IAM1910 – Co-Founder Leads New Innovation in Marketing Efforts

Transcription:

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Jared Bauman Teaser 00:00

Failing or not succeeding, or it just maybe not being something you enjoy, like that's not the end all, that's not the ultimate. There's always still something that you can go back to, but you go back to it with a new set of knowledge. And sometimes I know for me, my failures are usually the biggest learning opportunities for me.

Intro 00:16

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 00:43

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast, and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year.

And we're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, about these topics, Or as I like to call them business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, or what I like to call CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month, we are focused on innovation, disruption, women entrepreneurship, DEI, the gig economy, remote economy, even the cannabis industry. Think about these industries and these disruptive technologies that really sometimes aren't as disruptive, but there's people that are just. Paying attention to what the market needs, and they're providing that.

So really think about the things that are quote, unquote, outside of the norm, but really help entrepreneurship to grow and fully develop. I think it's an extremely exciting time when you're talking about any type of innovation or disruption, because I think that there's so many opportunities and needs that aren't felt that are starting to be filled by different groups, different organizations, or even different industries.

So what I want you to do is sit back and enjoy this special episode of the IAMCEO podcast.

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jared Bauman of 201 Creative Media. Jared, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Jared Bauman 02:08

Thanks so much for having me. Good to be here, Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 02:10

Yeah, super excited to have you on. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Jared so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing.

And Jared is a co-founder of 201 Creative Media, a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO, social media, and marketing for small and medium-sized businesses.

Prior to 201 Creative, he was a Co-founder and President of ShootDotEdit. The premium post-processing company for professional wedding photographers worldwide. Jared has 20 years of experience of history of leading new, innovative and marketing efforts, both as a consultant and also as a business owner.

And as a nationally known public speaker, Jared has spoken in front of tens of thousands in public and online educational events, along with releasing a book titled Simple Steps to Master Public speaking, which reached number one on Amazon and public speaking during its very first week. Jared, are you ready to speak to the IAMCEO community?

Jared Bauman 03:02

Yes, let's do it.

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Gresham Harkless 03:03

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to, start at the beginning to hear a little bit more about your story. Your CEO story will let you get started with your business.

Jared Bauman 03:12

Yeah. I've been running my own company since I was 19. This is a 201 creators. My third company. My first company was actually a wedding photography studio here in The greater San Diego California area, but it's funny because I actually had somebody asked me just last night about it And I remember you know just being a podcast about being a CEO being an entrepreneur.

I remember that moment when I decided to start my first company. I was working for the federal government in a really boring desk job and it was something that I was supposed to follow along in my career path, I was 19, I was interning and transitioned into a job and there's so many good things ahead of me in this career path, but I remember sitting and looking out my window and it was two o'clock in the afternoon, I just couldn't wait to leave for the day.

And it's funny because I thought to myself, and I'm sure a lot of different people, different walks of life who've thought about being an entrepreneur have thought this, what would it look like if I did try to go start my own business, which had always been a goal of mine. And I realized that I could probably come back a year later if I failed.

Actually, what I was thinking is when I failed, I could come back a year later and probably come right back to this exact same seat in this exact same building and keep doing what I did. But at least then I would know. That I wasn't supposed to be an entrepreneur. And there was something in, in that 19-year-old me that drove me to really want to go out and fail just so I could not have to look out that window and wonder anymore for the rest of my life.

And then it turns out actually it was something that I was able to push through and to be successful at. So, but yeah, so that's been, that was the start of the journey and then. Here we are now.

Gresham Harkless 04:40

I appreciate that. It's so funny that you said that goes in your head because I often will say the same thing where a lot of times we have these I don't know if I want to call them stable, but things that are maybe more institutions that are always going to be around. And sometimes we have the opportunity to go for it to try and see what we can do, see how much we can fly.

And we can always, if need be, go back to those institutions because they'll always be there.

Jared Bauman 05:05

We forget that, it's not like a parachute, but we forget that, failing or not succeeding, or it just may be not being something you enjoy. That's not the end all, that's not the ultimate.

There's always still something that you can go back to, but you go back to it with a new set of knowledge. And sometimes I know for me, my failures are usually the. The biggest the biggest learning opportunities for me. So I took a chance knowing that even if I failed, I would learn a lot and be able to come right back to something like that.

Gresham Harkless 05:29

Yeah, absolutely. And nothing's more I guess regretful than having that regret and not doing something that in trying and failing, it's really, and not trying at all, that really is the seat of disappointment. So, I know we touched on, your business a little bit more. I wanted to, if you could take us through exactly what you do for clients and how exactly that process works.

