Tahnee Sanders - Marketing for the Real World

Welcome to the Real People Real Business Show. My name is Stephanie Hayes and I'm a business strategist who loves to speak with like-minded entrepreneurs to share their real stories and the gritty details on building their businesses. On this show, you won't hear about the glamorized entrepreneurship journeys that you see online. You won't be told how to make six figures in six weeks. Instead, you can expect to hear real, vulnerable and inspiring stories that you can relate to that have helped create the foundation for each of. Businesses. Goodbye, boss Babes. Hello, real life entrepreneurs Today I am so excited to welcome Tahnee Sanders. Tahnee is a multifaceted marketing strategist and copywriter. Since 2019, she has supported more than a hundred small businesses through her strategy sessions, done in a day, copywriting service and group coaching. She's also been featured on shows like If I made a podcast and has been a contributor for Fairfax Media and Real Weddings Magazine, as well as a speaker at Summits like the 2020. 2022 . I can barely say that. Simply Business Summit among others. Welcome to the show today, and thanks so much for taking the time to share your story. Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie. I'm looking forward to our conversation. Well, we just discovered that you used to live just an hour away from where I live now, and I am so excited to know that because most people, when I say I live in Squamish, they're like, yo, No idea where that is. I know my first reaction was how do, how did I not know that? ? It's just down the, just down the road. Up the road. Yeah. Well down. Yeah, up, I guess up the road. That's slight slightly up. We're still at sea level. It depends on where you're coming from in Vancouver. That's a good point. Yeah. And so you have had quite an adventurous career and uh, that led you to where you are right now. So let's dive in and, and fill me in. Like give me the whole. Would love to. So I started my career as a journalist, so that's what I studied. I majored in, um, journalism and I was really fortunate, got a cadet ship, which is almost unheard of these days. There's so few of them still around in the, um, media landscape. And I was in newspaper, so I did my cadet ship. I rapidly rose the ladder at 26. I was the youngest editor of a daily newspaper in Australia and. In theory and on paper, I was living my best life, like as a student. That for me was like the pinnacle. If I could be an editor of a daily paper, like what in the world? And just through a series of events had happened and I was 26 newly married and I was completely and utterly burnt out. I had nothing left in the tank and I was like, this can't be all there is . So my husband and I, um, did a delayed honeymoon. Did whatever a young person does. Took our backpacks and we went through Central and South America. And about halfway through our trip we went, Hmm, not quite ready to go back to Oz. Cuz in my mind I was going back to media again and I was like, I just, I didn't quite feel refueled. And we were fortunate to be in a financial position where we didn't have children yet, and there was no one else depending on us. We were like, where could we just go and do one more year? And we set it on Vancouver. And my husband got a job and my visa didn't come through initially, so I was just in kind of a bit of a limbo phase where I was freelancing, writing for some companies back in Australia and I thought, I need to do something. And I was walking to this little coffee shop up the road from where we'd rented an apartment in Vancouver and as I'd walked to the coffee shop, I'd pass this adorable little flower shop every day. And it was just like one of those, like from a movie scene, like, oh my gosh, it must just be so beautiful to work in there every day. And over a few weeks, my visa had eventually come through and, but I walked home and we didn't really know anyone yet. So I, my husband was going to an office to work, but he'd come home and I'd be like, talk to me . Like, I haven't spoken to people all day. And he came home this one day and I said, I think I'm gonna go and work in the flower shop up the road. He's. Okay. I think that's a great idea. And it was just like silence, because I had actually verbalized this thought that I'd had for quite some time, and then I had to do something about it because I'd told someone and they had validated it. I was like, oh, right. I have zero experience. I know nothing about floristry. How in the world am I going to get a job in a flower shop? And in my mind, this was for a year. It was just gonna be like a career. You know, they're, I'd head back to Australia full of energy and I'd go back to media. And anyway, I figured out that this floral shot was absolutely beautiful, but it didn't really have a strong social media presence. They had a blog, but it was inconsistent and I could just see so much amazing opportunity for the brand. So I wrote a pitch and I cold pitched this business and said, look, I really wanna learn about floristry. I will do your marketing strategy. I will manage your social media. I'll manage your blog for free, if you will. Give me a job and teach me about flowers and. Saying that out loud. Now it does sound utterly ridiculous. Um, but for some reason it worked. and the owner of that flower shot really resonated with my story and she was like, are you kidding me? That would be incredible. And thus started, uh, the, honestly, it was the beginning of the next phase of my career, to be honest. So I did my floral internship, I guess, and then that kind of