E20: 5 Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business | Amy Wood
What does it take to create a thriving small business with effective marketing strategies?
Learn the top 5 marketing strategies to grow your business, from building referral programs to using AI for marketing and process optimization.
Join us as marketing strategist Amy Wood shares valuable lessons on leveraging relationships, designing a functional website, and implementing innovative technology to streamline operations and increase customer engagement.
📒 Show Notes and Resources 📒
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Kellen Ketchersid
Kellen is a co-founder of Stag Business Coaching, business strategist, and a systems thinker. He leverages his extensive experience in biotech and consulting to empower entrepreneurs to navigate complex challenges with strategic growth solutions.
Albert Gillispie
Albert is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency expert and co-founder of Stag Business Coaching who has founded several multimillion-dollar companies. With expertise in optimizing operations and innovative systems, he mentors business leaders who want to unlock their business’s full potential.
Amy Wood is a writer, speaker, and marketing strategist with over 20 years of international experience in product and service marketing and strategic planning primarily in the energy and technology industries.
In 2015, Amy founded Flint Avenue is a software development and marketing firm headquartered in Lubbock, Texas on campus at Texas Tech University Innovation Hub. Amy is passionate about small business success and serves as an advocate in her role as a board member for organizations she is passionate to support.
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EPISODE 20 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
[00:00:00] Kellen Ketchersid: Are you a business owner who's struggling to get qualified leads? Well, today we talked to Amy Wood, the owner of Flint Avenue Marketing, and she gave us five actionable insights on how to grow your business and get the leads in the door that you need. So we talked about referral programs, what kind of ad spend you need to do and where you need to do it, and so much more. I can't wait for you to listen to this episode and get all the insights from Amy.
[00:00:23] Albert Gillispie: Welcome to the Business Growth Masterclass, where business growth is made simple. Listen, as we discuss best practices to streamline your operations, increase your profits, and ultimately create healthier, more stable, and more valuable businesses. Here we go.
[00:00:44] Albert Gillispie: All right. We are live. Welcome to the podcast. The founder of Flint Avenue Marketing, Amy Wood. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:55] Amy Wood: Hi, thanks for having me.
Entrepreneurial Inspiration
[00:00:56] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah. Thanks for being here. We always like to start with a fun one. So I'm curious, if you could go to lunch with any entrepreneur, dead or alive, who are you choosing?
[00:01:05] Amy Wood: Okay, well, I would probably choose, I don't know if you classify him in the entrepreneur space, but he's definitely inspired a lot of entrepreneurs, and that would be Stephen Covey. I got to learn from him way back and from his dad as well. I just adore him.
[00:01:21] Albert Gillispie: I need more. Okay, Stephen Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People?
[00:01:27] Amy Wood: Yes.
[00:01:27] Albert Gillispie: You got to work with him. Yeah. Tell me more.
[00:01:31] Amy Wood: Yeah, so after he wrote that book, there was a masterclass in the Houston area. The company I was working for, a large consulting firm, got us tickets to go learn the eighth habit with the book release, which was happening at the same time as this masterclass.
[00:01:46] Amy Wood: So, I got to go and learn directly from him. It was spectacular. Got his book, got the eighth habit signed.
[00:01:53] Kellen Ketchersid: Wow. That's like the first nonfiction book I ever read. I was in high school and I remember just being fired up as a high schooler.
[00:02:00] Amy Wood: Same.
[00:02:01] Albert Gillispie: I'm so jealous. I'm like a nonfiction book connoisseur, and that's up there.
[00:02:11] Albert Gillispie: I know. I'm so jealous right now.
[00:02:13] Amy Wood: To meet Zig Ziglar and all those guys?
[00:02:16] Albert Gillispie: I'm sure they're odd people, but I'd love to meet them.
[00:02:20] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:02:22] Kellen Ketchersid: Well, I don't know if you could pick any better than that to start us off. It's a good choice. You already alluded to it a little bit. You worked for a large marketing firm in the Houston area, did you say? How did you get into the business of starting your own gig?
[00:02:41] Amy Wood: Yeah. So it was actually a consulting firm that also did services similar to Flint Avenue. I came into that job as a writer. That's my background, writing and doing instructional design.
[00:02:52] Amy Wood: I had created training programs for large enterprises, really big companies. So whenever I moved back to Lubbock, some of the things I was doing in that instructional design space fed into marketing writing. It's hard to hire marketing writers, especially 15 years ago when everyone wasn’t a content creator. But training development is basically getting people to take where they are now and move into a new space mentally, right? A mind shift.
[00:03:12] Amy Wood: Marketing is the same thing, just compact. It's still training—getting someone to change their mind for a new decision but in a shorter, faster, sexier way. So it was a natural transition into marketing. I worked with some large brands in that same consulting firm as I worked my way into the marketing space. Then, when I moved back home to Lubbock, where I was born and raised, I saw a gap in really strategic, smart marketing. It was more like, throw a banner, hang a sign, shake a hand, know the right person.
