And and this is where the intention come in, comes in. It's not just saying, Okay, how many times on social media should I post? How many emails should I send? How many pitches Should I send for collaborations or whatever it is? Getting really clear upfront on what you want to achieve, is where the intention comes in.

Yeah, so good. And I think the thing that you said, around having that business plan, and then aligning the intentional marketing strategy to that so that you know, exactly like, why your marketing, like, how is this helping me reach my bigger goals? Like, why am I doing this? And I think a lot of times I hear from clients or my community where they do feel like they're on that hamster wheel of just creating content and doing things and putting things out there. And I'm kind of like, well, what is what is the intention? Like, what is the point of you doing that? What is what is the outcome that you want, and they just feel like that's what they're supposed to do?

On 100% I see this, especially with social media, I think I would just like to make the statement that I know that you will agree with and hopefully your audience will, too, that social media does not equal marketing. And I think social media is a small part of a marketing strategy. But because it's so visible, it's what we see everyone else doing outwardly. When a lot of small business owners get into the marketing game, they think that is marketing and so they spend all of their marketing time on social media. Whereas I am a huge proponent of email marketing and specific like that's kind of where my love is in the like, my biggest love and marketing is email marketing, because it works because it's has a better reach a better return on your investment and on your time. So I think intention is also about helping us like peel away what we think looks good or what's going to help us keep up with things externally and focus on you know, you might have 100,000 Hundreds of them Dozens of followers but not be making the money you want to make if those followers aren't following you to buy your product. So that's where intention comes in is really just like exercising that self control of what is most important to me to achieve? And what are the marketing activities that are going to lead to those outcomes? And focusing on those?

Yeah, and I mean, I just want to pick up on something that you just said as well, which is I love email marketing. And I think a lot of times the, you know, people have got this block, or this fear or this like, like, I have to do that. Whereas for you, you're like, oh, my gosh, I love it. It's like amazing results. And so, when we talk about email marketing, just to kind of dive a little bit in on this one, why do you love it? And I know you said it gets you the results, but from a doing it, actually emailing? What's your mindset around it,

it's another vote for intention, I would say is, before I write pretty much any, like, I would say, don't do this on every like small social media post or tiny piece of content. But any substantial piece of content, I do this exercise called the no feel do exercise, which I don't know if you've heard of, I have not, it's good, I didn't come up with it. It's a copywriting kind of like just helping you get focused exercises that you can do before you start writing anything. And it's really simple. What you do before you start creating the piece of content could be for an email could be for a blog post, a podcast episode, oftentimes for me, is you ask yourself after reading this, what do you want your audience to know? What do you want them to feel? And what do you want them to do? So the know is like the concrete details, like there's an event on this date, this is how you sign up. This is the person who's speaking like the sort of, don't forget to mention this facts. That's the no part of the equation. Feel is really interesting, because I think we underestimate how much energy we can convey with the way that we write things. So I always give this example. But if you got a puppy, and you're really excited about it, you would not send a text message to your friend that said, Hello, I got a puppy. You would say like, Hey, I just went to the shelter, I adopted this dog. It's so cute, like lots of emotion, lots of gifts and photos, and all that kind of stuff. And we don't bring that same approach often in our marketing, but we can so we can think how do I how do I want someone to feel after reading this, if I want them to feel really excited and energized, then I'm going to maybe include a GIF or a photo and like language that's exciting and fun and bubbly. Similarly, sometimes we're writing about serious things like if you want to address something that's happened in the world, you would not have that kind of language. So really getting clear on how you want your audience to feel after they read the piece of content. And then what do you want them to do? This is the call to action. So I like to recommend that people just include one call to action. And each piece of content, I think this is a big mistake a lot of people make is like click this and this and this and this and this. But we want to really be clear on what's the one thing we want people to do sometimes for me, it's reply to this email and tell me like what you thought of this or reply to this email and tell me one thing you're struggling with right now, or click this link to get on the waitlist, you know, the more options we give people, the less likely they're going to be to do the one thing we might want them to do most. So the due part of this is really about just a call to action being weaned, clear yourself on what's the one thing I want someone to do after this, and then designing your email to kind of emphasize that. So to go back to the concept of email, or the idea of email, I use this, this is kind of the main framework that I use to write emails is to be putting all of this intention into what am I hoping this email does what I want people to feel what I want them to do afterward. And a lot of times, like, my email is it's not to sell something. It's only to sell something 20% of the time, let's say so, a lot of times it's listen to this podcast episode or check out my friend's business or you know, whatever it is. But I think I think of email is a great way to build relationships. I think in the customer journey, it's obviously it's not the way that people hear about you. Someone learns about you on social or on like another kind of discovery platform. Maybe in the press maybe from another friend maybe you advertise but email is really everything in a customer journey after the point They learn about you, once they get on your email list emails involved from that point forward, it's building relationship, it's creating loyalty, it's hopefully converting to a sale at some point and creating a loyal repeat customer. So for me, I approach email as like, the best relationships I've built with my audience have come from email most of the time, because I invest more time and effort into it. And I know that I reach more people through my emails than I do, you know, my Instagram posts reach, like, what 5% of my followers, so Oh, my gosh, I could talk about email forever, as I guess. But it's super powerful is what I will just wrap up with and most small business owners that I work with get the best results, even if they have more followers than they have on their email list subscribers, they they see the best sales numbers, the best engagement, the best opens all of that kind of stuff. They see that best in email.

