Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Episode 10: Small Business Storytelling for the Entrepreneur that Grows Businesses with Awilda Irizarry

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Episode 10: Small Business Storytelling for the Entrepreneur that Grows Businesses with Awilda Irizarry · The Starfish Storytellers

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story
• 0:04
  at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
• 0:11
  So one of my favorite stories is about this particular person that came in, had no idea
• 0:18
  just the dream of opening a restaurant.
• 0:21
  So after helping the person to develop a business plan, helping the person to speak
• 0:27
  finance because in any business story it is important to know operations, to know marketing
• 0:34
  and to know how to read financial statements.
• 0:38
  And what they find out after going through the process is that they have the power to
• 0:45
  do the following.
• 0:46
  They have the power to monitor prosperity and also they have the power to achieve the
• 0:56
  American dream and they also have an important power in today's society, is the ability to
• 1:02
  create everything jobs.
• 1:06
  Hello, my name is Leanna Henry and welcome to the Starfish Storytellers.
• 1:24
  I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group, a Markhamman project management firm headquartered on the
• 1:29
  east coast of the US in quaint colonial Bedford, Massachusetts.
• 1:33
  I'm your host and passionate about storytelling.
• 1:35
  I'm actually on a mission to raise up the next generation of storytellers.
• 1:40
  We've named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
• 1:44
  The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
• 1:48
  No matter how big the challenge, each action we take makes a difference and has an impact.
• 1:53
  One step, one starfish or one story at a time.
• 1:57
  Every episode we welcome a new storyteller who will share their story meant to inspire
• 2:01
  and connect with you.
• 2:02
  Then we'll break it down and offer tips for any listeners who are ready to tell their
• 2:06
  own stories.
• 2:08
  So thanks for tuning in.
• 2:09
  Now let's get started.
• 2:11
  Today's episode is about small business stories storytelling for the entrepreneur that helps
• 2:16
  grow their business.
• 2:18
  With me today is a Will de Irizari senior business advisor at Salem State University.
• 2:23
  Will de has been helping small businesses launch and grow for over 30 years by advising
• 2:29
  on the operations of a small business, helping entrepreneurs establish working relationships
• 2:35
  with governments and economic development agencies and holding informational workshops
• 2:41
  to help folks with the info they need to thrive.
• 2:44
  We're thrilled to have you here today.
• 2:46
  Will de, thanks for being here.
• 2:48
  Oh, thank you.
• 2:49
  It's a pleasure to be here and to share a story that will inspire anyone listening to
• 2:55
  open a small business.
• 2:57
  That's awesome.
• 2:58
  We'd love to hear more about you.
• 3:00
  Would you like to introduce yourself?
• 3:01
  Absolutely.
• 3:02
  I am a Will de Irizari senior business advisor with the Small Business Development Center.
• 3:07
  It's a pleasure to be here today.
• 3:10
  And I have been an SPDC advisor for over 30 years and I'm very passionate about helping
• 3:17
  people to launch small businesses.
• 3:20
  What I like most about this is that I see how people start their businesses.
• 3:26
  I see how they get finance and most important how they prosper and make a difference in
• 3:33
  society overall.
• 3:35
  Great.
• 3:36
  So you said you're a small business advisor.
• 3:40
  So what does that entail exactly?
• 3:44
  Maybe walk us through a day in the life.
• 3:47
  When you have, let's say you have somebody come in the door, what does a small business
• 3:52
  advisor do?
• 3:54
  Well, not every day is the same.
• 3:56
  That's what I love more about my job.
• 3:59
  Every day is different.
• 4:01
  And a small business advisor is a strategic partner that assists your business with strategy,
• 4:08
  budgeting, marketing, and even development.
• 4:11
  It assists them with marketing the new product, developing the best plan for building a successful
• 4:17
  business and then supporting you in putting that strategy into action.
• 4:22
  To be an advisor means that I have the responsibility and duty to empower clients to be the best
• 4:29
  entrepreneurs they can be.
