Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / The Knowledge Economy with Rick Shant Koletavitoglu

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The Knowledge Economy with Rick Shant Koletavitoglu · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Know, believe it or not, people are willing to work for a lower salary as long as, you treat
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  them with respect and you recognize the contributions they have in building your
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  business.
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  That's actually the 1st priority.
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  3, 2, 4, 0,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda'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 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.
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  Send the small biz lady, America's number one small business expert, and I would like to
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  welcome you to tonight's episode of the small biz chat podcasts.
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  Today's show has something for any curious business owner.
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  My guest tonight have some amazing insight to share The small biz chat podcast is a peer to
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  peer interview show that gives small business owners a way to get invaluable business advice
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  from top experts in the country.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  The goal of the small business chat podcast is to give our small business audience the
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  opportunity to hear Sage advice to take their business to the next level.
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  So now it's time for me to introduce my guests.
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  And I am so excited.
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  We are now talking about marketing.
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  You guys know marketing is one of my favorite topics.
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  My next guest is Rick Colvitalu, and he's a serial tech entrepreneur and the founder of 150
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  birds, a platform that provides marketing teams and small businesses information they need.
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  Previously, he founded creators den, a marketplace for influencer marketing for
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  brands, including Netflix, Wella, Pantine Del And Procter And Gamble.
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  And for more information, you can go to 150 birds.com.
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  Rick, how you doing?
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  Doing well.
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  Doing well.
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  Thanks so much for having me, Melinda.
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  I'm excited to have you here.
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  So tell me, how did you get into the marketing business?
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  Like, know, were you just one of these little kids?
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  It just I always wanted to be a marketer.
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  Like, how how did it happen?
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  I started my first startup while Stellan College, in the business model was a,
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  interactive marketing and advertising, business model.
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  So, Once that didn't take off, I just found myself in that space, worked in a marketing row
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  for 3 venture backed startups.
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  And then later did a fellowship with the founder of Mitel.
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  And right after that, I founded creator den.
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  Where I worked in, primarily in the marketing and sales capacity as well as the management of
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  the company.
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  And then after selling out of that, I I moved to the, Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay
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  Area, where I, became a freelance marketing consultant.
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  Working with early stage startups.
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  And and that's when I started noticing the inefficiencies in the industry, which led me on
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  the path to founding 150 birds about a year and a half ago.
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  Got it.
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  Got it.
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  Alright.
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  So you say that marketing is broken today.
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  Yeah.
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  Okay.
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  That's a big statement, Rick.
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  Tell me about how you get there.
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  I mean, I agree with you, but I think I agree with you for different reasons, but you tell me
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  your reason.
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  For sure.
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  So I think we have to start off with, how we got here today.
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  Right?
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  So first, there was in house hiring, bringing on board, someone who who knew marketing to
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  work for your company and and take on that function.
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  And then came the digital marketing agency model.
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  There's about a 120,000 of these, nationwide.
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  A little over a 100,000,000,000 spent on, online marketing services annually.
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  And then came the freelancer And it wasn't until the 2000 tens that the gig economy really
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  started to take off through forms like Uber and fiber and Upwork and and what, what we believe
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  is that this next decade is all about the knowledge economy coming online.
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  And and what we see is the subscription model the, the subscription as a service model, which
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  puts the customer at the center of the experience and provides a lot of value upfront
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  is going to be the prevailing model for, more cost efficient an effective marketing approach.
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  So I know that and I actually agree with you.
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  You believe that marketing has gotten just way too data driven.
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  Does that mean you're, like, anti technology in the marketing?
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  Like, where where do how do we kinda ride the middle of that?
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  Yeah.
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  That's a great question.
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  And, not at all.
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  I I think what's happened is over the last decade, especially what we've seen is this
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  proliferation in the number of of channels that business is using now to reach consumers.
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  And that has been widely driven because of the tech boom.
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  Right?
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  Now everyone's walking around with a supercomputer in their pocket, unlimited
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  internet connectivity, And what this has has given rise to is is this omnichannel multiple,
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  whether you're on a social media or you're on a a website, brands are looking to, bombard you
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  with with ads.
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  Now the way that they can segment their audiences is through that data.
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  So if anything, what it's allowing what it's allowing businesses and brands to do is it's
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  providing now a more effective communication channel.
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  Now to understand of what I mean by this, we'd have to go back to to the fifties, really.
