Join me as I sit down with the amazing Erin Marcus, the founder and CEO of Conquer Your Business. Erin’s journey is a testament to her self-reliance and determination. Listen to her origin story, which might resonate with many of you who didn't quite fit into the traditional school mold. Her story is a reminder that sometimes life takes unexpected turns, and it's our adaptability that counts.
Erin emphasizes the importance of being true in your business to grow and build your network strategically. This is a conversation that explores the value of real connection and the true essence of networking. Tune in and let Erin’s story inspire you on your own entrepreneurial path!
In this episode you will learn:
Learn more about Erin:
Website: https://conqueryourbusiness.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErinMarcusConquerYourBusiness
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinmarcusconqueryourbusiness/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmarcusconqueryourbusiness/
A little about me:
I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected.
In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of gifts for you.
A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile: https://www.janiceporter.com/linkedin-training.html
An opportunity to test drive the Follow Up system I recommend by sending a FREE greeting card (on me): www.sendacardeverytime.com
Connect with me:
http://JanicePorter.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/
https://www.facebook.com/JanicePorterBiz
https://twitter.com/janiceporter
Join our Relationships Rule community on FB here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/relationshipsrule/
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's
Janice Porter:episode of relationships rule. I have a mazing guest with me
Janice Porter:today someone again, I think I met on LinkedIn, I'm not even
Janice Porter:sure if it was at a networking event online or not. But we did
Janice Porter:meet through LinkedIn, we had a zoom call, we hit it off right
Janice Porter:away. And I'm so excited to have her on my show. So first of all,
Janice Porter:welcome to the show, Aaron Marcus.
Erin Marcus:Oh, thank you. I'm excited to be here. As much as
Erin Marcus:I, LinkedIn makes me crazy. At the same time, I've met the most
Erin Marcus:amazing people.
Janice Porter:There you go. Exactly. Right. And I know that
Janice Porter:we are aligned in that we both we both think that relationships
Janice Porter:are key. And I just, I think I'd like my audience to know first
Janice Porter:from you, I was going to read a little bit about your company's
Janice Porter:conquer your business and all of that good stuff. But tell me how
Janice Porter:you got here, at least.
Erin Marcus:Because origin story
Janice Porter:in a way, because I got a sense from reading your
Janice Porter:bio, that that you were one of those problem children in school
Janice Porter:that you didn't like, probably ADHD or something like that,
Janice Porter:where you were so busy wanting to do things that you want to be
Janice Porter:active, they couldn't sit still in a desk, I kind of got that
Janice Porter:sense. I don't know how that
Erin Marcus:I don't even know that it's ADHD. I was bored and
Erin Marcus:had other things to do. Yeah, I was a total problem child. But
Erin Marcus:at the same time, basically, if you look at my high school, I
Erin Marcus:didn't go. But I aced all the tests, which back in the 70s and
Erin Marcus:80s. Before they tracked everything you did online meant
Erin Marcus:you graduated Chicago public schools, because I aced all the
Erin Marcus:tests because the books were interesting. I'd read the books.
Erin Marcus:I remember what I did listen, but by high school, eight other
Erin Marcus:things to do. I'm not good things. That came later, by
Erin Marcus:senior year of high school, I was honestly working 60 hours a
Erin Marcus:week. Oh, your high school. I was just working in a pharmacy,
Erin Marcus:I was a pharmacy. Okay. It's making me and surviving. And the
Erin Marcus:hysterical part is I was a pharmacy technician, which meant
Erin Marcus:I was, you know, distributing drugs, both legally and it is
Erin Marcus:what it is. But it's not the scary version that you see now.
Erin Marcus:Right? It was a little bit more innocent version of it. But what
Erin Marcus:I've always done is been very, very self reliant. So I wasn't
Erin Marcus:one of those kids who always knew what I wanted to do, and
Erin Marcus:then set out to do it. But I did always know that if I wanted to
Erin Marcus:have something, I had to do it myself. I think that's a big ad.
Erin Marcus:You know, that's a big Gen X thing anyway, right? If I wanted
Erin Marcus:to do something, I could do it myself. And in high school, I
Erin Marcus:wanted to live on my own terms. I didn't want to go to school.
Erin Marcus:So I earned a living so I could live on my own terms. Right.
