Million-Dollar Growth Blueprint

Speaker 1: [Music] I work exclusively with growing and scaling businesses many of the clients that I work with are Beyond seven figures and looking to upgrade strategy so strategize systemize and organize their marketing it's about how do we make the machine much more efficient and oftentimes how do we build the machine itself so I as a leader and the founder can start building different revenue streams or securing different Partnerships the things that will really exponentially grow the business I'm Melanie bar welcome back to the Sheil it podcast your go-to place to empower you to live the life and business that you crave I'm here to talk about everything from Having the courage to make life and career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through your challenges I live in the city now but I grew up in a town of a thousand people I've navigated major life leaps a senior level corporate career worked in professional sports and now as a successful entrepreneur who loves business technology family and making meaningful connections with you and the she built it Community I also love a good workout and dose of self-care magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so turn up the audio open your favorite Notes app grab your favorite drink and here we go welcome back to the Sheila podcast thank you for joining us Victoria with less than 2% of women breaking the million dooll Mark you and your business are on a mission to change that by aiding women to scale their businesses to seven figures tell us about your business and what empowered you to start it what I've been able to do over the years of my career which so many of us marketers do is go through this trajectory of learning by fire trial by fire and one thing that's been very unique about my path is I've always worked with founders investors directly and it's been such a unique lens by which I've entered this marketing world because the problem that I faced as a marketer and growing in my career was what so many marketers and entrepreneurs and CEOs the same problem that they face which is your best top talent your most growth oriented team member that's been alongside with you can only really get to a height that you can take them often times our team members knowledge hits a ceiling like in in relation to the knowledge that we have so in marketing I ran into that quite early on where I was always of course Very growth-minded as a marketer and working directly with Founders have worked with some incredible mentors but each time I've hit that ceiling and so my career has always been marked with who is the more experienced entrepreneur that I can get in their world and on their teams so I can keep leveling myself up but if you're an entrepreneur that F that finds yourself in this position where you have these really great team members that are super loyal that's been with you forever as they're growing with you you start putting things on their plate or increasing their roles within the company and they just simply can't handle it so what's the solution my whole career has been built around this question how do we uplevel the teams like the growth-minded powerful teams that we have working with us when it comes to marketing to be able to get to that next level and scale our businesses without having to bring on full-time marketing directors or chief marketing officers which oftentimes in that growth and scale phase of business doesn't always make Financial sense to bring on that role and so the founder is stuck in this position position where they themselves are either managing that Tactical Team and if they don't have that strategic knowledge or that confidence in marketing we get to this plateau in growth and that's where a lot of businesses start losing money feeling like marketing is not working and sometimes businesses really start to go in the wrong direction if they can't break through this barrier in marketing this has been my whole Focus to take the lessons I've learned the Frameworks and the playbooks that I've pieced together over 15 years of working with Incredible entrepreneurs and found a way to really deliver it to Founders and their teams to build what I call scalable marketing machine inside businesses what do you suggest that Founders and entrepreneurs do when they reach that point so when founders reach that point there's a four-step process I have found to be a common inflection point I work exclusively with growing and scaling businesses many of the clients that I work with are Beyond seven figures and looking to upgrade strategy so strategize systemize and organize their marketing it's about how do we make the machine much more efficient and oftentimes how do we build the machine itself so I as a leader and the founder can start building different revenue streams or securing different Partnerships the things that will really exponentially grow the business but you can't really focus on those things until you have the machine in place for many businesses that have reached that six fig realm and even higher six figures going into seven you found something that's working the pipeline is working but oftentimes it's with a lot of effort and a lot of energy and a lot of chaos and stress so when women come to me it's that point where we want to go from this chaos to Clarity where we can begin to have these systems in place that we feel really confident about and the right team members so we can begin to focus on that leadership level that CEO level work where we're not in the day-to-day of marketing so much because marketing is often the biggest pain point my business is called ugly Ventures because a lot of times the source of that ugliness is around marketing and sales because it is the most important and really draining parts of our business so if someone's reached that Plateau Point that's often when I'm meeting my clients and we work through four specific steps which is brand communication marketing growth strategy team and Leadership so a lot of times when we reach this Plateau oftentimes it becomes an issue of the trajectory of the business growth in order to maintain that growth a lot of times things start to go a little bit off off the rails a lot of times when we want to get to that next level of growth and we don't quite know how to get there sometimes we start doing things that aren't so strategic and this could look like opening up new segments creating new offers or creating new segments of clients either before you're ready or Half Baked sort of ideas that are not really in line with the bigger mission and vision of the company so I'll give you