Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Good day everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's be diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This podcast is dedicated to all my loved ones who have supported me through this journey. Today I wanted to talk about something that's important to me, and I think it's important to organizations, especially ones that are starting out. Topic of strategic planning strategic planning could go in different realms. It can go into as far as what the organization is doing, their plans. HR does a lot of strategic planning, but the direction that we're going to go is today is leadership and strategic planning as far as the marketing realm is concerned. I am so happy to have as my very special guest today to talk about this. Christy Mitchell. Now, Christy Mitchell is a marketing strategist specializing in helping coaches and consultants who have relied on referrals and word of mouth to build their businesses. They know in order to take their business to the next level, they need to finally think strategically about the marketing efforts. Christy has a passion for teaching and sharing her knowledge. She brings an MBA over ten years of corporate marketing experience and a drive for continual learning to the work that she does with her clients. Christy also offers one on one strategic consulting group, implementation, support and membership community.
She, I feel, is one of the most dedicated, actionable, approachable, and one of the most overall nicest people that you could meet. Every conversation that I had with her ended with me having more clarity and confidence. Welcome to the show, Christy. It is super awesome to have you. I'm super stoked to have you here today.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Andrew. I appreciate you welcoming me on.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: You were very welcome. How are things with you? What's new in your world? What's going on? What's happening? Give me the details.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah, my world right now, I have a kid who's been homesick for almost a week from school, which I'm guessing will be our foreseeable future with winter and everything coming up. Yeah, sick kid at home managing that with my business. But that's why I do what I do so that I can be there for him and do my work for my clients around that and be able to feel like I can do both things to the best of my ability, which, it's a continuum, but I'm feeling pretty good today.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: That's good. And how is business for you these days? Are you finding it busy? Are you finding it a little bit slowing down because it's the end of the year? How are you finding it yeah, it's funny.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Overall, it's been a fantastic year for me and my business. I've started some new offerings and just really gotten a lot of clarity on the types of clients that I love working with the most and the types of work that I enjoy doing the most. And so it's been a really great year, and I have two sides to my business, and so when one side slows down, the other side tends to pick up. So I have not been bored at all this year. I did look at my calendar and I was like, oh, okay. I actually have some breathing room, which worked out really well, having a sick kid at home. So, yeah, I've been staying really busy. I know there's a lot of people who are wanting to start planning their marketing for next year, and so having those conversations and I'm not bored, and things aren't too quiet around here.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Oh, that's good. I was just talking to somebody the other day and I was saying to them, I don't know where 2023 went. I feel like five minutes ago I had a glass of champagne in my hand and I was cheersing somebody, saying, happy new year. And here we are. I'm talking to people saying, hey, I'm preparing for the new year, so we'll talk about stuff in the future and for 2024. And it still amazes me to say that. And the first person I said it to, I thought, okay, they're going to think it's weird, but they were, okay. I totally understand that. And I was like, oh, maybe I'm not the only one that's thinking that way. So it's just crazy.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like after coming out of the pandemic, somehow time seems to fly even faster. It feels. And I was noticed that you're coming up on one year of your podcast, so that's super exciting.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it's getting there. I am slowly getting there. It's growing like weeds. When I started it, I thought it was going to be like a little, I don't know, like a little hobby type thing where I was just going to do it for fun. And so seven months in and my mindset changed from, like, when I started it. It's amazing in that time frame how my mindset changed. So I've gone from, I'll just do it as a hobby to, okay, start planning for the new year. I've already booked my guests for January, and I'm starting to look at some new things that I want to bring out for the new year and hopefully some new fun things. So it's just crazy. Just crazy how your mind just shifts from it's going to be fun to, oh, wow, I might have something here. Yeah, it's crazy.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: It'll make the time fly even faster for you, too.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: I'm sure it probably is, because like I said, I've already booked up fully for January. So here I'm thinking, okay, now I'm starting to talk to people saying February is my next thing. So, yeah, before I know it, it's going to be like halfway through the year. I know it. It's crazy.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: I'm glad to hear that things are going well for you and business is going well. I'm not surprised. For you. I do see a lot of people talking about you, and I do see a lot of comments online with people saying how great it is to work with you. And I meant what I said, beginning. I really feel like when we have had our conversations, I do feel so energized and full of clarity when we do speak. I just wish we could talk more. But I know you're a busy lady, and I'm not the only guy in town. I'm sure there's other people want to talk to you. So before we begin, I always have a fun question to ask my guests to get things going. Are you ready for yours, Christy?
