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In this episode, host Matt Rouse interviews Christine Campbell Rapin about the fundamentals of growing a successful business. They discuss the importance of understanding your target audience, developing a marketing strategy, and creating value for your customers. Christine emphasizes the need for clarity and self-reflection in order to build a strong foundation for your business.
Read Matt's new book, Will AI Take My Job?
[00:00:03]
Narrator AI:
Welcome to the Digital Marketing Masters podcast with your host, Matt Rouse.
[00:00:09] Matt Rouse:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Digital Marketing Masters. I'm your host, Matt Rouse. Today, my guest is Christine Campbell Rapin. How are you doing, Christine? I'm awesome. Thank you. I have been listening to your podcast as well, and I know I know I was on your show also. Amplify your marketing message is the name of your show. Mhmm. And do you want to give us a really quick elevator pitch of what it is that you do before we get started?
[00:00:35] Christine Campbell Rapin:
Yeah. Yeah. For me, I am a business mentor, and my big thing is that you need the fundamentals. There's 3 nonnegotiables that grow any business on the planet, And most businesses don't have them when they start or lose track of them when they already have momentum, and it leads into a Hiccup and a gap on your bottom line. So I help people figure out how to build a consistent client growth engine. And I believe in low tech, high touch as the fundamental starting place before you add gasoline and light it up.
[00:01:09] Matt Rouse:
You've got that pitch down, I gotta say. People ask me what I do, and I'm like, I ramble, you know, a little bit here and there because I'm trying to, like, customize it for them at the time. You know, I gotta I gotta just be Get get that one kind of pitched down. But, yeah, I wanted to ask you. We talked a little bit beforehand. And, I mean, we've talked in the past because we know each other. You said that there's 3 things That business is either they don't have it when they start or they forget about it later. Do you wanna talk about what those three things are? Yeah. Sure. It's actually 5 pillars of every business, But you can't get to 4 and 5 without the first three. So I always start with the first three because, really, they need to be reviewed often. The first piece of the puzzle is that you need to really understand who is your next
[00:01:53] Christine Campbell Rapin:
buyer. I think a lot of people get into visibility and building audience, and, yeah, It's really important. But if you're in the wrong room and they're not a buyer for you, you have a fundamental problem Because your business is driven by revenue and hopefully profitable company with that. So the first piece is really understanding the buyer, and that's the biggest disconnect I see you either don't have that clarity because you think describing their demographics is enough, and it's bad advice, not enough, It's actually meeting you astray. So that's like your, you know, build your customer avatar kinda thing. Yeah. It starts there. But the avatar is, You know, if you don't actually be able to if you can't actually recognize them or connect to that might be a buyer when you're in the moment, all the descriptions in the world don't help you. That's right. So the buyer piece is number 1. Number 2 is that you need to understand marketing is not optional, but you need to understand marketing strategy because Any tactic works. The question, will it work for you based on what you're trying to achieve? And so I always think of it as the marketing message, And it is being able to move somebody from curiosity in a general crowd to, I'd like an offer and becoming a paid client. And you need to build that momentum and the steps in the path to do that predictably in a short period of time with absolute certainty that it's going to happen repeatedly.
And the 3rd piece of the puzzle is your offer has to create value today or you won't get the yes. And I'm about building today's clients, not a someday client.
[00:03:31] Matt Rouse:
Yeah. And I mean, there is Some, you know, difference from business to business in kind of the time of the buying cycle Sure. Kind of thing. I think one thing that you touched on And number 2 there, I think a lot of people go, I was on LinkedIn. This guy said, oh, I got A 100 clients on LinkedIn without using any paid ads in 30 days with this strategy. And they go, okay. Let me try and use that strategy. But that strategy is not a strategy. Yeah. It's a tactic. And also, you have no idea the ins and outs of that person's business, What else there is happening? You know, you don't know if they're using salespeople or what tech they have or anything. Right?
So, I mean, a lot of people you just see chasing tactic, tactic, tactic, tactic.
[00:04:21] Christine Campbell Rapin:
Yeah. And and companies, even when there are growing concerns, so a company that has multiple 100 of $1,000 in you. They they think that because they have a strategic planning meeting, that they have strategy in place, and they don't. I think, like, Strategic planning is like an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp. There's nothing about strategy in strategic planning because all it is is a horse trade In your internal team about priority setting, strategy is this is our vision. This is the marketplace we wanna play in. This is How we wanna play in it. This is what we believe we need to do to be successful in it. And these are the resources we need to corral to Achieve what we set out to do.
It isn't I need a $100 for this tactic. And I think we don't spend enough time In the really simple questions to build the strategy first, and then what happens is we may have success with a tactic, But we're not certain and confident. We know why. And we are wondering if we can duplicate it. And the market is constantly moving. And then we find ourselves going, wow. We have a pipeline gap. What's happened? And the answer is now another new shiny object. And so let's Not necessarily the tactic that's the problem. We've fallen out of sync with the fact that we don't even know who we wanna play where we wanna play and why we are the most higher choice in this arena we chose us. Correct. And so that's this the place I love to play at. And I said the questions are so simple. And I said, because they're so simple, we think we have a really simple answer usually.
And the best question you can ask yourself is, sounds good. Is it actually true? And chances are it's it's a superficial fortune cookie answer Instead of a heartfelt, we really understand and live and breathe this every day, and it's it's true. And it shows up, and it's touched in the experiences that clients have. Potential clients are experiencing as they're exploring who we are, and it's also how we define our culture and what makes us successful.
[00:06:28] Matt Rouse:
So what is an example of one of those simple questions?
[00:06:32] Christine Campbell Rapin:
I always say is, who are you as a business? 2nd question is, what do you stand for? And that's really based on the values and the vision of what you are wanting to achieve because you've Chosen, particularly in my world because I work with business owners. You've chosen to go and create a business. Why? What are you wanting to achieve in the business? What are you hoping To provide a result round, what makes this a nonnegotiable for you? And I said, well, at the end of the day, if you wanna succeed in marketing as a strategy and you wanna see revenues consistently. You can't sound like everybody else.
And it starts with You're one unique person of a 1000000000, 8,000,000,000 on the planet. What makes you, you? And that's a question most of us really struggle to answer, And it's hard for us to see ourselves, but that's why it's great to be in pure communities and go through conversations with people and guides and mentors That can say, let's hold space and figure that out. As long as you can't articulate it, it's very compelling.
[00:07:36] Matt Rouse:
It's true. And there's a really kind of simplified version of that That I've had this conversation a lot of times because in our business, we personally, our business, Hook Digital Marketing, we have a lot exposure to real estate agents. Real estate agents often create, You know, the the image of who they want to be and and what they make what they think makes them stand out Is what almost every other real estate agent thinks makes them stand out. And so this is a test. You're a real estate agent, I know we have some to list to the shop or your brokerage and, you know, whatever. I can tell you what your website and your marketing says without ever having looked at You treat your clients like family.
It's the biggest transaction people are gonna have in their entire life. So you're gonna handle all the transactional Stuff you're gonna negotiate on their behalf. You know, these are things that every single real estate agent says. So saying those things does not make you stand out. And they should be a given. This is a big part of you know, my early career, I started marketing.
