086 Grow Your Email List with the Marketing Unicorn, Vanessa Betance
linktree.com/AllEaseAccounting
We have a guest this week on Money Through Ease. It’s Vanessa Betance with VMB Creative! She’s a marketing unicorn, as one of her clients dubbed, and she shared with us so many insights and juicy tidbits to helping small businesses grow their audience and engagement. Stop buying Instagram followers and stop only focusing on social media; take action and get people on your email list, because that’s where sales happen. Tune in for more small business marketing brilliance with Vanessa.
Follow Vanessa here:
www.vmbcreativeco.com
https://Instagram.com/vmbcreative_
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Transcript
00:00:00 Regan Bashara
Welcome to money. Through ease. I'm your host, Regan Bashara. You're probably here because you're an entrepreneur or a business owner that thinks that I'm not doing things correctly when it comes to your business finances. If that's you, I want to help you do things correctly. I want to help you do your bookkeeping. Right. I want to help you understand your finances.
00:00:21 Regan Bashara
So that you can set and achieve your business goals and that starts with good organization. Yes, you do need to keep your receipts and I have a free guide on my system for managing your financial paperwork, your receipts.
00:00:34 Regan Bashara
Everything that has to do with your business and your taxes, download this free guide at the link in the show notes. It's called chaos to calm and when you're ready, you can get on a consultation with me to learn more about my offers, but let's get on with the episode. All right? Hi, everybody. I'm Reagan. I'm your host. This is Money. Through ease.
00:00:53 Regan Bashara
I have a new guest with me.
00:00:54 Regan Bashara
It's Vanessa Betance, and she is with VMB creative Vanessa Betance is the founder.
00:01:00 Regan Bashara
Of VMB creative, a boutique branding and marketing agency that helps small businesses breathe life into their brands and make a lasting impact with authenticity. With over 17 years of experience in branding, marketing, copywriting and content strategy, Vanessa has a passion for translating vision into reality. I absolutely love that.
00:01:20 Regan Bashara
Hi oh, by the way. Wonderful. Welcome to money. Through ease.
00:01:22 Vanessa Betance
Thank you.
00:01:25 Vanessa Betance
Ah, thank you for having me, Regan.
00:01:27 Regan Bashara
Yeah. I'm so excited you're here. You're going to share some of your brilliance with us because you've been doing digital marketing thing for a long time, and I know people, especially small business owners, just love to kind.
00:01:39 Regan Bashara
Eat up any of that expertise in that long. Well, when someone has longevity in their business or in their field, it's like I want to soak it all in and I know the people listening do too as well. So tell us a little bit about who you are, your business and what you do.
00:01:55 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, for sure. So, uh, as you shared, BMB creative is a creative boutique that I have.
00:02:06 Vanessa Betance
Extreme experience, yes, but I think what I like to share and that really kind of is my little my little moment to shine is the nickname that one of my past clients once gave me is like ohh wow, Vanessa. You're you're like a marketing Unicorn. And the reason is because I've been in the game.
00:02:24 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:02:25 Vanessa Betance
For so long.
00:02:27 Vanessa Betance
That as a natural creative I I can't just stay in one thing. I can just do one thing forever on top of always having this, like, insane passion to always, constantly learn something new.
00:02:44 Vanessa Betance
Like I'm always like. Ohh. What's that? Ohh, tell me more. Tell me more, you know.
00:02:48 Regan Bashara
Ohh, a shiny thing.
00:02:50 Vanessa Betance
Exactly, exactly. And the beginning of my career, obviously, I worked in corporate and I was blessed to work with really, really amazing.
00:02:51 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:03:03 Vanessa Betance
Companies that that basically funded my like like actual.
00:03:11 Vanessa Betance
Education and all of my marketing experience. Right? Because when you're working in that type of space, what happens is usually in the creative department is you have they mix you around all the time when there's like a gap somewhere, they'll move you like a a puzzle piece, you know, to see.
00:03:28 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:03:30 Vanessa Betance
Right.
00:03:31 Vanessa Betance
Well, where are other areas? Can you fit in? What can? What are you interested in? Oh, you wanna go there? Cool. Let's train you. Let's get you get going. Let's have you get some experience. Now you're part of the team. Awesome. And that, I think is really, really awesome that you're able to do that. Like we are able to do that.
00:03:33 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:03:37 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:03:41 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:03:50 Vanessa Betance
A lot of times I remember growing up, you know, my mom would be like, Oh my God, you're getting another bowl or like, wow, or, you know or like, that's so fast. Or. Wow. Yeah. Or you're looking for another job. Oh, my God, that's fine. You know? And like, she comes from an era where they stay working for 25 years.
00:04:00 Regan Bashara
Again.
00:04:04 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:10 Vanessa Betance
And yes, there's growth and development, but it was very different than you know what it was from today and even when I was in my 20s, you know, so.
00:04:19 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:04:20 Vanessa Betance
All that to say that I have really been able to use my corporate experience and dabbling in creative side strategy, copywriting, 2 actual creative content creation sessions where we're working with photographers. We're working with ideas to.
00:04:42 Vanessa Betance
Implement to create, to edit, to post, then to analyze. Now we're slowly moving into.
00:04:48 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:04:52 Vanessa Betance
Like beyond just standard social media insights and now we've moved into creative development for strategy and development for ads and then executing ads and then analyzing the ads and then reporting that into a beautiful story and a lovely deck. You know, so.
