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Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success.

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I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you

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insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts who will share not just their expertise

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but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements.

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So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place. Subscribe now and discover the

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milestones that mark the path to success.

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Welcome to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. Today, my special

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guest, Bianca Smith, is joining us from Spain. Bianca is the founder of Simplified Marketing

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Services, a marketing agency helping financial professionals and coaches simplify their business

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through content marketing. She's a wife, a mama three, and a retired military spouse and veteran.

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She's all about work-life integration and teaching others how to simplify their lives and marketing

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strategies. Welcome to the show, Bianca. Thank you, Sheila. Thanks for having me.

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Let's talk about how you got to being the owner of a marketing agency today in Spain.

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Yes. So as you said, I am, I say retired military spouse because my husband is retired,

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but he still works for the US government, which is why we are in Madrid, Spain. I've been here for,

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I say 10 years total because we lived here before. My husband retired from here. Then we went to some

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other countries and then came back. When your kids get older and being overseas, a lot of times

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being in the military, you can't work on the economy. And so you're almost forced to kind of

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become a stay at home mom. A lot of people go back to school or in my case, to start a business.

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And so when we were stationed in Cuba, I decided to start a vinyl shop. So making t-shirts,

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making wine glasses, making key chains, it was going great. I was doing cry fairs every three

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months. And then we moved from Cuba back to Spain. And I decided to open a bookkeeping firm.

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Because when I was in Cuba, I got my master's degree in accounting. And again, moving to Spain

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could work again. And so I said, okay, my kids are in middle school. They're all a year apart.

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I have this master's degree in accounting. I left my job in banking. I'm a lawyer. I'm a

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lawyer. I'm a lawyer. I'm a lawyer. I got a job in banking. What am I going to do all day?

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And when all those people, how to work from home. And somebody pointed me to a Facebook page for

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military spouses and veterans to find legit remote work from home jobs. And I joined that

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group and I became their ambassador because I love what they were doing. And through that

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internships for marketing actually. And through one of my marketing internships, somebody was

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looking for a social media manager, but she was a CPA. And I almost didn't apply because I was like,

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oh, I'm not a BA yet. I'm kind of going through an internship. And there were so many comments.

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And lo and behold, I said, I'm just going to do it. And she was my client for three years.

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And she pivoted. So we just stopped working last year together. And I started doing social media

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and BA services and bookkeeping. I decided to stop doing bookkeeping for e-commerce because it was

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very stressful for me to do bookkeeping for e-commerce. And I decided just to be a VA

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slash social media manager. And then I believe it was 2022. I just decided to be a virtual

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assistant agency because we all know what happened. And I needed to find... I needed to niche down just

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a little bit more because I had too many clients coming in. And I'm only one person. I only have

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so many hours. And so I became a virtual assistant agency. However, a lot of our clients were in the

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financial space and they would come in to us primarily for social media marketing. So we got

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rid of VA services and I focused on a social media agency and also being a virtual assistant coach.

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So here I am running a social media agency and at the same time teaching people how to become a

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virtual assistant. So I had a monthly membership and a Facebook group and a course and group

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coaching. And it was a lot. It was a lot running two businesses with three kids in high school who

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were all back to back. And at this point, they're going to college back to back. And it was very

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stressful and my husband was traveling a lot. So I went for a walk one day, came back and quit VA

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coaching. That summer, I said it's going to be my last group coaching and I stopped doing that

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to focus on the agency. And at that same time, we pivoted to a social media marketing agency.

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And just this year, we niche down a little bit further into marketing. So we're doing not only

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social media, but we're dabbling a bit in the email marketing space. And as the years go by,

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we'll be expanding our services. Okay. I'm going to have to simplify that statement.

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It's a lot. It is. But what I find really fascinating, and I'm just thinking out loud here,

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is as a veteran and you were offering the coaching, I know there's a lot of veterans out there that

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some sometimes struggle going into the civilian world. Have you considered perhaps helping

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veterans? You've been successful in pivoting and starting all different types of businesses.

