SAMIA: Hello, Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour and Buna!It's really really amazing to be with you... And I have a very special guest with us Tami Crea who is the co-founder of Savvy Sales Strategy and I'm so excited to have you with us Tami welcome... 

TAMI: Thank you for having me...

SAMIA: So I am so excited to have you because I know you are someone who can help us understand how to make marketing easy… 

TAMI: Well... I mean yes and no marketing always has its challenges... But by the same token too many people get so confused and they try so many different things and then it doesn't work… 

SAMIA: Yeah... Yeah. So I mean what is in your opinion like one of the most important aspects of… or like a problem that people have because of veg marketing becomes really difficult for them... 

TAMI: Sure... A lot of people come into the online coaching world which is what I specialize in... And they feel like I can help anybody… which is true... But when it comes to marketing if you don't narrow your focus down to finding that ideal client that one that you really want to work with the one you can really make the most change happen and transformation in their lives you end up marketing to no one because you spread so thin that nobody really gets to understand that you can help them… 

SAMIA: Yeah yeah... So really you're talking about getting clear on your niche and the ideal client that you're going to be… that you're going to be serving… Is there any anything else that you need to like... get really clear on…

TAMI: Yeah in terms of that... It's kind of it's going broad but not going too broad and it's niching down but not niching down too much... There's so many people out there that are going to tell you you really have to know your client inside and out I mean they have red hair they have 3.5 kids they have two dogs... And yes that exercise that probably every person listening to this has been through is helpful it's instructive to get you to start thinking about again who is it you can serve best…

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: But don't get too stuck in that... I mean if someone has blond hair instead of red hair guess what you can probably still help them and so the problem is a lot of times we see people get so tangled up in trying to make everything perfect that they never take that first step even out the door to try and figure it out... It comes down to the idea that all marketing is testing so maybe you think that you can help redheads more than blondes and you find out that in reality you resonate better with blondes but if you never test that you'll never know…

SAMIA: Wow... I love what you just said about so much of marketing is about testing… 

TAMI: Yes…

SAMIA: Because I think not enough people like in the coaching marketing world or like coaches and so forth... Not enough people emphasize that… I know like for me I'm a very heart oriented person I'm a very hard led person and like for me... my favorite best way to figure out like what my niche was going to be and so forth was to ask my heart what does my heart say and that was all well and good and I still honor that... absolutely for sure… But just the other day I was having a conversation with my marketing coach and she was like okay you know who you want to work with in terms of your heart having guided you around that but we still… there are so many different ways you can talk to who you want to talk to and what you say to them exactly and what specific words that you use what specific problems that you highlight of all the different problems you could possibly help them with right... and how do you pick from that and maybe in that context it's good to look at some data…and look at some data and see what is actually working... 

TAMI: It's really really hard if you don't have anyone except yourself... Because it's as we talk within our organization even if we're sending out an email then if you just write that email and send it out you don't have anyone else look at it... Again you're at that point where you don't know what you don't know… I can't tell you the number of times that I've sent something to my team and said... Hey take a look at this and they've said... Yeah I don't get it...  And I'm like but I was perfectly clear… Well no... And I mean this doesn't have to necessarily be people that are marketing experts this can be your family your friends who whoever you have that helps you because it's just looking at it with a clear eye…right… different outlook and you're gonna get all kinds of different opinions… caveat to that... It's your work and if someone tries to tell you to do something and it doesn't feel genuine to what you're actually trying to achieve you don't have to take their advice either… 

SAMIA: Right... That is so true… That is so true. And maybe that's where the heart can come back in... And when you have genuinely… like you have you... I remember this was like let's say you have done some research and you have come up with based on looking at the data come up with like two or three different options and you're like okay which one do I choose now potentially each of these may be equally fine… maybe that's where you can like first person like me can tune back in with our heart and be like hey which ones feeling the best to us…

TAMI: Right exactly... 

SAMIA: Right… 

TAMI: So

SAMIA: Cool Cool… Thank you for sharing that and I remember the last time we were talking another aspect of getting really clear about things was that you were talking about this idea of what do you want from your business get really clear on what do you want from your business... Can you share a little bit more about that?