Erin Marcus:College became more interesting. I literally went to college to
Erin Marcus:get out of the house. And by the way, before we get all dramatic,
Erin Marcus:my mother and I have a great relationship, right. But at the
Erin Marcus:time part of my part, me part her, I really did go to college
Erin Marcus:to get out of the house because they didn't know what else to do
Erin Marcus:next.
Janice Porter:Do you grew up in Chicago, right? I
Erin Marcus:grew up in Chicago. Yeah. And college got more
Erin Marcus:interesting. Right college got more interesting. So I got good
Erin Marcus:grades there because now it was more engaging. And the topics
Erin Marcus:were more challenging. And, and that was what it was. And the
Erin Marcus:rest of my life really has been do a good job so that the next
Erin Marcus:opportunity opened up for me, it wasn't setting my again, it
Erin Marcus:wasn't me setting out to do this one thing that I was interested
Erin Marcus:in. I'm interested in so many different things. But that
Erin Marcus:independence as Gen X, you know that we grew up with the knowing
Erin Marcus:that if I wanted something I had to provide it for myself. The
Erin Marcus:undying drive to learn I just cannot cannot stop. I know.
Erin Marcus:periodicity. I'm the weird person that reads all the signs
Erin Marcus:at the museum.
Janice Porter:I do that too. Yeah. rules in the game to
Erin Marcus:know because I don't follow any rules. Here
Erin Marcus:what they are. Yeah, no, that's another thing I never you know,
Erin Marcus:if you mix this drive to learn with truly a Midwestern good
Erin Marcus:work ethic because like I said, I work 60 hours a week as a 17
Erin Marcus:year old right? I'm with not thinking the rules applied to
Erin Marcus:me. I just really didn't I don't mean that in a chip on my
Erin Marcus:shoulder way. I just they didn't. They never have but you
Janice Porter:for quite a long time, weren't you? I
Erin Marcus:did but I wouldn't looking back now, looking back,
Erin Marcus:I realize my success and delivering allowed me a breath
Erin Marcus:of freedom, even in corporate, that's probably not normal. It's
Erin Marcus:probably not average. In the last job that I had before I
Erin Marcus:went out on my own. I was there for 12 years. And I oh my god,
Erin Marcus:like, I realized now I was really, really allowed to be an
Erin Marcus:intrapreneur. I did, I mean, I created an entire department, we
Erin Marcus:I helped change the entire business model, I was brought
Erin Marcus:into rooms that were so above my paygrade. And it really goes
Erin Marcus:back to this work ethic, do a good job, take complete personal
Erin Marcus:responsibility, because you I have zero entitlement, there's
Erin Marcus:nothing that's going to be handed to me. And that opened
Erin Marcus:the next opportunity. And I also think the intrinsic thing about
Erin Marcus:I actually like people, I love learning about people, and
Erin Marcus:figuring out why they do what they do, so that I can do a
Erin Marcus:better job at what I'm doing. And, you know, again, looking
Erin Marcus:back the skill I needed to grow up self reliant in Chicago
Erin Marcus:public schools, with people from 22 different countries, which
Erin Marcus:means nobody knows how to communicate with each other, are
Erin Marcus:the exact same skills that allowed me to be so flexible in
Erin Marcus:my corporate life. And it just all, you know, this crazy
Erin Marcus:background that at the time didn't seem like it made sense
Erin Marcus:at all. Right? It just comes together to go, Okay, this is
Erin Marcus:why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Janice Porter:So when you were you went from corporate, I think
Janice Porter:was Do you consider your franchise piece part of
Janice Porter:corporate? Or was that the No,
Erin Marcus:oh, God? No, I call it jumping halfway off the
Erin Marcus:cliff. Okay. So, right. So I had my job, and we fool ourselves
Erin Marcus:into thinking that our paycheck is secure. Because we have a
Erin Marcus:job. That's, you know, we know better now, truthfully. But so I
Erin Marcus:had a job at a great job, by the way, with great, amazing people.
