Jaspreet Singh, founder of Minority Mindset, joins Small Biz Buzz in the final episode of Season 2 of our Big Grit docuseries to talk about his journey to entrepreneurship. He's seen every part of entrepreneurship from being scammed by a marketing agency out of his entire budget for a product launch to hitting 1 million subscribers on YouTube. He shifted from taking the MCAT to closing on his first real estate investment in less than 24 hours. Jaspreet is a prime example of Big Grit and having what it takes to make anything possible.

Justin Wise, founder of The Different Company, joins Small Biz Buzz in the continuation of our Big Grit docuseries to talk about his journey to entrepreneurship. After teaching himself the basics of digital marketing while his family began to grow, Justin had a pivotal moment with a boss that changed everything. He ventured out on his own, built his first successful business, but found himself at another impasse. He asked himself the question: "what makes me different?" The answer led to The Different Company, and the life as an entrepreneur that he never imaged.

Monica Kline, who is the founder of IDentity Brand, joins Small Biz Buzz in the continuation of our Big Grit docuseries to talk about how she used technology to grow her business after numerous setbacks and challenges.  Monica experienced great losses throughout her journey to entrepreneurship, but she continued to bet on herself and her dream. She is the true definition of Big Grit.

We’ve got Jennifer Hudye of Conscious Copy & Co on the show this week and it was a stellar show for marketers, copywriters or anyone looking to boost their e-commerce game. Conscious Copy & Co helps entrepreneurs and business owners communicate their message through the power of copy in a way that gets people to take action.  “I started it about five years ago and really stumbled upon just this whole skill set of copywriting. I never grew up as a writer or considering myself a writer. Back in 2013, I was introduced to the online marketing world and my eyes were wide open just being like, ‘Oh my gosh. Okay. There's this whole world where I can start a business online from anywhere and get to serve so many more people’”. By building her copy chops Jennifer not only turned her college side-hustle into multiple six-figure revenue streams but she had outside companies clamoring for her expertise. “Some pretty big names started to reach out to me. People like Joe Polish and Dean Graziosi and Brendan Bouchard and Bulletproof Coffee, and it was just this new business, Conscious Copy, took off back in 2015.” Along the way Jennifer learned there’s much more to good copywriting than flowery language. “My dear friend, Lisa Sasevich has a quote, "Sell the destination, not the airplane." And I was selling that airplane. I was like, ‘In this program, you're going to get 85 PDFs and 46 videos that are an hour long.’” Plus Jennifer lets us in on her five C’s for writing copy that connects and converts.  The first one is…Capture attention. You’ll have to listen in for the other four.

On small biz buzz this week we’ve got the founder of article curation site thebrowser.com and author of Thinking Statistically, Uri Bram. “Every day we read hundreds of articles and select our favourite five for you to enjoy, so you'll always have interesting things to ponder and fascinating ideas to discuss at dinner.” - The Browser We’ll be discussing realistic timelines for “overnight success”, how happy subscribers are the most cost effective marketing agency, and how to tell when you’re using busy work to hide from your real responsibilities. “I always took pride that I answered every email, and I went over subscriber rater... It never ends. you clear your inbox and then you wake up in the morning and there's another. I think we're all traumatized.  A lot of the things I was doing, I enjoyed them because I had gotten good at them. But actually, it didn't need to be me doing them. It didn't really take expertise even. They were the simpler tasks. And I was procrastinating from the harder tasks by the simpler tasks. And what I really needed to do is hand off the simpler tasks.” - Uri Bram

Jake Johnson (Keap Creative director) joins us to discuss the soul of branding, pandemic pivots, and finding the folks who’ll pay big for premium offerings “There were people like, "I can't believe you'd spend $30 to watch Mulan And those are people who just don't get it.”. We’ll also tackle one of the most overlooked growth killers, "promo fatigue". What does that mean?. Listen close, because too much attention to your audience may be driving away your current customer base.  “There's only so many messages that consumers can get hit with before it becomes white noise.” Learn exactly why “getting folks in the door” could be your most dangerous move and when to spot the right and wrong time to commoditize your offerings.