[00:08:49] Christine Campbell Rapin:
And then I found myself very quickly working to every job function. And that's why I'm actually I'm very successful mentor because I know where the connecting dots are outside of the function you own. In the world of marketing, when I was very young in it, I kept saying, it sounds good. So what? It looks good. So what? It's pretty. So what? It was really irritating to my marketing team. Let me tell you. I even knew that when I was 22, that I was irritating with those questions. But I grew up With a father and a father, I still have a father, who is in business development, and he'd be like, show me the money. Tell me why this matters. I don't care. And so when I work with creatives, and I have a lot of creative consultants in my my business practice, I say what's really important Is that your creativity is a given. The fact that you serve a family is a given. The fact that you should do the details well is a given. It's not a selling feature.
So what? What else is beyond that? A lot of people kind
[00:09:49] Matt Rouse:
of they misinterpret that The barrier to entry as selling features. Yeah. Right? So in a modern world, unless, you know, you're in A very specific set of circumstances for most businesses. The barrier to entry is good customer service. It's easy access to your service. It's easy payment options. It's good communication. It's products or services that you guarantee and you, you know, stand behind them. All those things are not selling features. Yeah. That is just To be in business, you need those things. And yet, honestly, most businesses struggle with them, which is why we I so I so much I've had a big passion for the fundamentals
[00:10:34] Christine Campbell Rapin:
And why I go in and audit companies and give them the 3rd party. Truthfully, you think you've got this covered, but if you're talking a service based business, a realtor, like, you can it doesn't take you very long to say, I don't have a problem finding a realtor. I have a problem having a realtor phone me back or respond to my emails, and those are basic customer services. What can make you exceptional? I do what I say I'm going to do, and I'm available. And I think in the world where I my clients, you know, work with high ticket offers. So the simple thing is, do you care? Do you show up and do you say what you're gonna do? And anytime there's a trust break, You run the risk of losing momentum.
So let's audit those regularly because it I said it doesn't matter if you're first starting out or you're already in business. We all fall into the vacuum. Right. And we need somebody I like to think of as a mentor who is in your corner who has your best interest at heart to try to be that first person to say, this is incongruent. And I give can give you an example. I have a client of mine who really wanted and believes that I want to serve new non for profits. That was her market. And I said, I'm not sure this is true, but, okay, let's go with it. And so I had referred her some clients. And I said, those clients are coming back to me, and they're frustrated with the experience.
You're not telling them what's happening next. The gaps in the communication are too long. You're using terms they don't understand. And I said, do you wanna play with the new person? Because the new person feels like they made the worst financial investment by buying your services. You will deliver a quality product that that Price was exceptional. I know that, but I'm experienced in the industry. And I said, if you wanna serve that client, We need to go back to those fundamentals because you need a project manager who's nontechnical to support that client journey.
You need to be very clear that not that you have to find them a dashboard, but that you really hold their hand And reassure them that may they've made a really good decision and over communicate. And they're like, but we don't need to do that with other clients. I'm like, you do with a new client It's a new experience. And if you wanna play there, these are essential customer services experience or you will kill your business And your reputation. So choose now to build that or to shift who you wanna serve because I don't think you're serving them very well, And I want to help you address that gap.
[00:13:08] Matt Rouse:
The other thing about that is Sometimes people think a different market is what they wanna serve, but the realities of that market are different than they kind of expect them to be. Yes. Right. And I also see a lot of companies, you know, have quite a bit of success in what they're doing. Maybe they get a little bored of it, and they go, we can take these concepts and principles that we have for this business, and then we're gonna go after this market over here that is different. And then what happens is this over here that they start doing doesn't work out because there are differences in the market. There's maybe differences in how those people like to be sold to. Whatever the whatever the factors are that make that not work. But because they're now Drafted from their core business, their core business also starts to fail. All the time.
[00:13:57] Christine Campbell Rapin:
I was in a mastermind yesterday with exact conversation. We have a very successful business owner who's in the creative base. She works on the digital creation side, and they have a very high ticket client, a very high fulfillment service model. And they decided they want to scale, and they've decided that volume was the way they wanted to do it. And that's a choice because scale is not the same thing for everybody. And their answer was to go and create a done for you course at a low price point. And I said, There's a 1,000,000,000 people competing in that market, and it's completely different than the USP. Why are you wanting to do that? This Seems really incongruent, and I will tell you a $300 experience doesn't jump necessarily easily to a $10,000 experience, But they have the same expectations because they know you deliver at $10,000. Right. And so those $300 clients are going to have very high expectations, Very demanding, and you're not getting the income to support that. And honestly, you can't deliver the same results at $300 as you do at 10,000 hyphen comment. I want to just hold your space here and says, why is this a good strategic decision?
And until you can answer that, I wouldn't put a ton of money here. Strategy first Yeah. Topic second.
[00:15:12] Matt Rouse:
I've seen a lot of companies who, Oh, let's let's let's take our expertise and our knowledge and go to this parallel market, but that market turns out not to be a parallel at all. It just turns out to be something completely different and unexpected. They don't know why it's not working. I'll face it. This is not a direction my company started out going in. But over time, it turned out that fixing messes that other digital agencies or creators have created It's something that we kind of fall into because people ask around who can fix this disaster and our name comes up. So I see these things that have happened. And a lot of times, maybe their agency wasn't even really that much at fault for what happened. Maybe it's because they veered off of a path, And they weren't prepared for it. Also, a lot of times people think, like, oh, it's easy for me to get sales at what I do now. So I'm just gonna do the same thing for this new business. So the reason it's easy for them to get sales is they got a decade of history and momentum behind them. And the new one, they got none. Right. Well and they think that there's a that the buyer's the same and the buyer's not. And what the buyer wants in the journey and where they are in the intersection point, it differs. And that's what we we make really dangerous assumptions around that. And I think when I go back to your earlier question, so, you know, the most simple question to ask yourself,
[00:16:30] Christine Campbell Rapin:
One that we don't spend enough time on is who are you and what you stand for. Because when you're creating a service offering, I said all paths lead to that answer. You may have 3 services, but the services deliver the same results because it's who you are and what you stand for. But what's different between service vehicle, if you will, to delivery mechanic is one might be more hands on. 1 might be more Automatic. My one might be more time, resources, support. So it's the flexibility that maybe a different buyer need, But the result that they want to the one that you stand for. So, you know, your business evolves into sometimes you don't set out at. They think, I didn't I didn't get up one day and say I'm gonna be a business mentor Right. I got out of bed and saying, I'm gonna be a great entrepreneur, and I've helped 400 clients has created $1,000,000,000. I know how to create money regardless of industry, regardless of the vertical, regardless of place you actually even wanna play geography wise. But because I wanted to do that, people kept saying to me, what the heck's the secret? As a business is simpler than you're making it. Who are you? What do you stand for? 2 things predict your revenue, and there's 3 The fundamentals start here.
