How to Show Up as the Face of Your Business to Connect with Your Customers with Katrina Aronson

INTRO:

Hey hey, Kathryn here! I’m so glad you’re tuning in. If you’re new to the show, welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. If you’ve been around for a bit, you know I’m all about keeping it real with you. Showing you all the sides of entrepreneurship (& life). I mean it’s all connected, right? 

I shared one of my favorite Brene Brown quotes,  if you’re not in the arena getting your ass-kicked, I don’t want your feedback. Well, I want you to see me as your friend in the arena equally getting my ass-kicked but inspiring you to keep going because I get it. I’m living it too.

And that the perspectives I share on the show are real life, in the arena types of perspectives, like the one I’m going to share with you today.

But before I do, I want to share an exciting opportunity with you. Last week I hosted a private training showing coaches & consultants how I launched & scaled one of my businesses to close to a million in sales without using outbound engagement tactics or lead generation.

Like cold DMing, engaging on other people’s posts hoping they pay attention, or trying to prospect potential clients in FB groups. 

It was a total smash, and everyone loved it. So did everyone who attended & caught the replay. Now I’m looking for a small group of women who want to attract 1 to 3 NEW clients weekly (or fill their group programs) in the next 60 days. 

If that sounds like, head on over to the link in the show notes and apply now, or visit creativelyowned.com/apply

Now let’s dive into the good stuff for today. We have a special guest on the show. Katrina Aronson. Katrina and I have very similar stories and we both could jam on marketing all day I swear. 

Katrina Aronson is a business coach with a major marketing twist. She works with entrepreneurs who are the face of their brands and businesses to help them step into the thriving CEO role, and get their brands noticed without expensive ads or a big team. 

This is a big change from her corporate finance days and I can wait for her to share more of her story with you.

So without further adieu let’s welcome Katrina to the show.

00:00 Kathryn

Hey, super stoked to have Katrina on the show. Without further ado, I'm just gonna turn it right over to you Katrina so that you can share with our listeners who you are, what you do, and who you serve.

00:32 Katrina

Beautiful Thank you for having me on. I'm so excited for this conversation. My name is Katrina Aronson, I am a small business and entrepreneur, my business coach, my lens is everything through marketing, a little tiny background on me is I come from the corporate finance world. And I transitioned into launching two of my own small businesses, and turned one of them into a multi six figure. But that wasn't without a lot of hardship. And what I learned through building my business up is when you lean into really strong marketing, a lot of other things fall into place. So this is where my obsession with marketing really was born. And now I have the opportunity and the pleasure of teaching other people how to do it in a way that feels really good. Because it doesn't have to be this thing. Oh, I have to do it.

01:26 Kathryn

Totally. Totally. And I think that there's a lot of entrepreneurs I know there's probably a lot of listeners that are like, I frickin hate marketing. I hear this often from just my audience and people out there are like, how do you like marketing, Katherine, but I want to go back a little bit because I think your story is interesting that you came from corporate finance. And then you opened two businesses. What businesses were those small businesses?

01:48 Katrina

So I always had a dream of opening a boutique, I'm just like, so creative. So the idea of merchandising, and having inventory that was always ever since I was like, 12. That was what I was gonna do. Amazing. Oh, I, I first launched a jewelry line where I really got to meet a lot of designers. And it allowed me to connect with a lot of people in that world. And I also had little babies at the time, I got that into a lot of boutiques around the US, I was also selling direct to consumer, so a lot of that was online. And then I finally opened my brick and mortar at my boutique, which we also sold online. And that Boutique is really what launched us into six plus figures. And we did very, very well. But there are a lot of butts there. Yeah, a lot of really, really hard work and ultimately burning myself out.

02:47 Kathryn

Totally. And so do you still own your boutiques? Or have you sold that? Like, have you sold it?

02:53 Katrina

Yeah, so I closed the jewelry line entirely. And I sold the boutique.

