20 Years of Marketing Experience in 47 Minutes | Anne Laffin | CEO of FinMarketing

Anne Laffin is the Founder and CEO of FinMarketing and a 20 year expert in marketing and advertising, famous for helping build startups and massive businesses over the course of her career.

Book a Call with Anne's Team:
https://www.finmarketingm.com/book-a-consultation

Learn the Secrets to Email Marketing? Sign Up Here:
https://www.finmarketingm.com/product-page/email-marketing-101

Plans and Pricing: https://www.finmarketingm.com/pricing

Timestamps:
[00:00]: Intro
[01:04]: Origins of a 20 Year Marketing Professional
[02:21]: What Makes a Startup Successful?
[05:45]: Is Marketing too "Oversaturated"?
[08:16]: Promo for B2BGrowthToday Marketing and Advertising
[10:20]: Transitioning from the 9 to 5 to an Entrepreneur
[16:53]: The Biggest Challenges of Marketing
[19:18]: The Inspiration to Business and Entrepreneurship
[20:26]: Best Books to Master Your Marketing Skills
[22:15]: Tactical Advice to Winning in Marketing and Advertising
[24:30]: Optimizing Client Satisfaction as a CEO
[31:50]: The Key to Health, Wealth, Love, and Happiness
[34:37]: The Future of FinMarketing
[38:48]: FinMarketing's Email Marketing 101 Course
[40:14]: Master Your Niche on Social Media Like This
[44:15]: Final Remarks
[45:53]: Outro

Want a Social Media Manager? Need a Website for your Business? Get Marketing Here:
https://www.b2bgrowthtodayllc.com/bookconsultation

 Need Video Editing and Content Creation?: https://goldshark.media/

 Sign Up for PodMatch.com: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/goldsharkmedia

 Sign Up for ElvenLabs: elevenlabs.io/?from=partnercarpenter7464

 YouTube Channels: Founder’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BrendanEcker/videos

GSM: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKfxxLcTJAqZeGNxcHFiI_A B2BGTLLC: https://www.youtube.com/@B2BGrowthTodayLLC

TBEI Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJCkPNEg3KfuOqAaAwXObw

 Support the Show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2223309/support

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3LEf2ct

Follow Brendan Ecker Social Media: Insta: @goldsharkmedia, @b2bgrowthtodayllc, @eck3r17 TikTok: @BrendanEckerOfficial Linked-In: @BrendanEcker Facebook: @GoldSharkMedia and @B2BGrowthToday LLC Snapchat: @brendanecker035 Twitter: @ecker17

 Affiliate Disclaimer:
 Some of the links in this description may be affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission if you click on them and make a purchase. This helps support my channel and allows me to continue creating quality content for you. Note that I only recommend products or services that I genuinely believe in and that I think you will find helpful. My honest opinion is always my top priority. 

For more information about affiliate marketing, please visit the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides: 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising | Federal Trade Commission Fair Use Disclaimer: Please note that this video may contain copyrighted material, including images, music, and video clips. The use of such material is done under the principles of "Fair Use" as defined in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. Fair Use allows for the limited use of copyrighte

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

In order to really stand out, despite the access. It still comes down to the fundamentals again of do you have a good message right? Do you have something different to say than the rest of the masses, Something that is ultimately gonna provide value? I think, at the end of the day, no matter how many people are creating content or how many tools are out there, if you have something that's fresh and different and valuable and speaks to whatever makes you unique, I don't think it matters if there's a thousand creators or a million.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Ladies and gentlemen, Anne Lathan is the founder and CEO of Finn Marketing, a marketing consultancy agency for early age startups, and is also a graduate from Villanova University, having later received a master's in interactive media from Quinnipiac University, which laid the foundation for the work she's working on today. Anne, thanks for being on the show today. I'm really excited to have you.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Thank you so much for having me Excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Yeah, so tell us a little about your journey being a marketer. I understand the grind. I myself am doing a lot of the same things you're doing, so I think this will be really great for YouTube. This will be great for Spotify and everybody else watching, and I think they'll get a lot of value from it. So kind of tell us your story and anything on this.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Yeah, so I have been in marketing for 20 years, which is scary. It crept up fast. I started in market research, which was really fun and a great way to get a good handle on why people shop the way they shop, buy the way they buy kind of the psychology of marketing, which is kind of neat. And then I ended up switching of all places to financial services marketing, ran a team in financial services marketing for a long time and ended up doing a flip-flop for a bit between market research and financial services until I landed at an early-stage financial services startup and that was where that definitely changed my career path for sure, because I decided I loved startups, I love the startup environment and now that's all I work with is startups, very early stage company. So that's how I got where I am.

Speaker 2: 1:54

That's awesome. Yeah, I really love starting my own startups personally. I think it's fun, it's a little stressful, it can be crazy, but yeah, we're building out our team as we speak. I actually just hired my COO and he's been doing a really good job. You know kind of hiring everybody out Right now I'm still learning with delegating responsibilities and you know the stress and whatnot, but we're doing pretty well. What do you think is the main contributor to successful startups?

