For the full show notes and access to resources mentioned in this episode visit https://www.easyscaling.com/blog/episode29
This episode is part of our mini-series all about finding clients. Tune in as we discuss all the ways to find clients in the online space and get real about what works and what doesn’t. You’ll hear practical strategies and transparent conversations about where clients really come from so that you can hopefully find more clients and just feel normal about where you’re at now.
In this episode, we’re talking with Lauren Loreto. Lauren is the CEO of Brand Good Time, Podcast Host for She's Busy AF, and a big fan of a damn good time. With a background as a former corporate agency employee and boutique agency owner, she combines a ruthless mind for data and (lowkey outrageous) creativity to help her clients visualize what’s working in their business, what’s not, and what could be way more fun through marketing strategy and development services.
Topics discussed:
Top tip or advice for finding clients:
Connect with Jordan Schanda King:
Connect with this week’s guest, Lauren Loreto:
Love what you heard? Reviews really help us out! As a thank you, you can get my 90-Day Planning Formula ($97 Value) by submitting a screenshot of your 5-star review at easyscaling.com/podcastreview
For the full show notes and access to resources mentioned in this episode visit https://www.easyscaling.com/blog/episode29
This episode is part of our mini-series all about finding clients. Tune in as we discuss all the ways to find clients in the online space and get real about what works and what doesn’t. You’ll hear practical strategies and transparent conversations about where clients really come from so that you can hopefully find more clients and just feel normal about where you’re at now.
In this episode, we’re talking with Lauren Loreto. Lauren is the CEO of Brand Good Time, Podcast Host for She's Busy AF, and a big fan of a damn good time. With a background as a former corporate agency employee and boutique agency owner, she combines a ruthless mind for data and (lowkey outrageous) creativity to help her clients visualize what’s working in their business, what’s not, and what could be way more fun through marketing strategy and development services.
Topics discussed:
Top tip or advice for finding clients:
Connect with Jordan Schanda King:
Connect with this week’s guest, Lauren Loreto:
Love what you heard? Reviews really help us out! As a thank you, you can get my 90-Day Planning Formula ($97 Value) by submitting a screenshot of your 5-star review at easyscaling.com/podcastreview
29#Finding Clients | Strategic partnerships and networking with Lauren Loreto
Jordan: Hello. Hello. Welcome to our miniseries all about finding clients. This is a fun one. There are so many ways to find clients in the online business space, and what we're going to do in this series is. tell stories, share tips, dive into practical and tactical strategies for finding clients, what works, what doesn't work, and take a transparent, open approach to talk about where clients are coming from, so that hopefully you can apply some of this too, to your own business and also so that you can feel normal because there is no one way to do it.
So I hope you enjoy this series.
All righty. In this episode, we're chatting with Lauren Loretto. Lauren is the founder of Brand Good Time, a marketing and visibility agency. It's our first agency. She's been around the block when it comes to agencies and when it comes to marketing, and we dive deep into this, , we talk all about how to find clients, and as you would imagine, Lauren knows a lot about this.
So we talk about things like inbound and outbound marketing and what that even means. How she found her first few clients, and how she finds clients now. We dive deep into this and have a perfect time, as I'm sure it is not surprising. So I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Welcome. Welcome, everyone. Welcome, Lauren. Super excited to have you here. Thanks. I'm excited to be here. Totally. All right. We're going to talk about finding clients. This, this to me, feels like one of the juiciest topics and like it doesn't go away, no matter what.
What level you're at? It’s critically important. So we're going to start with how you found your first client because I think everybody's got a story here, and there's like so many ways to get your first client and then like your first couple of clients even. So I think that sets a good stage, and then we'll dive into the kind of more strategically finding clients.
But let's start there. How'd you find
Lauren: your first client? Yeah, I want to preface this with, like, When you, when you said like the following few clients after that, I was like, I can't even remember who those are, but the first client we ever got is still our client today and it is a funny story. So I had just started my business.
I just like established the l c and Deter determined ultimately, like I think it was the walking this fine line of like, am I gonna make a full blown business out of this or not? I was working in an agency at the time, like a world renowned marketing agency, advertising agency. . I was learning a lot there.
