IAM1351 – Marketing Director Helps Clients Optimize their Online Presence

Over the last 7 years, Brittany has created over 300 digital marketing strategies for clients locally and nationally. As the Marketing Director at One Thing Marketing, Brittany focuses on helping business owners get their phones to ring with new clients by optimizing their website and online presence. Through her strategies and team at One Thing, they have helped local trade businesses increase their business by an average of 30% every year.

• CEO Story: After the owner was swindled by his hired Website Dev and Marketer. I Fell in love with SEO and marketing and came to fruition the One Thing Marketing. Shifting from frame-making to a digital marketing agency in 2011 and in 2014, Brittany joined the Board.
• Business Service: Website, SEO, Ads, etc. Specializing in-home services.
• Secret Sauce: Invest in yourself. You may try to figure things out but it takes a lot of time, hire an expert.
• CEO Hack: Invest in resources (books, seminars, webinars, etc.) gather those ideas, and see how it applies to your business.
• CEO Nugget: Make your life easier, hire and delegate some minor tasks. So you can do what you do best.
• CEO Defined: Having the responsibility. Creating a vision. Leading the people in a better direction and better people.

Website: www.onethingmarketing.net

Not sure where to start? Download a copy of our 9 marketing strategies PROVEN to increase leads for your trade service company here –

eBook: trade-service-ebook

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.

00:23 – Intro

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 Harkness 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.

00:50 – 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 Brittany Murphy of One Thing Marketing. Brittany, super excited to have you on the show.

00:59 – Brittany Murphy

Yes, Thanks for having me.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited to have you on and all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Brittany's thinking about some of those awesome things. Over the last 7 years, Brittany has created over 300 digital marketing strategies for clients locally and nationally. As the marketing director at One Thing Marketing, Brittany focuses on helping business owners get their phones to ring with new clients through optimizing their website and online presence. Through her strategies and team at One Thing, they have helped local trade businesses increase their business by an average of 30% every year. Brittany, excited to have you on the show again. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

01:37 – Brittany Murphy

I'm ready. Hope that you are too.

01:38 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. All right, let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:47 – Brittany Murphy

Yes, so my story is just a little bit different. So I do want to go a hair back before I start because this is my eighth year with this company, kind of a partner of the size. We've created it from the ground up, but the fun part about how this company actually came into NACT is that the founder of our company had a previous business. So he was in the picture framing business and had owned that. Well, he owned it in 2008. And as we all know, during that time, things changed. And so Luxury custom framing was no really longer a thing that most people were coming for him to get business from. So he said, I need to get out there. I need to get more exposure.

So therefore I can get clients and continue this business even though the economy is changing. So he reached out, hired a website designer, and hired a marketer who did SEO. So they did search engine optimization on his website. And at the end of it, now that he knows what he knows, he actually got swindled. So the website they created was not good. They said they did SEO, but nothing was on his website to prove that they had added any copy or anything to really kind of help them market his business. So kind of after being jaded, you know, taking advantage of it because of his lack of knowledge when it came to that back in 2008, he decided to do his own research.

So he decided to build a website and learn SEO, and the funny part of during the course of learning this and training, he found a real passion for getting into marketing. So kind of decided to switch gears and after that changed the company. And 2011 we started and then in 2014 I joined the board as our first full-time employee to kind of get this off the ground and take it a step further. So basically all from a business owner getting swindled by the industry that he wanted to get more into after he did more work for it's kind of how we really came into enactment.

03:32 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, well, I appreciate you sharing that story. Obviously, super, super, super sorry that all of that happened, but I had this quote I always go back to where I say, it's always darkest before dawn. And a lot of times those less than ideal times, what comes out of it is actually great opportunities. So sounds like the founder was able to kind of do that.

03:50 – Brittany Murphy

Exactly, if you can look through the bad to find where you can get better at it, it's kind of what he did. So he really picked himself up and found a more lucrative industry to get into after that.

03:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, perfect. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more here, a little bit more on how you're serving clients, and how you help work with the clients as well. Could you take us through a little bit more on that?

04:08 – Brittany Murphy

Yeah. So we're obviously kind of in the same industry as far as your business is in mind. And so what we've really kind of specialized after the 8 years we've really pushed forward is, I mean, we focus on the main things that most digital marketing companies focus on, your website, your SEO ads, reviews, different things of that nature. But what we actually found back in 2018, 2019, we were noticing a lot of our clients that we were getting the best results for, and kind of the ones finding us the most were people in like the home services. So I call these all your trade contractors, your roofers, plumbers, electrician, HVAC, all the guys I love talking to because they know a lot more than I do about things I really don't wanna do.