• 4:31
  I encourage them by launching a prosperous business so they can drive the American economy
• 4:37
  by creating and retaining jobs.
• 4:39
  So very important, very important role that you have in guiding small businesses.
• 4:45
  I think you and I met many years ago.
• 4:48
  I was, I had launched my first or second business.
• 4:52
  I can't remember which one.
• 4:53
  I know when I had launched my first business, the Baruka Green magazine, I had gone to the
• 4:58
  Lowell Small Business Assistance Center and the executive director there had become my
• 5:03
  coach.
• 5:04
  And then after I had launched my second business, TBG Power Marketing, I'd come back to the
• 5:10
  business center and who I can't remember her name.
• 5:14
  Stacey Hargis, maybe I can't remember who was there, but I know that you had been a part
• 5:20
  of that as well.
• 5:22
  And I found that small business assistance centers really are such an amazing resource
• 5:31
  for anyone who's getting started.
• 5:34
  I mean, I didn't know what I didn't know.
• 5:38
  I didn't know exactly how do I, I have an idea.
• 5:42
  I have a great idea.
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  I know today I've taken everything that I've learned from the last two, obviously when
• 5:47
  I've launched this third one.
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  But when I started, I didn't know about what about staffing, what about funding, what about
• 5:58
  marketing, what about customers?
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  How do I, competitive market research was key when I know when I launched my first business
• 6:08
  because I had a magazine in a place where there was a bunch of other media and how was
• 6:15
  I going to fit in?
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  I know I was talking to someone recently and I said, when you become a small business owner,
• 6:22
  it's like you have to have three ideas.
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  It's like I have to believe that I can do this better than anybody else.
• 6:28
  I have to understand my purpose for wanting to have a small business.
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  And I have to just, I have to be willing to put in the work, but I also have to have the
• 6:40
  resources.
• 6:41
  When somebody comes in with a great idea, what do you say to them?
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  When someone comes with a great idea, the first thing that I ask them is how much effort
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  you have put into doing market research and understanding the numbers.
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  Because you can have a great idea, but if the idea is not profitable, then this will
• 7:08
  be an opportunity for you to redefine the idea or look for other opportunities.
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  Because many businesses fail because they lack, they don't do the market and they don't do,
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  they don't do the conduct, the financial analysis.
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  So it's important to have the concept, but also to make sure that it's going to be financial
• 7:31
  viable and to make sure that you can have a dialogue to the market before you launch
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  a small business.
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  What's been one of the more unique small business ideas that you've heard?
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  Somebody comes in and they want to launch a small business.
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  What is one of the more unique small businesses that somebody has come to and said, hey, I
• 7:52
  think this is a really important thing.
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  We should, I should open this business.
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  The most, I cannot go too much, do a specific example, but let me tell you the following.
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  The most unique ideas has been from people, from clients that understand the market so
• 8:10
  much that they become the business into an age business.
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  For example, someone can specialize in a specific hairdressing market.
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  Someone can specialize on doing acne to hair.
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  Some people can specialize on selling a specific type of t-shirt.
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  So the most interesting ideas has been very market niche or a group of people, a group
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  of entrepreneur that try to solve a specific problem within the society.
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  So it's very, very important that you engage with the marketplace.
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  Very, very important.
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  It's not just having an idea.
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  It's doing the market research and being able to solve a problem that affects many people
• 9:01
  in the community.
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  That makes perfect sense.
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  I mean, when we were launching this business, we were initially working in tech and we were
• 9:15
  impacted by tech layoffs.
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  And there was thousands and thousands and thousands of people that were let go at the
• 9:23
  beginning of the year.
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  And I took a step back and I said, well, I'm a content creator.
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  I know what it's like when my bosses have had great ideas, but they didn't have the
• 9:35
  content machine to churn out the content.
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  And I went and I looked at all of the different companies that had layoffs and I thought there's
• 9:43
  a way to monetize here, like to go to these companies and say, I know from being in a
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  marketing department, marketing is cut often first.
