Small Biz Buzz, by Keap

Small Biz Buzz hosts Crystal Heuft and Scott Martineau are joined by Mel Kettle of Mel Kettle and Associates, who is a Communication Specialist whose area of expertise is helping people connect.

“I work with clients so that they can get a clear understanding of how to connect with compassion, with conviction,” said Kettle. “I help people communicate so they connect and engage with their people. Whether it’s their people, their workforce, their customers, their stakeholders, their investors, their volunteers or whoever else they need to have that strong relationship with.”

She also has a podcast called This Connected Life where she discusses what’s important when it comes to connection and her audience, as well as welcoming many guests.

“Probably 50% of my episodes are guest interviews where I talk to leaders about how they stay connected with their people so that they can achieve the outcomes that they want to achieve both personally and professionally,” Kettle said.

Kettle believes that connecting starts with yourself. You need to have that self-connection piece and you need to be comfortable and competent with who you are and to look after yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. If you don't do that, then you're never going to present your best self as a leader to your workforce or to your client base, which is what many people forget when it comes to connection.

Kettle also provides insights on what small businesses can do to connect to their audience, their family, and themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and what they should be doing to anticipate permanent changes in the workforce for the future.

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Small Biz Buzz hosts Crystal Heuft and Michael Van Dusen are joined by Freestar’s Co-founder David Freedman and President and CEO Kurt Donnell, who discuss how being advocates for publishers has maximized their revenue.

Freestar maximizes publishers’ programmatic ad revenue specifically. Basically, every time you see an ad that appears on the internet, there's an entire auction that's happening in milliseconds behind the scenes. Freestar puts pressure on that auction to drive up the price to help publishers make as much money as possible and be competitive in a world where Google and Facebook continue to take a lot of the market share.

Freedman and Donnell deliver a real service that's very black and white in the sense that they drive revenue and people see it. It's also a revenue share model, so there's no upfront cost or fees for the publishers to work with them. “We're very passionate about the technology side and also giving a voice and a fighting chance for publishers these days, because it is a tough industry for them to survive in,” said Freedman.

“Our industry is pretty much all geared towards the advertiser. Everyone's focused on satisfying them, which typically results in the publisher getting screwed,” Freedman continued. “We wanted to flip that theory on its head and go the opposite direction. Publisher first is one of our core values and kind of our guiding decision making on everything that we do.”

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Small Biz Buzz hosts Crystal Heuft and Scott Martineau are joined by Jasmine Star, a photographer and business strategist who empowers entrepreneurs to build a brand and market it on social media to grow their business.

“Your net worth is your network and that network is really built on social these days and that has been a game changer for my business,” said Star.

The secret to a successful social media presence is the ability for people to show up consistently. It wasn't until Star had crafted a plan for consistency that people would expect her to show up as a representation of her business and her brand. She had created a brand using a blog with nothing more than her words and being consistent, and applied that same ideology to Instagram.

Her social curator business will help any type of content or organization see authentic engagement on social media.

“You are enough. Do you have the willingness to keep on pushing forward to get to where you want to go? I believe that we all have that wild ability for success as long as you remain undaunted,” said Star.

Jasmine Star can be found on all social platforms @JasmineStar. You can also find her at jasminestar.com and all of her social media membership. For those who want to create a brand in marketing and social media, you can find her at socialcurator.com.

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Small Biz Buzz hosts Crystal Heuft and Derek Harju are joined by Odeen Domingo, founder and owner of CO+HOOTS Coworking in Phoenix, Arizona, who discusses his experience being an entrepreneur, a husband and a father and how he balances it all. “You're a team. A family is just not a family. You have to work together,” said Domingo. “For me, I feel like you have to have the introspective what you want in your life. We go through stages where your business is everything. Then you have a family and then your family is everything but then you'd still have a business.”

Domingo believes if you're trying to be a family person, that's all you can do. If you're just trying, that's perfect. As a business owner, or someone who wants to be a business owner or entrepreneur or a startup founder, you learn that your time is valuable and that time blocks are critical. “Any time that you can give to your family, even though your business is taking over your life, that's perfect. It's fine. As long as your child knows that you love them, that's all they really need,” Domingo expressed. “As long as you're trying, as long as you're being intentional about it and everything else, it's perfect.”

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Small Biz Buzz hosts Crystal Heuft and Scott Martineau are joined by Brett Curry, who discusses how to leverage YouTube Ads to grow your business with a focus on ecommerce.

For those small businesses that don’t have a video crew or can’t invest enough money in video production, Curry breaks down how to create a compelling YouTube ad on a budget that will still see sufficient viewership.

He explains you can set your campaigns up to drive conversions, but you can also just set them up to optimize for views. Get creative when you start to build what's called a viewed video audience that has viewed your video before, so now you can run another ad to them or show them a display ad or a search ad next time they're searching on Google. If you approach it the right way, you're building an asset and an audience as well as potentially driving conversions right away.

When crafting a video, you don't have to go full production. You don't need special effects and trained actors or to hire a scriptwriter for $50,000. If you just remember that the most important elements are the script or the story that the video tells, and the simple visuals, the message can still be compelling.

“You could even use stock images if you had to, or basic footage that you add to it. So you don't have to go full production, in fact, I recommend you don't,” said Curry. “Start with some concepts, test those out. Once you know a concept works, then increase the production value and kind of take it a step further.”

Curry also reveals three types of content that businesses can use to build brand awareness on YouTube.

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