Unveiling the Power of UTM Codes: The Key to Supercharging Your Marketing Strategy with Bonnie Conrad of Inn8ly

Unveiling the Power of UTM Codes - The Key to Supercharging Your Marketing Strategy with Bonnie Conrad Blog

Unveiling the Power of UTM Codes: The Key to Supercharging Your Marketing Strategy

Hey there! Have you ever wondered how to track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns down to the last detail? Today, we’re diving into the world of UTM codes, powerful tracking tools that can transform your marketing strategy. Grab a coffee and get comfy, because you’re about to discover some game-changing secrets!

Welcome to Our Space!

Welcome back! If you’re new here, I’m Jen Vazquez, and I’m all about helping hyper-busy female service providers use Pinterest to book more clients, increase their income, and make a bigger impact. In this blog, I also feature experts in the marketing field to get you all the juicy details you need to know. If you’re interested in taking your marketing game to the next level, be sure to subscribe.

Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Bonnie Conrad from Innately. Bonnie has an inspirational journey from struggling with digital marketing to mastering it, and she’s here to share her knowledge about UTM codes.

Meet Bonnie Conrad of Inn8ly

Bonnie is a military spouse who has worked in both the public and private sectors. After leaving the corporate world, she started her own small business and faced the challenges of digital marketing head-on. Through dedication and hard work, Bonnie immersed herself in the world of digital marketing, pinpointing the key factors that distinguish valuable strategies from superficial content.

Her clients love her honest, no-frills feedback, and I know you will too. Welcome, Bonnie!

What Are UTM Codes?

Before you get scared off by the word “codes,” let me reassure you—you don’t need to be a tech wizard to use UTM codes! UTM, which stands for Urchin Tracking Module, are simple snippets of text you add to your URL to track specific elements in your marketing strategy.

Why Should You Use UTM Codes?

UTM codes can help you identify the best platforms for your content. Whether you’re using Pinterest, LinkedIn, or MailChimp, UTM codes give you precise information about where your traffic is coming from, what’s working, and what’s not. This way, you can water the flowers and prune the weeds—do more of what works and get rid of what doesn’t.

Creating UTM Codes: A Step-by-Step Guide

Using UTM codes is easier than you might think. Bonnie recommends using Google’s Campaign URL Builder, a free tool that helps you build your UTM codes. Here’s a quick rundown of the steps:

1. Source: Where is the traffic coming from? (e.g., LinkedIn post, Pinterest)
2. Medium: How did the traffic reach you? (e.g., email, banner ad)
3. Campaign: The specific marketing campaign (e.g., spring sale, blog traffic)

You can also add “term” for keywords and “content” for differentiation in A/B testing, but these are optional.

Tracking and Managing UTM Codes

To keep things organized, Bonnie suggests using a Google Sheet to track your UTM codes. This way, if you share a blog post or campaign multiple times, you won’t need to create a new code every time. For example, you can have separate UTM codes for Instagram feed posts and Instagram stories to see which generates more traffic.

Best Practices

Keep It Simple: Use clean, concise tags that are easy to understand.
Avoid Special Characters: Stick to underscores or dashes.
Be Consistent: Apply your UTM codes across all your digital marketing channels.

How UTM Codes Have Helped

Since Inn8ly started using UTM codes, they’ve seen amazing results. For instance, Bonnie shared that their average page position on Google improved drastically, thanks to targeted traffic from Pinterest. It’s all about focusing on what works and letting go of what doesn’t.

Tools and Resources

Google Sheets for tracking and Google Analytics 4 for insights are your best friends. If you’re new to these tools, there are plenty of YouTube tutorials to get you started.

Take Action Today

You don’t need to overhaul your entire marketing strategy to start seeing the benefits of UTM codes. Pick one platform or parameter and start creating codes. Trust me, once you see the data, you’ll be hooked!

Bottom Line

Marketing doesn’t have to be a guessing game. With UTM codes, you can make informed decisions that are based on hard data. So go ahead, start experimenting, and watch your marketing strategy transform!

If you found this post helpful, follow Bonnie and check out her UTM best practices checklist. It’s a fantastic resource that will guide you through the process of creating and using UTM codes effectively.

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Unleashing Your Content Creation Power with Jessica Stansberry

Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast #204 An Interview with Jessica Stansberry by Jen Vazquez Media

Unleashing Your Content Creation Power with Jessica Stansberry

Hey everyone, Jen here! Today, I’m beyond excited to share some pearls of wisdom from my chat with none other than the incredible Jessica Stansberry. Jessica is like the queen bee of content creation and a master at helping businesses grow their brands, especially using YouTube. If you’re ready to turn your content into a money-making machine, read on!

Meet Jessica Stansberry

Jessica Stansberry is a powerhouse. With her YouTube channel, email list, and Instagram accounts, she helps content creators and entrepreneurs scale their businesses. She’s no-nonsense, gives you everything she’s got, and is simply amazing!

From Go-Getter to Entrepreneur

Jessica’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. From a determined 14-year-old who worked under the table to buy her cell phone to a corporate worker who couldn’t imagine staying in a job she despised after having her first child, she’s always been fiercely driven. She juggled various roles, from graphic design to web design, before finding her true calling. Her journey teaches us an invaluable lesson: if you want something, figure out how to get it.

The YouTube Journey

YouTube was a game-changer for Jessica. She shifted from making a modest income from web design to leveraging YouTube for teaching and coaching. Her subscribers soared, and her business took off. Jessica emphasizes being consistent and putting effort into titles, thumbnails, and structured content.

Using YouTube to Grow Your Business

Jessica shared critical strategies for growing your business using YouTube:

  1. Consistency Matters: Just do it and keep doing it.
  2. Quality Content: Focus on titles, thumbnails, and the actual content.
  3. 1% Improvement: Aim to get better every single time you post a video. Small improvements add up over time.

  

Crushing it with Crash

Jessica’s membership, Crash, is a treasure trove of resources for anyone looking to dive deep into content creation. With her guidance, I went from barely engaging with my YouTube channel to booking clients through my videos!

Local Impact: The Marketing Agency

Jessica also runs a local marketing agency, helping small-town businesses with social media strategies. Her agency’s secret? Being strategic about every social media post to ensure it generates leads and sales.

Balancing Content Creation and Business

Jessica’s advice for balancing content creation with business is gold. Hire help where you’re the bottleneck. Even if it’s just a few hours a week, it can make a huge difference.

Looking Ahead: Embracing AI and Authenticity

Jessica sees AI tools becoming a significant player in digital marketing. But she’s equally passionate about maintaining authenticity. Share your unique story in a way that feels comfortable for you. You don’t have to share everything; just enough to be relatable and engaging.

Final Nuggets of Wisdom

Jessica attributes her success to podcasts for business insights, her active YouTube presence, and her incredible team. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale, these elements can give you a unique edge.

Get Started on Your Digital Product Journey!

Ready to create your digital product? Check out Jessica’s freebie. It’s designed to help you determine the best digital product for your audience and get you on the right path.

Bottom Line

From her inspiring journey to her practical tips on balancing content creation and business, Jessica Stansberry’s insights are a treasure trove for any entrepreneur. Whether you’re just starting or looking to scale, there’s something to learn from her experience. Dive into her resources, implement her tips, and watch your business grow!

Gift: + Links

Thanks for tuning in, and as always, work smarter, not harder. Until next time!

Love always, *Jen

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Unleash your content creation power with Jessica Stansberry! Discover her inspiring journey, YouTube growth strategies, and tips on balancing business and content creation in this must-read blog.<br />
Unleash your content creation power with Jessica Stansberry! Discover her inspiring journey, YouTube growth strategies, and tips on balancing business and content creation in this must-read blog.
Unleash your content creation power with Jessica Stansberry! Discover her inspiring journey, YouTube growth strategies, and tips on balancing business and content creation in this must-read blog.

Intro to Affiliate Marketing: Your Way to Steady Online Income

Affiliate Marketing 101 The Beginner's Blueprint for Online Earnings with Enelin Toneva

Ready to turn your online activity into a passive income stream? Affiliate marketing can unlock your earning potential while you sleep. Affiliate marketing is a complex world with niche products, programs, and commissions. Don’t worry – we’re going to break it all down for you.

This blog post is a simplified, beginner-friendly guide to understanding the exciting world of affiliate marketing.

Special Guest Interview with Affiliate Marketing Pro Enelin Toneva

This post features insights from my recent interview with affiliate marketing expert Enelin Toneva, the founder and CEO of the Vivian Agency. Enelin shares her knowledge and expertise, answering common questions and laying out affiliate marketing basics to help you get started on your journey.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a commission-based partnership where you promote another person or company’s products or services. You use a unique tracking link to lead potential customers to their website. When a customer makes a purchase using your link, you earn a percentage or a flat fee commission.

Why is Choosing the Right Niche Important?

Choosing the right niche is key to targeting the right audience and maximizing your success. For example, a broad lifestyle influencer is less likely to convert sales for a specific health and fitness supplement than a fitness influencer with a smaller but highly relevant follower base.

What Are Affiliate Programs – How Do You Sign Up?

Affiliate programs are partnerships between influencers/content creators and businesses looking to promote their products and services. To streamline the process, you can join affiliate networks like:

These networks allow you to browse, discover, and apply to suitable affiliate programs.

The Importance of Tracking Results

Tracking your progress and results is crucial to knowing what works and what doesn’t. The main things to track are:

  • Affiliate links: Use your links properly to ensure you get credit for every sale.
  • Promo codes: Offer special codes to your audience, giving them an incentive while helping you track results.

Want To Learn Pinterest? For FREE?

Join our Pinterest Spring Refresh Challenge to optimize your profile and help to grow your business!

Common Commission Structures Explained

Affiliate commissions can vary, so it’s important to understand the different structures you’ll likely encounter:

  • Fixed per sale: A set amount for each sale you drive.
  • Recurring subscriptions: Earn commissions for a set period for subscription-based products.
  • Percentage per sale: Receive a percentage of the total sales you generate.

Proven Strategies for Affiliate Marketing Success

Here are a few tactics experienced affiliates use for success:

  • Use multiple marketing channels: Expand your reach and boost exposure.
  • Create authentic content: Build trust by sharing genuine experiences with the product/service.
  • Build your presence: Grow an engaged audience that trusts your recommendations.

Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

  • Forgetting to use your affiliate links
  • Promoting products without building your online presence first
  • Only promoting products you don’t believe in

Get Your Free Affiliate Marketing Guide

Enelin has generously provided her ebook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Own Affiliate Program. This guide is specifically designed for businesses interested in creating their own affiliate programs. [Insert a link to where they can download the guide]

Affiliate marketing can open doors to new income streams. Do your research, find the right programs, promote products you believe in, and you can start growing a passive income stream today!

Enelin’s services

Here’s her information and freebie:

Let’s take action!

Don’t delay, schedule time next week to apply Enelin’s advice for affiliate marketing.  You won’t regret it!

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Unlocking the Power of Email Flows: The Key to Skyrocketing Your Sales with Amy Auble

Unlocking the Power of Email Flows: The Key to Skyrocketing Your Sales with Amy Auble marketing strategy academy podcast with jen Vazquez

Email marketing is a time-tested and effective tool for turning casual interest into loyal customers. Amy Auble, founder of Alpine Start Media, offers her invaluable experience in the industry for businesses that want to master email marketing to scale.

What are email flows?

Email flows are automated emails sent to subscribers after they join your list, providing ongoing engagement opportunities to nurture them into customers.

Top 3 email flows every business needs

  1. Welcome flow: Immediately greet new subscribers, deliver any promised freebies, and set the tone for your brand.
  2. Post-purchase flow: Follow-up with customers to provide product education and support, preventing buyer’s remorse.
  3. Abandoned cart flow: Remind those who left items in their cart to complete their purchase.

Biggest mistakes in setting up email flows

  • Easily exploited discount codes: Protect your margins by using individualized codes (available through platforms like Klaviyo).
  • Not optimizing for mobile: Design emails for the majority of users, who read on their phones. Ensure readability.
  • Not segmenting lists: Tailor emails to recipients by behavior – did they purchase multiple times? Tailor the email accordingly.

How to personalize email flows

Segment your audience: Break your list into smaller groups based on actions (opened emails recently? Clicked on links?) and send tailored content.

Tools for creating killer email flows

Klaviyo: This platform Amy recommends due to its Shopify integration, reporting, segmentation tools, and unique coupon code feature.

Design platforms: Utilize Canva for adding a custom, eye-catching design element to your emails.

Want to Learn Pinterest

We are doing a new Pinterest Challenge to learn to use Pinterest to grow YOUR business!

How to measure email flow success

Deliverability: Verify your domain with your email provider to ensure your emails aren’t flagged as spam. This is key!

Open rates: Aim for a 45%+ open rate. This depends on your industry, however.

Click rates: Even a 1-3% click rate is good for product-based businesses. Focus on building rapport over time to increase this.

3 things that helped Amy grow her business

  1. Networking: Connecting with fellow entrepreneurs offers support, insights, and new opportunities.
  2. Hiring help: Delegate tasks you’re not skilled at, or that you hate, to free up time to focus on your strengths.
  3. Stress management: Work-life balance is essential. Listen to your energy, make time for self-care, and prevent burnout.

The importance of sending regular emails

Stay consistent: Regularly sending emails keeps you top-of-mind and builds trust with your audience. Aim for at least one per week.

Provide value: Share educational content, promote your services, and offer insights that your subscribers find engaging.

Amy’s services

If you need help with your email marketing or social media strategy, consider visiting Amy’s agency, Alpine Start Media, which specializes in sustainable brands.  

Here’s her information and freebie: “5 Ways to Grow Your Email List”:

Let’s take action!

Don’t delay, schedule time next week to apply Amy’s advice to your email marketing – these strategies have the potential to significantly impact your business growth.

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Website Wins: Secrets to Online Success You Need to Know with Emily Foster

Ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Emily Foster is offering some amazing tips and hacks from the Marketing Strategy Academy with Jen Vazquez

Website Wins: Secrets to Online Success You Need to Know with Emily Foster

 Ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Transcript below! 

Gifts:  Elevated Website Checklist

Where to Find NAME:

Listen to the Podcast or Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

Website Wins: Secrets to Online Success You Need to Know With Emily Foster

Jen Vazquez: [00:00:00] Have you ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Stick around because my next guest is sharing all about it.

Welcome back. And if you’re new here, I’m Jen Vazquez and I help hyper busy female service providers use Pinterest to book more clients and increase their income and impact.

And on this podcast, I host expert interviews. all about marketing so that you can always get better. If marketing is something that you want to learn more about for your business, please subscribe to our podcast or our YouTube channel because that’s how we grow. And today I am so excited to be chatting with Emily Foster of Emily Foster Creative.

Emily is the owner of Emily Foster Creative, a brand and website design studio based in Portland, Oregon, and working with creatives everywhere. She specializes in helping wedding [00:01:00] vendors and photographers stand out with personalized tailored branding and website design. She brings eight plus years of experience to helping business owners get clear on their brand strategy and then transforming that into a brand that connects with their ideal clients.

She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her two cats. And , when she’s not working, you can find her reading, exploring local spots or planning to travel somewhere new. Welcome Emily.

Emily Foster: Hey, thank you so much for having me.

Jen Vazquez: , let’s dive in because I know everyone’s going to be eager to hear from you.

, we always start with this question because I love to find out, , all the different things that got you to where you are today. So tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are today in your business.

Emily Foster: , so I basically went to college for business originally. I went to university of Oregon where Nike was started. So I kind of went with the idea that I wanted to major in business, maybe like sports [00:02:00] business. They have a specific sports business major there and then work for Nike someday.

And then I also, was double majoring in journalism because I was always really interested in that. And basically, we had like a journalism and a business school. So I was learning a lot about communication and like art and then also business and kind of took that path. to end up focusing on advertising and specifically design.

So graduated kind of with a different kind of design degree. It wasn’t necessarily traditional art school design, but more like a strategic business oriented design degree. So that was really interesting to kind of come at it from that perspective. And then I worked in several agencies and, , I feel like they all had in common that they had kind of a startup vibe and just like that.

Hustle culture. So I feel like I had some qualities of an entrepreneur already where I was just doing a lot of different tasks in my roles and, , wasn’t necessarily always doing what I went to school for. So at the time I think, , I probably didn’t appreciate that as much. I think I was [00:03:00] kind of like, okay, well this isn’t exactly what I want to do.

But now as an entrepreneur, I think that’s super valuable. And then I also was always kind of dabbling a little bit in photography and even was interested in becoming like a wedding planner someday, , and doing event planning. My first actual, like, design project was in high school and it was planning a fundraising event and, , designing t shirts for it.

Like, I used Microsoft Publisher. It was so embarrassing. And then, , designing all the presentations and everything for that as well. So, , kind of always had that background. And then it wasn’t until 2021, , almost a full year into COVID. I was one of the last people to be laid off of my team at an events marketing agency.

they just basically had a lot of in person event clients and that’s kind of what happened, unfortunately, and really. Yeah, I kind of always sensed that there was this entrepreneur path for me. Like I wasn’t loving the nine to five structure and like being limited to taking just two weeks off a [00:04:00] year, kind of things like that.

But of course, I think a lot of us are terrified to make the jump. So. I kind of feel like it was like me being pushed into taking that path. And so when I was laid off, I, , kind of job hunted a little bit freelanced. And then ultimately that year ended up forming my business and deciding to niche with working with wedding pros and photographers.

I was planning my wedding at the time too. So it felt very strategic. Yeah, exactly. Like I was able to, , kind of say what worked and didn’t work about brands and websites that we were coming across, , both from the client perspective and then also from an actual web designer perspective too.

Jen Vazquez: very, very cool. So I have, was a wedding photographer since 2009. And recently at the end of last year, I’m switching into more of the, , brand photography because with my Pinterest marketing business and brand photography, it just all like fit together. , , I get you. So I, I got married before I was a [00:05:00] wedding photographer.

Billion years ago, , I have four adult kids and two of them got married. So from a mom perspective and a money perspective, looking at all the websites, they were looking at Instagram and saying, Oh, I went this person, I went this person. And then I’d look at their website and I was like, Ooh, you know?

So yeah, it’s a big problem obviously for wedding pros because we’re like one person wearing 18 million hats and oftentimes website is like the last thing to get done, like we’re just doing it ourselves, , but it is so effective to driving more leads. I, I’m very excited about this conversation.

Emily Foster: And it’s crazy too when you think about it, like on that topic, I think the wedding industry is the only one I’ve come across so far where you’re kind of expected to spend so much money, but then the websites and brands are so low quality. Like when you think about it, , some lawyers and accountants and dentists and things like that, their websites aren’t the best, but [00:06:00] usually they’re like.

Still somewhat professional and updated and maybe not the most artistic, but there are really like a lot of wedding venues in particular where ones that we came across where we’re like, okay, all of these minimum are going to be at least 3, 000. And these are from like 2000,

that weird point where like, we’re all small business owners, but it’s a luxury industry, like. It’s this weird point where you really have to care about your website, but you are charging premium prices.

Jen Vazquez: So let’s go ahead and dive in because I know everyone’s ears are perked at this point. What are the top three must have elements that you think every successful should include and why?

Emily Foster: Yeah. I think that branding is first. , so a very consistent professional brand, whatever that looks like for you. So I really believe that you could be a high end luxury vendor and have like the light and airy editorial look, or you could also be like colorful and bold or dark and moody. But Your branding needs to be high end and [00:07:00] it needs to be consistent.

And it’s just not something that I tend to see a lot from people who DIY their brands. So a professional high end brand, , which people forget about because they just want to jump to having a successful website and having it look good. But the brand is what makes it look good. Really. And then I would say clear messaging that really aligns with your clients.

So that comes from your brand strategy, which also motivates like the aesthetic of it. But this is all about your website copywriting, which isn’t the legal text on your website. That’s actually the text on your website, like the writing and the headlines and everything that is very sales driven, but also brand voice oriented.

so getting really clear on that and not using your website as. , an online resume or brochure, but actually using it as more like a digital billboard with more wording, , where you can really clearly express what it is that you provide and the value that you give to your clients. And then the third one, I feel like this is a controversial opinion.

To some [00:08:00] people, but to some web designers it is, where, like, I just think that you have to have SEO, working for you. And know that seems

Jen Vazquez: be controversial. That like top mistakes that people make.

Emily Foster: Yeah, but there are a lot of photographers, especially and other wedding pros out there who are like, well, my work speaks for itself.

