IAM315- Public Relations Consultant Helps Entrepreneurs Grow Their Brand Recognition

Tonya McKenzie is an author and public relations consultant by trade, a child advocate by choice. Tonya started her career in public relations at the Mt. Diablo Region YMCA, where she needed media coverage to help grow and expand the services provided to the city. After constructing and selling corporate membership packages, she was nominated and elected to the Oakley Chamber of Commerce and appointed to Contra Costa County's Youth Commission by Supervisor Federal Glover.

While Tonya serves on the Board of Directors for the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce and as Vice President of the North Redondo Beach Business Association, she to continues helping entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits gain media attention and grow their brand recognition through the company that she founded in 2014, Sand & Shores PR.

• CEO Hack: Morning routine work out, planning it our in my head and being ready to execute
• CEO Nugget: Things will come up no matter how much we plan so be prepared and hope for the best
• CEO Defined: Leadership by not being ego driven

Website: http://www.sandandshores.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyamckenziespeaks/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyamckenzie/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC29DL9XdZwmhHms7-2HlaGQ

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tonya McKenzie of Sand and Shores PR.

Tonya, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Tonya McKenzie 0:39

Hey, thank you for having me, and Happy Friday.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Happy Friday to you as well. What I wanted to do, which is read a little bit more about Tonya so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Tonya is an author and public relations consultant by trade, a child advocate by choice. Tonya started her career in public relations at the Mt. Diablo Region YMCA, where she needed media coverage to help grow and expand the services provided to the city. After constructing and selling corporate membership packages, she was nominated and elected to the Oakley Chamber of Commerce and appointed to Contra Costa County's Youth Commission by Supervisor Federal Glover.

While Tonya serves on the Board of Directors for the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce and as Vice President of the North Redondo Beach Business Association, she too continues helping entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits gain media attention and grow their brand recognition through the company that she founded in 2014, Sand & Shores PR.

Tonya, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Tonya McKenzie 1:42

I am so ready and excited. Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 1:45

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first thing I wanted to ask you is about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Tonya McKenzie 1:51

What led me to start my business when I moved to Southern California from the Bay Area, I was with a publishing company that really didn't utilize technology as much as they could. So a lot of advertising was done the traditional way, right? And with the use of technology, there's the ability to expand your reach. And they just were not ready to do that. So I had the opportunity to start a company that did all of the things that I wanted to do for small businesses and entrepreneurs, which was help them with their marketing, their PR in their advertising, but get as much reach as possible, and making sure that they understood how to do it themselves.

So not always rely on someone else to do it, but understand how to implement these types of things in their business. So I take care of their services, but I also teach them how to do it and how to make sure that it's done properly.

Gresham Harkless 2:51

Absolutely, that makes perfect sense. And I love the idea, because a lot of times the phrase, building a better mousetrap comes up a lot because a lot of times people start businesses, they think they need to come up with the next widget or whatever. But a lot of times, if you're working or you're familiar with some industry or certain thing, you see that there's a gap in opportunity within that industry. And it sounds like that's what happened with you.

Tonya McKenzie 3:13

Yeah, it was a situation, let's say, for instance, someone paid for an ad, that was about $5,000, a front page, full page color ad, you couldn't really tell how much reach it was getting. You tell them something that you have been instructed to tell them. But in all honesty, you're not really sure if that's what they're getting. And I knew that marketing and advertising and public relations is really the way that you grow a business, right? I've seen many businesses fail that were good, but it was because people didn't know about them. And also, when people have small budgets, what's the first thing they cut, marketing and advertising and you can't grow your business? If you don't, if no one knows about you.

So I look to see that there was a solution for small businesses and entrepreneurs that really wanted to penetrate their market of expertise and make sure that they were getting the reach that they were promised. And it's just important that this happens because I hate seeing good businesses fail just for lack of people not knowing about them or what they offer.

Gresham Harkless 4:21

Absolutely. And I always say visibility is the name of the game. So if you have something great, it's just a matter of being out in front of the right people.

Tonya McKenzie 4:29

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 4:30

Nice. And now I wanted to hear I know you touched on it a little bit. Can you drill a little bit deeper and tell us how you work with your clients and if a new client was to call you how that process would go?

Tonya McKenzie 4:41

My specialty is branding and more or less identity branding. Many people feel like they don't know what it takes to stand out. So what I've been very good at is digging deep to find a person's niche their specialty And that's not something you can just find out in a moment, right? It's a conversation, it's continuous questioning, it's looking at things from a very objective standpoint, to get the real story out of them for why they started their business, what solution they're bringing to the table, and to really market them in a way that touches on their branding, and who they are.

What's important to know is reluctant, many times because it breaks people's hearts, every customer is not your customer, every customer, everybody in the world, even though you think your product is great for everybody, it may be, you really have to hone in on your target market, and then grow your business from there.

So being able to find who that target market is, what that person or company really identifies with, and who their target market is, seems to be my special sauce, because I'm very good at digging deep into finding out who they are, what they offer, and who their customer really is.

Gresham Harkless 6:05

Nice. I love that. Because you are basically helping people find what their secret sauce is in their unique selling proposition, what makes them unique, because just like you said, especially in the PR world, and even in the marketing world and business world in general, that story, that thing that a person started their business, or what makes them unique, or the problem they're solving is what really makes that difference and starts to drive the needle and starts to move things forward. Do you find that is what happens?