00:05:03 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:05:07 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:12 Vanessa Betance
Like that was the I think is a really cool thing about my corporate experience that it gave me the platform and the flexibility and just the real world experiences of.
00:05:24 Vanessa Betance
How to do all of that and so I just.
00:05:31 Vanessa Betance
Fell in love with.
00:05:33 Vanessa Betance
Doing all that I can to help small businesses because I knew one day I was going to have a small business of my own and good karma is out there. So if I can help others do something that to me like I love it to me is.
00:05:46 Vanessa Betance
Like and that's where a lot of my, you know, hard lessons in early entrepreneurship was like knowing how much to charge or knowing when to say no, I can't take anymore work. You know what?
00:06:01 Vanessa Betance
I mean, yeah.
00:06:02 Vanessa Betance
Just because of my.
00:06:08 Vanessa Betance
Just because of how badly I wanted to help, and then also because how much I love marketing and I love being creative, I love executing that creative vision. I love. I even love and. But I really love seeing the end piece right, so having to work with a client and then having them share.
00:06:13 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:06:27 Vanessa Betance
Their vision with me and then us work together at the seeing all the way till the end.
00:06:33 Vanessa Betance
Where we can actually see the whole big picture and then seeing the vision come to to life right. Like that moment I'm.
00:06:39 Vanessa Betance
Like, Oh my God.
00:06:41 Vanessa Betance
This is what we've this is what we've made, you know, this is amazing. Like, that is super rewarding to me so.
00:06:44 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:06:47 Vanessa Betance
MHM.
00:06:49 Vanessa Betance
Because that was a time where I was, I was more of like you gotta tune you with your passion calls, forget about money. Cause I was already over corporate like I had. I reached that like I reached that and then I realized how unfulfilling that was. Like I reached its figures and it's just yeah, it's great.
00:07:00 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:07:07 Vanessa Betance
But it wasn't. I don't know. I was. There was a lot of travel involved. There was just I.
00:07:13 Vanessa Betance
Don't. It was.
00:07:13 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:07:14 Vanessa Betance
It was great, but then there was a lot of big voids. But then here comes my passion kicking in and it's like ohh girlfriend you can go like you can.
00:07:17 Vanessa Betance
Mm-hmm.
00:07:21 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:07:23 Vanessa Betance
Live like a like.
00:07:25 Vanessa Betance
A. You know, starving artist. You can do it.
00:07:29 Regan Bashara
Yeah, you know what I mean.
00:07:30 Vanessa Betance
It was like I I I started off with extremes where passion was driving me more than the financial and I learned big lessons there. But all in that to say.
00:07:43 Vanessa Betance
Entrepreneurship has always been a dream of mine and then helping others and just having conversations and bouncing ideas with other like minded folks to me is so much more fulfilling than.
00:07:54 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:08:02 Vanessa Betance
A stuffy corporate room where, like everything is kind of like pretty fake.
00:08:05 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:08:08 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:09 Vanessa Betance
Or not, you know.
00:08:11 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:08:12 Vanessa Betance
I.
00:08:12 Vanessa Betance
Not all the time.
00:08:14 Regan Bashara
I wonder you. OK? So you mentioned that you have a flower shop like Florence. Yeah. So you're still doing that? And then you're also helping people with the branding because that's something you're passionate about and you've mentioned, like, the drive of both the passion combined with, like, wanting to help people. And I'm an ideas girl. Like, I will sit here and.
00:08:19 Vanessa Betance
I did.
00:08:34 Regan Bashara
Spot off 80 million ideas with somebody, and if we really get going, it's kind of dangerous honestly, because I'm like, great, I've got all these ideas. Let's go do them.
00:08:42 Regan Bashara
Like.
00:08:43 Regan Bashara
Do you how?
00:08:44 Regan Bashara
Does that work with you? What is the balance like between like you have this business where you get to be creative and then you've got the branding and the marketing and helping others be creative and kind of see their vision.
00:08:57 Regan Bashara
To life. What does that balance look like for you?
00:08:59 Vanessa Betance
So.
00:09:00 Vanessa Betance
So that I did have the the floral shop for four years. I started with two other partners and then I sewed my piece earlier this year. So now I'm just doing the my own creative boutique full time and.
00:09:18 Regan Bashara
Thing, congratulations.
00:09:19 Vanessa Betance
Thank you. Thank you. But essentially when I was doing some freelancing at the time of having my shop.
00:09:29 Vanessa Betance
Time management is huge and I think that it took me a while to figure out too, again because I'm just that type of person that, like passion, will have me going so much more further than it should be. It keeps me going when I just pause and.
00:09:31 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:09:41 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:09:46 Vanessa Betance
Stop and reevaluate.
00:09:47 Vanessa Betance
It just keeps me going.
00:09:47 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:09:50 Vanessa Betance
So I feel.
00:09:52 Vanessa Betance
Like if I could do it all over again, I would really focus on time management and being honest with how much I can do and and and really look into outsourcing help, whatever it is aligned and it makes the most sense whether that is and I'm talking about.
00:10:02 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:10:12 Vanessa Betance
All areas of my life, not just like in the shop with employees or with in or.
00:10:21 Vanessa Betance
Virtual assistant to help me with my freelancing or house cleaning to help me at home. Or you know, like. But there's just so many things that I feel like we just try to, or at least I I'll just speak in first person. I just try to take on so much because I.
00:10:22 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:10:26 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:10:37 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:10:40 Vanessa Betance
I just don't. I was grown.
