Episode Summary

Could your business’ marketing use a refresh? You’ll get some fresh ideas and perspectives in this week’s podcast episode!

Tune in to hear Melissa Swink chat with Leslie Capps of Wild Woman Marketing about the fundamentals of storytelling in marketing. They discussed the importance of having a solid and effective marketing strategy, the power of storytelling in connecting with clients, and the role of emotion and values in storytelling. They also explore effective calls to action and common marketing mistakes to avoid. Stay to the end to hear ideas for alternative marketing channels such as books, journals, events, and even wine clubs!

Key Highlights:

• Having a solid and effective marketing strategy is crucial for growing and scaling a business.
• Storytelling is a powerful tool for connecting with clients and conveying messages.
• Explore collaborations and alternative marketing channels for greater impact.

About Our Guest: 

Leslie is an international best-selling author and master of strategic storytelling. She shows entrepreneurs how to skyrocket their client attraction through powerful messaging. Once you've nailed your story, marketing becomes your oyster, ensuring you excel no matter the method.

Leslie offers a free Strategic Story Session to help you transform your business narrative into your most powerful asset. Listeners can book a free 60-minute Session with Leslie, the Strategic Story Sculptor, and discover how to craft compelling stories that captivate and convert.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone. Welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and today I am so excited to have us joined by a very special guest, Leslie Capps of Wild Women Marketing. I will share more about her in a moment, but first I thought I would share with you how we got here. So Leslie and

are originally connected through an online networking group and we had several conversations and got to know each other, really enjoy those conversations. And one of the reasons why I wanted Leslie to join the podcast today is because often when I'm speaking with other business owners, it could be clients, could be colleagues, other people in my network. When the topic of marketing comes

Oftentimes, I don't hear people say, yeah, my marketing is really working and we have more clients coming through the doors than we can handle. It's usually like, eh, it's going okay. know, thankfully most of our business comes in through referrals. You know, I don't hear a lot of business owners saying that their marketing activities are going well. And so going with our theme of growing your business beyond you,

definitely requires having a solid and effective marketing strategy in order for us to continue to grow and scale our businesses. So I am joined by Leslie Capps today. We're going to dive into her story, how she got into this line of work. We're also going to talk about some of the fundamentals of marketing, just covering the basics, but in a new, refreshing way, not necessarily in your old marketing textbook, college course days. We're going to talk

what it means today, maybe improving upon some of the things you're already doing in your marketing just to fine tune it a little bit. We're also gonna talk about common mistakes that we see happening in the marketing space and then also sharing some marketing ideas that go beyond social media. Sometimes I feel like we think marketing and we automatically think social media. We think Instagram reels and stories and TikTok and all these things, but not necessarily that is the only path.

for marketing success. So all that being said, Leslie Capps is an international bestselling author and master of strategic storytelling. She shows entrepreneurs how to skyrocket their client attraction through powerful messaging. Once you've nailed your story, marketing becomes your oyster, ensuring you excel no matter the method. So welcome Leslie. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Take us into all the things that we're going to discuss. Why don't you just share with our audience how you got into this line of work? Because that was something that definitely jumped out at me when I first heard you introduce yourself at an networking event.

well, first of all, thanks for having me. Super excited. Like I love Melissa, if you're working with her, you're in absolutely amazing hands, Yeah, how I got, so I started out as an online coach and it was really my marketing struggles that I ended up falling in love with marketing, right? I finally found something that worked for me marketing wise, but I was like, ooh, marketing. Now that's super exciting.

That's kind of the way my brain works in this strategy type methodology. So I started using specific marketing techniques for people. again, like, cause I'm ultra curious, I'm the ultimate researcher, right? I noticed like that's not a lot of times a problem.

the problem was people were awkward with sales or they didn't want to deal with sales and so they kind of blame the marketing because we'd get lots of people on our funnel, we'd fumble it all around, then we blame marketing that they're not continuing to get people through our funnel and switch marketing. And we all know that's sort of a recipe for disaster. You just end up with kind of a cluster going on there that's hard to unravel.

