Marketing doesn’t have to mean spending all day posting or trying to keep up with every platform.

Elissa Fesyk and I talk about the role conversations, referrals, and genuine relationships can play in a simpler marketing plan. We get into how to stay visible without making social media your whole strategy, how to reconnect with people without making it awkward, and what relationship marketing can look like when it actually fits your personality and capacity.

We talk about

• Why referrals can be one of the strongest ways to grow a business

• How social media can support your marketing without taking over your time

• What reconnecting with past clients or contacts can look like without a hard pitch

• Why follow-up matters after a conversation or referral ask

• How to build a simple relationship-marketing rhythm that works for your life

You don’t need hundreds of conversations or a complicated CRM to make relationship marketing work. Sometimes it starts with knowing who you want to reconnect with, making a simple ask, and giving yourself a realistic amount of time to keep those relationships moving.

Connect with Elissa

Website: https://fesykmarketing.com/
Join Momentum Collective for free: https://momentum-collective.beehiiv.com/
Substack: https://notesfromelissa.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fesykmarketing/

Keep exploring

Explore the Mindful Marketing Lab for support putting your marketing plan into practice.

Transcript

Andréa Jones (00:00)
So, you know that person that you've been meaning to check in with, but that message is like just living in your head. And every time you go to type it, something else comes out, or you just stare at the blinking cursor for 40 minutes, going, How do I even start this conversation? That's the question that we're gonna be diving into this episode. for those of you who are new to the show, hi, hello, my name is Andrea Jones. This is the Mindful Marketing Podcast where we talk all about simpler, smarter marketing.

Andréa Jones (00:28)
For busy, busy people. Today's guest is Elissa Fesyk from Fesyk Marketing. And we're talking all about giving those real conversations a place in your marketing. We're gonna dive into why small business owners need to build genuine relationships and have those relationships help us stay visible on social media or anywhere else in our marketing, literally everywhere else else in our marketing, so that we don't have to spend all of our day posting on Instagram. Hello, I love this,

Andréa Jones (00:57)
Elissa, welcome to the show.

Elissa (00:59)
Thanks, it's great to be here.

Andréa Jones (01:01)
I'm so excited for this conversation because I'm a true believer in building relationships and and and I'm also an introvert who likes to stay home and do it from the comfort of my house. So when I saw your application come in to be on the show, it really helped me think through how many opportunities in my own life have started just with a conversation. so let's start with that question. Can you tell us a little bit about?

Andréa Jones (01:28)
one relationship that kind of helped you shape the work that you do today.

Elissa (01:34)
Yeah, you know, when I started my business, I was thinking about this in preparation for our conversation today. And my first three clients, like one was a good friend, one was a friend's husband, and another one was a referral from a friend I had from high school. Like that was that was the baseline. And those were the three clients. Then I started to build a little bit. My chiropractor became a client. And then when my son was in grade two or three, I got a text from a guy and he was like, Hey.

Elissa (02:02)
I'm Mateo's dad. I heard you have a marketing business and I need some help with this thing. Can you, you know, do you want to meet? And and so we met and we did, I did a little bit of work for him, and he's ended up be this was like seven or eight years ago, and now he's one of my biggest clients. So I think the lesson in that for people is to to talk about your business with everybody and not in a way where you're even salesy about it. Like

Elissa (02:29)
People are like, hi, like nice to meet you. What do you do? Where do you work? Da-da-da. You know, you can just name drop yourself, you know? I'm Elissa. I have a marketing business. Simple, right? There's there's no complexity to it. And you just talk about it. And honestly, that one client has been a referral in so many different aspects of my life and has helped me build my business. So you just really never know. And I think there's a little like,

Elissa (02:54)
voice in my head sometimes that's like, well, you're not a real business owner because all of your clients come from referrals. and you kind of discount that it's like, it's this guy's dad and my mechanic and da-da-da. But but really, what better way to build a business with people that you like and trust and that know and like you? And I don't know, it's just been a a beautiful evolution over the last 10 years.

