177: A simple marketing strategy that works!

Does marketing sometimes feel like a never-ending list of things you should be doing?

Effective marketing isn’t about doing more… it’s about understanding what you’re trying to achieve, who you want to reach and choosing the right marketing activities to help you get there.

In this episode of Online Business Uncovered, I’m joined by Kara Stanford, B2B Marketing Strategist and founder of The Marketing Spaces, as part of my special Online Business Growth Summit Speaker Series. We explore why so many small business owners find marketing overwhelming and why having a clear marketing strategy can help you stop wasting time on activities that aren’t moving your business forward.

Ultimately, a good marketing strategy isn’t just about getting more customers. It can help you create more time, more income and more freedom by giving you clarity about what actually deserves your attention and what you can confidently stop doing.

If you’re tired of constantly wondering what you should be doing with your marketing and want a simpler, more strategic approach, this episode will help you focus on what actually matters.

🎟️ Online Business Growth Summit | 6th–8th October 2026

If you’re ready to build a business that creates more income, flexibility and freedom without relying entirely on your time, come and join us.

Remember... you don’t necessarily need a bigger audience to sell more. Sometimes you need stronger relationships with the people already around you.

🌟 REGISTER FOR FREE HERE 🌟

Transcript

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Speaker A [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 177, and in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about how to simplify your marketing, focus on the things that actually work, and create a really simple strategy that attracts the right clients without feeling like you need to be everywhere all of the time. So let's jump right in and let's get started.

Karen [00:00:33]:
Welcome to Online Business Uncovered, the show that lifts the lid on what it really takes to turn your brilliance into digital products, passive income, and time freedom. I am your host, Karen, an online business strategist, course creation expert, and your go-to for building a business that works for you and not the other way around. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or maybe you're just ready for a smarter, more sustainable way to grow, then you're in the right place. Because each week I'll be bringing you inspiring conversations, practical strategies, and step-by-step guidance to help you create scalable, repeatable digital products that sell even while you sleep. So if you're ready to stop trading your time for money, reclaim your time, and finally build a business that gives you the freedom that you deserve, hit subscribe and tune in every Thursday. Let's uncover what's truly possible for you starting now.

Speaker A [00:01:35]:
Hello and welcome to another episode of Online Business Uncovered. I'm your host Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. Now, if marketing sometimes feels like a never-ending list of things that you should be doing, then I think you're going to really enjoy today's conversation because today I am joined by Cara Stanford, who is a marketing strategist, and we're going to be talking about about why effective marketing isn't about being everywhere, jumping onto every new platform, or constantly creating more content. It starts with having a clear strategy, understanding exactly who you want to reach, and knowing how your marketing is going to help you achieve your wider business goals. Now, this is a great conversation because Cara shares so many sort of bites golden nuggets when it comes to helping small business owners with their marketing. She shares some really great tips on how you can ultimately use your marketing in a way that helps you create more income, more freedom, and build a much more sustainable business. Now, Kara is one of the experts joining me at the Online Business Growth Summit this October, and she's going to be sharing how to create a marketing pathway that takes people from not knowing you exist to becoming repeat customers. So if you're tired of feeling like you need to do all the things all of the time when it comes to your marketing, and you would love a more simpler strategic approach, then this episode is for you.

Speaker A [00:03:17]:
So let's dive in and let's get started.

Karen [00:03:21]:
Would love to welcome Cara Stanford, who is a B2B marketing strategist and the CEO and founder of The Marketing Spaces. Cara, welcome. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's lovely to have you here.

Cara Stanford [00:03:37]:
Oh, it's great to be here. Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you.

Karen [00:03:41]:
So before we dive into, um, today's topic, I would love my listeners to, um, get to know you. Do you want to just start by telling us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and how you ended up doing what you are doing today?

Cara Stanford [00:03:58]:
Yeah, of course. So I'm a B2B marketing strategist. So you're probably thinking, what on earth is that? Well, I'm the person that helps you figure out how to find, attract, and then keep the right clients for your business. So marketing is a lot like an iceberg. There's a lot that goes on beneath the surface. So what we always see is the front stuff. We see all the glossy, all the fun stuff, things like this is amazing podcast, but you would have put a ton of thought and preparation into this. And there is a marketing strategy behind what you are doing.

Cara Stanford [00:04:30]:
And I share that with business owners with— so that they can understand it. So yeah, that's, that's what I do. And I guess I kind of fell into it like most marketers. I began life as a doing marketer, as somebody who would go out and I was creating brochures, I was creating adverts, all kinds of things. But I realized that what I really, really love doing is the strategy behind it, the helping businesses figure out what they should be doing and why they should be doing it and how it's going to help them achieve the success Oh, thank you.

Karen [00:05:06]:
I— the thing about marketing is that it's such an important piece, um, in, in sort of establishing and growing a business. But I think it can be really overwhelming because it's so broad. So many things come under the banner of marketing.

Cara Stanford [00:05:25]:
Oh, they do. Yeah.

Karen [00:05:27]:
And I think sometimes when you say to other business owners about marketing, it's almost like rabbit in headlights because it can be so broad. really overwhelming to kind of know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, how to kind of get the results, all, all of those things that are important when it comes to, um, running and growing a business.

Cara Stanford [00:05:50]:
Yeah, no, totally. And I think the thing about marketing is there's, there's always something new, always something new, always something new. There's always another way to do it, another way to do it. And the keyword there is do. There's always another way to do it. What hasn't changed with marketing is how you approach it and how you think about it. And the fundamentals are the same, which is what is the goal you need your marketing to help you achieve? Who are the clients that you need for your business? And what are you offering them that solves their problems? I mean, that has been the same since marketing was formulated, as it were, as a business approach since the 1950s. That has not changed.

Cara Stanford [00:06:30]:
And it is that that strategic approach that actually brings a lot of peace of mind to business owners because I think it's so easy to be on the doing wheel. Do, do, do more marketing, do this, do this, try this, try this out, try this. Oh my gosh, AI's in here now, what do I do? Stop. And there is just such a sense of relief that I see my clients have once they've worked with me because they then know what they can say no to, what they can stop doing, as well as what they need to do.

Karen [00:06:58]:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think you're absolutely right. It's like those core components, um, are why you're doing your marketing. It's, you know, knowing your audience, knowing the offer that you're creating. No, like you say, starting with the goal in mind. Yeah. And I know I've had a lot of conversations, um, with other business owners and entrepreneurs about, um, marketing. And often what I find is missing is that overarching goal.

Karen [00:07:26]:
Yeah. They don't necessarily have that clarity around, okay, what am I actually looking to achieve?

Cara Stanford [00:07:33]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:07:34]:
And, and then how am I going to approach it? And what do I then need to do to, to make sure that I'm reaching my goal? And then how am I going to measure it as well so that I know what I'm doing is moving me towards my goal? And so I suppose, like, when you're in that space, um, as a marketer, it's kind of obvious. But, but for, for people that kind of are non-marketers that have been forced to market. Yeah, I know. A lot of business owners, they start their businesses because they just are passionate about the work that they do.

