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So tell me about your vision.

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So my vision really started about four years ago when I decided to sell my own business

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and start helping others stop spending money on the wrong marketing and start making money

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with it.

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Tell me more about that.

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So literally, I've been in sales and marketing my whole entire life.

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I had my own startup business and I actually started it six months before the first downturn

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in the economy back in 2007 and I wrote it all the way through the pandemic successfully.

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So I found over the years that there were several key factors in a successful business

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and consistent marketing and having a strong marketing foundation is one of them.

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The challenge that I found is that there's a lot of marketers out there that are selling

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just what they sell, whether you need it or not, they're selling it to you and they're

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saying that's going to be the solution and it's a one-off and it's going to be wonderful

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and that's not necessarily really what works.

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And so I decided once I figured out my special formula in order to be able to achieve success

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in my own business, I decided to sell off that business and then literally start helping

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others stop spending money on the wrong marketing, start making money with it and I think it

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really starts with having a strong marketing foundation and then consistency is key as

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well.

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Thank you for sharing that, Cassie.

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My next question goes directly into what you were just talking about.

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What would you say is your why of why you do and why you want to help businesses with

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this right strategy, why you get out of bed every morning?

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I would say that my why is I think that everybody deserves to have a business that they absolutely

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love, that fulfills a dream of theirs, but also works with their personal and professional

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life and that's a really hard balance, but I think that people are more interested in

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that nowadays.

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And I myself have been through that struggle and journey and I've had a lot of pitfalls,

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I've had a lot of errors, I've spent a lot of money, I've had a lot of successes, I've

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had a lot of pivots in my life.

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And so through that experience, I really, my goal is just to help other businesses like

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myself that maybe they've done all that they can on their own and they're ready to get

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to that next level, but they're not quite sure where to go, get there with, I mean,

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my business name is Straightforward Consulting and Marketing, a very straightforward, transparent

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approach that puts the clients in their needs first, gets them a strong marketing and messaging

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foundation so that they can build the future that they're looking for with their business

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and ultimately, eventually, if they'd like, like I did, sell it off for a profit and either

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move on to something else or have a happy retirement.

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Thank you for sharing that and for people listening out there, there's a lot of people

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in marketing who bring a bad name to marketing because they are trying to give you strategy

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that's not good for you, but that does not mean marketing does not work.

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Correct.

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You have to find the right marketing channel with the right assets that you have, you want

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to make sure you have those assets with you and that combined with right procedures and

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things together can be very, very powerful in place.

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So thank you for sharing that, Cassie.

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Yeah.

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I think that you bring up another point as well is because just because something worked

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for me doesn't mean it's going to work for you.

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It depends on your audience, it depends on what you're selling, it depends on your budget,

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it depends on even time of year, it depends on sales cycle.

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So anybody that says that there's a silver bullet or that this is definitely going to

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work with your marketing efforts, to me, that's a little bit of a warning signal, I guess.

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So you can do your best, you can make educated guesses.

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And so the stronger your marketing foundation, your messaging foundation is, I think the

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easier it is to make those educated guesses to be able to move forward.

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What you really want to look for is somebody who is keeping an eye on the ball and who

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is saying, okay, this is working, let's keep doing more of it.

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And okay, this didn't work, let's cut this off at the knees so that we're not bleeding

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here and let's put money towards something else that might work better for you.

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That's awesome.

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What can someone do in that case, Cassie, before they even hire someone for marketing?

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How can they vet them?

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One of the things that I've noticed as far as when, because I mean, even with myself,

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I'm not necessarily the right person for everybody that comes to me.

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And also it's important to me that we have a really good rapport and are able to build

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a strong working relationship because not only my goal is once I start working with

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you, my clients typically stick with me.

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They like my honest, straightforward approach.

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They find it refreshing.

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They can trust me with their dollars as if it was my own.

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So I would say one, a lot of times people really don't know what their marketing budget

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is and most often they don't even have a marketing budget.

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And so doing research, if you look at it, most businesses just toe the line, you're

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looking at a minimum of like six to 70% of your gross sales, which is normally like,

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oh my gosh, because a lot of times people didn't even put anything in their marketing

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budget and suddenly at six to 7%.

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And then other people come to me and they say, hey, we really want to grow and we want

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to double our sales within the next few years.

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Well then you're really looking upwards to 15% of your gross sales in order to be able

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to actually move the needle that fast.

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So really taking a look at those parameters, figuring out what you're able to invest.

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I think when people come to me, people don't like giving you a number, right?

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But if you come to me and you say, I've got $5,000 or I've got $100,000 or I've got $350,000,

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here's where I'm at.

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Here's where I'm looking to go.

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What can you do for me?

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That's going to get me there.

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I can give you a much better approach to use those investment dollars in a way that is

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going to consistently steadily grow your business.

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Then if you're hiding that from me or you don't know what it is and you haven't made

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that commitment yet to, okay, I'm going to invest this.

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It does become much more of a transactional and a project based, like I just need a website

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or I just need marketing messaging or I just need advertising.

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The other thing I would say too is really being open to hearing other ideas because

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the whole entire point of a marketing expert is to bring their ideas to the table that

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will work for you.

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So being prepared to be able to share what you've tried in the past and what hasn't

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worked and also being open to new ideas, I would say would probably be pretty key when

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you're looking to work with somebody.

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And then finally, I would say just making sure that your personalities mesh and make

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sense because not all personalities work together.

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And ideally, if you get somebody who's well rounded in marketing, they're going to be

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able to help you for a number of years, but it's no fun working with somebody you don't

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like working with.

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So if you don't jive with the personality or you just can't wrap your head around what

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they're trying to help you with, then maybe that's not the right person and you should

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move on to somebody else.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time

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and attention.

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I hope you have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro

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yourself.