So I started talking about the marriage between marketing and sales and either people got it or people looked at me like I was an alien, right? And I ended up at that point being in this project, the book that turned into The Boss Seller. And one of the pages you were asked to write, what are you passionate

Well, I've always been super passionate about stories. I've always traveled and loved doing diverse things and then bring those home to the people you know, right? I would travel and people would say, tell us a story. What did you learn? What did you see? How did it, you know, that kind of thing. So, yeah. Right, but like the quirky stuff too, right? Cause I'm that person

Yes, tell us about your trip and then you just go and you share.

notices things out of the ordinary or people glom onto me and tell me stories. I'm like, Whoa, okay. so yeah, but you're right. Yeah. Tell me about that. So, I was like, why am I not using that as really this strategy that you can start with a story from your introduction, carry it through to your content, to your sales conversation and really streamline, simplify.

my gosh, like just so exciting, right? To have a framework that is very simple and is unique to you. think that's the other thing. Everybody has a story. Everybody is doing amazing stuff and big goals, big missions, but it all gets like hung up in our words.

Yes.

Yes, 100%. What I love about your story is I don't want to say that you kind of stumbled upon this because it seems like this has been a strength of yours from the beginning of time, like from the beginning of you. This is something that you truly enjoyed and that you had this vocation of being a coach. And then you're like, wait a second, I really enjoy the storytelling piece of this. I'm falling in love with the marketing side of this. Why don't I pivot?

and start working and helping others with their storytelling. I just think that's so cool how your business kind of evolved to fit your strengths that were always

Right? Isn't that so interesting? What is that quote? Like our greatest strength is our greatest weakness. How we don't often recognize what our strengths are. And I'll have to credit human design a little bit. A friend turned me on to it and I took the human design test and I'm a projector. For me, that was super enlightening, right? Because

where 30 % of the population, I always knew I never thought like the rest of the world. It was painful in class when people would say, what do you think? Cause I'm like, ah, I know I don't think like everybody else. So like that you called on me, right? But the strategy is really what projectors are great at. Seeing that big picture and then fitting in the puzzle pieces versus puzzle pieces going out.

Yes.

So yeah, that really gate, was like, I'm totally on the right path, right? Like it fits with how I'm hardwired, who I am, what I'm passionate about. Yeah. Just took me long enough.

Yes. Yes. So I am, so I also have done a little bit of human design study myself. One of my business coaches, she started dabbling in it I think she's becoming certified in that. But through that, I learned that I'm a generator. So I'm not a projector. So people like me need people like you. And I think that's a perfect segue into

some of the fundamentals of storytelling because I understand that it's powerful, it's a powerful tool. I understand that it really helps with human connection in general, not just in business, but in our personal lives as well. We love a good movie, we love a good book, we just love that connection through storytelling. But what are some of the fundamentals of storytelling?

from a business or marketing perspective, like where do you start when you begin working with a client?

Sure. And I gotta say, like, I love generators, right? Because as a projector, I need you all. There's no joke, right? I can do the stuff, the little stuff, I'm like, it's not my super strength at all. Yeah, so I think, you know, keeping it simple. Usually what I have people do is like write out what you think your story is or speak it out. You know, I typically do a free session for people.

Yes.

tell me your story and why is that important and what are the values, what is the lesson? And I think those are sometimes things we don't even think about, know, the lesson. But a story should typically have a very clear beginning, middle, and a lesson. And that doesn't

that one story can't have multiple lessons or multiple uses. You could use it at your introduction. You can use it in your content just by tweaking it. And you could use it in the sales conversation, again, by just switching it up. The beauty of creating stories like that, and I'll try not to get too squirreled off, right? Because I get like excited, but when you create that beginning, middle, and end, now you can change, right? So you have three different stories.

Well, now we technically have nine stories because I can change all these. Like they're my stories. We don't have to be wedded to them in any particular order. We are able now to take those stories that we, you know, we've practiced and talked out loud and something comes up. Somebody needs you to speak right away. You're like, I'll just use these three stories because this is my big goal. And these are my in -between lessons.