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  When there were just three television channels that, control the majority of the content
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  people consume.
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  And then there are radio and newspapers as well.
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  These are all one way communication channels.
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  And then it wasn't until the rise of of of digital and and and later with social that this
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  started changing and it started becoming more of a interactive conversation between the brand
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  and, the end user.
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  So what digital and data is providing is really a granularity and approach to, creating
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  marketing strategies.
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  But let's talk about how it really relates to real small businesses.
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  So what do you think are the top reasons why marketing efforts fail for small business?
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  Small businesses off the bat are handicapped, because they're com competing against
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  competitors who have economies of scale, meaning that they are generally, that they the
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  their competitors can provide products or services a more affordable price point to their
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  audiences.
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  So this poses a major challenge for small businesses where they have to now differentiate
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  Factors like quality and the trust they build with their customers, which means the feeling
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  of community becomes crucially.
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  Mission driven marketing is important to cultivating this field around their brand.
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  And because small businesses don't have a comparable advertising budget to larger brands,
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  they have much less reach, meaning they have to make every interaction count.
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  Every interaction along the customer journey, whether it's someone walking into their store,
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  greeting them with a smile on their face or, or at the point where they enter the customer
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  interacts with the, the cashier providing a pleasant interaction, through their employees
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  becomes very important to to create that loop so that Okay.
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  Now they can come into the store.
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  They make a purchase, and and then they can continue that relationship afterward to get
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  them to come back.
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  Just to give you context, Melinda, what we've seen from 2000 to 2020 is the mark marketing
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  technologies landscape has has gone from a 100 tools to more than 10,000 today.
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  So these tools help automate a lot of processes and tasks so that small businesses can
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  digitally interact with customers before and after they make a purchase.
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  So I believe that it's time to go digital and leverage these tools for small businesses to,
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  to really compete and level the playing peace field with larger businesses.
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  How do you think the rise of the gig entrepreneur has changed sort of like small
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  business marketing?
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  It's giving opportunity for businesses to have on demand access to talent, which is great.
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  Right?
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  Because now you have, accessibility to any kind of specialization that you need.
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  And then if you take into account what's happened with marketing, there's a growth in
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  the number of channels businesses have to create content for repurpose, reformat their
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  content across.
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  So one portion of the the scenario here is you have create the content.
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  And then the the second portion is now you have to distribute it and re reformat it and
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  distribute it across all of these channels.
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  Now the gig economy is great in the sense that it provides the infrastructure for you to have
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  access to these specialists who can help you do that.
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  But the real problem here is the gig economy is short term and highly transactional work.
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  So this ends up not really being an extension of your company because these, freelancers are
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  are constantly looking out to find new work.
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  Now, in the 2020s, what we're seeing is in this next decade ahead is a new type of workforce
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  which we call the knowledge economy or the subscription workforce, where freelancers plug
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  into highly verticalized platforms like ours to find more long term and consistent work which
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  position them to have a more symbiotic relationship with the business.
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  Well, how has the customer journey map changed over the years?
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  Now there are more channels than ever before to reach customers.
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  The key here is to experiment with as many as possible while in the process of identifying
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  what works best.
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  For your business.
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  Once you finally identified the most effective channel, double down.
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  Now the customer journey has has has primarily gone online.
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  This through pandemic, we've seen, about a 40% rise in ecommerce sales.
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  What what is projected to for us, what we should what we would have seen in 10 years has
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  happened in the last year alone.
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  And this isn't going away.
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  So the future of small business and retail is is omnichannel marketing and advertising.
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  So being able to, reach your customers across, several channels.
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  Now most people, who so consumer products, what this, could translate to, or the primary panels
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  that you, you'd like to look at is going to be social media as well as influencer marketing
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  for for many consumer brands to reach and interact with those audiences.
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  So don't you think though that if you start with your buyer persona and really get clear
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  about your target customer, it'd be much easier to figure out what social media platform are
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  even worth targeting.
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  I don't know that I agree with you saying try a bunch of stuff and then figure out where your
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  best money is spent and then double down I feel like you gotta go to that customer persona
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  first and figure out who that customer is, where that customer spends time online, and
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  then double down, you know, like, test it, but then double down there because you start with
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  the customer.
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  You gotta meet the customer where they are online.
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  Right?
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  Absolutely.
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  Great point.