Grady Kerr talks with the team about his years as an entrepreneur leading up to his joining Keap and becoming one of the most well known faces in the company with his popular Automation Hours webinars.  “When you're stuck putting out fires. Your day is managing you."  We’ll discuss the global concept of follow up as a critical growth action and how your brand needs to be an extension of yourself if you want to ensure quality control. You’ll also get an earful as we discuss one of the most common barriers to starting a small business... "When I get this done, then I'll start. When I get this done, then I'll start. Or I could say, “I'm just going to run with it, and I will build the train tracks as the train goes." “

Meet Mwale and Chantel Henry, THE WINNERS OF 2020’s IKON AWARDS!!!! Not to mention owners and founders of https://thebestsellersacademy.com/ where they help speakers and aspiring authors gain visibility and brand credibility by turning their story into a bestselling book. Keap has a special place in its business tech heart for these two. Listen in and learn from Mwale and Chantel about their business, the four P’s of possibility, and their journey to find one another. This show is an absolute delight, we’ll discuss how these two used their disparate upbringings (Chantel, growing up in the streets of Baltimore and Mwale a world away in Trinidad) to inform how they approach business, customer interaction, and mission focus. Hear Chantel as she lays out The Four P’s of Possibility:  ProcessPartnershipProfitabilityPurpose “Great leaders talk about it. When you cast a vision, you have to visit it often. You can't just cast it in a board meeting, you can't cast it sitting at the dining table talking to yourself.  There are days it's not working. And that's when you have to visit that vision often. Not only did we change our process in terms of being able to document the experience in our business, because what's not documented can't be managed. Everyone's talking about pivot. But we've learned, when we went through the process of doing an audit in our business and removing the dysfunction, things that can't be tracked, shout out to Keap for helping us to be able to track what's happening in your business, be able to document, be able to build the right type of campaigns, and we identify those gaps, we realized we didn't need to pivot, we needed to persevere, because, yes, it's good to talk about pivoting, but sometimes as entrepreneurs, it's tempting to use that as a sexy way to say; ‘I’m giving up. I am giving up. It's too hard, I'm giving up’.” - Mwale Henry

Listen in as we talk with Keap Creative Manager, Stephanie Haworth. In addition to being the guiding hand behind Keap’s copywriting, design, and UX; Stephanie has agency design chops and was willing to share the inside insights she’s gleaned from years in the industry. “It's very important not to be insular as an agency owner and not see everyone as your competition. “ Learn how to every agency is differentiated by their teams and what it says about how well they suit different clients. We’ll discuss what it means when an agency is hesitant to workshop over the phone and how important it is to set expectations early.

Digital marketing expert Toccara Karizma joins us to discuss where you should and shouldn't be spending your marketing budget. Facebook ads are an ever-changing animal, Toccara has made it a point to track the ebs and flows of digital marketing as well as the red flags to watch for when hiring outside agencies. Listen in to get insights on CPMs, UTFs, and how they can be the difference between dynamic marketing partners and flat out scam artists.

This week, we've got info on automation from a serial entrepreneur who also has the inside scoop on exactly how powerful Keap can be. Ernest Saco (Sr. Product Manager at Keap) joins us to discuss developing a brand, building a successful business from an idea and making the most of your sales and marketing automation. Want to take your online sales to the next-level? This is the show for you.

Alex Edlund, Keap’s head of demand generation, joins Small Biz Buzz to talk about generating demand for your product and business and creating brand awareness.  His team is responsible for acquiring new customers via marketing, and a lot of the marketing that Alex does is performance-marketing related. It's about getting more leads, more opportunities and sales so the business can grow.  “In demand gen, when we look across my team, it is practically every channel that aids in driving new traffic to the website,” Alex said. “So, paid search, SEO, affiliate marketing, paid social marketing, email, all these channels that can really drum up demand for Keap really encapsulates demand gen.”  When it comes to demand gen, Alex said you have to have a sense for who you are targeting. Who's your target audience? What kind of research have you done to figure that out? If you're a small business that has been in business for quite some time, you have loads of information around that, you have your existing customer base, so look at that customer base to figure out what it is about them that makes them unique, or makes them work so well for your business. “When you have a good audience strategy, then it becomes a little easier for you to pick out which channels to invest in, what areas to have a presence in, because you really want to be where your audience is at,” said Alex. “If you know your audience, it becomes a lot easier to determine where you're going to invest your time.” Click play for more.