a really good example one product based business that I worked with they did diaper bags so their whole business they had incredible press coverage they had been in every magazine really reached multiple six figures as a diaper bag company and then things started to decline and when we met up one of the first things that I saw on the website is that they had redirected their diaper bags and started making bags for dogs dog bags and the idea there was our Target is moms and how about dog moms but this one break in that overarching strategy of saying who are we who do we serve how can we serve better our existing client increase lifetime value there's so many ways that you can increase Revenue but oftentimes when we get a little bit panicked we start creating new products and new services or trying to hit other markets and honestly way before we've maxed out the segment or the market that we are geared towards so that's one example of how taking a good look at your brand communication what are our products and services and running an audit there are we in line on our website on our offerings on our products on our socials is there a very tight linear message through all of these things and oftentimes when things stop working it's because this essential piece has broken in some way so the first step is always looking back at this so if you find yourself in this position anyone that's listening that's one of the first things I would suggest is really run an audit and it doesn't have to be complicated it has to be reconnecting with your vision your mission of your company and doing a reality check and saying are we executing this in a way that is cohesive because now more than ever Things become so noisy yeah when it comes to Social and marketing we're inundated with different platforms and different ways to do things and it's really hard to stay with a structure it is and before we start recording we're talking a lot about Mom life right so especially for the mom entrepreneurs out there it's like often times maybe you'll be very good about setting quarterly goals but once you're in the thick of it really kids get sick and you're trying to get those emails out and you're trying to get on social you're trying to write that whatever and get back the propos all those things when life starts to happen I think many of us we get into this heads down mode where it's like execution mode and we just want to get it out and some times and this has certainly happened to me you'll look back over a period of time of when it's been maybe a lot at home and with the family and said hey I've gotten all of this stuff done but I've strayed a little bit from the strategy I've strayed a little bit from these core messages just in the effort to just get it out the door and oftentimes if we don't have those checks and balances system that could be weeks or even months that we're going maybe in the wrong direction are not fully focused but we are doing so much because we're getting it done getting it done so that's one of the biggest tips is take a look at that brand communication strategy then the next piece is the marketing growth strategy making sure that you have mapped out and you're sticking with a linear marketing strategy one that's going to make sense for your business because this is another thing that often gets thrown off the rails and people listening to podcasts I'm also guilty of this I will listen to a podcast and hear an awesome strategy that's like working right now and I'll be the first one to say let me drop everything and try this no and then you feel like you need to be everywhere and we really don't need to be everywhere no that's where you have to be very smart in what your inputs are in general I've learned so much from podcast on growing my business and so much about being an entrepreneur but you have to have that filter of is this in line with my marketing growth strategy and if it's not part of what I call your 24x7 marketing flywheel in the beginning of the year I will map out my marketing flywheel for myself and with clients and that should be your boundaries saying if any new thing is popping in here is it part of this strategy because if it's not then we shouldn't do it that's a no yeah and sometimes that's hard because we were talking earlier but she built it media we're producing podcasts for women and managing them but I am so interested in the operations and the Business Development and sales so sometimes if you're multifaceted entrepreneur you want to talk about all those other things those things are fun for you so it's hard sometimes to just stick to one strategy it is so hard what's at risk nowadays because again we said before things are so noisy is that if in order to catch people's attention really paying attention to businesses that are doing it well because businesses that are doing communication well honestly it's like often the same exact message will just go out again again and again and then that brand becomes known for that thing and now more than ever that repetitiveness is necessary and what I often say is that once people are in your world and you want to start talking about different things that's a different story but you need to make that initial connection on that one message once you pull people into your world about podcasting your passion building a thriving podcast once they're in your nurture emails and there have been your sequences and whatever now they've gotten into your world with a clear view of what you have to offer now if you start integrating different things like technology or operational things all within the realm of this bigger topic then it's going to make a ton of sense people are going to be able to get it and I'm smiling because it's so true you have to dial it back and be consistent just like we were talking earlier I said I'm probably not going to do another solo podcast episode for quite some time that doesn't involve thought leadership and podcasting so you're so right about bringing people into your world in that way exactly that's the power of the marketing growth strategy and having this 24 by7 flywheel and actually I have a guide if anyone's interested and they're like What's this 24 B my marketing flywheel it's the way that I conceptualize a marketing strategy you can call it a client Journey then and different brands and different people conceptualize it differently this is my version but what I love about building everything against the flywheel is that you know that every single tactic that you are executing and marketing is working together in a cohesive way to attract and convert and refill that flywheel again so