[00:05:58] Speaker A: I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: So your question today is, what is one ability that you believe everybody should possess?
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Patience.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: That's a good one. That is a good one.
Have you been talking to my wife? Because that's probably the answer that she would have gave.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: No. It's just so funny. It just seems to be this recurring theme in life and business. And I just told my son the other day, I was like, you need to be more patient. And he looked at me, he's like, I am not patient. And I was like, okay, I hope someday you learn it, because I had to. After I had you. I joke about it because I've never considered myself a super patient person. I truly believe through the process of business ownership and having a child, I had to learn to be patient. But it's been coming up a lot lately in the realm of marketing and of business ownership and just needing to give things time to see the results for what you've done. I think especially, we always hear about this day and age that we're in, where there's instant gratification and we're just always doing things and multitasking and we're so busy and there's always so many things going on, but at the end of the day, there's still some things in life that you're not going to see those results for tomorrow just because you did them today. And so I think if everyone could learn to be a little more patient, it could go a long way in life and in business.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: You just picked the word for me, and I think I've gotten better at it. But I feel like sometimes you look at stuff and you're like, I want to be like, here. Why can't I be there? But, yeah, I'm starting to slowly understand. Okay, in order to get there, you got to go through steps in order to get there. But there are some times where I just look at things, I'm like, man, I just wish that I was here right now, where I want to be right now.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: And that whole cliche that sometimes it's about the journey and not the destination is very true.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Yes, it totally is. Thank you for having fun with me. I just love that answer. I was not expecting that answer. So you did a great job, and it was so fun to have fun with you. So thanks a lot. Why don't we start off with you telling us a little bit about you and your story?
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Okay, my story.
So many chapters. Where do I begin? Okay, sorry.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Take your time.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Just went to jump right in and caught myself. So my story. I am getting ready to celebrate five years running my business. And what kind of got me to that point of running my own marketing consulting business was pretty extensive, about ten years in the corporate world. So I spent time in higher ed. I went on to work at a financial services company. And in the process of making that transition, of being at one place for a really long time and then going to a new place, I realized a lot about myself and what I needed and what I wanted to do with my life and my career and my family. And the financial services company was not a good fit for me for a number of reasons. I didn't have a great boss. That was a good fit for me. I felt very much like I saw so much opportunity for change and for progress to be made, but it was difficult being a new employee and not being able to make the changes or have the voice that I wanted to and felt like I needed to better the organization as a whole. And so I just felt very stuck. I felt very misunderstood, which was the first time in my career. It was a really difficult thing to feel that maybe not necessarily my integrity, but at the time, my son was in preschool and he was sick a lot then, and I'd have to leave to go take him to the doctor or bring him home. And just being made to feel like if I'm not sitting at my desk, I'm not doing my job was really difficult for me because I'm a hard worker and my prior boss always knew that my work is getting done. He never had to worry about it. So whether I was at home or at work, whatever, taking care of my child, whatever my responsibilities for my job were, would be taken care of. And so being in a new place where it just felt like that trust wasn't implicit there and being made to feel like I had to make up for time that I wasn't sitting at my desk in the office, it was really challenging and it really put a stress and a burden on me that over time grew greatly and it ultimately ended up taking a pretty significant toll on me, mental health wise. And just getting to a point where I knew I couldn't stay there. It wasn't healthy for me. And I job searched. I looked extensively at the time. The market was not in my favor. I couldn't find anything. It was really challenging. So while I knew I couldn't stay, I also felt like I had nowhere to go. And ultimately I went on a vacation with my family. I dreaded coming home from that vacation. When I finally did come home, I got pulled into an office and was asked, do you want to be here? Do you see a future for yourself here? And I had to trust my instincts and what I knew in my heart, and I had to say no, even though I knew that would mean they were walking me out of the office that day because that was the culture of the company.
And so it was really difficult. But I knew in my heart that I couldn't continue putting on a show, pretending like I could handle it. I couldn't do it anymore. The night that I was putting my son to bed, and I apologized because I had lost my temper and I wasn't in a good mood because of stuff that happened at work. I put him to bed and I told him I was sorry and that some stuff was going on at work, but it was no reason for me to lose my temper and be in a bad mood. And when I went to leave his room, he was three or four at the time, he told me, mommy, I'm sorry your work is bad. And when people talk about that turning point, that moment, that was when I knew I can't keep doing this because it's not just taking a toll on me, it's taking a toll on my family, too. So that was my big turning point.
