Today’s episode is all about breaking barriers—paving a path when no one has gone before you.

We address:

• What it was like growing up as the “token female” in hockey games
• Traits of the most successful coaches in sports
• How women can strive for success in an arena without a role model to follow
• Kelsey’s coaching philosophy and the legacy she wants to leave
• The progress of gender equality in collegiate and professional sports so far

Today, Karen speaks with Kelsey Koelzer, the first black and the first female coach of an NCAA hockey team. She will be starting the inaugural season in the Fall of 2021 at Arcadia University.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• The number one trait of a successful sports coach is their ability to communicate. Whether they are a man or a woman, the best coaches are those who can forge the best bonds with their players, and this starts with their communication skills.
• If you don’t have a role model to follow, have an ideal level of skill to strive for. Kelsey had no female role model to look to when she began her career in ice hockey. However, what helped her stay on track and motivated to move forward was that she knew the type of athlete she wanted to be. She knew what it took to stand out in her sport, and she trained the specific skills that it would take for her to do just that.
• When looking to leave a lasting legacy, focus on the small steps. There is a lot of work left to do when it comes to gender equality in collegiate and professional sports, and it is right to acknowledge that. However, the best thing that anybody can do to make progress is to take every win that comes—big and small—and soldier on with the little things they can do to create even more change. For Kelsey, her sole focus today is to create a great program and be the best NCAA hockey coach she can be.

RESOURCES

• Kelsey Koelzer on Instagram
• Kelsey Koelzer on Twitter

Kelsey Koelzer is an American ice hockey defender, currently serving as head coach of the Arcadia University women's ice hockey program, the first black female head coach in NCAA ice hockey history, as well as the Advisor to the Commissioner on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the NWHL.

She was drafted 1st overall by the Metropolitan Riveters in the 2016 NWHL Draft, the first black player to be the first overall pick in a professional North American hockey league draft. She played two seasons in the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) with the Riveters before joining the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) in 2019.

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

The power of an outsourced team makes possible the ability to work together and create a culture of understanding, even if you and your team are not within the walls of the same office.

We address:

• Why doubt or nervousness about making the next hire is only a matter of mindset
• How to become more confident about outsourcing business processes overseas
• How to decide which tasks are best suited for your virtual assistant
• What makes a great manager and how to lead your VA and help them improve
• How to stay productive while working from home
• The future of work

Today, Karen speaks with Linh Podetti, Director at Outsourcing Angel, an Australian based offshore recruitment agency that specialises in providing premium Virtual Assistants from the Philippines to companies around the world like Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, UK, Europe and Dubai.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• No matter where you outsource, you need to know what you’re doing, i.e. have experience and/or knowledge in the area you’re outsourcing to. “Otherwise,” says Linh, “it’s very easy to get ripped off.” After discovering the “magic” of outsourcing, it’s very tempting for business owners to go for cheap providers who promise the moon. Like anything, you have to do your research when going through your options.
• Newer business owners should begin by outsourcing tasks that are chargeable to the client. For example, if you’re building a website for your client, find specialists that you can relegate different elements to, such as content writers, front-end and back-end developers, the SysAdmin, etc. Once you have a system in place and have increased profitability, start delegating administrative and other repetitive tasks.
• Don’t blame the person. Blame the process. As an employer, particularly to a virtual assistant, understand that there will most likely be mistakes and/or miscommunications made throughout your partnership, especially at the beginning. To maintain a great relationship with your VA as well as to encourage them to improve and stay loyal, never assume right away that it’s an issue of character, but of process. Work together to find solutions and establish better systems going forward.

RESOURCES

• Outsourcing Angel

Linh started her first business in 2009, and built multiple successful businesses using the outsourcing model. With nearly a decade experience in outsourcing, she saw an opportunity in the market to provide offshore staff directly to companies and hence started Outsourcing Angel in 2015.

Linh grew up in Vietnam and moved to Australia when she was 9 years old. With first-hand experience living in a developing country, she is on a mission to help reduce poverty in developing countries like the Philippines. Since the inception, Outsourcing Angel has always reinvested its profits to charitable projects because Linh believes in a business with purpose not just profit.