Erin Marcus:But I got to my late 30s, early 40s, and I'm like, There's got
Erin Marcus:to be something else. Right, you hit you start thinking about
Erin Marcus:things differently. And so the first leap I took was purchasing
Erin Marcus:a franchise. And it wasn't a physical franchise, like it was
Erin Marcus:a it wasn't like a subway or something where there's a
Erin Marcus:vocation to it, it was a service. And again, it was kind
Erin Marcus:of a baby franchise, it was only been there for a couple of
Erin Marcus:years. So I had this mixture of a framework of what it was that
Erin Marcus:we did. So I didn't have to invent what we did. But I had so
Erin Marcus:much room to create, how we did it, how we marketed it was not a
Erin Marcus:step 123 So it was a really good mixture for me,
Janice Porter:I can see that it would be because you wouldn't, I
Janice Porter:can't imagine you having like a box type of like, military ties
Janice Porter:where everything has to be done the same? Yeah,
Erin Marcus:I don't play I can't do things, like more than
Erin Marcus:three times. And it's a problem. I mean, the problem with men the
Erin Marcus:problem, like,
Janice Porter:Oh, that's funny. So, franchise, I think you ended
Janice Porter:up becoming a trainer for other franchisees, right,
Erin Marcus:yeah, because again, the drive to succeed God
Erin Marcus:only knows where they're at. We really can't say I don't know
Erin Marcus:where it comes from, it comes from that self determinating you
Erin Marcus:know, I want to have that self determining strength or
Erin Marcus:opportunity, flexibility, work ethic, lack of attention span,
Erin Marcus:ridiculous bandwidth.
Janice Porter:Identify because, I mean, I, I was, I was a school
Janice Porter:teacher in my first life and that in the public school system
Janice Porter:is very bureaucratic. And I can't do the point even that
Janice Porter:when you go in the lunchroom every day with the same people
Janice Porter:the same teachers the same support so God forbid if you sat
Janice Porter:in the wrong seat in the lunchroom, like I couldn't do
Janice Porter:that for so I had to get out so
Erin Marcus:I have to be free i can't handle the rules of who
Erin Marcus:tell you know who I need to be don't need to be with I can't I
Erin Marcus:wasn't even like that in high school. I think one of the
Erin Marcus:benefits of going to a high school with people literally
Erin Marcus:immigrants nobody spoke English from 22 Different countries is
Erin Marcus:no one had any money. Yeah, everyone was just trying to
Erin Marcus:survive and so I never had that click experience that you see in
Erin Marcus:the movies.
Janice Porter:Yeah. So okay, so from Franchise the franchise
Janice Porter:world, then you made the leap out to the name of your company
Janice Porter:now is yes,
Erin Marcus:that's totally right. Because what happened
Erin Marcus:was, so the franchise was The subject matter of the franchise
Erin Marcus:the work that we did was working with families with aging
Erin Marcus:parents.
Janice Porter:Okay. Oh, if your time? Well, um, there was a lot
Janice Porter:of people I know that got into rural too soon.
Erin Marcus:Yeah, well, I want to say, I was on the cusp of it,
Erin Marcus:because when I started the franchise, it was amazing. And I
Erin Marcus:did get that business to the top 10 out of 200 franchises in
Erin Marcus:about 18 months. Hence, like what you said the franchisor
Erin Marcus:would hire me to help, you know, grow new franchises and train
Erin Marcus:them. What happened is six years later, within about six years
Erin Marcus:later, when I left and I closed my office, you had a situation,
Erin Marcus:a two fold situation where there's no barrier to entry in
Erin Marcus:that industry. There's zero barrier to entry in that
Erin Marcus:industry. And at the same time, the estate liquidation side of
Erin Marcus:that business that was originally helping pay for the
Erin Marcus:services, right, the state sales and the resale side of that
Erin Marcus:business had gone completely bust. Nobody was buying us
Erin Marcus:things anymore, you had an oversupply of stuff and an
Erin Marcus:absolute lack of demand for that stuff. And when you put those
Erin Marcus:things together with the fact that I was in the city of
Erin Marcus:Chicago, where they were raising the minimum wage, the taxes were
Erin Marcus:going up, workers comp was going up, and 90% of my competition
Erin Marcus:was working under the table while I was running a legitimate
Erin Marcus:business, when you put all that together. And at the same time.
Erin Marcus:I'm talking at my cheat, you know, when it's my turn as the
Erin Marcus:entrepreneurs at the chamber to take my turn and talk about my
Erin Marcus:business. The people are going, yeah, yeah, we know you have
Erin Marcus:that business. But why are you making money? How are you doing
Erin Marcus:that? Your business growing, the thing that people wanted from
Erin Marcus:me, wasn't what my business did. It was what I knew how to do,
Erin Marcus:because of my corporate experience, my MBA that I had
Erin Marcus:eventually gotten right. And so after a while you decide, Okay,
Erin Marcus:do I want to stay over here where the logistics of the
Erin Marcus:business are a nightmare? The profit margins are horrendous.