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  Here I can be an outsourced resource for you that I can produce the content that you need
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  to do.
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  Even though you don't have the bodies inside doing the work anymore, you still have all
• 10:04
  the work that has to get done.
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  Let us come in and produce that work for you so that you can get the work done.
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  And we've been very successful being able to help large companies that way when they
• 10:18
  don't have the internal resources to get work done.
• 10:21
  They're utilizing external resources to get work done.
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  So I think it's really interesting that you were talking about understanding what's happening
• 10:30
  in the market, where is their gap that what I do, I can fill that gap and make a difference.
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  So that was helpful to hear.
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  So I know that a lot of businesses, you touched on it a little bit.
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  I know that a lot of small businesses, they get excited to start.
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  They have a great idea.
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  But like you said, the reality is there's a lot of businesses that will shut her down
• 11:02
  after just a few years.
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  And you brought up having the financial analysis is key, understanding market trends, understanding
• 11:11
  competitors who's out there, who are you coming up against.
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  But the ones that maybe shut her down, are there any other reasons why?
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  They might not make it?
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  Well, many, many unfortunately, most small businesses that start fail within a span of
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  five years.
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  Why is that?
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  Number one reason, believe it or not, is they run out of money because they don't budget
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  themselves.
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  Number two, in experience of managing a business, you have to have an understanding on how not
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  only manage a business but manage people.
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  Number one, third, among many others, is a poorly planned or executive marketing campaign.
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  When you need to keep in mind before you open a business is, you need to make sure that
• 12:03
  this business is going to be profitable.
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  And it's very, very important that the subject, and this could be a subject for another episode,
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  is the importance of financial literacy because they have the idea and they say, well, this
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  might have a value of X. When in reality, the value could be either minus or could be
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  many, many, many, many millions of dollars.
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  They have the concept, but they have no idea about the potential or lack of.
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  They have no idea about what is going to be the day to the expenses.
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  So I strongly believe that financial education literacy is very, very important.
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  And also this will allow you to either keep with the idea or look into other opportunities.
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  Now when you say that you have your idea or look into other opportunities, what do you
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  mean?
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  Like if they, if for whatever reason, their initial idea is something that there's just
• 13:06
  too much competition or maybe that idea isn't profitable, you're suggesting that they maybe
• 13:15
  expand on that or.
• 13:18
  Expand or look into another opportunity by that.
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  I will, I mean the following.
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  Let's say, let's say you want to open a, okay, let's say you want to open a gas station and
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  you'll find that the place is saturated, you do a market study, you do the market share
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  and that's an important marketing keyword.
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  I will not go into details today because of the lack of time.
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  Let's say the market share doesn't, is not conducive for anyone to open a gas station.
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  But if you decide to stay in, in a particular town, you might want to explore the possibility
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  of perhaps being a provider.
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  You might check into other ideas within the industry.
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  So it's very, very important that you can also have an understanding of what else is
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  going on in the industry because if you cannot open a gas station, perhaps you could be a
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  supplier for gasoline, you could be a supplier for food, etc.
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  So keep an eye open to other opportunities.
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  And like you said, being in the market is important, understanding the community, you
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  know, and I think too, it's, it's, I think it's important to understand like even a small
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  business can, can be headquartered locally, but can have a very like wide reach, you
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  know, beyond their, their local borders, they could be doing business out of state, out
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  of country, you know, globally.
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  So, you know, I think understanding sort of the reach that you have to, I think is important,
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  I would, I would imagine it's understanding and also be ready for surprises because you
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  don't know what you don't know, but you might find surprises.
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  I'll give you an example.
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  I have a client that opened a online business, you know, selling retail and he was well prepared.
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  He was well prepared.
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  He knew how to set up the website, pretty much knew the clientele, but what he discovered
• 15:25
  after selling the product is most of his clients were from England.
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  Oh, so that was a very fantastic discovery.
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  So what he did, he had to reposition the website.
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  He had to pretty much update the business plan.