it's very intentional and this is a concept that I learned once I was able to work inside of some agencies because I was like how do agencies really manage all of these projects and are successful it's because they're executing anything against a proven system and once you're executing against a proven system everything starts to change in the results that you can get and how focused your team members are and so the 24 by7 marketing fly will if you want to learn more about that it's that ugly Venture so it's ugly with an i ugly ventures.com resources I have a couple resources in there and you can find one on how to build a sales focused marketing strategy but that really is such a powerful tool in your toolbox as an entrepreneur because it helps you to discern what are the activities and actions that are going to move things forward in my business but more importantly and this is the most useful thing for the flywheel is it helps you understand who you need on your team often when we're growing our business we collect this like hodg podge of people helping us in different ways and if we've got some great team members often we're even stretching them and putting them into places maybe they don't fit but when you have your flywheel laid out and you understand what are the points of this flywheel that are the most critical that maybe I need to make an investment and get someone a little bit more skilled in this particular area and where are the less important areas that I can have someone that maybe it's not their highest skill but we just need that going but that's not going to be such a critical piece once you can make that discernment then you're able to organize a team and actually you're able to save money I believe on your team because you'll know okay I I have someone to cover this that and the other but this piece is super important so I think it would be a great idea to bring on maybe on a project basis someone to help improve maybe like a ux design for the website because the landing pages are not converting optimally or a conversion copywriter because this email sequence is this sales email sequence is such an important part of our strategy and it's not getting the results that it needs so you can be very Discerning on who you bring in for that higher level skill and control the cost and then you can get your VA or your marketing manager to do or manage the pieces that maybe aren't so critical to the sales you're so right and I think you're catching a lot of us going into 2025 with the flywheel where we're thinking through these strategies right now okay what worked in 2024 what do I want to do differently in 2025 and I think that what you just said is also the one of the most important things for every piece of your business also especially true for marketing is asking yourself that question what's working and what's not working and if we go back to that heads down phase of kids activities and kids off from school and teacher planning days randomly and you're just tring to get everything done I've gotten so much value out of that practice of at A month's end or a month's beginning I love to do as in the month's beginning really looking and saying what worked and didn't work and a lot of times just being honest and sometimes or in many cases has a lot to do with me and my focus how am I talking to my teams where am I pouring my energy right and my attention the meetings that I had on my calendar were they really focused were they moving me forward in my goals so that is a huge piece and that brings me to the fourth part of my whole scalable Marketing System that I created which is the leadership piece because as a CEO that really is where you should be spending the majority of your time being the leader and one of my mentors and past clients named Dan Martell he's an incredible systems Builder and he built and sold at this Point upwards of three companies and he has incredible systems and that's one of those Founders that I just needed to get next to into their business he really taught me this concept of managing outcomes and not managing people and when you're sitting on a team of an entrepreneur like that he is so committed to giving his teammates his employees the wings to fly and figuring it out and it's so incredible because most of us we're not taught that so we end up micromanaging but he has such an interesting response to that which is when you're micromanaging your team and you're not giving them the opportunity to grow and figure things out for themselves that weight that you carry as a CEO as the leader as the founder it's crushing it's impossible to manage all of these things and that could be as simple as again managing people could look like did that get done task management that to me to check over is that did we do X Y and Z as opposed to managing the outcome right really saying okay by the end of the month we need this done and that teammate having to report to you whether it was done or not and taking the responsibility putting the responsibility back onto the team and I think this is that growth and scale point and I know you have a team your other businesses that you run something that you know very intimately but many of us that are in this growth and scale phase it's a very different way of looking at it's not just delegation it's really putting your faith in the team it's managing the outcomes growing your people and then your people grow the business for you I love that you say think about the outcomes and I have days where I think am I working in the business or on the business and we really do need both of those days and then I say to our executive director all the time you're building out your teams are these your perfect team teams in all of the different departments that are going to take our business where we want to go and then she takes ownership of the teams they're her teams and do the puzzles fit within the teams are there any places where the teams are lacking where we wish we had those certain skills if we go back to what you said about working in the business or on the business I think that yes it is necessary to be working in the business at times and versus on the business one thing that's a point of conf confusion is what exactly should you be working on where are your highest value tasks because many times you yeah we would like to just sit there and be leaders all day but practically there are some things that maybe the founder or the CEO can only push through but this is the high level tasks that need to go through maybe they're not strategic but it needs to be building those Partnerships strengthening your network these things