So I got I love that. But I think it was just the mindset around it. Like I love email marketing. And I just think that a lot of times the things that work really well for us, sometimes we're telling ourselves that like we don't like it, or we don't enjoy it, or that it's hard. But if we can really start to figure out a way that works for us that you know, I love the no feel and do, I think that that's great, and just find a better way to speak to your audience find a like a better way to connect with them. Because if you can do that, then the benefits of it are going to be amazing. Like you said, you're gonna get a much better return on investment than then you do with socials. And I know so many people are complaining about the reach and all the rest of it of their socials at the moment. So, so no, I love that awesome. So the first thing that we were talking about was getting clear on your goals. And then we diverted into email marketing. So what else do we need to do?

Yeah, I think the the second piece of this process is to get really clear about your bandwidth. How much time do you actually have to devote to marketing per week, this is another piece that not we don't often or instinctively think about because people saying, you know, post this many times on social media and send this many emails and, you know, add a blog post this often. But I think we often set ourselves up to not execute our marketing plans, because we dramatically overcome it. And say, we're going to do more than we feasibly have time for. So the next step is to get super clear about what your hours of time you have per week are available for marketing. Some people it's one some people, it's five. For me, it's more because I do have a little bit of support. But yeah, I think whatever that number is, we can work with it. But the plan won't work if you put more things on the plan than you have time for. So it's a really important step to get clear about that.

Yeah, I love that. And something that I've done this week, and that I'm definitely going to maybe not do as much but we'll continue to do is like lives in the mornings here. Like doing a 15 minute live every morning. Like that's been really good. And I just feel like it's such a bite size chunk, that it helps me engage with my audience and helps me increase my reach and helps me connect with new people. And then we're repurposing it for the podcast.

Oh my gosh, brilliant. Yeah. So even when I am doing the live, I'm conscious that this is also going to be I mean, we edit it for the podcast, but I'm conscious of it being a really clear step by step thing. And then there's always what I like to call the drive by offer. Which is, by the way, did you want to come? Did you want to come to this masterclass that I do. So I just feel like when you give a lot of value, then you can always do the drive by offer. And I love repurposing

expression drive by offer. Like not to bring it back to email. But a great place to drive by offer and email is the PS strategy. Statistically, the PS and an email is one of the most read parts of an email, a lot of people will scroll through it just to get a sense of it. They see the PS and they read that before they even read the email itself. So a PS is a very magical position for a drive by offer.