And I kind of help them on the digital side of stuff they don't know on that side. So kind of right before COVID hit, we were really kind of going down this path to kind of niche ourselves, to be able to kind of really hone in what our specialties are. And so we kind of saw this and then honestly, with COVID happening and 2020 happening, it propelled us 10 times quicker to go down this avenue to really chase this because the fun part about it is that we were noticing, well, your trades were the ones on the roads in 2020. They were your emergency services. So they were still out there doing business. And so we noticed that the guys who maybe had great businesses were really running them well, but did not have that correct online exposure.

We're really missing out on this timeframe where a lot of companies in this field were growing tremendously because everyone's at home, and their wives are getting the to-do list from head to toe of what the house needs to be done. And so they were just really growing, but we're trying to find, okay, so if this is the industries that are taking off, how can we make sure the good guys can come out on top as well? And not just the people who are paying hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of dollars into all marketing, traditional TV billboards where a lot of money kind of goes, but they're really doing a lot of things with it. So that's kind of where we just over that timeframe learned that, hey, these guys really do need something.

And it really kind of touched my heart because I actually come from a background of being more in like the blue-collar services. So that's what my father did. That's why our house had half the income coming from his business. So What we noticed when I was growing up is if he wasn't getting business, if his company was not having new jobs to come in, well, they don't pay you because there's nothing you're doing. It's not a really steady job all the time if your business isn't taking off and getting that exposure. I knew growing up how important it was for a lot of these trade businesses to get good and consistent leads and revenue coming in.

So it is kind of a great blend of what we already had project-wise and then just kind of passion of where we were coming from, really building those 2 because I do feel that that is an underserved market. So that's why we're trying to really gauge them and make sure that everything we do kind of goes to that. So even our store in itself, if you check out our website, we are completely talking about just all the trades and kind of going from there. So as marketers, we love to help everybody, but we really want to specialize in the guys that we think are kind of left in the dust a lot of times when it comes to who has a good website or how that matters when it comes to picking your plumber.

07:10 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like life is all about finding as many win-win opportunities as you can, so I absolutely love that you all have been able to do that. So you might have already touched on this, but I want to drill down a little bit more and hear a little bit more about what I like to call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself personally, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

07:31 – Brittany Murphy

But you really have to understand, I'm not good at what I do in every capacity. So what are my weaknesses and how can I make those weaknesses my areas of opportunity where I'm only focusing to grow those areas and not be too harsh on myself, but really kind of invest that myself to, okay, I'm only going to get better? With progress, I can only kind of grow in that aspect of it. So I really think a secret sauce of ours was, you know, we try to figure some things out on our own. But if it's taking too long, do not waste your time as a business owner.

There are experts out there. And yes, they may come for a dollar figure, but if you think about how much your time is worth on how much you spend on each client, you might be worth 100, 200, or $300 an hour. So if you spend a whole day thinking of something, you could have had a phone call with someone for 2 hours, maybe paid them 300 bucks for it, but that would have been over a thousand dollars of your own time. That's how you have to think about it what are you wasting by trying to figure this out yourself by finding the expert and kind of going down that path? Because I feel like as business owners, we just have a little bit of that ego.

You know, we just have that little bit of chip on our shoulder of, well, I can figure it out. I can do it. But I think the business owners who understand I'm never going to figure all this out and I shouldn't be expected to there's resources for this, utilize them. I think that's the best way to scale yourself a lot quicker as well if you have these different resources to pull from versus really only putting everything on your back and you're just kind of that camel that is lodging everything. You don't want to have to do that. You should make sure that's working So I think that's just ki for us is from the very beginning today, just investing in internally so that we can we're doing externally I can be.

09:06 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome. Awesome. So I want to switch gears a little 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?

09:17 – Brittany Murphy

You want to have all these resources. You want to really kind of see what all these opinions are. But at the end of the day, you're collecting ideas to make what your process is, what works for you. How do you want to do this? Because half the books I read, I hated everything I saw in them. I didn't like it, I want to say a lot of cuss words. I didn't like anything in them is how I felt about reading these books. And you get really frustrated because these are experts and these books are bestsellers and you're just in your head thinking, but That's not how I would want to be talked to. That's not what I would want to be sold to if I was a potential client working with this person.

So because I read so many books and listened to so many things and took so many ideas in, I was able to gather and just be a sponge to all of this. And at the end of the day, ring out just the things that I thought would work for our business. So if I could take this idea and take that, I knew that combining together, this is the best for our target market. That really was kind of my hack. And I know that's not saving a lot of time, but I think what it's allowing yourself to do is Be creative. There are a lot of experts out there. And I mean, you do a great job with this podcast. And there are a lot of other podcasts out there. And that doesn't mean those people know everything they're talking about.