Lauren: I was treating it like paid education because I was like, I think I wanna build this, do it differently and do it better. Not, not to that scale, but I knew that there was just a way I could work with smaller businesses more effectively than this agency did. So I was like, okay, we're gonna do this. So I was working at this agency.
I had just started dating. This man who is now my husband and, and, baby Dotty. So, I just started dating him and my husband, boyfriend at the time was super into fishing, had a boat, grew up fishing, whatever. So that was like one of my initial draws to him was like, at the third time we ever hung out, we went fishing.
And I was like, this is it. Like, I, I can't imagine being with anyone else for the rest of my life. Like it's gonna be a constant adventure. This is amazing. So we took a couple trips down to Key Largo over the years, but early on we took a couple trips down early, and I, I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by the way.
So for reference, that's like an hour and a half away from us. But we have friends down there with boats and in the boating industry and whatever. My husband works in the boating industry, so we go down to stay with, with a friend down there. And . This is literally how it happened. I'm getting to a punchline, I swear.
But we walk into this friend's house. I'd never met them before and I knew, like I knew one guy but not the other. And so AJ went to inter, my husband AJ went to introduce me to him and he's like, Hey, this is Jordan. He's the marketing director at Contender Boats. And I was like, . Okay. . He's like, they need someone to help them with social media.
And I was like, that's great. And AJ like smacked my arm. He's like, Lauren, this is a big deal. Like they have 37,000 followers on Instagram and this was 2016. Okay. So this was like, Instagram's still on the rise very much like we, I don't even even think we had like video capability at that point. Like things were changing and I had just started my business, which had a strong focus on social media.
That's changed since then. Anyways, besides the point. I was like, oh, duh, okay. So he like gave me his business card and I reached out to him and I think I told them like, I can't, I think it was 55 an hour. I was like, okay, we'll do this for 55 an hour. And, you know, 20 hours a month, whatever. So that was it.
That's literally what got me kicked off. And we grew. Okay. So there's still a client today and they've evolved with our business over time. Like biggest case study that we have. we've taken over all their social accounts. At this point, we don't manage social anymore, but for this client we do, because we do it on a grander scale.
It's. In line with different campaigns and we go to like boat shows with them. So it's really, really, really cool. But we've grown their account from 37,000 followers to over 143,000 followers since we've worked with them and like really been a part of some really cool launches. but that, that was the story.
I mean, so my takeaway from that is like, you can't. , this was the largest takeaway from that time period in my life, is like you have to be proud of what you do and confident in what you do, especially when you're getting started. Like don't treat your business like a side hustle if that's not what you want it to be.
Like when someone says, Hey, how are you? What do you do? Like for so long I was like, oh, I work in marketing and my husband would like smack my arm and be like, you have your own business. That's so cool. Why don't you talk about that? So I yeah, would attribute a lot of our early on success. Client acquisition from just not being afraid to talk about what I do and do that with confidence.
Jordan: I freaking love that. I love that. And I, I think, I don't know, I can, I can definitely relate to this and I'm sure lots of people listening can, because, I remember in my first two businesses, it's like, you're, you're like borderline embarrassed when people. Ask you what you do. It's like, oh God, please don't ask me what I do.
Like, I don't want to get into this. First of all, you're not gonna understand. And then I'm gonna have to try to explain it and like, like it's not that big of a deal, you know? Like I vividly remember that. And, it's totally different now. It's totally different now. And it is so important because you never know who you're talking to.
Like, you never know who you're gonna be talking to. You never know who they're gonna know. Like, um mm-hmm. , I, this isn't about how I found my first clients, but I do think it's interesting that it. , my first couple of clients was me just being like, oh yeah, I can do that. Like seeing somebody needing something, being like, oh, I can do that.
Like speaking up and like presenting what I do as an option to people. so very similar in owning. You gotta own what you do and your expertise. Like so
Lauren: important. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. All right. I love
Jordan: it. Tell us about the next clients. I know you said you couldn't remember, but I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna like put you on the spot here and see if you can Oh.
Did they fall into your lap? Were you like strategically looking for them and doing
Lauren: things? Referral and, and we had talked about this prior to hitting record, but I have, so like if I could go back, I would do it differently. I would've spent a little bit more time trying to market my business, but I was also so new to the marketing world and like this is something I, I need to be, I think in general, more transparent about as a human being.