00:10:42 Vanessa Betance
Going up to always help I you know, you always got to extend where you can. So I just kind of taken that again because I'm all or nothing. I'm a Pisces and I pisces hard. So like I'm either all in or I'm all out like.
00:10:57 Regan Bashara
I was gonna ask you, like, what's your astrological do you have uh siblings as well? Yeah. You're the younger. Yeah. Alright, well then eldest daughters here like.
00:10:57 Vanessa Betance
So like I'm.
00:11:08 Regan Bashara
Happening, I understand completely.
00:11:08 Vanessa Betance
Yes, yes, it's you get it, yes.
00:11:13 Vanessa Betance
Yes. And so you know, I just.
00:11:17 Vanessa Betance
Learning how to really take care of my mental as long as as much as I'm taking care of everything else is super important and I feel like I neglected myself because I was just trying so hard to, you know, make everything neat. So I will say that time management is huge.
00:11:31 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:11:37 Vanessa Betance
And at the end of the day, one thing I did learn because I was seeking it for so long, and then it just like it was like a cross between.
00:11:47 Vanessa Betance
A conversation I had with a friend and just like an epiphany, but like, we're never truly balanced. Because yeah, when we have our priorities, it's balanced based on our priorities, right, like and at the end of the day, that's the only way.
00:11:59 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:12:04 Vanessa Betance
If you focus a little bit more on something than all the rest, you're going to get further in that little bit more. Do you know what I'm saying? Like in that in in what you're trying to develop? So yeah, I learned that because I was trying so hard to balance everything. But who? But what ended up happening is I didn't. I left myself out of the equation.
00:12:20 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:12:25 Vanessa Betance
Because I was balancing everything else, I didn't know myself in it, you know? So I realized that like, OK, so if it's me that is my number one, my priority and my health, then at the end of the day, I need to carve in 20 minutes every single day to me without feeling guilty. I don't care.
00:12:29 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:12:45 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:12:46 Vanessa Betance
If I didn't reach the rest of my To Do List and I gotta do it like I got 24 hours to commit to these 20.
00:12:49 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:12:51 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:12:54 Regan Bashara
Yeah, and that is such a that's an experience that I think so many people share. It's like, I think so many people who listen and so many people I know and I share that experience too, that it's like you feel pulled in so many different directions and especially lately for me, I've been focusing so much more on my self-care. And I've like the rewards.
00:12:55 Vanessa Betance
Information.
00:13:14 Regan Bashara
I've been exponential like just 20 minutes a day, like you were talking about. Like, it's so important.
00:13:20 Regan Bashara
To carve out that little bit of time and it does make a huge difference. We discount it because we're like, it's only 20 minutes. I can skip over it, but the when you miss out on that 20 minutes, you miss a lot more than just spending. 20 minutes will gain you and like that, it's not like a one to one like ratio of that. It's like you get so much more out of prioritizing yourself.
00:13:41 Regan Bashara
And self-care. And it's so important for business owners because we don't really we answer to ourselves. We don't have a manager or a boss like looking over our shoulder all day like we have to be in charge of our time management and prioritizing ourselves. So I'm really glad that you brought that up.
00:13:56 Vanessa Betance
But.
00:13:58 Regan Bashara
We can totally switch into talking about branding.
00:14:00 Vanessa Betance
No, no, I love this. I love this. I just didn't know. I didn't know how soon we wanted to be. I love it so we can keep going.
00:14:06 Regan Bashara
Yeah. Well, you originally applied and talked about like helping people especially define their niche and helping startups because.
00:14:17 Regan Bashara
Is moving from a corporate job where you're cross trained into all of the different tasks and you fit into all these different teams. Now it's like up to us as entrepreneurs to decide to make the decisions and be like, well, what is my niche going to be? What is my brand going to be, how how can I be authentic to myself? Because when you're not being authentic to yourself, there's like a dissonance.
00:14:37 Regan Bashara
That happens, and like it's uncomfortable, right? And so can you walk us through like, a client journey with you from, let's say, somebody doesn't really have a plan for like what they want to do. And we're starting from zero from square one. Can you walk us through what that journey looks like for your clients that you work?
00:14:56 Vanessa Betance
With.
00:14:56 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny that you say that because not only have I helped the clients that are starting brand new, right, but there's plenty of times where I've started working with clients with existing brands that they have no clue who they're talking to. You know. So yeah, I feel like this.
00:15:17 Vanessa Betance
Piece of the puzzle when it comes to branding is so important, and it's one of the things that you get to determine up front, like at the end of the day, what type of brands are you in a sense of what type of clientele do you want to bring in? What is your goals? What is your financial like?
00:15:33 Vanessa Betance
What are you?
00:15:34 Vanessa Betance
What is your financial goal or what are you working towards? And then what do you that whatever you have to distribute or provide and service, how is it valued right like and so at the end of the day?
00:15:50 Vanessa Betance
When you think of what your product is and who it serves, then you need to then think of alright, how can I speak to them? How can I communicate to them to let them know? I got this to serve them or to help them or to give them right. So you can have several different types.
00:15:55 Regan Bashara
MHM.
00:16:03 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:16:05 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:16:08 Vanessa Betance
Yes. Hmm.
00:16:12 Vanessa Betance
Of.
00:16:14 Vanessa Betance
Buyer personas. Now we're going to get a little technical, but like you can have a bunch of different buyer personas for that one service or that one product depending on who you're talking to, right? It could be a corporate person or it could be someone that is just a regular consumer that can totally benefit your product or service so.