I have my Instagram. I don’t really need SEO, but I just feel like you’re cutting yourself off from a huge source of traffic if you aren’t paying attention to that. And otherwise, like, why not just have, like, A Canva file or something that you’re linking from your Instagram bio. So SEO, which kind of relates to content, having really valuable content on your website that connects with people, not just like spammy backlinks and things like that that are driving traffic to your website.

Jen Vazquez: Yeah, a couple of things that pop up in my head on that is, , yes, our photo, you know, as a photographer, like I get that my photography speaks for itself. , but. What most photographers don’t think about because all they’re focusing [00:09:00] on is referrals, the SEO brings a new eyeballs on your content. This is people that you would never be able to touch on Instagram at all.

It’s search marketing. It’s within Google, and it works extraordinarily well, and it is great. It is non-negotiable, , if you wanna have a good, strong business with leads coming in. The other thing I wanna point out that is so important, and you touched on it a little bit, but I kind of wanna go deeper into it, is oftentimes, , and I’ll speak for myself as a photographer, I started out by saying, Hey, I’ve been photographing since 2009.

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, all the website and nobody about me.

Emily Foster: to you.

Jen Vazquez: one cares. All they care about is I want a photographer that I can like vibe with because I’ll be with that photographer more than my future husband on that day. And You need to talk directly to them. So like I completely changed over, obviously years ago now, but I [00:10:00] completely changed over and said, if you’re a fun, adventurous, playful couple, like that just says my ideal client.

And those three words, I’m talking to them and people contacted me from other states, even because they’re like, you just like spoke to me

Emily Foster: Yeah,

Jen Vazquez: people don’t realize how valuable that is.

Emily Foster: exactly. I feel like I love that you talked on, , reaching out from other states too, because that’s one of the reasons for SEO that I think it’s so important. A lot of it for creative businesses is going to be local SEO, like trying to rank for your or state. But what I see often is photographers, businesses just plummet when they move.

States. And, , because you have an Instagram following, but honestly, a lot of the time your Instagram following is referrals, like past clients and their networks. So if you move across the country, you’re kind of losing your referrals for a little while until you building up that network. And then, yeah, Instagram, we know, we don’t own that and it’s not evergreen content either.

So that’s why I love when you talk about [00:11:00] Pinterest, that’s another form of

Jen Vazquez: Yes.

Emily Foster: Right.

Jen Vazquez: Well, and let’s be honest, I mean, if we’re lucky, 3 percent of the people that have chosen to follow us even see our content. So like, it’s not robust. Period. The end.

Emily Foster: . Yeah. It’s limitless opportunity with SEO, so that’s kind of, I guess, probably its own podcast recording as well, but yeah, definitely connecting with your clients. , I was saying like, change I to you by making it more them and the problems that you’re solving and, kind of putting it harshly.

Most photographers have a very similar background, like not to

Jen Vazquez: grabbed a camera one day and decided to photographer. It’s just, cares?

Emily Foster: definitely, you’re totally unique and you have a unique perspective, obviously that you can share, but it’s not like we’re all brain surgeons saving the world. Like we don’t have like this, like super special story that people need to hear about all over your website. You should definitely have it somewhere on your website, but

Jen Vazquez: your About [00:12:00] Me, maybe, but even the About Me section should be more about them. And then you can touch on yourself at the bottom.

Emily Foster: right. Yeah. It needs to be really about what you’re selling and the value you provide with

Jen Vazquez: Yes. So, , and this is the other thing that I, I get triggered about because I feel like, there’s so many amazing photographers out there and they just don’t have this built into their website. How important is user experience in website design? And can you share some sort of simple changes maybe that would lead to some big improvement and engagement?

Emily Foster: Yes. fourth, , kind of answer to that question where you’re talking about top three. So lately I’ve been talking about like the top five pillars of your website and like first three that I said, and then also, , your user experience or website design and then brand strategy is kind of its own separate one. It’s like separate from

To all these things. Yeah. , user experience is huge and it’s kind of [00:13:00] crazy like how much people can miss the mark on this because it’s complicated. Like it’s legitimately like an entire master’s program that some people take is user experience for website design.

And then for me it was like a couple of classes in college basically, but, , thinking about what actions you want your, , visitors to take when they get to your website and making. sure that in general, you’re not making them click more than two times to get to something that is the end goal. So for most, , creative wedding businesses, it’s going to be contacting you or booking a call.

So. You really need to have some kind of contact button in your top navigation somewhere. , I always like to have a call to action or button in the top fold of your website, which is like that first section. , and that gets missed a ton for photographers, especially because we want to show your gorgeous, , galleries.

And there’s also certain website platforms that don’t let you kind of balance. like Squarespace, for example, right now, as of like early 2024, you can’t just like place a button on top of a beautiful [00:14:00] gallery. So there’s kind of customization without using code, I should say. You can do that if you customize

Jen Vazquez: Yes. It’s not drag and drop. Yes.

Emily Foster: right.

Yeah. So that kind of like, you kind of sacrifice some of the high end or unique look that you’re going for in order to follow these user experience rules in certain platforms. , . That would be something just making it really easy for them to contact you, , paying attention to your mobile experience because that gets forgotten so often.

And that’s thing about platforms, , when we’re talking about, like, Squarespace versus ShowIt or WordPress or Wix, so, optimizing that mobile view is difficult on some platforms, especially if you’re DIYing your website. Paying attention to that because probably the majority of your clients are visiting you through your mobile version of the website.

And then also making it super easy on the contact page for them to contact you. So not having a glitchy or really lengthy form. I feel like We tend to think that this is like some kind of application process. , [00:15:00] in reality, if you want to be competitive with other photographers in most sectors of industries, you need to have like a really short, easy to fill form because other people are making it simple for their clients.

So if you want to be able to get a lot of inquiries and book sales calls, like make it simple. , another little thing that I put, , on my lists for people usually is. to link your phone number or your email. So it’s just really easy for them to click it and then give you a call or shoot you an email.

That’s something that’s really often forgotten.

Jen Vazquez: Most people do not want to fill out a form. When they’re getting married, there’s so much work to do for getting married and they don’t want to be on 18 million email lists. So people try to , avoid that if possible. So I think that’s really smart to have a text or call or some, , , link to your email for sure.

Emily Foster: . Yeah, definitely. Like you don’t have to put your phone number on your website, but if you do just make it super easy for them to contact you. I’ve used the example a lot of when we were planning our own wedding and we were [00:16:00] kind of. In the middle of a venue tour day and trying to reach out to like planners and other vendors.

I just kind of closed out of websites where I couldn’t easily shoot them an email because I didn’t have the time, especially on mobile with some of these bad mobile sites. I didn’t have the time to fill out forms. And if I couldn’t easily click their email, if I had to copy and paste it and put it into my email client app, it just.

wasn’t going to work for me at that time because we were so busy that day. And that’s how little time you have is really like less than 20 minutes when someone’s in the car doing something else for their wedding or they’re on their break. So you have to think about like, how can we make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch right then.

Jen Vazquez: One other thing I’d love for you to touch on that wasn’t, , I wasn’t planning on asking this, but that totally piqued my curiosity. Cause I do hear this complaint for people planning weddings is to not very readily and clearly show where you are. . Sometimes people will land on your website from Pinterest or somewhere.

Right. And they’re just like [00:17:00] looking for that information. And they’re like, Oh, this person, I really like this person, but you can’t find anywhere on the website. If they’re in New York and I’m in California, like 90 percent of couples are not going to pay for travel. Some do. That’s great. But we, we kind of need to have some kind of area on there. Do you think?

Emily Foster: Yeah, definitely. And that’s essential for your SEO too. So, and if you can try to get more specific to like, if you’re living in a place like California or Texas, like it usually not is going to cut it, like to put just California or Texas, like try to put like Northern California, especially like if you aren’t willing to kind of cover that travel, like if you’re in LA and you don’t want to have to.

Pay for your own travel up to the Bay Area, or you’re not attracting like high enough clientele that can pay for that, then don’t put that,

Jen Vazquez: Yeah. I, I use Bay Area. I use San Jose, which is the city I live in. And I’ll sometimes use Northern California, but it [00:18:00] is sort of really clear when you get there. And I find, most photographers don’t. They’re like, but I can, I can travel anywhere. Sure. But some people want someone local. That’s just how it is.

Emily Foster: We even had the experience with our planning process where when we reached out to our videographer, who was already a referral and like we knew his area, he was like, Oh yeah, let me know if you want to, grab coffee, like for the sales call, instead of just jumping

Jen Vazquez: Yes.

Emily Foster: So there might be people who are looking for that experience. Not that you have to go out to coffee with every inquiry, but they might, after they book, they might want to meet with you in person like several times or at least have the option to.

Jen Vazquez: And it’s a large expense. So you should be somewhat flexible in my opinion.

Emily Foster: Yeah. And I think it also shows that, you know, the area, especially for like, if you offer engagement shoots or if you’re any other type of photographer, like booking family sessions or brand sessions, like it shows that you have local expertise.

Jen Vazquez: Yes.

Emily Foster: that’s [00:19:00] another way I know, like niching down is scary, but it’s really essential to getting more aligned clients.

Jen Vazquez: Yeah. And if you go and photograph in another state or another area, you can make a blog post on it. You have all that SEO on that blog post talking about the area. Whatever information you want on there. So it’s not that you will prevent from getting SEO for that location, but it is.

It’s just smart. And I feel like almost no one talks about it. And yet I think it, especially for Pinterest, being as successful on Pinterest by location is the way to get specific on Pinterest to get those clients.

Emily Foster: Yeah. I’m so glad that you touched on that. Thanks for asking about that.

Jen Vazquez: , in a sea of like endless information, what strategies do you find are most effective for creating content that not only attracts, but also retains attention?

Emily Foster: Yeah. I would say, , getting to know your audience really well, like getting really clear on who they are. And you might’ve heard of like client [00:20:00] avatars or client archetypes, but, , they’re not like shared a lot for nothing. So really putting together a persona of like what it is that they want from your kind of services.

And you can also get more data on this. By like talking to your current clients or past clients, asking them like what it was that helped you, , be the main choice that they chose and then have those kinds of like brand keywords essentially that people are talking about. So if it’s something about your style or your location, , have that kind of content and then also ask about like what their frequently asked questions were of like, , things that you hear over and over again and what kind of problems you can basically solve.

So. Getting that like strategic information helps first. And then for actually finding the content on your website and building that, , working preferably with a copywriter if you can. So we have copywriting services at Emily Foster Creative and working with someone who can be very, , clear with the messaging and speak to that ideal client.