progressed into me being the wedding and event manager, um, for that business. I took them through two rebrands over my time there. Um, What I think I learned was I loved the flowers, but PS the absolute, physically hardest job I've ever done. Long days. It's not. It looks glamorous. There is very little glamor in floristry. I have so much respect for anyone that works in that industry. But what I realized through that journey was I started to connect with, um, lots of other small business owners, and particularly originally small business owners in the wedding industry. And that led me actually into working as a content strategist for, um, uh, a blog in the wedding industry in America called Once Wed. And that was when I really started to see that this weird set of skills that I'd started to develop from being a writer through to doing marketing for small businesses through to understanding a really unique industry. All of a sudden those skills had a purpose working for this blog. And again, jumping forward, um, a few more steps. The founder of that blog went on to find, to found an online learning company and took me with her as she founded that company, um, to be the content strategist and, um, kind of. To do all the marketing strategy of the creation and launches of, um, a whole stack of courses for creative entrepreneurs. And this was before everyone had an online course. So this was the early days, like we were bootstrapping, we were making the platforms that our courses were hosted on. This is before you could just pay a monthly subscription for an online hosting platform and all those things. But that for me was like soul on fire kind of work. Like I felt like I. Being able to make a difference to all of these creative entrepreneurs through the content of all of these experts whose courses we were helping create. But as I began to sit on honestly over a hundred webinars, um, as part of all of these online courses, I was in the chats doing all the moderating of the comments and fielding the questions back to the expert. And I started to realize that while everybody's businesses are unique and everyone feels like. No one understands what they're going through. The honest truth is we all have the same struggles, but what's challenging is we want someone to put those struggles and the answers to those struggles into contexts uniquely for our businesses. And that's when I was sitting on this webinar one day and went. I can do that, I can, I can be the person that answers these questions, but in context, and I think online courses are amazing and there's so much you can learn from them. But where it gets challenging is you then want someone to put it into context. Like, oh, I get that, but how does that work for my business? And that was kind of the light bulb moment for me that was like, I need to start my own business. And I should say at this point, we. Five or so years into our can Canadian stint. It obviously went for much longer than a year. Our first daughter was born in Canada and I kind of went to, um, the owner of the company I was working with and said, I have this idea. I dunno if it's gonna work, but I think I should start my own business. And she's like, I think that's a fantastic idea. I think you should too. And that was the start of the strategy studio. And fast forward. Three, four years now, and I have moved back to Australia. I have two children. Um, but I just absolutely couldn't imagine it any other way. It was, yeah, it was a weird sequence of events, but if I had never walked into that flower shop and asked for that job, I never would have the business that I have today, even though my business now has very little to do now with floristry.. That's how it works, right? Is, is we just, you know, when we remain open to opportunities and unafraid to see what happens, that's when the most amazing things. Ha And I think I, what I wanna call out is something that you, you mentioned like we have a very saturated industry, the. Business education. Mm-hmm. industry. Mm-hmm. is extremely saturated, but, but what people will pay for is curation and relevance. Right? A hundred percent. I think that that's what you, you, you know, we're speaking about, so here we are today with the strategy studio. Tell me more about the services that you offer, who you work with, how you've kind of developed the current iteration of the, of the. Yeah, so today I predo predominantly work with female founders of small to medium businesses. And what I like to say, my zone of genius is I work with these women to help them communicate their value through their marketing and their copywriting so they can charge what their expertise is truly worth and run enjoyable, profitable businesses. And I think that communicating your value part is what we all get hung up on. We have amazing expertise and we have a really quality product or service, but we don't. Know how to let others know about that. And from the outside looking in, it can often be really hard to understand the value or why a price tag is attached to a certain person's product or service. So the way that I help women with that is I have kind of three, three core services and my first is a strategy studio. So that's when we jump on a call together and whatever someone's, um, struggling with, we kind of nut through it together. And I always. It's like almost all roads lead to marketing because no matter what you're struggling with, there's generally a way that your marketing can help you improve that struggle. It might not be the entire solution, but it's always a big part of it. Even if it's, I wanna increase my prices, but I'm nervous