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You're almost like a pure heart entrepreneur that's multi-faceted in the different industries

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that you've served. Helping veterans start a business? I haven't. I started actually

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wanting to work with veterans, as my clients tell. And at one point, I was only hiring veterans to

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come work in my business. And so my marketing assistant is a military spouse or hiring military

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spouses because if anything, I feel veterans, they have the background, the schooling,

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the years in the military to kind of find a job. Whereas military spouses, we move a lot and may

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not have that. So I wanted to kind of more support military spouses versus veterans. So it's not an

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avenue I have explored. But you do hire them because in that way, you can also scale your agency so

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that you can continue doing what you do, what you do, what you love. So your company helps businesses

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discover their marketing north star. Can you share how finding this north star can lead to an

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impactful marketing approach? So a lot of times the industry that we serve, which is primarily

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the financial industry, they are very busy. As a lot of people know right now, we are in tax season.

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And so their marketing tends to fall off. And that's even if they do marketing. And so marketing

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for the financial industry could be a little bit more difficult. Sometimes just maybe a little bit

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of the laws behind it where you can and can't post, which has got a little bit more lenient.

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And so a lot of times when clients come to work with us, they're dabbling in marketing,

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but it's just too much work. And at the same time, they have all of these financial clients,

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they may, like I said, maybe in tax season. And so it's where do I start? But at the same time,

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I don't want my marketing to subside because I'm too busy. And so when they come to work with us

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here at the agency, our main goal with them is simplifying their marketing. It's also not

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only doing it for them, but teaching them. Because a lot of them don't know how to show up on video.

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They don't understand how to even do a story. Sometimes they're like, what's the story? How do

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I do it? So we're not only doing it for them. I also want to teach them the side of marketing

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because I want them to understand what we're doing so they understand the impact of the

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brand, the impactfulness that we're bringing into their marketing and bringing into their business.

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So what does the North Star represent?

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So your North Star, the star that's so bright, right? And it's unique. And for some people,

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it's their compass. It can be, I don't want to bring Christianity to it, but it can be like,

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you know, kind of finding your way home. And it's kind of the way I feel as marketing because I

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talk about work-life integration a lot. And I feel like your work and your home is integrated.

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It's blended. I don't believe in a balance because it's like, okay, you're kind of integrating it

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both, especially as an entrepreneur in the financial space. And a lot of our clients have kids.

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So they can be working one moment and they got to tend to the baby. And then they're working

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for a little bit more and then they got to cook dinner. Then they're working a little bit more.

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So I like to just say like their North Star is just kind of bringing them home back into

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like this work-life integration where they don't have to pick one over the other.

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So looking back at your career and your entrepreneurial career,

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what's the most valuable lesson that you've learned along the way?

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I would say I love to talk about different seasons in our life and that it's okay to

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pivot. It's okay to change your mind. It's okay to try different things. Don't be like looking at

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all what the gurus are out there doing. Focus on you and your business. And if something's not

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working, it's okay to pivot. So prime example, I have two kids in college and I have a senior

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in high school. So next year I have a freshman, sophomore, and junior in college. And me and my

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husband will be empty nesters. So here's another pivot. So even going through those seasons,

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I've had to adapt my business where I'm not going to take that many clients this season.

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This season I can go hard. And when it comes to pivoting in your business,

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for example, you saw earlier how I said, okay, I did bookkeeping. I did vinyl. I did the agency.

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And prime example, in the fall, no, no, no. In the summer, I said, I'm going to start working

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with coaches again. I was just working with people in the financial space and coaches.

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And I took away coaches in 2023. And then in the summer, I started to add them back because

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a lot of coaches were asking to work with us, especially when it came to content repurposing.

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A lot of them have podcasts and we help them repurpose that content. A lot of people in the

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financial space don't have podcasts. So I said, great, we'll bring them both in. However,

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in January, I was having a hard time with my marketing because here we have the financial

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industry. We have the coaching industry. I was having a hard time focusing on how to

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bring them together in my marketing. And I still found myself... My heart just lied with the

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financial industry. So I said, you know what? For 6 months, I try to bring coaches in and we do have

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coaches in our agency. But it's not where my heart lies. I don't want to... They're not like my niece

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who I enjoy truly working with. It truly is a financial industry because that is my background.

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And so, yeah, actually it was in February last month, I was talking to my coach and I was like,

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my marketing fills off. And she was like, this isn't what you want to do. And I was like, you

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know what? I don't want to do it. And literally that same... The next day, I just sleep on it.

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I went and took away, like rearrange my bio, rearrange my website and I'm pivoting right now.

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And will it change? I don't know. It might change in the future, but I pivot a lot and I think it's

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okay. But at the end of the day, my branding stay consistent. My marketing is consistent. And I think

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the financial space is what people truly know me for. Financial industry is our main focus.

