From Corporate Sales to Marketing Agency Owner: How Tyneshia Dise Built a Thriving Freelance Business #272

Tyneshia Dise 0:00 Again, we’re going to talk about confidence, because if someone tells me something, they’re telling me what their offer is. It’s not clear, or they’re not sure about it, that’s how it shows up. Emily Reagan 0:16 Welcome back to The Marketing Freelancer. I’m your host, Emily Reagan, a fellow marketing freelancer. Yep, I started in 2007 when I wrote my first press release, and now I help my smart friends do freelancing work because it’s game changing to be able to work during school hours, to add a side hustle, or to be able to pivot out of a career that you don’t love, or jump back into work after a baby break or whatever kind of break. So if you’re freelancing, this is the podcast for you. If you’re curious and haven’t started, you’re also in good hands. So today, I brought on one of my very own workgroup members, Tyneshia Dise, to talk about her experience freelancing, growing an agency, what she’s learned in working with clients and also about spotting the emotional gaps in messaging. We’re all over there with everything we’re talking about, because we can gain so much by learning from other freelancers who are just a few steps ahead of us. So hit subscribe so you don’t miss another episode, and let’s jump in. Tyneshia, welcome to this show. I’m so excited to have you here talking about DIY marketing, how to really step up our own services with our clients. You come from so much experience. You have an agency. Let’s start at the beginning and how you got here, into this freelance kind of, you know, independent contractor world. Tyneshia Dise 1:34 So my background is in sales, and just like a lot of individuals, I came from corporate, and I started to get burnout, and I started to ask myself questions, and I knew from working in sales, I said, you know, I probably can bet on myself and do a little bit better. So I started to do that. Slowly, I started freelancing. Additionally, I went back to school for digital marketing, and I slowly started forming my agency. I was a solopreneur for some time. I started doing some blog writing, graphic design and things like that. Additionally, I knew networking was important as well, so I started just connecting with local communities and things like that. And then, just like most people, word of mouth, and then I began to look towards larger marketing opportunities and making larger connections. Emily Reagan 2:24 So how long have you had your agency, and how many people are on on it? Tyneshia Dise 2:28 Officially, for five years. I’ve been freelancing for longer, and I’ve got four team members now. Emily Reagan 2:33 Oh my gosh. And what was I’m curious, from solo to having teammates, like, how long did that take you to make that transition? Tyneshia Dise 2:42 Honestly, earlier this year, because I knew I wanted to play bigger, and I, as I mentioned before, am kind of a deep thinker. So I like to know what I’m doing beforehand, and I like to have, as they say, all of my ducks in a row. I don’t just like to make decisions loosely or without again, thinking things through, and then also to definitely having the work to support the additional team members makes sense. And yeah, honestly, was joining your group. The Workgroup is phenomenal. Emily Reagan 3:14 Oh my gosh, I’m gonna have to ask you more questions about that, because I did not throw that softball at you on purpose. But I’m kind of curious, like, what are your main services with your agency? I don’t know if you do this, but I used to have an agency in 2018 it was really rough. It was a year where I had little kids, the husband deployed for a year, and it was something I wasn’t ready for, and so it was something I’ve thought about revisiting years later, but I think it’s a lot of people want to get there, and they’re not there now. So it’s like such an interesting conversation to have Tyneshia Dise 3:44 Absolutely so in terms of what I offer, I assist female founders with brand strategy as well as online visibility. I know that’s marketing jargon, so the gist of it is, is I assist with the brand audits, just really examining their online presence, if they’re showing up clearly, if their messaging is clear. Additionally, we build WordPress websites courses in Kajabi as well as Facebook and Google ads. Emily Reagan 4:12 So a lot of your clients in the online space, are they corporate, or a little of both? Tyneshia Dise 4:19 My clients are attorneys, wellness pros, financial professionals and service based providers. I do a little bit of E com as well. Emily Reagan 4:27 Okay, so back when you were a solopreneur, you were doing a little bit of everything, which is what a lot of our listeners are doing now. They’re kind of in the marketing department, figuring out their niche, picking it all out. And you have worked with a ton of clients where you realize, like, the DIY marketing is not working anymore, right? And so what are you seeing out there when your clients come to you, like, what are they struggling with? And why are they hiring you? Tyneshia Dise 4:54 A lot of people are spinning their wheels, and they’re doing the same thing. They think more activity. Equals more work, more people will, you know, chat with me or reach out to do a discovery call. So I really subscribe to the theory less is more. So really scale back, analyze what you’re doing and if it’s purposeful, and if you see an outcome, and that’s where we start with our audit. So we’re going to look at all of your online channels, all of your offers, and examine that customer journey thoroughly and see if it makes sense. Additionally to one big channel a lot of I think people sleep on is email marketing, and that’s something that we work with as well, because that’s how you’re going to, again, make your connections, nurture those relationships. So again, just doing an audit and examining your customer journey and where the gaps are, and then I feel like we’re going to talk about another big gap shortly. Yes, we are. Emily Reagan 5:52 I don’t know. I feel like there’s so many clients out there who think they know marketing, or if they did do marketing, they think they can do it. But when you look at that buyer’s awareness journey are like, what problems are they having where they know they need your help? I know you know