Erin Marcus:The trauma that my clients are going through is creating
Erin Marcus:caregiver burnout for me, there's right there's just so
Erin Marcus:much trauma and problems, or let's see, I know how to grow
Erin Marcus:businesses. I have an MBA in marketing, I have a corporate C
Erin Marcus:suite background, I know business strategy. That's where
Erin Marcus:I'm actually helping people. I don't know which way do you want
Erin Marcus:to go? And kind of like, you know, before we hit record, we
Erin Marcus:were talking about how the beauty of entrepreneurs that
Erin Marcus:it's been a good five years since I've even interacted with
Erin Marcus:someone I don't like. The other piece of that puzzle is this
Erin Marcus:business. And the way that I've created this business has
Erin Marcus:allowed me to make my job. Interestingly enough, more and
Erin Marcus:more narrow, so that the only thing I do are my favorite
Erin Marcus:things that I'm great at smart. Write my favorite things that
Erin Marcus:I'm great at in delivery to the clients and in service of
Erin Marcus:growing the business, hire people who only work in their
Erin Marcus:genius zone. And the things they're amazing at that they
Erin Marcus:love doing complementary to each other. Right?
Janice Porter:That's smart. And so I read somewhere in one of
Janice Porter:the things I got about you that you had a year though, in 2018
Janice Porter:That was you called your failure year. And then in less than two
Janice Porter:years, you went from calling yourself the number one pinball
Janice Porter:and barely making any money to multiple six business six
Janice Porter:figures in your business and having fun so you're not
Janice Porter:stressed out because you've got a good team around you. You're
Janice Porter:doing what you love to do. What happened? What what?
Erin Marcus:Yeah, explain that.
Janice Porter:Great marketing. So
Erin Marcus:what the heck, what really happened is I
Erin Marcus:underestimated how even though I know business and I know
Erin Marcus:marketing and I know strategy, I really underestimated how not
Erin Marcus:having even the external framework of a franchise brand
Erin Marcus:was going to affect Aaron the human and how I could close a $3
Erin Marcus:million deal as my parting gift to corporate how I can be how I
Erin Marcus:can be running a half million dollar franchise when the next
Erin Marcus:person below me isn't like 35k And yet when it was the flag in
Erin Marcus:the ground with my name on it and my picture on it, it really
Erin Marcus:fell apart for a year because I couldn't figure out what I
Erin Marcus:wanted it to be. I wanted you know that's where that loving at
Erin Marcus:different things kind of hurt me for a while. And very kind
Erin Marcus:person who did has renamed errands, your failure to Aaron
Erin Marcus:zero of reflection. Thank you for that. But it took me about a
Erin Marcus:year a little over a year to get my feet underneath me. Because I
Erin Marcus:leave before I look, that's just my personality and I leave
Erin Marcus:before I look. And so that year that it took me to figure out
Erin Marcus:what is it that I'm great at doing? What is it that I love
Erin Marcus:doing? Who is it that I want to do it for, and putting the ducks
Erin Marcus:in a row enough. But again, once you figure that out, if you
Erin Marcus:stick with it, that's how you can launch and leverage very
Erin Marcus:quickly. So what
Janice Porter:if you love more than one thing?
Erin Marcus:Not everything you do has to make your money. Okay,
Erin Marcus:this is a really big problem I am watching happen today I have
Erin Marcus:this conversation all the time. Not everything you love doing
Erin Marcus:has to make you money. I volunteer with wildlife rescue.
Erin Marcus:I sit in the dirt in my yard and garden. I don't need a side
Erin Marcus:hustle for either of those things.
Janice Porter:No, but if business wise, you know, you
Janice Porter:have two or three lanes that you that you go in that they all
Janice Porter:kind of go together. If they go
Erin Marcus:together, that's fine. Okay, if they go together,
Erin Marcus:that's fine. If they go together, then what this that,
Erin Marcus:honestly, is what a lot of my clients have they have like two
Erin Marcus:or three things that in their mind are completely separate.