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The marketing landscape is also always pivoting. How can we adapt and thrive in such a dynamic

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environment to make sure our marketing strategies remain effective and relevant?

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I would recommend that you either follow people in the marketing space that stays up with the trends

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so that you're staying up the trend if you don't have a marketing team. For our clients,

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they don't have to worry about it. We literally dedicate a day. Every single Thursday, we dedicate

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two to three hours where we are doing training. So we're going through podcasts. We're going

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through people that we follow. We go through thought leaders in this space where we're learning,

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okay, Instagram is changing. LinkedIn is making major changes. So we keep up to date with what's

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going on. Not only that, we test things on our own feed on our agency. So you'll see at one moment

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when it came to real, we weren't using covers. And now we're going back to using real covers.

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I may change our story strategy. Right now, we're doing LinkedIn without any graphics,

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just on our own feed to see how it's working before we bring it into our clients. But if you

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don't have a marketing team, you can just follow some marketing strategists like myself. I have

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a newsletter that I go out every week. And at the bottom of that newsletter, it has marketing news.

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I give you the latest marketing news on what's happening that week. And so that you can tell

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your marketing strategy to what's going on in the world right now. But you don't have to,

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I would say, be on every single platform. So right now, LinkedIn is a little bit trending right now.

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So if you're not on LinkedIn, I recommend it's the place to be right now. Get in before it gets

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to be a little bit too much. And dedicate... This is your business. Marketing is a big part of your

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business. Dedicate a day of training just like we do. And try things. It doesn't hurt to try because

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rules may not be great for one client, but it's great for another. Another client may

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thrive on stories. Another one doesn't. Another one may thrive on Instagram, but another one thrives

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on LinkedIn. So really finding out where your ideal client is hanging out for us and then finding

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into a space is LinkedIn. So we spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has the top marketing

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voice, which is what our agency has right now. And so yeah, if you have a business, you have to do

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marketing and set aside some time to just learn and try. It's an experiment. I feel like everything's

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an experiment. And just have fun with that. I think when you have fun and you're not worried

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about what everybody else thinks, and like I said, carousels work great for some, it doesn't work

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great for others. So what's your next milestone? Oh, my next milestone. So personally, my last kid

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goes to college in August. The husband and I will be empty nesters. We are moving again, we're moving

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from Spain to another country, but I don't want to say until we... If anybody knows the military,

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we say nothing until we get paperwork in hand. So it looks like in September and October, we'll

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be moving to another country. And the next big, big milestone for business is starting a podcast.

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So I'm going to be having a podcast come out called Simplified Marketing. And it's going to

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be geared towards the financial industry, but anybody can take it because it's all about marketing.

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But I don't want to be another marketing agency. I like to simplify things. I want to make it easy

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for you. I want to give you small bite-sized action bar items, but also talk about work-life

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integration. Talk about how is the blend and how you take time to go for a walk, travel,

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get from behind your desk, do unplug vacation, do a plug vacation, but also just integrate in

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both of those. Because to me, like I said, I think there were just one.

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Before I let you go, how can my audience follow you or find you?

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Yes. So I'm on Instagram. I love that platform. I'm in stories all day, every day. I'm doing a lot

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of behind the scenes of my life, or personally and business-wise. So you can find me at Simplified

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Marketing Services on Instagram and LinkedIn as well as Simplified Marketing Services.

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Well, thank you so much for your time. What would be your one key piece of advice that you can give

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our listeners, either work-life integration or living that simplified life?

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Yeah, just try to, just when it comes to your marketing, keep it simple. A lot of us are not

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influencers. We do not have to be posting three times a day, every single day. Find that sweet

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spot. For example, we're a marketing agency and I only post four days a week on Instagram.

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I do post five days a week on LinkedIn, but I just started that because I'm testing right now.

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And before it was three days and you can see posts a week later on LinkedIn. So do whatever

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that's comfortable for you. Focus on one platform. So just focus on that one platform, your ideal

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client is on, let's say that's LinkedIn, just find everything you can about LinkedIn. Be

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really good on that platform. Really speak to your clients on that platform and then maybe bring in

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Instagram, you know, one day a week, then two day a week. So that's what I would say as far as just

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simplify your marketing and just keep it simple. Well, thank you for joining us today.

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Thank you. It was a pleasure. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in for another

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episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.