And then they were like, I can see that with you, and I can now see it in other people, but my big gap is I can't apply it to my own lessons. I said, okay. And they're like, what do you wanna do with that? And they're like, I can't wanna spend time with you. But I really value your time, and I'll pay for it. And that's how my own business became what it is today. And as it's evolved, it's come down to asking people What makes us unique? What do we stand for? What do you think we stand for? And the podcast and everything has evolved from that Because I want people to create a client growth engine. What do my clients say to me? What comes you for marketing? I said, you don't come to me for a marketing tactic. The company for the overall strategy to create sales, we need marketing to do that. So it's an interesting way to look at it, but then you build The connection points so that people do move from curious to paid client. That's the goal line. And, you know, another thing that's interesting that that reminds me of is that a lot of People, especially in the small business and kind of entrepreneur startup space, they're looking at humongous
[00:18:45] Matt Rouse:
companies and what they're doing, And that does not translate to your tiny business. Right? And I'm not saying every business is tiny, but compared to a 1,000,000,000 or $1,000,000,000,000 company. Looking at what Apple does has nothing to do with your mom and pop shop, which is not the same. Like, from a strategy standpoint, There's lots of studies and things showing that for, you know, certain types of things like commodities, people just don't care What you stand for, right, if it's a commodity. Because a commodity is a commodity for a reason. You know, if if you are doing something that is especially something that is customer service based, you know, service based, hands on, that kind of work. People really wanna see, like, How how am I gonna get from the place I am now to this future point where I don't need to worry about this thing anymore? And how how are we gonna, you know, how are you gonna partner with me to do that? You know, you you actually said this really well.
You were talking about the strategy of Telling people that they're doing stuff bad and you can fix their problem is not a good strategy. Yeah.
[00:19:53] Christine Campbell Rapin:
My ranting yesterday, I I I there's somebody who's being taught, and if you this is you, you're not alone. There's there's there's a whole industry that's teaching you the way to grow clients on social media Is to find somebody on the platform, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, doesn't matter. Choose your platform. Mhmm. Go and like or comment on 7 things And then connect to them on every post social media platform. So then you get a message on WhatsApp. You get a message on Instagram. You get a message on this, and they're all hello. They're gonna see if you bite. And then they start by saying, I have taken your business. You're a disaster. You need this. I can help you. And most times, I just don't engage, invite. But yesterday, I I was like, you know what? Just be a good human. Right. And I responded to this gentleman and said, I want to tell you that this is not an effective strategy, And it's probably one you're being taught because I get many emails and connections like this every single week. Thank you, but no. I would encourage you to watch some of my content to help you along the way. And he came back to me and said, but you need social media, and you need to be great. I said, I'm not debating that we need or have some way to reinforce our values and what we stand for on a platform. Like, it's free advertising in some way. However, you coming at me not understand making assumption I need you is a wrong assumption. A lot of people do that in business.
Second thing, I said, you haven't told me anything that ties what you've observed to why you are the Musk hire. So I have no interest in really taking a conversation with you. And third thing, you have not Really understood what and how I want to grow my business because you're coming at me with a tactic, which goes fundamentally against How I wanna grow my business. If you'd spend 2 minutes on my content, you should have seen that. But I said, if you wanna grow your business, I would encourage you to rethink, Do your research. Build a relationship.
Ask if I have a problem. Tell me why you think there are alternates to the path I see, and then Make the invitation. I think I can help you. Are you interested? Doing that will slow you down and make you much, much more effective. So stop playing the numbers game because I am 100% convinced that it is not a numbers game. You can have one conversation of a client. You don't need to have 10,000 conversations to have one client. If you know who your buyer is, what you stand for, The results you can deliver and what makes you the right guide to get them there. That's a fundamental question. So
[00:22:35] Matt Rouse:
So many spammy tactics being taught to people. It's almost as if nobody's heard of, like, permission marketing that's been around for 30 years. Right? Like Everything old is new again. Everything old is new again, especially the spam tactics. Right. Oh my gosh. Like, there is so much of it going on that I assume that some people must be falling for it. But it never works. Right? I mean, every person that I'd ever talked to from any business who's hired somebody got a hold of them and say, It looks like the SEO on your website is bad because you're only ranking number 16 for this word I typed in, you know, whatever. They hire that person for some nominal amount of money, like $200 or something, and they're like, I wasted $200 and nothing happened. Yes. Shocker.
[00:23:24] Christine Campbell Rapin:
You know? Well, I always find it funny because the people who say, you know, you can't get found
[00:23:29] Narrator AI:
are the people that somehow found me. So I'm like, I just can't figure that out in my head. Like, I'm like, you say you can't find me, but somehow you found me. And the worst piece of business is, like, spammy ness is To approach
[00:23:42] Christine Campbell Rapin:
a person you want to invest in your services by saying you must be failing.
[00:23:47] Matt Rouse:
That's right. Like, you are terrible at your job, but I could fix it. And then a red marker. Here's all the problems on your stuff, and I'm Here's everything that you did wrong. Wow. Really I have approached people that I know or, you know, I guess, in a few cases, people I don't know, but I happen to be at their website for some reason that I actually needed to be there and I've seen a typo or something like that or something is glaringly wrong, like an image is broken or something, I'll say, I just wanted to let you know that this image on your website is broken. Here's a screenshot. I'm not asking you to hire me or anything. I just want you to know. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate when people do that. Like Yeah. And I and I think it's for being a good human. And I think, you know, in the world of AI and all the automations and all of this Really, I think quite toxic way everyone needs to scale through volume that's gone on for the last couple of years because business owner said, like, I wanna sit on the beach doing little work, and I'm like, I'm sorry. That's
[00:24:41] Christine Campbell Rapin:
That's a not a beginning place. Yeah. Like, it's not where you begin. You can build to get there. Yes. But you have to do the effort. So I read this article. Really ironic.
[00:24:52] Matt Rouse:
You remember I can't remember his name that wrote the 4 hour work week now. Yes. I know Kevin. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me too. Yes. But even he's not working a 4 hour work week if you follow it at all. The article that I read on it was about his assistant who was doing, like, 60 to 70 hour weeks. And I'm like, well, yeah, of course, you can have a 4 hour work week if the person working for you is doing 70 hours. And that's what's real reality. We don't see that. The highlight reel
[00:25:19] Christine Campbell Rapin:
is misleading you. And I think that that's really a disservice. That's why nobody Talks about fundamentals is why you see it. I made a $1,000,000 in 90 days, and I'm like, you can make any amount of money. I tell my clients this before I ever make an offer. You can make any amount of money you want Your business is true, but, like, there's no finite number here. But I want to know what's the lifestyle you want. I want us to understand that the business has to be Profitable because so often when you see that, you know, I made a $100,000 this month, I said, but what was your profit? Because you've made a 100 may cost you a 150, and why are you selling that we should buy into that crap?
I want That's right. To know the business fundamentals. And When people do come into my ecosystem, they're like, this is gonna be a little uncomfortable. I said, yes. It's a mentorship. I am here to support you. I have 100% your back, But I am here to help bring simple questions to the table. Look at the business fundamentals and say, we can grow quickly, but where's your cash flow? You can invest here, but what's the ROI? I don't want you working 70 hours a week. You didn't want that either. So let's talk about what we're focusing on because, truly, we can simplify this, and we can see more results because clarity truly is the ultimate accelerator. But Clarity is not something you put on your calendar. I'm gonna journal or go for coffee in Tuesday at 2 o'clock and have. It comes through iteration. It comes through conversation. It comes through being Open to having the lens looked into the darkness.