So you kind of always got to take things with a grain of salt. And that's what I love about doing that you're getting all this information in and you're making your own decisions, your own judgment on how this should work because you have enough knowledge to make a good consensus type of decision from it. So that's really kind of what I like to think about it is just take a lot of resources in, take what works best for you, because each of our companies is different as well. So what works for mine is not gonna work for yours. And so that's why just even one book recommendation for me won't change your life. A lot of book recommendations will change your life because there are a lot of different ideas that you're gonna need to merge together to make sure that your business is as best as it can be and not just directly copying off someone who you think would work.

11:04 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So it's a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite business client Or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:18 – Brittany Murphy

Oh, I would love to take the option of the time machine, Gresham, if

11:21 – Gresham Harkless

I could. Go for it. Go for it. Who doesn't love the time machine?

11:25 – Brittany Murphy

Yeah. So it's what we're doing now, but it's what I wish I could have told myself 5 years ago, if not even more. Anything that you were doing that you could delegate for the love of Jesus, please delegate those things. Get a resource, and make time for the things that'll bring you back 10 fold of money. Getting those things off your plate so you can do what you do best is a great way to bring that back to you and make sure that the business is running as successfully as possible because I see a lot of business owners wearing too many hats. I'm also guilty of this, and the more responsibilities you can relinquish, the better you can assess how things are functioning together. You can determine whether they are working cohesively and figure out ways to make processes more efficient and streamlined.

I mean, taking things off your plate makes a huge, real difference to, again, have that time back to see what should I be doing. And if you have that time back on your plate, now you can go back to training yourself, education, resources, what can you do to be better at your craft if needed, or spending that time to find those better and bigger resources to kind of outsource to, or finding those clients. There's so much more time I think to use if you free that up to scale the business. And I know that not all of us are into scaling.

Some of us wanna be solopreneurists, and that's absolutely fine. But for those who do want to get things off their plate, maybe have it where it could be more passive and they're not always in the business instead get to work on the business. That's the best piece of advice that if we could have taken that years prior, I would have, we would have been way, way different, you know, and I probably would have been interviewing you, Grisham, because we would have been a lot bigger of a company by this point. So that's kind of the fun part. If you're looking to go that route, give yourself that cut, take a little bit of that budget to put it in there to see the time you have, maybe you're a client worth 10 grand and you can get one of those clients each month moving forward. So I will stop there with that recap, but go hire a VA, go save your time, and put money to better use.

13:15 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. And I love that aspect too of like, sometimes it's of course being able to do that, but also be able to kind of take those steps to improve, to grow, to level up ourselves and to scale ourselves that you said so well. And so I want to ask you now 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 shows of Brittany. What does being a CEO mean to you?

13:35 – Brittany Murphy

Well, in my business, being more of the business development side and sales, being a CEO to me means that you are the person that you have the responsibility for. You have the mouse to feed. You are trying to create a vision, but you're also trying to bring a lot of people with you to make sure that they are also living out their dreams and being as happy as possible. So not that everyone you hire, they're going to be ride or die. And they're going to make sure that they retire with your company 30 years later. But how I like to look at it as well as if you could, again, take some tasks off yourself, if you could actually step back to work more on the business.

Well, you actually have more time to make sure the culture is right with your business. Are you really growing this the way you envisioned 3, 5, 10 years ago? And businesses do change. They evolve. That's the fun and the negative part of them is they're always constantly changing and evolving. And I think especially for going on the route where you wanna scale your business, you need to have that time to step out because you're the visionary.

You are the top person. What a CEO means to me is just really being on top of who you're helping out, being that leader, and making sure that you have a good vision and you're leading the people kind of in a great direction and helping them be even better people as well. Because again, you're going to eventually retire, you're going to move to Hawaii because we're all going to have those successful businesses. So where do you leave him that you touched? Make su impression.

14:53 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We appreciate that. Of course your time even more. So we were passionate, the mike to see if there's anything you can let our readers a and of course how best to view and find out about all the team is working on.

15:07 – Brittany Murphy

Yeah way to get in touch with us is to check out our website. So it's one thing marketing dotnet. That's all spelled out like it should be. So O-N-E-T-H-I-N-G. We want you to focus on your one thing so we can focus on the rest of your business and get it up there. And I did talk a lot about the trades and the home service businesses. So the biggest offer I would like to give out is we do have an e-book. So if you are in that type of home service business, we have an e-book for the 9 marketing strategies we would suggest you start implementing immediately so that way you can grow and scale your business as easily and quickly as possible.

And if what is in there sounds either too crazy or too much because you have other things on your plate, which you should, you should delegate those things. We have a free strategy session. So I'll do a free audit of your website and kind of talk about what would help you. So again, like we really kind of specialize in that home service. So we're really kind of making sure that area knows exactly the way they can focus on hel because again, I want to be out there, not worried ab if I have a flooding issue, I want them to focus on me.

16:09 – Gresham Harkless

Perfect. So make it even easier. We're going to have the links and information in the show notes, but awesomeness that you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:16 – Brittany Murphy

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

16:17 – 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.

[/restrict]