So I think thinking about it like that, but really the crux is the lesson. What's a lesson? What's the goal of our story or goal of stories? I did a talk for a friend in town for a nonprofit. So my goal isn't selling in that. It's not really even, it was more, so what I focused on was more engagement and empowerment.

And it ended up out of that. Then I got an opportunity. I was asked to be on an international board as an honorary board member. But it's, you know, we talked a little bit about this too, is creating that open door, whatever that means for you, whether it's a sale, just a conversation, opportunities that you don't even see when you're clear on your story and your messaging, like doors will open for you.

The other thing I think that's really important as we think about stories is our voice. What voice are we using to tell our stories? I like Gloria Steinem has always been the voice in my head, like, which is weird because I grew up in a very conservative community. So I don't know how she got in there, but she's been there. I know. Yeah. I always think about. Right.

Isn't that interesting how that works sometimes? It stood out to you. was outside of your norm. It stood out to you. Yes.

Exactly. Well, and I did crazy stuff because I was like, that's what Gloria would do. But, you know, channeling, if your voice isn't that voice of empowerment, then find somebody else's who is until you become it. You don't want to be telling stories from the victim aspect. That just leaves people in a weird emotional energy. Right. And we're, we're wanting them to take action. If you leave them there,

Hahaha!

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

They're not gonna take action, I guarantee you. So thinking about that as well. Like that kinda, I went a little bit around.

So I would love to unpack some of the basics of storytelling because I hear this and I can certainly tell the story of things like how I started my business. And that's something that I have shared so many times that it's pretty comfortable for me to do that. I certainly have shared it on the podcast. I've shared it with potential clients during sales consultations where they're curious about like, how did you end up in this line of work? That's a very common one.

But even going beyond, you know, maybe your story in terms of business, what are some other places that you can draw upon inspiration for stories? Like I know my marketing team is always asking me for client transformation stories where we start working with them and this is what life looked like and what business looked like for them. And then we took all these things off their plate. And then now they're able to do X, Y, and Z. Maybe they're taking Fridays off or they're working fewer hours, that sort of thing. But where are some

Where are some places that the average business owner can find stories or where are some resources you think that they could draw upon to start creating those stories in the first place?

Sure.

Well, I think that's a great idea. And I think, you one of the other things and you hit a little bit on is that emotion, right? That emotion and our values. Like a woman told me yesterday or sometime this week, we met in a one -to -one and we were talking about values and how important it is to share those and share those in stories. And she told a story of getting a very lucrative marketing

contract against two other people and it was because the woman brought them all into a zoom room together and then she met with them individually and the woman said to her What are you passionate about outside of work and she said cat rescue? This is what I've done This is how many cats are agencies saved blah blah blah blah blah and the woman hired her right on the spot like so often right we don't share our values and

We're all people. We got bigger values than just a business. Whether it's empowering women, saving cats, homelessness, like food kitchens, soup kitchens, you know, it goes on and on. So I think that aspect is really important. And stories are everywhere, right? I think, like we think in our heads that they have to be something special. But I had a skunk in the window well.

a couple of weeks ago. And I use that as social media posts because I got realizing as I thought about Pepe, we called him Pepe Le Pew and he ended up in a second window well, right?

remember you posting about that now that you bring it up. Yes.

Exactly. Yeah. So I was like, what, what is Pepe trying to teach me here? Well, he's got some amazing branding, right? Like everybody knows the black and white. Awesome branding. He's got an amazing message because when he comes running at you, I was going to get a picture of him running at me with his tail up, but I was even a little too, yeah, I was like, I'm, I'm a little more, yeah, I'm too chicken hearted to get that done.

Too risky, too risky.

I was like in my head, thought I should, but no, not gonna do that. But yeah, so being like a skunk in your marketing, being very bold and running with your message because the people who get it are not gonna be afraid of that. The people who don't get it, they're gonna be afraid and run away. And again.

I would have ran the other way too.