And it's actually also where it becomes really fun because then you're like, I get to do this my way. I'm like, yes, you do. And they're like, oh my god. I get to do it my way. How do I do it my way? It's all secretive questions that get asked. It's amazing that there is a lot of people
[00:27:05] Matt Rouse:
in business who have never really put any thought into any of this stuff because I I like to call it the accidental Business owner. Right? You are good at something. Someone started paying you for it. You started doing more of it. And then you had to hire somebody to help you. And then you had to hire some staff. And then you had to get some people to do this and that. And now you've got a full fledged business. And nothing was ever no thought was ever put into, like, who are the customers that I have? And what does our business stand for, and and what is our end goal? Right? And and And you're not a goal. Personally, what is your goal? Right. Yeah. And so many are in that boat. Everybody's in that. So it's hopefully gonna inspire to say, maybe I should find some of those answers and come find me. But I have a perfect example. I have a client of mine who not only she an accidental entrepreneur, she inherited a business Right. Unexpectedly.
[00:27:52] Christine Campbell Rapin:
She heard in her father passed. And I I met her through a women's networking group, the local one that I belong to here in Canada. And and she said, I think I need social media to keep this business running because All we ever hear is that you have to grow your business on social media, which is not true, but that's what we hear. And so she was asking for social media help, and I watched Sixty people throw prices at her, never having understood her business at all. And since racing to the bottom, I hate that. Like, I'm just watching businesses and I'm cringing. And I said, you know, I'm not here to disrupt anything, but It's like a reverse auction. Is the thing you need because Before you spend on social media, what's the plan for the social media? And just I'm like, I'm happy to just have a conversation. You know? I I just wanna give you some guidance. And if you can't ask any Questions. I'm an experienced business owner and just free free access to a cup of coffee. And we had a cup of coffee, and I was not at all Expect you to have a conversation about my services. I was just saying slow down and ask some questions.
In the end, she has become a client and I said I said to her, what What made the decision for you? And she said, I had to spend time figuring out who I wanted to be as a business owner, and you were somebody who was gonna help me do that because my husband Or my kids or my past clients were gonna do that for me. And so we work really collaboratively on what do we focus on, How do we handle inquiries, payment issues, all true business nuts and bolts that most of us never get an education on? And it wasn't like I set out to be an entrepreneur and I had that discover I needed those things. I spent 25 years growing other people's businesses in marketing, sales, Operations, leading people, and running a p and l statement.
I've got the skills because I acquired them through education and life before I became an entrepreneur. And that's actually when I realized most people didn't have it. And when that is true Mhmm. You are not Fighting a fair fight until you equip yourself with either good resources or people and skills and time to learn them, or you flame out, or you do the hokey pokey. One put in, one put out, and it gets real and scaring then you back out. And it is exhausting, and it doesn't have to be that way. You choose your speed when you're growing a business and not every season's mock 10. Those questions are still really important, and I am on a bit of a mission myself to say, I want you to start Asking them because I really want to see I really, really want to see more people succeeding because they change our communities.
They change our family economics. They change our infrastructure, and they help us create and be leaders. And I honestly think the world needs that. We're in a time and space right now where we need creativity. We need connection. And it requires people To bet on themselves and to build infrastructure and support together to get there because we are not gonna get there by ourselves. And I think there's so much potential within each of us. I'd just like to see more of us not run out of runway. It's
[00:31:00] Matt Rouse:
An an interesting kind of analogy to the people with, you know, one foot in, one foot out when they're trying to Filled their business is, I took my daughter. She's 7. I took her sledding. We have a place here called Fort Hann where I live in Nova Scotia. It has a bunch of hills and stuff because it used to be an actual, like, fort. It's got, like, cannons and stuff on it to Cool. Fight off old wooden ships kind of thing. But, anyway, it's great sledding spot. We went down one hill that was, like, steeper than all the others. And so if she started going too fast for her comfort zone, so she put her hands out to slow herself down. And as soon as she put her hands out, of course, she spun around and wiped out. Mhmm. I didn't think of it immediately at the time, you know, to say it'll help my kid out of the snow.
But later, I was like, man, that but that's what happens when people, their business starts to become successful and everything starts happening for them and they stick their hands out.
[00:31:51] Christine Campbell Rapin:
Mhmm. What you need to do is find somebody who knows how to keep the wheels on when you really start going fast. Mhmm. And have making sure the wheels are all heading in the same direction and it wasn't a direction you chose. And I think sometimes it's because we go straight to tactic. And I said, did you ever figure out what the starting point was? We, you know, people have this you know, we need all these safety things. Like, we must have a website. It must have all this stuff. I said, it's just noise. Have a conversation. And the most important conversation you have in business is that you're constantly telling people you're in business. And that means you know why you're in business And why people should hire you and you know what the result you stand for is. And it's just that simple.
And yet, you're listening to this, like, not sure I really have the answers. That's okay. The point is now you know there's a gap, and the best thing about having a knowledge gap is you have now a decision and a choice When to bridge it? Because you know you will need it to reach the other side and to keep building. 1% is the action I asked of myself. When I first started my first business, I worked at 1 hour a day. It was a side hustle. I was building it on top of other things. And I said it's just simply nonnegotiable that I show up. I was equipped to show up and know what to focus on to create revenue that was profitable. It started to snowball. And, of course, the dream evolved. So did I it's priority shifted and, you know, we kept showing up. The snowball builds, but we do also self sabotage. And when it Feels a little wobbly.
I always say to my clients and to myself, it's okay to wobble. That's high vibration. The question is, do you feel in control of the wobble Or are you feeling controlled by the wobble? This is the second, but we gotta equip ourselves. The other one, I wanna celebrate you.
[00:33:32] Matt Rouse:
That's right. Christine, I think we're gonna have to wrap it up for today because, I mean, we could talk for hours, but we don't have that much Time. The podcast is amplify your marketing message with Christine Campbell Rapin. And, Christine, congratulations on being our first episode in over a year where we didn't mention AI. But, yeah, keep your marketing fundamentals AI or not people. And, Christine, if you had one closing message for, you know, the the struggling business owner out there, would that be?
[00:34:08] Christine Campbell Rapin:
I will say that everything you dream is possible. It's on the other side of your fear, so don't let Fear of the unknown hold you back? Have the courage to bet on yourself and equip yourself along the way. We are all all of us work Some progress.
[00:34:24] Matt Rouse:
But what you want is possible. Go after it. Perfect. Thanks, Christine. It's always a pleasure to talk to you, And, we'll talk again soon. That's it.
[00:34:35] Narrator AI:
This voice over used to be done by a human, but now it is synthetic. Oh la la. If you want to know if your job or business is safe from disruption, read Matt's new book. Will AI Take My Job? Predictions about AI in corporations, small business, and the workplace. Available now on Amazon. Trust me, it'll be worth it.