Understanding Marketing and Its Role in Business
[00:03:55] Amy Wood: I thought I could help in that area, and that's how I started Flint Avenue.
[00:03:59] Kellen Ketchersid: That's awesome. I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe marketing in that way, where you're shifting someone's mindset. So what are some ways you try to do that? Or what are some strategies for doing that?
[00:04:09] Amy Wood: Well, really it's just identifying with the person you're trying to sell to, right? You need to know who your buyer persona is, who's that person, and what's the need you're trying to fill in their life. What's the thing that keeps them up at night? You hear that question a lot, but if you figure out what your target audience's biggest challenge is or where they find friction on their path, you can ease that.
[00:04:35] Amy Wood: Easing that friction a little bit with whatever you can do. Maybe it's a decision they're trying to make, and that's marketing. You're trying to get them to buy this, not that. Why is mine better? Well, it just eased a little friction in that decision-making.
[00:04:51] Kellen Ketchersid: Okay. So you're helping a business owner think about the friction point for whoever they are providing services or a product to?
[00:04:58] Amy Wood: Yes, or an end consumer. If you're selling laundry detergent and you're the first one that comes up with liquid detergent, you ease friction from powder to liquid. Then there are pods. Every single iteration of a product is usually trying to solve a problem the previous consumer had.
[00:05:17] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah.
[00:05:18] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:05:18] Kellen Ketchersid: So shifting the mindset to, "I used to use powder, but this liquid is so much better, and here's why."
[00:05:28] Amy Wood: Yeah. Particulating. Or like, everything's just fine. I'll just roll with everything how it is. It's like, well, could you be better? Could it be new and improved? Could you try a new way of thinking about it? Could you, instead of having a storefront, have a website? Could you, instead of hiring a sales team, use social media? There are all kinds of decisions. You're making a million decisions a day. Helping people make those decisions is marketing.
[00:05:52] Kellen Ketchersid: And a lot of those decisions feed into their overall strategy, right? So in terms of how they want to grow their business and using marketing to do that. So I'm assuming that you do a lot of talking and thinking about strategy with the business owners you work with, right?
[00:06:09] Amy Wood: Oh, definitely. We work through who's their market, where they're headed, who they're trying to sell to, and then develop what's the best way to enter that market. Sometimes it's a trade show. Sometimes the trade show doesn't make any sense at all. It would be the furthest thing. Sometimes it's more of a grassroots technique, a guerrilla technique. Maybe you need a flash mob or, you know, there's all kinds of creative ways you can identify that connection point between business and consumer or business and purchaser.
[00:06:37] Albert Gillispie: Yeah. I like the flash mob. I like that’s a 2008 reference. What?
[00:06:44] Amy Wood: I still want one though. Like I try to get my team all the time. I'm like, can we please do a flash mob, first Friday, art trail? And they're like, it's old.
[00:06:52] Kellen Ketchersid: But we can do the thriller dance.
[00:06:53] Amy Wood: It would be great. And they're like, no.
[00:06:55] Kellen Ketchersid: I think you should bring it back.
Common Marketing Mistakes by Small Business Owners
[00:06:57] Albert Gillispie: That's funny. What is the biggest mistake that business owners are making around marketing? What do you see over and over?
[00:07:06] Amy Wood: Well, hope is not a strategy.
[00:07:09] Albert Gillispie: Okay.
[00:07:10] Amy Wood: So that's probably the first one. Just thinking, "I'm going to turn on the lights and hope they walk through the door." No, that's not a good strategy. So probably the number one thing is they don't budget for it. They don't make space for it. And it's literally the lifeline to their business growth or success. They have to market themselves, or you don't have a business. Then you're a nonprofit, I guess.
[00:07:31] Albert Gillispie: How would you differentiate, like, explain to a business owner what marketing does for them compared to sales? Differentiate that a little bit. I feel like with small business owners, that gets a little blended, where the salesperson is the marketing person. What does that mean for a small business owner?
[00:07:51] Amy Wood: Sure. So marketing is really the positioning of your brand. It's explaining to the outside world who you are, what you're trying to do, how to interact with you, what your culture's like, why you're important, why you exist. All of that is marketing. Sales is the actual action of the transaction. So once they see you, love you, and they're connected, and they have reasons to head your direction—maybe you've got the service or product they need—that sale is just the transactional piece in between.
[00:08:24] Amy Wood: It's relational still. You have to have relational salespeople to bring them in the door. But if they get there and it's not what they expected, or if their experience doesn't align with what you've presented it to be, that's where you see the marketing gap.