Andréa Jones (03:17)
My gosh, I love this so much and I'm so here for it. Like some of my best clients came from referrals. Like I get clients from all sorts of places, but the best ones, the best ones are when someone else says, Hey, you should talk to Andrea, right? And I think it's because word of mouth marketing is like really strong in a sense that we can toot our own horns all the time and be like, I'm awesome. But when someone goes, Elissa's awesome.

Andréa Jones (03:44)
There's something like more powerful out about that, right? Do you agree with that?

Elissa (03:48)
Hundred percent. And there's far less selling and pitching involved in conversations like that. Like they've already come to you knowing that somebody they know trusts you. And it's so much easier to to build a relationship from that versus like tell me about your business, send me a proposal. And this a a little less guesswork that goes into what people need when they're coming to you from a place of trust.

Andréa Jones (04:11)
Yeah. And I find that with social media especially, people kind of struggle with this sometimes because they think about social media as the media piece, you know, like publishing content, but there is a social piece to social media. And one of the things that you have said is that, you know, someone can struggle with social media and still be great at marketing. what do you think that means? Like how can you describe what other marketing there is outside of social media?

Elissa (04:39)
I know it's so easy to get caught up in the narrative. Like, like that is where you have to be and focus all of your attention. And I when I work with clients and people and friends and everybody who asks me, I say, you know, social media and being online is an important component, but it doesn't need to take up more than 25% of the time that you spend marketing. And it should be a reflection.

Elissa (05:02)
Of who you are as a person. And so don't look at it like you're trying to game the algorithm and gain a million followers and go viral. Look at it like it's a place that once people meet you, they go to for validation and to learn a little bit more about you. And I think that takes some of the pressure off. And you know, posting, playing with the algorithm is I I don't want to say it's a fool's game. It's kind of it can be fun and and obviously extremely impactful for businesses.

Elissa (05:29)
But if you don't like being on social to start with, that it feels like a goal that is not going to be any fun to achieve. And something that is really important to me is trying to make marketing fun for my clients because people come to me because they don't want to do their own marketing. but they don't necessarily have the budget to pay someone to do their social media and their content and their marketing planning. So the more fun I can help them make it and

Elissa (05:54)
demonstrate that consistency one post a week, one post every two weeks is way more important than going viral, then it takes a little bit of the pressure off and the process becomes more fun.

Andréa Jones (06:06)
Yeah, you're definitely speaking my language. I think there is so much pressure that we put on ourselves as business owners because we're looking at social media too. We're looking around at what everyone else is doing and we're comparing ourselves. But really there's a value behind the scenes. You know, I like to tell the story. There's this influencer a couple of years ago. She had something ridiculous, like a million followers or something, and she was trying to launch a t-shirt line and launched it and sold nothing, right? And she

Andréa Jones (06:34)
you know, made all this content about how, you know, why is everyone following me if you don't want to like support my work. And I think there's something to that story in the sense that it's not the number that matters. It's the quality of the people that you're connecting with that matters. And that's really I love the essence of what you're saying there. so I want to give us like a little scenario to think through. Let's say you're

Andréa Jones (07:01)
Let's say you're a style consultant and you've been styling your clients for years. but they've been sending referrals and the referrals maybe have gotten a little quiet. So now you're looking at your list of clients, going, man, I haven't talked to these people in years, but I feel like they could probably refer me more business. what do you think? Like, how would you start that whole process?

Elissa (07:22)
You know, I think there's like an introvert answer and an extrovert answer. So if if we know like this is like I'm

Andréa Jones (07:26)
Okay, yes. I need to hear both.