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  So be open for surprises because it's, that's the beauty of being an entrepreneur.
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  You have a plan, but be ready for exciting surprises and adapt to it either quickly or
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  not quickly, but be ready to adapt.
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  Be ready to update, to revisit your idea once a year, every six months, be open to surprises
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  and new changes.
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  That's, couldn't be more true.
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  You know, we, I'm a marketer, so I come at everything with a marketing eye through a
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  marketing lens and, you know, when we launched the business, you know, I had a marketing
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  plan and I know that getting customers can take time.
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  You know, it's not something that may or may not happen overnight, but you also have to
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  be an aggressive salesperson because really nobody sells your product better than you.
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  It's your baby, right?
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  You know it better.
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  You love it most.
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  Yes.
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  You know, everybody's going to sell it.
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  Nobody's going to sell it as good as you.
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  And so I had sort of set myself with this sort of six month idea of like, okay, I'm
• 16:51
  going to give myself three to six months to really get off the ground and I know how it
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  takes time.
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  And we took right off and then we had like so much work and we were a small shop.
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  And so we started like hiring subcontractors to help us be able to produce the work that
• 17:08
  we needed to produce.
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  And you talk about being surprised, you know, we had no idea that it was going to take off
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  like that.
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  And I'm also, you know, I've also read somewhere that don't be, don't fall into a false sense
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  of like, oh, this is how it's always going to be.
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  Be ready to kind of go with the ebb and flow of business that you may have a peak, but then
• 17:32
  you may have a valley.
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  And you know, in those moments of peak, it might make sense to set some money aside,
• 17:39
  you know, and be ready for sort of that dip in business.
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  You know, is that something that you might advise people to do?
• 17:46
  Yes, just always keep an eye, always keep an eye open.
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  No, they will be the same.
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  Okay.
• 17:54
  And also, but you also need, you also need the structure, you know, you have, you, you,
• 18:03
  you have to be flexible, but you do need to have a structure.
• 18:06
  And by structure, I mean the following.
• 18:09
  Have a mission, have a vision statement, have a business plan, and always have a team of
• 18:16
  people that will help you when you don't know, when you don't know what to do in a particular
• 18:21
  day or situation.
• 18:23
  Who are those, who are those people that need to be in your team?
• 18:27
  Those are the banker.
• 18:29
  So you have it ready when you're looking for finance.
• 18:31
  You have the insurance person, you have the lawyer, and you have the financial planet.
• 18:37
  And also in addition to that, you have industry specific experts.
• 18:44
  So if you have a specific problem within the industry, you know where to go and have, and
• 18:51
  help you manage in this situation.
• 18:57
  That's he, you know, that's, that's really important.
• 19:01
  I think one of the things that I find helpful is we joined a couple of chambers of commerce.
• 19:08
  And we've been really busy lately.
• 19:10
  So we haven't gone to like the last month or so.
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  We haven't gone to any of the networking events, but, but we go to a number of them because
• 19:17
  even if some of those folks will become our customers, it's just really good to talk to
• 19:22
  other small business owners around what are they seeing in, in the region?
• 19:27
  What are they seeing with the customer base?
• 19:31
  What are they feeling is their need?
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  But I actually met a couple of other marketers at a couple of events recently and setting
• 19:41
  up meetings with them just to, we just want to, like they're not my competitors.
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  I'm not going to compete with them.
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  I just want to pick their brain, you know, you know, just to say like, what are you seeing
• 19:52
  and how do you handle this?
• 19:54
  And it's always a good idea to spend because we are, you know, we are, we are half 24 hour
• 20:02
  day.
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  So we cannot, I cannot work 24 hours.
• 20:05
  So I need to structure, to structure how I'm going to allocate the time.
• 20:10
  So let, let it, you know, you control the time, not the other way around.
• 20:14
  And it's very important as a small business owner, because it can get lonely at times,
• 20:18
  especially if you're starting, especially if you're working from home, you need to allocate
• 20:23
  time to say, you know what, I'm just going to go to a chamber event and treat it as a
• 20:27
  treat, as a surprise.
• 20:28
  I'll find, I might find information, I might not, but it's always, it's always good for
• 20:34
  you to get out because people, the more they see you, the more they remember you.
• 20:41
  And when you, when you're in a situation where you need some information, you will remember
• 20:46
  so and so from the last chamber event or from a specific event that you went to.
• 20:52
  Yep, exactly.
• 20:53
  Exactly.
• 20:55
  So we at the Black Dog Group, Black Dog Marcon, we're brand storytellers and we help companies
• 21:00
  tell their stories through the content that we create.
• 21:04
  In your experience as a small business advisor, how important do you think a small business's
• 21:09
  brand or product story is?
• 21:12
  Small business brand or product story is important because stories help us to connect
• 21:18
  with others.
• 21:20
  Stories has the ability to help us learn about a particular company and to find understanding
• 21:27
  and empathy for them and their situations.
• 21:30
  Whether we actually know the individual, the company or not, hearing their stories evokes
• 21:35
  feelings within us.
• 21:37
  What are those business feelings?
• 21:39
  Excitement, optimism, thrill and confidence.
• 21:44
  And also it can motivate people to open a small business.
• 21:51
  And storytelling is a very ancient art form that should continue for people to build brand
• 21:59
  loyalty.
• 22:01
  So you just, I, you just told us about brand storytelling and how important it is.
• 22:06
  Where are the places that small business owners should be using storytelling?
• 22:11
  Okay, storytelling should be used at the following places, conventions, SBA events, social media,
• 22:20
  workshops.
• 22:22
  Anytime you meet a potential client, instead of going directly into the product or service,
• 22:29
  just make a story out of it.
• 22:31
  Why the company was founded.
• 22:32
  Who founded the story?
• 22:34
  You need to, you need to explain without trying to be too pushy selling.
• 22:43
  Why, what and what happened to make you open a company and most important, how the company
• 22:52
  can help customers.
• 22:57
  When I teach a storytelling course in a couple of different places and I teach at Shared
• 23:04
  Shoshin, Votek high school, their adult ed program.
• 23:08
  And I teach at Lexington's community ed program and their adult ed program.
• 23:12
  And you know, I break the, I, the course is storytelling for everyday life, but I do a
• 23:18
  class on business storytelling and I do a class on social media.
• 23:23
  And you know, one of the places that I always tell people when you have a business is that
• 23:27
  you're about us page is really important because that's what we're just saying is you can,
• 23:34
  you can really talk about sort of the origin of where your business came from, where did
• 23:39
  the idea come from, you know, why are you here?
• 23:43
  You know, really that's in, and those, you know, you can take from your vision statement,
• 23:48
  your mission statement, your value statement, you can wrap it all in, but, but yeah, I mean,
• 23:54
  I think something like you're about us page, just like what you just said, it's like, it
• 23:59
  doesn't need to be salesy.
• 24:02
  Because if it's, if it's really talking about your, your history and your story, you're
• 24:08
  going to connect with the person that's reading it.
• 24:12
  Probably I would think a lot better than just making it salesy.
• 24:15
  Exactly.
• 24:16
  And I do believe people, people you need to, you need to cut to things, their emotions
• 24:22
  and their attention.
• 24:23
  So when you write, when you write a story, it's all about, you know, it's about the people
• 24:30
  who funded it.
• 24:31
  Why they did it.
• 24:32
  The purpose of where the business takes place.
• 24:34
  The plot, the purpose so make it as humanly as possible and highly likely the people will
• 24:41
  konect, will connect to it.
• 24:42
  And also you don't need a big budget to write a story.
• 24:46
  You don't need to be a large company, you, it's, it's to get ideas.
• 24:53
  They can cause some storytelling and also look at your competitors or other company's
• 24:59
  website and get ideas and adapt it to your own situation.
• 25:04
  And also small businesses, you don't need to spend an arm and a leg on marketing.