02:57 Kathryn

So cool. Yeah, I know our stories totally are very similar in a lot of ways having my brick and mortar wine and then selling that and, and selling it mainly because I was super, super burnt out. So and and now you're helping other small businesses, entrepreneurs with their marketing basically, did you love marketing while you rent? Like, did you fall in love with marketing when you started to run your businesses? Or like when did the whole obsession with marketing happen?

03:24 Katrina

Yeah, so I actually knew nothing about marketing. I thought I did when I was in corporate finance, because I did some marketing, it's very different in the corporate finance world. Yep, kind of template out for you. And there's certain words you're allowed to use, right? And then really understanding that I have full control and owning my own business, what marketing looks like because we think that we have an idea of what marketing is, but what I figured out and part of why I wanted a business was marketing is really just about connecting person to person. And once you kind of get that through your head, and you're not doing it from this place of force, and very, like masculine energy of bye, bye bye. It really became a joyful flow. And so I didn't know what that was before I started doing it. And then once I realized, holy crap, I better do something differently, or my businesses are not going to do well. That's really where I discovered it. And I was doing everything from a place of joy because I wanted to like events and inviting speakers in and doing book signings, and then I started getting interviewed on local news stations, and it was more of a community focus, and it became an authentic connection. So that's where I said, Oh my God, this feels really good. And we're actually pulling people in and we're hitting numbers that we hadn't hit before. And we really started to catapult online as well, because we were showcasing all of that. So, you know, people want to be part of a community in one way or another. And once we really started to focus on that aspect and less about the products, believe it or not, that's really where I had that I truly fell in love. I truly, and I'm sure you feel the same way, Katherine, I want to hear from you, too. It just was a different part of my heart that opened up that I couldn't even explain to other people. But I just kept leaning into that. And that's really where we broke through with our numbers.

05:39 Kathryn

Totally. And I think that's where, you know, and I've, I've not say struggled along the journey, but I came from the marketing communications world, I worked in corporate marketing communications. And a lot of the companies I worked for were like, not for profits, and their message was to do good. So I always sort of loved it. And I know, you know, my story is a little bit like, then I started to feel restricted in corporate, and I thought I actually didn't like marketing communications. And it wasn't until I opened my brick and mortar that I realized that I absolutely really do love it. Because of the community feel, I think it's, it's doing things a little bit different than the buy, buy, buy, here, I have this product, you need it, I promise, it was I created more of a customer experience, so to speak, which then started to like overflow into, you know, sales, referrals, word of mouth, all of those sorts of things. And then people wanting to be part of it, which I think you know, you definitely touched on there in terms of that, like community piece, right is like to be seen as people, ultimately, whether you're selling a product or a service, and I know, you have that angle, right? It doesn't matter what you're selling, it doesn't matter what type of business that you have. And I'd love for you to dive into a little bit of that, because I think sometimes we can segment ourselves like, well, I'm product based. So I'm different than the service based, but it's not that way.

07:04 Katrina

Oh my gosh, yes. And I know you and I talked about this offline some time. And it's so fun, because I think, you know, we think of business as black and white in a lot of different ways. And as entrepreneurs, we are so lucky that we don't have to look at it that way. Right? We've been taught that for so long, it's this or it's that it's service base is product based. Everyone wants you to pigeonhole yourself. Yeah. But at the end of the day, business is business, right? We're all trying to sell something. So if we can do it from a place of authenticity, and I almost feel like that word is so overused at this point, but what feels good to you? Yeah, you know, what kind of marketing you do. And the clients that I tend to work with are the face of their business. So if you're showing up, even if you want a product based business, a service based business, or both, because a lot of them are both, if you're willing to show up as the face of your business, then it's really you based, and that's how I look at it, you're the it factor, you're the thing that makes it different. And people fall in love with the curated story that you create, through your marketing. And when we can do that really powerfully, and we're not we're not trying to copy what another product based business is doing or what another service based business is doing. That's where we really knock it out of the park.

