Masterminds Unleashed: Leveraging Other People’s Platforms To Build Credibility with Jan Carroza

Hello, everyone and welcome back to kickstart the conversation. I'm your host, Catharine O'Leary, aka the quiz queen. And I am very excited today to have Jan Carroza on our masterminds unleashed segment of our kickstart the conversation, Jan is the author of rockin ROI, how to bootstrap e commerce with performance based marketing, and an affiliate marketing instructor she has. She is a 40 year marketing veteran writes about trends in offline and online marketing and has previous clients including Blue Cross m&m Mars, are we at less talk about Time Warner, she can be found at to jam carova dot bio dot link, we'll put that in the show notes. So hold on for that. Jan, welcome to kick start the conversation.

Oh, this is so much fun, thrilled to be able to do this with you.

So um, you have an interesting take on what you're doing now. You are recently retired from, from your corporate gig or, you know, the kind of working for other people working for other people. So Jan calls it retired with projects, which I love. And you are actually helping people kind of understand other people's platforms. And and I love this idea of. So as everyone knows, and I'm not getting on my soapbox, don't worry, pay. Go ahead. Yeah, paid advertising is not for the faint of heart. And it's not for somebody that's on a budget. So unless you're making probably $20,000 a month in revenue in your business, paid advertising, you know, is going to be a little bit of a challenge. So that being said, there are a lot there's 100,000 million different other ways to market your business. And what Jan is, is talking about is other people's platforms. So it's all about if I understand correctly, it's all about leveraging, leveraging leveraging your authority in other people's audiences and other people's platform. So Jan, you you explained it you I'm obviously butchering, I mean,

we're doing it right now, because today, we've each recorded, we're recording with each other. So what we've done is a little bit of a joint venture, a little bit of a collaboration, what I think people fail to develop, whether you're a small business, or solopreneur, or big corporation, is develop as much of the things that you can do for free to get your name out there as you possibly can, especially in today's environment, where you've got so many channels, it's just mind blowing, right. But people neglected that. And that's one of the reasons I wrote the book was to be able to say to the solopreneur, okay, you can start and you can do a lot of things for free before you spend your first dollar on advertising. And then if you're going to spend your spent start spending money on advertising, here's how to ramp that up. So that all the time that you're doing it, you're continuing to meet your ROI goals. Before you go on to the next stage. You're doing each one well, before you go on to the next one. But focusing on the blog post that I did, that was 30 ways to leverage other people's platforms, you kind of break it into segments where there are collaborations where you can do a blog posts for somebody else's platform, they can do one for yours. You can have give them a copy, or ideas bullet points to put in an email they send out to their audience, you can do the same for them. You can be featured in somebody else's newsletter, you can do PR it. I think so many people fail to do PR and I love that Joanne McCall promotes this so much. So you can become the person that media will come to on a given topic. But you can start by just reaching out locally and finding local media, local podcasts, local newspapers to be featured in I think people get are afraid perhaps to kind of put themselves out there. There's also lots of things that you can do as a speaker. So you can do in person gigs. You can do your own meetup. There's just a lot of ways that you can expand and get your name out there, get your message out there and get more business that don't cost any money before you tackle and go okay, now I'm going to buy Facebook ads or whatever you're going to try that that starts to eat up budget.

So there's a lot to unpack there. As most of you Go on in this audience know I work with Angel Tusi for she's my, my PR person, Guru, if you will. And she helps me with my PR releases and everything. But I mean, you don't need that, like a person like that you can go on to Google, throw in your topic of what you do. And at the top of Google, it has little fat like little little folders, there's one for images, you've probably seen them. There's one for videos, there's one for news. And you can actually pull up the news, like what's been written on your topic, and by whom, so is Forbes writing about you, or about your topic is entrepreneur writing about your topic is vocal Orangeville Gazette, writing about your talking talk topic. So that's something that you can do. Now, here's the challenge, exposure without a way for them to connect with you, is a little bit of a waste in my opinion, right. So you've got to have a way for people to connect with you. You agree?

I do. And I love the idea that we could tap into your, your wheelhouse of the quizzes to do that, because you've got to have that call to action. When you do any of these, right, you've got to be able to send them someplace and, and be able to start to convert to nurture and convert that person. And the fact that a quiz can do that faster, better, offer more information than just sending them to your website to.

