Transforming Marketing from Obnoxious to Engaging with Nicole Stevenson

07/06/23 • 47 min

1 Listener

Marketing doesn’t have to be an obnoxious task you dread. Many small business owners are uncomfortable talking about themselves and their work with the public. Create an Instagram Reel? With me on camera? No, thank you.

According to Nicole Stevenson, CEO and Creative Director of Dear Handmade Life, it’s not about you. It’s about your message.

“I can’t serve my community if nobody knows about me,” she says.

Dear Handmade Life curates events, education, and community for creatives and small business owners. During her time as CEO, Nicole has done many things that made her uncomfortable. Marketing is one of those things. In her work with other small business owners, she finds this attitude toward marketing is pretty common.

Sharing your story is essential to building a community. And for Nicole, that community is everything.

“I would not have a business without this community that we’ve curated,” she says.

On this episode of Be a Marketer, Nicole and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss being more open to new systems and technologies, creating processes to complete your big tasks, and why it’s important to sit back and appreciate yourself once in a while.

👉 Marketing for Makers Summit, July 11 & 12, 2023

👉 How to Create a Custom Landing Page with Constant Contact

Meet Today’s Guest: Nicole Stevenson of Dear Handmade Life

☕ What Nicole does: Nicole is the CEO and creative director of Dear Handmade Life, which helps curate events, education and community for small business owners.

💡 Nicole’s key quote: “Don't wait ‘til you're ready. Just dive in and get started. Just build that list. Do not only rely on Instagram or social media. Just don't do it. You've got to focus on email marketing as well.”

👋 Where to find Nicole: Instagram

👋 Where to find Dear Handmade Life: Website | Podcast | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

According to Nicole Stevenson, CEO and Creative Director of Dear Handmade Life, it’s not about you. It’s about your message.

“I can’t serve my community if nobody knows about me,” she says.

Sharing your story is essential to building a community. And for Nicole, that community is everything.

“I would not have a business without this community that we’ve curated,” she says.

👉 Marketing for Makers Summit, July 11 & 12, 2023

👉 How to Create a Custom Landing Page with Constant Contact

Meet Today’s Guest: Nicole Stevenson of Dear Handmade Life

☕ What Nicole does: Nicole is the CEO and creative director of Dear Handmade Life, which helps curate events, education and community for small business owners.

👋 Where to find Nicole: Instagram

👋 Where to find Dear Handmade Life: Website | Podcast | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Previous Episode

Using Abundant Thinking to Solve Problems With Ed Bernstein

If it costs a little and means a lot, just do it! This is Ed-ism number one. It’s also how Ed Bernstein, President of 25Score, manages to thrive in a market led by Groupon and LivingSocial.

Ed bought 25Score, a local loyalty discount program, in 2009. Even with big-name competitors and a pandemic that forced most of his vendors to close temporarily, Ed’s business lives on. Lending a helping hand, even if it didn’t make a profit, allowed Ed to forge strong relationships throughout his community. Eventually, those relationships would create new customers.

“There's no way I could have built this company off of just advertising,” he says. “It's all word of mouth. It's all belly-to-belly, helping people every single day, every single month.”

On this episode of Be a Marketer, Ed and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss the importance of reflecting on your own accomplishments and how automation can help reduce mistakes and make your business more efficient. Plus, they share why sometimes you may need to shift your strategy to stay afloat.

👉 Create and manage a Constant Contact welcome email

👉 Create a recurring Constant Contact birthday email

👉 Create a recurring Constant Contact anniversary email

Meet Today’s Guest: Ed Bernstein of 25Score

☕ What Ed does: Ed is the President of 25Score, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley’s longest-running local loyalty discount program.

💡 Ed’s key quote: “You always look at yourself and say, What did I not get done? But if you look at what you did do, it's an insane amount of things that you've implemented.”

👋 Where to find Ed: LinkedIn

👋 Where to find 25Score: Website | Facebook

Next Episode

The Circle of Joy in Business With Paul Baik

Paul Baik, President of Paul’s Beauty Warehouse, believes in taking a holistic approach to business relationships in the beauty biz. It’s never just about the customer. It’s also about vendors, employees, and the customer’s customers. That’s why he considers his business a “circle of joy.”

“We wanted to focus not on making money, but making people beautiful ... We look at everything holistically now,” Paul says. And that means looking at the bigger picture by exploring what parts of the job his team does, what parts of the job his customers do, and what parts of the job his vendors do.

Paul’s Beauty Warehouse serves hairstylists, barbers, and trade schools in the Maryland/D.C./Virginia area. A “Costco for beauty” since 2006, Paul operates out of three locations and educates stylists through the company’s education program. Over the years, as his business has grown, he’s learned a few lessons.

In the early years, Paul ran a lean team consisting of his mother and just one other employee. Now he oversees 45 employees across all locations. One thing he’s learned is that customer service-driven people make the best team members. This rang especially true for Paul during 2020, as his team stepped up to pivot during closures in the hair care industry. With the help of his dedicated team, he was able to quickly begin offering online ordering and curbside pickup.

On this episode of Constant Contact’s Be a Marketer podcast, host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, talks to Paul about the challenges and victories of serving the haircare industry and why email marketing plays an important role.

Meet Today’s Guest: Paul Baik of Paul’s Beauty Warehouse

☕ What he does: Founded in 2006, Paul’s Beauty Warehouse serves hairstylists, barbers, and trade schools over three locations in the Maryland/D.C./Virginia area. Paul focuses on providing his customers with the highest quality hair care products.

💡 Key quote: “Just do it. Start it. Email is still very relevant. Get the email out consistently to customers every week. Share anything that your business is all about. It's something that all businesses should do.”

👋 Where to find Paul: LinkedIn

👋 Where to find Paul’s Beauty Warehouse: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.