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TAMI: Sure… Going into business people want to make money... That's I mean first and foremost you can get a job you know you can go on assistance you can start your own business there's lots of ways of making money... Owning your own business is not really one of the easiest ways to make money… it is something that requires a lot of responsibility a lot of time and you're putting so much of yourself out on the line in order to make this happen... And there's a lot of fear that you're not going to succeed or people are gonna laugh that you are or whatever… so there has to be a really strong underlying reason now that reason can be as simple as I want to make a million dollars... And if that's what you want more power to you go for it... In the coaching industry when we talk to people there's usually another thing that may even be above the money making and that is the transformation that you know you can help people achieve... And that can be worth more than money... Just see the look on people's faces when something happens when something changes for them it's the heart listening to the heart again and there's nothing wrong with that it's not just about making money because if you do go into it just for making money... generally we found that our clients that are in that mode are the most unhappy ones because they're not getting the true pleasure they can get out of their work... So when I was a little kid whenever I had a decision to make my mom always told me to do what she called a Ben Franklin which was take a piece of paper and write all the good things here and then write all the bad things there and then go through the list and see what makes the most sense... Which one if you're trying to make a decision which side outweighs the other there's almost always one side that the list is way longer and it may be to go for it or maybe to be not to go for it but be really honest with yourself in making that assessment before you get started because if you go into it half heartedly or haphazardly your chances of success are nowhere near as great... 

SAMIA: That's right... That's right... And I'm so glad that you highlighted that you know if you just end up doing a business chasing the money that's actually less likely to lead you to happiness feeling personally happy and fulfilled and so if that's important to you bear that in mind… 

TAMI: Indeed... I mean it is all about money because if you don't have money you can't stay in business but the other thing is to have a life... And you need to work your business so that there's that balance that you’re… I talked to somebody once who said he was working so many hours his kids were starting to call him uncle dad and you can't do that you have one life right… What are you going to do with it… Doing a business is a great thing to do with it but you also have to be able to have the other side as well …

SAMIA: Yes... So creating that sort of lifestyle that you want matching your… the way that you do business… what business you do… to the lifestyle that you want…

TAMI: Yes Yeah... 

SAMIA: For sure… For sure... I can see how that is a hugely important part for making business fun and easy but also making marketing fun and easy because even when it comes to marketing like you said there's so many ways to make money and so there's so many ways to do marketing... And so which way do you choose… well which way will be more fun and easy for you and fit your lifestyle and your other goals…

TAMI: Yep it's very true... So you have to have that in mind... if you're not happy your business will suffer and if your business isn't a joy you will find that you're not making money… it's one of the the harder that you strive and get upset and I'm not talking about law of attraction or anything like that because I believe that you can make things happen in your life by following a set path and by working hard… but without balance and without rest and without walking away from it and clearing your head you'll often find that you're getting deeper and deeper and deeper going in the wrong direction...

SAMIA: Is this something that you have experienced in your journey of becoming the business person that you are...

TAMI: Oh very much so... I mean I can't tell you the number of years that I spent like working and getting so tied up in it that I realized that my children were coming second and then I would pull back on that and working way too many hours and trying to go down a pathway that it was very clear wasn't going to work until I finally just threw up my hands and said I have to get help I didn't really start to succeed until I started investing in coaching for myself... When I heard like you said your coach said to you and all of the people that I've ever met that have really been successful have had some kind of help in their lives that they be somebody that they know that they can just pick their brains it may be somebody that is an expert it may be somebody that is removed enough from it to be able to say... Hey what are you doing you know… do something about that get get clear get help get talked to somebody that can help you with that path that you're on... Then again you gotta test if you get so into the idea of this is the way it is this is how it's always been so this is how I need to do it... You're not going to see all the green bests that's right out of the corner of your eye over there…

SAMIA: Thank you so much for sharing that personal journey and that personal experience with me Tami... I really appreciate it and you have so much experience... Can you share with me another tip for how to make marketing more fun and easy… 

TAMI: Sure… Basically it keeps changing...

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: And that can be really difficult... And with that in mind honestly what we're doing right now is every Thursday morning at 11 o'clock Central US time because that's where I am we're doing a live hour and what we're doing with that live our is we're going to do some teaching on what we see in the marketplace today what we see working what our clients are experiencing as something that's moving the needle for them in getting clients and in serving clients… a fun tip something that we figured out in the you know week by week because we're gonna be doing this every single Thursday... And you can sign up for this… it's free... And after we're done teaching which is you know going to be fairly short we're gonna do a question and answer... So literally you can come on live you can talk to me or one of my team or my co founder I mean there's all kinds of folks around that have had I mean I've had over 35 years of marketing experience and like I said someone's going to be on every Thursday sometimes we might interview a special guest but we're still gonna have time for question and answer I mean if you're sick to death of literally being told well you have to schedule a call in order to find that out because you know talk to one of our specialists which is code for you're going to talk to a salesperson who might be really pushy or might not be I don't know… this is not that... This obviously is something where we want people to understand who we are and see if maybe we want to work together... But it's not a sales fest... It's not buy buy buy this is what we have to offer and if you buy today it's this much and if you buy tomorrow it's this... I hate that stuff... So what this is is a real conversation with people who come on who have questions… if you're brand new and you're scrapping for money we're not gonna try and sell you anything we'll answer your questions with the idea that guess what when you get to be big enough we'd be happy to take you on as a client help you get bigger... So yes we're not just doing this to be altruistic we're doing this so that we can help other people to avoid some of the real pitfalls and traps that we've seen people get into and not be like one of our clients who was came to us with the idea that he had spent you know $50,000 in buying different programs and still wasn't making any money… 