you’re saying they’re spread thin. They’re probably trying to do, like, omnipresent everything, like, what really are they experiencing? Tyneshia Dise 6:13 It’s missing the emotional connection with their clients. And again, I’m a big believer in active listening. So in terms of when you’re having a discovery call, Strategy Session, one on one, what have you, frankly, 80% of that conversation should be the individual speaking to you. You know what I mean? You’re examining respectfully where those gaps are, and again, it’s making sure that you’re going from point A to point B with that particular client, and really selling the transformation at the end. So people buy into feelings. That’s the way we’re built as human beings. So examining what is the emotion that their client has to go through, and ensuring that you have an emotional connection you’re not robotic with your client. Emily Reagan 7:00 Yeah, I hear about that from a lot of Instagram coaches right now, like the emphasis is on, like, emotional hugs and emotion on social media. I see that a lot when it comes to conversions. I think one of the cliche sayings is people buy from emotions, not necessarily logic, and so learning to see that emotional gap and how to fill it. I think that’s like, such a good skill that a marketing assistant can add in. I know it’s like the client facing like we’re drowning. We’re just trying to, like, hit deadlines and keep the content going and then sometimes pass it over. And we need that extra, like unicorn, you know, magic dust, from somebody who understands messaging, positioning and can make it better, right? So I think about emotions, it’s hard do the clients even know they’re missing emotions? Like, are they? Are they even self aware? I was just thinking about how I hand over content sometimes to my team, like, we don’t always create it. Like thinking about that. Tyneshia Dise 7:57 I’m a big believer in reverse engineering, and then I will generally present scenarios, and I’ll say, Well, you told me this, or reframe it. And sometimes, again, you’ll have to say it a few different ways just for it to land. And again, I don’t necessarily act I’ll marinate on something so, and that’s one thing I encourage as well. We don’t have to make a decision right now. You know what I mean, we’re not putting out fires, but you know what I mean? Let’s think about this, and then we’ll put that plan into action. So again, just really thinking about what the offers are. The clarity the offers must be crystal clear. Also your the experience. You think about the experience that your potential client may provide, and you examine that for the customer, and then also, too, like I said earlier, if you’re spinning your wheels, that’s a systems problem. So we have to go back and dissect where, again, that disconnect is. And then once you start to align all that, you get your audience reach, you’ll start increasing your revenue. Emily Reagan 8:58 Okay. And I think a lot of clients are probably experiencing right now, just not as many sales. I mean, I feel like the digital course economy has changed and evolved, and it’s probably what they’re experiencing, but don’t understand why, why. And I think you need that emotional connection even more than ever, as in this trust recession. And how we speak like, I think I think about like the average faceless virtual assistant, and their messaging is so vague, so not specific, and like they could do better when it comes to that. Okay, so how do we identify this emotional gap for our clients Tyneshia Dise 9:35 It’s just narrowing down that customer journey? Put yourself in that person’s shoes and imagine how you would experience this. Another thing is ask your peers, community is everything you know what I mean. If you have a biz bestie or whomever, just say, hey, what do you think about this? Or how would you feel? You know what I mean. And then I would say, get a group, depending on your time of maybe five at the most, 10 individuals. Because. Sometimes it gets messy, and just ask them, What do you think about this? How do you feel? Not only that, a lot of individuals are doing beta groups or beta testing for offers. That’s another thing, depending if you’re sure if you should launch it, maybe do it at a discounted price, and then decide, and you can make tweaks along the way, and you’re still getting that feedback. Emily Reagan 10:20 Yeah, I think that feedback loop is important. There’s probably there’s probably, you know, tricks we can do in chat GPT to kind of pull out those emotional drivers. But the best, the best research, is with the buyer, the or maybe the person who didn’t buy as well. And, yeah, and it’s not always. Sometimes, like, I go a little bit off gut because I don’t have time, you know, but have you used chat GPT to kind of speed up uncovering that before? Tyneshia Dise 10:46 Absolutely. And one thing I’m working on for my clients is building custom gpts to help when we’re writing their content. So that’s one thing that I do for them. Additionally, while you’re doing that beta offer, think about your framework. What are you setting up? What repeatable process are you creating that works and is in alignment for your client? It doesn’t have to be perfect, because, again, a lot of individuals won’t move or breathe unless it’s perfect. That’s okay, and it’s okay to have a work in process, because it’s going to get better over time, as long as you’re talking about it, as long as you’re asking for feedback. Emily Reagan 11:23 I think I like frameworks, and I feel like we need to bring a training into the work group, especially for this, because if we can think about it now, early on with our clients. But I feel like a framework just had this conversation in my mastermind yesterday. We almost need to see a framework like the logical part of our brain needs to be like, there is a method to this madness. And think one lady had shared her sales page and was just all over the place, and we’re like, you know, it’s so all over the place and non specific that we don’t really see how you can accomplish this in the container that you gave us. And so I love a framework, but self admittedly, don’t have my own. But I know it’s so critical as a service provider and for our clients to have one for that logical appeal, like we want to know, like it will fit together. We can actually, like, get