Cara Stanford [00:08:08]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:08:08]:
And then they realize, actually, I've got to be an accountant, I've got to be a bookkeeper, I've got to be a marketer, I've got to be an AI specialist, I've got to be a product development, you know, team, like, just me. And, and I, I think it can get really overwhelming. But, but what— you're absolutely right, when you strip it back, it just falls down to the, the core essentials, isn't What's your goal? What are you looking to achieve? Um, you know, what are you offering and how are you going to do it? And then who do you need to achieve it?

Cara Stanford [00:08:40]:
Who are the clients you want? And I think we forget— I think one of my biggest bugbears with the marketing sector is that all of the kind of best practice marketing, marketing theory, marketing, they come from what I think of as big marketers. So they come from companies that have got millions to spend, or they've got at least thousands, they've got teams of marketers. And it's actually actually, you know, that's where I think the overwhelm comes from for us amazing small business owners, because we're trying to work a model, an approach to marketing that doesn't work for us. And that's where we actually, we can beat the big boys, because what we can be is smart and we can be nimble. And again, when I work with small B2B business owners, that realization that they have the upper hand in many ways, because as a business owner, you know, you, me, people listening, you can say, this is what I want to achieve in my business. Do you know what? I just want 10 good clients a year. That's all I want right now. I will design my marketing to achieve that.

Karen [00:09:42]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:09:42]:
And yes, I will take ideas. I'll take tips from, from all of this wonderful advice out there. But I need 10. I need them to be these types of organizations or these types of people. They need to give me this much money. That's what I need to do. And yeah, helping people reach that focus, it's a kind of freedom for them. It just, as I said, it just gives them a lot of relief too, that, do you know what, you don't need to be the next big TikTok star actually, if that's your goal.

Cara Stanford [00:10:10]:
You know, if your goal is to get 10 decent clients, even if it's 10 a month, a quarter, a year, why are you getting hung up on the fact that you don't have a zillion followers? It's just like, do you need them? No. Okay.

Karen [00:10:22]:
I think it's because there's so much noise out there now. So much noise.

Cara Stanford [00:10:27]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:10:27]:
You know, and there's so many options and so many ways of doing everything. And it's like whenever they bring out another thing, people think they need to jump on the bandwagon. Do you remember when they bought, um, oh, Clubhouse out?

Cara Stanford [00:10:41]:
Oh gosh, yes. Oh my God, it was going to be the next big thing.

Karen [00:10:45]:
It was.

Cara Stanford [00:10:45]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Karen [00:10:47]:
And everybody, everybody was like, you know, this is the platform.

Cara Stanford [00:10:50]:
Yeah, yeah. And we all— and I remember with Clubhouse because people said to me, oh, why aren't you on it? Oh, I thought, right, there's the thing I always do. So this is one of my top tips for, again, small businesses. We can do this thing I always do is I grab the handles. So I've got a Clubhouse profile, I've got profiles for loads of different social medias that I will never ever use, but I grab the handles for my company and my name because I don't want anyone else to grab them. So do that first. So I remember I grabbed it for Clubhouse and I thought one evening I'm gonna go in, and I went in, I I did. I thought, this is not going to work for my business.

Cara Stanford [00:11:26]:
And that was the key thing I could see for other people that they did form good connections and it gave them visibility and exposure in the way they needed it. For my business, I knew it would not work. So I went in, had a look around, thought, oh, that's interesting. I can now talk to people. If somebody says, do you think this is right for my business? I can give an opinion. And, and then I left. And that's kind of part of the power of understanding what your marketing has to do when all— I mean, gosh, there are so many tools. so many tools out there, and when they all come along, I'm there assessing them with, will this help me find the right kind of people for my business to achieve my goals? And that's what I get my clients to think like too, and it just makes things easier all round.

Karen [00:12:09]:
It's such a smart way of thinking, isn't it? Because I think that's it. I think people think that they need to be everywhere on every platform doing all the things, and it just, it's just impossible to do that. And And even if you could set up everything, maintaining and creating a sustainable schedule is just— it's unrealistic if you are also in the delivery mode or the creative mode or, you know, I mean, it's, it's interesting, isn't it, that you feel the pressure to have to be in places and you think, well, actually, I just haven't got the capacity to add that next thing on.

Cara Stanford [00:12:48]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:12:49]:
So, so, but I like what you're saying where you're— it's, it's asking smart questions. Yeah, you know, this is my goal, this is how I need to achieve it, these are the people that I need to find. Is this extra thing going to move me towards my goal, or is it just going to be another thing that just busies me up?

Cara Stanford [00:13:09]:
Yes.

Karen [00:13:10]:
Yeah, it just keeps me busy without any real results at the end of it.

Cara Stanford [00:13:14]:
Absolutely, absolutely. And yeah, yeah, I love that, busies me up. I love that. Yeah, yeah, it is that. It's just busyness for the sake of busyness. And I mean, it's And it's keeping an eye on things. It is keeping an eye on things. And I do keep an eye on things because things change.

Cara Stanford [00:13:31]:
I'm yet to be convinced, for example, for my business that, you know, as a B2B marketing strategist, Facebook is no good for me because people that are looking for marketing support and advice on Facebook, they want that kind of quick fixy stuff. That's not what I do.

Karen [00:13:45]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:13:46]:
So any lead I've ever got through Facebook has been a total waste of time. So, but it might change, it might change, I don't know. I'm keeping an open mind, I'm keeping an eye on it, but I'm not worrying about it. And when people go, oh, you're not on Facebook? Or, well, I am actually, I've got one page and it just says, hi, I do loads of stuff on LinkedIn, head on over here. And then I give them my profile, my LinkedIn profile, because that's the channel that works for me at the moment and has for the last couple of years. And, and that's great, you know, in my mind it's something that I don't even worry about, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, I've got my stake in the ground if I ever need to claim it. Happy days, I can go and do that.

Karen [00:14:24]:
But I don't, because nothing— yeah, because you're absolutely right, nothing is forever. And I think things change all the time, platforms evolve and they bring out new things. And, and I think it's kind of understanding your audience and knowing where they're going to be and then going to them. Um, you know, and, and I just sort of say there are so many options now.

Cara Stanford [00:14:46]:
So many options.

Karen [00:14:47]:
Yeah, I, I've—

Cara Stanford [00:14:49]:
oh, sorry, go on.

Karen [00:14:50]:
No, I was gonna say is, you know, I, I've kind of pondered with the idea of my YouTube channel, and I— but I'm a podcaster. Podcasting is my medium. So, um, and I've been doing it for 4 years now, so I've been doing it a long time, and it kind of aligns itself really nicely to me, sort of my personality, you know. I love, I love to talk about things, and it's a natural thing to do, whereas jumping out behind the camera and filming and doing all of that stuff. And the one thing I know to be true is whatever platform you're on, wherever you're creating your main content, you have to put in so much work in order to make sure that it's getting seen by the right people. So you can't be everywhere doing everything because then you start to dilute your efforts on the platforms where you will benefit. And I kind of realized that with YouTube. I think with YouTube it's one of those platforms where you know, it's no good just being over there and dipping your toe in.