are working in the business but they are sometimes s pieces that are just so critical for that main leader to do because they're going to open up doors and that's time that's your time that's just putting your head down and making those connections and make taking those calls and emailing those people back and building those genuine connections because those relationships are so critical but many of us we get stuck on things that are those lower level tasks so I admit I pulled in some of the lower level tasks because I realized it was a bottleneck for me because some of the things I would get from frustrated that I didn't know how to do I wanted to know how to fix certain things so I did take a step back for a few months and say okay I'm going to learn this platform because if I need to step in I could have just hired someone to do it it was a choice for me to pull back and say I want to at least have a certain level knowledge of these Platforms in case I need to step in and do something myself or I don't like the way something is going with a client I have the ability to step in and at least to a certain level fix it I love this this I have a whole methodology this also came from Dan Martell so I learned so much from him he's such a great mentor but he has a methodology called the replacement ladder so many of us when we're growing our businesses we end up paying for our team members or contractors or whatever employees to take on different tasks because that's how we believe the business should be built but in this idea of the replacement ladder it's the idea that as the founder we should be starting with these critical tasks and then we bring in people just to buy back our time so in your example if there's like a core system that is critical to your business it is really important that you do understand the basics of that not to just bring someone else in and this is something this a huge mistake people do with marketing I always say as a founder and business owner you have to know how sales and marketing works in your business you cannot give it away so many times people will hire an agency to just figure it out they hold the strategy all of their team is executing they're just reporting to you and you are not involved or you do not understand how it all works and that's super dangerous because we need to own our sales and marketing and so if the system was about something about how your customers are served or something about how your sales pipeline works it is very critical and worthwhile for you to understand how that works so yes stepping back because again like maybe in the beginning of the business you would have done it and then you switch systems and you're like wait a minute I need to understand how this works I love this term I need to understand it enough to give it away and I think that's so many pieces of the business it's such a logical step whether it's in finance we need to understand how finances work we don't need to do the books but we need to understand it we need to understand hiring we need to understand HR we need to understand benefits we don't need to control it all so I think it's such a great reminder because again we can't build a business where everyone else holds the knowledge because agencies could stop performing or people could quit and so we need to be the epicenter of we need to hold the knowledge one person needs to know that in the business in order for it to be continuing to function to be continuing to get excellent people onto the team yeah and I realized I was a bottleneck to C degree for growth because I didn't have a certain amount of knowledge within certain platforms and so I thought okay I want to pull this in and learn it and I'm so glad I did because now I can set the strategy a bit easier because I have a certain level of knowledge for the platforms yeah well it's really interesting because one thing that I love that HubSpot does for example this is a great example and some softwares will do this where HubSpot when you get to a certain tier they require the team to come in for onboarding sessions but they're like six weeks long and you have to pay for them it's like upwards of $2,000 but it's required and I remember one of the first times I was doing this with founder and team that we were moving to HubSpot I was like this is ridiculous like how are they making us pay for this to like the honor to use their software but actually it was so incredibly helpful because they were like working sessions on let we're going to set this up together the way that you guys need to be set up all of the questions were unlocked there then we got out the gate with such a clear understanding on how it works and oftentimes we spend exorbitant amounts of money for softwares and we're not maximizing yes HubSpot HubSpot is one that I'm learning and it's taking a while because it is not intuitive and it's a little challenging I want to have a certain level of knowledge so I'm learning because I want to it's going to be helpful in the long run and then you can hand it off once the strategy is set yeah and you don't listen you don't have to know it as so much to become a HubSpot developer yourself and start own a business you have to know it enough to be able to utilize all the features because in the end that translates into operational efficiency because a lot of times for something like HubSpot theoretically that could get rid of probably like 90% of your other especially I mean in terms of marketing of your other things that you and customer service and sales and your sales pipeline it can replace Salesforce it can replace any of your Social scheduling it can replace even your customer service so there's so much I could do and it's expensive for that reason but many are spending money and not utilizing all the features because they just don't understand them so I think there's a lot of value in that thank you for joining us today and sharing all of your knowledge and we all can't wait to dive into the flywheel I know I'm going to please share with us how and where we can find you yeah so my business is called ugly Ventures so ugly with an i so if you go to ugly ventures.com you can learn all about me we have an accelerator program where we help female Founders to systemize and organize and strategize their marketing to build their own scalable marketing machines but on the day-to-day I love to hang out on LinkedIn so if you want to ask any questions about anything that we talked about today I love to chat and guide and coach on DM on LinkedIn so send me a a message I would love to connect thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave