Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Mastering Your Brand Story with Kim J. Plyler

Transcript

Mastering Your Brand Story with Kim J. Plyler · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff, Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small Biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small Biz lady, welcome to small biz chat here on small biz
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  chat live.
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  It is our goal to help you succeed as your own boss and we never failed to disappoint.
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  So listen.
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  And now I have my guest Kim Tyler with us, and she is terrific.
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  She is gonna be talking to us about how to master your story as in your brand story.
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  So She is the CEO of shawcom inc, and it's a creative communications and public relations
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  firm.
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  She's renowned public public speaker and author of Master Your Story.
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  It matters.
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  Can use their platform to encourage individuals and brands to find their story and share their
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  story.
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  Kim is a storyteller at heart here from her education and theater to speech writing for
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  animals in the US Navy.
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  She's traveled the world and heard a lot of great stories, and she can help you craft yours
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  as well.
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  Kim welcome to small fish chat live.
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  Melinda, thank you so much.
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  I am so thrilled to be here.
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  I have waited to have a chance to talk with you, and I'm so excited to be able to talk to
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  your audience, and thank you for having me.
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  Alright.
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  Well, Kim, let's jump right in because
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  I'm ready.
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  I know that you also have the Master Your Story podcast too, so we're gonna get to that too.
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  But Tell me, why is it important for small businesses to understand their company
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  narrative?
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  The biggest word is authenticity.
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  They need to know what their company narrative is so that they come across authentic,
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  trustworthy, and believable.
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  So, authenticity would be my word for that.
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  Alright.
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  Well then, Can you teach any business owner how to leverage their story to reach their
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  customers?
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  Anybody that comes up to us business owner, personal, and person in transition or anything,
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  it's really about learning who you are at the core or who your company and what your company
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  does at its core.
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  And then learning how to bring that into a story that reaches the audience that you wanna
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  reach.
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  So anybody could come in.
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  We have those a cool process that we go through with step by step, and we learn about you.
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  We learn about what's going on inside your heart because that's important because whether
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  you're a business owner, or a personal speaker, whatever, your heart is what's really needs to
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  show, sir.
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  That's true.
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  Because people connect to people that they like, you know, and trust.
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  Right?
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  And that trust comes from that authentic story for sure.
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  So how do you handle?
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  Like, if somebody comes to you, and they don't really have a handle on what their story is.
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  Like, how do you how do you help people that, like, yeah, you know, they kinda have been
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  doing a little bit of imposter syndrome out here.
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  Like, they kinda, you know, they started taking somebody else's story, making it their story
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  because they didn't really have a story.
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  How do you how do you work with people that that come Well,
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  that's interesting, Melinda, because I just had one of those walk in the last week.
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  So just have experience that I could share.
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  I won't say the name, but you know, people come to us a lot of times and it's it's they don't
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  know who they are and what they wanna do and they could be anywhere from age twenty two to
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  eighty two.
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  Or a company that's just starting more needs to rebrand because what they did in the past is no
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  longer working.
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  So to us, what we do is we take a deep in-depth look with them.
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  We go through what is conversation with them.
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  We make them look internally.
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  And sometimes it happens in a couple weeks.
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  Sometimes it could take 8 teen months till we get to the point where they really learn what
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  their platform is and what the what their narrative is for themselves or their company.
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  So it's a lot of research too.
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  So a lot of research and helping them understand and opening them up and teaching
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  them.
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  Okay.
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  So once you have this brand story, How do you kind of use it to connect with people?
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  That's that's really good because depending on the brand, you're gonna wanna identify your
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  audience first.
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  A lot of times, your brand will fit in certain audiences and not in others.
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  So we do an analysis and kinda ties into what Sean was talking about.
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  The sales part of the whole content narrative and stuff.
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  And we find out where that target is, and then we take you into that into that market seat.
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  Alright.
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  So How can you leverage a business failure story to reach your target eye?
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  Because sometimes you know, people's pride sometimes will keep them from telling the truth
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  about what really went down.
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  Right?
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  And I and I just wonder sometimes, I mean, I can remember even when I was first working on
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  my book, become your own boss in 12 months, you know, I wasn't a $1,000,000 business at that
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  point.
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  And I remember people saying, well, you know, you haven't grossed a $1,000,000 in revenue.
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  You know, nobody's gonna wanna listen to you.
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  And I let that story play in my head for 3 years before I pick my book back up and started
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  writing it.
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  And, Laura, can you imagine if I had never done it?
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  Right?
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  So I think that that how can you kinda turn a a a a failure story into, like, your signature
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  story to reach people.
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  Well, you know, Melinda, that's I think that's the best place to learn when you do fail.
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  Because that's when you start to look internally and you start to see really what you
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  are.
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  And most of the times we're our own worst enemies.
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  We talk in our heads and we get this negative head talk going on.
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  And it prevents us from moving forward.
