Learning Facebook Ads, building an agency business, firing your clients and much more with Mojca Zove from Super Spicy Media

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Mojca Žove is a Facebook ads expert and founder of Super Spicy Media - a digital marketing agency.

In our conversation with Mojca we talked about what it was like for her to start a digital agency business, the realisation that a full-time job is never 100% a sure thing, and the biggest obstacles to starting. As an expert Facebook advertiser, we asked Mojca to share how she learned Facebook Ads, the resources and methods that helped her master the craft, and how she deployed this channel when attracting clients for her agency. We also talked about email lists, webinars, balancing content creation and client work, burnout, firing clients, and much, much more.

Complete notes and links: https://weardulo.com/blogs/the-early-days-podcast/facebook-ads

Topics:

01:55 - Who is Mojca and starting Super Spicy Media

03:25 - Getting fired from a marketing agency

05:30 - Taking the leap to build her own business

06:30 - What was the biggest obstacle to starting earlier?

07:28 - Learning Facebook ads

08:37 - The best way to learn Facebook ads

11:33 - The biggest mistakes people do when starting with Facebook ads

13:07 - Learning to get clients

16:16 - The origin of the name "Super Spicy Media"

17:15 - Learning and doing outreach with cold emails

18:22 - Deploying Facebook ads to building a client list

19:42 - Working on retainer vs project-based projects

21:03 - Using content as a driver to earn new business

23:17 - Promoting content to drive awareness and grow an audience

25:11 - Building an email list

27:22 - How to host and promote a webinar

28:59 - Strategies for cleaning up and keeping your email list up-to-date

31:40 - Upcoming shifts in attention across social media and helping people online

34:48 - Balancing content creation and client work

37:14 - Sharing personal and professional content on Instagram Stories

38:18 - Firing clients and choosing what to work on

41:33 - How to deal with burnout and take a break

43:30 - Building an online course

46:40 - Future plans and projects

47:47 - Links and resources

Discussing how adding value, asking questions, and listening to the customer can help grow a business, with John D Saunders.

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John D Saunders, founder of 5four Digital is an experienced serial entrepreneur who excels at marketing. After selling several online stores, and a career as an advertising executive for the automotive industry, John decided to start his own marketing agency. The need to learn more and provide more value to others were the main principles behind his decision to take the entrepreneurial route. 

In our conversation we go through a variety of topics and John mentions a lot of resources which you can start using today in your own business. Some of the things we covered - working in a remote environment, constantly learning new things and sharing those with the world, building a business on core principles such as adding value, asking questions and listening to consumers. We also dived deep into strategies for social media marketing and growing e-commerce stores.

Complete notes and links: https://weardulo.com/blogs/the-early-days-podcast/marketing-principles

Topics we cover in this episode:

01:35 - How John started his life in advertising

03:10 - Starting 5four

03:40 - Working with a remote team

04:13 - The transition from working on the side to full-time entrepreneurship

05:40 - Taking a leap of faith and having a contingency plan

06:30 - Finding 5four's first clients and the importance of networking

07:30 - Educating yourself and sharing everything new you learn

08:22 - Add value, ask questions, listening to your consumer

09:08 - Getting used to being your own boss

09:53 - Being a facilitator rather than a boss

10:25 - The process of self-improvement and self-education

12:37 - Balancing learning with execution

14:34 - Project and task management tools

16:40 - Starting 5four solo - the good and the bad

17:24 - Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and collaborating with others when scaling your efforts

17:56 - Having the confidence to hire your first full-time employees

20:22 - The benefits and disadvantages of working with a remote team

22:56 - Balancing time for internal marketing and business development

24:46 - Moving into a marketing manager role and out of the project manager role

25:37 - Social media platforms and content strategies with the highest ROI

32:40 - Tools and apps to have when starting an ecommerce store

35:34 - Recommendations for building out the Product Description Page on your store

37:10 - Documenting your life online

39:28 - Plans for the near future

42:10 - Links and handles

Discussing how to building a design agency from scratch with Matt Ellis, founder of Honcho Agency

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Matt Ellis is the founder of Honcho, a design agency specializing in web design and development. 