Karen [00:15:51]:
It is going to be a strategy that you're going to really kind of work on to make it work for you. And I think what you're saying is by understanding your goal, understanding your audience and what you're offering, if you have those foundations in place where you have that clarity, then you know whether or not it's worth investing that time and energy into it.

Cara Stanford [00:16:15]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think one of your points too is that not just the tools change, but it's also people change. And that's a problem with marketing. I'll be really frank, marketing, it's a pain in the neck because the problem is we're marketing to people and we change and we change and we change our behavior. You know, like I remember when Twitter was the place to be, you had to be on Twitter and it was, and it was really valuable. I built some, I built some amazing visibility for my business through Twitter. I built some great connections and then it changed.

Cara Stanford [00:16:45]:
And now it's not the place to be at all. And if you're a certain type of business, if you're a values-led business, if you want to be kind of regarded in a particular way. And I think what is interesting is that the people that picked up on this early, they saw that their audience was leaving. Yeah, leaving that particular platform and that's seeing it. And that's again because people change, you know, like you were making your point. I mean, podcasts, you know, podcasts kind of 10, 15 years ago, They were a little bit nichey, weren't they? They were the things that kind of, you know, like the people with the budget, the BBC would do. And, and that's really changed because the audience has moved towards podcasts because people want podcasts. They want to be able to plug in, be able to listen while they're doing other things.

Cara Stanford [00:17:33]:
Audiobooks are huge too. So, so that's the thing with marketing. Again, it's thinking, are my audience over there? You know, if all of my audience all of a sudden shifted everything to Facebook, I would shift to Facebook because I would go go to be with them. Or if I found out that actually they've completely decided that they want to eschew social media and only do in real life events, I would move to only doing in real life events, you know, because it's part of that go where your audience is, go where the people that you want as clients are. That's a really key point.

Karen [00:18:08]:
Yeah, no, I agree. And I know I say to my clients and members that build offers, the more you know about your audience, the more you can go to where they are with their problem and then create something specifically to help them. So, so rather than making assumptions and assuming, you know, my audience on Facebook, but actually they're not, they're on LinkedIn. You— the more you know about your audience, the more power you're going to have because you'll be able to make these really conscious decisions about what you're doing, how you're spending your time, energy, and money as well, you know, because I mean, I'm running paid ads at the moment because I'm— I've got some lead ads running, but I know my audience will consume and sign up because, because I've tested it. But if you didn't know and then start paying, then obviously you end up being out of pocket as well. So, so I think having that data around your audience, I think is absolutely key. Really key.

Cara Stanford [00:19:12]:
And it's interesting that you said test because I would say to people, test things out.

Karen [00:19:16]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:19:17]:
Do test things out, but then kind of it's a balancing act, isn't it, Karen? It's how long do you run something for before you decide it doesn't work? Because the other thing that I see is I see a lot of kind of people that I work with on my courses and one-to-ones, they quit too early.

Speaker A [00:19:32]:
Yes.

Cara Stanford [00:19:33]:
But then some of them keep flogging the dead horse, and it is a balancing act. It is a balancing act. And again, it depends how quickly your audience responds. I know with what I do, because it's around marketing strategy, because I offer a 12-week course, because I do in-depth consultancy, that takes people a long time to decide to buy. So because it is a commitment for them, you know, it's something that's going to transform what they do. So they're going to think about it. So if I ran an ad for a week and went, oh, this isn't working, well, of course it's not. I know it's not going to take work within a week.

Cara Stanford [00:20:06]:
I have to give it at least 6 months, if I'm honest, to see if it's, if it's doing what I need it to do. And yes, I can do tests to see is it going in the right direction? so on and so forth. Whereas some of the people that I work with, actually their audience makes a quicker decision to purchase because it might be it's something they need quickly. You know, if they're in trouble, they're like, I need to get— you know, I've worked with lawyers where it's like, right, I need help now, I need you now. So, you know, things could take different timelines for them to test and see if they work. But it is that balancing act of you've got to test it for long enough to check it works, but not keep flogging that dead horse and wasting your precious time and money and effort. So it is a balance. Yeah, that's what makes marketing fun though.

Karen [00:20:50]:
Yeah, and there's a lot of sort of different variables, like you say, because you've got the, you know, like, like you say, people change, platforms change, you have new, uh, ways to approach your audience. So different tactics and, you know, different things, and it, it's constantly evolving. And obviously not forgetting, probably one of the the biggest shifts is AI, because now you're, you're dealing with that, that, and, and the marketing space. I mean, AI, um, has its place.

Speaker A [00:21:23]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:21:24]:
And, and the one thing I really value, um, is, is it with the marketing side, not necessarily to create content or anything in that, but, but, but it, you can obviously use it in a way to help you formulate decisions. But then it's using it in the right way and understanding what you're looking to get from it. But I can imagine in your space, AI has been a massive game changer and, and probably forced you, I would imagine, to kind of evolve the way you do things because of it.

Cara Stanford [00:21:59]:
Yeah. So what was interesting with AI was when it first came out. So first of all, I really like it and I'll kind of share a bit about how I'm making it work and how I'm advising my clients. Sense for customers to make it work. When it first came out, it was the old— I remember someone going, oh look, I created a marketing strategy using ChatGPT. And part of me just thinks, well, why the heck are you here listening to my stuff? Go on, off you go. But I thought, don't be grumpy. I said, oh, go on then, show it to me, show it to me.

Cara Stanford [00:22:25]:
And I got them to show it to me, and I looked at it, and I went, that's not bad as a visibility-raising marketing strategy. What it doesn't have in there is anything about what you're selling. And they went, oh, I said, and there's not really much depth of understanding about your audience. They went, oh. So I said, so if you followed this, you'd raise your visibility, you'd raise your profile, which is good, which is a really good thing, and you do it in the right way, but you need to say what you sell because there's no mention in here about what you sell. And they went, oh. And I thought, yeah, we still need humans. So I think, and it is interesting with AI because the content creation is, I mean, it's transformed my business.

Cara Stanford [00:22:58]:
So for me, creating my own marketing, it has sped it up so much that I'm able to work with more clients. Yeah. So that has directly impacted my bottom line. It's given me that much time back in my working week, which has been amazing. I estimate it's probably given me about 5 hours back in my working week, and that has sped up. So actually, maybe it's given me more time back because as I'm getting faster and getting more proficient with how I use it. But what is interesting, so I run a 12-week course and in it I give people AI prompts to help them develop their marketing strategy. But they are prompts that are this long that they have to copy and paste.