the result and the transformation. And then it’s so interesting, because I still hear that we buy from emotions. I think they come together, don’t you? Tyneshia Dise 12:17 Exactly. No, I agree 100% and if you think about it, scale it back. And for everyone, I always say, let’s make this simple. When you’re creating an offer, answer the questions, who you want to sell to, what it is, where is your offer? Probably online, right? And then you’re thinking about also to the tech you want to use, building around it, when you’re going to launch, and then who, what, where, when, and then the why. You know, why does your audience want to buy from you? Emily Reagan 12:46 I was just thinking about what those emotional drivers are, and, like, really, why we we buy, right? There’s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, right? And we have to, like, satisfy the bare minimum when it comes to our safety. And then up at the top of the pyramid is these extra ones. And I am, like, not the one to be teaching this, but I think we all kind of go through this with our marketing courses. But I know for people who buy UDMA School or, you know, come into the Workgroup, they are looking for confidence, right, relief, the pressure of not having to find clients, or feel like they have to dance on Tiktok to get clients. There’s always time savings, right, time freedom. We sell that a lot to our clients. There’s probably higher level statuses that we buy for our ego. Am I like missing anything that’s obvious when it comes to emotional driver, recognition… Tyneshia Dise 13:38 A good one with confidence, also too. People work with me because they want to be trusted online, and that’s what it is, and this may again be marketing jargon, but people work with people they know they like and they trust. Again, looking at your Google reviews, if someone takes the time to tag you in a social post, I mean, that just goes, you know, beyond it goes far. Emily Reagan 14:03 Yeah, yeah. I think about buyers right now and this economy and the way our online era is like, I hear mixed things. I see some people struggling with launches or the old model might not work the same. People are pivoting and tweaking messaging and just getting clearer. I do hear plenty of people like doing well too. I think it’s a critical time where, like, the businesses that have it together are going to keep doing well, and those that were kind of struggling and not really on solid foundations, they’re the ones that are struggling. And I see a lot of people going back to nine to fives in this, like creator world, right? So when it comes to our clients, but I just think about the emotional driver of fear as well. And people kind of like fear right now, but I don’t necessarily want to always, like, pull that trigger, right? It’s almost like pain point marketing. I’d rather do more of the transformational marketing and talk about, like, aspirationally, like, what is possible, what can we get out of this? Then, like, stay in some of those bad emotions. Are there other. Are good emotions that we should maybe concentrate on? Tyneshia Dise 15:03 It’s a really good question. Emily Reagan 15:04 I know I’m like thinking out loud, processing with you out loud right now, which is really fun. Tyneshia Dise 15:09 No absolutely any other emotions that are important, that are positive. Emily Reagan 15:15 Women in my community, especially me, going through a divorce is like control. It’s it’s financial independence, it’s that feeling. There’s like a deeper desire there, and I think, like, that’s what we’re trying to tap into, really Tyneshia Dise 15:30 It’s going through a mindset shift in general, like you said earlier, going from the negative emotions to what’s possible. Because I think that some people will beat themselves up internally, and sometimes they’re afraid to speak out. You know what I mean? Like so many people will say, this is a dumb question, in my opinion, there is no question that’s dumb. That’s how some of the greatest ideas are born. Just say it. But at the same time, you have to have the right people around you and feel safe in your community. You know what I mean? Emily Reagan 16:00 Yeah, okay, so let’s talk about, like, linking emotions with tangible outcomes. Because we know we’ve heard it on this episode. We talk about it in the workgroup. Previous episodes, we talked about like, clients are buying results from us, but we’re also clients are getting results for their clients, right? So it’s like, very meta here. So how can we link the two? Because emotion makes people dry, but we also need to be thinking in terms of outcomes Tyneshia Dise 16:26 Exactly. So I generally start out with, how do you want your client to feel when they work with you? What is the outcome? And I don’t want to sound generic and say you’re selling, but it’s more about what do you want them to feel? So then we will again, reverse engineer and outline the steps for them to gain that feeling. And marketing research is really huge with that as well. And then again, that’s where we’ll shift to the online messaging to make sure it’s in alignment. Because, to your point earlier, someone had this long sales page, and it had nothing to do with what they were selling. So in simplicity, less is more. It really is. Emily Reagan 17:07 Just being very clear, especially because we’re all getting so busy, and I know if I see a long form sales page, I’m like, glazing over. I’m like, I’ll have time to read this. Like, give me the goods. But I’m actually, like, a very dominant buyer when it comes to that, so I’m digressing. Okay, so your background is in sales, so I know what we just talked about could probably apply to a sales call too, right? Like reverse engineering, like that, feeling. So how would that work on a call? Or what have you had success with when you’re doing your own discovery calls? Tyneshia Dise 17:33 In terms of a discovery call, and this is something I’ve practiced for years. Definitely research the individual. Learn as much as you can, research the Online offers, and even just learning about their life lifestyle in general, like what’s important to them. You know what I mean? What can you bring to the forefront again, that they’re missing, that you see? And honestly, for me, if I’m going through things just pop out at me. They almost literally slap me in the face. I’ll