Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick, your host.
And today, my special guest is Amanda Reed, owner
of Reed Mobile Marketing. Amanda started her
marketing agency as a single mom of five very
young kids over 16 years ago. Her focus has always
been to help small businesses beat big brands.
She is also author of the book, Unapologetically
Me, to help other moms balance starting and growing
a business while being a mom. She also founded
a free online membership, The Mob Community,
that stands for Mom -Owned Businesses, where
she teaches other moms how to market their businesses
online. Welcome to the show, Amanda. Awesome.
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited
to be here and can't wait to chat with you about
all things marketing, moms, business, leadership.
So we can begin. You had five young kids, but
that was many years ago. So let's start by going
back to what that life was like. I know that
even marketing has evolved, technology has evolved,
but motherhood hasn't, right? It's still a balancing
act when you're a working mother or, you know,
your own entrepreneur and you have kids. So what
was that like? You know, I often tell the story
of where I felt like the biggest failure. And
it's when I first had started my business. My
kids were very young and I remember it like it
was yesterday. I'm in Safeway and it's that like
crazy time between when kids are getting out
of school and we're kind of wrapping up the day
and you have to go make dinner and you forgot
a few things and you're just kind of in the chaos
of trying to get the day done. And my son says
to me, Mom, we need ketchup. So me and my five
kids go over to the condiment aisle, grab the
ketchup. And my other son says, we need ranch
dressing too. And in that moment, I just started
crying. Because as so many days, I had been adding
up every single set that was going into the cart.
And I knew that I simply could not afford both
the ketchup and the ranch dressing. And I felt
like the biggest failure. And I felt like I wasn't
just failing. me, but I was failing my kids.
I was a single mom. I was all that they had.
And when we take a look at that and take a look
at that life, it's that struggle of all the responsibility.
How do I make it work? And how do I push forward?
And while there were many other nights, many
more than I would like to admit, but I still
questioned the decision. It is the choice to
keep moving forward that actually propelled me
to break through those obstacles and get where
I was. Even though it felt like failure, you
had to go through the failure to get to the success.
Were you able to work from home though? So you
had that down packed, holding that fork down?
You know, I've worked from home. I had other
businesses before I started this business, so
I've been fortunate that I've worked from home
for about the last 21 years in some capacity.
So I've worked from home, and as I said a lot,
I worked from a lot of coffee shops. There was
one point where I decided to get an office space
and did that for a while. I didn't really think
it helped my business all that much, and so went
back to working from home. So there's a lot of
benefit in being able to juggle that. Being able
to have a space where I can work and still be
able to provide care for my kids. So with this
community, what are some of the current challenges
that some of the women face? I think the biggest
thing is when you want to start a business, we
have that desire, we have the passion, but we
don't really know exactly what it takes. And
I think the biggest challenge that we face. right
now in like as we record this in 2025 is this
idea that owning a business or entrepreneurship
or a side hustle should be easy. And so basically
it's been sold as this like amazing thing. You
just work an hour and all of a sudden you're
a millionaire. And that just isn't reality. And
so I think a lot of people are coming in and
not understanding the process and the work that
it's going to take to build the business. Is
it worth it in the end? Absolutely. But basically,
people thought that, oh, I just bought a program
or I just have to post on social media once.
And all of a sudden, I'm going to have all these
sales rolling in. And it doesn't work that way.
So what we're seeing in that community is a lot
of frustration of people feeling like maybe they
were. sold a lie that maybe that they didn't
understand what it was going to be. And so we're
trying to help them understand, okay, now what
are the basics that we need to actually get started
and actually start growing your business? You
know, everything that you just said really resonated
with me. I was on a different podcast yesterday
as a guest, and that was one of my key takeaways
was it doesn't happen overnight. A lot of the
current generation is selling my how -to. And
this is how I do it. You can do it too. And within
30 days, we're going to get you to seven figures
now and just follow this system. And wait, there's
more. I can't believe that that's what you're
mentioning is the number one thing. I would have
thought, you know, time management, how do I
do these responsibilities? But it's really a
frustration of really understanding that having
a business takes many years to get to the level,
perhaps where you want to be. Absolutely. And
I think on the other side of that is there definitely
you have to figure out time management. Sometimes
we have to figure out tech and there's all sorts
of different things that we have to figure out
in it. But the biggest frustration is just the
false expectations. And so sometimes you have
to break through that first. And then it's like,
OK, now what are the strategies we can put in
place to actually do this? And I love what you
said there, because I think the number one thing.