I was just telling someone the other day, it was like on those tv shows or those movies where someone gets laid off and they walk out with their box of stuff. That was me my first day back from vacation. I walk out, drive home, get my box of stuff out of the car, and my husband wasn't shocked. And I was like, now I really need to find a job. And he was like, no, you've always wanted to do your own business. Now is your chance. This is it. This is your time. And so I'm so incredibly thankful for his unending support. And that's when I started. I went out and I networked my butt off and I found my first clients and I put all of my marketing experience and skills to use and I was basically doing whatever small business is needed as far as marketing goes because that's my background. I've done a little bit of everything. So not only was I on the planning side, but I was also executing. I was doing social media, email, marketing, websites, the strategy, the content, all of the things. And I got a year under my belt before the pandemic. And then it took about six months for me to feel the effects of the pandemic and my clients started not renewing their contracts. And I thought, oh my gosh, if I already need to rebuild after a year and a half and I'm really looking at the work that I'm doing and being honest with myself, I don't love the work and I'm busting my butt trying to build my business. I should love the work that I'm doing. And so through a series of events and people I worked with and coaches and all of these things, everything came together and I realized, oh my gosh, I could take my marketing experience and know how and help other business owners, other consultants, many of whom have left corporate just like I did, to start their own thing. They're coaches, they're consultants, they're doing work that they're passionate about. They're forging their own path and they want to have a huge impact in the world. But most of them don't have a marketing background. And so when you go off to do your own business, you need to know marketing to a degree or it's going to be really challenging to be successful. And so I just had this big epiphany. Wait a minute, I could use my skills and expertise and help all of these coaches, consultants, small business owners learn how to market their business. I get to stay in my zone of genius on the strategy and the planning side, and I get to teach them and guide them, which is something that I love to do. And so here I am, four years after making that transition, just about three and a half years, and I couldn't be happier. I'm loving the work that I do and the clients that I work with.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Wow. First off, what a great story. I know for myself, but anyone who's listening, I'm sure they're going to find it super inspirational to see that you can be at a certain point and you can get to where you want to be. The things that kind of resonated with me is, first off, you're talking about how you felt stressed. It seemed like you felt like you were not seen, heard, valued or understood. And your thoughts of mission, vision, values, what you were looking for in an organization, were not doing it for you. What I want to say is kudos to you for figuring that out. What I love about this question is that people talk about their story and see where they were and where they've come. And I just love this inspirational story because now listeners that are going to be listening to the story can see as well that, hey, I can do this, too. If Christy did it, I can do it. So, thank you for that inspirational story and for you for seeing what was important, what you valued, and making the change. And it sounds like you've also learned to adapt as well, which I think is very important. And I think that's commendable for you to be able to do that.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm honestly very thankful in hindsight. So, when I worked in higher ed, I earned my MBA while I was there because it was a perk of working there, and I figured, why not? You can't go wrong having an MBA. And so I look back on that and see how well that served me. I really didn't know that I would go on to run my own business, but not only just from the business management and financial side and all those things you learned in an MBA program, but I remember one of my favorite courses was managing organizational change. And a lot of the things that I learned in that really stuck with me and just always needing to adapt. You can't just stand still and stay stagnant and expect to make it to where you want to be and to grow and to build the things you want to do.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I took a similar course, too, and I remember it also. And it does teach you to adapt and to understand that things are not the same. And it's interesting to me because there's a lot of companies that they stay stagnant. Like you said, you were talking to your bosses and you're coming in new. You have fresh, new, vibrant ideas and they're like, no, we tried that last year. We tried that ten years ago. So we're not going to do that now. It didn't work, but maybe the way that they did it didn't work. But if they looked at it, reviewed it and then adapted, say, okay, maybe if we made a few little minor tweaks and try it again and see how it goes, times are different. It didn't happen ten years ago. Ten years later, things are different, people are different. They look at things differently. So maybe it will work. Yeah, it's just amazing that you saw it. But to me I see a lot of not just business owners, but leaders who don't see that, that they just want to do it the same way, the 40 business way. And it's sad.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: It was funny to find out two or three years after I left that some of the changes that I was advocating for finally did come to be. And so it was a little gratifying to hear that.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. But you can guarantee that it wasn't your idea. It was that it took it to be their idea.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: So tonight we're talking about strategic planning in marketing. My question to you is, what are the main objectives of strategic marketing?