say, Okay, someone needs to, for lack of a better term, change the messaging this color. And it sounds silly, but this color isn’t working for that. We need to put the call to action here. So it’s just really like I said, going through and doing that audit and making sure they’re achieving what they want to achieve. And then two, you have to ask specific questions. You can’t be speak in terms of generality, and just thinking about who their offer is for you have to, like, literally, go back, go back, scale back skill back. So hope that makes sense. Emily Reagan 18:43 Yeah, you talked about something earlier. I think we should bring it back. Is this active listening, right? How do you do that? In a sales call? I actually, I want you to tell me your quote about feelings close deals. Tyneshia Dise 18:56 Oh, absolutely. So one thing I like to do again with AI is I will record the meeting summary, right? Or, if you’re doing a recording transcript before you start to prepare a scope of work or proposal, or anything like that, watch that back and then just really understand where the person’s coming from. If it’s a lack of sales. They launched a course and it didn’t work out, you know, where there was a misstep, so, and sometimes two people are so, and I see this over and over again, buried in the work you’re not seeing that perhaps they may even be overworking again. Less is More so, where you can make the most emphasis with the most impact, and usually, like I said, it’s just scaling back, making a plan and committing to it and online visibility, definitely with your social channels, granted, you can’t always sell from social but your outward relationships as well. I’m a big person on relationships, but in terms. To the discovery call to answer your question, learning about learning as much about your potential client as you can, and watching social cues. To be honest with you, this is what they told me. This is what you said, and I will rephrase it back. I’ll say, here’s what the challenge is, and here’s what we’re going to do. Emily Reagan 20:17 It sounds like it would be a good practice, like you said, to run that call through chatGPT or Claude. I like chatgpt for research. Claude may be better for copywriting, but pull out the emotions of that call and it sounds like you reflect it back to them in the proposal. Because I think it’s so hard in the call to like, remember what you’re going to say, be active listening, writing it down. I was just thinking of one call I was on where she was taking so many notes that she was so disconnected from me, and it didn’t feel like a conversation. So it was like such a funny, careful balance. But if you could run it back through chatGPT, Pull out the emotion, then you can Tyneshia Dise 20:58 And I will say, during discovery calls, I don’t write anything down. I rely on the AI because it’s so specific, because I want to be engaged. You know what? I mean? They’re the most important person in the room, and I won’t miss anything. So I have seen that you got your head down, not you, but individuals, and you’re missing it Emily Reagan 21:18 Yeah, and you’re missing the social cue, right? Tyneshia Dise 21:21 Exactly Emily Reagan 21:22 The face, the little hesitation Tyneshia Dise 21:24 Exactly, yes, and that’s another thing too. People come to you and they’ll say, Okay, this is the problem I’m having. But you start to ask more questions, you find out it’s something else, you know what I mean, is the root cause of it. And you work on that, and then you start to see the results. Emily Reagan 21:42 I feel like you, because you come from sales, have good questions to ask, or, like, lead ins, like, I know, like, sometimes I was just telling you I’ll leave my body, like, when I’m speaking, and like, I’m, like, worried about the next word that’s going to come or how am I going to finish up that sentence so I sound intelligent and articulate, but I think if we had a couple like, questions we could ask just to, like, a buy time. Actually, I’m gonna digress. I was asking my my divorce lawyer. I was like, how do you how do you get through court? Like, to me, I thought about being a lawyer. I took the LSAT, and I think that fear of speaking in front of others, like having to be on your feet. And I was like, how do you do that? We were preparing for court. We didn’t have to go to court. He’s like, Well, I just buy time by asking more questions, and then my brain can catch up and think. And I was like, That’s freaking brilliant. Like, we need to do that on Discovery calls. So that was, like, my whole backstory. So do you have any questions that can buy yourself time but also, like, help uncover that, like, that need and that emotion? Tyneshia Dise 22:38 I ask people, what’s holding you back? What is the outcome you’d like to see also, too, since I work with ads and things like that, the data and as we know, numbers tell a story, and I can see from what they share, is how things have missed the mark, if you will. And again, what we need to do to fix it, yeah? And sometimes it’s a tech challenge, sometimes it’s a strategy challenge. Emily Reagan 23:01 Yeah. And is there anything that gives you like a flag that it’s a messaging problem when just like, in a conversation with them without looking at anything? Do you ever like, can you ever feel like it’s that? Tyneshia Dise 23:12 Again, we’re going to talk about confidence. Because if someone tells me something, they’re telling me what their offer is. It’s not clear, or they’re not sure about it. That’s how it shows up. Emily Reagan 23:22 Ah, I like that. You’re like, reading between the lines there. That’s good. Yeah, if someone’s kind of, like, stuttering or, what if we talk really fast, something I do like it can show that you’re not actually confident, interesting. Oh, I like, I kind of like, like, thinking about the discovery calls and how to bring it back to emotion, just because I think that’s, like, really applicable for everyone listening. Okay, so is there anything that you wish your clients did better with marketing, like, on their own? Tyneshia Dise 23:55 Consistency. Yeah, sometimes people are looking for big results quickly. And in my opinion, the average marketing campaign, depending on what you’re doing, you’re looking at a 60 to 90 day turnaround time. You’ve got to invest the time. You’ve got to educate your audience, literally