08:31 Kathryn

Yeah, and it's, it's, I love that you say it's business as business. At the end of the day, if you're in business, you're selling something, whether it's a service or a product, and it really doesn't matter. And something that just kind of came to my mind is like why I went into marketing in the first place. And I remember being in commerce or business school, and going down the accounting path, right? My dad's an accountant, and I was like, Oh, I'm going to be an accountant, good profession, all that sort of stuff. And I remember that's so funny. I remember sitting in my first marketing class, like marketing to a one or whatever it was intro to marketing and I remember just being sitting there and looking at like, how creative that space was versus like the accounting space which is the number side of things it is very black and white or it's this or that whereas the the marketing really intrigued me because of how creative you could be with it. Do you feel like in the online space offline space that we try to like you said pigeonhole ourselves into something or we look at what everybody else is doing. We want to follow what they're doing and did you feel like that is what kills a lot of the creativity when it comes to marketing?

09:44 Katrina

Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Because marketing is so kind of fluid right and it's like you said I was an accounting major as well for a while which was laughable because I am very analytical and that's a cool part of marketing too. Yeah. I really like the numbers behind it, I think it's really interesting. But I'm so freaking creative, right? And I think we're a lot of people kind of, I want to say mess it up, but they don't really live into the creative part of it, right? They just kind of see what someone else is doing. And then they mimic it. But here's where you can really change your path, you need to just think of marketing as somewhere where you can play and try different things. Your goal is not to have everything be a killer, right? You want meaning really good. You want some things to fail, because it's going to show you where you shouldn't go. And I know that sounds like oh, like, yeah, so you know, we're supposed to fail Katrina? No, I mean, literally, you have to try five things at the same time. See which one works? That's the analysis part? And did that? Yes, that worked. But I didn't like doing it. Okay, then that's not your answer. But you have to be willing to do a bunch of things, and not feel terrified, doing them. So totally. That's really Yes, I think when we do something that feels totally out of alignment, meaning I freakin hate doing this, but I have to do it, because that's what someone told me to do. Or I saw someone else do it, and they knocked it out of the park. So I have to write all the emails, and I have to do it this way. And I have to show up on camera every day. And no, it doesn't mean that you don't have to include those things in your overall strategy, right? Depends on what you're doing. I don't want to say everyone has to do that at all. But you don't have to do what anyone else is doing. You can create your own path. And the people that knock it out of the park are the first second third ones to do it. And then everyone else who follows them, or kind of like it kind of dies a little bit right when we see everyone doing the exact same thing. So we need you to live into your ID factor in that means testing a bunch of things.

12:08 Kathryn

Yeah, so beautiful. You know, it's so funny, because when I worked in corporate, we used to call it killing puppies. I know it sounds so morbid. But it was basically that we would have all of these ideas in like a think tank face. Right? We had a marketing department that we would literally sit and brainstorm ideas for hours, and then throw them up on a board and then come back and then kill the puppy, so to speak. And it was don't take it personally, right? If your idea got kill, hold off, or we tested it, and it didn't work. So one thing that I see in the online space predominantly is like the pressure to get the first thing right. And I feel like as somebody who coaches, coaches, consultants worked with entrepreneurs, like I see this pressure in business to make sales. So how do people lean back and trust their process, so to speak, when there's this pressure put on making sales?

13:03 Katrina

Yeah, no, this is a really hard part to write. And this is the part of marketing that. You know, marketing is actually doing a lot of the selling for you. Yeah, but it's not going to be a homerun every single time. And we have only especially. I think social media has done this to us too, because we're only seeing that curated story, right? So we're seeing like this person just knocked out the park every single time. If they're doing really well, that's not true. And you know that as a fact. Nobody has ever gotten to whatever figure you're looking at and wishing that you had by just succeeding every single time. So that's a story, you have to tell yourself. And, frankly, that takes work, right? So work meaning personal, deep diving, and really reconstructing the story. And that means whatever that looks like for you. That's the work that people don't realize that marketing actually involves because your business is only going to thrive as much as you are willing to personally grow. Yeah. And that is, you know, a tip. I think I just went off on a tangent there. But that felt really good.