that no one's gonna pay my new rate, well, All that I hear when I hear that is, oh, we just need to communicate your value more clearly through your marketing so people don't question your rate. So that's kind of what I do on a strategy session. It's obviously not just about pricing. It could be you've come into a massive roadblock and you dunno how to show up and show up in your marketing, or perhaps you wanna launch a new product or service, but you dunno what that messaging is to. Tell people about it or you're doing a business pivot and you're nervous that people aren't gonna understand where that pivot came from and it's confusing. So it's a lot of work around messaging and sometimes it's just a big fat help . And that's just when, honestly, I have a questionnaire that people obviously complete so I can do my research and come in with some insights to offer, but it's just about being there and kind of guiding you through, um, like. Really, it's a conversation, but a deep and meaty conversation where hopefully you leave with like a new action plan of, okay, this is what I need to do next and this is what's going to move me forward, or get me out of this stuck position. And I'm really upfront, I'm not a report writer, so there's no big 10 page document that comes at the end of it. What I want to come from the end of it is like a clear note list of these are the next five or 10 things that I need to do to move my business forward. So that's my strategy session. And then a session that I began to add on, which ironically wasn't part of my business when I started, is copywriting, which sounds ridiculous. I was a journalist. Why did I not offer copywriting? But I don't think originally I realized how great the demand for that was. And what I began to find through all my strategy sessions were people said, Excellent. Yes. That means I need to have better copy on my website or I need a new service guide, or I need a new email nurture campaign to connect with my potential clients once they've downloaded my lead gen. Cool. Can you write that for me? And that's kind of where it started. And I realize that the most value in copywriting is when it has a fast turnaround time because. copywriting is one of those things that can be a long-term project and then you kind of lose your momentum and then a month later you get the copy back and you're over it and you've lost the drive to like keep that process moving. So my copywriting is done in a day service, so a client literally books with me the weird date set in the calendar and that date is. A hundred percent devoted to working on their content, whatever that might be. And I say done in a day, it could be two or three days. It obviously depends on the size of the project, but the idea of that is that it just has that a fast, efficient turnaround time. So you are getting the copy back when you still have the motivation to do something with it. Um, Then the third of my services is a group coaching program, which is really based around, um, accountability and getting, um, momentum in your marketing outside of what I call the norm. I'd say a lot of business owners get to a point where they're like, they've nailed their social media, like they know how to show up on Instagram and do the things. Um, but maybe that's kind of their limit of what they're heavily invested in. And I never like to tell people to go onto a gazillion platforms because who. The energy or time or resources to actually do that. But I think there becomes a point where we can add something else into our toolbox of marketing. So whether that's improving our seo, whether that's working on email marketing, um, whether that's starting to pitch ourselves, um, to be a. You know, um, presenter of an event or give a keynote or be in a podcast, whatever that might be. So my group coaching program is really about just like taking your marketing up a notch and starting to reach out beyond the world of social media, because I always say you need to invest in the real estate your own, and you do not own, and I don't mean own in a yucky way, but you don't own your social media followers. You have no way to continue connecting with them. Something like what is currently happening to Twitter happened to Instagram. If you suddenly didn't have a way to access, or your account got blocked or whatever happened, what would happen to your business? And I never want all those eggs to just be in one basket that's owned by a social media platform. So my group coaching program is really about how do we go beyond that, but also how can we hold one another accountable to actually make those steps happen? So they're kind of my three core offering. I love it and I, I'm sitting here grinning because, um, what you said earlier about everything leads to marketing. One of the things that I always say to my clients is like, everybody thinks they have a marketing problem where they really need to just figure out their business model first. So we're like two sides of the same coin. And then yes. You know, I know a lot of marketing professionals who are like, I wish my clients would do this work first and anyway. So do you find that that, that you're running up against that where you have business owners sort of show up in your space and And they haven't really defined their business yet? Yeah, and that's why I call them strategy sessions and not straight marketing strategy. I do say I'm a marketing strategist, but that's really just. Being clear about what I do, but honestly, so much of a strategy session is business strategy because you are a hundred percent correct that marketing is only gonna fix it if the