THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER PODCAST with Rachel Klaver

I’m incredible thankful we now live in a world where pursuing a life where you can support yourself with your art and creativity is now a completely viable idea. When my mum was young, and she was a potter, it was the times of co-ops and you felt like you were on the edges. When I was younger it was still very much seen as a side gig and you had to be pretty sure of yourself to really commit to it.

I think you still need to really believe in the importance of allowing your creative and artist life space if you’re going to succeed in making it a career, but that’s not enough. While in some ways it’s never been easier to get your name and work in front of your perfect audience, in other ways, there’s so much marketing and brand building to do, as well as all that boring businessy stuff

One of the things I love about our guest today, Greg Straight, is he’s managed to build a business that mixes his fine art passion with his work in the commercial space, and the accessible (this means lower cost prints) art space.

Greg could be described as an illustrator, artist and graphic designer but in recent years he’s grown to become one of NZ’s most prolific illustrators carving out a niche generating custom illustrations for high profile brands wanting to stand out. Greg’s work is all around us, as well as nationwide campaigns for household brands, you’ll find his designs featuring on tote bags, reusable coffee cups, drink labels, billboards and magazine covers to name a few. His distinctive yet versatile style has become in demand by a number of iconic kiwi brands and international clients.

Enjoy this episode learning about how to thrive as a creative business owner. 

In this episode we cover:

• Why Greg pursued an art business


• The reason Greg still wants to create original works


• How Greg managers the juggle of creating and business


• The benefits of working on nationwide campaigns


• Why using an artist can help define a brand

Important Links

Go to Greg’s website

Follow Greg on Instagram

Follow Greg on Facebook

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The human brain is hardwired for story over facts. This is the secret of all conspiracy theorists, politicians and cult leaders since forever. If you can tell a story, you can change a mind. Now I’m now suggesting that you listen to this podcast and go off to start your own cult! But I do want you to think about how you craft stories for your business, that help you attract your ideal clients, and help them trust you enough to buy from you.

There are a few hooks involved with learning to tell stories. We don’t want to move deep into manipulation, they shouldn’t promise something you can’t deliver and you’ve got to write it for the listeners not yourself (which sometimes means you need to leave out a really interesting side note.

I’m fascinated about the power of storytelling. I am also aware than corporate businesses have often taken this word and made it so far removed from true story - to the point where I sometimes roll my eyes when someone mentioned “tell a story”

Stories need a beginning, a middle and an end. They need conflict and drama and a central character  who’s fighting a battle that only you, their partner, or coach or inspiration can help them with. This is you and them, taking on the mountain together.

In this podcast I’m going to share with you what I love about storytelling, the power of telling a story, and what it needs to include. Because there’s one thing I know. Stories are a powerful thing when we use them in our business.

In this episode we cover:

• Why tell stories?


• What can the impact for your business be?


• What a story needs


• The power of vulnerability


• Who the central character needs to be


• What the elements of a good story is


• How to start a story


• Does every business have a story in them?

Important Links

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m not a fan of nitty gritty action lists, but I do love mapping out a plan. I’m extremely goal orientated, and always want to know my “why” before I commit to anything. If the goal is juicy enough I’ll work incredibly hard to reach it.

I also love the idea of being a little more whimsical with my planning, although if I’m completely honest, I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to do it! I can’t start something then work out how it’s all going to bring in the income. But after working with thousands of small business owners, I know that many people can.

One of the common questions I get asked is how to monetise a Facebook Group you may have started. Depending on the niche it can be complicated to make sudden changes and if there wasn’t a plan for this at the start, you may need to slowly introduce new guidelines and expectations. 

There is no one right way to build a business. And there’s no right way to incorporate a Facebook group into that. 

Ines Curin started her business with a Facebook group. It was a singular purpose - to create a space for New Zealand women in business, where they could build a community. Several years later she now runs a group called Girls Talk Business NZ with 8.5k members. The business side of the group has evolved and changed and how Ines is in a place where she’s confident it’s moving in the right direction.

Whereas I’m the planner extreme, Ines has taken a gentler approach and her style may appeal to how you’d like to grow a group and business too.

In this episode we cover:

• Why Ines started her group


• What she’s learned around boundaries


• What she loves about running a community


• What she’s found difficult


• How she’s brought others around her to support her members


• What her plans are for the future

Important Links

Check out Girls Talk Business NZ

The Girls Talk Business website

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are no guarantees in life except when it comes to this: once we use up time, we can’t get it back. For small business owners, trying to fit marketing into an already full on week, it’s easy to understand why marketing gets pushed to the bottom of the list. A lot of us don’t enjoy it, we can get freaked out by all the things we need to do, and quite frankly, it’s hard to know how we should be using our time best to market in the most effective way to get actual results!

If you’ve ever struggled to fit marketing in, or know you are putting in a lot of energy but not getting a whole heap back, these are the thirteen excellent time saving marketing hacks I not only use for our own business, but I share with our clients. Even if you only take one or two away with you, you will start to feel better about your marketing. 

One of the things I’ve realised when it comes to marketing is often our reluctance to do our marketing is that we’re hitting so many different learning curves when we’re starting out. We’re learning technical things, how platforms work, best practice and then often also having to learn skills in image creation, writing and worst of all - having to get used to seeing our face and hear our voice in our marketing.

So out of all the hacks I’d like to point out one very important one. Be kind to yourself. Learning is a lot of fun. It helps us change and evolve. But learning is also very tiring. So pace yourself. You’ll get there in the end. 

In this episode we cover:

• Why you need to know where you are heading before you start


• How to use the extra time you are going to get


• Why it’s easy to ignore marketing


• How to make the most of your marketing time


• How long it takes to see results


• What sort of content you need to start with first


• Tools to make your marketing simpler. 

Important Links

Try out Metricool

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is not my normal type of podcast! I wanted to share with you some of my new book Be a Spider, Build a Web: Sticky Content Marketing for Small Businesses. And I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a podcast that’s just the author reading out a chapter - but I did ask my incredible Facebook community if they thought it was ok, and they said yes - so here we go!

This podcast is me reading Chapter Two of Be a Spider, Build a Web. It’s a breakdown of why our content marketing strategy is like a spiders web, and the different elements you need to create a strong and converting content strategy.

For all of us, our content marketing activity will be different. We’re at different stages, have different resources and skill levels, and we have very different budgets! But all of us need to think of our content marketing as being a connected web of everything we say and do, on every different platform or outlet we use.

So I hope you enjoy this reading of chapter two. (and yes, I’m a marketer, so of course I’ve got a link to the book in the show notes if you liked it)

Normal podcasty-moments start up again next week! 

In this episode we cover:

• Why I felt the need to write a book


• How content marketing is like a spider’s web


• Why we need to always start with the anchor point


• How a spider web is a little bit like a funnel


• Why we all have different radius lines on our web


• What to do when someone enters our content strategy web

Important Links

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How one piece of content a week can become your content strategy saviour

One of the most common questions I get around marketing is on how to create content that works. 

I’m going to be completely honest and say that like anything, creating content consistently comes down to habits. It’s a habit you grow, just like the morning workout habit, the “how you make your coffee” habit, the “favourite way to drive to work” habit.

Once you’ve got the habit it feels easier to maintain. But making the habit? Well that’s the hard bit!

Today on the MAP IT Marketing podcast, I’m joined by Jenn Donovan, a fellow marketing strategist for small business owners. Jenn teaches a simple content creation method, that helps you create more content than you’ll even need. 

Jenn has three podcasts herself (!), and I’ve been lucky enough to be a guest on it - I’ll add a link to her show in the show notes.

She’s the founder of Social Media and Marketing Australia, founder of the extremely successful community Facebook group - Buy From a Bush Business (currently 355,000 members) and the Co-Founder of Spend With Us - Australia's answer to Amazon but only for rural and regional small businesses.

Jenn has a huge passion for reurally based businesses  - and lives on a farm herself in the Riverina of NSW, with husband and their 3 children.  Jenn has 10 chooks, 2 peacocks, 2 guinea fowl, 1 dog and 1 cat and several pet lambs.

It’s always such a delight to listen and talk with another marketer who shares so many of the same values and passions as I do - and I know you’ll enjoy learning from Jenn in this episode. 

Important Links

Jenn’s podcast

Find out more about Jenn here

Buy Rachel’s new book Be a Spider

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let me say at the outset that if I didn't have my book coming out in the next few weeks, I’d be using any extra time to apply everything I learned in this podcast to our own business. In fact the first thing I did after completing the interview with our guest today was book in a planning meeting with Rod (my business partner/husband and our systems guy) to make sure we make it happen.

Today we’re talking to Pip Meecham who is a multi-award-winning systemisation specialist with a love for all things systems, technology, processes and workflows. She a specialist at looking at the HOW in your business - how you do the things you do, then translates that to ensure your processes and workflows are optimised for efficiency and effectiveness, implementing tools and technology to help streamline your operations, with operating procedures that help you scale and build a business that can work without you.