going through that sales funnel. And depending on what your marketing initiative is, reaching people that are top of funnel. You can do it, but you still have to go, go through the process. There’s no magic formula, you know what I mean? I can’t wave a magic wand and say, boom, you like customers or clients. So going through the process, trusting the process, not micromanaging. You know what I mean? You hired an expert for a reason. That’s definitely something as well, but just waiting the time, you know what I mean, and listening to feedback, just just trusting the process and being open, because often we’ll listen, but we’ll default to our old habits. Yes, but you know what I mean, but I did this, but so and so did this, but my sister told me this, or, but my daughter some marketing degree. How come you didn’t hire her? Emily Reagan 25:12 Yeah, okay, I have a question about your marketing degree. So you said you went back. Like, where did you go for marketing? Did you go get a another degree? Or did you do a different type of training, or what did you do to go back and add that skill? Tyneshia Dise 25:23 It was really interesting. My uncle was a lifelong learner, and we were very, very close, and he literally was attending school until he was 70, and he went to an online school. And I don’t know if I can say this, it’s Franklin University, but they’ve got online degrees. So I worked full time, I would go to school full time, and then I started doing some internships at a local marketing agency, and then at a fortune 500 company just to get that experience. But I had a wonderful time at Franklin University. Additionally, what I love is all of the professors, they work in the field, and again, they work for some big companies, and they let you know what was going on, and we did a lot of practice. So very current. I can’t say enough the things about it. Emily Reagan 26:09 Oh my gosh, that’s awesome. And how long, like, how long did that degree take you? Tyneshia Dise 26:14 Ah, four years. Emily Reagan 26:15 Okay, wow. That’s dedication to, like, see the pivot, to see the demand over there, and be doing that on the side. Tyneshia Dise 26:22 Yeah, wow. I like to stay busy, though. I like to keep my mind busy. And it’s interesting to me, if I am engaged mentally and invested, then forget about it. I can lose hours, especially if I’m doing design. I can look down, you know what I mean, be working, then look up for my computer for hours have passed by. Emily Reagan 26:43 I’m the same. I’m working on a client sales page right now, and I’m, like, itching to get back to I have like, two sections left, but yeah, I can just the whole day will just go. And that’s actually a good feeling, because you’re so into it, and you’re feeling like, I’m feeling like the work is worth it, and I’m having an impact through that, and I’m making it better, like I like that feeling. What would you tell someone who’s thinking about adding marketing who doesn’t have the degree? Tyneshia Dise 27:09 Well, today, we live in a society where people are getting experience versus degrees, and you’re seeing a lot of nine to fives higher now for experience, and if you’re an adult learner, colleges are accepting work experience. So I would say, find, you know, some networking opportunities and start to freelance. You know. I will say this, think about your rates and value your time, you know. So sometimes people will charge when they first start out what they’re not. How do I want to say this? They don’t charge what they’re worth, right? You still deserve to be paid, but just get out there. Make connections, ask questions, be curious. Emily Reagan 27:54 How did you get that internship? Did you have a way in? Did you put yourself out there? Is there a story there? Tyneshia Dise 27:59 In terms of the internship, I just reached out directly, that was for the smaller agency. And I liked working at the smaller agency because I had more one on one, and my WordPress skills really started to expand and take off. And there was a lot of clarity around that in terms of the larger internship, a connection, you know what I mean? So and it just kind of happened organically, which was nice. Emily Reagan 28:23 Did you ask for the connection? Or, like, how did that work? Tyneshia Dise 28:26 Someone offered. I said, Someone offered. I said, this is what I’m looking to do. And she told me. She said, Hey, I know someone. And then made the introduction. Who made that introduction? And I was there. Emily Reagan 28:39 It’s so fun to hear that story, just because that’s kind of the reason I started my own, you know, network online the work group is I know how hard it is to start when nobody knows who you are and you’re proving yourself, and it can be as simple as an introduction to the right person. I mean, that’s how it works in the real world, but it also is in the online space, like you talked about social proof and like people need to know, like and trust you and all of that, and that still applies when you are the contractor in somebody’s business too. So it’s fun to hear that. Do you have any advice for someone listening who hasn’t gotten their first clients or is thinking about, how do I get that first one? Tyneshia Dise 29:18 Don’t be afraid to ask for help with your community or immediate community. Don’t be afraid to ask. So the worst thing someone can say is no, that’s okay, yeah. And from being in sales, I’ve learned that rejection is a part of life. Keep asking, because you will eventually get a yes. And I’m sure that sounds like a cliche. Emily Reagan 29:40 Have you ever been rejected, or have you ever not landed a client? Tyneshia Dise 29:44 There was a time where I competed for and is it an RFO proposal for work? I’m horrible with acronyms for nonprofit, so I got very close. You know what I mean? Was in the final stretch, line three. But it didn’t work out. It wasn’t meant to. Be, and I’m one that believes in divine timing. What’s meant for you, you will, you know, attract so, but don’t give up. And someone else told me this too, a lot can happen in seven days. And as an entrepreneur, we all know about that roller coaster. So on Tuesday, something can look like, not great, but the next, following Wednesday, you can be like, Oh, I got clients, or I have a connection there. Always, in my opinion, is a reason to smile. And I’m a huge advocate on