00:16:17 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:16:34 Vanessa Betance
You would talk differently to someone at work than your friend.
00:16:39 Regan Bashara
MMM.
00:16:40 Vanessa Betance
On the phone.
00:16:41 Vanessa Betance
Right. You would tell them you would totally talk to them differently. You would explain stories differently. Yeah. You would highlight different parts of your stories differently. So it's like taking that into consideration. And then the same type of mental like mechanics.
00:16:51 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:16:59 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:17:00 Vanessa Betance
Is to figuring out.
00:17:02 Vanessa Betance
Alright, let me let me if that's who I'm talking to. Alright. What's that language. What does?
00:17:08 Vanessa Betance
Yeah. And then OK, if it's corporate, then yes, we're going to be a little bit more, not a little bit, we'll be more formal. We will also have things a little more properly done and executed probably you know.
00:17:20 Vanessa Betance
Mm-hmm.
00:17:25 Vanessa Betance
Higher quality photos. It's not going to be such raw like you can see on TikTok, right? At least not for now, at least not for now, and that could totally change like social changes all the time, but then also like so you're you're coming, you're presenting yourself differently, you know.
00:17:31 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:17:37 Vanessa Betance
Uh-huh.
00:17:39 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:17:45 Vanessa Betance
So OK, cool. That's who I'm talking to. That's my audience. Alright, I already have a a persona. Buy a persona mind of let's say.
00:17:55 Vanessa Betance
Let's just say, Charlie, I don't know, OK? I don't know. Let's just say Charlie as the corporate Charlie, you know? So I was thinking of. Yeah, a name would see. Yeah.
00:17:57 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:17:59 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:18:05 Regan Bashara
For Charlie.
00:18:08 Vanessa Betance
Corporate Charlie. So you would talk to Corporate Charlie way differently and alright that's that allows you to think of who you are and who your brand is and not change for anybody. But just figure out how to talk to them while still being your authentic self.
00:18:25 Vanessa Betance
Is at the end of the day, what you're trying to do, and again it falls back to your goals if.
00:18:30 Vanessa Betance
If you don't see this to be long term, then your strategy is going to be very different. It's not going to be an organic strategy that takes time to grow as in a garden where you plant and you water and you pull the weeds and you, you know, maybe put a little like fertilizer, some vitamins and then.
00:18:33 Vanessa Betance
Umm.
00:18:49 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:18:51 Vanessa Betance
You let nature do its thing and it takes time so organically to grow your community. It truly does take time. Yes, you could put spend behind.
00:19:00 Vanessa Betance
Awareness. So more people, more like minded folks will learn about you, but at the end of the day it takes nourishing to build and cultivate your community, right. Yeah. And so you wanna make sure that whatever you put out there is going to hold the test of time.
00:19:17 Vanessa Betance
So it's not.
00:19:18 Vanessa Betance
That, you know like using.
00:19:19 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:19:20 Vanessa Betance
Using like you know, trendy words.
00:19:24 Vanessa Betance
That do you speak that way? If you do cool, then then that makes sense. You're gonna talk to your those type of people and you're gonna get those type of sales. That type of return, cause you're speaking their language. You're calling to them. You know what I'm saying? But you can't expect you know, high.
00:19:28 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:19:45 Vanessa Betance
High profit when you're speaking a language that is foreign to you, it's not even. You don't even speak that way, and you're trying to be something you're not. And then the little sales that you do.
00:19:52 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:19:57 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:19:59 Vanessa Betance
That.
00:20:00 Vanessa Betance
You're you're unhappy with it because that's not the type of clientele you want, or that's more not the money that you want or you're not making as much money as you want. Well, who are you talking to? How are you talking? You know what I'm saying? Like, think about it that way. Like, psychology has a big part to a big chunk to do with marketing.
00:20:04 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:20:06 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:20:11 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:20:19 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:20:20 Vanessa Betance
Huge and I wish.
00:20:23 Vanessa Betance
I mean now they talked about it back in the day. They didn't talk about it and not as much, right. They really didn't put as much emphasis, emphasis in it. But at the end of the day, it really is just knowing who you're talking to. And it's like thinking about it when you're taking into real life terms like people are calling themselves brands. OK, you're a walking.
00:20:26 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:43 Vanessa Betance
When when you go to work, how do you talk at work?
00:20:47 Regan Bashara
MM.
00:20:47 Vanessa Betance
How do you tell your friends at work that you have a new product?
00:20:53 Vanessa Betance
You, you know, and then still being you still being true to you, but then also turning around and then telling your friends in a normal environment in a normal way, how you can tell them you just put out a new product or you have a new service. How do you tell them, you know and it's talking like that and then also and then that's where, you know, you really do become strategic.
00:21:14 Vanessa Betance
Of OK, now you've defined that.
00:21:20 Vanessa Betance
Again, you're not niching down. You're staying true, and you can be servicing a wide range of folks. Men, women, elderly, you. You could be. You know, you can wide range, but it's just what type of person. Like, what are you? Who's your crowd? You know, how are you? How are you speaking to them? And then from your crowd, you narrow in.
00:21:34 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:21:40 Vanessa Betance
On.
00:21:41 Vanessa Betance
Basically creating like your avatar, your person, your buy your persona and you find out what their likes are, their pain points, their challenge is, and this is where AI comes in, you know, I mean, this is the beauty of today's day and age where you can hone in so, so much using AI.