And then that’s kind of like more of the [00:21:00] brand like sales oriented side. And then when we’re talking like content, informational things like your blog posts. and like social media content and things like that, , doing keyword research can help a lot. So there are all kinds of different platforms. One that I use is Uber suggest, , doing keyword research there and literally typing these questions and topics in and seeing what comes up and how many people are searching it each month to see like, what are the most popular topics? Because it’ll always surprise you. Like I always have clients saying, Oh, I want to write a blog post about this.

And then we look it up and it’s like, yeah, no one’s really asking that. And it doesn’t mean it can’t be a good blog post eventually, but with limited time and resources, it’s like, where do you want to spend the most time and get the most ROI? , so getting that data. Can help you make that decision. And then, , speaking in your brand voice when you answer those questions.

So when I say answer those questions, like literally do the keyword research, write a blog outline and a blog post to answer this popular question. Like maybe an example is, . Engagement shoot ideas in San [00:22:00] Jose or something, and then write blog post about it. Use your work. If you are a photographer, like use your work and optimize all of that.

And there are tons of like little nitty gritty SEO optimization details we could get into for blog posts. And then, , basically publish that and share it everywhere. And then you have that also available, not only kind of working for you as evergreen content, but also as a helpful little assistant. If you start to get that question again from clients, you can send them the link and be like, Oh, actually I covered that here. or if you want potential clients, like after you get off a sales call, you could say, Hey, check out my blog post on this. And it’s just another way to offer free value to people who are either debating if they want to work with you or who are assigned client.

Jen Vazquez: Yeah. , at one point I had so many different, so much educational content on wedding planning and just weddings in general that I created sort of a, an auto email that went out to people that booked me that said, here’s five of my top blogs that help people in planning [00:23:00] their weddings. It was super simple cause I already had it, but I can’t tell you the feedback that I got Just being helpful like that, and it sounds wild, but , I got more replies and engagement on that one email than almost anything else.

Emily Foster: Wow. I love that. Yeah. And that’s the beauty of like doing all of this upfront kind of work and then being able to repurpose it for your email and Pinterest and Instagram all of these things is you can do a lot less work in the future. Once you have these kind of like, , starting content ideas done.

Jen Vazquez: Yeah, exactly. , what is a story or, , something you can share with us on how website analytics lead to an unexpected breakthrough of traffic or sales. Because I really want our audience to know sort of how they can leverage understanding the analytics on your website can actually lead to sales.

Emily Foster: Yeah, I have a couple examples. So, um, the first one is when I [00:24:00] was reviewing some analytics, actually, this happened with two different venue clients in two different states, but reviewing their analytics, and they both, , had it been an investing in the Knot subscription. , and I actually should probably be more vague about that, but they like, basically, when you’re talking about listings, there’s nothing wrong with The Knot.

So I wanted to preface it with that. , I know that it’s not the best fit for everyone. Like you might’ve had I’ve heard of other content related to the knot, but it could be a great fit. So just kind of want to put that out there. , but looking at your analytics can help you decide if for your business listings, like the knot or wedding wire or celebration society, I think is one, like all of these different platforms deciding if it’s worth your investment. and sometimes it is, but for these two particular clients, we were looking at their analytics and the traffic that just organic social was bringing in versus, these other lists. Um,

Jen Vazquez: for. Yes.

Emily Foster: then also I’ve heard the other side of that from other clients. Like when they first come to me [00:25:00] is like, they’re like, I’m investing all of this money and they haven’t even looked at their traffic from it, but they just already know that sales aren’t good because of that, because they’re getting inquiries that just really aren’t aligned.

And that is a really clear, kind of like the reverse side of sales, of knowing where to spend your money to get more inquiries. And then also being prepared, , by attracting better aligned clients, because if you are getting traffic through these sources, but then you’re feeling like some kind of disconnect on your sales calls because these people don’t have a budget to work with you, or they don’t like the kind of service that you provide, like the quality or something, then it could be a sign that you have to kind of adjust from there.

So actually being able to look at like the source traffic on your website, it’s like, , called source slash medium. On your Google analytics page, , can help you see where to spend your money for sales. , and then the other example is by looking at, , kind of the analytics of other people, basically.

So when we were talking about keyword research, , [00:26:00] doing. Like competitor research through keyword platforms like Uber suggests and everything. And this is like one of the best, almost free ways to figure out what kind of content can help you with traffic and the sales on your website.

So an example is a photographer client that I have. And, we were looking at certain locations that she shoots in for her couple’s shoots. And we found one that was super popular based on like competitors doing it and We actually just wrote a blog post like three to four weeks ago and it published like two weeks ago and it’s already getting traffic to it. And like on, like, we don’t really have pages of Google anymore, but it’s like position 13 on Google

Jen Vazquez: Oh, that’s so good.

Emily Foster: yeah. And it was just from doing

Jen Vazquez: In such a short period of time.

Emily Foster: Yeah, yeah, which doesn’t always happen as know with Google or Pinterest. It can take time, but we just found a really good keyword and I was able to like, look at competitors and see what they were doing and then kind of find her unique takes to try to [00:27:00] get, , Like a unique stance on it.

So we’ll see based on that, if we can try to rank her higher than the other people, like to get to number one eventually. But, , that is something that can really help with your analytics is just looking at like what’s working for other people. And then because you’re also an expert in your industry, like how can you provide a unique take for

Jen Vazquez: Yeah, in your own words, , we’re not suggesting copying, because I always like to make that disclaimer. , but, you know, using keywords that maybe you’re competitor has that you are in a similar sort of space on is really helpful because if they’re ranking for certain keywords and you can create a really good informative, I feel like Google’s really going by the way of information versus keywords.

Like keywords can get you noticed, but it’s the information and the value of that information. I believe that ends up really helping to rank, which is probably what happened though that that blog post of your clients.

Emily Foster: definitely. Especially if there’s some kind of extra value you can add. Like, for [00:28:00] example, if we were talking about the specific location for this photographer, maybe some competitors just wrote a blog post about the location and like shared some photography of their shoots in that area. but then like we kind of did that, but then also added other value, like here are some preferred vendors that I work with around here and then linking out to their website and,

Jen Vazquez: yes.

Emily Foster: We even created like a lead magnet too at the bottom or like a freebie that was like she could start getting emails on her list and then also provide some free advice for like here are some places to stay in this area. And then also, , some itinerary ideas for going So yeah, I that is a standout.

Jen Vazquez: Yes. So let’s go ahead and dive in now. What are your favorite website platforms for creative business owners and why?

Emily Foster: Yeah. , my number one favorite is Show It for creative service providers. I’m not sure how much people have heard of it when they’re listening, but for especially photographers and wedding pros, people who are just [00:29:00] selling pretty much just services and maybe like minimal digital products and things like that.

Show It is definitely the way to go, especially for showcasing your work, , writing SEO optimized blogs. Like it’s a little bit more of a modern and easier to use feel than most WordPress. , Platforms, and then it’s also requires less code typically than like Squarespace and some other platforms. So that would be like number one.

And then I don’t think it’s really relevant to many listeners, but if we were looking at product based businesses, I think Shopify is definitely, , one of the easiest platforms to use just because of the back end and everything, which you can actually integrate, , a version of Shopify. It’s called Shopify starter plan.

And it used to be called like Shopify light and you can integrate that with show it. So if you are a photographer or a florist, but most of your sales are for weddings and like service based florals, but you have like a very small shop. You can still sell products, , through Shopify and integrate it with show it so that you can have really like easy, , code free customization with show it. And then some of the product [00:30:00] capabilities through Shopify.

Jen Vazquez: Very very good. , , , as we’re wrapping up a little bit here, what are three things that have helped you to grow your business? Could be tools, advice, really anything. But what are the top three things? That you think have helped you grow your business.

Emily Foster: Yeah, I would say the first one is kind of like mindset advice. , Marie Forleo, if you’ve heard of her, , said, like, always be marketing. So that’s something that’s helped me. And I know it’s annoying for some people who don’t love marketing, but I come from a back. I think it kind of comes natural to me, but I’m always doing something pretty much every week to either work on my Instagram or Pinterest or blog or, , being parts of podcasts and summits and things.

So just always being in that mindset and, , also being open to like always having conversations about your services and what you provide. Like one thing I’ve noticed about the most successful entrepreneurs is that They’re not always working in the sense that they have no work life balance, but they are always working where like their [00:31:00] business is part of their identity.

So if you’re on vacation, you’re still taking a break from work and you’re not actively like editing on your laptop, but you might run into someone and talk about how you’re a photographer. So, , just like always being ready to have those conversations, always be marketing is one piece of advice. , the other one is a tool I would say, , Dub Sotto or some kind of CRM set up, , is just substantially helpful. I can’t even imagine running a business without something like that now, whether it’s like Dub Sotto or HoneyBook or aisle planner for wedding pros.

Jen Vazquez: it bottom line. It frees up your time. It makes things automated so that you’re not having to reinvent the wheel every single client. It’s just necessary. I will say totally

Emily Foster: yeah, it is like I think I had maybe the first few months of my business where I was sending like PDF contracts and figuring out payments and it just like takes so much out of that and I know I see it a lot for especially photographers when they’re starting of like they don’t want to [00:32:00] pay processing fees and they don’t want to pay 350 a year for a CRM.

But I like can’t even imagine it now. Like, I have so much content in there that it’s going to be a huge project. If I ever want to transfer or get rid of it to like get all that client information out of there. , so a CRM system to rely on. , and then I would say the other one is like business friendships and peers and just having people that you can, .

Network with communicate with like bounce ideas off of I think is so essential because we are alone a lot in our businesses and I think community over competition is so huge with everything like being willing to share your prices and talk about those kinds of things with your friends and then also like being able to have someone where maybe you have a difficult client situation or you’re in bit of a slower season like just the validation, , that what you’re going through is normal and having that like substantially helps your business grow.

Jen Vazquez: agree. Before we get to the gift that you are [00:33:00] sharing with everyone. Tell us about the services that you provide in case anyone’s been listening and is thinking, Hmm, I really need to work with Emily.

Emily Foster: Yeah. , so I work with business owners basically at every stage. I really, especially over the last year, I tried to. Model my business so that I can help, , like newborn photographers, not literally newborn photographers, but that’s great too. I would love to work with more newborn photographers. , but like if you’re at the baby stage of your business all the way to, if you’re like 25 years in business.