• Connect with Linh on LinkedIn

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

Consumer expectations. It’s the one factor that stands in the way of having a marketing campaign that will work.

We address:

• What every business needs to know about customer experience
• How to retain customers and ask the right questions early on to set expectations
• Differences between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
• The three rules of customer success

Today, Karen speaks with Erica Newell, a client success leader, entrepreneur, and product/marketing strategist who has worked for years developing leadership, mentorship, and retention strategies at Wells Fargo. Today, she consults, writes copy, and leads the Client Strategy Team at Instructure.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• Customer experience/success is all about understanding what your clients’ desired outcomes are and helping them achieve it alongside your business. Putting their needs over yours or yours over theirs are never sustainable strategies in the long run. The key to great customer experience is carving a path that brings both them and your business to success.
• Every business should be asking not only, “Why are we losing customers?” but also “How are we keeping customers?”. Always keep the customer journey in mind so that it becomes easy to optimize or troubleshoot their experience at any point in the entire experience. Customer success and retention is an initiative for the whole organization.
• Set expectations with your customer by asking the tough questions early on. Put the customer at the center and have systems and processes in place to make sure you are keeping track of their wants and needs while at the same time establishing a personal, human relationship with them. That includes asking them the uncomfortable questions early on to ensure that you’re meeting their expectations every step of the way.

RESOURCES

• Erica Newell

Erica Newell is a client success leader, entrepreneur, and product/marketing strategist. She has worked for years developing leadership, mentorship, and retention strategies at Wells Fargo. She has also grown her own small businesses.  Now she consults, writes copy, and leads the Client Strategy Team at Instructure.

• Connect with Erica on LinkedIn

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

Are you a business owner who feels stuck? Are you thinking twice about your next step because your business isn’t growing the way you want it to? Fear not: You’re not alone.

We address:

• Why softening in the face of hardship is the key to breaking through
• How to keep a clear and level head in times of conflict and uncertainty
• Ways to become more confident in your next steps for any goal you have

In this episode, we unlock the number one secret that drives growth in marketing. Even if you don’t own your own business, this is a rule that you can apply to your personal life as well. If there’s a big change that you want to make, and you’re not sure how, this is the episode for you!

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• When the hardness comes, you need to soften. Whenever we find ourselves in scary or agonizing situations, our first instinct is to fight back, to push, to tense up. In actuality, the only thing to do in that moment is to trust, to be confident that better can come, but you need to let it.
• A constant mindset of hustle will cloud your ability to determine the next step. As much as hustle culture is promoted nowadays, many times brands and businesses are putting themselves on a path to burnout. Pushing, up to a point, won’t get you there any faster. On the other hand, stopping, relaxing, and letting go does.
• Get really clear about where you want to go and how you’ll make it possible. A lot of times, people get so overwhelmed in their minds about everything that they think is necessary for change. The truth is, some of the best strategies and most effective ways forward are simple.

RESOURCES

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

How do I get over the fear of getting started on social media?

We address:

• How to deal with social anxiety
• A healthier approach to using social media
• The power of being vulnerable on social media
• How to build your brand on TikTok
• How to get started on using social media for your business today

Karen speaks with Jera Foster-Fell, also known as Jera Bean. She talks about her journey to becoming an influencer and coach on all things social media and how anybody with a dream can take the leap and do the same, in good times or bad.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• Social media is at its most powerful when you’re being totally authentic. Most people use social media as a highlight reel; but don’t be afraid to share your ups and downs while you go about your journey so that your followers see you—your brand—as being relatable (i.e. an actual human being) and worth following for the long haul.
• The definition of “vulnerability” is different for everyone. Don’t think that, because we’re all told to “be vulnerable” on social media, we always have to be posting what’s on our heart or happening around us all the time. Do what is comfortable for you. With regard to business, also consider if what you’re posting is on-brand.
• It’s better to just start instead of constantly thinking about starting. The more you think about using social media to build your brand, and the more articles and videos you watch on how to do it, the more hesitant you’ll become when it comes to actually getting started. You don’t have to be perfect, and very few people will even see your first few pieces of content. Just take the leap, stay consistent, learn from experience, and everything will eventually fall into place.