SAMIA: Yeah…

TAMI: And it happens again and again and again... So bring your questions you can sign up like I said it's free you can sign up through Facebook… we have a Facebook group if you just search implementers with impact... you can find us and then just go into the group and click on Events and you'll see how to register and how to get on but it's going to be every Thursday morning for an hour and we really want to help... That's what it really comes right down to…

SAMIA: That is really really amazing... Thank you for sharing that and you're so right you know especially I know in the world of online marketing things are changing so fast… 

TAMI: Yes… 

SAMIA: It just makes things so difficult because you barely get the hang of doing one thing and getting your groove into it and before you know it the technology's changed the rules on the platform have changed and so even if you want to keep doing the same thing because it's worked for you for so far it's just not going to work for you anymore...So you have to stay up to date on what's going on and who better to learn that from than someone who's actually doing that work is in the trenches and it's you know part of their everyday everyday thing every day work...

TAMI: I believe me we certainly don't know everything and things change on us as well I mean here's what I ran into literally just this afternoon and that was that it used to be if you had a Zoom meeting you could go into your if you had a zoom pro account you could go into your account and you could get the emails and the names of people that attended your Zoom meeting and as of March 1st 2022 they're stopping that...

SAMIA: What... 

TAMI: Yep... 

SAMIA: Oh my God I had not heard about that... Thank you for letting me know...

TAMI: You have to find another way around it now in order to you know get the same information... And this is the thing like I said I am never going to know everything nobody is ever going to know everything but you know we want this hour to be a sharing situation where it's not just us talking we want other people to come on that know something to and can share information and we want people to ask questions and we want to we want to help so live event on Thursdays 11 o'clock Central US time... And we're gonna teach you a little bit and talk a little bit...

SAMIA: That is really really amazing... because oh my gosh... so not only are you helping people make marketing more fun and easy by giving them the most up to date information but you're there live so you know there's no delay you know in terms of my being able to receive the help and support that I want that is just extra extra amazing…

TAMI: Well we really you know we want to give back to the community too because we have found that what we do impacts lives and you never know somebody that you talk to that never becomes a client…

SAMIA: Yeah…

TAMI: The advice that we give might be just exactly what they need to catapult them to doing their life's work... And you know what that is worth a lot in my eyes at this point after years and years and years of doing this it's to be able to give back to you know a field that has done so much for me is important... It really is… 

SAMIA: Yeah…And you know this is making me think about a narrow thing that I happen to know about you that you are so amazing at and that makes marketing fun and easy... And that is actually how your company is savvy sales strategy... the way you have built is that you're not just about giving people the theoretical knowledge like a lot of marketing coaches who are awesome marketing coaches but they're just sort of telling you what to do but then you're left on your own to do it... It's like first you have to make the investment to get access to that marketing coach and then you have to make a separate investment to get… find people who can help you implement and not only do you have to make that separate investment but finding the people to help you implement can be its own huge challenge…

TAMI: It can...

SAMIA: And I've been through it…

TAMI: Yes... And that's why we're I mean we're a boutique agency we don't take on 200 clients at a time… we work with a smaller number but we still try and keep things as affordable as we can because we do most of the implementation… we literally set up tech for people we'll set up a kartra we'll set up an aWeber or we'll build landing pages we help people write their own webinars we provide written emails that are written specifically for you they're not templated they are who you are... And yes we're working together on these things we're not just going to shove stuff at you and say... Here's your emails like it or lump it... it's a co creation and so what you know we are there to help and the other part of what we do is we get help we work with a sister company that has a virtual assistant agency and so everybody that works with us ends up with having the help that they need to implement what they need to do because that's part… and it's not an additional charge this is part of what you get with us you make the investment to work with us and then we're going to be implementing all of the different pieces that we know... so it's not a lot of nickel and diming… we don't say... Oh well... Okay so now you invested with us and now we need another $1,000 for this VA and now we need another $200 for this software that's our proprietary software... we don't do that at all… we work with software that's out there... There's lots of good software out there... So people come to us and they have everything set up on keep or they have everything set up on kartra they're like well you know can I keep that… And we're like sure we don't want you changing your whole system...

SAMIA: Yeah…

TAMI: So we change to work within your system as much as we can... I mean there's give and take on both sides but the idea behind it is we're primarily a done for you service so that you're not you never look at a blank page and you never don't know what to do because we're there to help we're there to hold your hand…

SAMIA: That is a amazing... that is really amazing because I know for me that was also the huge game changer was not only when I had direction on what to do but I had help had reliable help with implementation and I guess that's part of why what you're doing with the events that you're doing you're calling it implementers... 

