Claim OwnershipRonii Bartles
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A results-driven operations marketing consultant for growing small businesses who understand that traditional marketing doesn't work if their operations are broken and desire to provide an exceptional customer experience by implementing systems that make marketing easy. Maybe your marketing isn't broken.
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I’ve been seeing people's New Year’s resolutions all over social media. We’ve seen them all from loose weight to be more grateful. Allen even made a resolution this year! Like, that’s a Christmas miracle in and of itself. He is striving to be more positive this year. The other morning before he left for work he said to me, ‘I know I’m supposed to be more positive, but this day is gonna suck.’ You gotta start somewhere.
We all make hot + heavy New Years resolutions and after a few weeks those resolutions fizzle out like your high school summer romance. Although some of us are committed enough to keep going, because you know what they say? {cue the cliché} What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
I don’t know about you but 2016 has been heavy. Heavy in emotion, heavy in energy, heavy to carry. I’ve just kinda been going through the motions of writing blogs + sending emails because that’s what one is supposed to do. I’ve been a terrible friend to you for that. That’s not helping you or me. I’m not going to go into all the gory details about the year but to sum it up… it’s been heavy.
But always the optimist that I am, I felt a shift recently. A shift in momentum. Finally, I feel more focused + want to work on projects that excite me rather than going through the motions. That’s why my word for 2017 is Famous.
Pivoting sometimes sucks. But the beauty of being an entrepreneur is that we are nimble + flexible and can pivot our business quickly + easily. Embrace it! After you wallow for a hot minute of course.
I know this is a controversial statement I just made because we are taught to be encouraging + find our passion to be happy. BUT, hear me out before you tar + feather me over this. There are all these cliches about passion; lack of passion is fatal, follow your passion, do what you love + you’ll never work a day in your life, etc. I’m not disputing these are not true but research has proven that passion alone does not make you happy {or make you money}. I think that when we are chasing the "follow your passion" dream what we really are looking for is happiness + fulfillment. I’m very passionate about looking through the dollar bins at Target for their cute pens {which, everyone seems to be snatching these days} but that’s not providing me an income + most of the time not really making me happy, just frustrated when I can't find them.
Adulting is hard. Like really hard. And that elusive work/life thing doesn't always balance out in the life of an entrepreneur. Danielle LaPorte writes, 'I no sooner want to be balanced than I want to be a “good” girl. “Balance” is not something I want to live down to.' There are all kinds of articles out on the interwebs telling people how they can achieve work/life balance by just doing this one thing. Tips for work/life balance make for really good SEO because people always wants tips + tricks. But many would argue that work/life balance is bullshit {me included}. Balance assumes that all things are equal. All things are not equal. And never will be. There is only flow. Going with the flow of your life + how you want to look + feel.
Entrepreneurs are an interesting breed. We work ALL the time. Ideas are floating around in our heads all the time. I just had one yesterday while walking Lucy. We plot + plan + stress about how many followers we have on Instagram. Totally an arbitrary number, we do actually know this, but our brains are always on the ‘please like me’ mode so the number is important and the world will end if someone unfollows us. We have day planners {sometimes multiples}, notebooks, sticky notes + monitors cluttering our desk with post-its sticking out everywhere and week old coffee mugs next to our laptops. We have laptops because you know, we’re entrepreneurs and we can work from anywhere in the world we want. Except we never move from the little corner of our home that is our ‘office.’
Do you ever suffer from what I like to call Squirrel Syndrome? No? You don't loose focus? You already have, haven't you? If you're like me there is so much jammed packed into my schedule that I get overwhelmed, which in turn distracks my attention constantly. And its easy to get distracts by, say...
OHHH... SPARKLY!
Sorry. Focus, Ronii. You are writing a blog post. Squirrel.
Set it + forget about it! I totally said that in a Jersey accent in my head. We do this for dinner all the time. But what about doing it for the marketing in our businesses? Most of us find marketing to be hard + spend 90% of our time doing what we think is marketing our business.
But imagine a world where you don’t have to do that + the time you just reclaimed can be spent doing your favorite work, loving on your clients, making dinner, drinking wine with your friends, watching football, the list is endless. That is where the marketing system comes in. My definition of a marketing system is where you design a path for a potential customer to come into your world and engage with your work. It’s organized + automated and your marketing job is now to evaluate the system and make tweaks as you see things working or not working or new trends among your audience. I think it’s pretty obvious why it is important - to take your life back.
Customer avatar. Customer profile. Persona. It’s all Greek to me. This is one of the hardest pieces of the marketing puzzle for entrepreneurs. We can’t seem to figure out who our ideal customers are. We are so stuck on how we can help everyone but know we need to narrow it down to one person and that’s just… hard.
This is the one thing I see that makes businesses either soar to the top fast, or keep spinning their wheels to make ends meet. The businesses that figure this out are successful because they make products + services specifically for their ideal clients. They talk the same talk of their clients, walk the same walk as their clients and in return their clients spend a shit ton of money.