And it can work on any platform. So whether you're on a podcast, or a summit, or a giveaway, or a networking group, or a you know, speak to sell.

Yeah, exactly. You could be a speaker on a panel anywhere, or like, like we talked about before, you could have something in a QR code on your business card. And those are ways to kind of get them engaged. And I liked that you said, not just know, like and trust, but find a gap. That so now you're solving a problem. While when you're giving something right? So you're you're giving your message, but you're also offering an opportunity to solve a problem. And that's a huge bonus. And I think that's why a quiz really tacks on a new level of service, when you're out there getting your message across,

right. And what Jan is talking about is that ability to kind of take your clients through a little bit of a journey with the questions that you ask in the in the quiz, they get to tell you kind of where they're at. And then you can ask them a question, you know, 12 months from now, where do you want to be at and then they've realized, holy crap, I have a gap, you know, where I want to be and where I am now, based on what you've asked me I, you know, I needed some help in closing this gap. So, so that's that's kind of the the quiz side of things, but other people's platforms. I mean, I love podcasting. I love being on other people's podcast and reciprocating and having, you know, people, people guest on mine, you know, it's a great way to get into other people's platforms. Again, if you have that. It doesn't have to be a quiz, folks. I don't know why you wouldn't have a quiz. But it doesn't have to be, but some sort of a way to get people into your community into your sales Castle, as angel would say, so that you can be nurturing them. And and otherwise, you know, it's, it's conversations for fun, not for business, if you don't have a way for people to connect with you and a call and a strong call to action to do so what are they going to learn what's in it for them. So you know, they, you'll want to check out Jan's 3030 ways to leverage other people's platforms, because it's an excellent way to get out. But here's the deal as well. And I think Jen, you and I could talk about this, but pick a lane that you really love to do. So if you don't love writing, don't offer to write blog articles. Right? If you don't love, like talking with people being interviewed, don't offer to be on other people's podcasts, like, pick a lane, like pick what you love to do, and what lights you up, because that's going to attract your ideal clients better than anything else is because you're excited. And if you feel like you have to do it, it's going to come through that way. Would you agree?

I do. Absolutely. And, and also, you don't want to spread yourself too thin, right? So you want to work on the things that you're good at that you'd like and that, like you say it's kind of staying in that area that you're comfortable with but do a really good job of it. But at the same time I want to say don't forget to get out of your comfort zone. Good point. So I can remember my friend Denise Wakeman was telling us to get into video and I say that's the last thing I want to get Get involved in you know, but but now that we've seen that video is everywhere it's easy to do you know, I'm a convert. I understand it's

it's a really good point. Just because you're comfortable doesn't mean you shouldn't try new thing right? Well I'm yeah so I so for me, for example, I love networking. I love talking to people. I love being on podcast Stamets all day long, even gift giveaways, but make me do posts on social media every day. And I'm like no to Hell no, no, that's new. No, thank you. My, my very good friend, Jackie cote coach Jackie. is amazing. And she does a daily and that's like how she's, she's crafted a she's marketed her six figure coaching business, just on Facebook and Instagram. Brilliant. Love it. That's what lights her up. Right? Not me, so that she found her lane, he found her lane. But that doesn't mean that she doesn't try new things. And and you're right, you should. Because you know, you can't stay stagnant either, especially with the way that things change. And with AI now, we were talking briefly about that earlier. And God God knows where that's gonna go. I am definitely on the Chat GPT train. But you know, who knows where it's gonna lead me. So yeah, so everyone the in the shownotes will be the link to Jan's 30 ways to leverage other people's platforms. What I'd love to do Now Jen is kind of a new thing for us, like kickstart the conversation, but I want to flip the switch a little bit and talk about and just kind of brainstorm really quickly. It's not going to be a full quiz. But what kind of a quiz would you like, for your business? So so the first thing I want to kind of ask about, and we talked about this briefly, before we got on air? You know, you are building a community of people in on LinkedIn, and people that you know, subscribe to your newsletter, so that you can be sharing other people's platforms, right, effectively, right? So you're, you're kind of facilitating that share of platforms and way people's people can connect with one another. So a quiz for you, I think, would be something that would, you know, excite people to get on the newsletter to be able to find out what where else, they might be able to plug into other people's audiences and other people's platforms that are free, not paid Correct.