Yes, I love the PS I'm a big pass strategy girl. And I also have a pre PS. So right at the very top of the email, it's kind of like if you open it, and you almost don't get down to the bottom, just a pre PS case you didn't know that I've got a new like a live workshop happening. Click here and make sure you check it out. You know, and then it kind of dives into the email. So I'm also I use it sparingly. I use pre PR sparingly, but I always do a PR strategy. But yeah, I'm kind of like If I've talked about something, but then I just kind of want to mention it quickly before I dive into the email, then I'll just do it in like italics at the top. This is a little pre.

I occasionally will do like a don't feel like reading at the top. That's like my new program is open click here. As like a pre PS that's, that's really clever. Yeah, I

love don't feel like writing. I love it. The one thing it's almost like the one thing like the take the one thing that I take away from this email. Fantastic, so good. So yeah, so get clear on your bandwidth and really look at your time. And I think that is a really big thing. Because you know, we're talking about how to stick to it. Being realistic with that is such an important. Yeah, it's such an important thing for consistency.

Yeah, and one of the easiest ways to fall off the wagon and stop sticking to things is by getting discouraged and feeling really bad about yourself, when you look at what you said you were gonna do last week, and you did only 25% of it. So yeah, I think the last step that we'll talk about is about making it stick. But part of that, for me is about lowering your expectations for yourself. You know, we set our we we have on. I mean, small business owners in particular, are such over committers. And overachievers because we have ideas, we want to do everything and everything's exciting. But there's nothing that feels as good as creating a plan and checking every single thing off the list. And if you end up with more time available to market with, then awesome, you can 100% do more marketing, but it feels really good. And it's like the best energy you can bring to, I don't know becoming even more consistent and doing it again next month is when you actually can look at your to do list and your marketing less and say okay, like I did everything I can I set out to do, or most of it at least. So the third step in this process of creating your intentional marketing plan is to get kind of go back to basics on your business. So I have three questions that I think are the most key important questions for every small business owner to be super clear on. One is what who is your ideal customer? So who is that person that everything is for all of your marketing is written to this person, your products are created for them? The second question is, what do you have to offer? This is sometimes marketers will call this a value proposition. But what is the what is the value that you're exchanging for the sale? Essentially, what is it that you are selling, and a lot of times people like to get really fancy about this and use big words that aren't the words your customer would use. But you want to always be explaining what you have to offer. In your customers own words, they should always be able to know, if you have a one sentence description of what you have to offer, they should know exactly what that means. Like, oh, this is a photographer, or this is a branding coach or whatever. Not like I create, you know, I mean, I won't even come up with I will because someone's listening is gonna scription Yeah, but I think we try to get clever. And one of the things with great marketing, like, great marketing is not clever, great marketing is clear. So, you know, being able to articulate what you have to offer and super concise clear language is really important.

So like someone's like, I empower women, or I, like I help you level up or something like that. Like if that's your main if that's your main message. It's just as like a your marketing or your coach or your life coach or you are like,

like, what are you a photographer? Graphic Designer, like I have no idea what I would go to for Yeah, so yeah, you really want to get, like, get rid of the clever and like and comment totally.

And common, like things that everybody says all the time. Yeah, yeah.