Cara Stanford [00:23:36]:
And it's things like, you know, put into your AI, say, I am working with Cara Stanford on her Growth Optics course. I have been looking at my definition of success. I've been covering this, this, and this. This is what I have written down so far. Can you please give me— and I am teaching people how to use AI to help them create their marketing strategy, but they have done the thinking first. So that is where it's a game changer and where I think it's really, it's exciting for us smaller business owners because this gives us a competitive edge. If you know how to use AI not just to create your marketing content, but how to help you create your marketing strategy, that's really super helpful and that is going to help your marketing be more on point and more accurate and more focused. and get you the results you need.

Cara Stanford [00:24:25]:
But it is really exciting. It is exciting. So once I decided to stop being grumpy and start embracing it, it's been exciting. And then I just thought, I've got to share this with people. I've got to share this with business owners, other business owners, about how I'm using it and how they can use it. And it gets amazing results. I mean, people that come on my course, they're just saying, we've never thought to use it in this way, and we didn't realize the more detail we give it, yeah, the better result we're gonna get. And it's helping them speed up their thinking.

Cara Stanford [00:24:58]:
So yeah, that has been a changer. Game changer.

Karen [00:25:01]:
I love how you like— you like now you've incorporated it, because the reality is AI is not going anywhere.

Cara Stanford [00:25:07]:
It's not good.

Karen [00:25:08]:
It's only going to become more, um, sort of more included in, in our everyday life. I mean, you see that with— I mean, the kids, they grow up with Alexa and Google and Siri and all these things. I mean, you know, It's part of the family.

Cara Stanford [00:25:25]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:25:26]:
So being able to kind of just kind of accept it and evolve with it, I think is so powerful because, because it is there and people are using it, but not necessarily in the right way. And what I find really interesting, because I use AI in what I do, but like you, I kind of use it to speed up the thinking process and brainstorm and ideas. And I have some amazing chats with chat. I mean, I love the way it just like gives me such great positive reinforcement for, for what I do. And I just think, yeah, I'm never going to get that from a team member, you know, like, you're doing good, Karen, keep, you know, keep going.

Cara Stanford [00:26:07]:
Yeah, keep going.

Karen [00:26:07]:
Um, but what I love about it is, is, is having the ability to, to, to work through ideas and brainstorm and things like that.

Cara Stanford [00:26:16]:
Yep.

Karen [00:26:17]:
And but because my background is branding, it's brand development, I'm still very much aware that Anything I put out externally has to represent me and my business. It cannot be automated. It cannot be, you know, regurgitated AI content. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's really interesting because the people I think that are going to succeed with this are the ones that, you know, see it for what it is and use it as part of a process. But they're not going to necessarily just sort of put out what, what it is that they've been given, you know. you know, and yeah, I know in my business I have a process where I use AI as part of it, but, but it's never the finished piece.

Cara Stanford [00:27:03]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:27:03]:
I always finish off whatever I'm creating in my voice, in my way.

Cara Stanford [00:27:09]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:27:09]:
So if you were to meet me online, offline, wherever, the voice, everything I'm saying would still come through. Um, but of course what you see on platforms isn't necessarily the case. Yeah, and I think that's the danger of it, is that people start to sound alike. And you can see a lot of AI, there's a lot of red flags, like, you, you know, the commas before and after and the super long dashes and things like that. It's a giveaway, isn't it?

Cara Stanford [00:27:39]:
It is. And I also think though, again, I think for us small business owners, one of the things that we really can can bring that counters all of this AI slop and the anonymity almost. As you said, it starts to become a bit bland. It's our personality.

Karen [00:27:55]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:27:55]:
And it's that authenticity. And I just love the fact that the authenticity is now being recognized as a good thing. Because I think particularly, you know, sometimes I have to unpick some of the thinking of small business owners because they're like, oh, we need to look bigger. But do you? It's like, well, we need to look more— you know, I've worked with ones and they're like, no, no, we want to create— we want to look like this. And they'll kind of bring up like a big corporate company and go, we need to look and sound like this. It's like, but you're not. You're a brave startup with an amazing product or service that's solving a problem. We need to get that story out there.

Cara Stanford [00:28:29]:
And maybe in 5 years' time you need to look like that. But for the moment, you— and AI is helping to unpick that mindset a bit because authenticity wins.

Karen [00:28:40]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:28:40]:
Authenticity wins. Going out there with things that sound real because they are real, with people that look real because we are are real. Like, you know, it's, you know, those Zoom meetings where you can kind of see things going on in the background. Like, I've got a dog that sometimes wanders in when I'm recording videos, and I think, you know what, I want to keep that there because then people could see it is actually me because there's this dog wandering around. And I've got sometimes when I'm recording my videos helicopters flying overhead, or you can hear a van door shut. I think, brilliant, people know it's me, it's me stood in front of that camera. They know that and they get a sense of who I am and my personality. And that's the same for my clients.

Cara Stanford [00:29:16]:
So again, I think as small business owners, we are lucky because we can, we can embrace this. So we can go, right, we are gonna go all in on the authenticity, which actually benefits us and is often cheaper and quicker to do as well, rather than creating some big polished event without any result.

Karen [00:29:35]:
So yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that because I, when I, um, had my branding studio, um, that was the thing is, do I need to look bigger? That was the question that I was always— so, so I do that, I'd network in London, and I'd meet these amazing businesses. And, um, and then I, you know, and then it was just like me and a small team of affiliate, you know, like, um, sort of, um, associates that I would be working with. And then it's like, you know, it was always that question of should I be presenting myself as bigger than— but I, but I'm, I, me personally, I'm somebody that I am what I am.

Cara Stanford [00:30:13]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:30:13]:
Um, I'm very, I'm, I'm very open. I'm very— I can't be any, any, any different to really what I am. And I think as solopreneur, that works in my favor because people are buying into me. Um, and I will, I will, I will get that all the time. It's not what I'm offering, it's the fact that they get to work with me.

Cara Stanford [00:30:32]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:30:33]:
And, and likewise with you as well. It's— yes, so we have our company name and our slogan and all the things, but actually when it's all said done, the reason they're making the decision to hand their money over is because they want to work with Cara, or they want to work with, with me.

Cara Stanford [00:30:49]:
They trust Karen, they trust Cara, and that trust comes from, you know, and some big brands do it really well. You can be a big brand and build the trust, but for us, we've got to really leverage our, uh, you know, our advantages. And our advantages are we are personalities behind our business because we are the passionate people that are doing what we do. So let that come through, let it rip through your brand.

Karen [00:31:12]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Cara Stanford [00:31:14]:
Yeah, definitely.

Karen [00:31:16]:
I think, I think that's one of the things I love about podcasting is every week I jump behind the mic and I, I share what I want to share that week. I don't batch. I don't, to be honest, I don't plan in advance. Um, obviously I am with the Summit series, um, but outside of that, what do I want to talk about this week? That's literally my strategy. Yeah, it's a bit because then I can weave in um, random episodes where, um, one of my favorite episodes was I went to— I'm a huge country music fan. Oh, are you? Yeah, I love it, honestly, like love country music. And, um, I went to Country to Country Festival last year, it was my first time at the O2. And I did— I was so inspired because of the, the artist stories that I did.