[00:08:40] Amy Wood: There's also advertising, PR, sales, and marketing. All four of those verticals are very different in their behavior. A lot of small businesses will hire one person, and they're like, "No, you're doing sales, marketing, PR, and ads." And you're like, "Wait, that's a lot."
[00:08:58] Kellen Ketchersid: That is a lot.
[00:08:59] Amy Wood: We work with a state agency, and one of the state agencies we work for has literally one person for Facebook, one person for LinkedIn, one person for each of the different social channels. Just alone. And I'm like, "That's a dream. That's so cool."
[00:09:15] Albert Gillispie: The government job.
[00:09:18] Amy Wood: I know. Their whole job is literally LinkedIn—listening, posting, and responding. I'm like, "That's it. That's how you should do it." That'd be so cool if we could all have that level.
[00:09:28] Albert Gillispie: Yeah, if we all could print money. Okay, tell me, you worked for a consultant and then you opened up your own business. What did the first few years look like? I mean, did you just open it and money started raining from above?
Building a Team and Growing a Business
[00:09:46] Amy Wood: No, it was rough. Yeah, it was hard. The first year I pretty much did consulting. I'd go out, talk to people, give advice, and help them. I'd look at the things they were [00:10:00] doing. Because of my background in training programs and things like that, I had some HR under my belt. I had a few other things, so I could do a little bit different business consulting. I'd go do it, and then they'd say, "Oh, you know, we got our team to develop this. Is this what you were talking about?" And I'd be like, "No, not at all. What happened? What did we miss here?" So what I found was I needed a team behind me to help start developing some of these things in-house. That way, when I worked a strategy with someone, my team could actually create that thing. So, yeah, that was kind of the first year—just that transition of hiring, realizing I needed to have more people with me than just myself.
[00:10:41] Albert Gillispie: What was your first hire?
[00:10:42] Amy Wood: Graphic design, web developer.
[00:10:44] Kellen Ketchersid: Okay.
[00:10:44] Amy Wood: Yeah, he's still with me.
[00:10:46] Kellen Ketchersid: How many people are on your team now?
[00:10:49] Amy Wood: Seven full time and probably 30 worldwide. Just 10, nine nines are part time.
[00:10:54] Albert Gillispie: That's awesome. What year did you start?
[00:10:55] Amy Wood: 2015.
[00:10:57] Albert Gillispie: All right. Coming up on 10 years.
[00:11:00] Amy Wood: We're stoked.
[00:11:01] Albert Gillispie: Okay. So you mentioned the first person being graphic design.
[00:11:05] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:11:05] Albert Gillispie: So I'm curious in the marketing realm, what is your sweet spot? What is like your wheelhouse, what you feel like you're gifted to do?
[00:11:16] Amy Wood: I'm a writer.
[00:11:17] Albert Gillispie: A writer.
[00:11:17] Amy Wood: Yeah. And I'm hyper creative. So there's never a bottom to the ideas. I don't ever fear giving a really great idea to somebody because I will have 10 more. Creativity is just limitless.
[00:11:31] Amy Wood: So, yeah, I have a lot of that, and I have a really good eye for design. I'm not a good designer, but I know a good designer when I meet them and see what they create. Then in 2020, we added software development, which changed things again. Because of my instructional design background, I have a process mindset.
[00:11:49] Amy Wood: So I understand how things should flow, and I can see gaps in process and procedures. I was actually really suited for software development mentally. I enjoyed that, but I'm not a good developer. It's way too tedious and detailed for me. I'm like, I need to throw crayons on this; it's too technical, but I love those people. It's a cool skill set to have, and I like to sell it. It's fun.
Using AI in Business
[00:12:14] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah. Well, I can tell you're good at it. I'm curious, do you use AI in any of your business right now? I know it's a hot thing right now.
[00:12:21] Amy Wood: Oh yeah. We built a few products for customers, leveraging AI, building AI into the software that they're building to help their customers operate better.
[00:12:31] Amy Wood: Like we built a job platform for veterans to help them write their resumes with contextual things that they've done. It's like, okay, they'll list out all the tasks they completed in the Marines. Well, that doesn't really align with corporate America. How do we hire a nuke? But then this AI program will take the things they've done and actually rework some of those to make them more applicable job skills. It's all built into this resume platform. It's really pretty sweet, but we use it all the time too, for our own content creation, for code, for ideas, to teach clients how to do their own marketing. We use it every day.
[00:13:13] Kellen Ketchersid: That's amazing. So are there any aspects of using it that give you pause? Or what would you say to business owners out there? Because I think there are a lot of them that are afraid to try to use some newer tools like AI. What are your thoughts on that?
[00:13:28] Amy Wood: I say, press in and play with it. You got to just try and prompt it over and over again until you get what you want. It's not going to work the first time you do it. You'll probably get a weird result, but then you learn how to ask it questions in a different way and learn how to leverage it. Every time you're trying to think of something, just ask. We call it chatty—ask chatty first and see if it can give you a little bit of an outline or something like that.