Rajesh Bhatia, CTO of Keap, joins Small Biz Buzz to talk about the relationship between AI and automation and how they make entrepreneurs’ lives easier. While conquering the chaos of a small business, entrepreneurs have so many things to worry about, mainly, their sales and marketing, which can be easily automated. For example, if somebody comes to your website and they populate a “contact me” form, the goal is to automate the communication by collecting and transferring the data to a lead capture spreadsheet. That's the kind of high-level AI and automation Keap is presenting to the small business arena.   “All we're doing here is providing [small business owners] the necessary applications, tools and capabilities to make their lives easier–either by being able to help manage their contact lists, their sales and marketing automation, their appointments, their pipelines, etc.,” said Rajesh. “We’re building the software so we can help our small business customers because we recognized how difficult their job is, how difficult their work is. And all we want to do is empower them because ultimately, we are fueled by small businesses. And their growth is important to us as a community, as a country. And more importantly, us here at Keap because that's our mission to help small businesses.” Click play for more.

Nate Shaw, who is the CEO of Brooklyn Music Factory, joins Small Biz Buzz in our Big Grit docuseries to talk about his company’s vision to create a community online that provides the same kind of opportunities and deep connections as teaching music in person. “The whole world can be a community,” said Nate. “At Brooklyn Music Factory, one of our real opportunities in 2021 is figuring out how to grow a meaningful, communal connection online that matches the version we have in person.” Nate expressed how pivoting your business during the pandemic is about perspective, reorganizing your team and finding a mindset that can work. He understood his business can be of a benefit, even in the most dire times. “The fact that we were hiring online teachers from any English-speaking country was amazing. What quality of talent that you could recruit,” said Nate. “Our vision in 2021 is twofold. To expand that online community, and build on it and scale it, to expand our teacher network, just start supporting other studios and teachers that need curriculum that works online and in-person. And then actually to shrink our local community slightly.” Click play for more.

Valerie Aprahamian, who is the founder of Advocates for Angels, joins Small Biz Buzz in our Big Grit docuseries to talk about how her company supports and protects parents of children with special needs and developmental disorders through their Individual Education Programs (IEPs). Valerie’s daughter, Chanel, was diagnosed with autism and a very life-threatening seizure disorder, at the age of three years old, by a team by pediatric neurologists at UCLA. That doctor told Valerie that Chanel would never read, write, talk or ever be successful in school. It was also most likely she would have to institutionalize her. “At that time, I didn't even really know what autism was other than I knew it was a very profound disability,” said Valerie. “So immediately I started educating myself on special education law, and I started finding out what her needs were, what autism was, and how to get her the help she needed.” Valerie was immediately awoken to the reality of special education, the bureaucracy of the institution, and the segregation that they placed upon these kids. She immediately knew she wanted her daughter in a regular school with regular kids in a general education class. “They thought I was crazy because they weren't doing inclusion back then. So I was successful in having Chanel be placed in a general ed class at five years old,” said Valerie. “She was the first child with the diagnosis of autism to be placed in a general education classroom in my local school district. So that's the beginning of the story.” Click play for more.

Natasha Davis, who is the founder and CEO of Impact Branding Consulting, joins Small Biz Buzz in our Big Grit docuseries to talk about her journey from being a nurse to realizing her real passion of becoming an entrepreneur and all the obstacles she had to overcome to be successful.       “It takes time. Shifting from a mindset of being an employee is a big shift to being an entrepreneur, but then you have to shift from being an entrepreneur to being an employer, to being a business owner, it's two different mindsets,” said Natasha. “You have to begin to make different decisions. When you start a business, you're making $5,000 decisions, maybe $2,000 decisions, but then as you continue to grow, if you're doing it right, you're now making $25,000 decisions and $50,000 decisions, it's a different mindset.” Natasha stresses the importance of never stop trying; never give up on yourself. “Even when people say no to you, you have to truly believe in yourself. And you have to believe in what you're doing. Believe in what your cause is,” she said. “And don't look at yourself as this little minute thing. You're on this earth to do powerful things. You are that cargo. And if one person says no to you, screw it, go to the next person. There are people there who need you.” Natasha Davis can be found at impactbrandingconsulting.org.     Click play for more.