that we can do to help be more successful is
extend the timeline of our horizons of expectations.
So if we look at, it might take us 10 years,
that's okay. But when we start thinking it's
supposed to happen in 30 days or a month or a
year even, right? Most businesses, it takes a
lot longer than a year to build to get to where
you want. So just extending that expectation
of how much time it's going to take actually
relieves some of the pressure. I also serve women
that perhaps are finishing being professors or
they're ex -executives and they're not ready
to retire, but they have a lot of expertise.
They have a lot of connections. And I think that
when you do have that base, it may be a shorter
timeframe, but they're also not looking to build
these huge companies, right? They're looking
to earn, extra income while they can still enjoy
their post -executive life. And it's a lot more
about purpose than it is about trying to build
something huge. And I think part of that, which
is always super interesting, is I say one thing
is you have to decide what you want, right? Society
tells us we should have this, this, this, or
whatever. So building a business could mean I
want an extra... $500 ,000 a month, right? Like
that's, that's cool for me. Building a business
can mean I want to make millions of dollars a
year. That's cool too. Like you get to decide
what you want. And, but also one of the fun things
about marketing and advertising. So whether you
want, like you said, these basically end of their
career and of that stage of their career, but
not quite ready to be full retired stage, or
I'm just starting out and want to build a huge
business. The key is still marketing and advertising.
Now, if you already have a network of people
that want what you have to offer, that's fantastic.
But reaching out to them and saying, hey, I'm
available is still marketing and advertising,
right? So we have to let people know we exist.
We have to let people know our products and services
exist. And I think that's one reason why I'm
so passionate about marketing and advertising
is because if nobody ever knows you exist. nobody
can buy from you. So it's just, it doesn't matter
how big you want to go, it's a solid foundation.
And if we can just focus on the inputs, like
what are we doing to make that happen, then the
outputs will happen at the time that they're
supposed to. Well, I'd love to hear a lot more
about what you do and some tips of what's working
best for your clients. Awesome. Well, I appreciate
that. We kind of have a couple different ways
that we work with our clients. Obviously, we
have a marketing agency where we are a full scale
digital marketing agency. So people just pay
us to handle their marketing. And that's where,
as you said, we work with small brands, helping
them beat big businesses. The reality is bigger
businesses have people like myself, other marketing
agencies that they're paying hundreds of thousands,
if not seven figures a year just to do their
marketing. And what we understand is small brands
can't afford that. So we take all that expertise
and help them be able to grow while still having
the same tools, expertise, and knowledge. So
they'll just pay us to handle their marketing.
We love working with small brands at that capacity.
We also have our memberships where we teach.
We just teach you what you need to do to go market
your business. And then on parts of that, we
can offer software and additional coaching and
services to make sure that you can fill those
gaps. Those are kind of the done -with -you services,
we say. You're still going to do all the execution,
but we want to make sure that you're on the right
track. And as far as what's really working, I
think the biggest thing is always understanding
in this world of social media, in this world
of online, where most people maybe miss a step
is understanding that they don't own their own
audience. So our goal when we're putting stuff
out there should always be to be building our
own list, whether that be an email list, a text
message marketing list, something like that,
that puts you in charge of being able to communicate
with your potential clients at any given time.
So many times people are just posting on social
media or just doing something there and they're
never owning their client list or their contact
list. That actually puts all of the control onto
the social media platform. So if it changes or
something happens to your account, you actually
don't have a way to contact anybody anymore.