[00:13:52] Amy Wood: But don't be afraid of a rough draft, you know, don't be afraid to try it. It's coming, and it's going to be in every system. If you don't already notice, it's in every single platform already, and it's going to be more and more. So, leverage it. Leverage it for your businesses to optimize your processes.
[00:14:07] Amy Wood: I got a buddy who's using it in manufacturing, and he's increased his employee count, which was cool because most people are like, I'm going to lose my job. He did not. And then he increased his overall revenue by 35 percent last year because of implementing AI.
[00:14:22] Kellen Ketchersid: That's awesome.
[00:14:23] Amy Wood: In manufacturing.
[00:14:25] Kellen Ketchersid: It's like so many people fear, like you said, are afraid that jobs are going to go away. Maybe some will, but then there are a lot of new jobs created just through idea generation and things that may be like, well, we don't have to spend time on this as much, so we can focus on this other area that maybe can be a whole job.
[00:14:44] Amy Wood: Yeah, for sure.
[00:14:45] Kellen Ketchersid: So I'm curious, when you get up in the morning, what gets you excited to come to work? What are you driven by?
[00:14:51] Amy Wood: Man, just small business success is huge for me. I love to be a champion, and I love to watch people win. It's my favorite thing ever.
[00:15:01] Amy Wood: I like to elevate my team. I like to put them in seats where they get to see some elevation. I like to help my small businesses succeed. It's just, that's good. That's good stuff.
[00:15:10] Albert Gillispie: Sharing other people.
[00:15:11] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:15:12] Albert Gillispie: Do you, do you have, so brag on yourself a little bit. What's like one of the most impactful things, biggest wins that you've had as a business owner?
[00:15:22] Albert Gillispie: And what did that look like? Tell me that story.
[00:15:25] Amy Wood: Okay, well, we've had a lot of wins over team. We've had a lot of losses over team. And why is it so much easier to talk about the losses? Okay, so, well, the biggest win I was sharing with you guys just before we started recording was that I just won the national small business advocate of the year award with the NSBA.
[00:15:40] Kellen Ketchersid: Congratulations.
[00:15:41] Amy Wood: And so that was huge. I didn't realize how big a deal it was until I was in Washington. And then I was like, Oh, there's a lot of people who are very excited about this. And this was a bigger deal than I realized.
[00:15:51] Albert Gillispie: Congrats.
[00:15:52] Amy Wood: But yeah, it was huge. It was actually a really big deal. And it was, it was cool because it was sort of lifetime achievement for me, you know, there's been 10 years of pouring into small business, helping them grow, helping them find their path or determine what they're going to do next. And all of that, plus serving in all the different places I serve and all the things like that. It was just kind of validation, I guess, for all the work that you put in that you don't see, and people don't, you know, you don't get paychecks for all of that. For sure. But that was a big win. And then landing maybe our first government contract was a huge win. Like we got woman owned small business and we got hub zone and we had these certifications behind us.
[00:16:33] Amy Wood: And so we started working with the state of Texas. We got approved vendors under the department of information technology cooperative contract, which is a D.I.R. So once you're D.I.R., you can work for any state agency. Doing website design, software development, social media, like all these different things.
[00:16:51] Albert Gillispie: So getting government contracts, getting certified to do that, opened up this other pipeline of potential clients. How did you go about getting certified to do that? Did you just Google it and figure it out? Or did you have someone who helped you?
[00:17:11] Albert Gillispie: How did you go about that?
[00:17:13] Amy Wood: Yeah. So the SBDC is here locally, and they will definitely connect you with all the people that help. There's a guy that works with the SBDC directly. His name's Mark Schneider. He is spectacular. The most gentle human on the planet. He will literally sit with you, question by question, and walk through the application process completely. And if you can't finish it, he'll get back on the phone with you again in a two-hour-long meeting. He's just so gentle and sweet, and he's wonderful. So I went through the first part of it and got our Texas hub certification, and then I passed it off to my marketing manager, Ashton, and she got our woman-owned small business and hub zone certifications for us.
[00:17:55] Kellen Ketchersid: Very cool. Great having a good team that can move all these levers for you while you're still running your business and keeping things growing.
[00:18:04] Albert Gillispie: So just thinking of wins and things you've helped your clients do, what is one thing that every business needs as far as marketing is concerned? What's the one thing they need?
The Importance of a Website in Today’s Market
[00:18:20] Amy Wood: Website. Please have a website.
[00:18:22] Albert Gillispie: Website. Okay.
[00:18:23] Amy Wood: It's your digital storefront, and people make their buying decisions online before they ever walk in your doors, before they ever meet you. They're looking at how you present online. And that's just going to become more and more with the next buying generation. They are digital first. So, you need a website.