Elissa (07:30)
an extrovert. So the first thing I'm gonna do is pick up the phone or text the people that I like the most on that list and be like, let's go for coffee. Let's reconnect. Like there's no pretense. It's just you know you have a connection with them already. It's an easy pick up the phone and and do it. if you're if you're not so keen to like

Elissa (07:50)
Spend your time going for coffee and making small talk and reconnecting. I think there's a couple of different ways to do it. And it really depends on on what your goal is. If you're if you're looking for referrals, you can send a group email out. I think people are really hesitant to do things like that, even and just send an email out and be like, hey, past clients, I just wanted to give you an update on my life. What are you guys up to? I'd love to reconnect.

Elissa (08:15)
And also I've got some spots open. If you know anybody that might want my services, I would love a referral.

Andréa Jones (08:22)
You make that sound so easy, but both options kind of give me the heebie jeebies a little bit. Like I especially the one pick up the phone and call. my goodness. but you're the second person to say that to me in recent history, and I love that for extroverts. For introverts, I do like that you kind of made the distinction between the two and doing the group email feels less intimidating. I think I would still struggle with what to say.

Andréa Jones (08:51)
so maybe you can give me that in the extrovert context. So you're sitting out, you're having coffee or tea or drinks with someone. how do you say like, I need business?

Elissa (09:03)
Do you know what?

Elissa (09:04)
Honestly, what I would do is I would not say that in the conversation. I would go for

Andréa Jones (09:09)
Okay.

Elissa (09:09)
coffee and I would have so much fun and I would close like I would like seeing anybody that I love and great to see you. And then I would send a follow-up email and be like, hey, it was great to see you. I meant to ask

Andréa Jones (09:21)
Mm.

Elissa (09:22)
you. Like if there's not an sometimes there's an easy segue, right? There's like, what are you up to? Do you need clients? Like those are magical moments. But

Elissa (09:30)
You know, a follow-up email, I think, is essential, even if you had a conversation about referrals, because you want to make sure they take action on the thing that you ask them to do. So either way, that that follow-up email is really an essential component. But then it takes the pressure off the conversation too, right? Then you know you're gonna go home and you're gonna make time and you're gonna send an email that says, by the way, if you know anybody, and I feel like even I I'm not an introvert much at all, but

Elissa (09:59)
Even as an introvert, I feel like you could do that because there's no pressure. If they don't reply, there you just maybe have to tell yourself that it has nothing to do with the ask because it does not. Like a hundred percent of the time, they're not gonna be like, she just wanted to have a coffee with me so that she could ask for referrals. Who actually does that? I don't think people

Andréa Jones (10:17)
Yeah.

Elissa (10:18)
do that. I don't think that's the that's a takeaway when somebody makes an ask like that. It's a it's a story that we tell ourselves, but I don't actually think that's what people do.

Andréa Jones (10:27)
I love this reframing of this, like, you know, hey, just by the way, if you have anything, I love that. I feel like it definitely takes the pressure off because I am a hundred percent the kind of person, if I do ask someone out for coffee, if they say, How's business? I'm gonna be like, Yeah, it's great. How about you? And like immediately flip the question back before I even get to the part where I'm like,

Elissa (10:47)
Yeah.

Andréa Jones (10:48)
right, I was supposed to talk about this thing. so I love that.

Andréa Jones (10:52)
What about the follow-up? So you mentioned follow-ups, and a lot of kind of like traditional sales advice is pretty aggressive with the follow-ups. you know, ski put it in your CRM, schedule it out, connect with this person every, I don't know, 12 weeks or something. I don't know. what's your method to all of the follow-ups?

Elissa (11:12)
I try to make things as human as I can, you know, and

Andréa Jones (11:15)
Mm.

Elissa (11:15)
and again, like that the fun factor has to be a component. I have a tracking spreadsheet. I actually have two. I have one for like new people I meet and one for old contacts that I think might be interested in the thing that I'm working on right now. And depending on my mood and who I want to connect with, sometimes it's easier to talk to a stranger about your business and and kind of make a cold pitch.

Elissa (11:39)
than it is to call someone that you used to know who you know for sure is gonna have good referrals, but it feels a little more like risky, you know?