Speaker 1: 2:23

I think a couple things. One is being flexible, because you've already alluded to the fact that there's a lot of stress and along with that, I say, is a lot of chaos, so you have to be willing to pivot quickly, change quickly and be okay with that. The flip side of that flexibility is also having some type of plan right, so it's like it's, you know, throwing spaghetti at the wall kind of plan is not a plan, it does not work for a long time and, as flexible as I think you need to be, you need to have some kind of direction. So it's this nice pairing of planning with flexibility I think is key for successful startups.

Speaker 2: 3:00

Definitely. Yeah, it's very true. It's very true. What's very true. What are the what's that one thing that brings a startup to that next level? Because 90% of startups fail right? What are the kind of startups that are typically going to survive in the coming future? Because, I mean, obviously we're definitely coming into a different time. We have ChatGPT 4.0, which is just crazy. I don't know if you use it, but you can put a Google file on there, you can put a document on there and ChatGPT will just analyze the entire document and all the contents within it. So we're living in such a wild time where AI is getting really powerful. Would you say that living kind of on the edge is what's going to give you that advantage as a startup, or is it going to be more of the fundamentals, or is it both? What do you think?

Speaker 1: 3:46

I think it's probably a mixture of both, but I think that in order to make it as a startup, there's two things that have to happen. One you actually have to have a product that's solving a need in the world. So, whether you have AI or not, or good systems and tools in place, your product or service is not actually solving for anything or making anything better. It doesn't really matter. And the way that you do that, you have to talk to customers or prospective customers. It's really the only way you're going to know for sure if your product is like does it have any value? So I think that the first part is making sure you're actually solving for whatever. Whatever the thing is that you're building for Right, and then it's like putting fuel on the fire Do we have the tools in place that are going to get us there faster? So I think that's where AI kind of comes into play. I think you need both, but if you have a crappy product, yeah, there's so much that it really is.

Speaker 2: 4:50

It really is just a combo. You really are an artist. When you're an entrepreneur, especially today, you have to know how to juggle multiple things, multiple skills, and that's kind of what I've learned. You got to learn emotional responsibility, you got to learn leadership capability, and that alone is hard enough and it seems so easy when you watch it in the movies, right, when you watch it, when you read it in the books, and then you get doing it and it's like, oh my God, problem after problem after problem.

Speaker 2: 5:16

It really is exactly what Elon Musk was saying, where you know, owning a company, running a company is like staring into the abyss and eating glass. Starting a company is like staring into the abyss and eating glass. Starting companies, like staring at the abyss and eating glass. And so that's why I just kind of created this youtube channel, because we're in a world today where it's so competitive with business, but everybody's kind, but there's more gladiators and, in a weird way, it's actually not a saturated market because you have more people to reach out to. What would you say to that? And how do you fight the oversaturation, or do you even believe in oversaturation?

Speaker 1: 5:47

Good question. I'm going to noodle around on this because I have I'm not sure I've actually baked an answer to that full all the way here. In some ways, it does feel very saturated, right? Everyone has so much access to everything, there's immediate access to everything, and in a lot of ways it can be really overwhelming, and so I think that in order to really stand out, despite the access, it still comes down to the fundamentals again of do you have a good message? Do you have something different to say than the rest of the masses, something that is ultimately going to provide value? I think, at the end of the day, no matter how many people are creating content or how many tools are out there, if you have something that's fresh and different and valuable and speaks to whatever makes you unique, I don't think it matters if there's a thousand creators or a million. If everyone has something cool and unique and special, I honestly think it's fine. I don't think there is going to be an oversaturation.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Yeah, I definitely agree, and I've gotten over that because I've realized that much of this game of business and much of this game of scaling companies is really just continuing and there's so many entrepreneurs who just, you know, you run into a few problems, you run into quite a few problems and eventually it becomes just overwhelming and most people just kind of stop, most people quit, they kind of just fade into the dust and that's like the scariest part for all of us entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2: 7:13

But what I've learned from my experience is definitely it really is that having, like you said, something different, but something that's going to last forever, a strong idea. So, like Jobs, it was. Or with, like Mark Zuckerberg, it was connecting the world. With Steve Jobs, he wanted to change the world through innovation, and then with Elon Musk, it was getting to space, you know, creating autonomous vehicles. So I think that is kind of what's going to separate the winners from the losers today at least in such a competitive market is going to be, you know, your ability to just kind of stick to it, right? Alex Ramosi calls it that stick-to-itiveness.

Speaker 3: 7:50

Charlie Munger said, the money isn't made in the buy and it's not made in the sell, it's made in the wait. The stick-to-it muscle is the one that you have to flex.

Speaker 2: 7:58

For entrepreneurs who might be struggling, or maybe for a nine to five employee? I always like to ask this question If there's a nine to five employee out there, they're looking to change their circumstances. They want to get into business. What's your biggest advice? What's the first thing they should learn or the first you know group of things they should learn?

Speaker 3: 8:14

Ready to skyrocket your business to new heights. Welcome to B2B Growth Today, your all-in-one digital marketing, advertising and growth agency. Business owner, contractor or decision maker. Imagine having 20 clients or booked appointments per month, all thanks to our paid ads done for you service on Facebook, instagram, twitter, tiktok and YouTube. Our social media management ensures your presence is always engaging and up to date.