Tonya McKenzie 6:35

Absolutely. One of the hardest things to get someone to understand is how important consistency is right. And that is a part of your branding. And you have to be true to it. If you try to put on a face that you're a very staunch business person, very cutthroat cut, and dry black and white, and then someone gets in a room with you. And you're super silly, and you laugh at everything, they're gonna be like, Who is this? Even the opposite people have products that are maybe for older people, or very conservative individuals, but they mark it to a young crowd.

They're light, they're young, they're fluffy, and then you get in a room with them, and they're boring, and they're dry, you're gonna be like, how did I get here? So not only are you not able, you're not going to do business with them, but then you're not going to refer business to them.

So it's really important that we hone in and people become okay with who they are, I think they try to mold themselves into what they think people want them to be, right? We all want to be upstanding and clean-cut. But if that's not your true self and your true personality, at the end of the day, they're going to figure that out. And they're going to not see you as authentic, honest, or like a used car salesperson. So really helping people find that middle ground where you can show your personality in a business, and still show people that you can handle business and take care of the matters that you promised to.

Gresham Harkless 8:11

That makes perfect sense. I absolutely love that and I love the secret sauce that you mentioned too. And you being able to help people to find what that is in their lives so that they can continue to drill down on that and continue to do those things that are in alignment with that. So I appreciate you for sharing that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you about what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Tonya McKenzie 8:11

What makes me most effective is my morning workout, I get up at 4:30 and I work out because that is my me time, that's when I get my engine running. And that's also when I can think about and process my day ahead, right? So planning it out in my head and being ready to execute it. As soon as I get back home, I take that shower, ready, set up, and go. There's nothing left that's undetected, just really ready to hone in and fire on all cylinders.

So being able to do that is hugely important. Some people have lists, they make a list. My husband makes a list the night before so that when he gets up in the morning, it's ready, set go. But I think it's super important to be incredibly prepared, mentally and physically to get up and get your day going and be as productive as you possibly can for yourself and your clients.

Gresham Harkless 9:34

Absolutely. I definitely would agree with that. And I think when you understand what that is for you and you do that especially like you mentioned consistently, you know before, it allows you to be on top of everything rather than react to things. I don't know if you find that but I feel like a lot of times when you don't do those certain things, the world and especially being in business and being an entrepreneur there's always something that pops up. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And you might have already touched on this. But this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Tonya McKenzie 10:12

I would always say, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. And that almost goes back to what I just got through saying is, as prepared as you can be, know that things will come up, right? So I don't know how there are people that just expect the day to go exactly as they planned. That's not real life. It could be traffic, it could be, you know, I live in Los Angeles, So the 405 can shut down at any moment. What are you going to do besides lose your mind? Well, you're going to take an alternative route. Because these are some things that could possibly happen.

So you want to be prepared. You want to be ready and hope for the best. Keep a positive mindset. But at the end of the day, things can happen. And you need to be prepared mentally to deal with them without going into a tizzy.

Gresham Harkless 11:02

Yes, no one likes anybody in a tizzy. So yeah, I don't know about the 405. But 395 here, and it's crazy. I don't know if it's as crazy, but it is crazy, nevertheless. But I love that because a lot of times, I feel like there's peace and understanding that sometimes things will pop up. So when it does pop up when things do pop up, you're not in a tizzy, as you said, you just understand that that's part of life and part of like the process. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Tonya, what does being a CEO mean to you

Tonya McKenzie 11:43

CEO means leadership. Clearly, that is stated in regards to people working with people to find the best for each duty, right? So I'm under the premise that sometimes you have to hire smarter than you, you don't always have to be the smartest person in the room. But that takes a level of leadership for people to understand you trust them, you have to instill that faith in them or empowerment, empowering your staff, empowering your clients to understand, many times I have to tell them, this is your project. We absolutely have to make sure that we have your ideas involved, that takes a level of leadership because ego is so caught up in so many things. So not being ego-driven.

But being a real leader, sometimes meaning means you defer to others that are in the room that might be more capable than you are in a particular area. And not everyone can do thatI've worked with people that just don't know how to let go of the reins, or they want to micromanage everything. And that's not always the best way to get something done and get something accomplished. So, leadership really for me comes down to surrounding yourself with individuals that are capable and empowering them to help get the job done as efficiently as possible. It doesn't always mean you are the person making the decision, it definitely means how to allow others that are involved to take the leadership role in the things that they are good at.

Gresham Harkless 13:33

Absolutely, I think I definitely think that's the true definition of CEO and the true definition of leadership is just understanding that you're purpose-driven, not necessarily ego-driven, because there is a difference in that as you put your ego to the side, if you have a strong purpose and goal that you're driving forward to. And Tonya, I truly appreciate your time, what I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how they can get a hold of you.

Tonya McKenzie 14:00

Well, I want to encourage everyone to make sure that whatever job they're doing, whether they are a salesperson for another company or trying to run their own company that they do identify with what they're doing, they allow for their own personal branding to be a part of what they are doing, because that is going to be the difference between you and someone else. So if you have any other questions or would love to talk about personal branding, please contact me at tonyamckenzie.com That's my website, sandandshores.com I have a personal and a business and PR Biz mom at Twitter and Instagram. I would love to connect with anyone that's looking to define their brand or their company and help get their story out to the mass media and public.

Gresham Harkless 14:56

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And what we'll do is we'll have those links in the show notes as well. But I truly appreciate all the awesome things you're doing. And appreciate the time that you took today and I hope you have a phenomenal rest today.

Tonya McKenzie 15:06

Hey, I appreciate you and everything that you are doing. It is great for CEOs and entrepreneurs like myself.

Gresham Harkless 15:13

Thank you.

Outro 15:14

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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