Like I started my business. cusp of learning about marketing, like, and being immersed in it as my full job, nine to five. So I wasn't like, I didn't know the first thing about everything, like more than you might think. You know? I didn't have like some real world experience that a lot of people had. I started my business at 21, so , like I'm this like new little baby, fresh outta college, you know?
I didn't have a corporate background. I was like learning and growing at the same time. So, . I, I think I knew that and I was like, okay, well, I'm not even gonna bother really like marketing the business right now because I'm still working at nine to five. I'm living on my own. I'm single, like I have to take care of myself.
So like my nine to five is gonna make my ends meet right now for. insurance and, and livelihood. I'm gonna let things fall into my lap. And that's what I decided to do. So I had a lot of, referrals. My mom is a business owner. I had some other friends who were business owners and it initially it was like, Hey, can you guys design this logo for us?
Can you help us manage our social? And we were doing that on an hourly basis. And then like working people into retainers over time. Like, I still have my first proposals on Canva. It's not. It's so funny, and like I look back then I'm like, that was horrible. . Yeah, but they, they were referrals. So our next biggest client after this Contender Boats client was a TV show that they sponsored.
So that was really cool. And I remember planning for that pitch for so long, like I made it such a big deal. Like, looking back, I'm like, that was painful. And I definitely over-promised and ended up over-delivering because I was like, I just got in way over my head and like I said, I was just getting started.
But really they needed like a, they needed like a social media plan and, and all of this. So, long story short, , everything really fell into our laps and they were referrals and they stemmed from there. And here's what I did with that. So if there's a takeaway from this, it's like if, if you're gonna go that route and let referrals fall into your lap, use these as case studies and use this as experience so that when you do go to market your business, when you are ready to market your business, you have like proof of concept, proof of work, case studies, things you can show that you were able to help people with.
that was so important for us. And, and again, still to this day, like our, the case studies that we even show on our website right now are clients we've worked with for multiple years because it shows such a wide range of what we've been able to do over time. and we've also evolved so much, like I said, since that first client.
Like it's just, it's hilarious to me. , you know, we're, it's hilarious and also really cool that we're still working with that first client and even in like an entirely different capacity from how we founded the business, just because we were able to grow with them over time.
Jordan: Yeah, totally. I, I think there was something you said there that I wanna like, I wanna highlight a little bit around.
Like using these first couple of clients that just kind of come to you and while you're in that early phase. Juggling fewer clients. Cuz obviously the goal is always to have more clients and to grow and to scale. Like for most people listening to this, that's the goal anyway. But when you're in those early phases of having fewer clients, that's the time to make sure that your offer is like validated.
You know, like there's a reason why you don't offer the things that you offered back then. And so that is like the learning phase, like for. , our first client, we lost an absolute shit ton of money on and then I had to fire her cuz I was like, I, I'm making negative money, , like I'm making negative money for my time.
So like, this obviously doesn't work, this isn't how to structure the offer and like, there's only one way to figure that out. Mm-hmm. . There's only one way to figure it out. And that's to start working with the client and then adjust and then work with a new client and then adjust and figure out where is your sweet spot, what do you like to do?
Like all of the things and. . I don't know. I feel like it's a, it's a great reason to like slow roll your initial clients to make sure that you're actually doing the
Lauren: right things. Yeah. And that can also be the downfall of a lot of businesses too though. Or the downfall in growth. I've noticed. And even today, like still today, the clients we hang onto are like, Come up for renewals on, like, you have to expect that over time, like your scope is gonna change, number one.
Number two, your pricing's gonna change. Your value is gonna change because you've now proven. Results over time. So, you know, no, that client is not locked into the, the, the client I've had for these six years now, they're not locked into the same contract that we first had. It is completely different now.
The retainer in full transparency has tripled. You know, so it's, we do different things. We have more value. We have a team who works on their account now. It's not just me. So, and that, and like, it's totally possible to grow with, grow with clients over time too. . Yeah. Yeah,
Jordan: totally. I, I totally agree.