That's okay too, because you're not everybody's cup of tea. I hope I didn't burst in by anybody's bubble this morning, but like not everybody resonates with us and it's better to know.

There was another quote that I read in a book similar to that, that was, you could be a juicy ripe peach and there's somebody who just doesn't like peaches. It's not good or bad or otherwise. It just is. You're just, you're not going to appeal to everybody. But yeah, you're right. We do business with people. At the end of the day, we're not doing business with a company. We're doing business with people that we can truly connect with. And you do that through sharing things

Exactly.

I volunteer at this cat rescue and this is something that I'm really passionate about. And people relate to those kinds of things.

Right? Or even stating, like, value the things that are core values for our business are honesty and integrity. Okay. Like I immediately know, right? Like I get this feeling already. I like this person. They told me right up front. Not that you're going to say, you know, their dishonesty or whatever, but that being very upfront about this is important to us. Like we, we over deliver.

That may be a value that somebody who's looking to hire you would go, okay, I like

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Yes. Yes, 100%. So we've got any other things that we should know when we start crafting some of our stories, the beginning, the middle, the end, the lesson, all very important. Certainly our own stories, client stories. mean, stories are everywhere. Like you had mentioned, anything else in terms of storytelling that those of us who might not be as on the creative side, if you will, that would be helpful to

Right. Well, again, I think I would think about the things that are happening in your own life, whether they're kooky or not. I mean, in your case, you know, putting that idea in somebody's head of have you ever had one of those days where like the dishes are piled up, there's laundry on the floor, the kids are screaming, the dog needs to walk, you need to clean the dog poop, water the lawn. Well, that's kind of what we do for your business.

is we take three or four of those things off your plate. yeah, I think just relating in sometimes in odd ways that just make people go, I never thought of it like that, right? Now I have a different perspective, a different way to understand what Melissa does.

Yes, yes,

Yes, yes, love that. So we're telling stories to connect with people, help them better understand how we can serve them and support them and connect with them. But once we get to the end of the story, then what? Because then we also need some effective calls to action to encourage people to take the next steps, whatever that might be. And of course, it goes back to your goal. I love it. One of the things that you had said to me during

One of our conversations leading up to this podcast was when you're strategic, you open doors. So you need to know what your goal is ultimately for telling this story. Maybe it's to encourage people to take the steps to work with you, ultimately start the sales process. Or in your case, that nonprofit where my goal is really to educate and be of service. And then ultimately that ended up with that invitation to join the board.

knowing your goals, but how do we encourage people to take the next steps, whatever that might

Sure, I think that's always a good question. And I think you need to think about, and I touched on a little bit, is emotion you're leaving somebody with. So if we've done our job as far as stories and we've empowered and inspired, because I think that should, like that is always a great goal, right? Whatever goal beyond that. Not so much a sale.

I think if we shifted a little bit and thought, okay, I'm going to empower and inspire this person and leave them while we might, if we're doing a coaching session, we might look at challenges. So we're going to dig a little deep here and get into some pain, but also at the end, being conscious of at the end where you leave that person. So are they inspired to take that next action? Do they feel empowered to take that next action? Whatever it is.

You know that when you're in a sales conversation, can always like, I'll use the little sales terminology, third party anchor, right? You can always use that other person who is similar to who you're talking to, who you've helped and do kind of a case study there, if you will. Yeah.

Gotcha. Gotcha. So when we're looking at calls to action, when we're looking at our marketing, do you have some tips for some effective calls to action? Love the emotion piece of it. Love the idea of empowering people. So it's not a hard sale like contact us today. It's empowering them of if this sounds like, if this is resonating, here's what you can do

you know, do X, Y, or Z, whether it be work with us or to, you know, get your email under control, you know, whatever that desired outcome is. What are some of your tips for creating some effective calls to action that resonate with people that aren't too salesy, if you

Right? I love that you asked this question. cause I talked to a lot of business owners and they say, well, I don't ask for the sale. Like I just provide value, value, value. And like people get it either. want my services or not. Okay. Nope. Nope. That's not going to happen. I guarantee you. And I explain it this way. So I'm sitting on the other side. Melissa's provided all this amazing value, but I'm like, well, I don't know.

