IAM2271 – Founder Emphasizes on Delivering Impactful Features that Drive Results

00:00 - 00:33

Kristin Marquet: I'm of the thought of I'd rather have a client get 10 really good features that move the needle and help us meet their goals, whether it's more leads, brand awareness, qualified leads, whatever it is, and 10 really good features or interviews or product reviews or whatever in the right media over the course of 3 months instead of 30 mediocre media runs that don't produce any type of result.

00:34 - 01:00

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.

01:01 - 01:09

Gresham Harkless: Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have an awesome guest back on the show today. I have Kristen Marquet. Kristen, excited to have you back on the show.

01:09 - 01:12

Kristin Marquet: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.

01:12 - 01:40

Gresham Harkless: Yes, absolutely. And it's Kristen's doing so many awesome things. So I'm super excited to have her on the show and come back and talk about all the awesome things she's been working on. And of course, before we have that conversation, I want to read a little bit more about Kristin so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Kristin is a notable PR specialist and branding expert with over 1 million Instagram followers and extensive media coverage. She founded Markay Media in 2009, an award-winning firm known for blending traditional PR with modern digital strategies. As

01:40 - 02:10

Gresham Harkless: the creator and founder, Kristen has empowered thousands of female entrepreneurs with invaluable resources and support, helping them navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship. And like I mentioned, Kristen was a guest on episode number 12 of our RMCO podcast. We had a phenomenal conversation and she's also been a lot of the reason we've had some phenomenal guests on the show too, through a lot of the PR strategies she's been doing. So she's been absolutely awesome to the show. I love that I was listening to another 1 of her interviews. I think she has a really big passion for

02:10 - 02:33

Gresham Harkless: running, which I think has such a great analogy for business. And 1 of the things I always say is, I think that it's always darkest before dawn. And I think her starting her practice in 2009, but also probably some of the things we'll talk about today. Sometimes we feel like it's all dark and there's no light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes there's some really phenomenal things that can happen. So Kristen, excited to have you back on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?

02:34 - 02:36

Kristin Marquet: Absolutely. Thanks again for having me.

02:36 - 02:43

Gresham Harkless: Absolutely. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, that's rewind the clock. Here a little bit more on what you've been working on, what I call your CO story.

02:44 - 03:19

Kristin Marquet: Sure. Yeah. So just for a little bit, just to elaborate a little bit on the bio, I had started my first business, my PR firm in 2009 because I was downsized from my corporate consulting job during the financial crisis. And I started the company really out of necessity. I was at a crossroads of do I look for a job or do I start a business? And I decided to take that leap of faith and start a business. Within the first 6 months, you know, I scaled from, I think it was, you know, 3 clients to like

03:19 - 03:58

Kristin Marquet: 12, brought on a team and we really started to grow. But while we were growing, I didn't understand the concept of controlled growth. So we started to expand to different niches and industries. And I was working around the clock. I mean, I was probably working 80 hours a week and wearing all the hats of running an agency and then had a team and was overseeing them and just making sure that everything was running like a well-oiled machine, but my health really started to deteriorate. So I took a step back, we scaled back and we really started

03:58 - 04:44

Kristin Marquet: to focus on working with fashion beauty lifestyle brands. And then in 2017, we started Femme Founder as a blog, right? Just where female founders can go to get PR tips because let's admit it, a lot of small companies can't afford to hire a PR firm when the minimum monthly retainer is about 5K a month. That's for a small, scrappy boutique agency. A boutique agency that isn't scrappy, you're going to be closer to 7, 500 a month, which most small businesses just can't afford. So Founder started off as a blog that literally had 5 readers. And for

04:44 - 05:28

Kristin Marquet: the first year or so, we really started producing content on PR tips and branding and really carved a niche. And now today, say, yeah, 7 and a half, almost 8 years later, we have over a million readers a month, 500, 000 email subscribers. And the company has really taken on a life of its own and has become a full blown media company. And those are the 2 platforms I've really been working on. But over the last 3 years, back to my PR firm, we've been focusing very heavily on creating data analytics dashboards for our clients, as

05:28 - 06:14

Kristin Marquet: well as integrating AI tools, proprietary AI tools that I myself have developed to help refine client messaging and really be able to come up with media sentiment analysis so that we could position our clients in the best possible light. And I know that this probably sounds like it's super duper expensive every month, but it really isn't because we developed everything in house. We're not white labeling anything. And it's been a really interesting journey And our clients have been super receptive. And it's it as we continue to refine our AI models and our predictive models, I think

06:14 - 06:30

Kristin Marquet: that we're going to be able to make more of an impact in the PR agency and I'm really, I'm sorry, in the PR industry and I'm really excited to see where we end up going, you know, and how the industry evolves over the next 5 years.

06:30 - 06:50

Gresham Harkless: Yeah, absolutely. And so, I know we touched a little bit upon like how you serve your clients. I wanted to ask you if there's anything more you want to kind of drill down into on like what that looks like, what that process looks like for people. But also to to hear a little bit more about what I call your secret sauce can be for yourself, the business or combination of both, but essentially, what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

06:51 - 07:32

Kristin Marquet: Yeah, no, that's a great question. And when you're in the agency world or any service provider, it's so easy to get lost in the shuffle, right? And it's very difficult to stand out. Even if you are a digital marketing or PR branding firm, for us, it's our technology and it's our AI tools that we use and the way that we develop our messaging process. But it really starts for our clients, it really starts with hard listening. All right. We need to figure out what problem they're trying to solve or what they're trying to offer to bridge

07:32 - 08:14

Kristin Marquet: the gap in the market. So it starts with figuring out what makes them unique or the solution that they're offering that's different. It doesn't necessarily have to be innovative, but it has to be different in some way. Then from there, after we have that meeting with the client, then we will sit down. Me and my team internally will develop a PR strategy that is based on whatever those unique selling points are, right? Or whatever features we want to communicate to the media but we frame them in a way that it's. It's a benefit how it's going

08:14 - 08:57

Kristin Marquet: to help how it's going to improve you know. The end users life at the end of the day, because that's ultimately what we're all doing. And then once we've implemented a campaign, or if it's ongoing, every week and then every month, we will do an evaluation and measure the results of our campaign to see if we were able to hit our goals and benchmarks And if we are short 1 month, if we're not hitting our benchmarks, obviously, then we will have to take a look at our sentiment analysis and figure out what happens and then go

08:57 - 09:33

Kristin Marquet: back to the drawing board, use our AI tools to develop a new messaging platform, go back to the client and tell them, this is what we think in terms of positioning, this is what we think in terms of message development, and then we will go forward and execute the campaign based on whatever we decide with the client. But the 1 thing I want to say is a lot of PR firms out there will end up kind of mass pitching the media, right? They'll take 1 press release or 1 pitch and send it out to 5, 000

09:33 - 10:18

Kristin Marquet: different media through a media database like CisionPoint or Meltwater. We really don't do that. Everything that we do is tailored 1 to 1. So I'm of the thought of I'd rather have a client get 10 really good features that move the needle and help us Meet their goals whether it's more leads brand awareness qualified leads whatever it is and you know 10 really good features or interviews or product reviews or whatever in the right media over the course of 3 months instead of 30 mediocre media runs that don't produce any type of result. And I think

10:18 - 10:45

Kristin Marquet: that especially being on the other side with Femme Founder and seeing a lot of pitches that we get, you can tell that a lot of other firms are mass pitching. And that's just like the kiss of death. And I learned that early on. And with our frameworks, working 1 to 1 is really the cornerstone of what we do, if that makes sense.

10:46 - 11:00

Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I absolutely love that. Well, 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 Apple Book or even a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:02 - 11:50

Kristin Marquet: That's actually a really good question. I would say self-care really. And I know it sounds so generic. It sounds like such a platitude, but it really isn't for me. My self-care is running. I love it. And even though I'm a new mom, you know, and I run multiple businesses, and you know, like we talked about offline, you know, doing renovation, you know, massive scale renovation, And literally only sleeping like 5 or 6 hours a night I still find time to integrate running into my schedule because with all the chaos and busyness and insanity and having an

11:50 - 12:38

Kristin Marquet: infant and who's so fantastic and beautiful, wonderful, you still lose your mind. And for me, running is what really revitalizes me and energizes me. Certain people like to travel. Other people like to go shopping. Other people like to spend time with friends and family. While I love spending time with friends and family, running is my solitude and it really is my time to refocus. And it's me time. So that's, that's what works for me. And it helps keep me balanced. It helps keep me mentally sharp. And it's, it's just my my go to medicine for making

12:38 - 12:41

Kristin Marquet: me feel better when I'm stressed out and tired.

12:41 - 12:58

Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I appreciate that so much. And so what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice, but it might be something if you were jumping to a time machine, you might tell a younger Christian or business Christian or you might tell your favorite client or business that you work with.

12:59 - 13:25

Kristin Marquet: Yeah, you can't please everybody. Focus on what you can do. Delegate or outsource what you can't do and realize that there are only 24 hours in a day. You can't do everything yourself and you can't make everybody happy. So be smart with your time, be strategic with your resources and do the best that you can and forget about everything else.

13:25 - 13:36

Gresham Harkless: I love those those nuggets. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question which is the definition what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Chris, and what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:36 - 14:17

Kristin Marquet: It's a great question. It means producing something of value, overseeing that operation and making sure that you are fulfilling a niche and doing it for the right reasons. Really. You know, it's not about making money. It's not about having this, you know, billion dollar brand. It's really about serving the market and taking care of the people that are in your ecosphere, whether it's customers, clients, team members. That's really what it comes down to for me.

14:17 - 14:33

Gresham Harkless: Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Kristen truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get out of you. Find out about all the awesome things your team are working on.

14:34 - 15:17

Kristin Marquet: Oh yeah, well thank you first of all for having me on the show again. I really enjoyed this conversation. But 1 other thing is don't be afraid to Start a side hustle if you're working full time. I wouldn't leave your full time job until the side hustle is actually making money. Don't be afraid to explore different markets, see what's out there, and see what you can offer that is different. Like I said earlier, it doesn't have to be innovative, but it should be different in some way, shape, or form. Listeners can get in touch with me

15:18 - 15:32

Kristin Marquet: either at my agency, which is marquet.com. I know it's a weird URL, but that's what it is, marquet.com. And then FemmeFounder is femmefounder.co.

15:33 - 15:57

Gresham Harkless: Awesome, awesome, awesome. And of course, to make it even easier, we're gonna have the links and information that show notes as well too, so that everybody can get a hold of you, your team find about all the awesome things and impact that you're making. And I love, love, love, love, love that last point you kind of left us with. I think so many times, again, that real journey of entrepreneurship doesn't start by flipping a switch and then you're a multi-billionaire. Often it is those small steps that happen towards you realizing what that goal is. There's a

15:57 - 16:15

Gresham Harkless: lot of pivots, turns, ups and downs that happen. But a lot of times by making those quote unquote tiny bets or small bets, whether it be a side hustle or exploring what the market might need ends up being that journey that leads us to that success. So I appreciate you for doing that. Remind us of how important that is. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:15 - 16:18

Kristin Marquet: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed this conversation.

16:18 - 16:52

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