Erin Marcus:But truthfully, if we can find what I call the umbrella, that's
Erin Marcus:what I got. Yeah. So your umbrella? Yeah, we can sign the
Erin Marcus:umbrella then there's absolutely no problem having more than one
Erin Marcus:aspect, like when I talk about multiple streams of income,
Erin Marcus:build multiple streams of income in a way that doesn't confuse
Erin Marcus:the marketplace. That makes sense. Right? I'll give you I'll
Erin Marcus:give you an example. In my business, when I started out
Erin Marcus:coaching and coaching, and we added coaching and consulting,
Erin Marcus:which is a little bit different. But then I saw a really big gap
Erin Marcus:in the marketplace of implementing on what I was
Erin Marcus:teaching people. It was a really big gap in the marketplace.
Erin Marcus:Because we would have these great conversations. But when
Erin Marcus:they would go to do the things. They didn't have my team, they
Erin Marcus:didn't have my background, they didn't know they were already
Erin Marcus:out of hours in the day and days in the week. So this year, we
Erin Marcus:added that. And there's four or five different things now where
Erin Marcus:we will do it with you and for you, instead of just teaching
Erin Marcus:you how to do it. That's an umbrella it goes together. Yeah,
Janice Porter:that makes sense. I don't know whether I saw this
Janice Porter:in yours or not. How do you feel about? Yeah, I did see it here.
Janice Porter:Because you say something about, you know, there's no such thing
Janice Porter:as a single funnel that will earn your course with just one
Janice Porter:email, just do this one thing, just just just you that kind of
Janice Porter:fits with what we
Erin Marcus:were just talking about. I mean, and so I call
Erin Marcus:those instant haptics. And it's not Do not get me wrong, it is
Erin Marcus:not that the tactic is wrong. Correct. Okay, in and of itself,
Erin Marcus:most of these tactics have value. But if you run your
Erin Marcus:business and are growing your business, starting at step one,
Erin Marcus:you become susceptible to believing one of these instance,
Erin Marcus:haptics will solve all your problems. And this is exactly
Erin Marcus:what I do with my clients, we have to start at step four. And
Erin Marcus:step four for me, like if we create my funnel, my version of
Erin Marcus:a funnel. Step four is a business that's on solid
Erin Marcus:footing. We have good offers, we know what we're doing, and we
Erin Marcus:know who we're doing it for, and we know how to talk about it.
Erin Marcus:That's Step four, that's the foundation that you have to
Erin Marcus:start with that first. And then based on that information based
Erin Marcus:on what you know, you want to grow. And by the way, knowing
Erin Marcus:what you want to grow is not $1 amount, that's only one piece of
Erin Marcus:it, because there's a million different ways to make a million
Erin Marcus:dollars. So we have to know what is it that you're trying to
Erin Marcus:grow? And then then we go back to step one, and we look at what
Erin Marcus:are the marketing strategies that we need to have to grow the
Erin Marcus:audience that most people don't do the work before they go out
Erin Marcus:to work. They don't set their foundation. They just go well, I
Erin Marcus:want a million dollar business. That's as far as they get. And
Erin Marcus:then they go looking for tactics that'll get them there. And
Erin Marcus:again, it's not that that tactic is necessarily wrong, but it
Erin Marcus:might not be right for your strengths. It might not be right
Erin Marcus:for your business. And that's the other piece of it. We buy
Erin Marcus:into these Institue optics and then And when they don't work
Erin Marcus:for us, because they have us believing we need to do
Erin Marcus:something we absolutely hate doing. We feel like a bigger
Erin Marcus:failure because their marketing will have us thinking it's
Erin Marcus:working for everybody but us. Yeah. And
Janice Porter:that's, that's the kind of pull me push you
Janice Porter:thing around, is I know, the marketing is so good, that they
Janice Porter:hook you in with something that isn't you.
Erin Marcus:Right? And it's not their fault, by the way. No, I
Erin Marcus:know, I know. Right? Their marketing is good, because they
Erin Marcus:did their work. That's right. That's right.
Janice Porter:But it's not necessarily going to work for
Janice Porter:you. So not necessarily gonna work for you. I do understand
Janice Porter:that, that you think as I do, that, networking, building
Janice Porter:relationships, networking, let me say networking done properly.
Janice Porter:And building relationships is something that that is key to
Janice Porter:growing your business, more than one sort of funnel, so to speak.