00:21:51 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:01 Vanessa Betance
And how to communicate to this set audience using your own brand tone and voice.
00:22:07 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:22:08 Vanessa Betance
You know.
00:22:08 Regan Bashara
I like, I love using AI for like a jumping off point like I'll. I'll let ChatGPT like build me an outline but then I always consider like OK but how would I say it? Because the AI is not saying it like how I say it and my people want me they don't want me parroting back what I said so it's.
00:22:27 Vanessa Betance
Absolutely.
00:22:28 Regan Bashara
It's so important to have that authentic voice, too, even if you're using the tools.
00:22:33 Regan Bashara
And understanding the psychology and all of that like you're still talking to another person on the other end of that. And like you mentioned, like cultivating a guard. And I think that is always such a great metaphor to use for marketing and branding because it's like we care for plants because they're beautiful and they bring us joy. Or if we're growing tomatoes, they are nourishing.
00:22:53 Regan Bashara
It's like it is so important to do that because.
00:22:54 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:22:58 Regan Bashara
It to look at it that way because it's another human being. It's another person on the end of the transaction and like I want to build a relationship with my people. I don't necessarily just want to take their money like they nourish me well, I nourish them. I teach them something. They pay me for that value. Like, that is the exchange that's happening. But I also care about them just as whole people.
00:23:18 Regan Bashara
And I think like when it comes to client avatars, it's been so helpful for me to just, like, pull up an actual client that I've had a training with or a conversation with. Or, you know, DMS with. And I like, if I'm doing a video or if I'm writing an e-mail.
00:23:33 Regan Bashara
Oh, I just imagine that I'm like speaking directly to them because I know about them. So like they've they've told me exactly. And like, we're all unique butterflies and all that. But like most of us also have the same kind of problems we all kind of deal with the same ********. Yeah, it's easy to bring up somebody who you know, something specific.
00:23:36 Vanessa Betance
Yes, yes.
00:23:39 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:23:53 Regan Bashara
Thought and speak to that experience because it will definitely apply to somebody else. Somebody else will hear that and be like, whoa, it's like she actually knows what I'm dealing with. Like, yeah. So the the client avatar thing is so good.
00:24:06 Regan Bashara
And the the metaphor of the garden like you want to be that caretaker, almost in that caretaker position of your community. And so I love that you framed it that way because it is building a community. It is building relationships with people.
00:24:21 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, absolutely. And again, like I totally and I I back you up 1001%.
00:24:30 Vanessa Betance
Thank you.
00:24:30 Vanessa Betance
I want to use. Yes, I love to use AI as like data tools. You know what I mean? Like tell me like, tell me what pains and challenges these folks are having. Right. Because at the end of the day, that allows me to create content, but then also become more of value.
00:24:36 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:24:49 Vanessa Betance
You know what I mean? So and then two really to speaking to like, OK.
00:24:54 Vanessa Betance
Like.
00:24:55 Vanessa Betance
This is how you're feeling. But look, I got this for you to come help save the day, you know? So, yeah, yeah, that human element. And it's just it's like now you already know. Like, I feel like we have grown such a in such a quick amount of time.
00:25:01 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:25:16 Vanessa Betance
But I feel like it's been a universal thing that, you know, when something's been AI, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, like you don't even look at it like you just.
00:25:20 Vanessa Betance
Yes, yes.
00:25:23 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:25:24 Vanessa Betance
So you know, a lot of folks are like, ohh, but I got there's not a lot of folks. Let me rephrase that, cause words are powerful. I teach my son that all the time, but there are business owners that I've had conversations with and.
00:25:31 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:25:40 Vanessa Betance
They keep on saying, Oh well, and this could be like a sales call and all transparency they were like ohh well, you know that part of your service of content creation and strategy is great. But I have a I like, I could just, you know chat if you see.
00:25:55 Vanessa Betance
Uh, yeah.
00:25:56 Vanessa Betance
And I'm like, no, no, like, OK, like. Yes, you're right. Like black and white world like yes. OK. You plug in your little script and that happens well. But that is not what's gonna work long term nor probably is it going to give you the results that you're looking for immediately.
00:26:03 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:26:06 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:26:16 Vanessa Betance
You know, so.
00:26:17 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:26:18 Vanessa Betance
It's like.
00:26:18 Vanessa Betance
And people can.
00:26:19 Regan Bashara
Tell like you said, we we.
00:26:21 Regan Bashara
All know when we see an AI image, it doesn't even have to be the one with the fingers that are all.
00:26:25 Vanessa Betance
Justin.
00:26:27 Regan Bashara
Weird too like.
00:26:28 Regan Bashara
We can just we can just we're. I'm just. I'm smarter than the computer. Like computers have not just suddenly become smarter than like we can tell.
00:26:28 Vanessa Betance
No.
00:26:36 Vanessa Betance
No, it's like and. Just like when you buy followers, you can tell.
00:26:41 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:42 Vanessa Betance
It's another one you know.
00:26:44 Vanessa Betance
I I'm not a buyer, I'm.
00:26:45 Vanessa Betance
I'm not happy with that. I'm not. I'm I always hear Mike. Like. Yeah, like why? Like put that money in that? Yeah. Put that money in. And that's gonna turn around, bring awareness, sign up to your newsletter. Then you really give you know, like, there's smarter ways to throw your money.
00:26:48 Vanessa Betance
It's so goofy.
00:26:54 Vanessa Betance
Why?
