IAM972- Marketer Teaches Small Businesses How to Market on a Budget

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[00:00:07.59] – 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.

[00:00:35.50] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Melissa Forziat of Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing. Melissa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:44.60] – Gresham Harkless

Thank you for having me, Gresh.

[00:00:46.70] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Melissa so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Melissa is a Southern Californian-based marketer, speaker, consultant, and author. She uses her experience working with big organizations like the Olympic Winter Games, the Rugby World Cup, and the US Olympic Committee. And now she teaches small businesses how to market on a budget and helps them execute their marketing strategies. She is the author of Small Business Marketing on a Budget. And as a speaker, she offers keynotes, presentations, workshops, and webinars. Melissa, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:19.09] – Melissa Forziat

I am. If they're ready for me, I'm ready for them.

[00:01:21.00] – Gresham Harkless

I think they're ready. I'm ready. So let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I want to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started with all of us and what you're doing.

[00:01:31.29] – Melissa Forziat

Yeah. This story does come across as a story now, but at the time, I'm not sure if it was so clear. As you mentioned in my bio, I started out doing major international sports events, so my career was a very different thing when I started. I was working with the media, and I had to understand marketing messages at a level of scope that I think no one person could ever really grasp. I mean, when you were working with something like an Olympic games, it's such a big project. The volume of people watching from every different medium is just so huge. So I got I that's where I that's where I cut my teeth. I learned a lot through working in an environment like that.

And then eight years ago, I moved to Seattle, not really intentionally, but I stayed there for a good long time until I moved recently to California. And I found that that city was very insular. I found that my ex and my professional experience outside of Seattle was worth nothing to them. And so I was trying to I was applying for jobs and I was, you know, trying to network as much as I could. And one day, I accidentally strung the words together. I'm taking clients, and I got a client from it. And you could do that, two hundred times and not get a client from it.  I know that now as a business owner, and it's so amazing. It's still amazing to me that I look back at that one moment when I was just in a networking conversation with somebody who had really good ideas for projects that he wanted to get across the line.

And I just said I could take you on as a client. He didn't take me on as a client, but within one week, somebody came to him and said, I need somebody who does the exact thing that I told him I do, even though I didn't have a business yet. So my business very much started basically, by putting my foot in my mouth. I got a big client from it to start with, and I had to figure out what I had done while disturbing that client and figure out what it looks like to have a business and not just one client. So that first year, I would say it was just having one client. It was just me figuring out what it meant to be a business owner, what it meant to, work with a client with that kind of a relationship as an independent contractor.

And then after that first year, I said, okay. This isn't very secure to have a business with one client. So what do I do to flush this out to make it, to have a more, more of a client base, more of a sort of diversification of revenue sources, and, to treat this as a business with me being a business owner, instead of, like, this employee mindset that I still have? So it took a little bit of a process, but I think at this point, I've got multiple revenue streams in my business, and I've had to expand myself through this business to get where I am now.

[00:04:12.40] – Gresham Harkless

That's huge. I appreciate you for sharing that with us so much because I think so many times we zoom to the finish line, so to speak, of an entrepreneur's journey. We don't see all the processes and the steps that it takes to get there. And I think, to me, like, some of the greatest things have been created by people putting their foot in their mouth and saying, oh, I can do this or I can take you on and maybe not even having everything in place. I think so many times people lean on having everything in place and then they never put their foot in their mouth, and nothing ever keeps going. So I salute you, and it reminds us as well to make sure that we do that and then, of course, do the work on the back end to make sure that we're serving the clients we wanna work with.

[00:04:48.50] – Melissa Forziat

Yeah. And I think it's a reminder to sometimes if there's something you want, maybe say it. Maybe try saying it and see what happens. I mean, I'm a big believer in marketing strategy and having a process, but, honestly, sometimes it is just like maybe if you just said that one thing, it could get traction. And,  that's how it happened for me initially. But then to build my business, I needed to be much more intentional about it. But it always does amaze me when I think back on that story. Like, this was meant to be, first of all.