A few months ago I had a dentist appointment. I’m one of those very few people that loves going to the dentist. That’s probably because I don’t have any cavities and haven’t had any major dental work so all I ever get is a cleaning. I was chatting with the hygienist while she cleaned and when the dentist came in she asked the same question that most people ask, “How’s it going?” I gave my standard answer that I have been giving for awhile, “Good. Busy. You?"
Branding is a hot topic around these parts (parts = my office chair). I’m obsessed with lots of things but brand strategies is in my top 3 along with close, authentic relationships and ‘Hot Now’ Krispy Kreme Donuts. The inventor of Spanx is a billionaire because donuts {and bacon} are delicious (honestly, I can’t take credit for that one because I saw it in a birthday card the other day).
This obsession has lead me to own up to the fact that while I love to work with clients on their whole business at heart I’m a brander because it is quintessential (that’s a big word for me at 7 in the morning) to every aspect of a business. It also fits nicely into my Operations Marketing philosophy. Score!
No Sh!t?! You can get your business model done in a week?!
I swear, I'm not lying to you! Cross my heart + all that other cliched stuff. It doesn’t have to be that hard. Everything can get set up in a week. I’ve found that one of the keys to running a successful business is to not keep re-inventing the wheel over + over again. That’s where the Operations Manual comes in. Documenting the tasks that you do in your business does a multitude of things, like, gives all your customers a consistent experience, let’s you easily delegate things out + keeps you from pulling your hair out trying to remember what you wrote or how you did it last time.
Recently, I was researching a business and came across its Facebook page. The cover image was great + conveyed a strong message with the logo prominently placed. I know exactly who they are. But the little square profile image that shows up in my newsfeed is different (I noticed because I do branding). You know what though? New potential customers like you + me who like that page will never notice that brand’s updates in our newsfeeds because it’s the wrong, outdated logo.
On social platforms all we see is that little square profile image and if you have a different image, icon or logo then how do people know it's you?
You like 'em in Facebook {and as of yesterday you have several emotions to pick from}. You double tap them on Instagram. You definitely retweet them on Twitter. What am I talking about you ask?
The inspirational quote.
You feel me. We love them! Like the junior high, first love kind of love. They suck us in every time.
How many times have you double tapped on that image with the pure white background + gold flake, scroll-y font that looks like someone {with better handwriting than you} just scribbled into perfection, ’good things come to those who hustle’? #raiseshand
We are diving into a hot topic today! You know me, I want to research everything so I find myself asking lots of questions of my entrepreneur friends + clients. I can almost guarantee that when I ask them, 'what's your biggest challenge?' Every one of them puts marketing as one of their top three answers.
It seems that everyone needs help with {and pretty much hates} marketing. They struggle with that fine line of getting their message and work out into the world + being the sleazy used car salesman that bombards you with 'BUY ME' emails 24/7. So, consequentially, we feel we have to do ALL the marketing things, which is daunting... and fucking stupid.
WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER
Does this sound like your life? But is it really your friend? Or foe? I guess if you get used to all the chaos in your personal + professional life then it sure seems like a friend. But is it working for you?
your vibe attracts your tribe!
I don't know who said this, but it is brilliant. And I totally stole it. It’s so relate-able, isn’t it? Not just professionally but to our personal lives too.
Mastermind. Clique. Peeps. Tribe. They all mean the same.
Tribe - (n): like-minded individuals that congregate to from your closest inner circle that gives you support, good criticism to help you better yourself, are not out to bring you down, genuinely care about you and your business, etc.
Can you believe it? 2017 is approaching at lightning speed. I went to TJMaxx {yes, I’m a maxxinista} the other day + all the Christmas decorations are out already. You’ve got to be kidding me! We haven’t even had Halloween yet.
IS YOUR BUSINESS READY FOR 2017?
This year has had lots of ups + downs and twists + turns. But as we approach the holidays there is still time to hit this year’s goals. Well, unless your goal is to marry Bradley Cooper. There still might be time for that, but chances are slim. Even so, I found myself at a working lunch today planning for 2017. I was asked earlier this week to list my top 3 goals for next year. Are you fucking kidding me? We haven’t even made it through 2nd quarter yet! Oh, wait. Son of a bitch. I’m behind already.
I’ve done them all. You name it, I’ve put it on my credit card. I have spent thousands of dollars on every business program out there. I get sucked in because the copy writing is good + I just throw money at gurus. Only to be disappointed when I don’t get the practical solutions I crave. I know I need clarity. I know I need to have a plan. I know I need a content calendar. I know I need ALL the stuff. But how?
I JUST WANT PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR REAL BUSINESS
Your business plan should be your tool to make your business work for you, not against you. It should make all your decision making easier. Have an idea to add website design to your bookkeeping business? Um, first, those are two totally different things and just because you used a Wordpress template to make yourself an awesome website doesn't make you a web designer. And, second, does that align with your business plan. Probably not.
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