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  So when you when you fall, when you have a a bad business crash or your business tanks,
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  because you didn't have a good budget, and you weren't prepared thinking about that today, you
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  know, and you go through all that stuff, but it's during those times that the true character
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  of yourself comes out So it's a lot of self look or self company looking at themselves and
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  learning to come to terms with, okay, it's okay to fail because in failure, we learn success.
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  And it gives us the next step that we need to take in order to get to that next level of
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  business or or spiritual growth or whatever it is that you're working So to me, it's all about
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  realizing the stakes are that it they're mistakes.
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  So take the takeaway.
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  Get up and dust yourself off and start all over again.
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  And don't give up.
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  To me, the strongest thing about that is grit.
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  Having that grit to to constantly move forward to to know that your purpose is important and
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  you're here for a reason and your story is important because if you share it, it's bound
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  to help somebody that's hearing it.
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  That's definitely definitely true.
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  Now tell me about one trend that you see in your field of communications that could benefit
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  small businesses.
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  This right here.
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  This what we're doing tonight, these Zoom kinda calls, the interconnections with everybody, you
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  could be talking to somebody in India, Africa, wherever it we're in Philly.
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  I'm just right outside of Philly, so you need to do.
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  Anyway, so, you know, we're talking people from all around the world.
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  So having the internet and having features like zoom and webinars and things like that to me is
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  really leveling the playing field between a small small business and a huge corporation.
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  Because you can be out here doing this just like a big corporation can do.
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  So I think it levels the playing field and having this is a really benefit to all small
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  businesses.
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  So I recommend the interconnectivity of like zoom and internet use.
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  Okay.
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  I completely agree with you.
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  Now, if a small business is ready to refresh their brand story, Where should they start?
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  They should start by first of all, you know, all this talk tonight about looking internal,
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  see what you're thinking, and what you're feeling to get to that next level.
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  At this point, if you're a company and you're ready to refurbish your brand or you need a
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  fresh enough, this is when you look external, conduct focus groups, reach out to people
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  around you.
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  Previous customers see why they're not still current customers and really take a hard look,
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  bring a team in to to peel the onion back for lack of a better term and look at what's going
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  on with your business and listen.
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  That's the key thing, Melinda.
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  People have to listen.
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  Take the time to hear those things, and it's not always gonna be comfortable.
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  But if you could take the time to listen to what's going on around, and that's that's one
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  way you start to say, okay, We envisioned our brand this way, but we're being perceived a
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  whole different way.
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  We need to make an adjustment.
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  And so it's it's looking outward and listening to what you hear.
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  Alright.
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  Last question.
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  What's the best marketing advice you could give a startup business right now?
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  Uh-huh.
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  Budget.
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  Even though it's marketing advice, I go back to the budget, Vanessa.
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  It always starts there because budget part passion and grit.
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  I think those are the things you really, really need to have to get your business up off the
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  ground.
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  If you have something that's inside of you and it's coming out as a business It has to be
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  funded.
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  It has to be supported to be out there and just touting your business without anything behind
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  it is kind of a falsehood.
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  So I I believe in getting your budget started, your internal mission, your vision, your story,
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  and go out the door.
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  I could not agree with you more.
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  Thank you so much, Kim.
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  Thank you, Malawi.
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  You have really succinctly broken it down for us about what we need to do to get our story
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  together so that whether we're transitioning personally, running a business or reinventing a
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  business, It all starts with Mastering your story.
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  So thank you so much for being here with us tonight.
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  Kim, what do you got for me?
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  What is your favorite business have?
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  My favorite business app in addition to Rev because I'm not allowed to repeat it is Cision
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  and it's an outreach.
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  So we use it every day reaching out to media outlets around the world and it also traction
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  marketing and does a lot of great work for you.
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  So I highly recommend Cision and the team over there is absolutely wonderful.
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  Okay.
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  Alright.
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  I'm I'm familiar with decision.
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  And so that that is actually very good tool.
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  If you wanna get yourself out there in the media, for sure.
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  Kim, What is your favorite old school marketing tip?
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  Wake up and get the day's media tips or what's going on in the news instead of just know,
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  zipping on the computer and everything, get clips and actually read the paper.
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  Okay.
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  Alright.
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  I actually subscribed to the New York Times, and they sent me sort of like the the New York
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  Times daily briefing so I can kind of skim it and figure out what thing I wanna click on and
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  actually read it.
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  So I am a fan of reading newspapers too.
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  So I can concur with you on that one.
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  Kim, what is your favorite podcast?
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  I am shameless too, but I'm gonna start with the one I really, really love the most.
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  And philosopher's notes with Brian Johnson.
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  Absolutely love Brian Johnson's work is very, very great to listen to in the car.
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  And if you're done to listen to Brian Johnson, tune in the your story because we've got our
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  podcast up for 2.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  And so I think the mission of small fish chat is to end small business failure while helping
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  you succeed as your own boss.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady.
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  Until next time, remember this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you are.
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  Good night, everybody.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.
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  And join us next Wednesday.