IAM968- CEO Works With Business Owners to Scale Their Impact

Jennifer Tamborski is a Digital Marketing Strategist and CEO for Virtual Marketing Experts. Jennifer loves teaching business owners the skills and strategies they need to create, build, and grow profitable online businesses.

Jennifer and her team of experts work with 6 and 7 figure coaches, consultants and online course creators to grow their businesses, remove marketing overwhelm, increase their revenue and scale their impact.

• CEO Hack: Being incredibly organized
• CEO Nugget: (i) Always have a coach or mentor (ii) Do the marketing faster than you think you should
• CEO Defined: Being able to see the whole picture of your business and move it in the right direction

Website: https://www.virtualmarketingexpert.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virtualmarketingexperts
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-tamborski/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virtualmarketingexperts/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:21.39] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

[00:00:48.79] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jennifer Tamborski of Virtual Marketing Experts. Jennifer, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:58.10] – Jennifer Tamborski

It is fantastic to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:01.00] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before I jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Jennifer so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Jennifer is a digital marketing strategist and CEO for virtual marketing experts. Jennifer loves teaching business owners the skills and strategies they need to create, build, and grow profitable online businesses. Jennifer and their team of experts work with six and seven-figure coaches, consultants, and online course creators to grow their businesses, remove marketing overwhelm, increase their revenue, and scale their impact. Jennifer, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:32.79] – Jennifer Tamborski

I am ready.

[00:01:34.20] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you got started, your CEO story, and let you get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

[00:01:44.20] – Jennifer Tamborski

Yeah. So my story started, I guess, around fifteen ish years ago. I started, as a virtual assistant back way back then. Seems like a lifetime ago. I started working as a virtual assistant because I had little kids, and I needed to be able to be home with them or I wanted to be able to be home with them, but still be able to bring in some income into my business. And then as my business grew, I tended to work more with marketers online. At the time, I mean, I know it doesn't seem like that's that long ago, but Internet-wise, it's like a lifetime.

Fifteen years ago, the Internet was still pretty young, but marketers saw the potential of it on how you could grow your business online. So I was working with a lot of them and spent probably ten-ish years, working and learning the whole ins and outs of marketing. And then when my kids hit school, I decided to step into the CEO role and grow my business and focus on that area of business that I loved the most, which was marketing.

[00:02:59.40] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah. And it makes so much sense. And like you said, technology, like, moves fast, and digital marketing is a part of that. So just to see the growth, I imagine, is pretty remarkable from the last couple of years. But I love that you have the opportunity to be with your family. And then as it grew, and you started to step into that role and you saw a potential gap, it sounds like you were able to fulfill that.

[00:03:24.69] – Jennifer Tamborski

Yeah. It's been amazing. And, I was listening to somebody this morning, talking about Facebook ads and that's why I'm always learning and, expanding my knowledge on that. One of the things that she had said was that she started six years ago, which didn't seem like a long time, but in Facebook land, six years ago was the birth. It's just, especially when it comes down to events. So it's a whole every year, there's just, like, this whole shift and change when it comes to online marketing.

[00:03:57.09] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Exactly. Because it's almost like even within the different platforms that you have, Facebook, Instagram, and so you have within each of them their mutations into more and more and more. And it's crazy to think about, what Facebook was without ads, without groups, without pages, and all of those things of what it is now. It's remarkable. And you have to continue to listen to things and sharpen the saw, it sounds like, to make sure you're constantly learning.

[00:04:21.30] – Jennifer Tamborski

If you're focusing on Facebook ads, whether you're doing it for yourself or whether you're, a business owner a marketer, additional marketer, there are always updates. The algorithm changes. Currently, we have the new iOS update that has changed everything in the back end of Facebook and caused all shifts. So, yeah, it's an ongoing evolution, but it's a lot of fun.

[00:04:50.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. So I love that you help people navigate that. And in the sword, you said shifts. I'm sure a lot of people are thinking of another word when they're thinking about all the changes and trying to keep up with it. So, I love that you're able to help people, to navigate that. So, I know that touches on a lot of how you serve your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more on how that process works and what exactly you provide to help support them?