[00:18:41] Albert Gillispie: Website. Okay. My pet peeve is I hate getting on a small business's website and having no idea what they sell or what they do. It's like...
[00:18:53] Amy Wood: A good website!
[00:18:54] Albert Gillispie: I feel like so many small business owners get that wrong. You log onto their website, and it's like an homage to who that person has been their entire life.
[00:19:08] Albert Gillispie: And you're like, Oh, okay. I appreciate that you published...
[00:19:12] Amy Wood: A book in '88.
[00:19:14] Albert Gillispie: Right. I'm like, What problem are you solving?
[00:19:16] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:19:17] Albert Gillispie: So, I guess next question: What makes a good website?
[00:19:21] Amy Wood: Yeah. Well, that's a loaded question. There's a lot there. For one, that people know who you are and what you do.
[00:19:27] Amy Wood: A clear call to action, top right corner—call now, buy now, connect with us right now. Some people's websites can tell their personal story. That's kind of their culture or their whatever. It doesn't have to though. It could be separate from an individual human. But yeah, just a website that's clear.
[00:19:47] Amy Wood: I mean, you wouldn't hire, like, to build your office building, you wouldn't hire someone you just met off the street or found online and be like, Hey, I'm going to give you a bunch of money to build this building for me, right?
[00:19:59] Albert Gillispie: Right.
[00:20:00] Amy Wood: And so maybe when you build your website the first time around, build it with somebody who knows how to build it with strong structure so that it gets Google traffic, so that it’s navigable by your customer base. It’s responsive. It looks good on a phone and on a computer. And then, ask that company that builds it for you to show you how to update it yourself, if they will. Or, you know, consider hiring the person to do fixes later, but for your initial build—hire a good builder.
[00:20:31] Kellen Ketchersid: So it’s worth investing in, is what you’re saying.
[00:20:34] Amy Wood: I mean, you should really see it as this is how the world sees me. You know, your storefront is how maybe Lubbock, Texas sees you or wherever you’re located—that’s your community. So maybe 10,000 people ever will see that. Millions of people across the whole globe could see your storefront online.
[00:20:54] Albert Gillispie: Right.
[00:20:54] Amy Wood: So like, be shinier.
[00:20:56] Albert Gillispie: Yeah. Anytime I get on a website, I, in the first three seconds, want to know what problem you solve and how I can do business with you as quickly as possible. Yeah. I feel like if these small businesses would do that in the first little bit of their page, they would get so much more results out of it.
[00:21:18] Kellen Ketchersid: So, on a similar note, but maybe a little bit off topic—if I'm a business owner and I'm wanting to learn from you about strategies to grow my business, because you've done that, you've been growing. How do you do that? What are some strategies you've used to grow?
Referral Programs and Relationship-Based Marketing
[00:21:33] Amy Wood: I guess it would depend on what kind of area they’re in. For us and the community we're in, definitely being a part of the local chambers of commerce in your area, because networking at the end of the day, people still make buying decisions by people they know, they like, and they trust. So you have to build some sort of repertoire with the people that are going to be buying from you. So if it's a local business, then you need to be involved in the community. And that's a good marketing strategy, connect with other people around you. And they're like, Oh, I know Amy, I'm going to call her first, or, you know, connect her with this other person that I might know.
[00:22:09] Amy Wood: So referral base is huge. And taking good care of your existing customers that invest in you, like pouring back into them again and again. Referral-based programs and incentives are always good for existing clients. So, I'm big on building from there. Big, huge market interest rate. I mean, there aren't many people that would probably be building nationwide campaigns here or anything like that, but.
[00:22:34] Amy Wood: A lot of times in those spaces, you find ambassadors for your brand and things like that, that can help infiltrate communities a little better for you. But I think for us, the biggest wins have been being involved in and interested in my community, serving in my community, in the school districts, in the chambers, and the college. Like, in any way that I can, I connect.
[00:22:56] Albert Gillispie: Yeah, I love that you said that because that's one thing in my line of work when I'm talking to potential vendors that want to win clients. It's developing those relationships at the Chamber of Commerce or wherever. You're not going to make a sale immediately, but if you get to know these people and you're telling your story long enough and how you help solve people's problems, and you have other people that you've solved their problems and they can talk about it, that eventually...
[00:23:30] Albert Gillispie: When the crap hits the fan for that person, they're going to call someone they trust.
[00:23:34] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:23:35] Albert Gillispie: And that's the long game, but is so important. And if you're [00:23:44] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:23:45] Albert Gillispie: Super pipeline that's solid.
[00:23:46] Amy Wood: Yeah, it's super solid.
[00:23:49] Albert Gillispie: I love that. Okay, referrals. What are some tactics? What are some practical things for a small business owner to develop a referral program? What do you usually suggest?