00:26:56 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:01 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:27:06 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:27:06 Vanessa Betance
I wanna say yeah, but that's another conversation. But.
00:27:11 Vanessa Betance
Yes. Yeah.
00:27:14 Regan Bashara
So what kind of specific challenges do you see startups coming up against if somebody's like, brand new in business and maybe it is like the the draw of AI or the draw of buying followers or like, what do you let's just get your take on like the quick fix, overnight success, crap that's out there that.
00:27:34 Regan Bashara
It's just like spend this much money with me and we're gonna catapult you into success. Like what? Give me your take on that. Is that something you see a lot of startups kind of getting pulled into?
00:27:45 Vanessa Betance
I see I see a lot of startups getting like lost in the sauce of social media and getting over glamorized like.
00:27:59 Vanessa Betance
Promises of all these thousands of followers, and really, it's not as much as like, OK, I'll create content for you. It's like I'll just buy all these bots and sludge your stream. You flood your account with bots. Really. I mean, and and and also.
00:28:00 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:28:13 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:28:17 Vanessa Betance
I feel like they just.
00:28:18 Vanessa Betance
There's a lot social media is a lot, and there's a lot of pieces to social media, marketing, social media strategy, and knowing who your audience is, a huge piece of the puzzle that a lot of folks either are intimidated by. So they just, like, let me just go out there and spread the word. Let me just go ahead and make a post of, like, my product of.
00:28:24 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:28:37 Vanessa Betance
Or my new release, my new launch without really understanding like what? OK. So what's next? Like or, you know, really thinking through they don't know about funnels. Let's be real. That again these are marketing is a full time job, right? So it's like, yes.
00:28:44 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:28:53 Regan Bashara
It's a science too. It's an experiment, yeah.
00:28:57 Vanessa Betance
Yes, yes. And so if you're not patient then go ahead, buy your go. I would tell you instead of instead of.
00:29:06 Vanessa Betance
Buy followers, put money in your ***. Go ahead, go crazy. Put money in your ads. Still with strategy still.
00:29:09 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, really.
00:29:12 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:29:14 Vanessa Betance
So getting your subscribers like sent to your e-mail or signing up new subscribers or or excuse me getting folks sent to your website to sign up to your subscribers. Thank you for that moment of clarity, but like still be smart with how you're gonna use your money. So you still have your database, you still have your people.
00:29:37 Vanessa Betance
Because e-mail marketing is huge, I say it hands down more than social media, but look. See, that's the thing. That's how. That's what I mean. The the business owners get so like lost in the sauce sometimes is because they still think.
00:29:39 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah. Keep it.
00:29:48 Vanessa Betance
That Instagram is where they should throw all this money. No, they still think that a A channel would is the best thing to like, you know, put all your money in. And I always say no, it's the second best thing. It it's like just an Ave. it's like a turbo boost and it allows you to be a train to keep going.
00:29:52 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:30:08 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:30:09 Vanessa Betance
I'll let everybody know about you. Everybody know about you, you know, organically. So at the end of the day.
00:30:10 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:30:15 Vanessa Betance
Say your e-mail database is huge. Focus on building your e-mail database. Every startup. I always say yes, have your social media intact. Have a strategy of your first ten posts, be exactly of who you are, what you offer, how you help, how to reach you.
00:30:36 Vanessa Betance
Different examples, pieces of your character brand character be just natural, right? Like focus on your first ten posts, get your story highlights in place so then again cause it's like your menu.
00:30:49 Vanessa Betance
Like like nowadays you gotta be multiple. But just like how one person has to be multiple roles, one business has to do multiple things and act as as a multiple as a multiple businesses, right? So at the end of the day, you can look at your Instagram as your business card slash menu and you could put your services down.
00:31:00 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:31:09 Vanessa Betance
Put how to reach you put like again. Guess you have it in post but have that in your stories because at the end of the day you're posting your feet is gonna grow.
00:31:16 Vanessa Betance
Your story highlights are going to stay there, so these strategic strategic with how OK you want to be on this channel because this is the folks you want to reach and this is your message, you've established that wonderful. So this at the post that you're going to create have that in place but always driving to build your website and focus on building out your website.
00:31:18 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:31:38 Vanessa Betance
Excuse me, I keep. I'm sorry. Now the mushroom coffee is like, really kicked it fills out your e-mail database. It builds out your e-mail database as much as possible and make that your main.
00:31:44 Vanessa Betance
Ah.
00:31:50 Regan Bashara
Yeah, yeah.
00:31:50 Vanessa Betance
You know, because real and again sales are made in.
00:31:54 Vanessa Betance
Emails.
00:31:56 Vanessa Betance
Say it louder for the people because it's so true. Like, listen, y'all, this is the last five minutes. Yeah. Juicy. Yeah. And I and I, I I say it with all honesty. And I say this to everybody that like everybody that has a business. I don't care if they're clients.
00:32:06 Regan Bashara
You see goodness in there.
00:32:16 Vanessa Betance
Or or their clients or or.
00:32:19 Vanessa Betance
You know, whatever. If you have a business and I speak to you, we have conversations with. I love these conversations. I always. And if I always ask, OK, so you have e-mail database. If if it's no. OK. So then when are you going to get one? You guys you need one like at the end of the day the one the worst thing anything.
00:32:26 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:32:33 Vanessa Betance
That's the first step. Yeah, yeah.
00:32:38 Vanessa Betance
And have been or have happen is, you know, Mr. Marky Mark gets upset.