fun, because, think about it, you like to work with fun people? Would you want to work with someone that’s dry, that is boring? No, if you’re fun and you can make someone laugh. Why not? And then also, too, you’re not so serious. For me as a creative creative ideas come in, and great results follow. Oh my Emily Reagan 30:50 gosh. I love that. And if someone like you, who’s so accomplished, has experience, has had a has had a no, are not you, I think everyone else can say, sigh a relief, because it’s gonna happen. It’s also part of the job. I’ve also not booked clients. I’ve also been fired by clients who are unhappy for whatever situation, whether it was my fault or not, you know? And it’s just part of it. And so I think I don’t know, I’m gonna tie that back into emotion, but not not taking it so, like personal, right? Tyneshia Dise 31:19 Exactly. No, 100% because you can, and you can start to think negatively about yourself, or say, you know, I’m going to close my business. I’m going back to nine to five, because this is easier. Emily Reagan 31:30 I have those thoughts. I’m not going to lie. I do have them. Okay, you were saying, before our call too, about making business decisions, like, I just want to keep the emotion talking going. You were saying you’re like, slower at making those decisions. You’re very intentional, you’re very careful. You’re not going to, like, waste your time and everyone else’s time going down the wrong path. Not that there’s anything wrong with, you know, making mistakes. But talk to me about what you see when emotions come in the way, because I know you see it whether your clients too. Tyneshia Dise 32:00 Exactly when you’ve tried something time and time again and it didn’t work, or it’s two weeks and you’ve wanted to see results, or this happens when someone says they worked with a marketing professional and didn’t receive results. So you have to regain that trust and really examine one if the relationship it will be or is a good relationship for you and the client to work together, because sometimes it may not be, just because of the preconceived notions. So not only that, do it the old fashioned way. You get a piece of paper, make two columns, pros and cons, and then also to think about the emotional retainer, if you will, because you can be drained, and people, for lack of a better term, can drain you. So think about it. Is it worth it? And sometimes, you know, we make decisions too, because we need the money. But think about long term. Think about, if you know, like I said, next week, you’ll get two more clients for things like that. Think about the shift and it all this goes through my mind. It really does the emotional toll. Emily Reagan 33:09 So yeah, and then there’s that emotional opposite, which I don’t have a smart word for, but when we’re making impact and feeling really good about our work. So do you have any big client wins you want to share with us, like talk about what you’ve been doing behind the scenes? Tyneshia Dise 33:25 Absolutely. So one thing I shared with you, I am in the process of growing my team so I’m getting more clients, which is excellent. So I’ve got help with video editing, on graphic design and things like that, also, too. Like I said, working on the custom gpts for clients. Excited about that. I’m also expanding my creativity business. That’s something that’s coming out as well, and I’m looking to, and this is later on, next year, because I do my planning for the year ahead. Now I’m looking to start speaking opportunities. So that’s something that’s always made me nervous, but I am going to look past that my fear. And, you know, start to do that. Emily Reagan 34:06 Yeah, well, you’ve already been on podcast. You’re on this one. We try to give those opportunities too to our workgroup members. So if there’s something you want to talk about specifically as you’re developing your framework, or, I don’t know, it could be anything even related to AI that’s helpful. We always ask members to come in and do a walk through, do a talk, do a training. But I remember, I still remember my first guest talk, and it was inside a huge community, huge, huge, huge. It was about Google Analytics, which I feel like I’m always going to feel under qualified to talk about. I mean, don’t ask me to talk about Tyneshia Dise 34:42 It changes every day Emily Reagan 34:44 Don’t ask me to talk about it now and say like I way over prepared. I was so nervous, but once I had that down, it was like a whole new Emily emerged, who was not just a freelancer, but kind of a. I know you’re not supposed to call yourself an expert, like, like, I’m a marketing expert. Like, look at this, and sometimes I don’t know, it just felt really good. And this audience just needed a fraction from Google Analytics. Like, they didn’t even need to know everything. And so it actually really paid off. I think that was one of my big like, leap forward moments, was speaking, and it was to non marketers. So that was kind of like a safe community. So I hope you do this. I hope you continue to do this before we wrap it up. I want to hear about your agency experience and what you’ve learned along the way, because I know we have a lot of listeners who are in the solo trenches, and they’re thinking about, like, how do I onboard a contractor and a subcontractor? And like, start getting help with some of this work, whether it’s client facing or whether it’s inside the workflow. But first, will you tell us a little bit about your experience in the workgroup and what you have gotten out of it as a new member you joined this year. Tyneshia Dise 35:55 Absolutely, the work group has been amazing. It’s been a very warm experience because you and I had connected online, I think the year before, I asked questions before about workgroup, and like you said, there are opportunities to educate, which are awesome, and it’s a part of the membership, which I love, because often you’ll pay for memberships and not get a lot from it, but from your membership is excellent. Additionally, there are courses that are educational, which I love. And in terms of booking clients, let me get to the nuts and bolts of this. I have had since we worked together. It’s been six months. I’ve had 10 Discovery calls and I booked six clients. And the thing about it is you have so many jobs that post each month. These are the jobs that I said, you