Welcome to the Digital Marketing Masters podcast with your host, Matt Rouse.
[00:00:09] Matt Rouse:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Digital Marketing Masters. I'm your host, Matt Rouse. Today, my guest is Christine Campbell Rapin. How are you doing, Christine? I'm awesome. Thank you. I have been listening to your podcast as well, and I know I know I was on your show also. Amplify your marketing message is the name of your show. Mhmm. And do you want to give us a really quick elevator pitch of what it is that you do before we get started?
[00:00:35] Christine Campbell Rapin:
Yeah. Yeah. For me, I am a business mentor, and my big thing is that you need the fundamentals. There's 3 nonnegotiables that grow any business on the planet, And most businesses don't have them when they start or lose track of them when they already have momentum, and it leads into a Hiccup and a gap on your bottom line. So I help people figure out how to build a consistent client growth engine. And I believe in low tech, high touch as the fundamental starting place before you add gasoline and light it up.
[00:01:09] Matt Rouse:
You've got that pitch down, I gotta say. People ask me what I do, and I'm like, I ramble, you know, a little bit here and there because I'm trying to, like, customize it for them at the time. You know, I gotta I gotta just be Get get that one kind of pitched down. But, yeah, I wanted to ask you. We talked a little bit beforehand. And, I mean, we've talked in the past because we know each other. You said that there's 3 things That business is either they don't have it when they start or they forget about it later. Do you wanna talk about what those three things are? Yeah. Sure. It's actually 5 pillars of every business, But you can't get to 4 and 5 without the first three. So I always start with the first three because, really, they need to be reviewed often. The first piece of the puzzle is that you need to really understand who is your next
[00:01:53] Christine Campbell Rapin:
buyer. I think a lot of people get into visibility and building audience, and, yeah, It's really important. But if you're in the wrong room and they're not a buyer for you, you have a fundamental problem Because your business is driven by revenue and hopefully profitable company with that. So the first piece is really understanding the buyer, and that's the biggest disconnect I see you either don't have that clarity because you think describing their demographics is enough, and it's bad advice, not enough, It's actually meeting you astray. So that's like your, you know, build your customer avatar kinda thing. Yeah. It starts there. But the avatar is, You know, if you don't actually be able to if you can't actually recognize them or connect to that might be a buyer when you're in the moment, all the descriptions in the world don't help you. That's right. So the buyer piece is number 1. Number 2 is that you need to understand marketing is not optional, but you need to understand marketing strategy because Any tactic works. The question, will it work for you based on what you're trying to achieve? And so I always think of it as the marketing message, And it is being able to move somebody from curiosity in a general crowd to, I'd like an offer and becoming a paid client. And you need to build that momentum and the steps in the path to do that predictably in a short period of time with absolute certainty that it's going to happen repeatedly.
And the 3rd piece of the puzzle is your offer has to create value today or you won't get the yes. And I'm about building today's clients, not a someday client.
[00:03:31] Matt Rouse:
Yeah. And I mean, there is Some, you know, difference from business to business in kind of the time of the buying cycle Sure. Kind of thing. I think one thing that you touched on And number 2 there, I think a lot of people go, I was on LinkedIn. This guy said, oh, I got A 100 clients on LinkedIn without using any paid ads in 30 days with this strategy. And they go, okay. Let me try and use that strategy. But that strategy is not a strategy. Yeah. It's a tactic. And also, you have no idea the ins and outs of that person's business, What else there is happening? You know, you don't know if they're using salespeople or what tech they have or anything. Right?
So, I mean, a lot of people you just see chasing tactic, tactic, tactic, tactic.
[00:04:21] Christine Campbell Rapin:
Yeah. And and companies, even when there are growing concerns, so a company that has multiple 100 of $1,000 in you. They they think that because they have a strategic planning meeting, that they have strategy in place, and they don't. I think, like, Strategic planning is like an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp. There's nothing about strategy in strategic planning because all it is is a horse trade In your internal team about priority setting, strategy is this is our vision. This is the marketplace we wanna play in. This is How we wanna play in it. This is what we believe we need to do to be successful in it. And these are the resources we need to corral to Achieve what we set out to do.
It isn't I need a $100 for this tactic. And I think we don't spend enough time In the really simple questions to build the strategy first, and then what happens is we may have success with a tactic, But we're not certain and confident. We know why. And we are wondering if we can duplicate it. And the market is constantly moving. And then we find ourselves going, wow. We have a pipeline gap. What's happened? And the answer is now another new shiny object. And so let's Not necessarily the tactic that's the problem. We've fallen out of sync with the fact that we don't even know who we wanna play where we wanna play and why we are the most higher choice in this arena we chose us. Correct. And so that's this the place I love to play at. And I said the questions are so simple. And I said, because they're so simple, we think we have a really simple answer usually.
And the best question you can ask yourself is, sounds good. Is it actually true? And chances are it's it's a superficial fortune cookie answer Instead of a heartfelt, we really understand and live and breathe this every day, and it's it's true. And it shows up, and it's touched in the experiences that clients have. Potential clients are experiencing as they're exploring who we are, and it's also how we define our culture and what makes us successful.
[00:06:28] Matt Rouse:
So what is an example of one of those simple questions?
[00:06:32] Christine Campbell Rapin:
I always say is, who are you as a business? 2nd question is, what do you stand for? And that's really based on the values and the vision of what you are wanting to achieve because you've Chosen, particularly in my world because I work with business owners. You've chosen to go and create a business. Why? What are you wanting to achieve in the business? What are you hoping To provide a result round, what makes this a nonnegotiable for you? And I said, well, at the end of the day, if you wanna succeed in marketing as a strategy and you wanna see revenues consistently. You can't sound like everybody else.
And it starts with You're one unique person of a 1000000000, 8,000,000,000 on the planet. What makes you, you? And that's a question most of us really struggle to answer, And it's hard for us to see ourselves, but that's why it's great to be in pure communities and go through conversations with people and guides and mentors That can say, let's hold space and figure that out. As long as you can't articulate it, it's very compelling.
[00:07:36] Matt Rouse:
It's true. And there's a really kind of simplified version of that That I've had this conversation a lot of times because in our business, we personally, our business, Hook Digital Marketing, we have a lot exposure to real estate agents. Real estate agents often create, You know, the the image of who they want to be and and what they make what they think makes them stand out Is what almost every other real estate agent thinks makes them stand out. And so this is a test. You're a real estate agent, I know we have some to list to the shop or your brokerage and, you know, whatever. I can tell you what your website and your marketing says without ever having looked at You treat your clients like family.
It's the biggest transaction people are gonna have in their entire life. So you're gonna handle all the transactional Stuff you're gonna negotiate on their behalf. You know, these are things that every single real estate agent says. So saying those things does not make you stand out. And they should be a given. This is a big part of you know, my early career, I started marketing.