And second of all, how fortunate it was that I said those words at that moment to that person who then, had somebody ask them for that same thing a week later. It's just you just don't know, when you put something out there what the result will be, and nothing can happen if you don't put it out there. So I think that was a really big lesson for me early on, and I'm very glad I learned it because, it's something that I bring to every client now who says, oh, I don't know if I should reach out to this person. It's like, why not? What's the worst thing that can happen, and what's the best?

[00:05:59.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. We so many times think the things that we fear of happening sometimes don't even happen. Sometimes some of those best things come out. And I think, as you said so well, like the domino effect just by saying those words to that potential client who ends up, marketing for you to another client and and bringing that person in. Like, a lot of times, if you don't say those words, that domino effect doesn't happen. So I appreciate that. And so I want to drill down a little bit deeper here a little bit more on the company you have and how you serve the clients that you work with. Could you take us through a little bit more of that and what you do?

[00:06:30.00] – Melissa Forziat

Yeah. I'll tell you because my business is Melissa Forsey at Events and Marketing. So there is an event side of the business. I don't market that as much. I'm not looking for my whole business to be events, and I find that events can be stressful processes on your body when you get closer to the event. So those come as they come, but the emphasis of my business is on the marketing side. And I have, you know if we're talking CEO to CEO here, I've got I would say, five arms, five revenue streams in my marketing side of my business, and all of it is directed to small businesses who are marketing on a budget.

So for me, my focus has been how to reach micro businesses that are trying to figure out how to market their business, but they're looking at their budget and it has maybe zero dollars in it. And they don't know where to go from there. They maybe they have a little bit more money, maybe they have zero. But a lot of service providers steer away from that client group because it appears to be not where the big contracts are, and so you need a higher volume of clients to make that work. But I wanted to serve this client base. So for me, this meant how do I build my business in a way that's going to support that?

So for me, if we're getting inside baseball on this, I have some things that provide more security in my business that lets me target that audience in a coaching consultation way. So I have, for example, some clients that I do all of their marketing for or all of their email marketing or social media marketing year round long term, and that's a nice stable base that I've got. I've got some clients who come to me looking for short-term projects. Like, they wanna build out a marketing strategy, or they're working on a launch and they wanna come up with a plan, or they're looking to get into a new area of marketing and they wanna plan for how to do that. Then I've got hourly coaching, and a lot of clients fall into that category where maybe they just need one hour. They've got all these questions. They just wanna answer them. Or maybe they'll come back from time to time and do, you know, an hour every month or an hour a few times a year.

And then I've got two other sides of the business where I've got, courses that I've created, which is a passive revenue stream for me, but it's great because I've put a ton of information together in these courses. And then somebody who wants to do that sort of DIY learning approach can very easily use those courses to get a full education on marketing strategy in some area. And then I have a speaking side of my business where I speak to usually rooms of small business owners often with chambers of commerce or small business development centers. Any group that has sort of a collection of small business owners in one room, I can speak to that group.

[00:09:05.39] – Gresham Harkless

Would you consider that to be, what I call your secret sauce? The thing you feel sets you apart. Is it that ability to not just be able to create these different offers offerings, but also be able to understand from having that conversation exactly what a client might be looking for?

[00:09:18.39] – Melissa Forziat

I think that's a big part of it. I don't know. I think there are a bunch of things that would go into the secret sauce of my business. I mean, I think one of them is having all of these different ways that I can work with people that I have built out in my business. I also think empathy has been a big one for me. I mean, I found it to be a really helpful tool in coaching that maybe surprisingly, but it has changed the nature of some relationships with clients, along the way. So that's been another big one for me as well.

But I think I think this idea of having you know, we say multiple revenue streams is a good thing just for the sake of it. But for me, because of how long it sort of took me to develop a firm client base in all these different areas and how many different sorts of dues-paying things that I did to get to where I am with all those different service arms. I have found that having all of those different tools at my availability has allowed me to blend them at times in really interesting ways for example, like with speaking, people spend entire lifetimes building a speaking career.

And for me, I find a lot of people who are trying to do that in the beginning, they may start by doing a lot of free talks. And I was in some rooms in the beginning where I was getting myself to that location. They weren't paying me. And then they would say, you cannot sell in this room. And I'd be like, well, what good are you?

[00:10:41.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah.

