EPISODE 53 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: NEW DIRECTIONS, BTS OF A REBRAND AND RECOVERING FROM BURNOUT
Sonya:
You may have noticed that The Marketing Solutions Podcast is looking a little different. I'm so excited to share with you today the projects I've been working on for the past three months and take you behind the scenes.
Sonya:
As you can see, the podcast is now called the Boom Your Biz Podcast. But that's not the only change. I've also launched a new agency called Linchpin Digital, and I've changed the focus for Kiss Marketing to being purely a training and consulting organization. So essentially, I've come through three rebrands in the past few months, which has been super exciting.
Sonya:
Welcome to the Boom Your Biz Podcast, a podcast for the movers, the shakers, and even bigger action-takers in business. I'm your host, Sonya McIntyre-Reid. Each week, I'll be exploring the question of what really makes businesses and organizations thrive. I'm on a mission to educate, empower, and inspire business owners and myself along the way.
Sonya:
Towards the end of 2020, I released a very vulnerable episode about burnout I had experienced as a result of the crazy hours I was working and a lot of stuff happening in my personal life. I was nervous to release it, but holy moly, I had literally hundreds of messages from you thanking me for sharing the details and explaining how you were feeling the same.
Sonya:
Another factor that has paid into my refocus is something that has been gnawing at me for a long time. I think I always had in my head this idea that I had to have the marketing answers for everyone. And as we take on more and more clients in different industries and locations, I realized that there's no one secret to making business work. You really need to be looking at things holistically. Everything from your systems, your team, your product and pricing, your marketing and sales process, your wellbeing as a business owner, it all has to be a well-oiled machine. That's why I want to use this podcast as a place to explore all of the different components that make successful businesses and organizations thrive.
Sonya:
In my new agency, we're super fussy about who we take on. We're focusing on growth marketing, so that is generating sales and leads. What a lot of people don't realize though is that this is just one component of the marketing funnel. It's the conversion stage down the bottom. It's not all of the other components, such as building brand loyalty and equity. For that reason, we actually take all of our leads through a bit of workshop to really determine if they are at the correct stage in the business for growth marketing, to get them a great return on investment. The last thing I want to do is take on clients we can't get results for. Often not because of the work we're doing, but because there are a lot of other things they need to get sorted in their business first.
Sonya:
My goal with Kiss, on the other hand, is to educate, empower, and inspire businesses to be able to get to that stage where they can work with us and in Linchpin, and for that growth marketing services that we offer as part of the agency. So with Kiss, it's all about the tools and components they need in place to really build a solid foundation and business model. Down that track, that's going to look like a membership, and I'm really excited about bringing it to life and the value it's going to provide to small businesses.
Sonya:
Getting clear on my target market, what we offer and our business model, as well as establishing firm boundaries with my clients and rules for myself has taken me a long way in recovering from burnout. I'm not there completely though, and I'm not perfect. Week one back at work at the start of this year, I came down with another infection and was back on a heavy dose of antibiotics again. It was that extra wake-up call for me to make sure I'm not doing a million things and working a hundred hours a week. Weekends are now officially off limits, and I'm trying to focus on rest, just doing nothing.
Sonya:
I read this great book on burnout, and there's been a lot of research done that shows that as humans, we need 42% of our week on average as rest time. That includes your eight hours of sleep, but then another two hours of rest time. This could be spending time with friends and family, watching Netflix, or doing another activity you enjoy. And honestly, I wasn't doing that. I'd just go to the gym or for a massive swim to try and tire my crazy mind out.
Sonya:
Okay, now you've got a clear idea on where I'm heading and why I've positioned my business in this way. Let's talk about how damn hard it is to decide on a new logo and brand identity for your own business. Honestly, I completely have sympathy for the clients that used to come to us for rebrands that could not make up their mind. It used to be so frustrating for me, but I get it. I was an absolute nightmare, changing my mind about a million times, generally feeling stuck and blah about it. But my beautiful designer persisted with me with so much patience, and I am absolutely stoked with the final outcomes. You can check it all out on my Instagram.
Sonya:
For me when I first started Kiss, I didn't know who I wanted to work with, I just wanted to offer marketing services. As you can probably tell, I've become super clear on who my audience is now, hence the reason I started Linchpin too. They're completely different audiences with different goals, and therefore, I provide different solutions. I can't expect my brand to speak to all of those people in one go. As they say, if you're speaking to everyone, you're speaking to no one.
Sonya:
I really don't like it when people say, "Identify your ideal customer." If you're new to business, chances are you don't have those answers yet. Honestly, it took me four years to understand mine, and that was through actually doing business with a lot of different people.
Sonya:
I've said the word "different" a million times this episode, but what I'm getting at is that there's no one size fits all solution. Your brand has to appeal to your audience. And when you know it doesn't, you get really shy about putting it out there. I know over the last six months, I certainly had. I was not posting on socials that much and I kind of went underground. Now I have three solid brand identities that I'm really, really proud of, and I want to push my content out there. What I'm getting at is that branding isn't just about your customer, it's also about giving you the confidence and belief in what you do to market your business. That's powerful stuff.
Sonya:
And guys, I have one more exciting announcement. I've set up a Facebook group where we'll be providing extra info relating to each podcast, as well as a live Q&A with our guests. Just search for Boom Your Biz in the Facebook group section and request to join. I'm hoping we can build a really great community. And if you don't want to ask a question publicly in the group, but need some advice, feel free to shoot me a message on Instagram, either at boomyourbizpodcast or kiss_marketing. Until next week, keep moving and shaking.