00:32:44 Vanessa Betance
And he goes to the meta headquarters and shuts it all down. And not only have you, you know, those people that pay for followers, you lost that, but then also you put money behind all this content creation because there was no content strategy. So you put all this time and money into your Instagram reels.
00:32:45 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:32:48 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:32:49 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:32:55 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:32:56 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:32:58 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:33:05 Vanessa Betance
For your post.
00:33:06 Vanessa Betance
And they're gone. What do you have to show for it? You know, like and then what, like, again? It's like just being smart with how you do things. And yes, be cute and trendy, but then use be find a way to use that for your YouTube shorts and your TikTok and your e-mail or whatever your other channels that you're doing, like be smart with how you're focusing.
00:33:27 Vanessa Betance
Because I feel like a lot of folks are just again lost in the sauce of.
00:33:32 Vanessa Betance
Like.
00:33:33 Vanessa Betance
The Instagram. I don't know why. I don't know. Maybe it's like a certain generation that's still stuck on now. They like left Facebook and they're slowly coming out to a fake Instagram, you know, like it's a certain age group that I feel like or maybe it's just my clients out here in Chicago, who knows. But like, at the end of the day, I feel like there's just such an obsession with folks on Instagram.
00:33:42 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:33:43 Vanessa Betance
Yes. Yeah.
00:33:49 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:54 Vanessa Betance
And I'm like no.
00:33:56 Vanessa Betance
You know, like that's not we gotta be. Yeah, we gotta.
00:33:58 Regan Bashara
I don't get it. I like Instagram.
00:34:02 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, I I used to. I used to like it. I used to like it a lot, but it's changed. And it's not even. And again, like now you can pick up AI stuff so easily that it's like it's not even fun anymore. Why am I here if I'm not learning anything?
00:34:06 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:34:16 Regan Bashara
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:18 Vanessa Betance
I'm kind of just not. I'm bored already so but messages, e-mail, database huge.
00:34:21 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:34:26 Vanessa Betance
Emails marketing strategy huge.
00:34:29 Regan Bashara
Yeah, just like neon sign.
00:34:32 Regan Bashara
Build your e-mail list. That's been so true for my business too, and I'm glad you brought that up because it's like the sales funnel thing like social media is a quick moment. It's like a three second attention span that you have people and they're gone and you got to, like, stick there or they have to see that.
00:34:35 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:34:53 Regan Bashara
See you for those 3 second intervals like over and over again before they're finally like.
00:34:56 Regan Bashara
Wait, what? What is?
00:34:58 Regan Bashara
This wait, actually. That sounds. Yeah. So like, that is just the tip of it. And then like moving them into the e-mail list, moving them into community with you, which is how I look at my e-mail list.
00:35:10 Regan Bashara
You're just, you know, you're.
00:35:11 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:35:12 Regan Bashara
Just going to hear from me and it has to also be consistent there too. And I think that's what a lot of people struggle with. If there was a tip that you could give us about consistency since that is a big deal for a lot of folks, what do you tell your clients? How can we be more consistent with with the marketing that we're doing?
00:35:30 Vanessa Betance
I would schedule and content batching for me. Content batching helps a lot if and then also leaving room for any emails on the fly or thoughts on the fly that I want to share, but essentially.
00:35:45 Vanessa Betance
Very much taking like my thought process of content strategy into e-mail strategy where I'm looking at the month ahead and I'm basically looking to see if there's anything that I need to call out or any anything that I'd like to share any certain holidays, anything that you know, I don't want to actually send on that day. Maybe wanna send a couple days before so at least I know.
00:36:07 Vanessa Betance
OK, I I map out how many emails I'll be sending that month ahead and then I dedicate. I literally dedicate 2 hours to.
00:36:15 Vanessa Betance
Just.
00:36:16 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:36:18 Regan Bashara
Yeah, that's a great tip. I yeah.
00:36:19 Vanessa Betance
And then.
00:36:20 Vanessa Betance
And then just schedule it out and UM, that's the best. That's the best thing that I.
00:36:26 Vanessa Betance
Can.
00:36:26 Vanessa Betance
That I can recommend because life doesn't get crazy. And then we're always looking for life to.
00:36:32 Vanessa Betance
Get crazier because.
00:36:33 Vanessa Betance
We're not looking for clients, right? So we're not looking for more people to help.
00:36:38 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:36:40 Vanessa Betance
So as I like to do that, but again leaving space for me to like just get creative on.
00:36:46 Vanessa Betance
The fly.
00:36:48 Regan Bashara
I have like a little notebook I just keep here that it's just my ideas notebook because I have it on the term like.
00:36:53 Vanessa Betance
My.
00:36:55 Regan Bashara
What a great idea. But instead of stopping whatever I'm doing and like leaning into that, I'm like, let me just write it down and then the next time I batch, I'll deal with it. And it's a nice system for me to know that my ideas are not just going to fly out the window because they will if I don't write them.
00:37:11 Regan Bashara
Down and deal with things.
00:37:13 Vanessa Betance
You know I did. It's so funny you said that because recently I listened to a podcast.
00:37:20 Vanessa Betance
Yes, personal development is huge for me. I like to like commit to that on.
00:37:24 Vanessa Betance
A daily basis.
00:37:25 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:37:26 Vanessa Betance
And one of the newest things I'm going to share that I learned is where you sit down at your desk before you actually work, and then basically you just close your eyes and you write.