foundations are right. If you don't know what your brand stands for, if you don't know your core values, if you don't have systems and processes, there's a thousand things that need to happen before your marketing will work. And the last thing I want is to give you 10 strategies to go and. Cater to a new, to a, like, to grow a new email list or something if you don't have the foundations, right. So there's definitely occasions where I'll say, look, that's really, I can see this is what you need here. That's outside my wheelhouse. Here's some excellent people to speak to and then come back to me. I never wanna, um, I will bring as much value as I can, but I, I know where my expertise end. Um, yeah. So, but you're right, there's so often that they're, it's like they're the two pieces of the puzzle, right. And if, if one of them is drastically underserved, it doesn't matter how much you top up the other one, it's just not good. Yeah, you do, you can't do all the heavy lifting. . You don't wanna throw good money that doesn't really work for you. But I think that that's the other piece that I, you know, I, that of what you said that I thought was really important is that a lot of people go out there and they, they write copy or they build messaging around what they think people wanna hear. Mm-hmm. , but it's not really aligned with who they are and, And like it ends up being quite vanilla. And I, I think, you know, when people get their messaging right, it's when they've finally peeled back the layers of what really, and this, this takes a long time. I'm what, like seven or eight years into this particular business and this iteration of this business. And it's just now that I'm like, ah, I know who I wanna work with. I know what's in here. I know what that particular audience is, and it's a scary thing to, for a lot of people to focus Right. and to, yeah. And to, you know, start serving an audience that is that particular Yeah. But, um, you know, I, I, I wonder how you sort of navigate that with your clients and helping them really pull out those things are so uniquely. Yeah, I think that's such a great point, and I, I even went through that myself as a business owner. When I started my business, I had built a reputation for myself. Very much so within the wedding industry and I, because people would see me moderating webinars or they would've met them through industry events and things like that, and I very much initially was like, oh, these are my people. These are people I need to serve. But when I really drilled down, I have a lot of love and respect for the wedding industry. I can serve people beyond that industry. But then that for me wasn't a case of, oh, well, I'm just opening the gates to working with everybody. That was kind of the start of my journey to realize who my ideal client is, and I obviously had them originally, but that's one thing I would really say to people is your ideal client can evolve as your business evolves, and that's okay, because I think we got so hung up on, you know, this ideal client avatar that all of a sudden when that doesn't feel right anymore. We, it's also a bit of an identity crisis. Like what am I, what am I doing wrong? Or is my business wrong? It's like, no, you, your business has just grown. Or with that, your ideal client has two. And I think that that's, um, to answer your question, often in strategy sessions, I'll say to a client, I'm like, I ask two questions. My first one is, tell me about your typical client. And they'll talk, tell me about who they're currently working with. And then I'll say, now, tell me who you'd love to work with. And sometimes the answer is the same. And that's when I'm. Winner. Like, you're on the money, you are, you are working with your people. Like that's fantastic. But if they tell me a different person of like who they aspire to work with, sometimes that even shocks them a little bit. They're like, oh. Whoa. Yeah, they're really different people, aren't they? And it's not until you put them side by side like that, that we often kind of have that, that light bulb moment. And I see that as, yeah, it can be scary, but that is such an amazing opportunity to like hit the pause button for a minute and go, okay, well what is my message? Maybe. My message has evolved a bit as well, or maybe my service offering's evolving and it can kind of be like in a good way, a bit of a domino effect of what are all these little micro tweaks we need to make in our businesses to get back into alignment with who we most want to communicate with. And we talk in marketing all the time about pain points, like what is your customer's pain point? But again, that's something that when you've been in your business for a couple of years, It can almost become a little bit stale. Like you become so familiar with what your customer's pain points were, uh, that you just go onto a little bit of autopilot. And I often like to again hit reset on the pain points because those evolve too. Like you only have to look at covid to look at pain points that existed three years ago are completely different pain points to a lot of businesses to what they're dealing with now. So I think the whole process needs to be like really malleable. Like you need to be open and willing for and to embrace those changes. The pain points change. Your ideal client might change. Your service offering might need to change, and that to me is not something negative. That's just an incredible opportunity to get more into alignment with who you most wanna serve. And really, that's the kind of soul on firework, right? That's what gets you excited and gets you back into that zone