So I have show it website templates for sale that are in the four 450 range. If you are looking for kind of a DIY solution, there’s also payment plans on those if four 450 even is like too much to invest right away. And then I. . , which is great because some people, even if they do have the money to invest, they kind of want to do things themselves.

So, and then I have one to one services. I have, , a variety of like a website in a day, which is a template customization. So we use one of those templates and then I completely do everything for you. So you don’t have. to worry about editing, , like [00:34:00] optimizing your own images for SEO and adding your copy and things like that.

Basically, I ask you for images and copy and then customize. And then from there it’s very bespoke services. So website in a week, , branding and website design combination. So we’ll work on your brand strategy, , create custom branding design, and then create a customized website. And then, , also retainer services too, once you’re a client.

Ongoing like blogging and marketing support and SEO support to help you grow. And then the ultimate package is like kind of all of the above, , like everything that we talked about, , I call it the all inclusive experience. And that’s kind of like hitting the easy button for your business. , so that is like those intensive start around 2, 500 and then the all inclusive experience starts at 10, 000, where we just do everything for your business.

There’s payment plans and it’s a longer process, but that way you don’t have to worry about writing your own messaging or designing your own branding or anything like that. And it really sets you up for the ultimate [00:35:00] like website design success.

Jen Vazquez: Yeah. I think also too, that’s really good for people who have a full time job and want to make photography their full time business. It’s a great way to pay for that while you’re working and then have it be ready and set

Emily Foster: Oh

Jen Vazquez: yeah. over. So

And you have the money from your full time job to be able to help pay for this as you’re still working and , trying to move into running your own business. That’s amazing. So tell everyone about what your freebie is and how it’s going to help our audience.

Emily Foster: Yeah. So it’s the elevated website checklist and it’s basically 20 action items to update on your website. , and about 10 of them are kind of these big picture items. So getting nitty gritty about like your copywriting and your brand design. And then the last 10 or so are really actionable steps of things that you can update hopefully today or this week to really start making a difference on your website.

Jen Vazquez: Amazing. Thank you. So much for your valuable advice and your time today because time is money. , and if any of you listening or watching [00:36:00] found some ideas and tips that you can implement in your business, we would love for you to leave a review. Now go out there and do something good for your business, like downloading Emily’s downloads so that you can go in and sort of assess everything that’s going on and then connecting with her. If you need additional help, have a great day. Bye.

Emily Foster: Thank you. Bye.

Have a great day.

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Ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Emily Foster is offering some amazing tips and hacks from the Marketing Strategy Academy with Jen Vazquez
Ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Emily Foster is offering some amazing tips and hacks from the Marketing Strategy Academy with Jen Vazquez
Ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Emily Foster is offering some amazing tips and hacks from the Marketing Strategy Academy with Jen Vazquez
Ever wondered what makes a website not just good, but great? What secrets are top brands using to pull in traffic and convert visitors into loyal fans? Emily Foster is offering some amazing tips and hacks from the Marketing Strategy Academy with Jen Vazquez

How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun

How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun

How Your Core Values Can Make Marketing Easier With Ati Grinspun

Ever learn about “core values” where you circle the words that aline with your core values? Today, my guest is going to be sharing a different perspective and one I think you’ll love!

Transcript:

Jen Vazquez

Ever learn about core values that, you know, where you circle the words that are supposed to sort of align with your business? Today, my guest is going to blow your mind because she’s going to be sharing a different perspective. And one, I think you will love it. It will not only help to make marketing easier because it’s going to crystallize absolutely. Everything to do with marketing. So when you go to show up and create content, it’s easy because you know those core values, but also it can help you grow your business.

Welcome back if you’re new here. I am Jen Vasquez and I help hyper-busy female service providers use Pinterest to book more clients and increase their income and impact. And on this podcast, I have the pleasure of speaking with amazing marketing experts to help you take action in your business. So if marketing is something that you wanna learn more about, we would love [00:01:00] for you to subscribe to our podcast or YouTube channel. Oh, you guys, today, I swear, she and I have been talking about getting her on this podcast for months. We’ve finally made it happen.

Today I am talking with my friend Ti Greenspun, and I’m very excited because she is an acclaimed personal branding coach and photographer specializing in serving dynamic female entrepreneurs who are the soul and face of their business. She’s deeply committed to helping women unravel the complexities of online and offline visibility, making it not just manageable, but also a thrilling and fun experience to show up authentically passionate about nurturing meaningful connections among female entrepreneurs. Ati serves as a pivotal force in bridging the gap between business success and personal fulfillment.

She is All about that with her infectious energy. I swear we’re kind of competing in that area, so when we have a conversation, everyone better just watch out. energy and amazing expertise turn the often overwhelming task of personal branding into an exhilarating journey of self-discovery and impact expression. As the visionary and founder of the Be You Brand Academy, she has created a transformative platform designed to skyrocket women to new heights and their respective fields.

A sought-after speaker and bestselling author, Ati, is driven by her profound belief that women who excel in business. They have become catalysts for positive changes on a global scale, not just for their own lives or their business. By empowering women to discover their unique voice. Ati is also not just building brands, but she is [00:03:00] igniting revolutions.

Welcome, Ati.

Ati Grinspun:

Yes. Oh my God. Oh my God. You were reading that and we kind of like, I redid that intern. It was a little long. I’m gonna say I might have to like go in there, but there, you know what, there is so much of me in that and what I have been creating through the last five years, and you and I know each other in person. Like, and you know that literally, that’s what I’m all about. Right? Like especially the

Jen Vazquez:

brings you to life. Like that’s why I read the full thing and I didn’t edit anything out because it truly states like who you are.

Ati Grinspun:

 I love it. love it. I, it was giving me chills.

Jen Vazquez:

Isn’t it weird to hear someone else say what you’re talking about, your business, but to hear someone else say it, you’re kind of like, wow. Yeah.

Ati Grinspun:

Yeah. Well, one of the things I, this is kind of like a tip for people [00:04:00] too. I actually, a lot of the words that I use in there have been taken from what people tell me they experience around me. Like, for example, the, the, the, the infectious, right? Like, that’s something I would’ve never put in there. But I am telling you, I can even tell you how many people tell me like, your energy’s infectious. Your energy’s infectious. And I remember like thinking, what the fuck are people

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah, know

Ati Grinspun:

But that is what people experience. So I started taking how like people were like describing me or telling me, and I started putting it on my bio. And that is how we end up with that bio.

Jen Vazquez:

Yes. And it is, it is. Using words that other people describe you is probably the one of the most effective action items or tips that, I mean, we’ve so much in star for you in this podcast, but it is a [00:05:00] great tip that we didn’t even touch on yet in the questions.

Ati Grinspun:

We didn’t even, like, we didn’t even talking personal branding or marketing or anything. And guys, you can take these already.

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah, so let’s dive in. We’ve got a ton to cover. This may be a two-parter, talk to me a little bit about what jobs you had in the past and kind of like how you got to where you are today. ’cause I love this story.

Ati Grinspun:

Yes, I was a world-champion Flair bartender, . So for people who don’t know what that is, I was one of the bar bartenders who flip the bottles and then poured them into the cup. And why I say world champion is I used to compete.

So I traveled the world doing flirt competitions and that’s how I met my husband. That’s actually how I ended up in Las Vegas. So I was very like known in that. I always say that little world, because in that moment, that world was everything to me. But once I actually stepped on the side of that, I started realizing how much was out there and how much was available to me as a person, not just as a bartender.

Right. Uh, in what I did before I got to the top, I’m from a very small town in Argentina. I mean, I’m from Buenos Aires, but I’m from the suburbs and I literally ended up in Las Vegas. It was the mecca of what I did. Right. So I came to work at a bar here in Vegas. I was there for 16 years, but while I was there, I actually went to school for photography here in Vegas.

And I did that because I always knew there was something else for me. I didn’t know what that was. I loved to travel. I travel all over the world, and that was kinda like my hobby. So then I opened, a studio when I got pregnant with my son, I was like, okay, I’m gonna be a photographer. And I did baby photo, . I I learned [00:07:00] so much about business by opening that studio, niching down, creating a brand for myself because, you know, I went through a ton of, you know, at the beginning you do everything Like this is on any career. We can talk about too, right? I was doing everything. So, you know, I was a photographer, like, do you need headshots?

Yes, well I didn’t understand, right? Like the whole concept of nicheing down. And then eventually I did a niche down to babies and that was like the first time that I, I truly built a business and I was doing good. but I ended up going back to bartending somewhere there in the middle. And at the time I thought that it was a failure. Now I look back and I was like, oh, what an amazing blessing.

Ati Grinspun:

There, there was so many lessons on that. from there, I briefly got into network marketing. And when I got into network marketing, what happened was like, that’s actually where I started developing a little bit of like leadership and like my [00:08:00] big vision. That is actually where my big vision came alive. I didn’t have any point of reference to what was out there, not only on making money, but on impact and making a difference on leadership and all the things.

And I saw this lady speaking on stage and there was something that lead up for me. And that line never went off until this day. but that is where it all started, right? but I pivoted into personal branding because I was helping my team. And for those of you listening, I’m kind of quoting here. I started developing a lot of the things around building your brand and pivoting into personal branding, and photography. As I started working with women, I was like amazed at the passion that was behind women building businesses. Once I started working with women that were businesses, not [00:09:00] women in, and by the way, I was literally on network marketing at this point. It looks like it was five minutes.

I think it was like a few years. But like it was a catalyst for growth and really handling rejection and all the things like people, talk about network marketing as like the gateway drug into

Jen Vazquez:

it’s a gateway drug into your entrepreneurship, I think for a lot of people.

Ati Grinspun:

Yeah. And was that for me. So pivotal those are all the jobs I had in my life. Like I was a bartender for most of my life. and that actually, helped me also to understand that. I love people. Like I know a lot of bartenders will never tell you this. They’re like, I fucking hate people. You see the worst of people. But I loved it I always work in clubs, but for me, I was constantly on stage.

Like people are like, whoa, speaking comes so natural to you. I’m like, it’s not necessarily speaking, but yes, it is the discipline of practicing something and the [00:10:00] discipline, because I literally like practice for eight hours a day, flipping glass bottles.