Janice Porter:Right? Can you speak to that, from your perspective,
Erin Marcus:I've started to phrase this a little
Erin Marcus:differently, because just to hit this home even harder. Don't
Erin Marcus:confuse networking with building your network. I think people see
Erin Marcus:right like, people, I'm going tomorrow. In fact, I'm going to
Erin Marcus:a networking luncheon in downtown Chicago, I'm really
Erin Marcus:looking forward to it. They always have a great speaker,
Erin Marcus:they always have great people, they always have great food. But
Erin Marcus:networking is different than building my network. So one of
Erin Marcus:the things I ask people is, who's in your phone? Yeah. Who
Erin Marcus:is your actual network? Who do you have? That will answer your
Erin Marcus:DM? Who do you know that when you need a trusted resource, or
Erin Marcus:your next client that you can reach out to I used to say call
Erin Marcus:but let's face it, I only answer the phone. If it's my mother at
Erin Marcus:this point. Nobody else calls me everyone else, just text or DMS
Erin Marcus:rate. But who is in your network versus networking? Now they're
Erin Marcus:both very important. So I now from being more involved with
Erin Marcus:seven figure businesses. Networking is brand awareness.
Erin Marcus:Building your network is relationship based.
Janice Porter:And you got to do both. Yeah, you do. Yeah. That
Janice Porter:makes total sense. I love it. So you have a saying in your
Janice Porter:business, your tagline being charged, take action, get
Janice Porter:results. That speaks to you. So well. I love it. And you have a
Janice Porter:podcast as well tell me tell my audience the name of your
Janice Porter:Podcast, the
Erin Marcus:podcast is called ready yet, right? That's right.
Erin Marcus:The tagline is, you'll never do it. It takes until you become
Erin Marcus:the person it takes to do it reflecting back on my year that
Erin Marcus:I had to figure out who I needed to be in order to do the things
Erin Marcus:that I wanted to do.
Janice Porter:What do you what do you love about podcasting?
Erin Marcus:Oh, my God, the relationship right? Here's,
Erin Marcus:truthfully except for this monthly luncheon. That gives me
Erin Marcus:a reason I have to like get fully dressed, not just upper
Erin Marcus:half dressed and get out of my house. The only way I'm
Erin Marcus:currently networking is by podcasting. Because think of it
Erin Marcus:this way, by the time we have a connect call, and you are on my
Erin Marcus:podcast, and I am on your podcast, we have now spent a
Erin Marcus:really good two and a half hours together easily. And it's such a
Erin Marcus:great like, we know if we're each other's people. I know
Erin Marcus:right? We know so much about each other personality, not just
Erin Marcus:personals. Yeah. And I love the truthfulness in the real story.
Erin Marcus:And I also really the thing I like about podcasting is the
Erin Marcus:more truthfulness of it, at least who I choose as my guests.
Erin Marcus:Because marketing is what you do to grow awareness of your
Erin Marcus:business and inspire your audience to become your clients.
Erin Marcus:But we all know, marketing is not the reality of everything
Erin Marcus:you're experiencing as a business owner. And there is
Erin Marcus:such a needed safe space for sharing the truth of the
Erin Marcus:entrepreneurial journey. Like you heard me say, I went from
Erin Marcus:multiple six figures in corporate to tap 10 out of 200
Erin Marcus:in my franchise to $11,000 which if you've ever had a business
Erin Marcus:$11,000 Gross is not a positive number net by the end of the
Erin Marcus:year. Right. And so to be able to share the reality of it with
Erin Marcus:people because the Gary V's out there they're 20 Robbins, right.
Erin Marcus:They have their purpose and I want you to be motivated by
Erin Marcus:them. But they're so far removed from where most of us are it
Erin Marcus:becomes hard to actually learn from that.