Matt’s built Honcho from scratch and without knowing much about the agency world. He simply learned to dive into new opportunities head first and figure out how to do things as he’s going along. It’s a piece of advice he shared a few times during our conversation. We also talked about hiring first employees, pricing strategies, finding clients, running a remote company and much more. It’s an episode rich on resources and tools that will help a lot of you to automate and facilitate processes around your own businesses. If you work at a small agency or run a remote team, this is a very useful episode to listen to.

Topics we cover in this episode:

01:50 - Who is Matt Ellis and what does he do

02:34 - How Matt got into web development

05:49 - Saying "Yes" to things even if you don't know how to do them

07:23 - Learning to do web development properly

08:30 - From freelancer to founder of a design agency

10:30 - Learning how to build an agency

11:40 - Hiring the first employee at Honcho

12:55 - Freeing more time for learning and business development

15:40 - Finding clients in the early days and financial security

17:18 - Balancing a financial forecast with hiring

19:00 - Switching from a product focus to a sales and business development one

20:30 - Tools to help with automation to free up more time

23:30 - How to choose which prospects to approach

29:55 - Where does conversion happen

31:00 - Pricing strategies: project-based vs. retainers

35:00 - Providing more value to others by learning more about your own business

35:20 - Working remotely

36:20 - Running a remote company - the process and tools

40:10 - Fluid processes and trust

41:50 - Getting new clients

42:46 - Acquiring new clients through Adwords

44:10 - Future plans for the Honcho agency

48:05 - Links and handles

FULL LIST of Useful Resources and Links: https://weardulo.com/blogs/the-early-days-podcast/say-yes-first-figure-it-out-later

When is the right time to bootstrap and when should you raise VC money?

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When faced with a challenge remember there is always another way to go about it.

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It's important to do your homework and have a roadmap before your launch.

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Always adjust, always tweak your pricing startegy.

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Sharing stories and lessons from two decades of building startups with Diane Tarshis, founder of Startup Distillery (S3E3)

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Diane Tarshis is an experienced startup consultant who started her career in the middle of the dot-com boom and is now the founder of Startup Distillery, where she works with companies to help them navigate the muddy waters of their early days.

With two decades of experience from the entrepreneurial trenches, working with founders from all walks of life and industries, we wanted to talk with Diane about the messy beginnings of small businesses. We covered important lessons around launching a startup, such as the importance of having a roadmap and doing extra homework in preparation, we discussed the pros and cons of self-funding versus raising venture capital and when is it a good time to rely on each. We also touched on the topic of marketing and messaging - a topic near and dear to us, since we are in the middle of figuring out how to talk to our target audience.

Topics we cover in this episode:

01:53 - Who is Diane and what she does

04:56 - How Diane approached her first clients

06:36 - How to figure out what to charge

09:20 - The most common problems startups get stuck on

11:05 - The importance of having a roadmap before launch

12:55 - How to convince a stubborn founder to change direction

16:00 - There's always another way

17:21 - Bootstrapping versus Venture Funding

20:32 - The argument against going all-in on building a business from the start

23:33 - The myth of stress and the blessing of constraints when bootstrapping a side-business

27:20 - The DULO journey so far

33:05 - What to do when your business plateaus

37:41 - Can you apply lessons from one business into a new one

43:27 - The need to appeal to the head and the heart when marketing your business

45:34 - The importance of a clear and succinct message

49:10 - Future plans and project

54:29 - Get in touch with Diane

FULL LIST of Useful Resources and Links: https://weardulo.com/blogs/the-early-days-podcast/startup-lessons

Learning business from the world of hip hop.

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The buck stops with you.

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