14:16 Kathryn

Yeah, I know, totally, because I do again, I feel I feel from clients that come to me lots of times, they're like, there's this pressure to make sales in their business or pressure to grow. Right. And then it's like, you try something for 30 days, and it's not working so to speak, but the not working is like the expectation of what they thought was going to happen, like 1000s of people running through their door or buying online, right? It's that disconnect from like, the expectation of like, maybe how long this strategy is going to take, or, you know, maybe it isn't working. But I also think that there's a disconnect between the analysis part I think that we push a lot of marketing out, but there's that disconnect of like, do we actually know the numbers, are we actually looking to see what's working and what isn't working? Are we just making an emotional decision based on that expectation, so to speak, that, like we didn't get the 100 people, we only got five, right, getting five still means it's working right? If someone is even buying To me that's working to some degree. But it you know, there might be things that need to be tweaked, tweaked along the way. I also love that you talk about the curated feed piece, or like we're seeing all of these wins. But we don't often see behind the curtain of the head banging against the wall hair ripping moments where it's like, oh, man, I tried that. I know, when we opened up brick and mortar, we spent a fortune on in the first year on radio ads, that really did not return give us that ROI for what we spent. And I basically cut that budget and stopped doing it and doubled down on the customer experience and basically skyrocket our business using word of mouth, basically. And referrals is how we leveraged a lot of our success. So I Yeah, so I mean, I love the I love the tangent. So do what do you feel like, need to be doing maybe more in the space? Or like educating people more on what marketing basically entails? Like?

16:18 Katrina

Yes, I think that's so true, I think we really have to recognize as a society, that marketing isn't what it used to be. Because I love what you just said about the radio ads, I do the exact same thing with my brick and mortar, I spent like tons of money in print. Magazine, by the way, is very expensive. Yeah. You know, it's not trackable. And this is a painful thing for us to realize it doesn't mean you can't do those things, those additional things. But first, in the beginning, we really need to try things, try a bunch of things that are cost effective, they don't have to be super expensive that you can track. So these are typically things that are going to be online, or like what you said customer experience, those are the things in the beginning, that are really, really important, not the magazine write ups, you know, and those things come later. So if we can really realize, you know, marketing isn't what it used to be. And if we want to actually have success, we have to start in the very beginning by investing a little bit. Not all of your budget, right? You want a little bit, and really watch and see and analyze. And I love what you said about that. We didn't expect things to turn out this way. Should it be 30 days? Should it be 60 days? I like to say give it 90 days? Yeah. No, this is like a general rule in marketing is a lot of strategies take 90 days, but that doesn't mean 90 days have 40 different strategies. Okay. That means 90 days of you saying these are the things I'm going to focus on, I'm going to show up on one social media platform, consistently, maybe that's every single day, it really depends on your business. I do not show up every single day, I get on video once or twice a week, and I'm posting probably three times I do realize when I can't, there is no, no everyone, I've heard a million different things what you're supposed to do, but you're gonna have to play on that social media platform consistently. So you're gonna have to figure out a lot of things. So if you can, if you decide that you're gonna be on four different platforms, it's going to be really, really hard. And then you also say, Okay, I'm going to do email marketing, I'm going to do some Facebook ads, you know, you layer the things that you can actually track, but do it in a sustainable way. Do it in a way that when I say feels really good, and like the community aspect, you're still going to need those other pieces that you're layering in to reach the community. Okay. And then once you realize, okay, I have these three different layers. And those I got, I got it, I know that this is the email platform, I'm going to use this as the social media platform I'm going to consistently show up on and one other element. So maybe, you know, this could be various things I don't, I'm coming from a coach perspective, but I tell my product based businesses, that it really is about, like what works best for their ideal customer, right? So it really depends on who you are. But those three layers and then saying, Okay, I got those, it feels good, I understand. And now I'm going to have events. So you're going to position yourself as an expert, because you're going to speak at the events, and you're really going to get your messaging out there. So that's what I mean about the layers. This is scaling, right. It's totally as scaling your business. You're just layering, but you're doing it in a way that doesn't feel like you're drinking from a firehose, because everything in business is drinking from a firehose for the level. Don't do that to yourself. Yeah. That's really this simplistic, kind of 30,000 foot view of how all of this unfolds. And what I think ultimately we we need to recognize is that what we used to do, it still might work. But why do the things that you can't track and are super expensive when we have all of these things as online businesses, brick and mortars, product based businesses, that we can actually see if people are going to our website? And if it's working, and all these clickable links?