Karen [00:32:03]:
I think it's one of— it's my favorite episode. And I weaved business into it, but actually it kind of— I I opened up about this passion that I have that ordinarily I wouldn't be talking about. You know, I don't talk about country music when I'm helping clients build their offers or anything like that, but on a podcast I can. And so, you know, I guess that's the thing, isn't it? People get to know me.

Cara Stanford [00:32:29]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:32:30]:
And they get to know kind of what I stand for and what I believe in. And I've been caught out a few times, I, I will be really honest, where I've been watching something on YouTube And I've, I've— I don't know if it's just me, but the person looks real. And then my, my daughter will come in and she'll be like, Mum, do you, do you realize that's AI?

Cara Stanford [00:32:50]:
Yeah, the kids are amazing. They spot it, they spot it. And she's like, of course that's not real. There was one, um, right at the beginning, and it was like raccoons or something jumping on a trampoline. I said, oh, that's quite cute. She went, Mum, one of them's got 5 legs. Oh, I said, she went, oh, I can't believe you didn't spot that. I said, to be fair, I'm just scrolling through looking at this quickly.

Cara Stanford [00:33:14]:
I haven't hit like— so, oh, you fell for it. But yeah, they spot it. They can spot it.

Karen [00:33:19]:
They're just like antennae. It's just like, you think that— I, I've had that where I'm doom scrolling on Instagram and I'll be— and there'll be this funny video and, um, I'm, you know, I'll be laughing my head off and my eldest, she'll be like, Mum, I say, Yeah, yeah, sure. Like, it's so real. And I think that's the thing, isn't it?

Cara Stanford [00:33:39]:
It's— But as you said, it's the world they're growing up in, and it's really, really good that they can spot this. I think in the same way, like, our generation— I'm trying to think what we're good at spotting. What are we good at spotting? Phone scams, because we're used to them. We're like, yeah, scam, yeah, whatever, whatever, drop it. Yeah, you know, we've been dealing with these for 20-odd years now. We know it's fake, go away. But, um, yeah, no, no, they are, they are good. Yeah, but they, they come out, they come out.

Karen [00:34:06]:
the, the womb on a, on a mobile these days, don't they? I mean, it's just like—

Cara Stanford [00:34:10]:
I hope not, but that's a whole other discussion, isn't it? It's a whole other discussion.

Karen [00:34:15]:
But yeah, honestly, it's like it's second nature to them, and I think that's the thing. And, and, um, you know, and I, and I, I, I agree. I think as small business owners, we, we get to immerse ourselves in, in, in the world of AI in a way that can really help our businesses. And like Yeah, but I love the fact that as a marketing strategist, you, you know, you're evolving with this and you accept it and you incorporate it. And I think, I think that's where you get to really experience the power, because when somebody like you is, is able to guide people and be like, okay, this is here to, to, to support, enhance what you're doing, but here's how to use it and here's the— here's how you get results. And I think, I think that's absolutely brilliant.

Cara Stanford [00:35:02]:
Oh, thank you. Yeah.

Speaker A [00:35:03]:
No, no.

Cara Stanford [00:35:04]:
That's good.

Karen [00:35:05]:
So what is one of the biggest mistakes that you see?

Cara Stanford [00:35:10]:
Oh, the biggest mistake I see business owners make is think that you can just do marketing. That I always say it's like the equivalent of me thinking I can just build a house because I've seen people make brick walls and I've done a little couple in my garden. You know, I wouldn't— I mean, could you imagine if I said, oh, come around to my new extension I've just thrown up, Karen? Nah, don't bother with an architect, structural engineer. What do you need those for? Foundations? And they just do marketing and then they're surprised when it doesn't work. And it's heartbreaking in a way because they've often spent a lot of money and effort and you just think, oh no. And it's that strategy piece first. It's— and there is merit to running out and doing stuff because you learn, but it's accepting that actually this is not a sustainable approach and it's not going to get you the results that you need. It will give you data points, it will give you points about what's worked, what's not worked, but yeah, that running out just doing marketing without thinking about what am I trying to achieve? Who are my audience? What problems am I solving for them? How do I need to engage them to talk about their problems? It's— yeah, that's the biggest mistake I see again and again and again and again.

Karen [00:36:18]:
It would be interesting, wouldn't it, if you were to run a survey and ask the question, do you have strategy when it comes to marketing?

Cara Stanford [00:36:27]:
I can tell you they don't. I can tell you right now because I'm on top of the numbers of this. Um, 66% of small to medium-sized businesses do not have a marketing strategy. Those are FSB figures.

Karen [00:36:40]:
Wow.

Cara Stanford [00:36:41]:
66%. In fact, it's one of the things— it's nuts. And it's one of the things that I say to the people that do my course. And towards the end, one of the things I say is, you are now in the top third of business owners. And there's— and the Chartered Institute of Marketing has got loads of research around how if a business, the fast-growing businesses businesses have marketing strategies, and businesses without marketing strategies, they take longer to achieve growth. I mean, they're looking at kind of all sizes of businesses, but it hurts your business. It genuinely hurts your business to not have a marketing strategy, to just run out and just go do loads of marketing. And yeah, that's a bit derogatory because people do think about it, and that's where it becomes heartbreaking, where they've really thought about it and it's still not worked.

Cara Stanford [00:37:29]:
And you start to see them, this is what I find sad, you start to see really smart people doubt themselves. You can see them think, it's marketing, why haven't I made it work? It's like, because nobody has shown you how to make it work. This is not your fault. You have just not been shown how to think about this so that it works. That is not your fault at all. And, you know, that is not their fault. And so once they're shown, they go, wow. It's like, yeah, you know, once you know how to do it, it's marketing.

Cara Stanford [00:37:56]:
It's not rocket science. Once you know how to do it, you can do it. But you've got to be shown if you're not shown in the first place.

Karen [00:38:02]:
But yeah, it's, it's interesting, isn't it? Because also I think there's an element of when you're in your business, you don't have an external perspective. You know, you can't see the wood for the trees. So when you're making decisions about your marketing, it's— those decisions are based on you being in the thick of everything. Whereas when you start to kind of work deeply on a strategy in order to kind of get the results you want, you almost need that, that ex— you know, kind of somebody that's removed from it to be able to see what's possible. Um, you know, it's, it's that limited thinking sometimes when you're in the, in the helm of what you're doing and stuff. And somebody like you can obviously, you know, see things from a 360 perspective.

Cara Stanford [00:38:50]:
And that's quite interesting because one of the things that I've, I've got a Growth Optics framework. It's called Optics for a reason. There are 5 optics. optics, and I show people how to look at their business through each of those optics so that they get that clarity. And yes, it really does help having someone like you or me, an outside person, to go through it with them. But just looking at their business in that way gives them that clarity to help them realize what marketing they need to do. So yeah, yeah, absolutely, it is powerful.