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Yeah, so it's such a great question because I feel so strongly. From what I've seen and heard from my clients and prospective clients and so many business owners out there, just the feelings around marketing tend to be negative. And I always joke with my HR consultant friends like HR and marketing both catch a bad rap. So I feel like we have that shared connection, but I just feel like when it comes to marketing, there are a lot of negative feelings because it can feel overwhelming. There's so many different facets that fall under. I talk about marketing as like a big umbrella and then there's all of these pieces that fall into it. And so it's difficult to figure out where does your priority go, where does your time, attention and your budget dollars go? Because there's so many things to do and there's a lot of really bad marketers out there. Unfortunately, big agencies that take companies money. And I just started working with a new client recently. They went through this. They worked with a big agency. They did not get what they were expecting out of the arrangement. And now they're coming to me to say, okay, let's start at square one. Where do we go from here? And when it comes to strategic marketing, I think it's a matter of looking at all of those pieces and figuring out how do they fit together, or how aren't they fitting together, how do they need to fit together, or are there pieces that need to go away. And so sometimes I use the visual of a puzzle. There's all these pieces. And it's okay, for one business, you might need this set of pieces to make a strategic marketing plan, and for another business, you need these other pieces to make a strategic plan.
I do not believe that there is a one size fits all model when it comes to a strategic marketing plan. For a business, I truly believe that there needs to be room to consider the people who are executing that plan. What does the company stand for? Who is their target audience that they're trying to reach? There's a lot that plays into it. And so the objective to me of creating a strategic marketing plan is to figure out what pieces need to be in your puzzle, and what is it that you're trying to achieve with that. So typically, the clients that I work with, whether they're solo business owners or small to mid sized companies, their goal is typically to get more leads at the end of the day. But what I really love and the clients I'm really drawn to is that they don't place the whole emphasis on the number of leads. It's really more a matter of feeling like they're effectively communicating who they are as a company, why they're different, who is it that they truly enjoy working with? And so there's a lot that goes into it, but I think at the end of the day, it's identifying what your goals are. What are you trying to achieve? Which I always ask my clients that up front because I want to be very clear on let's set expectations. Because if you're asking for the sun, the moon, the stars, and I can only give you this, let's level set there and make sure we're on the same page. But really clearly identifying the goals and then looking at the plan that's going to help you get there.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: So there's some key words of key things that I truly believe in. One of them is communicating. And I do think in organizations, and I'm sure you saw that when you were working in your organizations, and I preach this to leaders all the time, is communicating. You got to communicate. You can't be silent. There are certain things I get that you can't tell, but you got to communicate somehow. I've had leaders that said to me, look, I'm going to tell you everything. I'm not going to hide anything. And they have a certain way to say it. They'll say, look at, there are certain things I can't tell you, but I'm going to tell you this is what we're looking at. And I think you respect somebody like that. So I do think that communicating is so important. And when you talk about puzzles and stuff like that and figuring out what do they need and what they do not need, that was where that communication factor, I think, comes in. Because if a leader can't communicate, for example, to you, who is doing their marketing, and they can't communicate as far as what they're looking for, you can be a magician, but you can't do it fully if you don't understand fully what the organization is looking for. So just make sure that you communicate fully what you're looking for so that the marketing person can help you.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've actually refined my process for discovery calls with potential new clients a lot this year based on a book that I read. And it makes such a huge difference because I'm asking a similar question but in different ways to really get to the root of what is it that you're trying to achieve? Because I don't think, whether it's marketing or anything in business, I don't think that you can create a strategic plan without being super clear on what the end goal is for sure.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: I totally agree with you 100% there. What are the metrics that help determine if a strategic plan is a success or a failure?