20:52 Kathryn

Yeah, totally, totally. And I love the sort of simplistic way of putting it together for people from that bird's eye view. Because I think that's the other thing with I think a lot of the online space, I think, a lot I see it, I mean, I see them offline space to where there's that like instant gratification or that need for like a result right now. And so that 90 days, I always say 60 to 90 days, I say 62 days to people that have already tested things, and they're they've already mastered a strategy and they're wanting to live there, but mostly 90 days to test and like you said, test, one strategy, not 100. And it feels I say so good in your body when you're not trying to do all of the things right. That's where I don't know, I felt like this in business where I felt like scattered or like all over the place. And just never felt good. Plus, it wasn't sustainable. You know, I think sustainability is a huge piece, like set yourself up to like, have that long term success. Do you feel like people are trying to scale before they're ready to scale?

21:58 Katrina

Oh, I think that's 100%. Why but all businesses fail. Yeah, the day it might look like you ran out of money, or you burnt out or what you can put a million labels on it. But at the end of the day, you tried to do too much at once. Right? Your your budget wouldn't allow it you you couldn't hire fast enough. Whatever, whatever it it ultimately, the result? Was it came from you scaling too quickly.

22:23 Kathryn

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. And it is and exactly that, like when we hit massive, massive, I hit massive burnout. And as the sole operator of the business, it was like, you know that there was just no way that we could scale at the model we wanted in the lifestyle that we want. And that was kind of like a big, big eye opening for us. And I think a lot of businesses when they first first get going. So you talk about product base and service base. And I know you say businesses business, do you? What do you feel like for product based businesses? Like is the thing that you talk about that face behind the business? Does that means getting in front of the camera? Does that mean showcasing who you are versus the products per se? Like what would you say is really important for product based businesses to master their marketing or nail their marketing out of the park?

23:13 Katrina

So I think absolutely, we need to show our face. This is the way that marketing is going. Everyone wants to know they're buying from a person we all buy from Amazon, right? And we all love buying from Amazon. It's so easy, it gets shipped to your door. So you're not Amazon, right? So what is gonna make you different than Amazon? Why wouldn't I buy those boob pastries that you sell for $38? Why wouldn't I buy the $14 pair that has five star reviews on Amazon. You are different because you are different. And it's different than it used to be. And we need to recognize that because we have things at our fingertips that we didn't have even five years ago. Right? So if you are a product based business and you start showing up as the face so telling the story as the CEO, how did you get here letting us get to know your life? I think a really good example, Sara Blakely. Oh, yeah. She's Spanx if you don't know who she is, and we all I am obsessed with her. is hilarious. She is real. She tells her story. She goes against the norm. And she's cool. I feel like I could throw back a beer with her, you know, and 100% She has made me just I am so in love with her that Spanx to me is an extension of her, right? So that's what you want to create is bringing to life your personality, not this stiff. I am CEO like we want to know about you. That doesn't mean you need to tell us what you had for breakfast. You don't have to show your kids. Whatever your kind of mental block is there. You can create a way that you show up authentically that you can still connect with people. Okay, so yes, yeah. A product based business. Show your mother effing face. No.