And then the third question to get super clear on is what makes you different? Why would someone come to you instead of anyone else. And this is marketers, if you want to use if you want to if we want to go into the marketing lingo, marketers will call this your unique selling point or your unique selling proposition. But this is the one thing that makes you different from if not every other person, most other people or most other brands. So you know, for example, for me, and my marketing business, it's about sticking to things like I don't just teach you how to market I teach you how to stick to it. Um So getting super clear on that one thing that makes you different. The next step is to choose your platforms. So we know what our goals are, we know how much time we have for marketing, and we know who we're talking to, and what, what we're marketing, essentially. Now we want to look at our platforms. And this is about, you know, looking at social media, what platforms do you want to be on? Or what networks do you want to be on? I wouldn't recommend personally more than one to two to three to really focus on more than that just gets really hard to actually be impactful. So looking at the social media networks that your audience is on, is engaging content on loves being on and picking those for your business. Looking at your email marketing, what are you doing in terms of email marketing? How often are you going to send emails? And I didn't say that about social but same question. They're like, when you pick your platforms, Instagram, for example, getting clear on per week, what are you actually doing? I want to do one real three days on stories and alive, let's say or for reals. And that's it, like whatever it is, getting really like spelling out the frequency is really important. And then there's, I also talked about in the platform's kind of section of this, like other marketing things that will help you get discovered, are you going to do any press outreach? Are you going to set up any collaborations are going to be doing Pinterest, I don't really consider this social media, it's more of like a search. It's a way to be discovered, essentially. So you're going to be creating Pinterest pins, are you going to be advertising at all doing any paid sponsorship or advertising marketing? And for service providers and product based businesses? What does your like outreach or sales activity look like? And for me, I put that into my marketing hours. So a lot of my listeners are product based businesses who do wholesale outreach. So they're sending pitches to new stores. So getting clear on exactly with all of these activities, what are you committing to doing each week? And the reason that we talked about bandwidth before we get to this point is, as you're saying, yes, to all the stuff, you're probably going to say, Okay, this probably isn't possible to happen in the five hours a week I have. So let me scale back and make it more feasible given given the bandwidth that I have. cut me off. If Jana and Aaron and

I are good, you're all good. Yeah.

Step five, is to commit to a schedule. So now that we know each week, what we're doing, just looking at a calendar laying it out, okay, my emails go out Tuesday, my podcast episodes go out Tuesday, I'm posting these three days per week. And then I like to at that point, plug in which of those are going to be promotional posts. So again, I don't recommend more than 10 to 20% of your content is like by this content, most of your content should be focused on adding value, with the like extremely promotional content coming in, not too often. So I plug in which of my posts are going to be promotional. And then from that point, I start just broadly with like one phrase, or one sentence, and what are each of these pieces of content. So this email is going to be about my five tips for like a strong mindset, this email is going to be about, you know, email marketing, subject line tips, whatever, just like when I create my plan, I make it that broad, but like, the point is, you want to be able to sit down to create your content and feel like you have your marching orders, you know what it is that you need to do, you're not sitting down saying, I need to write an email, but I have no idea what it is. So loosely plan out a month of content would be the next step, given the schedule that you've selected. And then we talk about making it stick. So for me, this is really where the rubber hits the road. What can we do now that we've created this marketing plan that we know is based on our actual business that's based on our bandwidth? We know it's doable, feasible, given the time we have available and it's related to our goals? How can we actually make it really likely that we'll follow through on it? I, the the number one thing I would say here is to lower the bar in terms of perfectionism, so you know what a really good piece of content looks like doesn't have to be like, a masterpiece each and every time. Do do it to 80% and then put it out there. Another thing I like to recommend is that people really get curious about themselves and how they work best. So, for example, I work really well in using the Pomodoro method, which is working in 25 minute increments. I do this like, literally every day. And I mix it with focus music. So I, I subscribed to this tool called focus that well, but you can go on YouTube and just search like focus music or low fi music, or Yeah, like focus music, I think is probably going to bring up the most stuff. And it's music that's scientifically optimized to kind of keep you on the zone. So it doesn't usually have lyrics, it's usually kind of has a strong kind of beat. And I'll plug in a 25 minute timer, put the music on. And I know that I can stay focused when I do that. Whereas if I'm not doing that, oftentimes I go astray. So getting really curious, like getting to know myself better has helped me know what I need to do to be sure that I can focus. And that's one of the things for me. For some people that's like the setting like some people cannot work with a messy desk, like they're just not gonna get it done. Or they cannot work when there's people talking in the background, or they do really good work when there's people talking in the background, like in a cafe setting. Or, you know, some people do great creative work early in the morning, some people do it in the afternoon. So just really asking yourself, when have you been able to get things done really effectively. And then plugging that content in for marketing would be my suggestion to you? My final and probably the most powerful tip on the Make It Stick. Question is accountability. How can you build an accountability to this marketing plan? One great way is if you create content that comes out once a week, like you have a podcast, I have a podcast. Or if you let's say you send an email every Wednesday, really publicly talking about the fact that like this podcast comes out Tuesdays or this email comes up every Wednesday, talking about that consistently over and over again to your audience, people will start to expect it. And now oftentimes on Tuesdays when my podcast comes out, if I haven't gotten it up first thing in the morning, which I tried to do, but I don't always do. I'll get text messages or messages like, Hey, I haven't seen them as the puppet. And that is extremely powerful. Like knowing that people are waiting for something and not getting it. Like I try really hard not to do that. I actually have a daily podcast for my membership program. And it comes out first thing in the morning.