Karen [00:39:18]:
Yeah, yeah. I, I find when I meet, um, people and they're, they're thinking about creating a course or creating some kind of offer in their business, um, often it will then been met with, but I'm not quite sure, you know, what, what, what's going to work or whatever. And, and a lot of the time what I've come to realize is that they could— they tend to miss the gold because they're, they're seeing it from such a— Yeah, and they're too close up. Yeah, they're too close up. Whereas somebody that hasn't got that emotional tie, you know, can, can kind of see things. So, so the things that I find obvious, they will often miss, and it's just because they're in the weeds of the business and they're not seeing it because of that. So that's why I was— yeah, so I always sort of think that when it comes to, um, investment, um, being able to kind of bring, uh, bring trusted consultants on board that actually know what they're doing, I think really does help because that's where you get that accelerated movement. Because, because then suddenly you're, you're made aware of things available to you that wouldn't ordinarily know because you can't see it for yourself.

Cara Stanford [00:40:29]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it is— if someone once described it to me as when you're in the jar, you can't see from the outside of the jar. You're in the jar of your business, but someone from the outside can see a lot more clearly.

Karen [00:40:42]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:40:42]:
And it is— that's— I mean, because people kind of go, oh, because I have a business coach and I work, I've got, I've got a digital marketer who works with me, I've got a marketer who works with me because I need people with that outside perspective. And I need people who will go, you're dropping into marketing jargon now, Cara, or people won't be saying that. That's not how they're going to talk about their problems. And I need that reminder, even as a marketer who's really hyper-aware of my audience, because I'm too close to it, Karen. I'm too close to it. And I'll think, oh, that's really obvious. Surely they'll know that. No.

Cara Stanford [00:41:15]:
So you might find this too, where you say things and people go, that's amazing.

Karen [00:41:19]:
You are?

Cara Stanford [00:41:20]:
Yeah. Is it? Oh, okay. Oh, I'm glad that was helpful.

Karen [00:41:24]:
Okay.

Cara Stanford [00:41:24]:
And then I'll just think, wow, yeah, you know, the marketer in me goes, that's your gem there, that's your gem there. But, you know, when you get that reaction, that's your gem that you've got to build on.

Karen [00:41:35]:
So, yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think the worst thing you can do is make an assumption about people's knowledge around something. And often through conversation, you can identify very quickly where that gap is and then, you know, what you can then obviously provide to sort of fill that gap. But absolutely, I, I will often have a conversation with somebody and they'll, they'll say to me, um, you know, I'm— I wanna, I wanna build, um, you know, an online course, or I want to create an income stream, but I don't quite know what's going to be right for— and I'll sit there and I'll just, you know, it'll be like, have you thought of this? And they'll be like, no. I was like, well, this is—

Speaker A [00:42:15]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:42:16]:
And it's because they're missing the nugget because like you say, they're in the jar and they can't see it.

Cara Stanford [00:42:24]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:42:25]:
But when they get it, I love it. And you probably feel like that. It's the excitement because then it's like, yes, that's brilliant. I want to— that's what I want to be doing. So it's exciting to do that and being able to— like, the good thing with marketing is when you have it, when you have something in place, not only does it make things easier when you start to see those results, results, then it almost kind of reinforces the importance of marketing. So yeah, if anything, the, the— it pays for them to have something in place that's working because then it's like, oh, this is brilliant, I want to do more of what's working and less of what's not.

Cara Stanford [00:43:04]:
Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes I think what I often see with people too is why choose them? I think it's one of the hardest questions they find to answer. I go, why choose you? You know, none of us are offering anything unique. No, we aren't. Don't ever use the word unique, by in your marketing because you're not. But why choose you? And then I'll often say, well, actually it's because you do it in this way, we do it this way and come up with something. You can see, you can see, first of all, they might be a bit uncomfortable. They're kind of like, oh, I can't say that about myself.

Cara Stanford [00:43:31]:
It's like, well, you can. And if you don't say that about yourself, you're just going to keep fading into the background. And you could kind of see them go, oh, and then I'll kind of say, put it on your LinkedIn profile, test it out, put it on your LinkedIn profile. That's a nice, easy thing to do. If you put it up and you don't like it, you can take it down. Again the next day. Try it at networking. When you next meet someone, introduce yourself in that way, see how they react.

Cara Stanford [00:43:52]:
You can start to see them go, actually, yeah, I am that. Yeah, I should introduce myself like that. Yeah. And once they start doing that, the marketing opens up and becomes a lot more effective.

Karen [00:44:03]:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, so one of the themes obviously with, um, this, this year's Online Business Growth Summit is helping entrepreneurs build businesses that, that don't rely solely on their time. So how do you think marketing helps someone to create more freedom or more income or even a more sustainable business? Now I feel like I'm asking this question in a way that feels like— I, I feel like you're going to have an obvious answer, but as we both know, it's not always obvious. So yeah, what do you think about that?

Cara Stanford [00:44:41]:
So your marketing is there to do one thing and one thing only. It's there to help you achieve your business goals. And the big thing is it's there to help you get in something called marketing qualified leads. And your marketing qualified leads are the people that are making inquiries who are going to buy from you at some point. And when you set your marketing up properly and in a way that you can, you are getting in, in a way that you can scale, and I'll come on to that in a minute, you are getting those leads through without you having to work for them as hard. And that's the real beauty with, with marketing. And it takes a while to get to that point, to be honest, Karen, depending on what you're selling. Depending on what you're selling, if you're selling something that's low risk, low cost, you can get to that point quicker.

Cara Stanford [00:45:21]:
If you're selling something that's higher risk to the person buying it, higher cost, higher investment of time, money, and effort, it could take a while. But the freedom— there's, there's different freedoms. So there's the freedom of time. So when you've got your marketing strategy in place it takes less time to get the leads you need to create the client base you want, so you get your time back. It's also less stress. I think the biggest thing I see is people say to me, it's a relief, I feel less stressed, because all of the stuff we're talking about earlier, they know what they need to do, they know what they can ignore, they know what they don't need to do. And I think it's that also, that freedom, that when you get to a point where you've built your marketing at the back end where you can kind of go, right, I can now take on 5 extra clients, so I'm going to crank this up. And I know that when I— if I do this, if I do more of this, that it's going to move all the way along through my marketing and it's ultimately going to give me more of what I need with a little bit more effort rather than tons and tons of effort.

Cara Stanford [00:46:21]:
That's when it really gives you the freedom you want as a business owner. It's really lovely and it's great to it for my clients. It's great to see it for myself. I feel very— freedom for me is one of my key values for being a business owner, for running my own business, and I feel that I've really got the freedom that I want, if I'm honest. And my marketing helps give me that too.