25:08 Kathryn

And if you don't follow Sara Blakely, or you know the Spanx, how many honestly do because I don't know if you saw her stories recently, but she's been really sick. And she was basically hooked up to an IV. She'd been sick for like a week and the one she had last night I almost died. It was like her kids are going crazy in the kitchen. And she's like, I've been sick for a week. And this is what I come out to. And it's like, her kids literally like dancing and she started singing I forget what the song was now, but it was basically like Mama needs a tequila. Like she was improving the words. And then she starts like backing out of the kitchen. Like I'm backing out. I'm going back to my room and then they start chasing her. And she's like, Oh, mom, sick leave me alone. I'm going back. And oh, my goodness. And she I mean, you could tell she's been really, really sick. And her husband is hilarious as well. Like, he's been taking the kids to school and stuff. And he backed out of the garage and completely took the side mirror off the car and he's shooting. She's like, my house is falling apart. Yeah. So funny. So funny. Yep.

26:05 Katrina

So it's, you know, I think all in all it every single business if we got to be a version of Sara Blakely, this would be really easy.

26:15 Kathryn

Yeah. And the beautiful thing about Sara Blakely story too, is like I mean, she, it wasn't an easy. I mean, she heard tons of “no”s. And people were like Spanx. Like, why would they want to wear that? Like, if you actually read her story? I mean, she got a ton of nose, she built that like, basically in her apartment or house or whatever. And she's now built this multi million billion dollar brand, basically, having heard no, no, no, no. And we hear that lots with really successful people. I'd love for that those stories to even shine even more of like, the failure of the rejections or the knows. And yes, like you said, you don't need to show your kids if you don't want to show your kids, but the people whether your product or service base, people want to know who you are. And I feel like that is just one stepping stone into building that community of trust with your audience. Are there anything? Is there anything else that goes into building that, that you maybe you did that built like a community around your brand?

27:14 Katrina

Um, you know, I think what I said before about being willing to try everything, and in the beginning, I lived in a space of Yes. And I don't want to say that everyone has to do this, but I will just share what worked for me. And that was, you know, once I really pulled back from buying all the magazine ads and trying all the really expensive things. I said, Okay, well, I'm gonna go from a place of community and having events and really bringing the community to us so that we became a destination, which was my goal. I lived in a place of yes, so if someone came with me, to me with an idea, we would bring it to life. So very few things I said no to, and ultimately, this led to my burnout, by the way, so definitely do this better than I did. But I was really interested in letting the community have fun. So we had tons of kid events where we invited moms to come in, and we were not selling anything, we just wanted people to have a warm fuzzy feeling. And so that would kind of do the selling for us, right? So you know, if you can see yourself partnering with other people, if you can't, and this is for online, this is for brick and mortar, there's so many different ways that you can use other people's platforms that allow you to shine right? Figure out who you want to align yourself with. And for us, it was like a lot of the wellness community, a lot of people who were showing up big in the community and charities and such that we really connected with, and then said yes to basically everything, even if it costs us a little bit of money. We were willing to do that. Because we know we knew ultimately, it was going to benefit us and it absolutely did. We became very different business, then we were even in in about a year, I would say there was a huge shift. We this is where the interviews started coming in and stuff started coming to me but I had to be willing to take that big risk of saying yes, for a whole year before

29:29 Kathryn

It got. Ah, and and I love that you said this is one of the things that kind of started or created a burnout for you because I was gonna ask like, one, you know, how do you do that if you don't maybe have the greatest boundaries? Or you're just you know, saying yes to all things like how do you make sure you prevent that burnout because I feel like that's kind of what we did in our brick and mortar like, we hosted like in store event. We you know, we went into the community and did events we sort of did the same thing and that first two years and I think probably contributed to some of the burnout. I mean, what we like we had producing wine was very labor during the day as well. So it was like, there was a lot there. I love the idea of like getting out there getting in the community getting involved, like if people came in and wanted us to donate something, we donated it to the, you know, whatever foundation or a fundraiser or that sort of thing. And I do believe that that contributed a lot to like our growth, because people just saw us more than the name was out there, basically, right? It's like, they see the name of the business. And then they're like, oh, or my friend goes to that or whatever. So, yeah, I think there's lots of grassroots ways to grow the business without having to spend, like you said, a ton of money on radio or print ad, which is like, crazy expensive, and not that trackable. Unless someone came in and said, I heard your thing on the radio. That's why I'm here. But do you believe here's the other thing that I often say to my clients, and I was your perspective on it, it's like, the touch points of your business, right? So it's like, it's not necessarily just like, you have a Google profile, or a website like I, that people went to, you know, heard our name somewhere or saw our name somewhere, then searched us out on Facebook, or searched our website, like, Do you believe in that, like, the multiple touchpoints having almost an effect, right, like having a website, having a Google profile, being searchable, all of those things, contributing like, to people finding you or coming to buy from you