For the most part three, excuse me, the the other thing is, I'm always looking for, as I'm reading and learning and listening. I'm sharing tips and tricks on what makes marketing better business better productivity better. And so I'll share those in the newsletter too. And sometimes I'll throw in something at the end, like, you know, something from one of my favorite museums, that's interesting. So, so it's a little bit of a number of things. But the the court, I've got a kind of a core group that I talked to that are people who've known me for a long time, in my LinkedIn area that people on medium are new to me, but they're, they tend to be other readers, other writers that are looking for interesting things about marketing and business. So yeah, so my, my notion and my my purpose is to share things that I see as trends that can be helpful to entrepreneurs, mostly. And then to also kind of identify, Okay, these are people that you really need to follow like Katherine O'Leary, if you want to learn about these different topics, these are the things that you need to see.

So for you, it could be something along the lines of uncover the secret resources to marketing, you know, for entrepreneurs. Right, right, like, and so the 3am question at that point in time for your ideal clients are like, it's kind of like, Huh, I wonder what's going on? Like, I wonder how am I going to use AI? Or how am I going to figure out a quiz or right, you know, it's kind of like that. How do I kind of keep it on track? How do I keep it like, you know, on trends,

how do I stay ahead of what the latest thing is? Because, I mean, there's still a lot of people there that are just sitting on the edge not trying to get into AI, for instance, but maybe I'll share a quote or a resource in the newsletter that says, Okay, here's this great and I've done this already marketing AI Institute is offering some free things where you can list To learn in 30 minutes about the latest on AI So yeah, that that kind of thing.

Marketing AI Institute See, I didn't know that. I'm gonna check that out. I'm gonna check that out today actually. Um, so something along the lines. So so the three M question of how do I stay on trend or ahead of the trends in probably a casual way. So it's not like I don't want to be on a three day summit necessarily.

What's the latest? What Yeah, what am I missing just just something I can tap into for 30 seconds and just see if there's something that strikes my chord as what I'm thinking about, or what I'm looking at. I, I did one recently where I showed four different marketing pros, and highlighted their podcast episodes where they talked about how they identified something interesting, either in an interview where they were listening to a guest, and they learned something, or they learned something developing a product or so they describe their moment where the light bulb went on. So we all have those things. And it's interesting to kind of see how other people come around and find things that really make a difference in their business where they can see a new path going forward, or a new focus that they need to turn their sights on.

So for you, I think that's something along the lines of, you know, uncover the latest trends, and in or uncover the latest, discover the latest marketing trends for your business. And then you can ask a few questions around, you know, which of the following topics are you most interested in right now? You know, is it AI? Is it how to build a team? Is it automation? Is it you know, like, you can list whatever, like, you know, the kinds of things that you tend to write about

content creation, podcasting? Sure. That's great.

Um, and then and then another question can be, you know, how are you marketing yourself? Now? Are you using other people's platforms? Are you using paid ads? Are you, you know, you can ask a few questions there, they can get kind of a sense of what they're currently doing and what they're kind of interested in. And then by doing that, you can actually say, you know, what, you're probably interested in the latest tips and tricks around, maybe it's AI, or maybe it's the latest tips and tricks around marketing in general, or podcasting in general. The content creation in general, right, and then you can, you can actually invite, invite everyone to you to sign up for your newsletter as the as the last step. So, you know, you know, discover the hottest new marketing trends here, you know, for your business, you know, and take the 62nd quiz to find out what you you know, what you need to focus on right now based on where you're at and what you need in your business. And then by asking a few questions about what what they're currently doing, and you know, what they're interested in, you can narrow down to a couple of solutions around maybe it's, you know, kind of higher level stuff like content creation, podcasting. You know, YouTube channel and AI I'm, we're making it up now. But

right, or what, what's scary, which of these things scares you?

Well, it's not so much scare. Because I don't know if people

are going to honestly intrigued that Yeah. What do you

want to learn more about there? Yeah. You know, because you do you do want to flip that you do? You do want to make sure that people will answer the question. So that's, that's a podcast or podcast. That's a quiz that might work for driving, you know, subscriptions to your LinkedIn. Oh, I like it. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you. Okay. Well, everyone have

my marching orders, too.