Clate Mask, Keap’s CEO, joins Small Biz Buzz to talk about the mindset of entrepreneurs versus small business owners and how having grit can get you through the hard times. Clate expresses the fact that the entrepreneurial journey is hard enough, let alone with the curve balls like we've had this year. COVID-19 really clarified the difference between the typical small business owner and the entrepreneur. “The typical small business owner generally lives in a very concerned state of being and is very cautious and very concerned about the present, and can easily be swayed by circumstances around them,” said Clate. “Whereas the entrepreneur is very focused on the future and is very optimistic and is very driven and action-oriented to not get stuck into a rut, but to actually drive to a better place and is willing to take some risk and is willing to be uncomfortable. Typical small business owners want to be comfortable. Entrepreneurs are okay when they're not uncomfortable so they can drive to a better state.” Clate also discusses Keap’s upcoming conference, IKON, which will be held virtually this year November 12-14. “If you're serious about growing your business and you want to be in a community of people that are like-minded and are serious about growing their business, if you want to understand sales and marketing automation and how it can change your business, and you want some inspiration and motivation, IKON is an event like none other,” said Clate. “It is so remarkable to see what happens when you bring people together and their stories, how they use our software to change the game, how they are overcoming the challenges, how they bring grit and optimism to their work every day. I just love our customers.” Speaking of grit, check out Keap’s newest Big Grit docuseries at keap.com/big-grit. Also, if you want to register for IKON, click here. Click play for more.

Paige Clark, Keap’s Corporate Communications Specialist, joins Small Biz Buzz to talk about utilizing the small business aspect in local marketing when it comes to social media. “If you're really working on growing [your] small business, you want to focus on the people who are your market,” said Paige. “And that's why you want to start with this local bubble on social media.” Per Paige, the first place you should start, whether it’s on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, is geotagging your location, but use it strategically. Don’t tag a place that no one's ever heard of. Don't tag the taco stand on the side of the road because they have good tacos. You want to tag the more general area that is going to have an impact. Click play for more.

Kristen Boss, a business coach geared toward women entrepreneurs, joins Small Biz Buzz to discuss the challenges business owners face to make their first $100K, how to sell confidently and know when it’s time to pivot.   “Why not get there faster by learning from an expert, hiring mentors, getting involved in masterminds? Go get educated!” said Boss when it comes to selling. “It's always going to return back to you. I love grit for building business. It's where a passion and perseverance meet to create a long-term goal. So you have to have the long-term goal in mind and you have to have passion and perseverance, which is grit. You got to be gritty.” Boss said your business has to meet the needs of others. People can tell when someone is selling something to meet their own needs–the entire energy of the experience is very different. Boss also said when it's time to look at a pivot, you should be asking yourself: am I meeting my needs or a felt need I see? Is it an area where I'm an expert? Would I do it for free? Would I find joy and purpose in that? And then lastly, am I running from pain? Or is this a time for me to get critical and do some evaluations and look at what's working? What's not working? What do I need to do differently? Click play for more.

Jason Komosa, chief business officer at BlackCart and mental coach, joins Small Biz Buzz to discuss the importance of maintaining a work-life balance mentality when things hit the fan, especially while we’re all working through COVID-19.    Let’s face it, we are living in a world where overwork is overvalued–this idea of we’re working so much to get onto the next task, then onto the next, and the next. Then we develop chronic stress and ultimately, it's the number one enemy of success. It makes things worse. “We ignore our meaningful relationships. We cut out the fun of our lives. We eat poorly. We sleep poorly. We don't exercise. We don't move. We don't take walks. We're kind of just in this self-created isolated bubble,” said Komosa. “And we think it's helping us get more done when the reality is, it's having a reverse effect. It's actually hurting our quality work. I'd much rather have five quality hours of someone's time versus 12 hours of mediocre time. And they say, well, I'm going to wear this badge of pride that I worked 12 hours today. Well, great. And seven of those hours were terrible work. It's all backwards.” Komosa strongly recommends tracking your time. Go through your day and write down what you are doing in every 15, 30-minute blocks. What you'll notice is you will organically change your behaviors to what you want to achieve. The idea is first before you try to change and do something different, focus on what you are doing now. Then from that self-audit, decide you’re going to make some changes. The idea is to use that data to benefit yourself for the future–for tomorrow, for the next week, the next month. And so on. Click play for more.