of, oh yeah, this is right. This is, that's the feeling. That's why I do what I do. I'm so glad that you, um, are speaking to this because I think it's one of the things that makes business owners feel like they're doing something wrong all the time because it's totally natural that your business evolves and grows and matures. It should. , right? It's It must and it should. And if I look back seven years, I'm just like, oh, I can look back for your four years in cr. Yeah, exactly. But it does and, and as particularly when it's like a personal brand when it's so, so much you, because we change too. And I would say like, I'm 47 now and I have a very like specific perspective on my life. And as an aging woman, it's like, um, This, you get bombarded with this whole other mindset shift and all these other perspectives. And so, you know, I'm shifting and pivoting my business to work specifically with women who are not spoken to. Mm-hmm. , who are, you know, the 45 plus. The 40 plus who are just like, not perceived as important or interesting or anything like that. And so our, like, that's my perspective and that's my, my. Kind of passion, and maybe in five years it'll be something else, but this expectation that you kind of get somewhere and you stay there. Mm-hmm. , that's like the kiss of death for business because then you feel like you're always failing. You feel like you are supposed to arrive and you don't arrive. And the reason you don't arrive is because you shouldn't arrive. Like this is, yes, this is this awesome, like malleable. You know, piece of clay that we can continue to, and I think that's fun. I think it's super fun that, you know, I can go into this new phase of my business and I can completely reinvent anything and that's awesome. Right. It's, I love that you said that. I can't wait to do it. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. Definitely. And I think when I am so often working with working with clients and they're like, I just feel like I've, I've lost my. Like, I've lost their energy. Like I've, I feel like all these young people are coming in and starting businesses and they're cooler on TikTok than me, than me, and they're more comfortable showing up on social media and it almost like slaps them in the face. Like, oh, is my business done? Like, am I expired now? And And, um, I, and I get that, like, I, I understand the, the panic that that can cause. But again, like exactly as you just said to me, I'm like, oh gosh, no. Epic opportunity time. Like let's refocus rather than the messaging that sometimes we can receive from that social media world that tells us otherwise not true. Oh yeah. And you know what? This, this particular group that I'm moving towards, I mean, they don't give up. Right. Like they're, they're just like, you know what, let all the TikTok ERs do their thing. You know, , we're, we're, we're like, I'm serious over here. And some of them are amazing on TikTok, like, let me tell you that too. But they're unafraid. They are like, they don't take shit anymore. Mm-hmm. , they're just, They're just like very experienced, very knowledgeable, and calm. And so it's just like nobody's speaking to them. Yes. So that's where the opportunity lies, but it's also like something I'm very passionate about. Mm-hmm. So I think that doing the work that you're doing with your clients is almost like good business hygiene and we should . We should just have the expectation that we check in with our coaches once a year or that we, you know, re-up once a year, or that we, you know, this is a continuous process. And I think the more we can educate people along that sort of evolution mindset, the, the better service that we're doing for them. Absolutely. So here you are right now with the strategy studio, and I'm curious as to what you see is in the future for you. Yeah, I think I'm very open to that, to be honest. And I think since I've had my second child, so I have a girl and a boy, and since, um, Jacob was born, that for me was like, Again, a bit of another slap in the face to me, like, oh, I need to do things differently. And what worked? I started my business when Lydia was maybe six months old and had kind, I've been, I had been doing it informally well before she was born, but I think she was the catalyst for me to be like, this is a thing and you need to own it. And, and I did, and I owned it. And as you would. Businesses need to change when children come along because things just have to work differently. And Jacob was the catalyst for me to say, oh, okay, I need to redesign this. Because I absolutely was, as they say, living my best life, the way my business operated with one child, but it needed to change it. That just didn't work. Um, with my second, so the three core services that I offer now are not the same three core services I. Four years ago. And to me that's a great thing. So when I look at what the next thing is for me, I know that I am going to, I'm reaching capacity, or I'm kind of at capacity now. And I'm okay with being at capacity for a short time, but I need to, I need to look at what's next. And I think for me, that's why I'm kind of. I'm working more strongly leaning, more strongly now into my group coaching program so I can serve. It's, they're still very small, like 10 to 12 people at most. Um, but I wanna be able to reach more people in the, in the limited time that I have. So I don't, at this point have the desire to become an agency. I could, I could hire a team of copywriters. There's absolutely no shortage of that work. Um, but while I have a young family, that's just not a top priority for me. But I'm very open with. . But