• 25:10
  One good tip that I would like to share with you all today is when you work on
• 25:16
  your marketing budget, it should be up to 4% of your sales.
• 25:23
  And if you plan for that, you should be able to achieve your goals.
• 25:29
  You don't need to spend a lot of money on marketing.
• 25:32
  Again, it should be up to 4% of the total sales per year and develop a good
• 25:39
  marketing campaign to attract and retain customers.
• 25:44
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:45
  And the brand story and the product story or the service story is part of that
• 25:50
  marketing campaign.
• 25:51
  You know, obviously social media is a great place to get to tell the continuous story.
• 25:57
  You know, it's like, yeah, you can say you're about us page, which is sort of that
• 26:01
  static story.
• 26:02
  It's sort of like the background, the, you know, the founding of the company,
• 26:07
  sort of the vision.
• 26:08
  But then your social media can be sort of your day to day story of how you
• 26:15
  function in the world as a business, how you, you know, what great things you're
• 26:21
  doing, how your customers are reacting to you.
• 26:24
  You know, that's a really great place to use, to use for storytelling, I think.
• 26:30
  Yeah.
• 26:31
  And like you said, it's not crazy expensive, you know, because marketing is expensive.
• 26:36
  So.
• 26:37
  It can be expensive, but for someone studying a small business, it should not, it
• 26:41
  should not, it's not how to look to look for the resources.
• 26:45
  And it should be no more than 4% of sales.
• 26:49
  And, and most large companies started small.
• 26:54
  So I always keep that in mind.
• 26:57
  Always keep an eye open always for opportunity.
• 27:00
  I always keep asking people, keep knowing people, because it's not
• 27:05
  necessarily how much, you know, I mean, it's important, but it's also who you
• 27:10
  know, within an industry or a particular setting.
• 27:12
  And that's very, very important to be engaging.
• 27:15
  You can have the most beautiful website, but if you're not, if you do not
• 27:21
  engage, you're going nowhere.
• 27:22
  So it's important to be engaging.
• 27:25
  It's very, very important.
• 27:27
  Well, people need to know that you're there.
• 27:30
  Exactly.
• 27:30
  People don't know that you're there.
• 27:32
  It, it kind of makes it, you know, makes it really hard for, you know, you
• 27:36
  have to get the word out.
• 27:37
  That's what marketing is, right?
• 27:38
  Marketing is sort of the bullhorn, you know, here and here's what I do and here's
• 27:44
  and here's how I do it better.
• 27:46
  So that's really important.
• 27:49
  That's important and be engaging and be, be engaging because I can reach
• 27:54
  out to you, but if you are not there, if you respond to my post, then, you
• 27:58
  know what I will do?
• 27:59
  I will go to my next, you know, to the competitor.
• 28:02
  That's right.
• 28:03
  That's right.
• 28:04
  You know, and that's, and I think that's, that's hard too.
• 28:06
  I, I know I find as a business owner, small business owner who's very busy,
• 28:10
  like I have to remember, like I still need to, I still need to make time for
• 28:15
  those chamber events.
• 28:16
  Like I still as busy as I am, I still need to make time to engage and I still
• 28:21
  need to make time for my marketing.
• 28:23
  I do a lot of marketing on social media.
• 28:27
  You know, I'm doing the podcast and, you know, and I, I see the value in the
• 28:32
  investment.
• 28:33
  It doesn't have to be a big investment.
• 28:34
  It can be a small investment, but it's also investment of the
• 28:38
  time, you know, and I think it's an investment of time.
• 28:42
  It's a, it's a matter of organizing your time.
• 28:46
  It's for, it's best to attend two events and do it well than do 10.
• 28:52
  So that's why you, you need to structure your, your time.
• 28:55
  You need to structure what is that I'm going to be accomplishing within a
• 28:58
  span of six months a year.
• 29:01
  And it's, it's quality is not quantity.
• 29:05
  No, interesting that you say that and maybe you can, and maybe you can
• 29:09
  elaborate on that a little bit.