Speaker 3: 8:37

Generate over 2000 leads monthly with our cutting edge lead generation strategies. Optimize with AI for maximum efficiency. Integrate AI into your customer support and marketing to offer the most optimized and responsive service possible. Get viral influencer shout-outs on Instagram, reaching millions of real accounts with organic reach. Achieve 3 million impressions with our proven strategies driving real results. Optimize your Google presence with our comprehensive services, including analytics, ads, workspace tags. Streamline your outreach and more Email marketing funnels and SMS bump integration. We build e-commerce stores tailored to match your business goals, ensuring a seamless and effective online presence. Get a premium website with full SEO and AI SaaS optimization, giving you the edge over your competitors. Our recruiting done for you service finds the perfect candidates for your team. Thank you, let's build your American dream.

Speaker 1: 10:21

I'm going to answer this two ways. The first is actually like start a side hustle first. I kind of wish I had done this myself, like dabbled in the idea that just because you have a nine to five doesn't mean you can't have something, a small side gig where you're testing the waters of what it feels like to run a business. I never run a business before, you know, before my current business and, and it was eye-opening. And so maybe this answers the second part of the question, which is kind of like get your operational house in order. It's really easy. If you have expertise in marketing, you already know how to market. It's why you want to do that thing. But what you likely don't know how to do is run the finances, run the operational piece, figure out how to do your own marketing right. So take the time, I would say, to kind of get your house in order before you go full in. Take a beat, and that would be my, I think my biggest advice Just take a pause, get your house in order and then hop to.

Speaker 2: 11:24

Yeah, it's all about being a learning machine. That's kind of what I got to just be, so you just have to be curious and addicted to just learning new things, and that that's really what also sparked me ahead and really just that's kind of where I started. Things started to click for me, right, and I think it really is about that, just, you know, focusing on one thing, and then you, it's the foundation, it's the little things, right, like my whole life, I was an athlete, so that's kind of what they hammer into you is the foundations, the little things, the baby steps. When you get those down, you can do the bigger things and at a more large scale. And so I love the advice. It's absolutely true.

Speaker 2: 11:59

What kind of made you want to get into entrepreneurship, this crazy lifestyle? You know, I mean you and I, we could have a stable income, we could have a life right, we could invest in real estate, but no, we choose to be in business, we choose to take risks and go against the social norm and I just it really is completely two different psyches, two different personality types, and you know, especially coming from me, who? I'm still a police officer, so I am in, I am in both worlds. So I kind of see how those personality types are and how you almost be two different personalities. So what kind of got you into it? What's your, what's your story and what really just motivated you to get into this world of business?

Speaker 1: 12:40

A couple answers here. So I do think if you have that already built in like you want, your your risk taker. Essentially you have that kind of drive. I've played sports my whole life too, and I was a gymnast, I was a diver Like these are things that absolutely require risk. They're not like they're. It's not not that I love team sports I think they're great but like those are kind of like you already have. I already had the mindset to be okay with taking risks and as a kid my dad ran a small business and I watched him, you know, like run. He came. Actually he would come to all my meets, right, he had some flexibility in his schedule and that always stuck with me, because that is very important to me is being able to kind of like run my own life.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Might sound really silly, but you do lose an aspect of that with having a nine to five, especially if you work at a very large corporation. It's very likely that there is somebody that's telling you like when you need to be here and what you need to do, and as an entrepreneur, that's you like, that's me. You get to decide, right. And I think you know I just got to this point where I was like I was just ready to take that leap and you know I was alluded to like setting up your operational house. Like I did not do that, right, I just left, like it was into the void. And here we go, and I was I, I was just ready. I can't maybe explain it any better than that. Um, it was something I just always wanted to do.

Speaker 2: 14:00

So yeah, I find it exciting. It's an exciting journey. I like the unpredictable nature of it. You know I like it.

Speaker 2: 14:08

But despite the unpredictable nature, there is so many aspects that you can control, and so you can choose to get on LinkedIn and message as many business owners as you can Right, you can absolutely do that, and so it really is just all mindset. And again, coming from law enforcement, I'm still now kind of in it by choice, because I worked kind of hard Fallacy of sunk costs, right, I worked kind of hard to get there. So it's like, yeah, we'll do it a little bit longer, yeah, right, but you know, no, I mean, I really am just so adamant about people truly trying to start their own thing, because so many skills you're going to learn when it comes to starting your own business. You're going to learn accountant You're going to learn. You know legal You're going to have to and those are the first things you're going to have to learn especially legal, because you got to get your articles of organization, you got to get the operational agreements, you got to get your registered agent, all that crazy stuff. And so you know, for entrepreneurs out there who are thinking about leaving the nine to five getting into this career.

Speaker 2: 15:05

I definitely advise follow people like myself, follow people like and because we are people who I mean, it's just it's kind of built into us. I believe Right being athletes our whole lives Totally. Yeah, you just have this competitive drive, right Like my mother. She didn't want me to get into business and entrepreneurship. And I'm like mom, you created an entrepreneur. I'm going to be doing five different sports. You know my whole life and doing all these different things at the same time. And eventually, once you graduate high school, go to college, get your degree, whatever, and you kind of get bored. You're like what do I do now? So you start a business and that's just kind of.