Jared Bauman 05:49

Yeah. So we're we're a marketing agency. We do we do marketing for mostly small and medium-sized businesses. That's our sweet spot. There's basically two types of clients we work with. It would be a local business, a business that is servicing local clients, oftentimes with brick and mortar shop or even an online a delivery business or something that's serving local clients.

And then there's more of the national or even international clients. And we basically will handle one or two or three different components of their marketing for them. One of them being SEO, which would be search engine optimization. A second being social media, whether that's from an organic side of things, we do a lot, for example, in organic Pinterest implementation and management for clients.

We also will do paid ads, like a Facebook ad campaign for clients. And then the third would be email marketing, email funneling, setting up funnels and running different conversion landing pages through email, that sort of stuff. So those are the three areas we will basically work with clients on typically.

And it's great for small, medium-sized businesses mostly because oftentimes Those are companies that either as they're growing or in the current spot that they're at, they have a gap in a certain area of marketing. Certainly for small business, you can think of like sometimes smaller companies only have one person who's the jack of all trades for their marketing or even as they expand, they say we have a graphic designer now, but And we have somebody who specializes in content writing, but we don't really have anybody do email marketing or social media marketing.

So that's where we really slot in really nicely is with companies where we can be an expert for them in specific areas that they might have a blind spot in.

Gresham Harkless 07:17

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And just as you said, depending on the size and stage and how many team members there are, on or within that marketing department, or if you are the marketing department, which can also be the case to you want to be able to have, it sounds like obviously the hands, but also.

That expertise to be able to lean on to know how not only you can, compliment what you might already be doing, but probably even integrated and improve it as well too.

Jared Bauman 07:42

Yeah, sometimes it's more I've had clients who will tell us that the biggest gain they've gotten is actually just learning about how to process through their marketing, and many will hire us for a short-term period to help them with say their SEO, but then as they dedicate a team member to working with us on that will slowly be something that they can begin to take on.

And then they'll reposition this into other areas. And so it can also be a great way, like you said, to grow, but to do it with a watchful eye or with a critical eye. Towards excellence and towards what's working in the industry right now.

Gresham Harkless 08:10

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I hear it a lot of times with especially a lot of coaches, a lot of times coaches will say, if you're hiring me, you're working with me forever, then I'm doing my job wrong.

Cause the idea is to get you to be able to be in a place where you can continue to build and grow, you expand and reach and crush those goals that you spoke to.

Jared Bauman 08:27

That's that would be the ultimate I mean you want to work yourself out of a job There's always the next opportunity for a company typically I mean I say always but there always is one whether they want to pursue it or not is Sometimes depending upon the company's goals and whatnot.

But you really if you're not working yourself out of that six-month or three-month scope, if you're not achieving that and getting to the point where it's not necessary any more than to some degree, like you said, you're not really necessarily achieving all that you're setting out to do.

Gresham Harkless 08:53

Yeah, and I'm definitely not reaching, the potential that you often have. So, it's important that you have like that. Obviously, I know it's I guess a client relationship, but it definitely sounds like a partnership as well, too, because you also want to see the best of that organization, that company.

Jared Bauman 09:08

Yeah, it's funny. I just had a client call this morning where we were talking about the partnership and how, we can check all of our, all the tasks off and achieve the scope of the project. But it's really about becoming a partner that integrates into the broader goals of the company, right?

The KPIs, key performance indicators that they're looking to achieve. As a result of the work we're doing. And at the end of the day, if we can integrate into the company rather than just achieve an outside set of tasks, then the company is going to be able to rely on us a little bit more, but also to be able to grow.

An example would be I think all of us at different points whether it's in our job or whether it's in our own company That we're running when you hire an outside vendor Sometimes it can be harder to just work with that vendor And almost be more work than the work that they were able to give you right?

So you start to think that's like the great outsourcing dilemma. So it's really important to us to become a partner rather than just become another outsource vendor for them.

Gresham Harkless 10:02

Yeah, absolutely. And let me ask you this. Would you consider that to be like your secret sauce? I call it the thing that kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.

And of course, it could be for you personally or your organization. But do you feel like the ability to be that partner and integrate into an organization is really what sets you guys apart?

Jared Bauman 10:18

Yeah, it's funny because that was one of the things we had, talked about going into this interview is what's one thing that kind of sets you apart or makes you unique.

And that's exactly what we would say is our ability to slot into a company, to not just be a vendor, to not just be an outside agency, to be an actual partner, to become almost a team member. And we have different ways we do that. Really when we work with a company we want to become one of theirs.