Jen Vazquez:

Wow. In the world of personal branding, authenticity is key. And it’s also something people struggle with a lot. But how can entrepreneurs, especially women in early business years, ensure that their authentic selves shine through in not just to be authentic, right? Because it is, it is literally the 2023 Buzzword. I don’t know you know that, I just, I just heard that two days ago and well, perfect timing for my podcast. how do they truly impact their audience? And potential clients with that authenticity. Of course, we wanna grow our business, but how can they make an impact as well?

Ati Grinspun: 

I absolutely love this question. Okay, so number one, I feel like authenticity is a word that is very bastardized in the online world because everybody talks about authenticity and [00:11:00] I don’t believe that I. People truly know what that means, right? So like I wanna actually go back to the road of self-discovery because I think that authenticity really starts with self-discovery, right?

And allowing ourselves to truly be who we are. But a lot of the times we don’t really know who we are until a few years in, or a few years into really being like, okay, who do I wanna be? Who do I wanna help? How do I wanna show up in the world? you and I have talked about this in the past and is for me, building our personal brand is about living your, your.

Again, I don’t even wanna use the word legacy either. It’s about the mark that you live in the world, right? So when we start talking about what is that mark, that can actually change depending on where you are at. if you are listening, I want you to bear with me for a minute. am working with women. The first thing that we do is [00:12:00] we go into self-discovery, and that road sometimes is very rocky,

Well, because a lot of times we are allowing ourselves to say, I don’t know.

So, for example, a question that I ask people all the time when people talk about your why, this is the first question, right? And your core values, right? But people are literally grabbing like a piece of paper and like picking core values out of a list. I’m like, we do it in a completely different way, your core values, they’re already there. You don’t get to pick them. I mean, you can do priorities.

You can start thinking what’s important to you and add things, who you are at your core, it’s already there. People literally will tell somebody like you and me, yeah, but I just need to make money. Give me, gimme the fast pace to this and I get it. But the thing is, you. [00:13:00] Do not get to share authentically and to share from a place of confidence until you truly know who you are.

Jen Vazquez:

I agree, even if you haven’t done it and you’ve been in business for five years, take the time

Ati Grinspun:

but let’s actually put it on practical terms because I think that people tell, you know who you’re your core values, your why, and people are like, okay, great. Now I have all this shit in paper. How do I use it? And that is the biggest problem that we have right now on the online world, right? people like well tell you what to do, but nobody tells you exactly how to use it.

So I’m gonna give you a few examples of this and why I truly believe that authenticity is kind of like a road. So for me, and I’m like back onto my story, there was a lot of, not only self-discovery, but self-acceptance that had to go with me actually sitting down with you today. And I absolutely know that my road and my life as a bartender has. Help me so much to get where I’m at today. But for the longest time,

I actually didn’t wanna tell people that because I was under the impression that if I would tell people I was a bartender, they wouldn’t see me as an authority. They wouldn’t see me as somebody knowledgeable. They would all these things.

Jen Vazquez:

Judgment.

Ati Grinspun:

All of that. Yeah. But the first person that was judging was me.

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah,

Ati Grinspun:

Nobody was

Jen Vazquez:

I mean, let we, I feel like we ourselves so much worse than anyone else is ever going to.

Ati Grinspun:

Well, when I was judging myself, I saw that outside,

That’s all I saw. But the moment I started talking about how me bartending brought me to where I’m at, like I know for sure that of me, being a bartender that like flipped the battles and being on station, all of that, that comes together with my love for speaking now.

That is the same love. It’s a different performance, but it’s the same thing. So when I look back and I’m like, oh my God, every [00:15:00] stage, every battle that I broke, every, every single one of those performances have helped me get to be the speaker that I am today. , right? There is no coincidences. So the reason why I’m bringing all this into this conversation is when you start really knowing who you are and you start doing the internal work that goes self-discovery, on your mindset, working on, okay, how do I really feel about this?

And for me, I process writing like I journal a ton. I didn’t know this. This started with, with actual entrepreneurship. For some people, it’s maybe talking to other people. For some people, this may be hiring a mindset coach for whatever you need to do. But that is the secret when people tell me like, what is the secret sauce?

You are the secret sauce. But this is, is the self-discovery because when you discover who you are, you practice self-acceptance and you [00:16:00] understand that your journey is what people are buying. We always talk about how are you unique, right?

And I think that what people don’t understand is the only thing that will make you unique is the journey that got you here.

Jen Vazquez:

Yes. Yes,

Ati Grinspun:

I mean, you and me, we both talk about marketing, right? But you and me, we have a photography background. You and me, we have so many parallels in our life, but we’re completely different or different.

So I think that people completely underestimate the power. Of their journey, the things that happen to them, who they are at their core. let’s talk about core values, so if you are actually watching on YouTube right now, right at the top in my wall, you can see me watching, I have my core values on my wall.

Okay? And I remember the reason for that is because when you start realizing what your true core values are, it’s not about the work. And I’m gonna read them to you so people can understand how to use them. [00:17:00] I challenge my clients to do is you wanna have the word, but you also wanna define them.

Jen Vazquez:

because everyone can define words totally differently.

Ati Grinspun:

Yes. you gonna laugh about this, my. course. But I remember there were things in my business that for me, like really trigger me, and I didn’t really understand why. me it’s , the power of positivity and a positive outlook on all areas of life are, and most important value from business to health to growth.

Always think, how can I, this has guided me in so many ways in my business because you can say, fuck, I’m not good at social media. Or you can ask yourself, how can I. And the reason why I’m saying this is when I’m sharing on social media, when I am teaching, when something becomes hard, when maybe something is not [00:18:00] coming easy. Because guys, you can be positive, but business is business. There’s gonna be moments that things are gonna happen, right? So for you, this could be, I don’t know, I’m gonna tell you another one.

This is, this came at a surprise to me. Curiosity is actually one of my core values, and I didn’t know this, but what I remember happening, sometimes I would be working with a client and this person would be maybe, uh, a little close off to things and this would trigger me.

And I remember started asking myself, why is this triggering me? Well. Once I realized that curiosity was a core value, this was kind of going against who I was and my core right? Now, this doesn’t mean I cannot work with people that are a little close off, but I had to find ways to ignite that curiosity in them, right?

So I, again, I’m gonna read this for you. Always be [00:19:00] learning, always be open to new ways of doing things. No fear, I ask questions. This is where the coaching part comes in, also this has helped me understand things in my relationship with people, things in my relationship with my husband, right? I always look for mentorship.

Travel, see new things, want to learn about others. Now why am I sharing this with you guys and how you can apply this? Everything I do, I’m sifting so I’m kind of sifting everything in my business through these, core values, how I make decisions, right?

How am I creating content? How am I showing up with a positive attitude, and how am I actually creating that mark in the world, like for whoever like follows me and, and you and me are friends and we met in person. Like literally, I talk about this all the time, and sometimes I’ll hear somebody [00:20:00] say something negative and I will tell them like, how can you turn this around?

How can you ask yourself? How can I, it kind of starts. Leading through your life, but you cannot be authentic if you don’t know this.

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah. take this a step further because I think this is really powerful for everyone who’s listening or watching now, what are a couple tips or maybe a technique that you use with your clients to help them discover these core values to the degree that you just

Ati Grinspun:

Oh my God. I love, okay, I might actually butcher this because I could, like, it would’ve been a really good idea to have this in front of me, but I actually took this out of a psychology book and what happened was like I had several coaches, like you had several coaches and. Literally people would go through their core value from a [00:21:00] list.

And this was highly disturbing to me

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah, because it makes you wanna pick things that you think your clients would want you to have versus what is in you. Yes.

Ati Grinspun:

That was exactly, I was like, uh, I think is it. then I remember, okay, I remember reading this and I remember like putting family, and I’m like, okay, yeah, but most of my family don’t even live here, so I don’t understand what this means to me. Right. So I study, like realizing that I was like asking people to do the same, and I’m like, you don’t get to pick who you are.

You are, and then you can grow from there. You can become better or, or bigger or whatever you want, but you gotta know what your, what your, what the fuck are you working

Jen Vazquez:

What are What do you have Naturally, I do.

Ati Grinspun:

So I remember, uh, and I love psychology and I read a lot of, like, it has to be [00:22:00] easy psychology. I don’t read Freud, right? Like , no. It needs to be like easy, digestible, fun, all this stuff. And I came across these core values exercise and I was like, oh my God.

One was like, okay, what are things that when you encountering others, you actually absolutely hate?

And there was a thing where you put like your, your top five, right? And then you stated what was the opposite of that? And actually this is kind of like a five step

this is literally a module inside of my program. The first thing people do when they come in, and I can’t even tell you how many people tell me, oh my God, I’ve done so many core, core value exercises. Then you can actually sift it as your business is growing, you can kind of be, okay, I’m gonna do this through my business.

I honestly, this is it. The, my personal ones are also my business ones. Because, I mean, even though I have a, [00:23:00] a, a small but mighty team, it’s just me. I am the head of this team, right? So I, I don’t consider myself a solopreneur, but I, whatever my core values are, the core values of my personal brand, my business, everything.

you, you stated those things and you stated what you hated on other people and also what you hated. When these, and, and I believe the exercise I had, like the adjectives on there. They had to be adjectives. That was a thing. is a thing.

And then you actually made them a noun. So there were things that you could hate on other people, like things that, exacerbate you and then you made them a positive.

Jen Vazquez:

So cool.

Ati Grinspun:

And that is just the part of it. I know there were more steps, but I remember this part was the part that I was like, oh,

Jen Vazquez:

It clicked.

Ati Grinspun:

it’s a core value. It for me. what really distilled was, for example, one of the other ones is abundance. That’s a core value for me. [00:24:00] But this came from actually realizing that.

I hated when people had scarcity thoughts around life and business. But also I hated penny painting. While I loved being very smart around my money, which I didn’t consider to be the same.

Jen Vazquez:

Yes. Yes.

Ati Grinspun:

His was so important because as I was defining all of those things, it made me look at stuff.

I’m gonna give you an example of something that I, this actually happened was something that happened with a client of mine. We did kind of like a trade and she showed up to this trade and she wasn’t showing up as her, her best self and what I knew she could absolutely deliver to this trade that we were doing.

And I kind of took it personal. I remember I came home and I started looking at my core values of like two or three weeks went by and I didn’t tell her anything. Now, another one of my core values is [00:25:00] honesty. The way I described it is always strive to be transparent, always do what I say I’m going to do.