Speaker 1: 15:49

That was my route at least, and so I definitely encourage everybody to kind of go the same way or have that same kind of experience. And I feel like it's just since COVID it seems so much it's, it's more it. I feel like there's more encouragement to do that. People realize they could work from home, they realize they can start a side gig, but there's just more, I think, support and awareness out there of how to start a business now. So it's such a good time to try it If you have that like desire to do it, like go for it.

Speaker 2: 16:13

Yeah, for sure. And you know, especially because, yeah, like we were saying earlier, there's so many gladiators out there. There's more gladiators, more competition, but at the same time there's more of an audience right and more people who can help you out. Those are more partners. The way I like to see it, those are more people I can eventually like down the road. You know, there'll be this big it'll just be this compounding interest of business owners who eventually end up working together because everybody will be a business owner. So we'll be kind of working towards that capitalist kind of vision, that goal, that drive. And that's what I love about this. You know, I love the unpredictable nature. I guess that's just maybe who I am. But, um, and I think you're, I think you're a lot of the same way, you know what has been your biggest challenge in your journey of kind of becoming an entrepreneur, a marketer and say anything. What was the hardest part Was any really tough moments.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Honestly, it's actually figuring out the right offer. I think this kind of goes back to again like are you solving a really solving a problem for your audience? It's easy to make assumptions about. You think you have the right product for the right time for the right audience, but until you put that product out into the world and talk to people and test, your assumptions may be just flat out wrong. And I have watched as the market has changed over the last couple of years and the product I thought was the right product, what everybody wanted, didn't seem to be the case anymore, and now there seems to be a trend in what startups want and need is very different. So I think keeping a good finger on the pulse of what's happening with my audience it's hard and making sure you're being flexible, adjusting, listening, learning. I think that's probably the biggest challenge of running a business, especially like on my own. It's just making sure I'm really paying attention to what my customers need.

Speaker 2: 18:09

So yeah, it's very important. Um with um, our a lot of our clients my first clients at least. It was tough for me to have the nerve to send that little questionnaire. How did we do? You know, how did? What was the first part about this experience? You know, I like to ask that, the heart of the heart of the questions you're able to ask.

Speaker 2: 18:30

I feel that you get better results in the longterm because, learning those super pivotal things that just you know, you and I have probably paid for services that were great services and then we paid for services that were horrible services and they didn't get that questionnaire that said what was the worst part about this experience? What did you not get out of what you wanted? And so it took me forever to send that questionnaire out. But when I did again, two weeks later we started getting more clients because we were able to implement changes so quickly and so promptly. So I 100% agree, for sure. And yeah, so, when it comes to entrepreneurship, when it comes to marketing, who was kind of your inspiration? Who got you? Who were a few of them, if you want to list a few, what really got you into this game?

Speaker 1: 19:17

Well, I feel like I have a very sad answer here, because it's not really a who necessarily in this case. It sort of happened by accident. To be perfectly honest with you, you know I started in market research, which I loved. It's definitely that arm of marketing is very different than, say, you're doing email campaigns and messaging and strategy Right. There is a very much a psychology behind the research portion and I just I found that part fascinating. But it also made me want to do more of the writing, the strategy, the campaign building, and so I think it was not really so much a who, but it was more of what you know. It gave me that foundation, kind of sparked my curiosity for what would it be like to be in a traditional marketing role? And once I dove into it, that was it. I never looked back. I may have changed industries to work with different types of clients, but it was full-on marketing since then.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Awesome, yeah, when it comes to entrepreneurs and business owners and some of those driving forces in our industry. I was. I actually just read, um, charlie munger's almanac a poor charlie's almanac and at first I've seen charlie munger as this boring. You know, he's this boring old dude who worked with warren buffett. That's honestly the way I saw him. And then I like got wise and I read this book. I'm like, oh my god, I'm like a loser compared to this guy. This guy like went to law school, he ended up going to Harvard and just was this extraordinary human being, just driven guy right Served his country in the military. And I was just blown away. I'm like, wow, that's like real achievement and real wisdom right there, compiled over a lifetime, and so that's just. That was one of my big motivators. And then obviously Rich Dad, poor Dad was a big book that I liked. Any any good books that kind of motivated you.

Speaker 1: 21:11

The war of art is, was huge.

Speaker 1: 21:12

I think, particularly as an entrepreneur, this idea of resistance like there's there's always as you're starting a business, as you're running through your business, there's always something. Even as you're trying to go to the gym in the morning or trying to go do something healthy, change a habit, there's always something, a voice in your head, that wants to hold you back, be like, oh, if I could just sleep in another 5 minutes, or I'll get to it tomorrow, or maybe my friends and family aren't going to understand why I want to run this business. Overcoming that resistance is a huge part of being an entrepreneur and it's not easy, right, it is always there, it's all. There are so many ways you could take the easy path and it would just be comfortable and neat and clean, and that is just not the life of entrepreneurship at all. So I think you know that book really resonated with me and on the days when things are challenging or frustrating or difficult, I just keep this mind like it's just resistance and I got to just get over the hump, and I always do so.