Andréa Jones (11:47)
Yeah.

Elissa (11:48)
so yeah, I a simple spreadsheet is what I use. And it can feel if it starts to feel transactional, I kind of have to stop doing it. And and

Andréa Jones (11:56)
Ooh.

Elissa (11:57)
and I and not for like long, because I think it's again, it's a mindset thing and having the right energy going into the pitch.

Elissa (12:07)
And and even

Andréa Jones (12:08)
Yeah.

Elissa (12:08)
just calling it a pitch feels like a transaction versus like an ask from a friend or a reconnect or, you know, like everybody who doesn't love helping other people? No.

Andréa Jones (12:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andréa Jones (12:21)
And I think, you know, we all like like if someone were to do it to us, we wouldn't feel like it was a pitch. We would just go, we went and caught up with a friend and they said, Hey, if you know anyone, you know, here's here's how you can say that I'm open for business or something like that. It's it is an ask. And so I love that mental reframe of all of that. Now you mentioned your CRM system, I'm gonna call it with the spreadsheets.

Andréa Jones (12:44)
I'm curious. My brain went, ooh, I want to hear more about this because I never met a spreadsheet I didn't like. so talk to me about this. Like what are you putting in there? yeah, let's start there. What are you putting in there?

Elissa (12:56)
so I'll again I'll give you like the two different examples. So I went to a networking event last week and came home with a bunch of business cards and ideas, and I made time, it was Tuesday, like let's be real, it wasn't immediately not always easy to do those things right away. But I put their names into my spreadsheet and then I identified them as like a potential referral partner, a potential client.

Elissa (13:21)
Just someone to know, like a potential friend, a weak tie connection, like kind of how I see that person in my ecosystem of connections and friendships. I make a note about where I met them. And then I make I put a date, I assign a date to the spreadsheet about when I reached out and what I asked for. That's it. And then I have a follow-up column.

Andréa Jones (13:42)
Okay.

Elissa (13:44)
And I don't, I don't know, I feel like if if there's not a connection after the second follow-up.

Elissa (13:49)
I'm pr if if it's a if it's somebody that I just met, I'm probably gonna let it go. But you know, there's opportunities to add it depends what you're asking for, you know. Like right now, my big ask is getting people to join my my free community called Momentum Collective. But if you're like pitching something specific or you want to like grow your newsletter list, you know, there's there's different levels of ask. So you can tailor your spreadsheet to the kind of thing that you want to.

Elissa (14:17)
achieve from it. If that makes sense. Yeah.

Andréa Jones (14:19)
okay. yeah, that

Andréa Jones (14:20)
makes perfect sense. So you said you had two spreadsheets. Is the other one set up differently?

Elissa (14:26)
Yeah, the other one is so I I did this exercise with myself and it's part of my workshop. And so I went through my LinkedIn, I went through my address book, I went through Facebook, I went through Instagram, and I made a list of a hundred people that I thought might be interested in Momentum Collective. And I did the same thing. I was like, what kind of person is this in my life? What kind of ask can I do? And and I didn't, if I didn't get to a hundred, actually I on purposely didn't get to a hundred.

Elissa (14:55)
But I got to 95 and the last five I made aspirational asks. So I was like, I'm gonna like send this out to like the most random person, this lady I follow on Substack, a guy I follow on LinkedIn, and like see what comes back to me. So yeah, I made this list of 100 people. And I gotta tell you, like, it is not easy to do this kind of outreach. Like it's it just takes focus and intention. Actually, it is super easy to do this kind of outreach. It is very difficult to make the time to do it.

Elissa (15:23)
because the story's

Andréa Jones (15:23)
Yeah.

Elissa (15:24)
in our head and the mindset. But but yeah, so I have this other list of people that I know that I think might be interested in the thing that I'm selling right now and slowly doing outreach to that.