[00:05:13.39] – Jennifer Tamborski

Sure. So I primarily work with six and seven-figure coaches, consultants, and online business owners. We help them, oftentimes develop a digital marketing strategy, but then we help them to implement it Because the implementation is where most business owners tend to fall back. So we offer full done for you I like to call it done with you because there is an interaction when it comes to your marketing, services for our clients. Primarily sales funnels and Facebook ads are what we focus on.

[00:05:50.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. I love that you said, you know, done with you. I've heard somebody, I think they were on the show, say it's not DIY. It's DWI done with you. And understanding that your marketing is a lot of times reflection of what you're doing, things in ways that you see your business growing and expanding is so important to have that back and forth, it sounds like, so that you're able to, correctly articulate that and showcase that.

[00:06:14.19] – Jennifer Tamborski

Absolutely. Absolutely. Marketing should be a relationship-building tool. Right? That's what in my business, I correlate marketing to dating because everybody understands the dating process and the steps you go through to form a relationship. If you look at your marketing in that same vein, it makes it not only more comfortable for you, but it makes it easier when you're looking at it as building a relationship with your audience and with your ideal client rather than trying to trick somebody or I mean, there are always those marketers out there that you're like that used car salesman marketer. Right?

That's not where you want your business to be. You want your business to be the people that come to you and they're like, yeah. I get you, I am that person that you're speaking to.

[00:07:11.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense that you're providing a solution that they're looking for. You're able to communicate with them directly. And I love that analogy because you a lot of those used car salesman marketers, sometimes they'll ask to get married on the first date, and you don't wanna necessarily do that. You want to gradually move into that if that is the right move. So I love that analogy.

[00:07:31.19] – Jennifer Tamborski

Absolutely. And it's so true. That is the biggest mistake that a lot of people make even in Facebook ads. Right? They're asking for a relationship before they even before people know who you are.

[00:07:41.39] – Gresham Harkless

Right. Exactly. That makes so much sense. And so would you consider that to be what I call your secret sauce, which is something you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique? It can be it can be you or your organization. Is it that ability to understand the nuances of the market and to be able to communicate that and translate that into all the work that you do?

[00:07:58.19] – Jennifer Tamborski

I do. I think two things set us apart. One, I care about my clients' businesses almost as much as they do. And everyone on my team is, like, our goal is to make our clients successful. That's, that is at the core of it, what we want to do. But secondary to that, I think it's also being able to break down marketing into understandable pieces, into things that I can explain to my clients what they need and why they need it so that they're more comfortable doing it.

[00:08:32.10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. And you use the relationship word before. And I think a part of any good relationship in that partnership that you kinda spoke to where you support your clients is really about not just communicating to be heard, but communicating for people to understand. And I think a big part of that is being able to understand, like, how can my client or my coach or Microsoft, whoever you're working with, understand exactly what it is that we're doing and why this is important. And I think that's an art, to be able to communicate that and translate that for them to understand.

[00:09:01.89] – Jennifer Tamborski

Yeah. It is. I actually, did a podcast recently that I call The Heart and Science of Marketing. Because marketing is both a heart. The heart aspect is all about relationships, and the science aspect is understanding all of the numbers and what's working and what's not. And being able to blend the two is really where we come in.

[00:09:23.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. That intersection is rare, so I love that you can do that for yourself and your clients. And so I wanna just switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:41.29] – Jennifer Tamborski

So I would say, being incredibly organized. Right? One of the things that I think people forget in the online world like, that when we are in offices, when people I mean, it hasn't been that long ago since people were in office buildings, but It feels like it sometimes. Right? But when we were in offices and we had paper and there were filing cabinets and all of that kind of stuff, you could easily read for and grab something. Look at your online information, and your online sources the same way. Being incredibly organized about how you, file things away online makes it so much easier to go out and go, I need information on x y z. Oh, there it is.

[00:10:26.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. And I love again how you compare that to what it was like in the office. Because I think so many times, and I'm sure you hear this with marketing as well too, people don't look at it as a relationship. They look at it as a way to blast their information, and they forget that relationship piece. But it's just different. It's the same way as dating or talking to somebody. You wanna be able to build and cultivate that in the same way with your organization. If you don't wanna have your file cabinet and files everywhere, you should keep it organized so your digital, your digital, office space, so to speak, should be organized in the same way.