Karen [00:46:45]:
Yeah, I think it's so important, isn't it? I think, to be honest, anybody starting a business is looking for some kind of freedom, whether it's freedom of time, freedom of income, freedom of, you know, to be autonomous around the work that they're doing. There will be an aspect aspect of freedom that sits at the core of the desire to run a business.

Cara Stanford [00:47:05]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:47:05]:
And the problem is, as we both know, the demands of creating and running and growing a business is, is huge. So being able to put things in place to help your business, um, kind of run more smoothly or grow more smoothly, I think, is, is a huge thing.

Cara Stanford [00:47:26]:
Now, Absolutely huge. Yeah, it's always thinking, sorry, what can— how can you remove yourself? How can you remove yourself?

Karen [00:47:33]:
Absolutely.

Cara Stanford [00:47:34]:
Can you either use AI? Can you either bring someone in to do it for you? You know, if you are doing something that someone else can do, figure out a way to get them to do it. And that's part of what's exciting again, being a business owner in this day and age, because we can use quite a lot of tools to do automation for us. But also there's lots of great people that we could bring in and say, like, you know, I don't manage my website. In fact, I get told off when I go on my website because I normally break things. Um, and I know that the person that I have, Justina, she is— she built the website, she knows it inside out. This is what she does, website and SEO. It is her bread and butter. Why wouldn't I let her get on and do it so I can do what I do? I do strategic marketing, B2B strategic marketing for my clients.

Cara Stanford [00:48:19]:
I need to be doing that, and that's what I So it's kind of thinking like that, thinking, right, what am I doing that I could get someone else to do or something else to do? How do I put that into place? What do I need to create to put that in place so I can do more of what only I can do in my business?

Karen [00:48:36]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And I think by doing that, you actually have a business that you enjoy rather than one that sucks the life out of you.

Cara Stanford [00:48:46]:
It sucks the life out of you.

Karen [00:48:47]:
Because you're trying to do all these things. I mean, I absolutely hate doing accounts. Hate it with a passion.

Cara Stanford [00:48:52]:
Same here. Yeah, yeah, that was one of the first things I outsourced.

Karen [00:48:59]:
I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. First person, bookkeeper. Second, accountant.

Cara Stanford [00:49:06]:
Just get— Yeah, yeah. For me, first was the accountant. There's no way I would deal with HMRC ever.

Karen [00:49:14]:
Yeah.

Cara Stanford [00:49:15]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:49:15]:
And even now, 10 years on, still do not enjoy it. It's not where I want to be spending my time. And yeah, I think you're absolutely right what you're saying. I think part of achieving freedom is by recognizing where you want to spend your time as well, that, that, that lifts you and lights you up so that you can then offset everything that doesn't. And I think that, and I think there's a freedom and a power in that, being able to sort of say, I could do it, I don't want to, I'm And part of me running this business and having this business is so that I don't have to do things like this. I can just simply pay somebody to do it. Yeah. And yeah, I think that's so important and probably under, like, you know, kind of valued as well.

Cara Stanford [00:50:02]:
Yeah, very much so.

Karen [00:50:04]:
Now that leads me nicely on to your summit session.

Speaker A [00:50:07]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:50:08]:
So for everybody that's going to be joining us at the August summit, if you haven't booked yet.

Cara Stanford [00:50:15]:
Absolutely.

Karen [00:50:15]:
Do you know, I'm, I'm, I'm just telling everybody, I think it's going to be amazing.

Cara Stanford [00:50:19]:
It's going to be amazing.

Karen [00:50:20]:
I am such a good marketing tool for this because I'm like, I meet somebody, I'm like, you need to come to my—

Cara Stanford [00:50:25]:
come to my summit. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Karen [00:50:28]:
Even before they've introduced themselves, I'm like, I don't know who you are, come to my summit. No, but this is going to be an amazing event because I'm so excited. I've got over, I think, over 18 speakers, experts talking about amazing stuff, and it's all designed to help service providers and business owners, entrepreneurs move forward in their business, but to, to give a different perspective as to how to do that in a way that is more sustainable. And the growth is there, but in a way that's going to give them that freedom. Um, so I'm so excited about it. And, and, and obviously you and I, we've talked about your session.

Cara Stanford [00:51:07]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:51:08]:
And I am really excited about your session. So do you want to just What your session's about and, um, what you're going to be doing?

Cara Stanford [00:51:17]:
Yeah, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna get you to do stuff. That's the first thing I would say. I always like people— I like my sessions to be practical. If you're going to give me your time, I'm going to give you something that you go away and take away and put into play in your business. And I'm going to help you understand what the marketing journey is and how you decide what the right marketing journey is. It's like, well, what does that mean, Cara? That's a load of marketing jargon. But basically, you are taking your ideal clients on a journey from being totally unaware that you exist all the way through to being happy, loyal clients who are either giving you more business or referring and recommending you. And it is a journey.

Cara Stanford [00:51:53]:
And when you understand the stages that that journey takes and the type of marketing that you need to be doing at those, those, at those different stages, your marketing becomes so much easier. So I'm going to share with you the different I'm going to share with you some of the typical kind of stepping stones that you will put in place, and then I'm going to get you to have a think about, well, actually, what do you need to have in place to take the right people on that journey from being unaware that you exist all the way through to being happy, loyal clients of yours? So it's— it'll be good, it'll be fun. Come along with— make sure you've had a coffee or tea or whatever it is that you need to drink, maybe also protein shake. routine, something beforehand, so your brain is chugging away. But then I think what I want people to go away with is, one, to be able to leave it going, I now know that actually I can drop doing this piece of marketing that's really stressing me because it's not a key part, or I know that I need to do this, that I'm going to focus my efforts. Like you were saying, Karen, about, you know, podcasts is where, you know, you need to focus your efforts, but not on YouTube. I want people to kind of come away with some of that relief. that sense of, yeah, okay, now I can see how I've got to order things, and that's going to show me what I can ditch as well as what I need to do.

Cara Stanford [00:53:12]:
So yeah.

Karen [00:53:13]:
Yeah, that sounds amazing. I think it's, it's almost giving people the permission— not that they need it, but, but it's almost giving people the permission to not have to be everywhere, because once they understand that journey, um, it'll naturally be obvious to them because, because it's going to where their audience are. And I then that becomes so, um, kind of powerful because it's like, well, yeah, I don't need to be on Substack because my audience aren't on there. I don't need to be writing endless articles and stuff, you know, but here are where my audience are and, and this is going to work really well for me with the right—

Cara Stanford [00:53:50]:
Yeah. And this is the next step for them as well. This is the next step I need to put in place for them because it is your job to guide your audience through. It's not their job. They shouldn't have to be hunting around figuring out how to get to know your company better, figuring out how to become a client.

Karen [00:54:04]:
You have to make that easy.

Cara Stanford [00:54:05]:
for them. So we'll kind of COVID that stuff.

Karen [00:54:07]:
Yeah, no, it sounds absolutely brilliant. I'm so excited. So I can't wait to see that.