RESOURCES

Jera Bean

Jera Bean on TikTok

Jera Bean on Instagram

Jera Bean on Twitter

Jera went from drowning in a soul-sucking job with no defined purpose while suffering from social anxiety, to dominating the lifestyle sector of social media and owning a multiple six-figure social media coaching business. She has crowned herself the queen of pivoting: from graphic design, to SoulCycle instructor, to content creator, to social media coach.

She has built her community to more than 170k on Instagram and 1 million on TikTok (in less than a year!) and now Jera's current passion is teaching all that she's learned to others with her signature course The Social Media Saloon and with her one-on-one clients.

Jera coaches on the ins and outs of creating your own personal brand online, the secrets to building a loyal and engaged community, and all the steps that it takes to use social media as a power + positive tool for your business.

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

Today, we do a deep dive into the whys and hows of video content and best practices for making full use of YouTube.

We address:

• Why YouTube is potentially one of your most powerful marketing platforms
• Common mistakes that people make with YouTube
• Common hurdles to starting on YouTube (ex. lack of time, lack of confidence on camera, etc.)
• How to create content that converts
• How often you need to upload a video to maximize your reach on YouTube

Karen speaks with YouTube strategist Trena Little on how she helps her clients grow their brands and scale their businesses with the power of video content.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• The biggest benefit of YouTube is that it is owned by Google. When you upload a video onto YouTube, not only does it show up on the largest search engine in the world, but on the second-largest search engine as well—YouTube. Trena says, “You need to be on video if you want to compete in the business world these days.”
• YouTube has surpassed Facebook as the number one platform for buyer decisions. More people than ever are making final buying decisions on YouTube over other social media channels. Additionally, the lifecycle of a piece of content (i.e. a post) lasts six hours on Facebook, 48 hours on Instagram, and about 20 days on YouTube.
• YouTube is a long-term strategy. Don’t expect to see exponential growth in your business in 30 days. Nobody can give you a timeline for success on YouTube. You will see a return on the investment of your time and effort only through consistency, quality over quantity, and a cohesive content strategy on the platform.

RESOURCES

Trena Little

Trena Little on YouTube

Trena Little on LinkedIn

YouTube Strategist by day; mom by morning… and night… and day, actually; MBA grad turned unlikely entrepreneur because I thought there had to be a better way than dreading work every Sunday and living for the weekend.

MY CORPORATE JOB WAS EXACTLY THE ONE AN MBA GRAD LIKE ME WAS SUPPOSED TO LOVE AND THRIVE IN.

But, when I was pregnant with my first little human, I realized...

I didn’t feel fulfilled.

I didn’t feel challenged.

I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE I WAS LIVING UP TO MY FULL POTENTIAL.

HECK, I WAS CONSTANTLY DAYDREAMING ABOUT MORE…

…more potential for community in the midst of success.

…more (devoted) time with my family.

…more FREEDOM.

I saw other women on YouTube, and I knew the community they were creating with those channels was exactly what I craved at the time.

So, YouTube… it can’t really be THAT hard, right? Well, I started my video journey creating videos all about #momlife, productivity, and I eventually found my biz background creeping into my videos and I finally started to find my stride.

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

Happiness. What does it mean to you? How do you find it? How do you get it back when it’s lost? Today’s guest visited all 50 states speaking with folks of different walks of life to answer these questions.