Speaker 2: 22:12

I love that. What are some of your greatest marketing strategies that kind of worked for you Like more tactical? So, for example, I think I'll be so today. Again, it's super crazy. There's so many tools you can use, there's so many avenues right, you can use agencies, which I think is great. I think they're acceptable to use, because myself, as an agency, I like to work with other agencies. I have no problem with it because you know everybody, everybody wants the same goal and it's that quick acceleration that I, that's kind of. What I've seen, at least from my experience, is that you know, agencies like yours and mine really do help clients kind of get to where they want a little bit faster and they go a little bit further. But you know, for example, that would be something I would say as tactical advice, right, or maybe it's cold email is a big thing. Today, you know being able to have high deliverability rates with cold email. What would you say is a tactical thing that really will get you, what will help drive that needle forward?

Speaker 1: 23:08

So for me, what I'm actually doing right now that is really resonating with clients is something that I call micro plans. So it's literally a tiny marketing plan, but it is hyper-focused on a North Star goal. But it is hyper-focused on a North Star goal and every month we pick out a retention tactic and a lead gen tactic One each category, nothing beyond that and it helps dial in. That focus also helps us see results quickly bad or good, right. So you know, the theme that I see over and over is startups. Again, it's a need for flexibility, some planning and usually, growth, and so these micro plans have really helped these companies that don't have a ton of resourcing either human capital or actual capital capital dial in what they need to work on. It's been a beautiful thing. It really like it's such a quick hit to get where you need to go next. It's been a beautiful thing. It really like it's such a quick hit to get where you need to go next. It's been, it's been a game changer, honestly.

Speaker 2: 24:07

I think that's excellent advice, absolutely. You got to tell you, cause, it is true, there's so much to do, there's so many just arduous tasks that require so much focus and attention. It really is better to just, you know, one bite at a time and one micro task at a time, like you were saying. That's excellent advice for sure, thank you.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 24:30

And so what's an example of a startup you worked with that faced significant challenges. So any clients, what was the hardest thing you were able to do, like, what was the hardest demand of a client that you had to meet and you were able to meet it, and how did you demand of a client that you had to meet and you were able to meet it.

Speaker 1: 24:45

And how did you so? I had a have a client that started their business right when covid started and their primary audience at the time was veterinarians. But I don't know if you have an animal, but during covid it was almost impossible to get in to see veterinarians. So it left this big, gaping void of well, we have an audience, but we literally can't see them. So what do we do now? And so you know, we had a change. They literally created a new product. We had to make a new website with new messaging and the audience. Then we swapped over to pet parents. So this change from all right, we've got a product we love and we like and we have a plan. Now it's like we have no plan. We have to create an entirely new plan and figure out how we're going to like, make this company work. And it did I.

Speaker 1: 25:38

What I will say is, over the next several years, it became such a challenge to figure out how these products could actually work together, how the messaging needs to play together, what needs like the customer journey, with the two products playing together. It has been, hands down, the hardest account I've ever worked on, because there's so many intricacies and the environment I mean, how do you plan for a pandemic? Um, so that was a wrench that we were just not prepared for. But I feel like we came out on the other side, so much like at the end of the day, with actually a better tool set and a better product and a better way to approach the entire problem than we did if that hadn't happened. So it's been really neat to see that it's been a lot of work, but rewarding work.

Speaker 2: 26:30

So yeah, oh my gosh, covid was insane. I was still in college time and I was just getting. I was just getting out. I was lucky. I was lucky. I don't I mean my experience in college. It was rough. So I was, oh, I need to get out of here. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:49

So, luckily, my last few semesters was essentially online and I enjoyed that. I was able to really focus on my own clients there and be able to get a lot of work done, and so I have to agree what is the hardest part about keeping the client happy, even through COVID, covid or the or the good times? What is that? What is the main thing, like what's the most difficult part about keeping the client happy? Or like how do you keep that client happy better?

Speaker 1: 27:10

Yeah, I hope I have a great answer for this, which is expectation setting To me. If you have clear expectations about what you're going to deliver, how you're going to deliver it and what you need from the client, everyone's on the same page. It's when there's a lot of gray area that people get crabby right. Well, I thought you were doing this or I thought you were delivering this. You can't live in the gray right. You have to be able to, as an agency, as a solopreneur, whatever you are right. You need to be able to clearly upfront state like these are the things that I do, right, here's what I can deliver, here's how I can deliver it. And on the flip side, again almost having this client expectation, contract of like, again, clear expectations. This is what I will need from you. This is how much time I will need from you. These are the types of tools I will need from you. When you can really map out what's needed, clients are so happy Because there's no surprises. That's been such a beautiful thing.