know, they’re in alignment for me. I’m going to reach out to this individual, because you make it so easy, you don’t have to, you know, apply for a certain amount of jobs a month. You don’t have to do this. And you make it so easy. I just love it. So I can’t say enough good things about it. Emily Reagan 37:00 I had no idea you booked 60% of your calls. I mean, that’s crazy for for sales. Tyneshia Dise 37:07 Thank you. Emily Reagan 37:07 Oh my gosh, would you be okay sharing like a number with me? Like, what I’m curious about is that payback period, because now that it is like an annual membership, sometimes people are scared to make the investment. Like, how quickly did you make back your money in the workgroup? Tyneshia Dise 37:20 My first job, literally, you told me that, and then I was hesitant it again, just getting in alignment, I needed to make my decision. And to be honest, let me see I probably four times the investment, if I’m not mistaken, four or five times with that first job Emily Reagan 37:37 With just that one client? Tyneshia Dise 37:38 Yeah Emily Reagan 37:39 Wow, that’s amazing. Is there anything you did to get that client? Is there anything special you did? I mean, you’re primed, you’re set up, you’ve got a really good website, you’ve got experience. But is there anything that like a little hint you can give to someone who is trying to book a client too? Tyneshia Dise 37:55 In terms of the email when you reach out, that’s the key. And for a couple times, I did have some challenges. I was I wasn’t getting bites that when I would send that email. And I thought about it, I rephrased some of my wording based on, you know, the tasks or what the individual needed help with, and from there, it just works. One thing I do as well, I always include my calendar link and the link to my socials and all of my emails and also my Google reviews. That really helps. So literally, I make it easy for them. You know, Hi, my name is so and so. Heard about you through Emily Reagan’s workgroup. I can support you with this, this and this, and all my links and Emily Reagan 38:38 Yeah, so it’s actually super simple. You’d be surprised how many people. I don’t know if I should say this on the show, but like, have typos, or like, don’t do the research or leave off their booking link. And you do have to have that solid sales process, right? I also saw on your website when I was scouting you. You do have those Google reviews. Like, how do you do that? Tell everyone how you do that. Because I don’t think I’ve seen another service provider really step up their Google business profile like you have. Tyneshia Dise 39:07 It’s part of the narrative, and it’s actually part of my service offerings. That’s where you get found. What’s the first thing people do? And there’s also, speaking of gpts. What is it getting recognized online for AI, because you can come up in the searches as well. That’s another topic, but it’s just something that’s important updating. What is it? The images there. You can have products on your Google listing. You can have your social What is it, social links on the Google reviews. And then I ask my clients, you know, when the contract is close to closing. I’ll say, Hey, do you mind? And here’s the thing, I’ve established, that rapport, they are more than happy. You know, to leave that review, and sometimes you have to gently nudge. I just gently nudge. But again, I make it easy. I put the link in my email, and then that’s it. They do it. Emily Reagan 39:57 Maybe that should be our workgroup training like super. Easy, but it’s like, sometimes Emily cracking the whip and telling people to actually do it, and, you know, everyone wants to do it right the first time, but I was just talking to another service provider. So like, I’m in the I’m in the hallways, and I hear all the whispers, and I hear about the courses and the service providers on the team, and I’m like, in a very privileged area where I get to hear both sides of the story, someone who is telling me, and I will not say who she’s, like, Yeah, but check out her. Course, there’s zero testimonials. There’s zero reviews. Like, why would anyone pay that? And I thought, Oh, my God, in this day and age, like having a good, you know, marketer on your team, that’s like, step number, I’m not gonna say one, but it’s close to up there. It’s like, we got to get a system for collecting these this day and age, and we can’t forget it for our own business. But it was so interesting to hear the little conversation about that, and that people notice. Tyneshia Dise 40:51 100% it’s the first thing so many people look for. Emily Reagan 40:54 Yeah, yeah. I always coach people at the beginning, like, if you don’t have one for your services, you do what you did, you do the internship, you do the work in exchange for a testimonial. But you can also go back to former colleagues, former clients, former bosses, especially if you have a good rapport, and you can get a testimonial about your work ethic, or, like very much, like tangential to your current service. And that is a great place to start. But you shouldn’t have and, like, zero. You shouldn’t put it out there with zero Exactly. Oh my gosh, this is so fun. I want to hear a little bit about your agency and, like, lessons you’ve learned. If you had any advice for somebody starting to think about subcontracting, like, what can they do now to get ready for that agency level? Because that is one of the ways that freelancers make six figures. You know that it’s like there’s no gatekeeping here. An agency is a way to pull yourself out of the work, focus on the higher value services and get help with some of the other things, or bring on specialists like you have to be able to write a full package. So what could somebody do now to prepare for that? Tyneshia Dise 42:02 Absolutely the first thing implement good systems and have a really good onboarding experience. Because if you start to scale and don’t have excellent systems in place, your client experience is going to decline, so it’ll fall through the cracks. People will feel that. And again, onboarding is everything, because that sets the tone for what your working time together will look like. That’s important. Also do check ins with clients. Hey, I just want to check on you. How’s this going? Like, ensure that throughout their experience you don’t ghost them. You