Janice Porter:Well, it's funny, something you just said, though,
Janice Porter:reminds me of kind of the difference between Instagram,
Janice Porter:and some a little bit. And LinkedIn, because nothing on
Janice Porter:Instagram to me is real. And so you can if you choose to get to
Janice Porter:the realness of you, you know, and I have to say, my
Janice Porter:generation, I'm a little bit older than you, my generation is
Janice Porter:not as good at doing that as your generation then if I'm not
Janice Porter:Yeah, you know, it's it's harder to, to, you know, but I'm
Janice Porter:starting to give little bits of things that I talked about that
Janice Porter:I'm okay with. But the thing about it is that I know I
Janice Porter:digressed from what we were talking about, but oh, that,
Janice Porter:that when you when you start to build relationships by having
Janice Porter:these conversations, whether with the red.on, or not with the
Janice Porter:red.on It's just so much more real. I had a podcast, I want to
Janice Porter:share a little bit of a conversation I had yesterday
Janice Porter:with I was on this girl's podcast. And she and I had done
Janice Porter:a little training exchange. And so we've gotten to know each
Janice Porter:other that way as well. And I knew the first time I talked to
Janice Porter:her, she's a entrepreneur, true entrepreneur, she's got a couple
Janice Porter:of businesses, she's, she's a CPA, as well, as well. And
Janice Porter:bright young woman, I really was impressed with her. And I kept
Janice Porter:thinking about this other woman that I knew here that I really
Janice Porter:thought she should meet. So I had said to her after the first
Janice Porter:conversation, that I would love to introduce her to someone, but
Janice Porter:I needed to check first whether this person had the bandwidth
Janice Porter:was available to speak to her because that person was the
Janice Porter:person in my phone. And I don't want to just, you know, put
Janice Porter:together without asking. So anyway, that took a little bit
Janice Porter:of time, but it worked. And I did the introduction. And
Janice Porter:yesterday she said to me, oh my goodness, she said, I can't
Janice Porter:thank you enough for the introduction to this woman. She
Janice Porter:said, she's gonna be a lifelong friend, like, yeah, this woman
Janice Porter:was a true entrepreneur, who has done very well she was on
Janice Porter:Dragon's Den, which is the Canadian version of Shark Tank.
Janice Porter:Got a huge deal with her business. She's super
Janice Porter:successful. And anyway, it was just such a great feeling to
Janice Porter:make that happen.
Erin Marcus:It's a great feeling. But you just said you
Erin Marcus:just gave an example of the number one thing required to
Erin Marcus:build your network. Give before you got if you want more
Erin Marcus:referrals, give more referrals. If you want more partners give
Janice Porter:give. Yeah, I didn't know why I wanted them to
Janice Porter:meet. But to me, it's, well, it's
Erin Marcus:also not linear, right? You didn't do that show
Erin Marcus:that she gave you a referral back, I will tell you that for
Erin Marcus:about 75% of the people who are on their podcast, or they're on
Erin Marcus:mine, some people it's not the right fit, but for at least 75%.
Erin Marcus:I get them at least two more podcasts that they can record.
Erin Marcus:That's how I network.
Janice Porter:Well, and I just realized that that's something
Janice Porter:that I actually don't do enough of which I will today I will ask
Janice Porter:you afterwards, you know, and where do you need to me to do
Janice Porter:that? You know, but if you're not for networking, that makes
Janice Porter:sense. You're right.
Erin Marcus:And one of the reasons one of the places it
Erin Marcus:falls apart, it's amazing to me how many people when I say what
Erin Marcus:do you need? Who do you need? What do you want? How can I help
Erin Marcus:you have nothing? They have nothing as they don't know,
Erin Marcus:they're unprepared for that. People want to help each other.
Erin Marcus:We need us you need to have a prepared specific ask.
Janice Porter:Okay, yeah, that's good to know. Right? In
Janice Porter:first impression, connections, you know, I know what to ask for
Janice Porter:and everything. But sometimes it's about really putting this
Janice Porter:thing into a system, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Janice Porter:Um, before we wrap up, I do want to ask you a couple of questions
Janice Porter:off the grid, so to speak. Are you a reader or a listener or a
Janice Porter:video watcher? Where
Erin Marcus:do you reader, a reader
Janice Porter:real life books like touch and feel book?
Erin Marcus:I love touch and feel books. I was the happiest
Erin Marcus:person in the universe when the Kindle came out. Because I used
Erin Marcus:to travel for my corporate job. And my biggest fear was being
Erin Marcus:caught on an airplane with nothing to read. I can read we
Erin Marcus:went on especially if it's like just fiction for you know.
Erin Marcus:giggles and you know, entertainment. I went on
Erin Marcus:vacation for seven days and I think I read eight books. Oh my
Erin Marcus:goodness. I can just tear through, I can tear through
Erin Marcus:things I can sit. Like as active increases, I can sit and tear
Erin Marcus:through books. And were they all thick nonstick, those are just
Erin Marcus:fiction for fun. My current pattern is nonfiction Business
Erin Marcus:Growth books in the morning and fiction at night to chill out.
Erin Marcus:You don't watch TV. Not I haven't watched TV in a while.