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that you asked this question because I'm a big data person. So I always love digging into data for my clients, whether it's their website, their social media, their email marketing, anything they're doing, where I can tease out some data and figure out, okay, what's working, what's not, what does the data tell us? I love to do that. So as far as the metrics, I think, again, it goes back to the goal, like what is the end goal that you're trying to achieve? And then to me, there's almost a line of data that can trail that. So let's just use the example of lead generation. Let's say the goal for a company when working with me is they want to get leads through their website instead of getting these spam form fills that don't do them any good. And so if that's the end goal, there are a number of things that I would be looking at that I would want to measure from the work that we're doing together to see how is that going to end up influencing that number. So to me, the lead number might be the end goal and quality of leads, too, because I know from experience you can pay for a whole bunch of leads, but it doesn't mean they're good ones. So number of leads, quality of leads, both factor in. But then I'd be looking at, okay, how many people are actually getting to those pages on your website where they could fill out a form? So if the goal is to get someone to fill out a form, how many visitors are we driving to those pages where they could fill out a form and where are those people coming from? So those are all things that I'd be looking at in Google Analytics, like what is the source of the website traffic and what pages are they going to and how many pages are they going to, and how many people come to the page but don't submit the form? There's a whole bunch of things that we can look at that relate to that end number, but I always think that there's a bigger story to be told than just one number, no matter what it is that your goal is. There's got to be some other metrics that you can come up with that help indicate what that end number might be.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: I'm going to say one of the big things to do that I'd say is to do your research. So you mentioned to me that you love that question first off, I got to say, I did my research and I knew that you were a numbers girl, so that's why I asked that question first off. But as far as research goes, I think you need to do your research because you're talking about lead generation. You got to do your lead generation and you have to figure out what's the trends, what's going on, what's out there, time changes. You talked earlier about a pandemic, and I think we're not out of the pandemic. So people's mindsets have changed. And what I find more than ever is people are more into relationship building, so they really want to build relationships and build rapport. And I talked about my keywords before. That's another one, is, as I said, communication earlier, building rapport is another one. I think that is so key. I had a leader that told me once before, if you're a nice person, people are going to buy from you. And I'll never forget it because it is so true. If you build rapport with somebody and you treat them well, it's a good chance they're going to buy something for you because they trust you, they respect you, they feel comfortable with you. They know you're not joshing them. So I think once you get that lead generation and once you've built those leads, you got to get out there and you got to talk to people and you got to build that rapport so you get that trust and respect factor.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Yes. So if I could add to that, a story just came to mind. This quote from a client of mine just stuck with me. We worked together last year. She's an HR consultant, and she told me that I was the third or fourth marketing person or company that she spoke with. And she said, you're the only person who gets it. Everybody else is talking to me like I'm selling widgets and I'm not selling widgets, I'm selling myself.
I'm selling my services. And I totally got her because I specialize in working with service providers. I don't work with people who are selling products. And it's a totally different type of marketing. And at the end of the day, the reason I bring it up is because to me, it goes back to relationships. She's selling her services to clients that she wants to work with. It's not a numbers game. It's not like I need 20 new leads in the next week and then I'm going to convert. Yes, there are numbers, but at the end of the day, it's really more about relationships.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And I will add to that. I could see where she's coming from because I'm a true believer. If you're a good leader, I think one of the things you need to do is you need to realize when you need to figure out when you're going to for a response or when you're listening, and I call it with pause, meaning that you were listening not to give a reaction, but you're listening to them. I could see where she's coming from because as I mentioned earlier, you and I, we've had some great conversations. And that's one of the thing I noticed about you, is that you listen to what the client is saying, what they want, but you were listening with pause. So you did figure it out. And you don't always, like with us, you've never given fully a response or I think you should be doing this. You ask questions, but you listened to what the person is saying. And I truly believe that as a leader or when you're doing your marketing, you got to talk, but you got to listen to what they're saying to you and learn to listen with pause.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yes, and that actually goes into something else I wanted to touch on just briefly. What you were saying about the relationship building is that, yes, getting leads might be a metric and a goal, but if you are not nurturing those leads, and this is where I get into the strategic planning side of marketing with my clients. And I just post about this, you can plant all the seeds you want, but you have to nurture them. It's just like planting a seed in your garden. You can't just throw it in the ground and expect it to grow without sunlight and water and pulling the weeds. You have to nurture them. It's the same thing when it comes to marketing and lead generation. Yes, you might get some leads, but when you're in the service based space, they're not going to convert tomorrow. It's your job to build the know the trust factors, all of those things. And you do that through consistently engaging with them and nurturing those relationships and helping them learn about you and providing that super helpful, relevant content that shows you as a problem solver in your space. That's what it's all about. It all goes back to the relationship for sure.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: I will give a thought. It makes me think of something here. If you are a parent and you're raising a child and you want them to grow, to treat people well and you want them to be humble and have respect, you need to nurture them, help them to grow into that individual. If you just leave them be and say, oh, they're born now 18, they'll turn out to be what I want. It's not going to happen. You need to nurture them, to help them to grow into the young adult or person that you want them to be.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
It's funny, I just told my husband the other night that my son was going upstairs to get ready for bed and I left a basket of folded laundry on the landing to go upstairs and he carried it upstairs and I was like, he's paying attention because he sees us do that. Especially my husband will do that for me. And I'm like, he sees it and he's modeling it and I love it. It makes me so happy.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it just means that you're doing a good job, mom. That just means that he realizes how much that mom and dad do for him. And it might be a small little thing, but mom and dad notice that, and that's huge. So for sure is it a good idea to review strategic plans from the past?