[00:24:00] Amy Wood: I'm going to actually shout out a small business. Minimize and Organize is owned by Cabri Carpenter.
[00:24:06] Albert Gillispie: Okay.
[00:24:07] Amy Wood: This girl is like boss babe 3000. She is so smart, but I love what she does because she uses Facebook and Facebook groups a lot, and she does it in a smart way. So anytime somebody says, "Hey, I need to organize my closet," people will tag Minimize and Organize. So Cabri never misses. She will send you a card that's like, "Thank you" and a $5 card to a local business. She does it very consistently to where I haven't even seen Cabri in probably two years, but I will instantly think of her because she's rewarded me with these little... I mean, and that's a small give. A lead on Google would cost you five bucks if it's a call, you know what I mean? It's not much, but she's done that really well—leveraging those small business recommendations and Lubbock groups, different types of small business spots where people are hanging out.
[00:25:00] Amy Wood: I think that's such a smart idea. I love it. It doesn't work the same way for Flynn Avenue, but we're kind of in a different space. Like with government, you can't give rewards, can't mail anybody a gift card, but I can give them time, and that's unrecorded. So I do. I'll give them time consulting which is more valuable than five bucks.
[00:25:19] Kellen Ketchersid: I'm just thinking as we're listening to you, I want to scrub back across our timeline and re listen to some of this later, because you've already given some, so many good things here.
Incentivizing Referrals for Maximum Impact
[00:25:29] Albert Gillispie: Yeah, the referral thing, I think it is so important, and it's such an easy win, right? You have these current clients. What if you could incentivize them in some way? Maybe it's a hundred dollars, or a couple hundred dollars, like, "Hey, if you send me a client and they sign a six-month contract," or whatever. That’s just low-hanging fruit for the people that are already with you.
[00:25:58] Amy Wood: And people want to help. They want to help you win all around. I want to help you guys win, you want to help me win—it’s all part of it. Your referral can literally be at the bottom of an email. Just, "If you know anybody else that might benefit from our time together, would you let me know? Would you connect me?" I'll search people's LinkedIn and be like, "Hey, you know this person, would you mind introducing me?" And look on my LinkedIn too, and I'll introduce you to whoever you want to know. We'll just trade connections.
[00:26:32] Kellen Ketchersid: That's so smart. That's such a good idea.
[00:26:35] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah, and then helping each other in that way.
[00:26:38] Albert Gillispie: The referral thing, man, that's such low-hanging fruit. Listen up, small business owners.
[00:26:46] Amy Wood: It's so much less expensive to retain an existing client or bring in a client through a referral than it is to obtain a new client. Changing their mind from whatever they're currently doing to shifting to you is a larger learning curve. It's more expensive in every way. But if you create culture, create magnetism, you know, it starts flowing. It’s less stressful for you too because you're not hunting all the time. Stuff's coming to the door, and you're receiving or rejecting. It puts you in a different power seat, which makes it so much easier.
[00:27:22] Kellen Ketchersid: I was talking to a business owner this week who was saying that they don't do this with everyone, but they have certain referral partners. If that referral partner sends them a lead, they give that referral partner 10 percent of the revenue from that lead, which sounds like a pretty big chunk.
[00:27:38] Kellen Ketchersid: Right. But he's like, we don't have to hire anybody to go out and chase leads for us now because we're getting all these qualified leads from these referral partners that we know are going to send us good people. So, I mean, depending on what business you're in, that can be golden.
[00:27:53] Albert Gillispie: Big time. And it's just, I think people don't realize how much that plays into your psyche. Think about the last movie you went and saw in theaters. You probably went and saw it because one of your friends was like, "Oh man, we went and saw that, and it was great. My kids loved it." And, you know, that's why we went and saw Transformers this last weekend, because one of our friends was like, "Oh, it's great. My kids loved it." And, before we knew it, we bought five tickets.
[00:28:22] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:28:22] Kellen Ketchersid: I only go to movies you go to, so I guess you're my referral source.
Importance of Testimonials and Building Trust
[00:28:26] Amy Wood: You know, you're saying something important there too, and that is you're sharing a testimonial.
[00:28:31] Amy Wood: They shared a testimonial with you, which kind of parallels that referral space. It's like when people can share what a great experience they had, it's a no-brainer to make the decision again, right? So, leverage that in your business.
[00:28:47] Kellen Ketchersid: And where would you leverage that as far as on your website? Where else?
[00:28:51] Amy Wood: I mean, because my marketing manager is here right now, she would say Google or Google reviews. She would say every single person you interact with, like even today in this interaction, let's do a Google review for one another. It's the easiest way to give cred to another business. But then outside of that, just asking for, you know, how was your experience with us? Customer surveys—some people do it that way. Some people do testimonial videos or shout us out on social, just however it makes sense for your business model. But when other people say you're good and you're not the one saying you're good all the time, it's more trusted.