• 29:10
  You know, one of the things that I teach in the storytelling class is how
• 29:14
  to, how to give an elevator pitch and how important an elevator pitch is.
• 29:19
  And I find that going to an event like a, like a networking event, it's
• 29:24
  important to have your elevator pitch sort of refined and ready.
• 29:29
  You don't have to like walk, be on the floor.
• 29:32
  Ready, you don't have to like walk, be a robot and come in and say, hi, I'm
• 29:37
  blah, blah, blah, and this is what I do.
• 29:39
  But if somebody says to you, oh, so what does your company do?
• 29:42
  You need to be able to, to tell them in a very short, you know, amount of time.
• 29:48
  Do you do, yeah.
• 29:50
  Do you, do you do any sort of advising or training for people on their, on
• 29:56
  their pitch on their sort of their story?
• 29:59
  Yeah, we, we, we, we do, I mean, we do, I mostly spend most of my time working
• 30:04
  on the business plan, but I always tell people, you know, do your elevators,
• 30:09
  do your elevator talk, doesn't have to be complex, but just setting a few work.
• 30:14
  What is that you do?
• 30:16
  And, and instead of trying to sell indirectly the protocol service, just
• 30:22
  engage with the person, ask them, what is that you do?
• 30:26
  What are the challenges you're facing so you can find out how you can position
• 30:32
  yourself to help the person at some other time?
• 30:36
  So it's important when you go to an event, yes, you have to explain what is
• 30:40
  that you do, but it's also an opportunity for you to see what people are doing.
• 30:45
  So you can adapt the situation accordingly.
• 30:50
  And I think it's, it's obviously believing in your story too.
• 30:54
  You know, believing in your business and believing in what you do, that will come
• 30:59
  through, right?
• 31:01
  In your elevator pitch, you know, you really have to believe in what you're doing.
• 31:06
  Yeah.
• 31:07
  And be very consistent with social media and be available.
• 31:11
  So if you're using.
• 31:14
  I'm a believer that I rather concentrate on two good social media and do it well
• 31:21
  than try to do it, do it all and not accomplish as much as I would like.
• 31:26
  You know, so it's best for you that you know, know where the marketplace is and
• 31:31
  to use the appropriate social media for that segment, you know, segment of the
• 31:35
  marketplace.
• 31:36
  Exactly.
• 31:37
  Like where are your customers?
• 31:39
  If your customers are on LinkedIn, then you need to be posting, you know,
• 31:44
  consistently on LinkedIn.
• 31:46
  And those are your thought leadership pieces.
• 31:48
  Or, you know, information about sort of the business.
• 31:52
  But if your customers are on Facebook or Instagram, you know, that might be a
• 31:57
  little bit more about your culture, you know, the business, the business culture
• 32:00
  and the company culture.
• 32:01
  And so it is understanding like where are my customers?
• 32:06
  You know, like I only use Twitter or like update something quick, something new.
• 32:13
  Like if I have to announce a new class, I might announce a new business.
• 32:16
  If I have to announce a new class, I might announce it there.
• 32:19
  I don't really use Twitter very often just because I, my customers aren't there,
• 32:24
  you know, and a lot of my customers aren't necessarily all going to be on
• 32:29
  Instagram either.
• 32:31
  So I tend to use LinkedIn.
• 32:34
  So very.
• 32:35
  So well, thank you again for being here, for being our guest.
• 32:39
  I just really enjoyed our conversation.
• 32:41
  I almost felt like it was therapy for me.
• 32:44
  Like I kind of got to talk a little bit about what we're doing.
• 32:46
  It was really good to have that conversation with you.
• 32:50
  And to our listeners, whether you hear us locally from the BTV studios in
• 32:54
  Bedford, Massachusetts or across the globe on such podcast channels as Spotify,
• 32:59
  Apple Podcasts or Amazon Prime.
• 33:01
  Thanks for listening.
• 33:03
  We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time.
• 33:06
  Happy storytelling.