Should I work with her? Should not. I'm not sure. I don't know how much it costs. All this is going on in my head. So I'm not asking her and I won't follow it up because now somebody else comes into my world that does something similar who just says, well, would you be interested in learning how you could work with us more? I go, okay, cause that's simple, right? So always think about, so yeah, I tell everybody always make an offer and that offer can

Yes.

Would you be interested in learning more about how you could work with me or work with us? Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be a hard sell, but it does have to be an invitation because on the other side, and when we think about this, right, we're all like, yeah, because I've been on the other side. I got it. Yeah. So like just taking that awkwardness out, just making the offer, no hard sell. You want to learn more? Cool. Either way.

Yes.

but you take the awkwardness out of that person feeling like, I want to know more. I don't know how to ask, blah, blah,

Yes, so inviting. So really, calls to action can be thought of just invitations. To learn more about this topic, here's a link to this blog article. Or if you want to learn more about how we can support you, here's the next step. And just making sure that you are inviting to take that next step. That's really all it is. I love how you just simplified that. When we think of a call to action, it's an invitation.

Great, great,

Yep. Absolutely.

Yeah, there you go. Right. Yeah. Right. Instead of getting all complicated and like sales are just conversations, right? Sales conversations with people. Here's what I can do for you. Would you like my

Love that. Love that.

Yes, yes, absolutely. I love that. So again, going back to strategically telling stories that people can connect with, help them understand, inviting them to take the next step, whatever that next step might be. Kind of going into, I want to say like the, these are the dos, maybe going into some of the don'ts. What are some of the things

you see with, you know, maybe clients when they first start working with you, or certainly there's plenty of examples out there in the business world of maybe some common marketing mistakes that you see people making, like the intentions were there, but it's just falling a little bit flat.

Right, exactly. Sure. think, yeah, I think that's part of right what got me into this was seeing that people had some really great stories that just weren't landing. They were missing the parts. So I think probably the key, one of the keys, and this could be on the other side too, we could have brought this up, was building the bridge. So this is my story. This is a lesson. You got to build people the bridge. They are not going

Yes.

to get it. Like, I know we all think, if I tell this story, like, they're going to come up with, no, you got to lead breadcrumbs across, be very intentional. Like, this is a lesson here, people. Nobody's going to get offended. And we're not going to make the connection if you don't. So I'd say that is huge. You know, another don't kind of we've talked about this, but leaving people in a bad emotional spot.

I know a woman who talks about being homeless and that she got involved in MLM and it changed her life. But the majority of the time is spent in being in a homeless, living in her car with her dogs and that you really feel that, right? And that's kind of where she leaves you. Cause she kind of then says, well, then I got involved and my life changed. Well, I'm still back.

Yes.

So she kind of fast forward, she kind of fast forward through the whole transition and we go to happily ever after. This was my before, this was my after, but we kind of missed how did we get from here to

Exactly. Rain.

Well that yeah, we missed that plus we missed the emotion right because like we're still in the car with her and her dogs and she's gone on to prosperity and in your mind It's like a disconnect. I'm like Yeah, so I'm still here feeling this emotional I'm not gonna take any action with

Yes, yes. So you've got to be the guide. You've got to be the tour guide. You've got to be that facilitator of we're leading people from here and we're going through it. And then here we are at the end. It's got to be complete. So it's really tying up some of those loose ends or filling those gaps. Like you had said, gaps in the story or gaps in the story and the lesson that bridge to then here's the lesson,

here's how we can help or here's your next step or here's what I invite you to do about this to avoid having this issue in your life or your business, that sort of thing. It's really about filling those gaps, it sounds

Yeah, and I think very succinctly too, right? Because that tends to be the other thing that people do. Like stories are not just a string of events. Stories, again, have a very clear beginning, middle, end, and a lesson. And what we tend to do is like glom a string of events together and make that try to mean something or like get really in the weeds of details that nobody cares about. And so people fall off instead of