know what? I mean, they’re like, looking like we’re so and so, you know, they’re supposed to be helping me and also to lean on your biz besties. I’m all for biz bestie, because collaboratively and having that community, all of your experience combined will definitely, you know, support you and help you grow as well. And you’re getting advice. You know, people can share how they’ve scaled or what worked for them, or what not to do. So that would be my three things. Emily Reagan 43:07 I had Tasha Booth on the show, and I think she said something I hadn’t heard before. This is quite a few episodes ago. She had mentioned starting with an ops person like for your first hire. Do you have any strong feelings about who that first teammate should be as a marketing agency? Tyneshia Dise 43:23 Whatever is a good fit for your business, it depends too on your personality. For me, I’m pretty organized, so I, you know, look over all of my contracts, all of my proposals and things like that I write, although some people choose to delegate. But however, what’s best for you? I’ll say that. Emily Reagan 43:43 Okay, yeah. Like for me, that was a bookkeeper, because bookkeeping, sending invoices, was taking up just too much time out of the month. And I like money, I like seeing it add up, but I needed to be very careful about my time, and I needed to do like, the client deliverable, and that was my choice. So I like your answer. I mean, I like Tasha’s too. She’s more of an officer, so I understand her reasoning. I think she was saying, you know, think about, like, not necessarily the client facing work. She was thinking more in terms of, like, account management. So I thought, I thought that was interesting. Tyneshia Dise 44:15 With the bookkeepers, for sure. That’s that is, that’s like the one of the backbones. So I agree. Emily Reagan 44:21 Yeah, yeah. Is there anything that you would like other freelance marketers to know before we wrap this up? Tyneshia Dise 44:28 Just keep working on your craft. Keep educating yourself. Remain curious, read books, join communities. Emily Reagan 44:36 Yes. Well, I like that answer because I know it’s a lot for one person to do on their own, and it’s it’s so good to be a part of a community where other people are nerding out and talking about it and keeping you in the update. And I know client management and what to do in sticky situations. I look back when I was a solopreneur and putting up with things that I didn’t know. It’s a different day and age, but I didn’t know that I didn’t have to work like that. Tyneshia Dise 44:59 I agree, agree. Emily Reagan 45:02 Yeah, and that’s what happens when we started a while ago. Now we know better Tyneshia Dise 45:06 Exactly, exactly. Emily Reagan 45:08 All right, this is so good. Tanisha, thank you for coming on the show and sharing your knowledge. And what is the best place to reach out to you, and where can we refer our clients to? Tyneshia Dise 45:18 Absolutely, so I’m on LinkedIn, feel free to send a DM, or on my website, my email. Also, there’s a form there. It comes right to me. So love to connect. Emily Reagan 45:30 Okay, tell us about the freebie that you have for our audience. Tyneshia Dise 45:32 There are a few freebies on my Instagram, but there’s one about email automation, that’s excellent. So it’s an ebook. It’s free. It’s like 67 pages. It gives you all the nuts and bolts about your email marketing and being consistent with an email newsletter. Emily Reagan 45:47 And we’ll put a link in the show notes so you guys can download it. Do you have a favorite email service provider? I know you’re on WordPress. I know you like Kajabi. What’s your favorite email platform? Tyneshia Dise 45:56 Oh my gosh, Convert Kit all day. Oh, now it’s Kit. They’re cool. So definitely Convert Kit. I love it. Oh, I said it again, Kit. Emily Reagan 46:03 Yeah and I’ve referred you for Kit jobs, so I like hearing that. And I think it’s important that freelancers work in tech and specialize in the top tier programs, and a lot of people use kit, so I think that’s a good one. So all right, well, we’ll catch you over on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for sharing on the podcast. Tyneshia Dise 46:19 Absolutely. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Emily Reagan 46:21 Okay. I hope you take the time to download that freebie about email automation. Connect with Tyneshia on LinkedIn, and let’s get her to come into the workgroup and do a talk on something. So what do you want to hear? What other questions do you have? Send me a DM on Instagram @emilyreaganpr, and I will pull a training out of her, and we’ll get her speaking more. This is what the workgroup is about, having these opportunities, yes, to be featured on the podcast, of course, but be featured within communities to book more gigs. When you come into the workgroup, you take a assessment, and it tells you which phase you’re in. And a lot of our marketing freelancers are well established in their services, but need help with their own marketing and their own visibility, and we want to give you those opportunities in the workgroup, we have trainings on how to market yourself. We have the speaking opportunities, and we also have this sister service provider community where we can pull each other in and refer each other. So yes, there’s job leads, but it’s so much more than that when it comes to growing your business. And if you’re like Tyneshia and you want to grow an agency, this is also a great place to start, because you can reach down, pull up a subcontractor, maybe someone who just graduated from unicorn digital marketing assistant school and is ready to take on their clients. So I hope you consider joining the workgroup. We are taking applications. We onboard a couple new members every month. I would love for it to be you get your application in now, because we’re going to see a surge of jobs in January we do every single year. And I want you in, onboarded and ready to book the paying clients again. I’m Emily Reagan. Please reach out to me on Instagram. I want to hear from you. Is this episode helpful? Do you have ideas for more content? Do you have a question for me? I have a whole ask Emily Anything Series. Well, anything about work. You can leave a 90 second question on Speakpipe, and I could make it into a podcast episode. All right, I’ll see you in the next one.