[00:30:35] Speaker A: Definitely think so. I think we're having this conversation. We talk about how the markets change and people's behaviors change and needs change. The world is always changing. That's the only constant. And so I think that it does make sense to revisit things from the past to see if, okay, maybe we tried that before and it didn't work, or maybe we saw some success with it. But if you take into consideration maybe changes in the market, maybe it would work better now, or maybe you've shifted something else you're doing for your marketing and this thing would play better with that now. It would complement it better than it did before. So I'm definitely a fan of constantly evolving and changing as you need to. And I think there's a place to look back on things and say, oh, I stopped doing that, but maybe we should restart as long as it's coming from a place of that strategic consideration.
[00:31:33] Speaker B: I totally agree with you. I think it's good to review stuff from the past. Sometimes things didn't work in the past, but they might work now with a little bit of fine tuning and a little bit of adjustments. I think it's good in the fact that you might do a marketing campaign. You look at stuff and then you say, okay, hey, let's review, hey, why don't we do that thing that we did a year ago, let's do that again, and then you can review it. Say, what did we do, what worked, what didn't? And then let's adjust the things that didn't work and keep going with the things that did and see how it goes the next time. So I totally agree with you. So where do you see strategic planning going in the future?
[00:32:11] Speaker A: I honestly feel like the need for it just keeps increasing. Again, if we're talking about just market changes and what different industries are doing and people's willingness to invest in things, and there's always change happening. And I feel like things always get more expensive in life. With every pandemic or every market change, things increase in price all of the time. And so I think people have to become even more discerning with how they're going to spend their money, just as one example. And so I think that it just places an even heavier emphasis on strategic planning. Where are you investing your budget dollars? Whether it be in a marketing plan or in a new initiative within a company, I think that the need to look very critically at what strategy and what plan is needed most, depending on the results that you're trying to get. I think it's only going to get more important.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: Do you find that leaders or business owners that you're dealing with, do you find that they are looking to in the future when they're doing their strategic planning? Are they planning more in the short term or are they planning for the long term?
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like with the small businesses that I've been working with, so I have one client that I just started working with in the past month or so, and he flat out told me on our initial call how well they were doing financially and how they didn't really need marketing. But he is the founder of the company and he knows that he wants to leave a legacy. He wants the business to be super successful and everyone there is of that. Like they've built a culture. Now that I've gotten to know them, I see it. They've built a culture of high achievers and it bothers this business owner that they've tried working with five different marketing people and nobody's got it right. Their website still doesn't communicate who they are and what they do. The content they put out on social and on this video series, it just doesn't showcase them in the way that it needs to, in the way that it should. It doesn't put their best foot forward. It doesn't put them in a position to attract more of their ideal clients. And so he's right in a sense that he doesn't need marketing right now, but it keeps him up at night, that it's never been done in a way that he feels like is appropriate and accurate and is going to help propel their business for the long term future. And so when I had that initial call with him, I was so excited to work with him. I was pretty sure we had a really great first conversation and I was pretty sure he was going to say yes. And he did. And I loved that about him because it wasn't short term. I think I've worked with some business owners in the past where they're almost desperate to get clients right away because they're struggling. And I don't enjoy that kind of work because the way that I approach marketing, the things that I teach my clients, it goes back to patience. They're not that overnight success. I can't guarantee you that you're going to get two new clients next week. I can't do that. I won't do it. And so I really enjoy working with those business owners who are more forward thinking.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: So I love what that leader decided that he's saying the business is going. He didn't think that he needed marketing. I think the second that you feel like you know everything, that's when things start to fall or falter. I call myself a lifelong learner, and I'm always reading, I'm always learning. Something is always new. I always take something from anything that I do, whether it's small or big. When then down the road, you're like, oh, I remember having this conversation with somebody and this is what we're talking about. And I think it's because you're continuously learning. And the second that you say, oh, I've been doing this for so many years. We've been successful, and now I don't need it. That's when things can go rear. I think it's huge for him to understand that, for sure. If you could choose one word to describe yourself, what word would that be?