You know, one sentence for your beginning, one sentence for your middle, one sentence for your end. And you can do it. Trust me, you really can. But we might grant you two or three, right? Which is still be better because sometimes people can give you 20 minutes and somewhere in all the wandering, you're like, I got lost. Like I checked out me personally. Yeah. I'm like, I'm somewhere else. I'm traveling above my head. I have no idea what people are saying.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, yes, and our attention spans are short. So keeping your audience engaged, keeping it clear, succinct, making sure that you're connecting the dots, helping them connect the dots, I should say, leading them through that, that's the most important thing when you're telling stories. Other common marketing mistakes that you see out

You know, I, yeah, you could go like there's, there are so many, I think we get hung up in trying to do everything, right? Do all the social media channels, all the, everything. And when not, at least when I work with people, I kind of say, okay, if you hate Facebook, don't do Facebook. Let's not make it more painful than it has to be. Pick one.

channel initially and we can add another one on but pick one that you want to focus on where you know that your audience is living and choose that. Yeah and right it's like

Yeah, not spreading yourself too thin. So we've got our stories, we've got our invitations, we understand that we need to stay this in a way that is succinct and clear and makes the connection, teaches the lesson, and we don't want to spread ourselves too thin by having it everywhere. Even places that we don't personally want to be. It sounds like we want to be very focused and strategic

where we are sharing this message.

Absolutely. then broaden it out as your message gets better and clearer. I would say that's another huge thing is practice or ask somebody to listen to your pitch. Who's going to be honest with you and say, I don't get it or I get it or that doesn't make any sense or this part seems to me it's more important than this part that you're focusing on.

Yes.

Who do you recommend that you ask to review your stories or to help you with this? Obviously, we don't want to ask just anybody for their advice because I know we've all had that unsolicited advice from that person who's really not in our shoes. They're not in the arena with us. So it's kind of like, do I need to listen to this person? Do they really know what they're talking about? Who is a good person to ask for

Please, no!

good feedback when it comes to our story and our marketing.

You're right, other than me or you.

Yes, yes, other than one of us who've been there and done that. Yes, so like if you're looking for, know, is it maybe members of your team? Is it maybe like some of your current clients? Like where do you try out these stories in a safe but smart place?

Exactly. think that's a

Great question and I'm thinking so yeah, I can see I like the idea of your clients I usually tell people networking and you don't even actually have to ask people As long as you're paying attention that because people will lean in When they're interested in what you're saying, they'll lean back right when they're not interested when you're Sometimes that doesn't necessarily mean you're about your message

as more as like they're not interested in right in, but typically it's a pretty good indicator. but yeah, then like, if you have a coach, that's a great place to utilize their services. Cause you're right. You make, you make an excellent point in the sense of we need to find somebody who has our best interests in heart, right? Not somebody who thinks they know better

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, whatever the ego thing is going on there, we need that cheerleader that's going to say, like, yeah, going to tell you when you look bad, right? In a dress, go like, yeah, don't buy that dress. That's the person we're looking for. So yeah, I would say a coach. And I'm sure everybody is connected in communities too. That's another great way. Just ask in a community, say, hey, I'm working on my introduction.

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Yes.

would a couple of people be interested in joining me on Zoom? I could run through it and give them give me feedback. I think

If we ask, people are more than willing to help. And it's so much easier on this side, right? When you're giving feedback, than being the person that's had to like, suss it out of our heads, write it down, practice it and everything. And we sometimes get invested in those words that really don't matter, right? But we're like, ooh, I really like that word.

Yes.