Andréa Jones (15:36)
Okay. Yeah. See, this is the thing that I am I am not great at this piece of it. It's probably been, I think the last time I did this was when I did my hosted my retreat in 2023, where I did, you know, I guess in 2022, when it was just an idea, I reached out to people I know to be like, hey, I'm I'm thinking about doing this thing. Would you want to like participate? And then it helped me like shape the event.

Andréa Jones (16:03)
Cause they gave me ideas. I said, yes, if you do it this way, or no, because of the dates or whatever the case may be. So I got like to ask my warm community about the retreat. But you know, this conversation is showing me that I haven't done that in a long time and I probably should do it more regularly. you mentioned that you did this for your Momentum Collective.

Andréa Jones (16:26)
do you do this only for free kind of opportunities like the community, or are you doing it also for paid ways to work with you?

Elissa (16:36)
I've never done it so formally in in

Andréa Jones (16:39)
Mm-hmm.

Elissa (16:39)
like for a paid service for me. It's it's always been organic. And Andrea, I'm gonna be like super honest here. Up until like a year ago, my system was not a system. There was like,

Andréa Jones (16:52)
Mm-hmm.

Elissa (16:52)
I just do what I do. And and I think I told you I just recently moved back from Italy. And so while I was there, I had like some great perspective on the last 10 years of business and how I grew and what I did. And I was like, man, like.

Elissa (17:05)
I don't know how I do what I do. Like I'm really strong in relationship building and connecting with people and getting referrals. But like, what's a system that I can use to help other people do this? Also, who this might not come naturally to me. And I am a very nonlinear thinker. I'm very creative, out of the box. So, like to hone in, like, what are the things that I do? So that's where the spreadsheet came in. And so I actually have the spreadsheet as a as

Elissa (17:31)
A free tool that people can get when they subscribe to my Substack now because it really like it's a great tool to use and it's it's helpful for me because it helps me keep track of the people that I've met. And coming back

Andréa Jones (17:42)
Yeah.

Elissa (17:43)
to Canada after being away for two years, it's come in handy to make the list and be like, who do I know here? You know?

Andréa Jones (17:50)
Yeah. man, you're giving me homework. Cause I I have what back in twenty twenty three I created like an air table base of like, okay, who are the people I know? Who would be a good fit for this? And then I haven't looked at it since. And I feel like it would be such an easy thing to just have a five minute task to look at that every, you know, every week or something and go, let me see if there's a person I can reconnect with. And I love too that you didn't give parameters around it. I think that's what I really struggle with with some of the

Andréa Jones (18:18)
more salesy advice is they're like you have to t message ten people every week and it's like well what if I don't have anything to say, you know? But I love that you kind of like approach it with like look at the list and look see who's your favorite person to talk to or I like to do this with social media sometimes. If I see someone updated something, like they got a new job or

Andréa Jones (18:39)
they started a new business, then that then I can go, then I need to reach out to that person, be like, Hey, my gosh, I saw that you did this thing. Like, tell me all about it. Let's reconnect. And so I love that you have this kind of like flow to do this. still in a way that's structured with your spreadsheet. I'm definitely gonna have to adapt that for myself.

Elissa (18:58)
It's it's

Elissa (18:59)
like simple but not easy, right? So the spreadsheet coupled with like dedicated focus time, even like give yourself something realistic, you know, 10 minutes a week, half an hour a week, an hour a week. You'll if if you start to get positive feedback, your nervous system will be like, this isn't so bad. I can do this. And then you'll just naturally want to do more of it. But you need the the the you gotta put in the reps, as they say, right? You gotta get some good feedback

Andréa Jones (19:23)
Yeah, yeah.

Elissa (19:25)
and you know, it's it's not a perfect

Elissa (19:27)
science. Relationships are not a perfect science, but you know, the more fun you can make

Andréa Jones (19:31)
No.

Elissa (19:32)
it, the easier it is to do.