That's the same thing that we've, cha we've seen, as we've evolved, is you have to adapt and, and, and it's just, you and I just saw each other on a, on a call right before this recording about client boundaries and communication. Mm-hmm. , and I think this is like another great example. It wasn't one that got brought up, but, but communicating to clients when things do need to adjust and change, and I think.
From, from our experience, we've changed our offers, we've changed our pricing. We've adjusted team, we've moved people like we have done a shit ton of change in our less than a year and a half in existence so far. And like you, our first client is still with us. Our, our second client is still with us, our third client.
You know, like people will adapt to that. If you're clearly communicating to them what's going to change, why it's going to change, it's for the better. You're not just. Slapping a new price on something and like, you know, charging them more just because like, it's a process. And, and most people will, will understand that if you're communicating with them.
I, at least that's what we've seen.
Lauren: Oh yeah, absolutely. And the boundaries are like, so key too. Actually, sorry, , when we were, when we were talking, when we were on that call earlier about boundary setting, like that, like it struck a cord with me and a client. We have that we're currently, you know, like we just actually recod and just re-signed a yearlong contract again, another like longstanding standing client of ours that we've had for a couple years now.
And, you know, things got peeled out of the contract, off of our scope and off of our plate onto like another provider and that, and there's that too. There's like, I had like a little bit of resentment in me when that happened because I was like, wait, we've been doing this for so long and why wasn't this communicated to us?
you know, like you were seeking out another provider for something like this. so it's hand, it's being able to handle those situations too, and not like, you know, the, hey, like it's taking a step back. Like, Hey, this is a client who's paid us consistently on time for three years now, and they wanna change the way they're doing things.
Like, it's about sitting down and being able to have that open, honest conversation. Like breaking down , which, you know, like I, I struggle with that and it's still something I feel like I'm learning how to compartmentalize in the moment and like, not take things personally. That is so hard. I think just in general, yes.
Like when dealing with clients, client acquisition, client upselling, you know, like offboarding, onboarding, like everything, it's, that can be so, so hard. . Yes,
Jordan: absolutely. We could go down a serious rabbit hole here. So I'm gonna avoid it because like I could go for days on that. and that probably needs to be something we talk about in our, one of our follow up episodes, so we'll put a pin in that. , let's go back to finding clients and, and like look at more current. What are you doing? Okay. And I know you sent me your breakdown, so I don't know if you wanna talk through that or I can read the numbers off whichever one's easiest. but talk us through how you find clients now, how that's changed, what your approach is.
Sure.
Lauren: Yeah. So it's, I I would say it is, wow, I did terrible math here. . I, I think my math adds up to 125%. Oh yeah. 125%. Yeah. No, so, okay. So I'm gonna just put it, feel free to adjust on the fly. Yeah. . Let's just for, for like simplicity's sake 50, it's a 50 50 approach, like 50%. I could not tell you where they come from because, We have an extremely layered content marketing strategy and like an inbound marketing strategy in how we market our business.
We actually just brought on a new development manager, last week. So I do think that these numbers are gonna change over time because he's outbound prospecting so, That is like a new, a new thing that we're doing. We haven't done it for a couple years, but now that, like, I hate to say this, but the world has opened back up.
Like we are a little bit more comfortable going out and going after brands, physically, but we have relied so much on inbound marketing over the years that that is a huge chunk of. Of kind of this like no man's land of, we can't really attribute one specific thing other than like, we have a very strong repurposed strategy through all of our marketing.
So people may, let's,
Jordan: let's pause and give us some definitions on what you, what those mean, because you're like immersed in this world, but some people listening maybe like, what the hell is
Lauren: outbound versus inbound? So inbound marketing is anything where someone finds you online through searching through social.
So let's just say they like Google Marketing Agency near me, and then they land on my website and then they're consuming my blog and then they subscribe to the podcast. They have found me in an inbound way, sorry for not having a better way to explain that, but outbound is where, so essentially, They're aware, they're, the awareness is there.
By the time they get to you, they like, oh, they know who you are. Outbound is like, think the best example is like cold calling. So that's like you prospecting and you create prospecting means like going and doing research and finding brands you wanna work with who may know nothing about you, and finding a way to infiltrate them and get in front of them and make them aware of.
Other than just like, it's not like taking someone's email and adding it to your email list. It's like cold calling or cold emailing that is out. That is like more of an outbound approach to, client acquisition. So we. And, and what I love about outbound marketing or out like an outbound sales strategy is like you have a little bit more control.
You know, you're gonna get a lot more nos than you would on like an, because inbound, inbound leads who come in through social, who come in through, you know, your podcast, like they're aware of you. So by the time they reach out, like they are, the probability to close is much higher. because they trust you.
But from an outbound perspective, like again, it's, it's a little more cold. So you have to, you may have to nurture them a little bit longer or you're probably gonna get a lot more like, no, we're not interested, as opposed to inbound, because that level of awareness of you and or maybe even the problem is not there.
So that, does that clear things up a little bit?
Jordan: Yeah. Where would, where would paid, do, do, would paid ads? Potentially fall under
Lauren: both of those. Yeah. Ki kind of, I mean, yeah, you're paying to get in front of them, so Yeah. That's interesting. I guess that is like an outbound approach, but then they become inbound because they fall into your funnel, so, yeah.
Yeah. It's a little bit, I guess it depends on like what the call to action is. Is it to purchase something or is it to enter your funnel? Yeah.
Jordan: Yeah. That's what I was just thinking is like a, like we have a. ad strategy for like a book of call. Mm-hmm. Funnel, straight to our high ticket service that feels.
more along the lines of outbound because it's just like, Hey, I'm getting in front of you and saying, you need to work with us. He, yeah, here, like, schedule a call and let's start working together versus our, our paid ads that are going to a freebie and then they get into our email list and then they get nurtured and then eventually we pitch them.
Something like, feels very much more.
Lauren: Inbound. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great example. so yeah, so getting back to like how we've done things up until last week, we focus 50% on inbound. So really putting a lot of effort into our marketing. so for us, that's our podcast and that's nurturing people in the email.
It's having really strong funnels. And then the other side of things is we, we. really nurture our referral sources and we, we curate strategic partnerships. So I can kind of get into both if you want .
I want to hear maybe briefly a little bit about both. So, let's start with, let's start with your approach to inbound.
Jordan: I think that would be a good place to
Lauren: start. Great. Okay. So our approach to inbound is repurpose as much as possible. , so I'm a psycho time tracker. And so it was really important to me to nail down like how much time are we spending on marketing and like getting my team to be a little bit more strategic there, cuz I really need them on billable stuff.
So ultimately what we decided was recording a podcast. , and we used to do it this way. We're probably gonna go back to this as well, but at the same time we record the podcast, we're gonna put a video camera up and also do a YouTube video. And then, we're also gonna transcribe the podcast into a blog.
So if we're looking at this top down, at the very top, you have those three items, and those are considered long form pieces of content. I've already repurposed one moment into three pieces of content. So by recording the podcast and the YouTube video at the same time, and then transcribing it into a blog, boom.
There you go. That's three different ways someone can find. The podcast through YouTube and through Google by searching and finding the blog. So seo, optimizing all three, like putting a lot of time and effort into our SEO strategy was key. And so getting people in the funnel that way, great. Then it trickles down into different methods of marketing.
So, We also create content on social media around the the podcast, so promoting the podcast and getting people there. And then we also send our entire email list and email when a new podcast is released. And then we have guests on the podcast as well from time to time, which helps increase that visibility too by sharing it to their audience.
So, That quite honestly, like if you look at our Instagram, we haven't posted on Instagram in forever. We posted the stories sometimes and then, like I use my LinkedIn as more of a personal brand to drive traffic to the business, which is another sidebar we could go down some other time. But, like having that personal brand, but really our inbound marketing strategy centers around the podcast and it's, we, we spend maybe an hour to two, two hours a week.
Jordan: The podcast is, is the, the content, but like the strategy, the, the driver of the traffic is seo. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Absolutely. That's what you're relying on? Yeah. We're, because, because for any, for somebody else, they could do it.
Like they could do different types of long form content. Mm-hmm. . You still, what you have to figure out is how the hell you're gonna get people to even get to the content.
Lauren: Yeah. And I don't wanna say this in a way that like puts anybody down. So if anyone's listening to this and you do a podcast and you transcribe it, but you're not, as you optimizing it, don't take this the wrong way.