I've seen that happen to so many people and they
don't have a plan B. They haven't prepared or
it gets hacked. And now all of their people are
just seeing things that someone else is posting.
So what about AI? How is... AI affecting marketing
and the messaging? Because some people may be
thinking, I don't need a marketing agency. I
have an AI, right? Or there's a software that
will auto post for me. I know that when it comes
to editing the podcast, for example, I can upload
an audio to AI. And when I replay it, it just
doesn't sound like it flows. So I can't. hand
it over to the AI. I'd rather have someone do
it manually because it's just not the same. And
I think that when we talk about messaging, a
lot of times people are missing the mark, but
that's my opinion. I want to hear from you how
it's affecting not just the industry, but the
messaging. Yeah. So I think I think AI is fascinating.
We utilize AI a ton and we continue to find different
ways that we can adopt AI. And I think we're
going to see in the next couple of years a lot
of different amazing use cases for AI. That being
said, it also doesn't replace the human element.
So we have to, I say it's a starting place, not
the ending. It's great for brainstorming. It's
great for helping us come up with ideas. It's
even great with helping with some messaging.
But we have to have a baseline first. Whether
it be, hey, here's a list of 50 different things
my customers have said to me. It's going to get
the ball rolling and help us come up with different
ways to say that or incorporate that in our messaging.
But I always say that AI is kind of a starting
place. It's a great place to say, hey, give me
10 ideas on this or what would be the basics
of this? And then you have to go in and humanize
it and actually make sure that it reads the way
it should. And I think that people that don't
do that. it becomes very obvious that it was
all written by AI because it all sounds the same.
So I think it's a great tool and we need to continue
to find ways because that's how we maximize our
time. That's how we maximize how we can be most
effective. And there's some different automations
that allow us to be totally hands -off. But when
it comes to messaging and understanding conversation
and humans, I just don't think AI is quite there
yet. And so we need to make sure that we're always
reviewing our copy. And I've seen some great
AI tools and they literally say at the bottom
of them, make sure you read it because it can
lie. OK, right. So we need to make sure that
we are we're not just posting whatever AI says.
We're not just taking it for whatever it is.
We need to make sure that we're editing it and
making it ours. Somehow you lose credibility,
even though we are. perhaps using it as tools,
I've seen at the bottom where it'll say, this
will make it sound more. So it even makes you
think more now, or I'm distracted reading the
response because I'm trying to figure out, well,
what did this person ask the chat GPT to write?
Because, you know, it'll say it at the bottom.
So I love that tip, right? Yeah. Filter, just
like think before you post. Read before you post
if you are using. artificial intelligence. So
in your website, you emphasize that finding the
right partner is essential for business growth.
If someone is out there looking for a marketing
agency, what's the difference between A and B,
or what guidelines or tips can you offer people
that perhaps want to look at agencies to work
with? I think it's important to understand proof
matters above all, right? So what results have
they been able to get? And be able to understand
where you want to go. Oftentimes what we see
happen is sometimes people will not really have
a whole lot of experience in something, but they
have more experience than you. And so they're
able to use more complex terms because... They
know those terms and it makes them sound like
they know what they're talking about. So what
I would say is one good test for an agency is
can they explain it to a level where you understand,
where you understand what they will be doing
for you and what the expectations are of those
results. And I say that that's always huge. I'll
take it from maybe the other side as well is
like, who should you listen to when it comes
from training? coaching or mentorship. Maybe
you don't want to pay for a marketing agency,
but you want to learn how to do this. We all
start somewhere and oftentimes we start out doing
it all ourselves, right? That's okay. So you
need to make sure that you're looking at, in
my opinion, has this person actually executed
the job? One of the things I say when I say from
marketing training perspective or the coaching
that we do is We actually run a marketing agency.
We can tell you what's working in the space because
we're doing it every single day. I see a lot
of bad information in the marketing space because
people haven't actually done the marketing. They've
maybe understood the theories or read a book
or watched a training, but they haven't gone
and either executed it for themselves or for
another business. So making sure that that person,
whoever you're going to hire, whether it be for
them to actually handle your marketing or just
to learn from them how to do your marketing on
your own. Make sure that they actually have the
experience to get the results that you want.