Speaker 2: 28:16

I agree. I agree with the clients I have. I mean, you've been doing this much longer than me, but from my short time doing this much longer than me, but from my short time doing this, that's what I've experienced, too with clients. They really just want to like, for example, the testimonial I just got from our current client. Now it's a solar energy company. Part of what I said in the testimonial was they did what they said they were going to do and they did it that way and I was just wow, interesting Things. You did what they said they were going to do and they did it that way and I was just wow, interesting. You know things you just wouldn't expect your client to say. And so it really is just delivering that expectation for them, that experience that you say you're going to give them. You know, and what's what's really been interesting for me as you know the CEO right Like when, whenever I'm studying my other entrepreneurs, I like to look up to kind of learning and just educating myself, I'm just like, oh yeah, how did they do it?

Speaker 2: 29:03

How did they just step out of the business like that? And it's like, really, it just seems like it's so impossible, because at least with my clients. I'm constantly just texting them, constantly seeing if I can just make sure. How are you doing? You enjoying your experience? Are you getting what you want? How can I make it better? You know, I'm constantly communicating with the client and so it is impossible to step out of the business. So for somebody like myself who's working on stepping out of my business so I don't have to be in the business as much, what would be some good advice for somebody like myself there?

Speaker 1: 29:36

I think I mean the first piece is being aware that you have to do that. You do have to do that because it's very easy. I was very guilty of eating, sleeping, breathing my business when I first started it and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, at least initially, but that is a fast track to burnout in my opinion. So knowing that there has got to be some separation at the end of the day is key. And I think, kind of going back to the expectation setting piece, set some expectations with yourself as the owner too, of like I need free time to reset as creative people. To me, my best creative thoughts are when I'm like out on a walk or run or like playing in the yard with my dog or edit, but you need that time to back away, I think, sometimes to help do better business. So, um, I think, yeah, maybe it's just setting expectations with yourself to be like it's okay, like if they're my client, are going to be okay, and sometimes I think giving them too much access actually doesn't help either of you.

Speaker 2: 30:45

But that's just me. No, I think that's. I think that's awesome advice. I will definitely take it too, because, you know, I think a lot of what I do to kind of separate myself from my own business is I like, my hobbies are working out mainly. I love to go to the gym, I love to work out. You know, I also, again, I have my police job, but that's not really an escape, no, yeah. So a big escape that I do enjoy, though, is actually the video editing process, and that's just. You know, I've always kind of liked that and shout out to my video editor right now that I've been working with, uh, he's on, he's been doing a great job.

Speaker 2: 31:19

We'll probably be editing a little bit of this video, but, um, that's kind of been my getaway from, you know, my business, my client, to make sure that I'm, you know, I am keeping a balance Right, and so, yeah, I definitely agree with that for sure. When it comes to um, when it comes to business, you gotta have, you gotta have a balance right the health, the wealth, the love, the freedom and the time, and you can balance all of those. That's the good life right, that's where you want to be, and so, in your opinion, what is the best way to get all of those things right? So we've talked about business. How do you get the help, the wealth, the love, the how? How do you balance all of it together in synchronicity?

Speaker 1: 31:57

I mean being honest. I don't know if I found the answer to that yet, but I love that answer.

Speaker 2: 32:04

It's an honest walk.

Speaker 1: 32:06

What I will say is, over time, I have come to appreciate the why behind why I started my business, which was to have more freedom and flexibility and ownership of my own life. And so in the beginning I was just it was the opposite of that. I was so tied to the business, working a million hours a week, like up all hours of the day, and I realized, like this was not. This is the exact opposite of what I was hoping to do, and so it.

Speaker 1: 32:38

When I hit that point, it really was like okay, well, I want to be able to go to my kids you know school functions and I want to be able to run. Like. I started to think like map out what do I, what does my like ideal life look like? And listen, I don't get it right every day of being perfectly clear. Right, it's still a struggle, but having that why, those pieces in mind help ground me on the days when I'm like, ah, I got to do more work and I'm like you know, so it's a challenge, it's a work in progress and that's probably maybe that's the best I can ask for it.

Speaker 2: 33:12

I think that's the perfect answer Because, honestly, at the end of the day, it's just life's so continuous, right, the unpredictable of fate. You can't really. You have to just kind of be downstream and position yourself for success as much as you can and in terms of wealth, love, happiness and balancing all of those things, I think it's just putting in that effort and using that equal amount of time to really become the best that you can be at those parts of your life. And it really is that learning, it's the why you know when you do have a good, why when you do have a good purpose, right Like, I just sincerely believe every human being should have something that makes you kind of cry, makes you emotional, because you're so passionate about it. You need it, right Like, you have this life that you want to get and you can't have it until you do these certain things.

Speaker 2: 33:56

And that was a big game changer for me and that was able to benefit my ability to make sure that I could balance health, wealth, love, happiness, all those things. It does require a good why, it requires a good purpose as to where you're going and so, like, for me, the life that I wanted was I wanted to be able to train every day, right. I want to be able to go to Jiu Jitsu. I want to be able to constantly make sure I'm in shape. I want to be able to work every day, at least five hours a day. That's what I was doing in high school, right? So that's kind of those are the things I would love to do with my free time that I'm able to earn for myself by being a business owner, by being an entrepreneur and, you know, being able to delegate responsibilities and all of the million other things. When it comes to the future, what do you, what do you think is your kind of goals? Where are you looking to go with fin marketing and what would you like to kind of see happen?

