Welcome to Kickstart the Conversation with Catharine O’Leary

Hello and welcome to Kickstart the Conversation. I'm your host, Catharine O'Leary, also known as the Quiz Queen. And I'm here to share with you my insights and experiences on how to generate leads, build lists, and leverage relationships in ways that are easy, fun and innovative. But first, I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little bit more about my experiences. And my reason for starting kick start the conversation. I am now known as the quiz queen. But believe it or not, it's not actually what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be the Wolf of Wall Street, you know, something super cool. I grew up in a small town in southern Ontario with a big Canadian Irish family. After completing my graduate degree in economics, I began a 30 year career as a market research and consumer insight specialist, where I worked with some of the world's largest corporations. Now, you might be wondering what the hell is a market research and consumer insight specialist? I know my father kind of wondered, I mean, he came back with, it's not even a real thing. Are you doing something dodgy? No, I didn't make it up. I'm not doing something dodgy dad. After all, it's just market research and consumer insights. But let me clarify exactly what that means.

Effectively, I was a translator, I was a translator between what customers wanted needed and desired and what corporate wanted to build and sell. I would ask questions of customers through questionnaires, surveys and focus groups, things of that nature, and find out what they wanted needed and wished for. I would take that information and translate it into corporate ease being you know, new product developments, innovations, marketing campaigns and sales conversations. In my 30 year, corporate career, I was able to work with most of the Fortune 100, including Apple, Adobe, HP and Pepsi. Maybe you've seen the Pepsi Super Bowl. Yep, I was part of that. Maybe you've had an Apple iPod. Yep, part of that, too. Maybe you've listened to Apple iTunes, we did some work there as well. All of this while asking customer questions and helping corporate develop products, services and programs. When it was time to leave corporate and the three hour Yep, three hour daily commute. I was honestly a little lost, I really didn't see a way I could turn my corporate expertise into a business that I wanted to start. I mean, I could have put out my own market research shingle. But I really didn't want to do that I was really done with corporate and it was time to move on. So I looked for something new and found an opportunity in the network marketing space. Now, I love direct sales. I think that the business model is fantastic. And I found a great product, great events, great community, I really enjoyed it. But the reality was, I was struggling with the business, I found it really difficult to generate high qualified leads for my business. I would spend countless hours on sales calls, spend 1000s on paid advertising, and honestly hurt my brain a bit trying to be an SEO expert. All of this time and effort. And honestly, my business still wasn't growing. I even had that thought, you know that when you're hiding under the covers, and you're thinking Dear God, like, what, what the hell have I done? What What in the world have you done to myself, maybe maybe it's time to go back to corporate, that took about 2.4 seconds, then I realized that there are not enough audiobooks and podcasts in the world to make me getting back in the car for 720 hours a year. That's what three hours a day adds up to. And I did not want to go back to that. So I needed to find a solution to this problem of attracting all the wrong leads into my business funnel. And not being able to, you know, find qualified people that were ready to start their own online business. That's what I was selling in. That's what I was trying to help people do. I mean, you know, people were being successful online. And there had to be a way a better way to generate leads and find my ideal clients. So I went on a search, to find a way to generate leads that would, you know, attract my ideal clients, and that in a way that I would learn maybe a little bit about them and what they needed and desired and they would learn a little bit about me and my business. Just what I used to do with corporate.

That's when I discovered the power of quizzes, you know, and then a light bulb went off. I mean, with my background, asking people questions came naturally to me. And I realized, you know, I wasn't actually asking anything in my network marketing business. I was moving straight from the marketing message into the sales conversation. And it was, you know, creepy it was, you know, proposing marriage on the first date. Of course, it wasn't working. I just hadn't been Hold up that know like and trust factor, I was moving straight in for the sale. That's why it wasn't working. So it was time, it was time to take a step back and ask some intentional questions. And I did that when I created my first quiz. And it was called What's your online business personality type? That actually came fairly easily to me. And I asked people who were starting to wonder about what kind of an online business they should start, I'd ask them a few questions about what they wanted to build. Did they want something legacy? Did they want something for freedom? Did they want something that will connect them with the network of people who did they want to really impact people with mentorship and coaching? You know, what was their experience level? And where were they struggling? Then, now that I've asked some questions that make sense, I could offer some customized solutions and in a fun way, by putting them in groups like super connector, Freedom seeker and visionary or mega mentor, the quiz, honestly, it was a huge hit, I was able to attract my ideal clients. So those people that were actually looking to start an online business, not looking for a job, not looking for a contract, not looking to sell me something. But people that were actually looking to start their own online business. And I asked them about their needs and offered my solution. It was a great way to build know, like, and trust factor. And in a short period of time, I mean, literally 60 seconds, and I was able to help qualify my leads. So anyone I did talk to already a hot prospect. In the end, I was able to triple my leads and double my sales. I mean, hey, in corporate world, that's the kind of thing that makes you a VIP. This was so much easier for me, then the endless postings, the paid advertising, the sales calls that went nowhere, I was excited to share what I found with quizzes.

So I started to helping friends with businesses implement quizzes to help their businesses grow. I soon realized that this, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses with intentional questions that would help create client relationships that would lead to the best offers and programs, finding the right people where they were needed. So ideal clients finding their ideal solutions. Fast forward to today. And I'm able to take my skills and market research and consumer insights, and turn that into a business that helps other businesses, ask the best questions and attract the best clients. Now, I love helping entrepreneurs to attract qualified leads, build their lists and leverage relationships to build businesses and serve clients. But I wanted to reach even more entrepreneurs, the amount of marketing strategies, tips, tactics, next shiny object that is available to us online right now. It's, it's overwhelming. And to be honest, it's daunting, it's really hard to know the strategies that are going to work for you and your business when there are so many out there. And it feels like you have to do all the things. And then if you don't do the next shiny object, something something you're gonna miss out on the biggest trend known to mankind. It's like not buying Amazon stock when it first came out or something. You know, like, you just you want your business to grow. And it's there's so much that it's hard to narrow it all down. It's exhausting chasing all these strategies, almost as exhausting as it is chasing sometimes your ideal clients. That's why I started kickstart the conversation. The podcast, where we talk about how entrepreneurs attract their ideal clients, build their client lists, and leverage those relationships to grow their businesses. I truly believe that by asking the right questions, you can attract your best clients and build long lasting relationships that benefit everyone. I also believe in learning from others. So I bring in an interview successful entrepreneurs who have built their businesses and attracted their ideal clients in all sorts of different ways so that you can learn. Look, I'm known as quiz queen. There's a reason for that. I do believe that quizzes are probably one of the best. Actually, that's not true. I believe it is the best way to bring in your ideal clients. It's not the only way. And you know, it needs to be the marketing that you have in your business, the marketing that lights you up. That's what you should be doing quizzes light me up.