Erin Marcus:Okay, I used to I'm not I am a big fan of TV. I even but what I
Erin Marcus:learned is I don't actually watch TV. I look at it. I watch
Erin Marcus:the same stupid stuff over and over and over. It's NCIS Los
Erin Marcus:Angeles. And CBS NCIS New Orleans. Big Bang Theory. Yeah,
Erin Marcus:now. That's it. That's like all I watch. And it's not it's
Erin Marcus:because it's mindless. It's mindless. So I'm coming down
Erin Marcus:while it's on.
Janice Porter:Fair enough. Thanks for sharing that. And I
Janice Porter:know that you mentioned earlier in this my favorite piece that I
Janice Porter:like to ask everybody I know you mentioned curiosity, because you
Janice Porter:said you're a lifelong learner. And you're you thrive on that.
Janice Porter:So would you say that curiosity, in your opinion, is innate? Or
Janice Porter:learned? And then what is the most thing? What's the thing
Janice Porter:you're most curious about today? Gosh,
Erin Marcus:I think it's nature and nurture. I think some people
Erin Marcus:are more curious than others. I think a lack of curiosity stems
Erin Marcus:from being taught fear and scarcity. Right? It takes a
Erin Marcus:certain amount of courage to be curious, because people fear
Erin Marcus:things that are different from them. And curiosity would just
Erin Marcus:solve that problem. Right? So I think some of us are more
Erin Marcus:naturally curious than others. And I think what leads to a lack
Erin Marcus:of curiosity is fear and scarcity. What am I most right
Erin Marcus:now I'm curious about plants and gardening. Yeah, I'm in the
Erin Marcus:process of trying to, I don't know, get this whole patch of my
Erin Marcus:garden to be better. I can't even I don't even know the word
Erin Marcus:right to cultivate and so and the
Janice Porter:song flowers or vegetables,
Erin Marcus:that flowers, there's so much wildlife here.
Erin Marcus:It would be an exercise in frustration to grow anything to
Erin Marcus:eat and be gone before we got it. But I have a pollinator
Erin Marcus:garden that I'm growing in the one sunny spot. I live in a
Erin Marcus:wooded area. So we have one sunny spot, and I'm trying to do
Erin Marcus:a pollinator garden and fix the soil. So currently very curious.
Erin Marcus:Like that's what I want. That's
Janice Porter:interesting, because my sister who lives in
Janice Porter:LA, she spent a lot more time out in her garden through COVID.
Janice Porter:And she did this whole project with creating mosaic tile tiles
Janice Porter:from it's amazing, but she also has an LA they have to have like
Janice Porter:cacti and things like that. Right. But she has she started
Janice Porter:learning about I think it's like the pollinator thing where the
Janice Porter:butterfly the caterpillars come and you're almost there and then
Janice Porter:the butterflies come and then they feed off the sin difference
Erin Marcus:here is they freeze during in Chicago, right? I
Erin Marcus:mean, I think for me, it's very much an aligned with the
Erin Marcus:wildlife rescue that I did. And we're on an acre and a half year
Erin Marcus:of a wooded lot. I've got every animal under the sun here. So it
Erin Marcus:just and again, an acre and a half. I'm trying to create
Erin Marcus:something that doesn't isn't going to add work, right? If
Erin Marcus:enough work to
Janice Porter:to create projects. I'm fascinating,
Janice Porter:actually. Well, Erin has been a delight. Thank you so much.
Janice Porter:Before you go two things, one, let my audience know and I will
Janice Porter:put it in the show notes how they can find you. And secondly,
Janice Porter:what's what's the one maybe business tip or, or favorite
Janice Porter:thing you'd like to share with my audience.
Erin Marcus:So make it really easy to find me. It's all at
Erin Marcus:conquer your business.com if you just go to conquer your
Erin Marcus:business.com. The podcast is they're reaching these they're
Erin Marcus:the socialists. They're the everything you need conquer
Erin Marcus:business.com. And the one thing that has really been inspiring
Erin Marcus:me. How can I put this like, be a little more brave? If I have
Erin Marcus:to look back at why I didn't achieve things I wanted to
Erin Marcus:achieve? It's never because I wasn't smart enough. It's never
Erin Marcus:because I didn't work hard enough. And that is the same for
Erin Marcus:99% of the people that I meet.
Janice Porter:Just be more bold. Go do something that
Janice Porter:scares you. Yeah, that's great advice. Thanks, Erin. Thank you
Janice Porter:so much for being here. And thank you to my audience again,
Janice Porter:for being a great loyal listeners. Please let us know
Janice Porter:that you enjoyed the podcast episode by leaving a review and
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