that might change. And that's okay too. And I think that, I've always said, I'm not like a long-term goal setter. I was never that person that would write their 10 year goals down because. For me, and maybe this came back to a journalism thing, but the minute they're on paper, I felt like I was being held to them. Held to by who? Like it's just me, . But that for me, always felt, um, it felt too concrete and I've always loved the process. I think like I'm passionate about the process, so I enjoy seeing where it goes. So I'm very okay and very open about saying I don't actually know. Next evolution of my business is, but I know it's about me serving one to many more so than one to one, which is what 80% of my business is at the moment. Yeah. And I love that. And we, I just had this conversation, uh, earlier today with someone that, you know, she, when I asked her that question, she said, I don't know. I like, I don't care. I , I'm happy how I am right now, and I'm open to change, but I'm not trying to make it happen. And that's an unpopular response with a lot of like, you know, traditional business people because they're like, no, no, no. You have, now I do believe that, you know, we, we don't get anywhere if we don't get really intentional about it and set absolutely some goals, but. Do we have to have some vision to build some big thing? No, not at all. I mean, that's, in fact, it's great if we can, this is ideal, right? These little marginal businesses, Uhhuh, where we can . You know, just kind of exist and, and have a little bit of control over our lives and, and supplement our lives with some work that we really love. So if some people are really wired to be like, I'm gonna build an agency, it's gonna be big and I'm gonna do all these things, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's totally fine. Yeah. And I thought, I, I always thought that I was that person and in. Previous career, I really was like, I was, get me out that ladder. Like let me tick those boxes, like world domination, like let's go. And then it wasn't, everything was cracked up to me. And that's not to say it isn't for other people, just in the situation that I was in. Yep. It wasn't, it wasn't the right one for me. Um, but. Yeah, I think I just, I like the idea that we get to choose, and I've definitely since become a business owner, become much more of a goal setter because it's so, even if you don't look at it, there is definitely something in the act of putting it on paper and in 12 months time, pulling that piece of paper out and just the intention that you set to be able to go back and look at that and be like, oh, wow. Yep. Oh, I launched that program. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did that. Like that is so fulfilling. Yeah. And I've obviously got far more into that now in since having my business. Um, but yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. It doesn't, you, if you don't have a 10 year plan, that doesn't mean you're not good at business. Not at all. And I think in fact, most planning is fiction. Um, and that's why when we do planning, we focus on three months and, you know, we, we may have some bigger goals. Like I don't that there's, you know, a far reaching goal for me that I wanna be buying and selling businesses. And so what are the things and the decisions I can make now? to get me closer and closer to that and mm-hmm. . So there's some intention there, but I'm not holding myself to some, you know, some outcome. So I think we can be more gentle with ourselves with the planning process. Oh, I love that. Yeah. And I think that we could be more gentle with ourselves in marketing too. I see a lot of people really f freaking out and like, Beating themselves up and I'm like, you need three clients. Mm-hmm. , you don't need 300. Right? Yeah. And if you wanna follow sort of the blogger business model, like go for it. But most of us, like those aren't the same metrics. Oh yes. That's not the same like way to measure a business that's like a little micro-business, personal brand versus something that has, you know, a mass following and you're gonna sell digital products, right? Yeah. Don't think there's the understanding that there's all these different business models out there. We kind of. Whitewash and like vanilla, our marketing so that everybody thinks they have to do the same thing. Oh, yes. And I talk so often about what I call, um, ideal world marketing and real world marketing because there is just so much information out there now telling us that this is how you have to do it, and this is the five step plan to have you the seven figure business or to have a six figure launch or. You know, all of that marketing talk, and if that's what you're after, like that's excellent. I have zero judgment about that. And I don't know, maybe one day I will be hoping for the six figure launch. It's not where I'm at at the moment, but just because that messaging is out there and absolutely prolific doesn't mean that's the way you have to do it. Right? In my mind, I always say, okay, people will come to me and be like, oh, but I'm not doing this and I'm not doing that, and they'll rattle off all the list of. I'm like, okay, cool. But that's ideal world marketing. Let's stop being o stop being overwhelmed by everything that we think we should do, and instead be empowered to do everything that we can based on our own circumstances, our own resources, our own team, our own time, whatever that looks like. And I would. Get so much more satisfaction out of seeing a small business owner be confident showing up and nailing their marketing in two places rather than