But in our, in my mind, especially with what we do with a lot of, I won't, what'd you say, ?
Jordan: I said Okay, I won't, . Okay.
Lauren: So I'm speaking to you, Jordan. I think it's an absolute waste of time for us to go through the proc process of transcribing and doing a YouTube video and creating a podcast if we are not seo, optimizing the titles, the description, how we put it on the website, associating keywords because you are missing out on some serious low-hanging fruit of people who are searching for what you have to say.
So yeah, I mean, There are incredible YouTube videos and resources and websites out there. I'm happy if anyone wants to DM me, I'm happy to send those resources just to help you figure out like, hey, if you're gonna do a podcast on how to scale your business, great, cool , now go and type that into Google.
Use a couple different plugins to show you what are people searching for, cuz that may not be the, the phrase that people are using to find that topic. So you wanna make sure the phrase you're using is what people are actually searching. . Yeah.
Jordan: So, mm-hmm. . Okay. Well that was, that was advice for me. Thank you.
I will be DMing you to get the resources. . yeah, we haven't, we have no strategy really behind our. Podcast. other than guesting. Mm-hmm. like you mentioned. So all of our episodes are guest episodes, which does drive a lot of traffic to our Instagram, which is where we show up with our content and to our email list, which is the other thing we prioritize as far as creating content.
But we don't have a blog strategy. We don't like, we're on video right now. I have never once. any of the video from any of my podcast episodes. Not a single time.
Lauren: Yeah. I mean, you could really be repurposing that. You know, it's a, but, and here's the other thing too. Yeah. Like if you're guesting, if guesting is like one of your main, there's no right or wrong way to to, to do podcasting.
Like from an inbound marketing strategy perspective, guesting is a great way to do it. As long as you're guaranteeing that like your guests are gonna share. because you, that's what's gonna boost your visibility and get people to you. But you know, again, it is still low hanging fruit to seo. Optimize what you're doing so other people can find you in other ways.
Jordan: Yeah, and what I think is interesting too is just like, putting it into context. So for you, like your podcast is like your big thing that, that trickles down into all of your other things. Like for us, the podcast is an add-on, because we have a very heavy ad strategy mm-hmm. . Yeah. Right. Like our, our, I look at our podcast more as, nurture content for the people who are already consuming what we do and, and wanna get.
I, I call it like, it's the. that makes our super fans like that. That's what I feel like our podcast does. Yeah. That's its function. Now, does that mean I should shouldn't also be doing the other things? Like of course I should probably be taking advantage of the other things since we're already doing it, but just, just looking at it, like zooming out and looking at like, okay, well what is the main strategy and.
you know, you don't have to do all the things like should you optimize if you can. Yes, for sure. but getting clear on like what is the main strategy and for you, that's podcast for us that it, it's not, you know? Yeah,
Lauren: absolutely. Yeah. What is your main strategy? And I, I think for people who are just getting started with like really leaning into marketing your business, but doing it efficiently, just all I like to say is pick one piece of long form content in the top of the funnel.
And again, top of the funnel is, , you're not, it's not gated. It's not your, like your email list is gonna be middle of funnel. It's how people can just, if they go to your website or go to your social, like, what, what is that big, like, long form piece of content you can splinter off and use elsewhere. So that could be, yeah, and, and keeping it very simple.
YouTube videos, podcasts, and blogs are the easiest ways to accomplish that long form content. .
Jordan: Let's switch gears and talk about the strategic partnerships. Cause I think that's
Lauren: an interesting angle too. Yes, absolutely. So referrals and strategic, strategic partnerships have been massive for us and I know like a lot of businesses are there too.
Like referrals are really how we build. that's really like your clients are gonna refer past business. People who know what you do are gonna refer you business. That's a no-brainer. But strategic partnerships really can help you hone in on like people that you've worked with before. So, okay, I'm just gonna go right into an example cuz sometimes I can be terrible explaining things.
So a really strong strategic partnership we have right now is I was constantly referring, a graphic. A graphic designer, a lot of work from our clients because I was noticing she had a lot of, variety in her design style. So a lot of designers typically will like design one way and people listening, you probably know what I'm talking about.