I was looking at that on your sales page. And I was just like, what, how long is that?

They're like five to 10 minutes usually, episode. Yeah.

Do you plan out like what that is every day? Or is it just kind of whatever hits you at the time.

I typically plan them out like a week in advance, because I've got someone now helping me schedule them because I was spending so much time just like with the logistical. Yeah, load it and get it you know. So I try to Yeah, I don't always do that perfectly. I know, to be honest. So it's a lot of like the night before, honestly, like spending a half an hour on it. But But the only reason that I'm getting these episodes out every day is because I know people are expecting them. If it was just me, like I just wanted to do it because I thought it'd be a good idea. But no one was expecting it, there is no way that they would buy would be releasing a podcast episode every day, like zero chance. So that's a big commitment. Yeah, it is. And it's been really hard at some points. But it's like, I know that people in the program, like they love waking up and starting their day with it. So it's a priority that makes it a priority. Whereas if it was just for me, I I am not personally that great at doing things just for me. So I need to find ways to involve other people where they know and they expect it. You can also do this by just getting community with your other small business friends. So you know, get a group of a few people who you check in with once a week and say, Hey, by the end of the day on Friday, I'm gonna have done these five things in marketing, and then like send a text message to the group on Friday afternoon and check in and say like how to run do creating accountability is like really has been, I would say the number one game changer for me in terms of going from someone who felt like she was constantly making plans, and then not sticking to them and really, really letting myself down in a way that made me feel really bad. Going from that to someone who gets things done when I plan to get them done. And like that's, that's pretty wild. It's a pretty revolutionary change actually. Yeah, and I would say that accountability is like the four So that has made that possible. So that I think if you pick one thing to do that is gonna take you from someone who makes plans and doesn't execute them to someone who makes plans. And then at the end of the month, like has actually completed the plan. I think accountability is probably the difference maker there. So however you can build it in whether it's with your audience, with your network of people with a coach, whatever it is. It's, it is powerful.

Yeah, absolutely. So I go in. Yeah, for me, I talk about this a lot with my audiences, just professional practices. It's like Mondays my CEO day, Thursday, I do my finance, like Tuesdays podcasting. Like Wednesday is my coaching day. So it's almost like just getting into the routine. So then I know, okay, so today, like, this is what I'm doing today. And I block it out in my diary, and it's non negotiable. And that's what I do on that day. And so it kind of gives me comfort that I've got a structure, it's obviously flexible, but it also means that there's like, it's booked in, like, that's the time that you do the podcast, that's the time that you do the thing. And so even with the lives like in the last week or so it's like nine or 915, every morning for 15 minutes. It's like, alright, grab my like, kids go to school at like five or 10 to nine, I go make my coffee, I sit down, I make a couple of notes on what I'm going to talk about, we go live, and then it's done. And so I just think getting into those practices where you get into a bit of a routine with in a way that works for you, I think is like really helpful too.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's all about the better you know, yourself, the better you will perform, and the better you can like set yourself up for success essentially. So getting curious about like, what are the times I've been really proud of myself when it comes to productivity, and I've really been able to get things done and beneficent, like, what was it about those times that made that happen? And just trying to kind of pick up the little tidbits you can hear in there. But we're also different. So it's, you know, we all different things work for different people, although I will say accountability, I feel like works for like 90% of people. In my experience. Some people, they don't need it. But yeah, I am not that person. So yeah,