00:37:41 Vanessa Betance
Down everything that like as it the tests as tests come in, you just take a like put the timer on for two minutes and just anything that comes up. Write it down, keep your eyes closed, you write it down and then that allows you to kind of do a brain.
00:37:49 Vanessa Betance
Mm-hmm.
00:37:52 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:37:58 Vanessa Betance
Dump.
00:37:59 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:37:59 Vanessa Betance
So that.
00:38:00 Vanessa Betance
After you do your brains up, that's when you can go ahead and prioritize. But all that to say, it's a a new trick to kind of just like.
00:38:08 Vanessa Betance
Get it all out of your mind so that doesn't stay lingering. And I thought that's a cool thing to try out.
00:38:11 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:38:16 Regan Bashara
And if it's accessible to people or more accessible like I love writing things down, and I think that's very helpful for my brain to slow down.
00:38:24 Regan Bashara
But uh, you could also do like a voice note in your phone, and most of them have a.
00:38:26 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:38:27 Regan Bashara
Transcription thing where like.
00:38:30 Regan Bashara
You just talk for two minutes, set the timer, and then afterwards look at the transcript, pull out like the keywords, things like that. So if that's more accessible for people to like, just sit down and do a voice note every day, copy and paste that transcript into ChatGPT. This is what.
00:38:36 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:38:45 Regan Bashara
Using AI to kind of help parse through our brains like stream of consciousness. That's what I find most helpful. So I'm a big fan of like, the morning pages sitting down, brain dump, big fan of all of that.
00:38:57 Vanessa Betance
For sure. Yeah, yeah.
00:38:58 Vanessa Betance
Actually, voice notes I used to use that when during my commute to the shop and getting me some from school and stuff. That's the best way because when you're driving.
00:39:03 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:39:04 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:39:06 Vanessa Betance
123 yeah, save it. Yes, yes. Great Nuggets.
00:39:11 Regan Bashara
Yes, amazing. Can you share with us where we can find you and follow you work with you, what you've got going on? Yeah.
00:39:17 Vanessa Betance
Yes, yes. So I am available.
00:39:24 Vanessa Betance
I am on Instagram. Yeah, you can follow me at BMB creative and then under score and then also my website is BMB creative code.com. And yeah, sign up for my newsletter. I.
00:39:33 Vanessa Betance
Hmm.
00:39:43 Vanessa Betance
Yes.
00:39:44 Vanessa Betance
I'm in the new in like the planning stages. I want to put together a free just one day I.
00:39:53 Vanessa Betance
I don't want to do 2 days, I mean there's so much information I could do 2 days, but I just wanted to do like a one day like mastermind of for a branding mastermind right? Like so ideally this would be for folks that are looking to like create a new or like finally make time to establish their brand.
00:39:56 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:39:59 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:40:13 Vanessa Betance
To their service or product.
00:40:14 Vanessa Betance
Next, ohh like the beginning stages or it is for folks that maybe they haven't touched their brand in years. Or maybe they've changed or they want a little makeover. You know? So some I I'm. I'm putting it all together. But if you sign up to the newsletter, then you'll stay in touch with that. But that is my project. I'm trying to definitely.
00:40:15 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:40:35 Vanessa Betance
Put that in.
00:40:35 Vanessa Betance
By the fall, so all of that is.
00:40:36 Regan Bashara
That sounds amazing.
00:40:39 Vanessa Betance
Yay, that's sucks. I'm like, sign me up for that. I definitely want to do that. Awesome.
00:40:43 Vanessa Betance
Right.
00:40:46 Regan Bashara
Well, thank you so much for being a guest on many theories. This was full of so many good juicy Nuggets, and you all might want to just rewind and listen to the entire thing again. Vanessa shared so much brilliance with us, so many actionable tips to take away. Don't buy Instagram followers, get people on emails like.
00:41:04 Vanessa Betance
No.
00:41:06 Regan Bashara
Poor message here.
00:41:09 Vanessa Betance
Don't. And if you got money to spend, then use it wisely. Right? Spend it in a smart way that you will be able to either a grow your community, which should be, you know, up there you.
00:41:24 Vanessa Betance
Yeah.
00:41:25 Vanessa Betance
That should be.
00:41:26 Vanessa Betance
Otherwise, I question why you're doing this, but you know because at that another day you want to build committee, right? You want to serve, you don't want to just something to be transactional, because then that's a different strategy. That would be a different ball game. I don't think that type of person would be listening. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. So.
00:41:27 Vanessa Betance
Yeah, yeah.
00:41:38 Regan Bashara
You're not Walmart. You're not Walmart. This is no transaction.
00:41:44 Vanessa Betance
So yeah, this is awesome. This is thank you. Thank you so much, Reagan. I look forward to chatting again.
00:41:47 Regan Bashara
Thanks so much for being out there. Ah.
00:41:55 Regan Bashara
Yeah, for sure. This is so fun. Thank you.
00:41:56 Vanessa Betance
Really.
00:41:58 Regan Bashara
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Money. Through ease. If you found value in today's discussion, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review your feedback really does mean a lot.
00:42:11 Regan Bashara
And if you're ready to take the first step towards organized finances, be sure to download my free receipt organization guide to chaos. To calm, visit the link in the show notes to grab your free copy. Now remember, your financial journey starts with small steps. I'm here to support you every step of the way until next time. This is Regan.
00:42:31 Regan Bashara
Bashara from money through ease. Stay empowered.