[00:08:49] Christine Campbell Rapin:
And then I found myself very quickly working to every job function. And that's why I'm actually I'm very successful mentor because I know where the connecting dots are outside of the function you own. In the world of marketing, when I was very young in it, I kept saying, it sounds good. So what? It looks good. So what? It's pretty. So what? It was really irritating to my marketing team. Let me tell you. I even knew that when I was 22, that I was irritating with those questions. But I grew up With a father and a father, I still have a father, who is in business development, and he'd be like, show me the money. Tell me why this matters. I don't care. And so when I work with creatives, and I have a lot of creative consultants in my my business practice, I say what's really important Is that your creativity is a given. The fact that you serve a family is a given. The fact that you should do the details well is a given. It's not a selling feature.
So what? What else is beyond that? A lot of people kind
[00:09:49] Matt Rouse:
of they misinterpret that The barrier to entry as selling features. Yeah. Right? So in a modern world, unless, you know, you're in A very specific set of circumstances for most businesses. The barrier to entry is good customer service. It's easy access to your service. It's easy payment options. It's good communication. It's products or services that you guarantee and you, you know, stand behind them. All those things are not selling features. Yeah. That is just To be in business, you need those things. And yet, honestly, most businesses struggle with them, which is why we I so I so much I've had a big passion for the fundamentals
[00:10:34] Christine Campbell Rapin:
And why I go in and audit companies and give them the 3rd party. Truthfully, you think you've got this covered, but if you're talking a service based business, a realtor, like, you can it doesn't take you very long to say, I don't have a problem finding a realtor. I have a problem having a realtor phone me back or respond to my emails, and those are basic customer services. What can make you exceptional? I do what I say I'm going to do, and I'm available. And I think in the world where I my clients, you know, work with high ticket offers. So the simple thing is, do you care? Do you show up and do you say what you're gonna do? And anytime there's a trust break, You run the risk of losing momentum.
So let's audit those regularly because it I said it doesn't matter if you're first starting out or you're already in business. We all fall into the vacuum. Right. And we need somebody I like to think of as a mentor who is in your corner who has your best interest at heart to try to be that first person to say, this is incongruent. And I give can give you an example. I have a client of mine who really wanted and believes that I want to serve new non for profits. That was her market. And I said, I'm not sure this is true, but, okay, let's go with it. And so I had referred her some clients. And I said, those clients are coming back to me, and they're frustrated with the experience.
You're not telling them what's happening next. The gaps in the communication are too long. You're using terms they don't understand. And I said, do you wanna play with the new person? Because the new person feels like they made the worst financial investment by buying your services. You will deliver a quality product that that Price was exceptional. I know that, but I'm experienced in the industry. And I said, if you wanna serve that client, We need to go back to those fundamentals because you need a project manager who's nontechnical to support that client journey.
You need to be very clear that not that you have to find them a dashboard, but that you really hold their hand And reassure them that may they've made a really good decision and over communicate. And they're like, but we don't need to do that with other clients. I'm like, you do with a new client It's a new experience. And if you wanna play there, these are essential customer services experience or you will kill your business And your reputation. So choose now to build that or to shift who you wanna serve because I don't think you're serving them very well, And I want to help you address that gap.
[00:13:08] Matt Rouse:
The other thing about that is Sometimes people think a different market is what they wanna serve, but the realities of that market are different than they kind of expect them to be. Yes. Right. And I also see a lot of companies, you know, have quite a bit of success in what they're doing. Maybe they get a little bored of it, and they go, we can take these concepts and principles that we have for this business, and then we're gonna go after this market over here that is different. And then what happens is this over here that they start doing doesn't work out because there are differences in the market. There's maybe differences in how those people like to be sold to. Whatever the whatever the factors are that make that not work. But because they're now Drafted from their core business, their core business also starts to fail. All the time.
[00:13:57] Christine Campbell Rapin:
I was in a mastermind yesterday with exact conversation. We have a very successful business owner who's in the creative base. She works on the digital creation side, and they have a very high ticket client, a very high fulfillment service model. And they decided they want to scale, and they've decided that volume was the way they wanted to do it. And that's a choice because scale is not the same thing for everybody. And their answer was to go and create a done for you course at a low price point. And I said, There's a 1,000,000,000 people competing in that market, and it's completely different than the USP. Why are you wanting to do that? This Seems really incongruent, and I will tell you a $300 experience doesn't jump necessarily easily to a $10,000 experience, But they have the same expectations because they know you deliver at $10,000. Right. And so those $300 clients are going to have very high expectations, Very demanding, and you're not getting the income to support that. And honestly, you can't deliver the same results at $300 as you do at 10,000 hyphen comment. I want to just hold your space here and says, why is this a good strategic decision?
And until you can answer that, I wouldn't put a ton of money here. Strategy first Yeah. Topic second.
[00:15:12] Matt Rouse:
I've seen a lot of companies who, Oh, let's let's let's take our expertise and our knowledge and go to this parallel market, but that market turns out not to be a parallel at all. It just turns out to be something completely different and unexpected. They don't know why it's not working. I'll face it. This is not a direction my company started out going in. But over time, it turned out that fixing messes that other digital agencies or creators have created It's something that we kind of fall into because people ask around who can fix this disaster and our name comes up. So I see these things that have happened. And a lot of times, maybe their agency wasn't even really that much at fault for what happened. Maybe it's because they veered off of a path, And they weren't prepared for it. Also, a lot of times people think, like, oh, it's easy for me to get sales at what I do now. So I'm just gonna do the same thing for this new business. So the reason it's easy for them to get sales is they got a decade of history and momentum behind them. And the new one, they got none. Right. Well and they think that there's a that the buyer's the same and the buyer's not. And what the buyer wants in the journey and where they are in the intersection point, it differs. And that's what we we make really dangerous assumptions around that. And I think when I go back to your earlier question, so, you know, the most simple question to ask yourself,
[00:16:30] Christine Campbell Rapin:
One that we don't spend enough time on is who are you and what you stand for. Because when you're creating a service offering, I said all paths lead to that answer. You may have 3 services, but the services deliver the same results because it's who you are and what you stand for. But what's different between service vehicle, if you will, to delivery mechanic is one might be more hands on. 1 might be more Automatic. My one might be more time, resources, support. So it's the flexibility that maybe a different buyer need, But the result that they want to the one that you stand for. So, you know, your business evolves into sometimes you don't set out at. They think, I didn't I didn't get up one day and say I'm gonna be a business mentor Right. I got out of bed and saying, I'm gonna be a great entrepreneur, and I've helped 400 clients has created $1,000,000,000. I know how to create money regardless of industry, regardless of the vertical, regardless of place you actually even wanna play geography wise. But because I wanted to do that, people kept saying to me, what the heck's the secret? As a business is simpler than you're making it. Who are you? What do you stand for? 2 things predict your revenue, and there's 3 The fundamentals start here.
And then they were like, I can see that with you, and I can now see it in other people, but my big gap is I can't apply it to my own lessons. I said, okay. And they're like, what do you wanna do with that? And they're like, I can't wanna spend time with you. But I really value your time, and I'll pay for it. And that's how my own business became what it is today. And as it's evolved, it's come down to asking people What makes us unique? What do we stand for? What do you think we stand for? And the podcast and everything has evolved from that Because I want people to create a client growth engine. What do my clients say to me? What comes you for marketing? I said, you don't come to me for a marketing tactic. The company for the overall strategy to create sales, we need marketing to do that. So it's an interesting way to look at it, but then you build The connection points so that people do move from curious to paid client. That's the goal line. And, you know, another thing that's interesting that that reminds me of is that a lot of People, especially in the small business and kind of entrepreneur startup space, they're looking at humongous
[00:18:45] Matt Rouse:
companies and what they're doing, And that does not translate to your tiny business. Right? And I'm not saying every business is tiny, but compared to a 1,000,000,000 or $1,000,000,000,000 company. Looking at what Apple does has nothing to do with your mom and pop shop, which is not the same. Like, from a strategy standpoint, There's lots of studies and things showing that for, you know, certain types of things like commodities, people just don't care What you stand for, right, if it's a commodity. Because a commodity is a commodity for a reason. You know, if if you are doing something that is especially something that is customer service based, you know, service based, hands on, that kind of work. People really wanna see, like, How how am I gonna get from the place I am now to this future point where I don't need to worry about this thing anymore? And how how are we gonna, you know, how are you gonna partner with me to do that? You know, you you actually said this really well.
You were talking about the strategy of Telling people that they're doing stuff bad and you can fix their problem is not a good strategy. Yeah.
[00:19:53] Christine Campbell Rapin:
My ranting yesterday, I I I there's somebody who's being taught, and if you this is you, you're not alone. There's there's there's a whole industry that's teaching you the way to grow clients on social media Is to find somebody on the platform, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, doesn't matter. Choose your platform. Mhmm. Go and like or comment on 7 things And then connect to them on every post social media platform. So then you get a message on WhatsApp. You get a message on Instagram. You get a message on this, and they're all hello. They're gonna see if you bite. And then they start by saying, I have taken your business. You're a disaster. You need this. I can help you. And most times, I just don't engage, invite. But yesterday, I I was like, you know what? Just be a good human. Right. And I responded to this gentleman and said, I want to tell you that this is not an effective strategy, And it's probably one you're being taught because I get many emails and connections like this every single week. Thank you, but no. I would encourage you to watch some of my content to help you along the way. And he came back to me and said, but you need social media, and you need to be great. I said, I'm not debating that we need or have some way to reinforce our values and what we stand for on a platform. Like, it's free advertising in some way. However, you coming at me not understand making assumption I need you is a wrong assumption. A lot of people do that in business.
Second thing, I said, you haven't told me anything that ties what you've observed to why you are the Musk hire. So I have no interest in really taking a conversation with you. And third thing, you have not Really understood what and how I want to grow my business because you're coming at me with a tactic, which goes fundamentally against How I wanna grow my business. If you'd spend 2 minutes on my content, you should have seen that. But I said, if you wanna grow your business, I would encourage you to rethink, Do your research. Build a relationship.
Ask if I have a problem. Tell me why you think there are alternates to the path I see, and then Make the invitation. I think I can help you. Are you interested? Doing that will slow you down and make you much, much more effective. So stop playing the numbers game because I am 100% convinced that it is not a numbers game. You can have one conversation of a client. You don't need to have 10,000 conversations to have one client. If you know who your buyer is, what you stand for, The results you can deliver and what makes you the right guide to get them there. That's a fundamental question. So
[00:22:35] Matt Rouse:
So many spammy tactics being taught to people. It's almost as if nobody's heard of, like, permission marketing that's been around for 30 years. Right? Like Everything old is new again. Everything old is new again, especially the spam tactics. Right. Oh my gosh. Like, there is so much of it going on that I assume that some people must be falling for it. But it never works. Right? I mean, every person that I'd ever talked to from any business who's hired somebody got a hold of them and say, It looks like the SEO on your website is bad because you're only ranking number 16 for this word I typed in, you know, whatever. They hire that person for some nominal amount of money, like $200 or something, and they're like, I wasted $200 and nothing happened. Yes. Shocker.
[00:23:24] Christine Campbell Rapin:
You know? Well, I always find it funny because the people who say, you know, you can't get found
[00:23:29] Narrator AI:
are the people that somehow found me. So I'm like, I just can't figure that out in my head. Like, I'm like, you say you can't find me, but somehow you found me. And the worst piece of business is, like, spammy ness is To approach
[00:23:42] Christine Campbell Rapin:
a person you want to invest in your services by saying you must be failing.
[00:23:47] Matt Rouse:
That's right. Like, you are terrible at your job, but I could fix it. And then a red marker. Here's all the problems on your stuff, and I'm Here's everything that you did wrong. Wow. Really I have approached people that I know or, you know, I guess, in a few cases, people I don't know, but I happen to be at their website for some reason that I actually needed to be there and I've seen a typo or something like that or something is glaringly wrong, like an image is broken or something, I'll say, I just wanted to let you know that this image on your website is broken. Here's a screenshot. I'm not asking you to hire me or anything. I just want you to know. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate when people do that. Like Yeah. And I and I think it's for being a good human. And I think, you know, in the world of AI and all the automations and all of this Really, I think quite toxic way everyone needs to scale through volume that's gone on for the last couple of years because business owner said, like, I wanna sit on the beach doing little work, and I'm like, I'm sorry. That's
[00:24:41] Christine Campbell Rapin:
That's a not a beginning place. Yeah. Like, it's not where you begin. You can build to get there. Yes. But you have to do the effort. So I read this article. Really ironic.
[00:24:52] Matt Rouse:
You remember I can't remember his name that wrote the 4 hour work week now. Yes. I know Kevin. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me too. Yes. But even he's not working a 4 hour work week if you follow it at all. The article that I read on it was about his assistant who was doing, like, 60 to 70 hour weeks. And I'm like, well, yeah, of course, you can have a 4 hour work week if the person working for you is doing 70 hours. And that's what's real reality. We don't see that. The highlight reel
[00:25:19] Christine Campbell Rapin:
is misleading you. And I think that that's really a disservice. That's why nobody Talks about fundamentals is why you see it. I made a $1,000,000 in 90 days, and I'm like, you can make any amount of money. I tell my clients this before I ever make an offer. You can make any amount of money you want Your business is true, but, like, there's no finite number here. But I want to know what's the lifestyle you want. I want us to understand that the business has to be Profitable because so often when you see that, you know, I made a $100,000 this month, I said, but what was your profit? Because you've made a 100 may cost you a 150, and why are you selling that we should buy into that crap?
I want That's right. To know the business fundamentals. And When people do come into my ecosystem, they're like, this is gonna be a little uncomfortable. I said, yes. It's a mentorship. I am here to support you. I have 100% your back, But I am here to help bring simple questions to the table. Look at the business fundamentals and say, we can grow quickly, but where's your cash flow? You can invest here, but what's the ROI? I don't want you working 70 hours a week. You didn't want that either. So let's talk about what we're focusing on because, truly, we can simplify this, and we can see more results because clarity truly is the ultimate accelerator. But Clarity is not something you put on your calendar. I'm gonna journal or go for coffee in Tuesday at 2 o'clock and have. It comes through iteration. It comes through conversation. It comes through being Open to having the lens looked into the darkness.