I'm not that person. Like I, I don't need accountability. I'm just like, just get it done. So like if I blocked you know, I so like, if I might, I'm just that's I think for me, it's kind of like if it's in the diary, it's getting done. So like you said, find what works for you. I do love to connect with people and have conversations about stuff, but but I don't need the accountability to get something done. But then that's my personality. So I think I think everybody's Yeah, like you said, Everybody's different. Like, I feel like being coming from a project management background. I'm like, if it's in the diary, like it's getting done, like that was part of the plan. I'm just like, such a project manager, I'm like, and then we do this. And then once we do this, we do that.

So I came from that kind of world too. But I think I completely rejected it. Like the day I left corporate America, I am now quite bad at email, like you sent me an email today that I can't like I the things that used to be so critical to my like, effectiveness. Yeah, I have completely dropped the ball on these days. It's really

fun, but maybe that didn't you know, that's why you left. That's why it didn't work for you. Whereas I, I actually really loved my corporate experience. Like I really loved my jobs. I love the companies I work for I just decided that I wanted to do something completely different. But But yeah, I kind of thrived in the in the, in the structure and the project management kind of things. So I kind of run my business a little bit like that. Now, where I'm like right says let's have a whiteboard session together.

Amazing. We have a big giant whiteboard. Okay, my partner and I use just for like, what's our weekend plan?

I love it. So good. That's awesome. Well, Lauren, thank you for sharing that. I've got all of it down. We're gonna I'll share it in the show notes as well. But I do think like, you know, one of the reasons why I didn't want to talk about this with you is because we can have all these marketing plans, we can give you all the tips and tricks of what to do when you're marketing etc. But if you can't build a plan that really works for you and your business and how you like to work and show up, then I think that's probably one of the biggest, I guess chinks in the armor as far as you know not Being able to follow through and feeling really crappy about that as well. So yeah, hopefully all of these things really helped my listeners to think a little bit differently about how they're putting their marketing plans together and executing on it as well. Yeah, yeah, I

have. So um, exactly as you say, there's no one size fits all marketing plan. It's all about, you know, getting clear on your specific business and circumstances and building your plan around that. So, yes, I super hope this is helpful. And I would love to hear from you. If you do use this and create a plan. Let me know and I'd love to cheer you on and keep you keep you accountable. If

I could. So Lauren, where can my audience find you? We'll have all your show your links in the show notes. But where's the best place for them? To find you? Where do you hang out the most,

I hang out the most on Instagram or by email. So you can find me on Instagram at Lauren Tilden. Liu, r e n t il DN. And you can sign up for my email list. And I would love to have you reply, because that's where some of the best conversations happen. So yeah, my website is the best one probably is making good podcast.com You can sign up for everything there.

Yeah, fantastic. And you do have a membership as well, which I was just looking at before, which is making good happen. And like you said, it's all about marketing, you've got kind of two thirds, which are product based businesses and you've got service based businesses in there. So we'll have the link for that too. So if you're kind of looking for some accountability and help with that, then then definitely check it out. But thanks so much for hanging out on the brand builders love podcast.

This has been a blast. Thank you so much for having me.

Love it, love it. Love it. Love it. So I hope you enjoyed that make sure you go over and say hi and check out everything that Lauren has going on it as well. But listen, if you've got any questions obviously DM me Come follow me at Suzanne Chadwick. Otherwise, I will see you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai