UNDERESTIMATED: The Small Business Advantage Podcast

If your website says you have great customer service, quality work, years of experience, friendly people, or that you're family-owned, you may sound exactly like everybody else.

In this solo episode of Underestimated, I'm tackling one of the biggest marketing problems small businesses have: differentiation. I call the sea of generic claims the Blandscape™, and escaping it doesn't mean getting louder, weirder, or slapping a new logo on the same old message. It means giving your Exact Right Customer™ a meaningful reason to notice you, trust you, remember you, and choose you.

You'll learn how to look at your business through your customer's eyes, uncover what actually makes you different, and turn those differences into marketing that matters. I talk about why “anybody with money” is not your ideal customer, why your customers may explain your value better than you do, how to find the hill you're willing to die on, and how to use micro-stories to prove your claims instead of simply making them.

I also share a simple competitor test you can use today: write down the top five claims you make in your marketing. If your competitors can honestly say the same thing, cross it out and find a more specific, meaningful way to communicate it.

Resources:

Find Your Exact Right Customer™ worksheet: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/downloads/exact-right-customer-finder.pdf

How to Differentiate Your Business from The Blandscape™: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/differentiate-your-business

Blog: “Our People Make the Difference” Is a Statement That's Hurting Your Business: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/blog/our-people-make-the-difference-is-a-statement-that-s-hurting-your-business

Episode page: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-34

Connect With Shawna:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

Website: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

Non-Snoozeletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

If this episode makes you realize your marketing has wandered into the Blandscape™, subscribe to Underestimated and share it with another small business owner whose “great customer service” deserves a much better story.

You started a business for more freedom, and somehow became the person who has to touch every task, answer every question, approve every decision, and keep the whole darn thing moving. In this episode of Underestimated, I talk with Lauren Glynn about what happens when the business owner becomes the bottleneck—and how to get yourself out of that role.

We talk about delegation, systems, contractors, client boundaries, and why your VA may not actually be the problem. Sometimes the problem is the photo of a sticky note you sent her and called “instructions.” Ouch.

You’ll learn how to look at your entire business from 10,000 feet before trying to fix individual problems, including what can be handed off, standardized, automated, and what still needs your very human brain.

This episode is especially useful if you’re an established small business owner working with a handful of contractors and you don’t necessarily want a giant company. Maybe you want more clients. Maybe you want to start another business. Maybe you’d simply like to take Thursday afternoon off without wondering whether the building will catch fire while you’re gone.

Lauren also talks about setting boundaries when clients start treating you like their highly paid employee, choosing business tools that work with your brain instead of forcing your brain to work with the tool, and where AI actually makes sense in your operations.

EPISODE PAGE

https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-33

CONNECT WITH LAUREN GLYNN

Website: https://www.laurenglynn.com

Free Level One Diagnostic: https://www.laurenglynn.com/level-one

The Ready Room: https://www.laurenglynn.com/ready-room

Threads: @LaurenGConsulting

Lauren is offering Underestimated listeners $50 off a Make It So Intensive and $200 off the Ready Room with code UNDERESTIMATED.

CONNECT WITH SHAWNA

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

Website: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

Non-Snoozeletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Why Small Business Owners Become the Bottleneck

02:29 Who Lauren Glynn Helps

03:24 Growing Your Business Without Growing a Huge Team

05:04 Finding Your Exact Right Customer

07:58 Why Staying Small Can Be a Business Advantage

09:54 Getting Yourself Out of Every Little Decision

11:02 Finding the Bottlenecks in Your Business

13:02 Inside Lauren’s Ready Room

15:05 When Your VA Might Not Be the Problem

18:45 Where AI and Automation Actually Help

20:17 Why All-in-One Business Tools Don’t Work for Everyone

21:03 Building Systems Around the Way Your Brain Works

22:47 Do You Have Too Many Business Tools?

24:16 When Clients Treat You Like Their Employee

25:45 Final Takeaways and Listener Offer

#SmallBusiness #BusinessSystems #Delegation #BusinessOperations #UnderestimatedPodcast

Prospect ghosting feels personal. Usually, it isn’t. In this solo episode, Shawna breaks down nine reasons promising buyers go silent—from decision overload and unclear next steps to missing trust signals and follow-up that accidentally raises the pressure. You’ll learn how to spot what is really happening, reduce buyer friction, and follow up without sounding desperate.

In this episode:

• Why silence is often uncertainty, not rejection

• How too many choices and vague proposals stall decisions

• The trust gaps prospects rarely explain

• What to say in a follow-up—and when to stop chasing

• How to make the next step easier to take

Free tools and practical small-business resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

More episodes: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast

Hosted by Shawna Suckow, CSP—consumer behavior expert, former million-dollar corporate buyer, and small-business advocate.

LinkedIn can be a fantastic prospecting tool for a small business, right up until you start trying to follow every expert, algorithm update, posting rule, and trick somebody swears is working this week. Guest Jennifer Darling has a much saner approach. Instead of chasing LinkedIn, she pays attention to human behavior. We talk about the 4.5 types of LinkedIn posts that consistently get attention, why your profile matters before you start posting more, what belongs in a newsletter, when personal posts work, and why you absolutely do not need to live on LinkedIn all day to get business from it.

If you’re struggling with LinkedIn because you don’t know what to post, how often to post, whether video matters, or which piece of advice you’re supposed to believe this week, this conversation is for you. Jennifer has spent years watching what people actually respond to on LinkedIn, and her approach is refreshingly practical for those of us who have businesses to run and cannot spend 40 hours a week studying social media.

You’ll learn what Jennifer thinks of LinkedIn newsletters, documents, carousels, personal posts, video, and photos. Shawna shares examples including the difference between a useful personal story and one that requires 36 mental hoops to connect a crushed Skittle to leadership. They also talk about inappropriate tagging, hashtag overload, fake engagement from your friends, memorable LinkedIn headlines, and why a little personality gives people something human to talk to you about.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for small business owners who know LinkedIn could help them generate leads and referrals but don’t want another full-time marketing job. It’s also useful if you’ve been posting inconsistently, copying whatever the latest LinkedIn expert recommends, or wondering whether all that activity is producing anything besides more activity.

Episode page + full transcript: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-29

Connect With Shawna

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

Visit: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

Newsletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

Connect With Jennifer Darling

Find Jennifer on LinkedIn by searching Jennifer Darling Speaks.

LinkedIn profile checklist: ultimateprofilechecklist.com

#SmallBusinessMarketing #LinkedInMarketing #LinkedInTips #SmallBusiness #SalesStrategy #LeadGeneration #EntrepreneurMarketing #B2BMarketing

If this episode helped make LinkedIn feel slightly less like another ridiculous thing you’re supposed to master, like the video and subscribe to Underestimated.

You can also subscribe to Shawna’s Small Business Marketing Non-Snoozeletter and grab the free marketing resources in the Vault at www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault.

Customers can tell when you're listening and when you're simply waiting for your turn to explain. One response builds trust. The other makes them wonder whether calling you was a terrible use of an afternoon. In this episode, Shawna talks with communication strategist, keynote speaker and classically trained pianist Molly Ketcham about building trust through better conversations. Molly shares the C.A.R.A. Code, a four-part framework for curiosity, attunement, resonance and amplification, plus practical ways small business owners can make customers and employees feel genuinely heard.

If you're struggling with:

😬 Conversations that feel scripted or transactional

😬 Unhappy customers who want to be heard before they hear your explanation

😬 Knowing what to ask without getting too personal

😬 Listening while your brain is already writing its response

😬 Building trust quickly with customers, employees or vendors

You'll learn:

💡 What each step of the CARA Code means

💡 Why curiosity sets the emotional tone for a conversation

💡 How attunement goes beyond hearing someone's words

💡 How to respond so another person feels seen and understood

💡 Why following up on something meaningful builds lasting trust

💡 How meaningful questions differ from personal questions

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for small business owners who want customers, employees and vendors to trust them sooner. It's especially useful if conversations have become too scripted, you catch yourself planning your response instead of listening, or you want to ask better questions without wandering into somebody's family history.

If this conversation gave you one question worth trying, like the video and subscribe to Underestimated. You'll get more practical help for growing a small business without turning every customer interaction into something approved by a committee of twelve.

Connect With Molly

🔗 Website: https://www.mollyketcham.com

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollyketcham

🔗 Five Powerful Questions: https://go.mollyketcham.com/curiosity

Connect With Shawna

🔗 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

🔗 Visit: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

🔗 Newsletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

🔗 Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

Episode page + full transcript: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-30

Spending more on advertising will not fix a message people can ignore. It simply pays more people to ignore it. Shawna breaks down why so many small business ads disappear into the daily avalanche of marketing messages, then shows you how to make yours relevant, trustworthy and memorable. From print and direct mail to paid social, Google ads and sponsorships, this episode gives you a practical formula for creating ads that speak to one real customer problem and lead people toward one clear next step.

If you're struggling with:

😬 Ads that look polished but do not produce results

😬 Messaging that sounds suspiciously like every competitor

😬 Knowing what to include without cramming in everything you do

😬 Paid social campaigns that reach plenty of people but few buyers

😬 Deciding whether print, Google or social advertising is worth the money

You'll learn:

💡 Why weak positioning gets more expensive when you amplify it

💡 How to run the cover-your-logo test on any ad

💡 The problem-solution-proof-action formula for a stronger message

💡 Why one ad should communicate one main idea

💡 How real people and real photos build more trust than polished stock imagery

💡 Why a smaller, better-targeted audience can outperform a giant one

💡 When an ad should lead to a problem-specific landing page

Shawna shares examples including:

📬 Why most ads in a direct-mail pack become interchangeable

🏠 How to replace 'Hey, homeowners' with a message that actually feels relevant

🔧 Why a real HVAC technician can build more trust than a spotless stock-photo model

🚗 How an auto-repair ad can connect with the fear of being stranded

🏟️ Why a Little League sponsorship banner needs more than a logo and beige tagline

☕ How Google ads differ from interruption advertising on social media

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for small business owners who are paying for print, direct mail, paid social, Google ads or sponsorships and wondering why the results feel underwhelming. It is especially useful if your ads are packed with features, generic promises or enough information to require a snack break halfway through.

Final Takeaway

If this episode made you want to cover the logo on your latest ad, we hope you'll like the video and subscribe to Underestimated. You'll get practical marketing help for growing a small business without setting fire to your budget or becoming a full-time student of somebody else's algorithm.

Episode page + full transcript: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-29.html

Episode on GEO referenced in the podcast: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-14.html

Episode on Community and Sponsorships referenced in the podcast: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-20.html

Connect With Shawna

🔗 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

🔗 Visit: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

🔗 Newsletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

🔗 Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

You have the idea. You may even have the plan. Yet you keep waiting for the magical morning when fear disappears, every detail behaves and readiness arrives. That morning is notoriously bad at showing up.

Shawna talks with Monica Graves Garcia, speaker, facilitator and founder of Soulbare Wellness, about taking action before confidence arrives. Monica explains why curiosity can be more useful than courage, what comfort costs us and how accepting the messy parts of life can help business owners handle uncertainty without trying to control every step.

If you're struggling with:

😬 Waiting until you feel completely prepared

😬 Overthinking a decision until your sock drawer becomes fascinating

😬 Treating failure as proof that you chose wrong

😬 Trying to control every step before taking the first one

😬 Turning wellness into one more thing you have to be good at

You'll learn:

💡 Why curiosity can move you forward when courage feels unavailable

💡 What comfort and safety can quietly cost you

💡 How Monica uses playfulness to act before she knows every detail

💡 Why failure is useful information, not a character verdict

💡 The difference between wellness and wholeness

💡 How to care for employees without turning every human benefit into a KPI

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for small business owners standing at the edge of a decision they have postponed for far too long. It is especially useful if you keep researching, planning or waiting for certainty because taking one imperfect step feels riskier than staying put.

Final Takeaway

You do not need a complete map or a fearless personality to move forward. Get curious about what could happen, take the next available step and trust yourself to meet whatever comes after it.

Episode page + full transcript: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-28

Connect With Monica

🔗 Soulbare Wellness: https://soulbare.com

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msgraves/

🔗 Soulbare Wisdom Retreat: https://soulbare.com/wisdom

Connect With Shawna

🔗 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

🔗 Visit: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

🔗 Newsletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

🔗 Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

Shawna's Vault has free resources for small business owners who want useful help without spending the afternoon opening seventeen tabs. Find it at https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault.

Your competitor didn't necessarily win because they were cheaper. They may have felt safer, been easier to find, shown stronger proof, or made the buying process less annoying. Shawna breaks down the reasons customers choose another business, including perceived risk, weak visibility, friction, missing social proof and plain old inertia. She also shares the keynote she lost to a speaker with a Disney background, the questions that get useful answers from lost customers, and the small-business advantages bigger companies can't copy.

If you're struggling with:

😬 Losing business without knowing why 😬 Assuming every loss is about price 😬 Competing with companies that look safer or more established 😬 Getting honest feedback from customers who chose someone else 😬 Finding friction in your own buying process

You'll learn:

💡 Why a bigger company may feel less risky to a customer 💡 How visibility, social proof & buying friction affect the decision 💡 What to ask after you lose a customer 💡 Why your competitors' low-star reviews are useful research 💡 How guarantees & simpler buying steps can build trust 💡 Which small-business advantages larger companies can't easily copy

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for small business owners who know their work is good but still lose customers to larger or more familiar competitors. It's especially useful when price gets blamed by default and nobody has asked the customer what actually happened.

Final Takeaway

A lost customer isn't just a bruised ego with an invoice attached. Ask what happened, study what competitors do well, remove what makes buying harder, and show customers why choosing a smaller business can feel safer, more personal and much easier.

Episode page + full transcript: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-27

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:14 Why Customers Choose the Competition

00:40 The Keynote Shawna Lost After COVID

02:10 A Lost Sale Is Not Always About Price

02:53 Perception of Risk

03:32 Visibility and Memorability

03:59 Buying Friction

05:19 The Social Proof Gap

07:46 Why the Status Quo Keeps Winning

09:12 What to Ask After You Lose the Business

10:48 Competitor Reviews and Mystery Shopping

12:00 Using a Guarantee to Lower Risk

13:03 Removing Friction From the Buying Process

15:23 What Bigger Competitors Can’t Copy

17:16 Every Lost Customer Is a Focus Group of One

17:59 Resources and Closing

Connect With Shawna

🔗 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow 🔗 Visit: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com 🔗 Newsletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter 🔗 Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

If this episode helped you spot one reason customers may be choosing somebody else, like the video and subscribe to Underestimated. You'll get more practical help for growing a small business without pretending you have a 47-person marketing department.

Shawna's Vault has dozens of free resources for small business owners who would prefer useful answers over another expensive binder. Find it at https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault.

Your happiest customers may love you and still never refer anyone to you. Annoying? Yes. Mysterious? Not really. Most customers aren’t walking around thinking about who they can send your way. They may not remember exactly who you help, know what to say, or even realize you want referrals. In this episode, Shawna breaks down why referrals don’t just magically happen and how to make them much more likely. She shares the referral system she uses in her own business, when to make the ask, how to make referring you ridiculously easy, and a few things that can make the whole thing feel icky fast.