Yes. Yes, we start getting too wordy or we start to lose people because we know our work and our industry so well that that's when the jargon starts to sneak in and then you're like, wait a minute, you lost me. I don't understand what this means. But I love the two things that really stood out to me, what you just talked about. Having a coach, I recorded a podcast episode recently about what to look for in hiring a

And so going back to having those advisors, that mentorship as you're growing your business, that's huge. But I love that you also mentioned other online communities and certainly networking. That's a great place to practice and figure out what lands and what doesn't. And you're right. When you ask, people are usually willing to help, especially if you are very specific with what you need and you take the least amount of their time.

as necessary in order, like being prepared, I'm going to take 10 minutes. I want to try out a couple of different versions of my introduction that I've written. Tell me which one you like the best or are there certain aspects of each one that you like and then I can kind of marry them all together. That sort of a thing. Just being very respectful of others time, but they're usually willing to give that if you're prepared and are willing to reciprocate as

I was gonna say you hit on it, reciprocity, right? Because they know in their heads, okay, when I need someone, I know I can reach out to Melissa now because I helped her. So yeah, it also creates a great collaboration and connection with other people in the same space. Because it can get lonely out here as solopreneurs.

Yes.

So it's always good to have those kind of connections of people that you can ask things of.

Absolutely. And I think that going back to my original statement where a lot of business owners that I know and I talk with on a regular basis, they're also trying to figure out this marketing thing. Some things land, some things don't, and they're always tweaking. And so having that peer to go back and forth and get some feedback from is really, really helpful. So one of the things that you had mentioned is focusing your marketing.

Maybe we don't need to be on all social media channels and spreading ourselves way too thin with our messaging. You know, besides social media, where are some other places that you're seeing people be successful in their marketing right now?

Sure, I think that's a great question, So marketing is such a fun field, like anything you can think of. Yeah, know, the promotional materials, I was thinking back, I had a conversation with a gal who did promotional materials and she was talking about her messaging. And I think she said they could put branding on socks. And I said, well, here's your tagline. We can brand your underwear if you want us to, right? Because.

Yeah, like who we're going to always remember that.

People are gonna remember that if nothing else, it's catchy and it's funny and it sticks. Yes.

And if they can brand my underwear, I'm pretty sure they can brand anything I can imagine. Yep, exactly.

Anything else? Yes, yes, Melissa Swink and Co. Underwear coming for our holiday gift giving this year. Just kidding, just kidding everybody. But that's still, that brings an excellent point. So yes.

Great, great. Yeah, so just thinking outside the box really. But I think, you know, podcasting is an awesome one. Books are huge right now, books and journals, in the sense like you can do, there's so many opportunities now to do collaborations that will put you on bestseller lists, give you all that.

more about that because you are sharing with me that you don't necessarily have to write an entire book all by yourself in order to appear in a book or become a published author. Can you tell us a little bit more about

Absolutely. Yeah, it's a very cool thing. And that's why I'm an international bestseller because I was in a collaboration with 261 women entrepreneurs. And so you think about it this way, like when you're solo, you're doing all the promotion yourself. When you're in a book with 261 other people,

Wow.

There's 262 of you doing promotion, right? So right there, like night and day kind of difference. Less work, obviously, than writing a whole book yourself because you're contributing some portion of the book. A community, you're developing typically communities develop around projects like that, especially one of that size. Now it was

Yes.

Mm -hmm.

She did a phenomenal job, Deb Drummond, in the sense like she built summits leading up to the book, summits after the book was announced until the launch. There'll be four summits now. There's a five -year book tour planned. I mean, mean, so it's on a massive scale. And I haven't seen, right, too many others that do quite that big a scale.

That's amazing.

but still you're still getting a lot of bang for your buck. know a gal who does journals and she's creating a super cool thing. So they, there's going to be a QR code for each author and then they're going to have a little video and they're going to talk about like, I think the first journals on gratitude.

Like what gratitude means to them, how they practice gratitude, whatever it is they want to share about gratitude. And that will be your journal prompt. Right? Like, yeah, I love that. I think it's going to be awesome. But she also does journals or books. She does books as well on resilience, for instance. And then you have all these contributors. And typically her books do go to Amazon number one bestseller.

Wow, very cool.

That's amazing. That's amazing.

Yeah, so, and really a lot of different price points, but it can be very, very affordable. I mean, way more affordable than what you're thinking in your head and way more affordable than writing. Exactly.

than writing and publishing your own book. Yes, collaborations through and collaborations don't even have to just be in the book or the journaling space. I mean, there's event collaborations. There's so many great opportunities to really pool resources and cross promote to different audiences, things like that. Other areas of marketing that you can think of that are going really well for people right now, Leslie.