31:34 Katrina

1,000% This is, I see this in my online business as a coach, a lot of times people will hear about me first. And what do they say this is this is an old statistic that people need to be shown or hear something seven times before they actually care. Yeah, or to care. And I think that's absolutely true. So you have to come at it from a lot of different angles. And this is ultimately what a funnel is, right? Like, we all have heard that buzzword funnel. But a funnel can be literally as simple as I heard this one example. And I can't remember who said it, this is not my example. But walking through a store can be a funnel. So just to give you an idea of the touch points, where you walk into the store, and it says, you know, you want to go buy things in the fruit section. So you know, to walk through to the fruit section, then there's an arrow that points you over to diapers, because you're going to get diapers. So you're following that funnel. And then you see the signs that say checkout, right? You're physically taken to the checkout, then someone says, so glad that you were here, and you get kind greetings. So you're actually talking to a person, they put things in a bag that has your logo on it, they get warm, fuzzy feelings, because they say, would your child like a lollipop? Yes, they would. All of this is actually the checkout process. Right? Though, this is all very strategic in how they set up the store lead you to the front, have you meet this warm, fuzzy person at the at the register, where they can do a lollipop? And have you walk out with with their store logo with that with you. So this whole thing is your touch points. So if you can create this in the world, for your brick and mortar for your online business, for your product based business, you that's what you're trying to create is a funnel out in the world. So can you lead them to who you are? You can do that through Google My Business, you can do that through, you know what you said donating things to charity that first time they hear about you? How are they going to find you the next time they're going to Google you, they're going to look you up on Instagram. So you have to think through that funnel. And there's not just one funnel, there's multiple funnels that can happen. So you want to create that out in the world with, you know, we say seven touch points. But at this time, at this point in time, the world is so saturated with bye bye bye that it might take longer. So he's okay. We don't want to expect like people hear about it, they're gonna buy it the next day, that's just not going to happen. So you need to be prepared every step of your funnel.

34:23 Kathryn

Yeah, I love how you give the example of the store because I think you know, and I've shared this on past podcast of like how we, when we set up our store, how methodical we were in how we did it, and how that actually impacted the way we positioned ourselves in the saturated market, right there was other businesses very similar to ours, but the way we set it up and the feeling like even down to the music, and I think that's something that you know, we might not notice when we go into a store because we haven't, we're not kind of behind the scenes of it, but like even what they place beside the checkout counter to the music that they're playing To the color of their walls, you know, the paint the displays, all of that is very strategic in order to, like you say, create that feeling of oh man, I like that dress, or I really want that thing that's on display there or whatever. And so it's very strategic and how it's done. And yes, you can definitely achieve that in the online world thinking of like, say, Google, your business, Instagram, Facebook, wherever, wherever you're hanging out. I've loved this conversation, I could talk to you for hours, but I definitely want to be mindful of your time. Is there anything else you'd love to share with our listeners about marketing and sales and business?

35:45 Katrina

You know, I think everyone has to go through their own journey when it comes to marketing and sales. But every story that we've been told that marketing has to be so hard and sales is yucky, I want you to just challenge that, like, is there a way for you to feel good about this, that doesn't mean you're not going to have to work hard to get people to really love your brand. But is there a way to do this from a place of this is who I am. And that's really where I come from. It is not all roses and butterflies all the time. But we can live in a place of joy and marketing and, and sales. And this is what my clients walk away with. I'm sure your clients do to Katherine. And so if you can do it, you can do it too.