[00:10:41.50] – Melissa Forziat

Why am I here? Especially in the situations when they were charging people to be in the room. It was like, hold on a minute. So for me, I had to look at what my options were for still getting names in the room for still finding ways to make relationships with clients. And all of these things that I've built out have allowed me to get creative when I'm in different situations. So now it's like, whatever the scenario is, I'm probably able to find a way that it will work for my business because I have spent years building all those tools.

[00:11:15.60] – Gresham Harkless

Well, appreciate that, Melissa. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have. What's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:11:26.79] – Melissa Forziat

For one thing, I'm a big-time list maker and a big-time strategy thinker. I, try to think about it before I start the journey, I try to think a little bit about what this journey entails. The first step that I'm gonna take is step seven. If I had just done steps one through six beforehand, it would have been way easier to do step seven. So I think there's a fine line there because you don't wanna spend so much time thinking about what you're doing that you don't do it. But for me, I know that I'll do it, and I take that moment to get myself a little bit more organized and to think creatively about what my options are so that once I start forward, I'm usually a bit more, intentional about how I get from one place to the next. So I think that's a big ack that I would say.

[00:12:17.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. And I was gonna ask you for, what I call a CEO nugget, which is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, but I feel like that and then the very least could be your nugget. I don't know if you would feel that way. But is it that it sounds like and correct me if I'm wrong, understanding that this is the mission, this is the goal that I have, and I'm not going to once I get clear on that, I understand whether I'm gonna go left or right because I know if it's in alignment with that or if it's not in alignment with that. And It makes it sound a little bit easier to be able to make that decision those either-or decisions, I guess, we have to.

[00:12:49.10] – Melissa Forziat

Yeah. I think it's almost like giving yourself a framework for what opportunities belong in your sphere and which ones aren't yours. And I think that can be especially hard to do at the beginning of a business when it's like, oh, you're willing to pay me money? Then yes. Anything yes. Whatever it is. I don't care who you are. You don't you're not my target market. That's fine. But I think sometimes those are the things that end up, like, that's why ten years down the road, people are like, how do my business become this? Oh, I said yes to that one thing ten years ago, and that's where all the referrals came from.

So I think it's it's just like Murphy's Law. I get that at some point the opportunities don't come unless it's the thing you don't want. And then all of a sudden we're coming in fast and it's like, what just happened here? So I think for me understanding what I'm aiming for what I'm trying to do and who I'm trying to serve overall. I'm a big believer in marketing and linking up with other businesses and, boosting each other's voice in whatever way you can.

Sometimes that is an excellent fit, and sometimes it makes no sense. And I think if you can understand the path that you're on and what you're trying to do, the difference between the ones that are the noise and the ones that are good opportunities for you becomes much more apparent.

[00:14:08.89] – Gresham Harkless

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, Melissa, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:18.60] – Melissa Forziat

I think that it means being the face and the brain of your business.

[00:14:25.10] – Gresham Harkless

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 a hold of you and find out about all awesome things that you're working on.

[00:14:38.79] – Melissa Forziat

Absolutely. Well, I gave you all a bit of a background on what I do. So I think if anybody is listening who's a small business owner or specifically a micro business owner who is trying to get the word out about their business and you're just thinking, I don't have a lot of money to throw at that. Come find me at my website specifically, Melissa Forziat Events dot com because there are a ton of resources there to help you with your marketing, whether it be free or with working with me. So there's a lot of information there. There's a whole ebook on small business marketing on a budget.

So all of that, I think, is a resource for you. I think, so many business owners sort of put off marketing because they feel like other things are more pressing or they don't have a budget to put into it. And the reality is that if you wanna have a business, not a hobby, you need customers. And they have to know you exist somehow. So hopefully, I'm able to put some things out there that help people understand what their options are wherever you are in your business right now. So Melissa formatevents.com is the resource to find me. And, hopefully, from there, you can find whatever you need to get in touch with me or to get more information for marketing.

[00:15:48.10] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Truly appreciate that, Melissa. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too, and I'm a big believer. And a lot of times, we should necessarily be looking for resources all the time. Sometimes it's resourcefulness. So really, you know, understanding those different ways that you can market yourself and the way that you can do it even without as many resources as sometimes we hope is huge. So thanks so much for providing insight today, of course, providing insight on your site as well too, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:13.70] – 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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