If you're struggling with:

😬 Getting referrals consistently

😬 Asking customers without feeling awkward

😬 Staying top of mind after the sale

😬 Figuring out what to say when you make the ask

😬 Helping people understand exactly who your best customer is

You'll learn:

💡 Why happy customers still don't refer you

💡 How to make your ideal customer easy to remember

💡 When customers are most likely to say yes to a referral request

💡 How to remove the friction from referring you

💡 Why "Who do you know who...?" is such a useful phrase

💡 How to build referrals into your regular follow-up instead of hoping somebody remembers you six months from now

Shawna shares examples including:

🎤 Her three-person speaker referral pod

🎤 A realtor example that shows why specificity matters

🎤 The referral ask she forgot to make after a fantastic speaking engagement

🎤 The simple ways she stays in touch with past clients and referral partners

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for small business owners who get some business through word of mouth but don't have an actual referral process. It's especially useful if customers seem happy, you know people like your work, and yet referrals still arrive randomly instead of consistently. Final Takeaway Referrals work much better when you stop treating them like nice surprises and start treating them like part of your customer process. Stay memorable, make it clear who you want to meet, ask when the customer is happiest, and make the introduction easy. You don't need an elaborate referral program with points, prizes and a dashboard that looks like NASA mission control. You need a simple process you'll actually use.

Episode page + full transcript: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-26

Connect With Shawna

🔗 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

🔗 Visit: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

🔗 Newsletter: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

🔗 Free Small Business Marketing Resources: https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

If this episode gave you one referral idea you can actually use, like the video and subscribe to Underestimated for more practical advice for growing a small business without burning yourself out.

And if you'd like more free small business marketing resources without spending three hours wandering around Google, Shawna's Vault is at www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault.

#SmallBusiness #SmallBusinessMarketing #CustomerReferrals #ReferralMarketing #WordOfMouth #BusinessGrowth #CustomerExperience #SmallBusinessTips #Entrepreneurship

Do you keep hearing, "You're too expensive?"

Ouch.

I know it's tempting to start chopping prices, throwing in freebies, or convincing yourself you need to "be more competitive." I'd rather chew glass.

Sometimes your prices really are too high. But if you keep hearing that objection, chances are there's something else going on.

In this episode, I walk through the five biggest reasons customers think you're too expensive. We talk about your branding, your messaging, the value customers see (or don't), and the one thing that's become more important than ever: trust.

If you're struggling with:

▶️ Hearing "you're too expensive" more than you'd like

▶️ Losing customers to cheaper competitors

▶️ Attracting people who only care about price

▶️ Wondering why customers don't seem to "get" what makes you different

...this episode is for you.

You'll learn:

• Why lowering your prices is usually the last thing I'd do
• How your branding may be working against you
• Why your website and messaging set expectations before you ever have a conversation
• How to figure out whether customers really see your value
• Why trust has become a small business's unfair advantage

Shawna shares examples including:

✅ Secret shopping your competitors

✅ Asking prospects the right follow-up questions

✅ Using focus groups to uncover blind spots

✅ Collecting video testimonials that customers actually believe

✅ Making your website work harder for you

Who This Episode Is For

Business owners who are tired of competing on price and want customers choosing them because they're the right fit, not the cheapest option.

Final Takeaway

Not every customer who says you're too expensive is telling you your prices are wrong. Sometimes they're telling you they don't understand your value yet. Those are two very different problems, and only one of them gets fixed with a discount.

Episode Page + Full Transcript

https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/podcast/episode-25

Timestamps

00:00 Why Customers Think You're Too Expensive

01:08 Maybe It Really Is Your Pricing

03:15 When Your Brand Doesn't Match Your Price

07:10 What Your Messaging Is Really Saying

10:20 Do Customers See Enough Value?

13:45 The Biggest Issue: Trust

18:30 Your Small Business Superpower

22:05 Finding Your Exact Right Customer

Connect With Shawna

🌐 https://www.thebuyerinsider.com

📬 https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/newsletter

📚 https://www.thebuyerinsider.com/vault

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnaSuckow

If you haven't wandered through the Vault yet, go take a look. There are free assessments, worksheets, and other goodies in there that might save you a little time, a little money, and maybe a headache or two.

#SmallBusinessMarketing #PricingStrategy #CustomerTrust #SmallBusinessOwner #Entrepreneur #BuyerBehavior