TAMI: That's what we are... we're implementers of impact because we're not coaches… 

SAMIA: Right…

TAMI: We're not actually coaches... we actually help you get stuff done which in my mind is what makes marketing easy it's when you have someone else to help you get stuff done…

SAMIA: That's so cool... That is so cool... And you know that that also makes me think about so many... like trainers and healers and you know other practitioners who you know... because really our goal is to help our clients achieve some kind of change some kind of transformation and coaching just happens to be something that we end up also doing as a part of that process… 

TAMI: Right… 

SAMIA: Because it's helpful and it's necessary in some cases to bring about that change and that transformation for our clients but it doesn't… it's not the end-all or be-all and we don't have to get attached to that label in that way... 

TAMI: Right… 

SAMIA: Yeah... coolness… 

TAMI: Yeah… Well we're here to make a difference in the world in our way and to be totally honest with you I think marketing is just fascinating... there's so many different things you can do and so many different ways you can achieve and if you find the one that feels good and works for you it's way more likely to work than somebody telling you well this is the only way and you know we have our way that's our you know kind of core way of doing things but we go off on tangents with people all the time if it makes sense for who they are because a lot of times you'll find someone that has a certain skill set... 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: And if you say to them well you have to do it this way... like you have to say you have to do Facebook ads then you can just get bogged down and you waste money… but if say their skill set is actually speaking... we can help them to do events we can and more people that we work with work in that field of actually doing events… we're hopefully going to be able to start getting back to the idea of having real live in-person events soon but you know what happened over the past few years with you know everybody being locked down was that people started to understand the value of zoom events of being on a even like a podcast like this of being in a room but not everybody physically being in the room... 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: And it changed everything... 

SAMIA: Yeah yeah... And I you know was surprised by just how much we could do and do really well virtually… you know so I have... oh my gosh… I can't even tell you like the variety of things that I have done on zoom... 

TAMI: Exactly that's amazing... 

SAMIA: Yeah yeah I literally joined a walking class on zoom... 

TAMI: Yeah yeah yeah yeah… you can... I mean if you watch tv commercials at all like peloton made their whole thing out of having a screen where there's a trainer in front of you telling you what to do... 

SAMIA: That's right... 

TAMI: Yeah.

SAMIA: That's so amazing and so just to you know tie that back to the idea of making marketing fun and easy... 

TAMI: Exactly… 

SAMIA: Follow your heart play to your strengths... and sometimes it just takes a little bit of creativity to think through how you can make that happen in the very best way for you… 

SAMIA: And it opens up so many doors because you're not geographically limited any longer... I mean my team is all over the country and out of the country... and I mean a few years ago you could never have assembled all of this… right… and made it work and so that changed the face of marketing probably more than anything else… 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: Is the beginning of this kind of implementation of being able to have a conversation with somebody that you've never been in the same room with but feel that connection and you can it's still there… 

SAMIA: Yeah that is so true... 

TAMI: Human beings are wonderfully adaptable...

SAMIA: Indeed indeed... So I'm having so much fun talking with you and unfortunately we have to begin to wrap up for today do you have any last words of wisdom for us... 

TAMI: Umm... to be honest with you... don't be afraid to ask for help... No matter what if you don't ask you won't receive but if you do ask the worst thing that can happen is someone will say no... 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: And that's not the end of the world... so when you're first starting out ask questions... 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: Don't feel like you have to pretend that you know it all... that's just the path to failure… 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: And get as much information as you can but don't but make decisions... don't keep just getting information... I've had people that I've talked to on you know calls six seven eight times and they're still coming back for more information because they're too scared to get started... and I'm not even talking about getting started with us I'm talking about getting started and you got sometimes you just got to go for it …

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: But never be afraid to ask for information ask for help makes a huge difference… 

SAMIA: Absolutely... I so 100% agree with you on that... and for sure if someone was to ask me my number one tip for how to make change fun and easy... how to make marketing fun and easy how to make anything more fun and easy it comes down to don't be afraid to go for it and ask for help like don't go it alone… 

TAMI: Yeah... you need a community you need people around you… it's just... it's so important to not be isolated and work in a vacuum you just can never do your best work and help people the most unless you have that sense of community and people that you can talk to and that can help you and you can help them… 

SAMIA: Yeah… 

TAMI: It goes both ways... 

SAMIA: For sure for sure for sure... on that very very wise note I will just wrap up by reminding everyone to check the show notes because we're going to add Tami's links there so you can check out her Facebook check out her Facebook group attend one or more of her events coming up if you need help with your marketing and so forth... And I'll also drop my links in there in case you'd like to get in touch with me… and until we connect next time I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy :)

TAMI: And thank you so much for having me today... :)