Andréa Jones (19:34)
I love this aspect of fun and how you bring it into your clients' marketing. I would also love to talk more about your own marketing because I imagine that your marketing kind of supports the relationship building in a lot of ways, you know, with websites and your Substack. So talk to me a little bit about how you built a marketing plan for yourself and how that supports the relationship building element.

Elissa (19:58)
That's a great question. And for a long time, my social media was like based on whoever was working for me at the time. If it was someone who like loved writing blogs or loved doing Instagram, there was a lot more Instagram presence. For me, I'm out in the community, like all of my business is referral. So people aren't necessarily coming to my website to see anything more or my social media anything to see more than that I exist and there's something there. So I've always tried to have

Elissa (20:23)
something relevant. I've only recently started putting myself in front of my brand, which is what I do for all of my clients. And I'm learning to really to love it. Like I watch it back. And I think that's been the trick because I used to do video and then I would be like, I am never watching that. It is terrible. I forgot to say this and this and this and what a disaster. But I have to publish it. So I'm gonna publish it. So in my head I was like, my social media sucks.

Elissa (20:51)
Now I watch my videos and I'm like, that was good. And I don't I don't even like I feel like I'm saying that in like a pompous way, but it's I like it's not that bad. You know what I mean? And I think I think that a hundred percent of the time is true for all of us. And maybe in 10 years, when you go back and you watch it and you're like,

Elissa (21:16)
I feel so silly about that thing that I did, but it's all putting in the reps and getting in the practice. And the way that the world works is people forget so quickly right now. So they're if they watch your video and they and no one's gonna think, what a fool. No one is.

Andréa Jones (21:32)
Yeah, exactly.

Elissa (21:34)
They're either either gonna be like, this is interesting, or they're gonna swipe. There's not like a negative thought really that's gonna go into those things most of the time. So

Elissa (21:42)
Anyway, that does not answer your question. So let me quickly answer your question about my own marketing planning. but it it it ebbs and flows with what I need. My goal was always to build a business that was flexible. So my marketing has been way more focused on loyalty and retention. I don't really lose a lot of clients. So over-delivering on my services and things like that is is really where my marketing is focused from a lead gen standpoint in this like new world of having a community that I support every week and having a Substack.

Elissa (22:12)
doing things a little bit differently. So I'm posting more frequently on social media. My team has a little more dedicated time to work on fastidic marketing along with our clients. So it it looks a little bit different than it used to, but I try really try to keep things simple. I am in a stage of life where I cannot handle a ton of funnel work and output. So less tire kickers, more high quality leads is, you know, ultimately my goal when I'm talking to people.

Elissa (22:41)
about my business and yeah, so I I make sure I post once a week on social media. Now that I'm back in Canada, I make sure that I am reconnecting with people, talking to my clients and fa face to face as much as I can. And yeah, I've been going to a ton of networking events because I like doing that kind of thing.

Andréa Jones (22:57)
Yeah, I love this. And I I have follow-up questions about your sub

Elissa (22:59)
And following up.

Andréa Jones (23:01)
stack because I just clicked over it to to it. And the first post that I'm seeing is who stole my Prada sunglasses and immediately I'm locked in. And so I just skimmed it while you were talking and was like, this is so great. I love how your personality is the exact same in your sub stack as it is when I'm talking to you here.

Elissa (23:21)
Mm-hmm.

Andréa Jones (23:21)
Can you share a little bit about how you approach your writing here and how you make it so fun?

Elissa (23:28)
Well, you know, if it's not if I can't, if it's not fun for me, I really procrastinate and I don't do it. So I really try to like think of ways to bring my personality into my work because again, like what's the point if I'm not letting people know who I am and I'm not working toward achieving some sort of a goal? And my goal with Substack originally was I have this like secret passion to help people find more connection and feel less lonely in the world.