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  The truth is it's very difficult for a business, small business to create enough
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  contact to content and have the infrastructure to segment and architect the module that shows
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  personalized content at scale.
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  Now, for a customer to have a real interaction, I think, customer support becomes another
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  channel that can be leveraged for small businesses.
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  Until the technology catches up.
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  But now with that said, buyer personas are definitely the starting point for any business
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  to have a better understanding of their buyers so that through that knowledge, you can
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  strategically create a plan that is more geared for those specific buyers.
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  Now with that said, they are hypotheses as to to begin with based on historical data.
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  And and when I say, you know, experiment with multiple channels, sure.
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  I think it's it's great to do so within the realm of what works for that buyer persona.
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  Okay.
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  Okay.
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  Alright.
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  So tell me about your firm, a 150 birds.
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  You know, first of all, why did you name it that?
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  And then tell me what does your company do?
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  Yeah.
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  Sure.
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  So 150 birds was founded in, San Francisco, March of 2020, about a year and a half ago.
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  150 birds is a marketing platform, not an agency that delivers a holistic marketing plan.
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  Service specifics expertise, daily project, and daily project management.
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  We've developed a network of vetted experts who execute one service, specialty for our clients,
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  and and we provide, the project managed component.
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  We work with, small businesses to develop the right strategy and curate the custom custom
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  flock of freelancers for that specific business.
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  And the day name comes from 150 comes from Dunbar's Law the biologist.
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  She figured out that 150 was the optimal number of people.
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  1 can maintain stable relationships with while having, an understanding of that tribe and how
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  each one of those people relate to one another and birds, that represents the freelancers that
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  we work with because they are free to work with whoever they want, wherever they want.
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  As free as a bird, like the metaphor.
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  Got it.
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  That's cute.
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  I like it.
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  Now that you explained it to me, I get it.
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  Alright.
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  We've gotta wrap up now.
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  What is the best business advice anyone's ever given you?
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  It's the best business advice I I've gotten was, from one of my mentors.
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  He taught me how to found a company, the foundational bridge of, recruiting people.
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  He told me that, you know, believe it or not, people are willing to work for a lower salary
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  as long as you treat them with respect and you recognize the contributions they have in
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  building your business.
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  That's actually the 1st priority.
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  The second thing that people look for is ownership is actually having an equity stake in
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  the company.
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  So as long as you're willing to give them recognition and and treat your employees with
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  respect and give them ownership in the company.
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  They're willing to work for a a lower salary than they might get somewhere else.
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  Good stuff.
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  Alright.
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  Thank you so much, Rick.
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  Hey, Rick.
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  What's your favorite podcast?
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  That's hard to that's hard to say.
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  They have to be the 150 bird podcast.
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  Shame plug.
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  I'm not mad at you, Rick, for that.
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  Alright.
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  Next question.
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  Rick, what is your favorite business app?
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  I'd I'd have to say upstream.
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  Upstream is an app I use to, meet other business professionals.
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  They have office hours, and, it's been great.
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  Just so far.
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  I've never heard of that one, so that's a good one.
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  What is your favorite old school marketing tip?
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  Where to begin.
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  I guess, just be yourself.
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  You should be one you should be whole and you should just do what your brand says it's going
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  to do, and that builds trust.
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  Alright.
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  I'll take that.
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  Be yourself.
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  Alright, Rick.
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  What is your favorite business book?
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  I'm gonna have to go with, what you do is who you are by, Ben Horowitz, the the venture cap
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  the list, and it's all about, creating company culture.
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  I actually like that book too.
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  That's a very good book.
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  My favorite business book.
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  I've read this book last year, and I've become an addict.
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  I'm addicted to this book.
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  It's called Disrupt You by Jay Samet, and it's one of my very, very favorite books.
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  And Jay has become a good friend of mine.
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  But what I love about this book, he says, if you wanna disrupt the world, start by
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  disrupting yourself first.
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  And I'm like, amen to that, Alright.
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  Well, with that, guys, that is it.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small bitch chat podcast.
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  If you're still working on your digital pivot, be sure to grab my brand new book, become your
• 18:17
  own boss in 12 months, revised and expanded.
• 18:20
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• 18:30
  boss book dotcom and grab your copy.
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  I've got some great bonuses over there.
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  And thank you so much for joining me.
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  The mission of small biz chat is to end small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody at night.
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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 podcast and join us next Wednesday.