Speaker 1: 34:47

I right now I'm spending a lot of time I kind of already alluded to this thinking about offer, but I would like a more diversified set of offerings that some can be kind of like set it and forget it, self-serve, move to some more workshop type offerings and things where it's one to many. So it's not necessarily a trade of one hour of time for one hour of dollars, Right, Um? So I guess where I'm going with this is I'm still tweaking that offering so that I can ultimately get to that life. That why that I'm looking for and, um, I see it as a bit of a puzzle and you know it's. I'm moving a lot of pieces around trying to figure it out. But so I guess what I see in the future is just a more diversified offerings and maybe more stability. We'll see, See if I do that.

Speaker 2: 35:35

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm sure you will, I'm sure you will, I'm sure you got, no problem executing on that. Oh man, so who recently has been catching your eye in the business world, marketing world? Who do you think should somebody else be studying other than you? And I right, who's somebody who could really teach you a lot, as somebody who's getting into marketing advertising, okay so dave gearhart um runs uh, do you know who I'm talking about?

Speaker 1: 36:03

so he has the exit five it newsletter. It's all for B2B marketers and, my God, the information that is coming out from him and team and company. It's fantastic. That community is, I think, really powerful for B2B marketers for sure. I'm definitely poking around there. Emily Kramer I think her name is Another one just has another B2B marketing community really good insight coming out from her. I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn and that's where I do most of my own business promotion, but it's also where I kind of do a lot of my research to see kind of what's happening in the industry for sure, and so those are the people that kind of stand out for me on there. And um, I, I marketing is changing so fast all the time, always, so I I have to be watching and learning and trying to stay up to date with whatever is coming at us next, um, and I'm okay with that, right, but that that's who I would lean on. I think is for really good resources for information and inspiration. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2: 37:11

Totally For me. I would throw it on. I loved Alex Hermosi, Ty Lowe really, I ended up signing up for Ty Lopez's course. That's kind of how I ended up on this path. I'm on Um, but, uh, those are entrepreneurs. I think I've done fantastic work myself and um, and there's just so many. There's access today, Like you said earlier, you know, I just think I really encourage anybody who's watching this.

Speaker 2: 37:34

You know, take the leap of faith. You know, go if, especially if you're young. If you're young, you know, don't be so, don't feel like it's so important to save every single penny, and never, you know, you gotta, you gotta think of money as a tool and fuel, right. You gotta think of it as kind of ammunition and you gotta, you gotta use that ammunition to keep you alive, right, you gotta, you gotta deploy assets and in order to get you that life you want. So don't be afraid to take risks, Don't be afraid to start a business. It's if you're young enough to do it and old enough at the same time. Then do it and the risk, do things that are difficult, that other people aren't doing, because you will thank yourself later and I can say that from my own experience.

Speaker 2: 38:13

It's just it's a, it's a completely. It's a huge metamorphosis, honestly, and that's coming from somebody who you know I worked on several different farms. I was in asphalting, I, you know, ended up in law enforcement. So I've worked a lot of nine to five kind of jobs and it really is again like I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, it's completely different psychology, but there's so much freedom that comes with being able to delegate responsibility, being able to be your own boss. So if you guys are listening to this, be sure to like, share, comment, subscribe, all of that, but make sure that you're following Anne on social media.

Speaker 1: 38:47

And, by the way, and where can we find you on social media? Absolutely, find me on LinkedIn at Ann Laughlin, and I have you also find me at finnmarketingmanagementcom. Um yeah, that's where. That's where you can find me.

Speaker 2: 39:02

Awesome, awesome. And what else are you working on? Um, anything else that you'd like to promote while we're here?

Speaker 1: 39:08

I just started creating an email marketing course for small businesses and early stage founders and six weeks, and it helps give you all the basics and gets you set up with your first email sequence. So super good, awesome program for somebody that's really looking to supercharge their email marketing.

Speaker 2: 39:29

Excellent, excellent, yeah, and, by the way, I love courses. I think courses are great. I spend a lot of money on courses, people, courses are amazing. Courses are the best You're going to learn. You're going to get a lot of value from courses. I tell you, I find it interesting how many negative comments you'll get towards like courses, like, oh, cause this treatment before. Like, oh, you're a course seller. And it's like, yeah, yeah, because it works for me, but mostly because it really does work for other people. That's, I learned everything. I think courses are the best. You know. If it wasn't for courses, I wouldn't be a cop, you know. For courses yeah right, right.

Speaker 2: 40:04

so courses are important, education's important. Um, just mastering your own brain and your own life is important. So for sure, yeah, in terms of social media, what would be advice on there in terms of growing on social media, getting to that next level? How? What do you think is the key? Again, super competitive. So how would you say is the best way to diversify and keep yourself separate from other people?

Speaker 1: 40:32

Everyone's got their own story right. There is no other you. There is no other me. I know that sounds hokey, but you have to lean into that a bit. On social, because it really is the thing that keeps you unique. Is you right? Because it really is the thing that keeps you unique, is you right? And so being able to write down your thoughts and figure out why do I want to share this with my audience and why will they care, I think that's a huge piece of how you can be successful on social right. I mean, yes, you need to tie it back into the business at some point, but find your voice and don't be afraid to share it. And the other piece I'll say about that is it can be like.