My communication style is blunt, and while I take high consideration of people’s feelings, I always say what I think and give my honest opinion. Because the truth is that you cannot coach people if you don’t. And I remember thinking, sitting here looking at that, I mean like, I have to have a conversation with this person.

I sent her a message and I was like, we need to jump on a Zoom call. And I told her. And she told me, this is why I love you.

Jen Vazquez:

Oh, oh,

Ati Grinspun:

I am so thankful because as a mentor, yes, it hurts that you’re telling but I can grow from here.but if I wouldn’t have looked at my core values, I probably would’ve stayed out of alignment. And this was something [00:26:00] that was bothering me. Now, for every single one of you listening, your core values are gonna be different.

Maybe you don’t. Maybe honesty, is defined in a completely different way to you. how crazy it’s that. That’s how it was defined for me, right? And what happens is you start acting. Out of alignment in your business, in your content, how you say things. And now if you wanna bring it to the true how you show up authentically in your business, this is how you show up authentically.

It’s not about what you wear and what you say, and it’s your, you start showing up as you are learning about you and you’re like, okay, how would I tell this to somebody if I truly was sitting in front of this person? And, and you show up on camera saying it that way.  You don’t censor yourself. Whatever your core values are for

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Ati Grinspun:

I promise you it will probably be a little hard because you will be challenged to show up as your true [00:27:00] self. But the thing is, everything from the moment you write a post to the moment you decide how you present your offers to the moment.

Like everything is sifted through that.

Jen Vazquez:

Okay. So in terms of core values, I’ve never heard it presented the way that you’re presenting it. It’s so exciting and it’s making me wanna break out a notebook. Okay. That’s how I know when

Ati Grinspun:

So this goes back, okay, so one of the things that people absolutely can take from here, which I think again is giving your ourselves permission. For me, there was a huge self-discovery that went on moving, obviously from bartending to opening a studio. And since we’re diving into it, one of the reasons I actually came back to bartending is I felt really lost.

I like, you know, I had a, a baby business. I had a baby, baby , I had a baby,

Jen Vazquez:

and you were photographing babies

Ati Grinspun:

Yeah. So there was a lot of overwhelm that was happening there. And what happened when I went back to my job is I almost found myself again, and I could grow from that place. Right? But going back to authenticity, I didn’t have the guts in my photography business, really talk about being a bartender and what that meant and all of that, right?

So there was so much self-discovery and now jumping forward, I was a photographer now for several years when I decided to start focusing on personal branding, I was actually reading a ton and things outside of the industry. This is where the tip is for you guys. Allow yourself to find what is truly calling to you, because when I found this exercise on the book.

One of the things that would, that happened was like, whoa, but everybody’s teaching core values in a different way.

Jen Vazquez:

Yes,

Ati Grinspun:

And I was like, who am I [00:29:00] to teach it this way? But I knew

Jen Vazquez:

you were perfect for it. Like

Ati Grinspun:

that’s exactly where the teaching is. Allow yourself to bring you into the equation. And I’m gonna tell you, this is all about self permission and self-acceptance and really learning to trust your gut.

That doesn’t happen overnight. That happens on that self discovery road. When we talk about Fulfillment and business and bringing them together. And you and I are part of like a huge community that thrives on that because I don’t believe that you are gonna stick with your business and you’re gonna grow and you’re gonna make money and you’re gonna do what it takes every single day.

We were talking about this off camera earlier, being tired, like working your business and all of that. You are not gonna push through the shitty stuff if you are not truly connected to these core values. What you wanna create in the world, which in return is your personal brand.

Jen Vazquez:

Exactly. Okay. So for those that are unable to invest yet [00:30:00] in that, but see the value of it, I mean, you, you came up with a great tip and think about things that sort of rile you up in others and try to think about the opposite. Do you have more tips in that area in terms of, not even just coming up with the words, but coming up with the definition.

Because what I noted was that your definitions were so, you just knowing you. Right.

And how how were you able to. Come up with that description.

Ati Grinspun:

I shared earlier, like for me, I never journal in my life until I started entrepreneurship because there was a lot of mindset things that I need to work through. Especially like coming from bartending, being like at the top of my game and not for me.

There was a lid that opened. I was like, oh my God, there is a world out there. I mean, I was like, what? Right. So I [00:31:00] had a lot of like, mindset issues to work through. Like guilt and money felt a little dirty. I don’t know, like all these things, I’m, I’m still working through them. Right? But I think that, that once you sit down and like, let’s say, let’s work with positivity, right?

What actually positivity means to you?

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah. Yeah. And, and for like, for me, my definition of positivity, that’s the one that like got me, that made me realize how important the definition is because for me I literally look at every single thing going on in my life through the lens of the glass is half full. I am already thinking on a positive thing. Even in the most dire of circumstances. My father passed away, like, and I was able to see positives. Parts of it, not in the fact of it, but in parts of it. . [00:32:00] Yes. I took photos with him the month before and how important that photo is today, right? People say you are , like my personal cheerleader. Well, I’m not being a personal cheerleader to everyone. That’s just how I see life.

Ati Grinspun:

Uh, so in that exercise that I was like, okay, when you realize what are these things that like truly like trigger you or like that you absolutely hate on somebody else and you hate them when they show up in you? I think part of the exercise, part of why that is so powerful is because you look at like these traits or things that show up in other people, they bother you, but you absolutely hate them when they show up in you. So you have kind of like that negative

Jen Vazquez:

Mm-Hmm.

Ati Grinspun:

take, but then what is it about it? And I think that when you’re actually writing, well, I hate it when somebody can realize like it’s saying, I can’t do this. That is how I actually came up with that.

Jen Vazquez:

it can  absolutely do this. Like,

Ati Grinspun:

So for you, that would be you thinking like, oh my God, it absolutely triggers me when people are seeing the worst on every situation. Because the truth is that every single one of us has a completely different filter. Again, it’s based on our experiences, on the things that we live, like what we learn, our culture, all of that.

Jen Vazquez:

SO good. let’s say we have someone who’s wanting to show up as authentic or wanting to really dive into their brand, their personal brand, it’s obviously super easy if you work with someone like Ati , obviously, right? Let’s just put it out there. But

Ati Grinspun:

Oh, but usually people get to me by the time they, either been trying, right? They, it’s very rare. Somebody’s like, okay, I knew I had to build the personal brand. Here I am. Right? Like usually people, either , they’re star by strap boot in it, [00:34:00] or no

Jen Vazquez:

yeah, yeah, 

Ati Grinspun:

Or they have done some of the work, they’re somewhere over there

and now they’re okay, so now like I’m going to the next level. It’s very rare that somebody will like start their business or their journey by saying, oh, I need a personal brand.

Jen Vazquez:

Are there some exercises or techniques that you can use to pull some of this out of people that they could try to maybe do on their own?

Ati Grinspun:

And, and I think there is, and there is a ton. And one of the things is Pinterest, there is so much on Pinterest that people can actually find. There is so many like checklists and stuff like that. But this is where I think that people can truly shine at trying to start an is number one. Do this work. Take the time to really understand who you are, what you bring to the table, and allow yourself to grow because you are not gonna be the best person on social media, [00:35:00] the best person on video, the best per on day one.

You are not. So allow yourself to get started. Get started. Just do it right. Like whatever, like yes, I know you have fear. Yes, I know you have impostor syndrome because we all have it. It

Jen Vazquez:

you, by the way, if you don’t have it. It means you’re Great. yourself

Ati Grinspun:

to you.

Jen Vazquez:

out of your comfort zone either,

Ati Grinspun:

is true.

Jen Vazquez:

and that’s when business grows. Or at least for me, when I feel that sort of uncomfortable imposter syndrome, it usually tells me at my gut that whatever is making me fearful is that next step I need to take to growth

Ati Grinspun:

I never understood what people say. You have to lean into the heart. I never understood that for the longest time. Well, the heart is literally showing you the edge. It is the edge between where you are comfortable and oh shit, [00:36:00] this is, this is hard. Okay, you have to lean so you actually grow into that.

Whatever it is. Is it a skill? Is it a practice? Is it whatever it is, right? So I think like, okay, so we talked a little bit about the self-discovery. Now the self-discovery is the first step. So you kind of are allowing yourself to show up authentically, and you lean into that and you sift everything through it.

But the next one is really understanding who do you wanna serve? I always say, what do you wanna be known for? And when people tell me, I wanna be known for being honest and a good person, I’m like, listen, bitch, that a given.

Jen Vazquez:

That’s a great,

Ati Grinspun:

I hope.

Jen Vazquez:

I say that’s a great pageant answer, That’s not realistic.

Ati Grinspun:

hope you’re a good person. I hope you’re honest. I hope like yes, that’s a given. I’m gonna, I actually assume you’re a good person. Like, you don’t need to show me that you’re a good person. I wanna assume that you’re a good person because I don’t wanna go around in the world thinking that people are shitty.

Right? Unless you show me different. So now let’s talk about what you really wanna be known for. What is that over, arching theme of your life? Right. So for me it’s personal, running, photography, community, uplifting people like I want, those are the things I wanna be known for. I wanna be known for like walking into a room and people are like, oh my God, she brought the energy.

Right? What, what do you wanna be known for now? See that in that ball of things, There is business, there is personality, there is all of it. Because I think that people get lost when they think about that personal brand and they’re like, well, but people say I can sell anything. Well, yes you can, as long as you are known for that.

Like if all of a sudden tomorrow I start selling, I don’t know, tamales, people are gonna be like, I thought you were from Argentina. Like, right, that doesn’t match. What I’m to fit the theme. So you have to start with the theme of who you are, what you are known for, what is important to you.

Again, we go back to the [00:38:00] core values, right? What is important to you? Now when I talk about what the, the mark that you live in the world, you can do that in so many ways. You can do that through coaching, through speaking, through podcasting. You get to choose that is the, the. Like you can create planners, you can write a book, you can.

Now the thing is people usually start the other way around. They wanna market first. Now they don’t know what they’re marketing, they don’t know what their core values is. They don’t know who they are, they don’t know any of that. They don’t know who they wanna serve. So for me, very early on when I pivoted my business, I knew I wanted to work with women.

Okay. Now

Jen Vazquez:

We’re Now we’re nicheing it Yes.

Ati Grinspun:

Yeah. And when we talk about niching down sometimes, like I don’t, I tell people at the beginning, it’s hard because you don’t truly know,

Like who your people are and, and this can take time to really like figure it out. [00:39:00] But if you start looking at what is the common denominator of the problem that you love, like solving with or for people, what is.