So is it better to focus on one or two platforms
or to try and be in all of the platforms? My
advice on this has actually changed a little
bit recently. And it's because of some of the
stuff we see happening. So the first thing I
would say is. understanding that you should master
one platform. And that platform, let me be very
clear on this, that platform should be the platform
where your ideal customer hangs out. Not the
platform you like the most, not the platform
you feel the most comfortable with. It's wherever
the platform is that your ideal customer is spending
the most time. So that's how you decide what
platform to use, right? Where are your customers
going to be hanging out? but you do need to master
one platform and you need to be consistent with
it. And mastering it means understanding all
the nuances of it. How do I actually post to,
whether it be, do I do it things? Are I doing
reels? Is it, can I go live? What are all the
different components of that platform? Because
the reality is you don't want to be trying to
figure out the tips and tricks. You don't want
to try to like, somehow scam the algorithm. Trust
me, the algorithm catches up. The algorithms
are already changing. So you need to understand
what the platform is for and what it's and like
why you're getting the results you can. And always
remember, all platforms, all they care about
is keeping people on the platform. So in reality,
you just have to create good content. So master
one. And I used to always say, just stick to
one. That being said. I'm telling people that
they should probably repurpose their content
onto other platforms, but don't try to really
learn that platform. Just understand it won't
perform as well. Because normally when we're
repurposing content, we want to make sure it's
platform specific. I understand that most entrepreneurs
are starting out, don't have time for that. So
just repurpose it, just post it again on another
platform because we're seeing too many. too many
variables in the space where accounts do get
hacked or an account gets shut down or things
like that. And I would rather you start building
an audience somewhere else as well than not have
that and have to start all over. So you just
have to understand that place that you're repurposing
to is just probably not going to do as well and
just be okay with that. But it allows you to
start building an audience there. I'm going to
repeat because it was so important what you said.
Start with the audience where your ideal client
hangs out, not your favorite, not where you feel
most comfortable, but where the people that you're
looking for are going to be. Right. That puts
us, we have to remember, we're not in that space
when we're posting. We're not a consumer. We're
a creator. We're creating for a platform. And
those people that will be looking at it and consuming
it, they have to be the right people. They have
to be our ideal people. And let's be honest,
the platforms are amazing at finding the right
people, assuming you're posting the right kind
of content. If you know a little bit about your
customers, that's what helps you understand what
platform you should be posting to. If you're
100 % going for sales executives, you should
probably be on LinkedIn, right? That's where
they hang out. If you're looking for 18 -year
-olds, maybe Snapchat is the best platform for
you. So you just have to understand the different
platforms and really be focusing only on where
your audience is. And with your groups, The Mob,
tell us a little bit about who can join. So The
Mob is an absolutely free group over on the school
platform. If you know anything about that platform,
it's an amazing platform. And it's a community
built for moms and those that support moms who
own businesses. Now, you do not have to be a
mom to join the group. But we do want to say
that you have to be supportive of moms in business.
And the whole point is just to get you the support
you need to start, build and grow a business
online. We know how challenging it is. And it's
basically the resource that I wish I had when
I started my group. So it's a community as well
as live teaching and then recorded trainings
as well. Perfect. I will leave the link in the
description for anyone that's interested in joining.
the community in school. Before we wrap this
up, what is your next milestone? My next milestone.
I love that question. Right now, I am on a mission
to help a million moms make money online. So
that's my next milestone is how do I help a million
moms make money online? Well, that's very short,
sweet, concise. So I think you'll hit the mark.
There's no doubt about it. Thank you. It goes
to you. Well, thank you for joining me today,
Amanda. Thank you so much for having me. I really
appreciate it. And thank you to all of our listeners
for tuning in to another episode of Milestone
Moments in Business and Leadership. Until next
time.