[00:36:35] Speaker A: I would say authentic. I'm not a fake person. I think anyone who's talked to me knows what you see is what you get. And I'm going to be very honest. I'm always going to tell you like it is. Maybe sometimes wrapped up in a hug. I like to say some tough news that you need to hear, some hard truths that maybe you haven't been wanting to face. But, yeah, I really strive. I don't know, I don't strive to be. I just am authentic. I don't ever put on a face, typically to try and prove something or be someone that I'm not. That's part of the reason I pivoted my business. I brand myself. Now my company is Christy Mitchell Consulting. It's me. And what you see is what you get.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: I love that word for you. I totally agree with you 150%. What you see is what you get with you. And I am totally on board with that word for you. I think that is you to a t. I'd probably say compassionate and empathetic as well. Those would probably be two other ones, yes. But I definitely think authentic is one for you. I would also say adaptable from your story, from where you come from, where you took yourself, being in a situation where you were just not happy and what have you in work, and then being walked out of your job, not knowing what's going to happen, where's the next paycheck going to come from? It's that scary thought, and there's a lot of people that get stuck in that scary thought of, oh, my God, what are we going to do now? And everybody has it. But some people have it for a shorter amount of time because they figure, I'm going to get out of this and I have a plan. And I think, like you said, it's also about having that support system. And you have a very good support system there with your husband who told you, hey, no, you're going to get out of this. You're a smart person. I know you're going to do it and you're going to get out of it. I'd say for you would be authentic, I would say compassionate, empathetic, and I would definitely say adaptable for you, for sure.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: Thank you. I appreciate that. Empathy is in my top three strengths on the Clifton strengths finder. So, yes, that definitely fits. It's funny because I don't consider myself the most adaptable person. I know that I didn't rank highly for flexibility on Clifton strengths, but when you put it that way, I have to agree with you.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: I can't deny that you figured it out. Right? So that's the key thing. I talked to a lot of people, and there's a lot of people who are struggling in a job where they're in a rabbit hole and they're stuck because they married, they have two kids at home, and they feel stuck because feel like they can offer anything. They don't feel like they have any skills to go on to another job. They look at jobs and they're like, oh, I can't do that because I don't have this. I don't have that. And they just feel like they have to stay in that job because they need that paycheck to pay for their bills. And I always tell people, you're not stuck. And I think the second that you realize that you are not stuck, you start to think, yeah, okay, I'm not stuck. And that's when the mice start spinning in the head, say, okay, maybe I'm not stuck. Maybe I'll try this, see if I can do this or I can apply for this job. This looks like something that I could do. You figured it out, which is awesome.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Thank you. Appreciate that.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Any final thoughts today?
[00:40:00] Speaker A: I don't think so. I feel like we covered a lot of ground.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: I love it.
I wanted to take the time to thank you for coming on today. I know we joked about at the beginning before we started the taping. I saw you from way back when I first started looking for guests for my podcast, and I messaged you and we talked a few times, and it just wasn't a fit for you. You just weren't ready. And I just said to myself, you know what, there's a few guests that I want to have, but there are a short number of people that I just really want to have on and I'm just going to stick with them until they actually give me that definite no. And I just thought, I'm just going to continue to ask because I just feel that you are authentic, compassionate, empowering, and I do think you're a powerful individual and I do think you have a lot to offer. And I wanted to have this conversation with you because I do feel that it's going to not be a benefit for the two of us, but also to our listeners. And I'm thankful that you were able to find the time today in your schedule to fit me in. So I am honored and privileged to have you on today. So thank you very much.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: Thank you. I appreciate your persistence. It's a good lesson for anyone out there who maybe didn't get an answer they wanted and persists, you might change it.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: On behalf of myself and my guest, Christy, I'd like to thank you all for listening today. And until next time, be safe and remember that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: You have been listening to. Let's be diverse with Andrew Stout. To stay up to date with future content, hit subscribe.