[00:29:29] Amy Wood: They have something special going on over there. It piques more interest, and it's more trusted than the actual source.
[00:29:37] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah, it makes sense. So if you're a business owner and you do a good job for somebody, don't be afraid to ask for a testimonial, right?
[00:29:44] Albert Gillispie: Business is so relational. That's just another one of those layers. How can you lean into the relationship that is actually real? Like, I want you to win, you want me to win. That's real. It's an authentic thing. It's not transactional. It's how can we help each other? And that's amazing. It's imperative.
[00:30:04] Amy Wood: It's how we have to be, you know, we're only, we're this earth's cohort right now.
[00:30:09] Albert Gillispie: Right.
[00:30:10] Amy Wood: And most of it's running on the back of small business. Yep. And so it only helps us all if we can just help each other out and do the things that help each other get in front of other people better.
[00:30:21] Albert Gillispie: I have another specific marketing question. If you were talking to a small business owner and they said, what are two places that I need to go spend money on ads, on advertising, where should they go?
[00:30:35] Amy Wood: Google.
[00:30:35] Albert Gillispie: Google.
[00:30:36] Amy Wood: For sure. Spend your money on Google. Well, it depends on their audience too. So like, if older people are what you're trying to target, we may say YouTube. The second place might be harder to determine. Like if you're business-to-business, I would say LinkedIn. Maybe Facebook and Instagram, if you're targeting a millennial audience or something like that, but Google always.
Building Relationships for Business Growth
[00:31:00] Amy Wood: And I would actually say last year, well, not last year, but the year before, Flynn Avenue just eliminated our ad budget. I decided I'm not going to spend money on ads. I'm going to shift that money to relationships. So I started hosting the Boss Ass Breakfast. Once a month, only CEOs or owners of businesses could come. Don’t send your marketing manager to my Boss’s Breakfast. We started doing that, and the people I had worked with before came back. We actually ended up growing our business more than we did using the targeted Google ads.
[00:31:42] Albert Gillispie: The marketing agency doesn't spend any money advertising?
[00:31:46] Amy Wood: Well, last year we didn’t. This year, there were some ESSER funds I wanted to capture, so we did spend some more this year. Boss Ass Breakfast is actually a lot of work because we had to set up a whole breakfast, and it was a big deal. We’re not caterers.
[00:32:00] Kellen Ketchersid: But I love the idea. It's so creative, and it feeds into what you were saying earlier. You've got an endless supply of good ideas. For a business owner, I think that’s key—always be having your wheels turning. How can I get people talking about me or get the message out? Maybe it’s breakfast.
[00:32:17] Amy Wood: Maybe it is.
[00:32:20] Albert Gillispie: All right, we've talked a lot of good stuff happening. The other side of that coin—what are some losses you've taken along the way that might be funny or interesting, and what lessons did you learn?
[00:32:36] Amy Wood: Well, yesterday, the CEO of a technology company, me, left her laptop at home in Levelland. So yeah, that was a whole day with no tech.
[00:32:45] Kellen Ketchersid: But...
[00:32:46] Amy Wood: I was in office and had meetings, so we got a good laugh out of that one. But no, there are all kinds of lower parts of the roller coaster on this entrepreneurial journey.
[00:32:59] Amy Wood: I've hired friends and had to fire friends—good, close friends—and it changes things. Sometimes you have to prioritize what you're doing for the business over what you want to do or what you want to do for your family, or even being around your family. It’s not always easy.
[00:33:15] Amy Wood: There are a lot of times when the bleeding heart part of you wants to do everything for free or avoid having difficult conversations, like when someone hasn't paid you. There are all kinds of negatives that come with small business ownership that aren't fun.
[00:33:32] Amy Wood: But you do it because, at the end of the day, there's so much more that's good. You feel like you're making a difference and having an impact, and that's what keeps you going.
[00:33:41] Kellen Ketchersid: And doing the hard things is worth it because it allows you to keep doing the things you're good at.
[00:33:46] Amy Wood: Yeah.
[00:33:46] Kellen Ketchersid: That's so true. We hear that from business owners all the time. You talked about your relationships with friends, or having an employee who was a friend or family member, and they no longer work with you. Those sorts of things are really hard.
[00:34:00] Amy Wood: They are.
[00:34:00] Kellen Ketchersid: Well, as far as what gets you excited about the future of Flynn Avenue, I’d love to hear what you're looking forward to, what’s around the bend.
[00:34:14] Amy Wood: More government contracts, of course. We’ve got a couple of products we’re going to commercialize better, like our website hosting. We’ve also got a small business mobile app so that smaller companies can afford their own customized app, called Arise Apps, and we're excited about relaunching those. But personally, I’ve blocked off a week to write again. I’m going to start drafting some curriculum specifically for small business success around marketing. I’m an instructional designer, so it's in my blood to teach and create this content.