36:32 Kathryn

Yeah, and I love your realness. Like, it's not all like roses and butterflies all the time. And like not everything we put out into the world is like smashed out of the park. There's lots of flopped, things that I know, you've probably tried, I've tried that just didn't work and even our clients, right, I think that, you know, just even creating that sort of space for them to know that this is a bit of like an experiment and creative process that, you know, I that it's not necessarily going to be a smash out of the park. But let's try it. I feel like that's the fun part of both the marketing is the creative process of it of like testing things out and, and trying things. Knowing that Yeah, something's not working, something's might not work. And that's okay

37:12 Katrina

 Yes. And just for like one other visual for Yeah, what you just said to I think of this as play. Because if you really can get to that space of like, oh, like I get away from the space of oh, I don't want to do this. And I don't want to write another email. It's really, it's really like how a kid would like build a Lego set, or I was thinking this like marble game that we would put together and try to build out these different approaches what's even called, but it's different stacks of these tubes, that the marble can funnel down. And sometimes we would build it and we'd be like, this is going to be good, and it would suck. And then times we would take it apart and we do it again. And it would be so cool. And we'd watch it go down. That is how marketing is. And why do we live in this space as an adult that like it has to be that first time and like turn the pressure up? It doesn't have to be like that it can be the man and laughing at it and knock that shit down and then build it back up

38:18 Kathryn

Yeah, it's like not taking it personal, almost right. As personal brands, I think we can take that personal like, Oh man, I suck or my idea sucks or whatever. And so cool, because, you know, I started I used to do pottery, I did pottery young and then I did pottery kind of almost a decade ago. And in the last year, I got back into the pottery studio. And if anything that that is teaching me is like, don't get attached to your masterpiece, so to speak, because throughout the whole process, it can fall apart, it can break and I was built I had built something I had thrown something on the wheel. And last on Monday I was cleaning it up so to speak, to get ready to be biscuit for the first time before glazing it at every stage, your piece can fall apart and literally this piece like started to like crumble and I was like, Oh my God, you know, and it's like don't get attached. But even at the Biscayne, it can shatter in the kiln for whatever reason, even at glazing, when you glaze and go put it in the kiln that can shatter in there as well. And then the beautiful thing about glazing is like you never really know what you're going to get like there's colors that you get to dip these pieces in. But every time the kiln is fired, it creates a different effect. Like you can never really recreate the same effects twice, so to speak. So if anything like pottery is just been teaching me so much about how to like find joy in the marketing process, so to speak. When you're doing it day to day it can become very methodical, but just how to bring that play back into it because it's just like yeah, you've got a totally detached from everything.

39:53 Katrina

Love it. Yeah, absolutely. This was so fun to talk about because even as someone Who this is my true love affair. Yeah. And something I it doesn't feel like work to me I love love love it is sometimes my work in what I do I get attached to the outcome. So this isn't something that's perfect in my world either it is very imperfect and a process and I have to give myself space to remember that. So thank you for giving me that space today.

40:23 Kathryn

Yeah, it's been awesome. I always love to wrap up my sessions or podcast episodes with asking you what your definition of success is.

40:33 Katrina

My definition of success is being able to travel the world with my kids with my husband, friends, and having the most magical experience ever. And really just constantly learning and growing and never thinking or worrying about money.

40:52 Kathryn

Amazing. Amazing. I love traveling the travel. I mean, I love the whole thing because I travel and experience life. It's just why I do what I do, basically. So I love it. Where can people find you if they want to reach out to you if they want to connect with you?

41:07 Katrina

Yes. So I live on Instagram, @KatrinaAronson_Consulting. And I'm always showing up there so if anyone wants to shoot me a DM I always have free resources there.

41:18 Kathryn

That's where all the perfect awesome and we will link those up in the show notes. Again, it's been such a pleasure having you on and I cannot wait for this episode to drop. Same thing. Thank you