We’re talking about VideoAsk, an app by Typeform that allows you to use video to help draw people into the right stages of the customer journey on your website. The application possibilities are endless! Pip also uses Video ask for help desk support, and I’m thinking it would also be great for coaching!

Best of all, you can get started with a completely free account

If you know your website’s getting the hits, but not the sales, you might need to investigate this ‘choose your own adventure” app yourself. I know I am very much hoping that one day, in the not too distant future, you’ll get to see us using it on ours!

In this episode we cover:

• How video can help you convert visitors to customers


• The benefits of VideoAsk


• What type of businesses would benefit from using VideoAsk


• Why Pip got rid of her contact us page


• How Pip uses VideoAsk for support calls


• When you should turn off the video options


• What to do before you set it up


• Where to start your automation set up first. 

Important Links

VideoAsk

Pip’s Linkedin

Pip’s Instagram

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A month ago I got a mystery package in the mail. A colleague had sent me a surprise gift to say thankyou for a referral. It was a box of beautifully packaged dehydrated fruit from a company called Little Beauties.

The packages looked gorgeous, and the fruit inside tasted the same. I wanted to find out more about why this Nelson company had chosen the Feijoa, a fruit known for its short season, and the Gold Kiwifruit as two of its signature lines.

Thankfully Tristan Wastney, the co-founder of Little Beauties, agreed to be on the show. Tristan now oversees the sales and marketing, and helps arrange the exporting into the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan, with new markets on the horizon.

This kiwi family run business has grown to employ a team, develop some pretty incredible machinery and be a sustainable method of using fruit otherwise destined for landfill. 

In this podcast, Tristan shares the story of how the business began, where it’s sitting at the moment, and where he and the rest of the family want it to go.

We also talk about the cost of growth, the impact of going into supermarkets, and what it takes to create a brand that will become known on the world stage.

In this episode we cover:

• How Little Beauties started


• Why they’ve chosen to seek external investment


• Why Feijoas are a complicated fruit


• What they’ve discovered as they’ve moved into export markets


• How they’re planning for the long term


• Why markets are still one of their favourite places to sell

Important Links

Feijoa Month sign up

Be in to win a copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s official! I’ve now been hosting the MAP IT Marketing podcast for a year. Which is no mean feat for an ADHD business owner who suffers from shiny object syndrome and is intolerant to boredom. I’m still loving it, and see it as an integral part of my week.

Because I love podcasting, and what it’s done for me and our business, I wanted to share with you what I’ve learned, and take you behind the scenes on how I run and arrange my podcast every week. I’m going to share the equipment I use, the people who help me, and the process I use to decide what to talk about, and who to talk to.

I’ll also share how my podcast is going, what I find frustrating about podcasting, and whether podcasting would be a good option for you to try. 

I sometimes say that “every person and their dog” has a podcast these days, and certainly feels that way sometimes. If a podcast is on your radar I hope this episode will help you clarify whether it’s a fit for you or not, give you some direction in the way forward, and help you see what’s going on “under the hood” at the MAP IT Marketing podcast

In this episode we cover:

• What equipment I had to begin with and what I have now


• Why I record my intros and outros after the main podcast


• Where I record my podcast


• What help I get


• Key habits you need to have in podcasting


• How I keep myself organised.


• How I choose guests


• What impact podcasting has had on my business


• What’s planned for my podcast in 2022/2023

Important Links

Be in to win a copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there’s a short cut to success in marketing and sales I want to take it. Like you I’m a time poor business owner, who needs to make sure my time is used wisely.

Sometimes that means I take a week of posting social media content, and I create longer-lasting content instead. Of course in a perfect world I’d keep going with social media, but this is about real talk, and sometimes, that’s just not possible.

One of the best alternatives to posting on social media for a week is to sit down and create a powerful, converting Lead magnet (I prefer to call it Lead generation because that’s what it’s going to do. )

In this episode of MAP IT Marketing I’m going to share with you what you need to think about when creating this, what type of lead generation I prefer to make and recommend, what it needs and what you need to see happen after they get it.

I’m huge on permission marketing, and remembering to respect the time of anyone who comes into contact with our business, so I’m also going to cover how to make sure you create something that both attracts your idea customer, and also helps them build trust in you. 

We’ll also talk through how to get the word out about your lead generation resource, and what results you can expect from it. 

What we’ll cover:

• What a lead magnet is


• The different types of lead magnets


• My favourite type of lead generation and why


• What you need to consider when building one


• What tools I use to create my lead generation


• The exact order or process I use when creating mine


• What you need to do alongside the lead magnet to make it work for you

Important Links

Buy our Lead Generation course and resources

Be in to win a copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

An example of a Lead Magnet

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.