That's our goal We want to slot in and that's we have different ways we do that but at the end of the day that is the most important thing for us because And again, I come back to, it's one thing to hit a KPI, but it's another thing to do it in synchronicity with the company because in marketing, there's a lot of different metrics you could look at, but if you're not achieving, not just the metrics, but the actual helping the company actually achieve the goals, then it's not moving the company forward.

And. We found the best way to do that is to not just be an outside vendor, but to slot in and become a partner.

Gresham Harkless 11:14

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted 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?

Jared Bauman 11:25

Oh, that's a great question. I was trying to figure out if I should go book or if I should go hack, I'd rather go hack because if I gave you my book. The E-Myth Revisited. It would be a book that I'm sure has been mentioned a hundred times in your podcast already.

Gresham Harkless 11:37

It is always a great book.

Jared Bauman 11:40

It is. It's so process-oriented. Here's a hack I, I've been doing for probably a decade now, and I actually, I make everybody on my team at least try to do it. I'm sure when, whether they embrace it fully is up to them or not. But it's a really good hack that I've really found gives me a lot of the daily success.

And that is it's this hack for how to tackle the inbox You know The inbox is just constantly getting full And it was really backing me up and mentally blocking me for a long period of time. Every morning right now. I go into my inbox And I have this system that I use to tackle it and get it down to basically zero.

That's the goal and I open every single email and if it's something that I can take care of Whether it be forwarding to a team member, whether it be just actually addressing it and being done with it, whether it be creating a task for a team member to take care of.

If I can do it in less than five minutes. I take care of that right then and there, archive the email and move on. If it's something that when I open, I look at it, it requires more than five minutes of my work. Maybe it's something I need to look into for a client. Maybe it's a team member who's at a stopping point.

Maybe it's about preparing for a meeting, whatever it is, it's going to take more than five minutes. I create myself a to-do item on my to-do list. And I archive the email and I move on. And so by the end of that, every morning I have a zero inbox and I either have accomplished everything there, or I've moved all those items over to a to-do list where I can come back to and tackle them in a better manner, a manner that's not trying to use the inbox as a kind of half communication device, half tracking, half to-do list.

Half project management and that's where I think it gets confusing. I've had a lot of success with It really helps me organize my day It doesn't make me feel overwhelmed and I don't tend to lose track of a lot of the things that end up in my inbox that are these little tasks that either stop team members from moving forward or stop clients in their tracks or scheduling gets slipped through the cracks or things like that.

Gresham Harkless 13:24

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be around digital marketing or SEO. But what's something you might tell yourself or maybe a client or your younger business self?

Jared Bauman 13:36

I think to me, one of the most important things in business in terms of being a CEO owning a company, running a business is that you tend to deal with mostly negative stuff during the day.

And I don't mean that your company's failing or anything. I just mean that you tend to deal with either problems or challenges or issues or potential challenges or potential issues. And so it can be really easy if you're not careful and you're not managing your emotions.

It can be really easy to get down on either yourself, on your company, on certain team members on certain projects, on certain initiatives, and it's really important to manage your emotions, I think. That would be my tip.

Gresham Harkless 14:19

Yeah, absolutely. No, it makes so much sense. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a 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 Jared, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jared Bauman 14:32

Being a CEO at the end of the day to me means being a good and effective

manager of people. At the end of the day, no matter what you do, no matter what you sell, no matter what your company is about, you're dealing with people, you're dealing with the people that work for you and you're dealing with the people that are your clients.

Gresham Harkless 14:49

Truly appreciate that. And I appreciate that definition, obviously appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the things you guys are working on.

Jared Bauman 15:03

Yeah. I would say to just keep pushing. That's something I remind myself every day. I've been doing this for 20 years now. And you think it'd get easier, right? You'd think that it, and it seasons, it does. And it seasons, it doesn't. And, no matter where we are in that entrepreneurial journey.

And in the journey of being a CEO, just keep pushing, keep getting better, keep pushing yourself to do better and don't give up. If it's not time to give up, don't give up get ahold of me. Our website is 201creative.com. That's where you can find out more about some of the detail, but we do, but best places to find me are probably on LinkedIn.

And I can give that to you for the show notes, but I I really appreciate you having me on here and would be happy to answer any questions, but it hasn't been welcome to reach out.

Gresham Harkless 15:47

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And truly appreciate that Jared. And we will definitely have those links and information in the show notes so that everybody can click through and follow up with you.

But thank you again for that reminder to about keeping on pushing, because I think, You only fail if you quit. And I think if you continue to understand that it's, it may not be the same challenge as yesterday, but it may be a new challenge is going to be a challenge and continue to keep pushing on.

No matter what, you can definitely continue to find your way and hopefully find success. So appreciate that. And that reminder. Hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:16

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. IAMCEO 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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