Cara Stanford [00:54:12]:
Thank you. Brilliant.

Karen [00:54:14]:
So before we, um, end the, um, the, the interview, um, I just have some quickfire round questions. Um, I just thought it'd be fun to chuck them in. So, um, what do you prefer, coffee or tea?

Cara Stanford [00:54:27]:
Tea. Oh really?

Karen [00:54:29]:
Oh, okay.

Cara Stanford [00:54:30]:
Yes, I had to train myself to drink coffee when we lived in France because it was socially unacceptable not to. That's about it.

Karen [00:54:37]:
Oh yeah, of course, because they do, don't they?

Cara Stanford [00:54:39]:
They love their coffee. Yeah, it's very funny. I used to tease when French people come over, go, oh, in French I'd say, oh, would you like some tea? And the look on their face, you can see them thinking, I don't want tea, but I'm polite. I don't know how to— I go, or coffee? And they go— and then you can see them think, oh my God, it's coffee made by an English person. It's like, it's okay, we've got an espresso machine. together.

Karen [00:55:01]:
They do like it strong, don't they?

Cara Stanford [00:55:02]:
Strong, yes, strong. Yeah.

Karen [00:55:06]:
What's one business book you think every entrepreneur should read?

Cara Stanford [00:55:11]:
Essentialism by Greg McKeown. It is all about how you focus your time and how you use your time, and it is a game changer. Everyone I have recommended it to has gone, this is a game changer, whether they're people running huge businesses, huge departments, One of my friends, my friend who recommended it to me, she runs a massive marketing department. She's got a team of 20, and she said it has been a game changer. It's—

Speaker A [00:55:37]:
Wow.

Cara Stanford [00:55:38]:
And it's the same for me when you read it. In fact, I reread it. I'm thinking I probably need to— I'll reread it this summer because you reread it and you go, oh yeah, oh yeah. And it's about bringing that deliberate focus, and it gives you permission to say no to the things that aren't going to help you achieve what you need to achieve. achieve. No, in a nice way, but still no. Yeah, yeah, by Greg McKeown. McKeown, spelled with a little C, K-E-O-W-N.

Karen [00:56:05]:
Lovely. Yeah, I would definitely check that out.

Cara Stanford [00:56:08]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:56:09]:
What's one tool or app that you couldn't run your business without?

Cara Stanford [00:56:14]:
I thought about this and I thought I want to look really like cool and exciting. No, it's email. I was thinking, what could I actually do not do without. I thought it's email, it's good old-fashioned email as it is now. But yeah, but all the others I could bodge along without, to be quite honest. But yeah, email. So sorry to not be exciting.

Karen [00:56:34]:
No, that's absolutely fine.

Cara Stanford [00:56:36]:
Exciting, Cara, you're a marketer. I thought, no, just be honest.

Karen [00:56:40]:
Do you know what I thought? I find that really funny, right? Because when— do you remember when email came out?

Cara Stanford [00:56:45]:
Yes.

Karen [00:56:45]:
I, I— yeah, I just started, um, so I'm going off topic here, but, um, I just started working at—

Cara Stanford [00:56:51]:
I was like a junior secretary at the time.

Karen [00:56:54]:
I was working for a Japanese construction company in London, um, up in Marylebone, and I had 2 managers, 2, 2 male managers at the time. And I distinctly remember them saying, and it always makes me chuckle, um, because email was rolled out in the company and they were like, this won't work. Yeah, this won't take off. This is a fad.

Cara Stanford [00:57:16]:
Do you remember all these crazy email addresses because when my maiden name is Simpson, so my first email address when I worked at Lloyd's TSB, it was simpsoc@ltsp. And we all had these weird email addresses that were like part of your surname. Like one of my friends, and her name is Jo Evans, and her email address was Je Evans because they just ran them together, like these random email addresses. But it's still, it's still a really powerful tool, a really powerful— and I mean good old-fashioned sit-down composing email. I don't mean email marketing. I mean, yeah, yeah, used well, it's a great way to build relationships, to share information. Yeah, so yeah, that's what I could do. I was thinking if I lost email, and I panic when my email's down.

Karen [00:58:04]:
It's funny how we get so, um, attached to stuff, isn't it? But you're absolutely right, it's, it's a It's an essential. Um, what's the one best piece of business advice you've ever received?

Cara Stanford [00:58:19]:
Received this really early on from my dad, actually. It was, get the money in quick, put 30% aside. And that's what I've tried to do ever since.

Karen [00:58:30]:
Amazing.

Cara Stanford [00:58:30]:
Don't wait before you send your invoices. Get that invoice out, get that money in quick, stuff some aside, so then you've always, you always got your corporation tax covered. You've got a little pot. In my case, sometimes I go, woohoo, I don't need that bonus, I'll give myself a bonus from it. Um, but yeah, it's getting that money in quick, setting some aside. Best bit of advice. I love that.

Karen [00:58:53]:
That's such a great piece of advice. Absolutely. Um, so final one, in one sentence, what does building an online business mean to you?

Cara Stanford [00:59:03]:
For me, it's giving those amazing plucky small business owners the marketing advice they need while I live the life I want. And for me, that's a win-win.

Karen [00:59:16]:
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, as well as why you started your business and why you're growing it and do what you do. Amazing. Create the impact while impacting you as well. Amazing. Oh, Cara, thank you so much for joining me today. Um, if you enjoyed this conversation, then you're going to love the Online Business Growth Summit because this is just a small taste of what is to come. Alongside my guests today, you'll hear from over 18 incredible experts covering everything from digital products, marketing— we've got sales, we've got visibility, audience growth, and so much more.

Karen [00:59:53]:
And all is designed to help you build income beyond selling your time. You can register for free now by using the link in the show notes Or head on over to my website, www.sellyourballoonsonline.com, and you can go and register there. Um, thank you so much, Cara, for joining me today. You've been an absolute pleasure.

Speaker A [01:00:17]:
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I really hope it's given you something to think about and perhaps inspired you to look at your business a little bit differently. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, then I'd be grateful if you could share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur. It really helps more people discover the podcast, and you never know who might need to hear this message today. And if you're ready to start building a business that gives you more freedom, then I would love to invite you to join me at the Online Business Growth Summit. Now, this summit is taking place on the 6th to the 8th of October. October online. It's completely free to attend, and it's going to bring together over 18 expert speakers who will be sharing practical strategies to help you create a business that you love, a business that truly supports your lifestyle.

Speaker A [01:01:12]:
You can register your free place today by visiting www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com. I will be back next week week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.

Karen [01:01:27]:
Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Online Business Uncovered. If today's conversation has sparked an idea or gave you a dose of clarity, then please make sure to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned. New episodes land every Thursday, so hit follow or subscribe to Stay in the loop. And if you're loving the show, a quick rating or review goes a long way in helping more brilliant entrepreneurs like you find this show. Until next time, keep showing up, keep sharing your brilliance, and remember, freedom in business is possible, and it starts with taking the next right step.