If you look at a graphic designer, like you see a lot of what they post and it's got some of like, Of course the logos and the branding is different, but like you can tell they've got a style. This graphic designer, she's just a genius and she can do so much in so many different styles. And so that worked really well because we don't really have one industry of client either.
We work with clients who just like to have fun. So , it made it so easy and and seamless to refer business to her. And, , we started like kind of doing the same back and forth, like her clients needed websites and my clients needed branding before I could do their websites. And so we were like, there has to be a synergy here.
So we formed a strategic partnership and what that looks like is we, we thought about doing like referral commission, so like, Hey, 10% to you, 10% to me, but then I just feel like you're swapping money back and forth. So we were like, why Don? , why don't we collaborate on a project? Because nine times outta 10, we end up collaborating on these projects and our timelines could be tightened a lot, and we could really deliver a high end project in a shorter timeframe if we go into this project together.
So we don't offer branding and graphic design at, at our agency. We do websites, email, we do a ton of different stuff. But like, I will not design your logo and I will not create a color suite for you or fo like your thoughts. It's just. We don't do it. So what this designer and I did was we came up with a service together.
We both are super into like tequila and champagne, so we called it brand and a bottle, and we just kind of took our branding and merged it very simply and we created a landing page on my website. We created a workflow in HoneyBook and now, We publicly launched it and we sign, well, we're in the process of signing a couple clients now.
We just launched this a few weeks ago. It's a very high ticket service. And actually, I know we talked about this, Jordan, I, I asked you about it on a call. Yeah. So you probably are like, oh wait, this sounds familiar. and so it's, it's going only, well, we can only offer one per quarter, so it's extremely high end.
. Ultimately what I'm getting at here is it's been really great for us to have that as an offering. So like I use it in the, in the sales process when someone comes to us to our, with a website and they're like, but we don't have branding yet. So do you have anyone? And, and what we end up doing is diverting them and saying, Hey, yeah, we do, we actually have this brand in a bottle service where we can execute all of this in five.
Lauren: Branding and website fully custom on both sides of the, the coin. and so we've done partnerships like that in the past with different, different people. Agent we can partner with. I mean, and this is, this isn't even like a new concept. I don't wanna act like I, I came up with this idea because agencies do this, big shop agencies do this where they'll partner with like a PR agency as an social media agency or as an ad agency.
like enhance the overall project. They're delivering a client because you're not specializing in everything and you're not saying yes to everything. So strategic partnerships yeah, have been a really big reason. A really big, like, I mean I literally, 25% of our income is strategic partnerships. Oh,
Jordan: that's crazy.
Yeah. And, and what I think is cool about that too is like, , those types of partnerships and those types of offers are like very specific for high-end clients. Mm-hmm. , like those are high ticket things. That's, that's not something that even if someone doesn't have the budget like you, you're not even going to get them there.
Yeah. You know, you're not even gonna present that as an option. It's like specific to high ticket, high-end clients. Yeah. It feels like Exactly. . Cool. I love it. Okay, well we covered a lot. This was great. I know this was super interesting. Anything else you wanna leave us with around finding clients?
Lauren: I mean, just really, I, I go back to the beginning, like just being very confident in what you offer being.
I think one thing, again, God, this could be another episode too, but like just being very clear and concise in what you offer, like simplify that shit as one of our guiding principles at Brand Good Time and PE people can be very confused if they, let's just say they go to your website and you see that you're an agency and then you list out all the things you can do.
They're not gonna know what they need. They need you to guide them. So I would just, Keeping things in your marketing as simple as possible on your website, as simple as possible. When someone comes to talk to you, what is your elevator pitch? What is the, what is the one thing that you can say that you do for your clients, even if it's not specifics, even if it's not like we build websites and, and, and plans and la la, la.
Like at the end of the day, what is the result you get? We help brand of time. We help our clients increase their visibil. Okay, so then we can have that conversation logistically about what that looks like. But really just being clear on your services, being clear on how you can help your clients makes that process so much easier when someone does reach out to work with you or when they do go to to check you out.
Yeah. Hmm.
Jordan: Fantastic. Love it. Thank you. This was great. Really appreciate it. I know you're gonna be back on because we've got lots of other things that we can talk about, but for finding, finding clients, this was perfect. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.