[00:34:48] Amy Wood: I'm excited to leverage that experience and create something people can really learn from.
[00:34:58] Kellen Ketchersid: Love it. That's exciting. We’re going to have to see it.
[00:35:01] Amy Wood: I want to show it!
[00:35:02] Kellen Ketchersid: Can’t wait!
Fire Round
[00:35:02] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah. Well, Albert, I think it's time for the fire round.
[00:35:05] Albert Gillispie: Let’s do it. Okay, Amy, what’s your favorite movie?
[00:35:09] Amy Wood: I hate favorite questions because I never know what the favorite is, but I’m going to have to say in this situation, it’s probably Forrest Gump. I know it’s a strange one, but I love Forrest Gump because I kind of feel like I’ve lived the Forrest Gump life. There are situations I’ve been in that I didn’t earn and couldn’t see myself in, but I just keep getting these opportunities and being in these places. I feel Forrest Gumpy at times, so I love that movie.
[00:35:38] Albert Gillispie: That’s one of those movies where, when it’s on TV, no matter what scene it’s on, I can watch it to the end.
[00:35:45] Amy Wood: Yeah, it’s true.
[00:35:45] Albert Gillispie: Thank you. All right. What is your favorite book?
[00:35:48] Amy Wood: My favorite book is probably the Bible. I read the Bible every day.
[00:35:52] Albert Gillispie: Great choice. Aside from the Bible, what’s your favorite book?
[00:35:56] Amy Wood: Well, since my experience with Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has always been an important book to me. He has a chapter called “Understand Before Being Understood,” and that resonates with me as a lifelong learner. It’s something I’ve clung to.
[00:36:21] Kellen Ketchersid: Yeah, that's actually the quote I remember from reading that book in high school. Great answer. All right, what is a piece of advice that's common in your industry that you don't agree with?
[00:36:33] Amy Wood: I hate hustle culture.
[00:36:35] Kellen Ketchersid: Like?
[00:36:35] Amy Wood: I really hate hashtag hustle culture. I’m not a part of that. I’m not going to wake up at 5 a.m., work out for hours, and try to win the day in a million ways. I don’t think that’s healthy for entrepreneurship. You need to get in a groove that’s healthy for your body, your family, and your life. Life is really short, and if you make your entire identity around your hustle, it’s a formula for failure. I would say I’m anti-hustle culture. It can grow slow, and it will still grow. It may not grow as fast, but it won’t fail as fast either. You may have longer, steadier times with whatever you’re building, and that’s a good thing. The journey is good.
[00:37:26] Kellen Ketchersid: So don’t get burned out, find some balance, read your Bible. I like it.
[00:37:31] Albert Gillispie: I like it. All right, what are some words of wisdom that have been the most impactful or that guide you?
[00:37:42] Amy Wood: Things that guide me? Gosh, it changes every week. When you read the Bible, you get something new that hits you, and you're like, dang, that’s good—I should listen to that. But I had a mentor, Richard Graves, who was teaching us facilitation skills, and he told me that no matter how incapable or less than you feel when you stand in front of a class or a room full of people, you have to know that what you're speaking on, you probably know more than they do, and they are there for your success. Nobody wants to see a bad speaker or a bad performance. Everyone wants good, so they want good for you too. That’s always resonated with me. No matter what I’m going to do, I can do it fearlessly because I know whoever is on the receiving end wants success too.
[00:38:39] Amy Wood: We all want to have a good thing happen.
[00:38:42] Albert Gillispie: I like that. I like that. How can people get in touch with you, and how can people do business with you?
[00:38:49] Amy Wood: Sure. So, flintavenue.com, and then we're at Flint Avenue on every social platform. That's probably the best way to reach out to us. And yeah, I'd love to connect and collaborate with anyone.
[00:38:59] Albert Gillispie: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on our podcast.
[00:39:00] Amy Wood: Yes, this has been great. Thank you for the stories and the practical nuggets. I really appreciate it.
[00:39:08] Amy Wood: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
[00:39:09] Albert Gillispie: Well, I hope you enjoyed that episode. I know we did. Definitely. And if you want more of that, go ahead and click subscribe and keep coming back to keep learning lessons on how to improve your business.
[00:39:24] Albert Gillispie: And if you're a business owner and you feel stuck, if you feel like your business has plateaued and can't improve, can't do better, go ahead and visit our website at www.stagcoaching.com. In the top right-hand corner, click on our business assessment. It's a free business assessment that, in just a few questions and a few clicks, can diagnose what's going on with your business—what's wrong, what's going right, and what are the next steps to take to get past where you're stuck.
[00:39:56] Albert Gillispie: Thank you, and we'll see you on the next one.