Elissa (23:55)
And so I sort of do that through my business and helping people build better relationships, but I also have a desire to help people make friends and talk to strangers and talk to each other. So if you go back in time, the substacks sort of started as tips on how to connect with people in a new city and how to approach people and how to be more approachable and things like that. and it's evolved into more more business focused and life focused and

Elissa (24:22)
Things I'm learning and noticing about my world that might be helpful for other people who are struggling to connect with other people and build their businesses and build better relationships.

Andréa Jones (24:32)
I love that. And I love this kind of reflective approach that you've taken. I always say, you know, social media and your marketing, it really should be a mirror of what it's like to work with you. And I feel like I get the essence of that just by clicking around your Substack and looking at your Instagram. So I absolutely love that. another

Elissa (24:50)
Interesting.

Andréa Jones (24:51)
curious question. You mentioned that you have a team and I know a lot of people listening, they either have a small team or they're thinking about hiring.

Andréa Jones (24:58)
Talk to me about what kind of support you get for yourself and your team and how that helps you kind of show up in your marketing as well.

Elissa (25:06)
that's a great question. right now I have one full-time coordinator who supports my admin and does most of the creative for my clients. and then I subcontract website, I subcontract SEO, I subcontract ads, I subcontract like high-level graphic design, all of those pieces that I can deliver to my clients because I have great relationships with my subcontractors. So

Elissa (25:31)
I have no desire to have like a big agency. I work from home. My whole dream was to have a business that could travel with me all over the world and move with me as I wanted to. So there is no place where I have like a big fancy office with, you know, a secretary and a board of directors. That's not really for me. so the better relationships I have with subcontractors and vendors, the better I service I can deliver to my clients.

Andréa Jones (25:58)
Yes. And I love to see that relationships going with your team as well as with your clients. I think that's such a beautiful thing to see. And you know, you can design your design your business however you want to design it. And I love how you've you're so confident in how you've designed yours. And I hope the listeners can hear this and get an inspiration from it.

Andréa Jones (26:19)
You know, like you can travel the world and have the business that you want and you've kind of shown that here as well. And and the flexibility to to change your mind tomorrow if you want. I love that.

Elissa (26:29)
Yeah, I love that you just said you have the opportunity to change your mind tomorrow because I think that holds a lot of people back from making asks. well, what if I decide to do something else? What if I don't like this series that I'm creating tomorrow? But you can change your mind on a dime. People have fast memories. You can control your narrative if you feel like you need to, but I don't even think you need to. I think you can just change your mind and keep going. And people are like, okay. You know.

Andréa Jones (26:56)
Yep. Yep. Like go

Andréa Jones (26:58)
good for her. You know what I mean? Like that's usually what it is. Like

Elissa (26:59)
Yeah.

Andréa Jones (27:01)
I love this. Okay, so for our listeners, let's give them one little thing they can do this week. Think thirty minutes, something they can do to really work on their relationship marketing.

Elissa (27:11)
Well, let me give you an extrovert and introvert answer to that because I think picking

Andréa Jones (27:14)
Yes, okay.

Elissa (27:16)
I think picking up the phone and asking someone you know to go to coffee and then sending a follow-up email afterwards and asking for the referral or even just like follow me on Instagram. I think is a great ask for people if you're not comfortable asking for something that you're selling. I'm very much into the long game of marketing. So relationship building, if the hard pitch comes in, I think

Elissa (27:37)
The nervous system goes into overdrive. And sometimes it's really hard to ask as a small business owner right off the bat, like, I want your business. I'm you're you're not a natural, well, maybe you are a natural salesperson. You haven't discovered that yet, but my nervous system often tells me that I am way better at asking for things like follow me on Instagram or let's have coffee than I am at like buy this, you know, highly expensive consulting service that I offer. You know? So

Andréa Jones (28:01)
Right? Yeah, exactly.

Elissa (28:03)
yeah. and then the introvert answer to that is.

Elissa (28:06)
set your timer for one hour and make a list of as many people as you can that you love talking to. I know I I get along with introverts well because I ask a lot of questions and and like can hold space really well for people who don't really like to talk a lot about themselves and I can stay curious. so anyway, I don't know why I said that, but that is true.