We address:

• Why it’s never worth living a life and career that you’d only regard as “fine”
• How a non-filmmaker was inspired to create The American Happiness Project
• Common “happiness” trends among Michelle’s interviewees across the U.S.
• What you should not do if you want to live a happy existence
• How the pandemic impacted Michelle’s research on happiness

Karen speaks with Michelle Wax, Founder of The American Happiness Project, a 50-state movement that grew out of the documentary of the same name, to create more joy, energy, and connection in the everyday.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• Beware the “fine” life. Not to be confused with enjoying the “finer” things in life, a “fine” life is one where you live every day doing little more than go through the motions. It’s one where you settle for average instead of visualizing and working toward the lifestyle and career of your dreams.
• Happiness is a choice. The journey toward your personal happiness is a completely internal one. No outside circumstance or person is going to be able to keep you happy for the long-term—and no outside force can take it away from you.
• Do a “happiness” audit every so often. At times, it may help to take stock of the different aspects of your life and single out those things that are draining your happiness, whether it’s a person, the media you’re consuming, or even a destructive pattern of thinking. We tend not to notice things that we live with every day. Becoming aware of these “happiness vampires” is the first step to eliminating them.

RESOURCES

The American Happiness Project

American Happiness: The Documentary

Michelle Wax on LinkedIn

Michelle Wax is the founder of American Happiness Project, a movement across 50 states focused on creating more joy in the everyday—in every area of life.

Wax works with top companies and schools across the USA to help teams thrive in uncertainty, use stress to their advantage, and create positive mindsets through workshops + accountability programs to build community and connection.

She produced the American Happiness Documentary, set to release in early 2021 and also works privately with individuals through private coaching.

Prior to founding American Happiness Project, Wax founded two companies in the food industry, which she sold in 2019.

She takes an energized and spirited approach to everything she does, and has been praised to be "incredibly knowledgeable, relate-able, and approachable" and she "brings great energy that very few are able to bring to the online world".

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram

In today’s episode, SEO specialist Danielle Gagnon of Elevate Virtual Marketing Solutions explains how your brand or business can be discovered by more people in 2021.

We address:

• The importance of SEO to any brand or business
• How SEO has changed in the past decade
• Knowing how to optimize keywords on your different web pages
• Using Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your SEO efforts
• What anyone can do to improve their SEO today, step-by-step

If we’ve learned nothing else from 2020, it is that consumers expect to be able to interact with you virtually. From our groceries to our classes to our bicycle bootcamps, everything is now available to us at home, anytime, via our devices. While this makes customers’ lives easier, it also means that brands and businesses now have to fight even harder for attention.

Listen in as Danielle offers her best tips and tricks to add more oomph to your website and cut through the noise.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• SEO is nowhere near as hard as it may seem. SEO is made up of the strategies you can use to connect with your ideal customers through your website. At the end of the day, it all comes down to figuring out what people are already searching for online related to your specialty and creating content that serves those wants and needs.
• Anyone with a website needs to utilize Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Analytics will show you where traffic is coming from (ex. organic/paid search, social media links, etc.) and what visitors are doing on your website (ex. pages/links clicked, time spent on different pages, etc.). Search Console specifically shows you how your website is performing on search engines. That is, it shows which keywords your website is ranking for and which positions they are ranking for.
• Start by getting clear on who exactly you’re trying to reach. Before even doing your keyword research, you need to be crystal clear on who your ideal client or audience is. This is the foundation for everything else. For example, if you work specifically with local business owners, creating content on driving hundreds of thousands of views to your service is an SEO strategy; but it’s just not the right one for you.

RESOURCES

Elevate Virtual Marketing

The Content Cash Machine Bootcamp

Danielle Gagnon on Instagram

Danielle Gagnon is an experienced digital marketer and SEO specialist. Through her company, Elevate Virtual Marketing Solutions, she works with busy entrepreneurs to get them back to the work they truly love by elevating their brand and taking on the marketing tasks that take up their time. Her services include copywriting, blogging and content marketing, graphic design, branding, email marketing, and social media management.

Karen Morales is founder and brand champion at Marketing Magnet.

Marketing Magnet was founded by Karen and her lean team of Fortune 500 marketing and advertising talent. We’re a world-class marketing department that has decided to take our big brand experience and direct it at the clients we want to serve: purpose-driven enterprises. Our secret sauce is our ability to focus companies on three marketing pillars to create great impact.

If you are looking for a solution to a marketing challenge, a specific project to be completed or a team to drive marketing on your behalf, we can help.

• More about Karen
• Find us on Facebook
• Visit our website
• Find us on Instagram