Speaker 1: 41:09

Speaking from experience, I found it very, a little scary, disconcerting when I first started posting a lot on LinkedIn. It just felt weird and uncomfortable and I didn't like it, even though I worked in marketing right. But the more that I do it, I just now it doesn't faze me because I realize, well, this is today's post right and tomorrow there's going to be another one and some people will see it and some people won't, and sometimes I'll get it right and sometimes I don't, and all of that is okay, and I've just gotten the mindset of like it's like, it doesn't have to be perfect. It's more important that I am testing out messaging, testing out connecting with my audience, finding out what works, and that's way more important than manipulating the word so many times to see if they're like don't do that, take a breather, get some content out there and just share.

Speaker 2: 41:55

share what you already know, you know, share what you, what you as a person, find interesting and important, and I think that you will find success that way yeah, I agree, I think being back and being yourself and, just you know, not being afraid to be yourself more than anything, is the best way to success on social media. That's where I've seen the most growth. For myself, I don't have like huge social medias, but you know we do okay on youtube and kind of growing our other platforms. I think x is great um for social media growth. I think that'll. I'm seeing a lot of interesting things happening with that, so I actually I actually just paid for the verification just because I was so curious to see, like, what the features were, and I think it's amazing. And so get on X. It's interesting. I think the threads are killing it for social media in terms of X. And then LinkedIn, though, is really LinkedIn's the best place to find business owners. If you're in our industry, I would say marketing advertising definitely, because everybody's kind of in the same place there.

Speaker 1: 42:55

Yeah, it has been a good channel for me. I do, and from what I hear too, I'm not active on X, but it's a great place to kind of like quickly try out messaging If you're looking to kind of play around, because it's fast, like you know, like very fast paced. You can try it. You can post multiple times, test a lot of things out and then carry over what you learn there to your other channels. So I think that's a it's an interesting tool now x is crazy.

Speaker 2: 43:19

I go x. It's a different platform than everything else. You definitely get a different experience, for sure. It's definitely that first amendment free speech experience. Yeah, it's almost. You know, I love it, though. I love what. Uh, I mean, some people are against it, but I I find it to be a quite cool what Elon's doing with um acts and kind of the way it's just seeing what can work and what can't work and that fine line between freedom of speech, what should be out there, what shouldn't be out there. Yeah, how does that work? Right, what is this thing of free speech that our founding fathers believed in? How should we keep it going? You know what is the right way. So X is kind of an experiment, almost, so that's why I just felt the need to talk about it a little bit Wild.

Speaker 1: 44:05

West a little bit yeah definitely.

Speaker 2: 44:06

That's a great way to put it. It's a Wild West. That's what X would be. Is there anything else you'd like to tell our audience? God, I have a million questions I wish.

Speaker 1: 44:16

I could keep asking you know two things right. If you're thinking about entrepreneurship and you have that kind of again that spark, that desire, go for it, take that leap right. It's never not going to be a little bit scary, and you have to know that I think going in. But if you need the permission, the push to say go, do it like here it is, go, try it right. What is the worst thing that's going to happen? It doesn't work out right, there it is, but you can't. You can say you did it. And on the flip side of this, if you're trying to figure out, like, how to piece your marketing together, for me the biggest piece of advice is get some type of framework around what you're trying to accomplish. Otherwise you're really just sort of doing random acts of marketing. And this comes from somebody that works with startups and sees flexibility and change, and I'm all for that. Right, but give yourself a little bit of a bumper to know where you need to go. It's going to make your efforts that much more effective. So that's my advice.

Speaker 2: 45:15

I think that's great advice, and my advice to everybody would really be the exact same as Anne's. Um, just take the risks, you know, the leap of faith, and make the decision that's going to get you the life you want to get at the end of the day. Make the decision that's going to get you the life you want to get. At the end of the day, life's short. We live maybe 80 to 100 plus maybe 100 310 if you're lucky, lucky, lucky chances are it'll be. You know you'll probably be like 70 to 90. Yeah, right, so enjoy your life and go crazy while you're young and take risks, things that are gonna again get you to that destination you want to be at, because it's truly an experience and it's the best way you're going to be able to enjoy your life. Yeah, for sure, and thank you for being on the show today. I want to have you on again, for sure.

Speaker 2: 45:57

I talked about my other guests. I'm building out a studio, or working on building out a studio. It's kind of on the pause at the moment, but I'm super excited for it. I really want to take this podcast to the next level and interview people like you and keep you know, just figuring out this world of business and entrepreneurship. So, lastly is there again. Just remind all of us where can we find you on social media and anything you're working on and what you'd like people to know about before we go.

Speaker 1: 46:21

You can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me at finmarketingcom, and if you need help with advisory services, marketing services, shout out to me right and I'm happy to help you with whatever you need there.

Speaker 2: 46:36

Yes, please do everybody. Click the links in the description below and thank you very much and can't wait to have you on again soon.

Speaker 1: 46:43

Thank you so much for having me. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 46:45

Been a pleasure.