[00:10:59.10] – Jennifer Tamborski

Especially if you have more than one person on the team. Right? Like, if you have a team member, whether that's a virtual assistant or an accountant or whatever, if you have one team member, they need to be able to access those files, and they're not gonna be able to read your mind.

[00:11:12.79] – Gresham Harkless

Yes. No matter how hard we wish and try. That that is not, that's not that's not where we are yet, I'll say. Exactly. So, I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you touched on or related to marketing, or it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine you would tell your younger business self.

[00:11:34.10] – Jennifer Tamborski

So I think there are two pieces of nuggets that I would give. One, always have a coach or mentor to help you along in your business. Quite often, we're in our business. We can't see where the gaps are, where the issues are, and having a coach or a mentor able to look over our shoulder and help us along that aspect helps us to get your business further faster. And the second thing in marketing, do it faster than you think you should. That's the one thing about marketing. People wait, and they're like, I will market when blah blah blah. The reality is that marketing is the number one piece of your business that you can't wait on.

[00:12:21.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. I love that last point, especially since I love both of those, nuggets. But it sounds like, like, I always say you should always be marketing even when you have business and opportunities because you never know what's to come, what's going to happen, what client may retire, or they decide that they wanna move another way, or whatever might happen. But if you're always marketing, you're always kinda keeping that funnel, so to speak, open, it sounds like.

[00:12:45.00] – Jennifer Tamborski

Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's the biggest piece. So many people, especially in the coaching industry, they'll either have five clients and then they're great. They have five clients and then one client rolls off, and then it's like feast or famine. Right? It's this up-and-down market. If you market it if you're marketing consistently for the entire time, you don't have that roller coaster. You're more at an even plane, which hopefully is just going up rather than straight across.

And, and that allows you to continue to grow and scale your business and sometimes pivot. Because sometimes, as we've had in the last year with COVID, there's been times where people businesses have were like, oh my. I need to pivot what I'm doing.

[00:13:34.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I feel like that, and I don't know if you feel that same way. I feel like that ties into that first nugget that you spoke to too because I think so many times we're going and moseying along in our business. We have the five clients that we need to have, but we don't think about, oh, if this client leaves if this client retires. And so many times, because we're so close to it, we need that outside perspective, those fresh eyes, though, that insight and experience to be able to give us that advice so that we can make those decisions before it turns into that roller coaster ride that entrepreneurship sometimes is anyways.

[00:14:06.89] – Jennifer Tamborski

Absolutely. That is so true.

[00:14:09.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Jennifer, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:20.29] – Jennifer Tamborski

So for me, a CEO is being able to see the whole picture of your business and being able to, move your business in the direction that you want. Having that vision of what's next and being able to move it in that direction. It also means being a leader. Sometimes that's just leading yourself because there are CEOs who are just single people, But it's about leading yourself or a team, in the right direction.

[00:14:49.89] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's huge. I think so many times we don't see all the different pieces that are in place whenever we're making decisions or not making decisions. But I don't know if you feel that also too, like, as we talked about in the nugget, that mentor or coach can, while not necessarily being an employee, be a vital piece to you going in the right direction. So I almost feel like those things that sometimes we don't see within our business that are affecting it and can be impacted, we have to be the leaders in all of those different aspects so we get to where we wanna be.

[00:15:18.00] – Jennifer Tamborski

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:15:20.10] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Jennifer, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you, find out about your podcast, and all the awesome things that you're working on as well.

[00:15:35.29] – Jennifer Tamborski

Awesome. Thanks so much. So I think, we gave them a a lot of quick nuggets on here. When you're marketing, focus on the relationship first. Focus on who your ideal client is and how you wanna connect with them because that is the biggest piece of marketing that can move your business forward. If you wanna get in touch with me, you can reach me at virtual marketing expert dot com, and you're welcome to join me on my podcast, Marketing Matchmaker.

[00:16:02.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Jennifer. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. But, yes, relationships are everything online and offline. So I appreciate you helping people do that, reminding us of that because I think, especially during times like this, that connection piece and those relationships are huge and vital in so many different ways. So I appreciate you for putting that at the forefront and reminding, us to put it at the forefront as well because it's huge. So thank you again.

[00:16:29.60] – Outro

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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