And it's actually also where it becomes really fun because then you're like, I get to do this my way. I'm like, yes, you do. And they're like, oh my god. I get to do it my way. How do I do it my way? It's all secretive questions that get asked. It's amazing that there is a lot of people
[00:27:05] Matt Rouse:
in business who have never really put any thought into any of this stuff because I I like to call it the accidental Business owner. Right? You are good at something. Someone started paying you for it. You started doing more of it. And then you had to hire somebody to help you. And then you had to hire some staff. And then you had to get some people to do this and that. And now you've got a full fledged business. And nothing was ever no thought was ever put into, like, who are the customers that I have? And what does our business stand for, and and what is our end goal? Right? And and And you're not a goal. Personally, what is your goal? Right. Yeah. And so many are in that boat. Everybody's in that. So it's hopefully gonna inspire to say, maybe I should find some of those answers and come find me. But I have a perfect example. I have a client of mine who not only she an accidental entrepreneur, she inherited a business Right. Unexpectedly.
[00:27:52] Christine Campbell Rapin:
She heard in her father passed. And I I met her through a women's networking group, the local one that I belong to here in Canada. And and she said, I think I need social media to keep this business running because All we ever hear is that you have to grow your business on social media, which is not true, but that's what we hear. And so she was asking for social media help, and I watched Sixty people throw prices at her, never having understood her business at all. And since racing to the bottom, I hate that. Like, I'm just watching businesses and I'm cringing. And I said, you know, I'm not here to disrupt anything, but It's like a reverse auction. Is the thing you need because Before you spend on social media, what's the plan for the social media? And just I'm like, I'm happy to just have a conversation. You know? I I just wanna give you some guidance. And if you can't ask any Questions. I'm an experienced business owner and just free free access to a cup of coffee. And we had a cup of coffee, and I was not at all Expect you to have a conversation about my services. I was just saying slow down and ask some questions.
In the end, she has become a client and I said I said to her, what What made the decision for you? And she said, I had to spend time figuring out who I wanted to be as a business owner, and you were somebody who was gonna help me do that because my husband Or my kids or my past clients were gonna do that for me. And so we work really collaboratively on what do we focus on, How do we handle inquiries, payment issues, all true business nuts and bolts that most of us never get an education on? And it wasn't like I set out to be an entrepreneur and I had that discover I needed those things. I spent 25 years growing other people's businesses in marketing, sales, Operations, leading people, and running a p and l statement.
I've got the skills because I acquired them through education and life before I became an entrepreneur. And that's actually when I realized most people didn't have it. And when that is true Mhmm. You are not Fighting a fair fight until you equip yourself with either good resources or people and skills and time to learn them, or you flame out, or you do the hokey pokey. One put in, one put out, and it gets real and scaring then you back out. And it is exhausting, and it doesn't have to be that way. You choose your speed when you're growing a business and not every season's mock 10. Those questions are still really important, and I am on a bit of a mission myself to say, I want you to start Asking them because I really want to see I really, really want to see more people succeeding because they change our communities.
They change our family economics. They change our infrastructure, and they help us create and be leaders. And I honestly think the world needs that. We're in a time and space right now where we need creativity. We need connection. And it requires people To bet on themselves and to build infrastructure and support together to get there because we are not gonna get there by ourselves. And I think there's so much potential within each of us. I'd just like to see more of us not run out of runway. It's
[00:31:00] Matt Rouse:
An an interesting kind of analogy to the people with, you know, one foot in, one foot out when they're trying to Filled their business is, I took my daughter. She's 7. I took her sledding. We have a place here called Fort Hann where I live in Nova Scotia. It has a bunch of hills and stuff because it used to be an actual, like, fort. It's got, like, cannons and stuff on it to Cool. Fight off old wooden ships kind of thing. But, anyway, it's great sledding spot. We went down one hill that was, like, steeper than all the others. And so if she started going too fast for her comfort zone, so she put her hands out to slow herself down. And as soon as she put her hands out, of course, she spun around and wiped out. Mhmm. I didn't think of it immediately at the time, you know, to say it'll help my kid out of the snow.
But later, I was like, man, that but that's what happens when people, their business starts to become successful and everything starts happening for them and they stick their hands out.
[00:31:51] Christine Campbell Rapin:
Mhmm. What you need to do is find somebody who knows how to keep the wheels on when you really start going fast. Mhmm. And have making sure the wheels are all heading in the same direction and it wasn't a direction you chose. And I think sometimes it's because we go straight to tactic. And I said, did you ever figure out what the starting point was? We, you know, people have this you know, we need all these safety things. Like, we must have a website. It must have all this stuff. I said, it's just noise. Have a conversation. And the most important conversation you have in business is that you're constantly telling people you're in business. And that means you know why you're in business And why people should hire you and you know what the result you stand for is. And it's just that simple.
And yet, you're listening to this, like, not sure I really have the answers. That's okay. The point is now you know there's a gap, and the best thing about having a knowledge gap is you have now a decision and a choice When to bridge it? Because you know you will need it to reach the other side and to keep building. 1% is the action I asked of myself. When I first started my first business, I worked at 1 hour a day. It was a side hustle. I was building it on top of other things. And I said it's just simply nonnegotiable that I show up. I was equipped to show up and know what to focus on to create revenue that was profitable. It started to snowball. And, of course, the dream evolved. So did I it's priority shifted and, you know, we kept showing up. The snowball builds, but we do also self sabotage. And when it Feels a little wobbly.
I always say to my clients and to myself, it's okay to wobble. That's high vibration. The question is, do you feel in control of the wobble Or are you feeling controlled by the wobble? This is the second, but we gotta equip ourselves. The other one, I wanna celebrate you.
[00:33:32] Matt Rouse:
That's right. Christine, I think we're gonna have to wrap it up for today because, I mean, we could talk for hours, but we don't have that much Time. The podcast is amplify your marketing message with Christine Campbell Rapin. And, Christine, congratulations on being our first episode in over a year where we didn't mention AI. But, yeah, keep your marketing fundamentals AI or not people. And, Christine, if you had one closing message for, you know, the the struggling business owner out there, would that be?
[00:34:08] Christine Campbell Rapin:
I will say that everything you dream is possible. It's on the other side of your fear, so don't let Fear of the unknown hold you back? Have the courage to bet on yourself and equip yourself along the way. We are all all of us work Some progress.
[00:34:24] Matt Rouse:
But what you want is possible. Go after it. Perfect. Thanks, Christine. It's always a pleasure to talk to you, And, we'll talk again soon. That's it.
[00:34:35] Narrator AI:
This voice over used to be done by a human, but now it is synthetic. Oh la la. If you want to know if your job or business is safe from disruption, read Matt's new book. Will AI Take My Job? Predictions about AI in corporations, small business, and the workplace. Available now on Amazon. Trust me, it'll be worth it.
The importance of understanding your target audience
The significance of marketing strategy
Creating value for customers
The role of strategy in business planning
The importance of knowing who you are as a business
The value of asking simple questions to define your business
The impact of knowing your values and vision
The dangers of spammy marketing tactics
The need for business fundamentals and mentorship
The potential for success in entrepreneurship