Well, yeah, this is a kind of a brand new one. And actually, the 262 project I'm involved with, they did this. And this is another unique aspect of that project, is a wine club. And again, right, this is so much more affordable than you could even imagine. But creating your own wine club, they will create a label for you. It has an NFT code.

Interesting.

They get super high scale and then you can, they do like a revenue share on the wine. So at some point you would get your, your money back, right? But, a very, very sort of upscale exclusive marketing strategy that, will definitely set people apart to have a wine.

Would this be like for client gifts or how would you apply

It could be anything. you well you could so like the 262 is using it in the sense of people can buy the and you can do it like by the case or by the month or a one time purchase and then part of those proceeds go back to the 262 right. So they're doing it sort of as a fundraising thing. I know somebody who's used it for a non -profit and then she had

like an etched wine bottle made and they auctioned it off for a lot of money for the nonprofit. So you could use it for clients. You could use it as like, have a wine club, join us and purchase from us to support, like we're giving proceeds to, you know, a charity or however, however you wanted to do that, right? So many different ways.

Interesting.

Yes. Okay.

But now you have a lovely bottle of wine with your logo, your name. It's kind of a, almost one of a kind piece of artwork with the NFT they're talking about in sometime in the future would be valuable. I don't know. I mean, you know, it's all that stuff is kind of conjecture at this point.

Very cool. there, overall, mean, marketing ideas are everywhere and it's not just confined to social media and it doesn't necessarily have to mean that it needs to be all you. can be in collaboration with other people. It can also not only promote your business, but also give back as well. There's just so many different areas. Leslie.

One of the things that you had mentioned to us as we were talking here is getting some help with formulating your stories because sometimes we're just so close to our own that we can't even see it for ourselves. I talk about it as like trying to read the label from inside the bottle. And I know you have a free strategic story session. Can you share a little bit more about that? And if our listeners are interested in getting some help with formulating their stories.

where can they book a session with you in order to get some support in that area?

Absolutely, I would love to do that. I mean, I get a lot of joy out of pulling stories out of people. So yeah, and then I just blanked out, right? So the URL is get free session, not no a so get f r e s e s s i o n .com get free session .com. And in that

Do a lot like we did here, right? Have a conversation. But you tell me your story and what you want to do and what your goals are. Maybe what the challenges you're seeing with the story are. And between you and I, we'll be able to pull out those things that make you super unique and make what you do so valuable for the world. I was telling Melissa right before this, I met with a gal

who said to me, she said, I'm a brand photographer. And then she said, no, I'm more than that. And when she told me her story, I was like, my gosh, you connected on an emotional level. Like I get it. You're way more than a brand photographer. I wanna work with you. So those are the things that often we just need somebody else.

to recognize our greatness and there is greatness in every one of you. So yeah, free session, free, I'll get it confused in my head, getfreesession

Yes, I'd love

Love that, that's super easy. Getfreesession .com for a free story strategic session. Love that because again, it's so hard for us to see our own stories where it's like we can share something. It's like, well, but it's not quite that, like that's oversimplified. I also do this or I do more than just that. I'm more than just a virtual assistant. I'm more than just a marketing strategist. Like there's always more to it. And that also that more to

is what really sets us apart and makes us unique and makes people connect and ultimately want to work with us. So thank you so much, Leslie, for sharing all of your knowledge with us today. It was such a pleasure to have you on the show. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. Would love to hear how you are using marketing to grow your business beyond you. Follow, subscribe, make sure that you don't miss an other upcoming episode where we talk about

how to grow and scale your business with maximizing your time, leveraging systems and processes in order to make things more efficient for you, and also building a team because those are all valuable tools for ultimately growing and scaling your business beyond you, and that certainly includes marketing. So Leslie, thank you so much for joining us today, and we will see everyone in the next episode.

Thank you.