Andréa Jones (28:31)
I love that.

Elissa (28:32)
But for introverts, make that list of like fifty people that you like to talk to. Okay, let me let's be real for a second. How many people could you make in how many people in your world do you like to talk to as an introvert?

Andréa Jones (28:47)
So it does it does depend on my moods. So there's probably about five days a month where I want to talk to everybody. And then the rest of the time I'm hiding away and reading my books. So if it were on those like more extroverted days, I probably could like have a couple of phone calls and go out for coffee with a couple of people and like do all of the things. regularly though, I would much prefer to send an email.

Andréa Jones (29:15)
And then we can schedule like a Zoom call three weeks from now, kind of thing.

Elissa (29:20)
So you bring up a really good point. I think you have to do what works for you, but from a like goal setting and organization standpoint, carving out one hour a week to do it. Whether it's I'm gonna go to one networking event a month, from that networking event, I am gonna collect three business cards. From those three business cards, I'm gonna email all three of them and ask them for something. And then I'm gonna follow up with them and ask them for that thing again. I feel like that's a more

Elissa (29:48)
doable way to have a relationship marketing strategy built into your week or your month.

Andréa Jones (29:55)
Yeah, I love that. So easy, so easy. Okay, Elissa, if someone's listening and they're like, my gosh, I need this in my life, I want you to tell us about the Momentum Collective because I feel like that's a really good place for them to start.

Elissa (30:10)
Thanks. Yeah. I am obsessed with Momentum Collective right now. I started it last January. It was like a gift to myself for my 50th birthday, kind of like a give back, create community vibe that I wanted to create. And like 10 months later, we have this great little community that meets every Monday with the sole purpose of working on our marketing together. Because even as a marketer, it's tough to make time for those things that sit on the bottom of your to do list. You know, like

Elissa (30:39)
It's different for everybody. For some people, it's making social media content. For other people, it's making outreach phone calls. For others, it's a newsletter or like troubleshooting their website. So this hour is dedicated to that. We spend 10 minutes kind of getting it grounded and into this the flow of creativity. And then we set the timer for 45 minutes. We listen to some music and we just work with our cameras on in community. And then we come back at the end and

Elissa (31:07)
If people want to share their wins or share something going on in their business or have an event they want to promote, there's just a tiny space at the end for them to do that. And then we do it all over again the next Monday. And it's a great way to kick off the week. I always I'm like my number one client when it comes to Momentum Collective, because I'm like, guys, I got so much done. Like I thought

Andréa Jones (31:26)
Have

Elissa (31:27)
this was gonna work, but it really works.

Elissa (31:30)
So so yeah, and it's free. It will always be free. This hour of time is for people to come. I really believe small business owners especially procrastinate because it's it's tough to build the momentum to make time to do your marketing. There's a whole thought process. So if you have this time in your calendar every Monday, I am gonna work on my marketing with Elissa and her friends. because they're all my friends. Like

Andréa Jones (31:57)
Yay.

Elissa (31:58)
Even if they're not, they are.

Andréa Jones (32:01)
I love that. I'm

Andréa Jones (32:02)
gonna put that link in the show notes, y'all. make sure you grab it and all of Elissa's links, her Substack, her website, all of it will be in the show notes. Elissa, thank you

Elissa (32:12)
Yeah, that's weird.

Andréa Jones (32:13)
so much for being on the show today.

Elissa (32:15)
this was fun. You made it so easy. I hope it was helpful for your listeners.

Andréa Jones (32:19)
Yes, it was helpful. And dear listener, make sure you go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Give this episode in our podcast a five-star rating. Let us know what you learned. And that five-star rating will help keep us in the top 100 marketing podcasts. And that's all because of your support. Stay tuned because I have another amazing episode for you next week. But that's all for today. Bye for now.