trying to spread themselves so thin that they're trying to make dances on TikTok and they're trying to do Instagram lives, and they're trying to get onto the next social platform, and they're trying to nurture their list, and they're trying to pin all their blog of Pinterest. And don't get me wrong, all those things, ideal world should happen. But they can't. In most of the clients that I work with, that's, that's not the world that we live in. We're working in nap times and then kids have nap fails, and then that day's plan to write a blog just never happened. And that's okay. Like we still run profitable, successful businesses and we like, we succeed. So I just love people to not get so critical on themselves and so harsh on their own, in their own judgment that, oh, I'm not doing all these things that I know I should. To, to me, I should means I wish I didn't have to. Oh, yes. , I love that. Oh, yes. And honestly, like I am the most lazy marketer because I know that for me to get the kind of returns I want out of those channels, I would have to do a whole lot more. And I don't like it and I don't want to. Mm-hmm. . So I keep my business going through, you know, one or two key activities and that. That's it. And, and like the returns I get from doing all of the extra work on social media or channels are minimal. And, and so it's like, it's, why would I, why would I waste my time? I'll post there when I feel like it and I feel good about it, but there's enough content there already that if someone does find me and they go to check out some of my content, they'll. Years and years of mm-hmm. stuff to read if they really want to. Yeah. And like when I say to people that I'm not on TikTok, they're like, oh, but you're a marketer. I'm like, yeah, I'm a marketer in the real world, and that's not something I have capacity for. Yeah. And I'm okay about it. And it's also not always aligned. Like, I can't do short form content. I mean, I can sit here and talk for an hour, but try to get me to do something in 15 seconds. I, it just doesn't, I don't. It's not valuable. It feels , so that's fine. I'm allowed to say that. Okay, so we're cutting up on time, but I have a question that I ask everyone before we finish off. This show is all about being real and down to earth and pragmatic, and what's the difference between what we hear out there in the online business world and what's real? Hmm. I love this question. I think the difference is, We all have our own definition of success, and we often get distracted by what other people tell us success should look like. Mm-hmm. And when we can. Kind of stay focused on what we want our businesses to look like and how our businesses need to contribute to how the life that we wanna lead for ourselves, for our families, with our friends, whatever that might be. That's when we get to, we have the opportunity to make really smart decisions, and it's so easy to be distracted by what everyone else is doing. But does what everyone else is doing impact your life and your business? No, it doesn't. So I often tell people to mute, unfollow, whatever you need to do. Anyone that you follow on social media that doesn't make you feel good or makes you feel less than, or makes you feel like you should be doing things that you don't want to. I love that expression now. Um, and just. Really remember why you started your business, because it was probably to de des to design a different lifestyle, and you get to decide what that looks like. No one else. Other people can help you and guide you and help you put the marketing or the systems or the structures in place to make that a reality. But you get to decide. . Yeah, I love that. And I love the empowerment that comes along with it For sure. And you know, I'm hoping that we all are contributing to new business owners, understanding that they can take this slow, that they can breathe, that they can have some space, and that they can do marketing in really, really smart ways that feel really good for them. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. , um, So I wanna thank you for taking the time to chat today. Can you tell all of our listeners where they can find you? Yeah, so I'm most active on my email list, um, and on Instagram, which is the strategy studio. And if you follow me at the strategy studio, you'll find a link to join my email list. I, um, send out emails every week with. Sometimes they're life musing, sometimes they're actionable, um, marketing strategies, but they're always things that are on my mind or things that have come up in strategy sessions with my clients where I think all other people could glean something from this. Let's share it. So that's where you can find me or the strategy studio.com. Great. We'll put all of the links in the show notes so everyone can find you and, uh, go check out some of the great advice and the great tips that Tahnee has for you. And that's a wrap. I'm so happy we had the opportunity to chat with Tahnee today to hear more about how her business came to be, her experiences along the way, and what the future of her business entails. And thank you for tuning into this episode of Real People Real Business, where we get the real entrepreneurial stories and journeys that you can relate to the show notes, resources, and links from this episode are available on my website and social media platforms. Thank you again for joining us today, and if you've enjoyed today's content, I would love for you to give us a review on whatever platform you're on to help us share these genuine stories with an even bigger audience. Till next time, keep building, keep dreaming and keeping real.