Jen Vazquez:

you wanna help people get.

Ati Grinspun:

Listen to what people are telling you they’re struggling with and what part of that, that, that problem, like that common denominator be your first like trigger of like how you can start narrowing down. So I like talking about narrowing down and not just like, oh, what is your niche? Well, it start narrowing down little by little, by little by little.

The more you narrow down. Like for example, I never, I came all the way to women entrepreneur who are the face of their business. They’re service providers. I don’t do product, right? But I never went even smaller than that because I love it here.

Jen Vazquez:

You have that gut instinct that that’s exactly where you need to be.

Ati Grinspun:

But I have a colleague who is a personal branding coach and she narrow, narrow, narrow, [00:40:00] narrow, narrow. She’s only working with real estate agents now.

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah, which is, is amazing. Like that is the glory of owning your own business is that you can decide what you’re gonna do.

Ati Grinspun:

Not only that, went as far as to like, not, she only does personal branding for real estate on Instagram. I’m like, that’s fucking great. Great for you. But for me, I wanna work with women that like, want to have like massive impact that they wanna like, ripple effect. Right? So that wouldn’t work for me.

Jen Vazquez:

Yes, exactly. Oh my gosh. This has been insanely cool. So let me ask you one final question and then we’re gonna go

on to what you’re gifting everyone, which I think will also be a nice help for everyone. What are three things that really helped you grow your business? Anything, tools, advice, whatever.

Ati Grinspun:

Number one was putting myself in rooms. Thi this is [00:41:00] literally number one where I was absolutely uncomfortable.

Jen Vazquez:

where you’re like, I even belong here?

Ati Grinspun:

no, like literally thinking I fucking don’t belong here.

So now I’m gonna give you the disclaimer. You actually have to be able to start understanding when you truly don’t belong there and that’s not your room and these are not your people or are you uncomfortable because there is so much edge there as so much growth for you to do.

So that was number one, because when I put myself in those rooms, . I started seeing what I wanted to achieve. I started looking at what other people had that I wanted, and being, if she can do it, I can chew.

That was number one. Number two, actually, why I am so passionate about personal branding, it was because at the beginning I kept going around and around and around and I couldn’t figure it out. Even though I did the whole photography and I niched down and all of that. When I went into network [00:42:00] marketing, I felt very, very lost. what actually made me successful there was my personal brand, right? Who I was to my network, how I was showing up for those people. And this repeats over and over and over. So I think like . To some, what that means is like literally working on your mindset, working on who you are being as opposed to like, what are you doing?

Because what you are doing, it’s absolutely affected by who you are being. So working on my mindset, and if I would have to say one tool, you probably have people talking about this, is Think and Grow Rich. it’s such a heavy book. But there is so much learning there and that actually made me then seek out help for. my mindset and all of that. So that is the actual tool, the actual tool that helped me there.

And if I would have to say the third tool, and this is probably not what people are, are thinking that, I was going to say, but for me, growing my business was really understanding that social media is the glue that puts it all together. But that triangle of like building relationships, really finding my people again, putting myself in rooms that are very uncomfortable, finding my people and then using social media to actually exponentially how many times somebody can see me.

meet somebody in person then that you actually are gonna have to follow up with that person a million times and that person might think like, okay, you’re kind of weird, but now. You get to see me and see me and see me and see me and see me and see me. Like literally, I probably know so much about your life from social media, not because we talk so many times.

Jen Vazquez:

Exactly, exactly.

Ati Grinspun:

I remember I asked you like, girl, you’re a grandma. I that on social media. You tell me so, I think that once I started leveraging all that stuff and going back to authenticity, when you actually are doing things in person, you can’t hide and now you start showing a more authentical line and that is freeing you guys. That is so freeing.

Jen Vazquez:

Yes. And I think too, after Covid shut us all in our own little houses, there is a big sort of global collective need to be with people in person again. So I feel like, and in-person events is something that’s gonna really grow on the horizon. If we’re looking forward to 2024, I think making sure that you go to at least one event, if you’re a business owner in person,

Ati Grinspun:

Minimum.

Jen Vazquez:

at minimum is really necessary. Like I. Didn’t do hardly any of it before the pitch club, which is where we met. And now I can’t imagine not having at that as part of my business. And like you were saying, you, you, you’re showing up live with people.

Ati Grinspun:

I think for me, well, but at the beginning, it was [00:45:00] also just going to networking events, right? And finding other women that were on the same path. So back in 2019, I actually went to a live event. This was pre-COVID, and that event was the event that changed my life.

I saw a speaker there and I was like, what? and I think that people underestimate the connection and the, the vibration and the frequency and like we can add all yes heart, like you are touching your heart, I’m touching my heart, which is meeting people in person that literally not only will talk about you, but they will feel your life with purpose. And you will, you will not only meet clients, but you will meet peers, you will meet friends, you will meet people that, when.

You reach out to them because you actually, either you need something or you wanna, whatever it is. It, it doesn’t need to be a need. It could be a need that is actually, Hey, I need to talk to somebody about this. it’s not necessarily [00:46:00] asking for business. This person will be willing to be there because there is actually a relationship and that cannot still till this day be done online.

Jen Vazquez:

No, no. You can nurture a relationship with online, you

Ati Grinspun:

Oh yeah. I mean, you and we, yeah, we nurture the relationship online. Uh, but, but the thing is though, there’s something magical that happens in person and, and just like, just to like, like be absolutely like transparent here before it’s, I have my own live event, but before that I started by hosting networking events here in Vegas. And, but most of my clients are not in Vegas. My photography clients are, but my coaching clients, they’re rarely in Vegas.

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah. Well, before we get to the gift that you’re offering to share with our audience, tell everybody about the services that you provide, because I know there’s gonna be multiple people out there. They’re like, I need her in my life. Like I need,[00:47:00]

Ati Grinspun:

So there is two ways, literally, I make it super easy for people. There is two ways people can work with me. Either I help you build your personal brand and I’m gonna break it down, or I help you with the photography part. Now they’re intertwined because the photography part, I truly believe, I actually made a post about this this morning.

I believe that in the last five years that I’ve been coaching my photography skills have a skyrocket, but it’s not the lighting, it’s not the posing. It’s because I understand personal branding strategy. So because I understand personal branding strategy, when I come into literally how do we create those visuals?

I go into your story, who you are, your personality, your core values, what’s important, what do you wanna show your processes, like the list goes, goes on and on and on. Right. So the two ways people can work with me is I have a program that is called the Be Brand Academy. This is a one year program.

You guys, it’s a transformation from Zero to Hero. We work on your, personal brand, we work on your offers. We work on selling consultations, social media. All of it, how you can be more visible because we go literally from you kind of like hiding to like really showing up as a true personal brand. And that takes time. the other way is for the people that are more advanced.

I do VIP weekends and the VIP weekends. Usually we work on something very specific. So I have a, one of my clients is coming like at the in December, for a weekend. And we are, she’s going more corporate. She’s like, she’s like a breath work coach, leadership coach. But she’s like, I feel like, you know, I’ve been doing Instagram and that is not attracting the people.

I’m like, yeah, no. So the way I do personal brand is we go to the core of the strategy. We’re not necessarily working just Instagram, just LinkedIn, just Facebook. We actually build your strategy and then the second day we do all the visuals, we do [00:49:00] video, all of that. So that’s personal running.

And if not, if you are in Vegas or you wanna come from another place, which I actually have ton of clients that come from other places. also through photography. I still offer photography. This is like, but it’s kind of like my fun part in my business to still shoot. I am not ready to let that go. So I’m still offering it.

Yeah. And I love it. so yeah, that’s how you can work with me. Plus my event. that is actually a, a fun way to jump into my world. But building your own community, meeting other people, and growing your business.

So I have the Be You brand live, the event is September 26th, 27th, 28th. 2024. Here in Vegas. so if you go to my Instagram, like we already have the dates. We already selling tickets for that. because the thing is I knew a minute into my event this year that I was gonna do it again.

Jen Vazquez:

Yeah. you knew in the planning stages, let’s be honest, because you already,

Ati Grinspun:

Well, I didn’t know because I was like, is this gonna be as amazing as I think it’s gonna

Jen Vazquez:

It was insane. I’ve heard from multiple people about how insane it was. Tell everyone what your freebie is and how it can help our audience.

Ati Grinspun:

Okay, so I have a profitable personal brand quiz. now this is not like just every quiz that you take out there, like literally this will ask you seven questions 60 seconds. But the seven questions are based on the seven. Core pillars that we use to build your personal brand. So, and then once you get your percentage, it will tell you like if you are a beginner, if you’re an intermediate, or if you’re advanced, and it will actually give you, a step for you to take to start moving your personal brand forward.

Because I think one of the things that I hear from people the most is, I don’t know how to get started, or when they’re intermediate [00:51:00] now they are starting to get on this self-doubt kind of like place. they are advanced, they have been doing it for a long time, they’re like, okay, what is the next step? Which is usually I’m gonna spoil it a little bit, visibility.

Which a lot of people don’t understand the difference between content, visibility, all of that. So, so we took that under consideration and you are literally gonna get an email with all your responses, and each person or each stage gets a different response and, uh, different things based on your, on

Jen Vazquez:

and you’ll love being on her email list. Such good juicy information, applicable, actionable information, and I always leave reading it going, yeah, yeah.

Ati Grinspun:

I try. I try because people tell me that I don’t sell enough. Like, so I’ve been like being more, like, I don’t sell enough in my emails, but sometimes I’ll just write a letter to my people

Yeah. just love that.

Jen Vazquez:

And we’ll have, you know, Instagram, we’ll have, all the links down below in the show notes. Thank you so much for your valuable advice and your time today, and everyone listening or watching, if you found some ideas and tips that you can implement in your business, we’d love for you to leave a review. It’s the lifeblood of our podcast.

Now go out there and do something good for your business, like taking that quiz so that you can find out where you are and take action. Meaning go put it on your calendar so that you actually get it done, and you grow your business at least 1% better every single week. Thank you.

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How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun by Jen Vazquez Media on Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast
How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun by Jen Vazquez Media on Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast
How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun by Jen Vazquez Media on Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast
How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun by Jen Vazquez Media on Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast
How Your Core Values can make marketing easier with Ati Grinspun by Jen Vazquez Media on Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast