Podcast Archive
Episode 4 - Tim Melanson InterviewPodcast Transcript
Sukhi:
Welcome to the BLS podcast. I’m your host and founder of Bridging Legal Solutions, Sukhi Dhillon Alberga. This is our fourth podcast in a series of educational episodes featuring groundbreaking entrepreneurs andprofessionals coming together to discuss the creativity that inspires them and makes their businesses flourish. To be clear, the podcast is not a platform for providing any legal advice, but strictly an educational tool for our listeners.
Welcome to the BLS podcast. I’m your host and founder of Bridging Legal Solutions, Sukhi Dhillon Alberga. Today, we’re discussing a really exciting topic, how to have a successful online business that results in a growing business. I am thrilled to introduce our guest that’s joining us today. Tim Melanson is a co-founder of Creative Crew Agency, a digital marketing firm that helps businesses have a strong online presence through their tech, graphic design, and marketing services. Best of all, it’s 100% Canadian company that serves Canadian businesses. Welcome, Tim.
Tim:
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Sukhi:
It is a pleasure. I would just like to ask if we could just begin with you just sharing of your entrepreneurship journey with our audiences from the early beginnings to your present day.
Tim:
The early beginning. Well, okay, so I guess it all started, I used to work as a programmer in Ottawa for a big telecommunications company, and throughout the entire time I was there, they were laying people off. And so I think really what happened is I just started keeping my eyes open for something, for some sort of side hustle. And then, eventually, I did end up getting laid off and the company went bankrupt.
So when I left that company though, really the inspiration for me to even start a business on my own was two things. Number one is that I felt like I was very productive in my company, and I felt like I wasn’t really getting the most out of the company, or the company wasn’t getting the most out of me. And so I thought maybe I could do it better, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs think they can do it better.
And then the other thing was just a logistic thing. So I’m a musician. I was playing shows in the evenings. And the company that I was working with before had a very flexible work schedule. So I was able to come in at 11 o’clock and do my gigs in the evenings. And so when I left that job, I thought that would be probably a difficult ask for a new company to hire me and let me come in at 11.
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
So it really was kind of a, I thought I could be an entrepreneur, and I also thought it was the right time to give it a try.
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
And so I started my own business. My first business was actually fixing computers. It was an actual physical support company. I think really there was two pivotal moments really for any entrepreneur. Number one is having the courage to start, and that’s probably the hardest. Right?
Sukhi:
Right. I agree with you.
Tim:
So just getting out there and doing it. And then once it is not working so well, having the courage to continue because I think we all, when we first start a business, many people end up starting with a bang. I mean, you’ve got your friends and family, some people that would want to maybe support you, some people don’t, but some people do want to support you. And so you kind of get going off on a pretty good start. I had a friend that was in a similar business. He was sending me business. Things were going quite well. And then that sort of fades out after a while. You sort of like, you run through all the people that you know, and now what?
And so the income kind of drops. You start to get a little bit worried. And I remember for me, I actually considered going back to work. So I went out and applied for some jobs. I went into a job interview. And it was one of those things where I think the universe was telling me not to do that because I get into the interview, and it was literally the same job I had for eight years at my previous company, and I just choked. I couldn’t answer any of the questions that the interviewer was asking me. And I left that interview going, “Wow, I mean, I know all those answers. How could I not find those answers at the time?”
So I think the universe was kind of telling me, no, no, no, give this whole entrepreneurship a try again. And that was when I really started to take it a lot more seriously. I joined some business groups and I really started to focus on getting coaching and help, and that’s when things started to move. And I’ve done a whole bunch of things since then, but that really kind of leads me to where I am today. And that’s how it all started though.
Sukhi:
Yeah. And I think it’s just the spirit of resiliency and then just knowing with inside of you, that burning desire, that this is what I’m meant to do and just following through that.
What I love too is I know you have your podcast called RockStar, and you always start by asking your guests, what’s the good note to your journey, and what was the not so good note to your journey? What’s that for you?
Tim:
Well, I think the good note is exactly what I just said. It’s basically just getting started, having the courage to get started and to keep going when you hit those downfalls. There’s so many things that don’t go as planned in the journey. I think that as a entrepreneur, you have to get really comfortable with uncertainty.
Sukhi:
Yeah.
Tim:
And I think that especially in the very beginning, there are times, especially in the beginning where you’re spending more money than you’re making. And I mean, it’s exactly the opposite of what you’re supposed to do in any other venture, right? I mean, in my case, I was very, very fortunate to have gotten a severance package from the company that I had left. So I had some money to burn through, I guess. And so it was just a matter of trying to get to a point where there was more money coming in than going out.
But even to this day, actually, there are months when you have no idea where the money’s going to come from next month. And there’s a lot of faith in business. A lot of it is going to be living month to month. Now, of course, you want to get to a point, and every business wants to get to a point as quickly as possible where you’ve got a plan, where you’ve got some money saved up, where you’ve got a lot more coming in than going out.
But I do think that any entrepreneur really needs to be very comfortable with that discomfort of not knowing where the next month is going to come from because you’re not going to get to the point where you’ve got so much coming in unless you go through that. Right?
Sukhi:
Yeah, cycle.
Tim:
So I think the good notes and the bad notes… Yeah, it’s a cycle, and the good notes and the bad notes are all intermingled together.
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
And so I think that that’s really in my… And mind you, a lot of the people that I’ve asked this question to on my podcast, that’s exactly it. The good note and the bad note are literally together. It’s like I…
Sukhi:
Yeah, and it’s all about perseverance and just knowing that it’s the perseverance, it’s the resilience, it’s the consistency, it’s the drive, it’s all of those things. And sometimes, yes, entrepreneurship is not meant for everyone. It takes a certain type of personality to do it. But again, the key things that always consistent amongst people who are very successful at the end of the day is not giving up and just consistently believing in what you’re doing and riding out the storm.
Tim:
Yep.
Sukhi:
Just keep at it. You know?
Tim:
Yep.
Sukhi:
And so I wanted to dive into your expertise so our listeners can learn a lot from you being the digital grove expert here. I wanted to ask you, what are the most common and costly mistakes you think businesses make when they’re doing their digital marketing?
Tim:
Well, I think really not having a plan is probably the biggest one. So there’s two real major components to any sort of digital marketing strategy, and that is traffic and conversion.
So you have to get traffic to your site, and then once they get to your site, you’ve got to convert them to a sale or to something. And I don’t think a lot of businesses focus on both of those things. Some of them don’t focus on any of it. They just go, “I think I need a website,” so they go hire someone to build them a website.
But without any real clear plan, how are you supposed to get the right website? And you can end up spending a lot of money on one. I think probably the biggest costly mistake that you can make on your website specifically is people are more focused on building a site that maybe they like and that is explaining about who they are and what they do. And really that doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to the actual consumer going to the site. What they care about is what you’re going to do for them, right?
Sukhi:
Right. Yeah.
Tim:
And that’s where the conversion comes into play. So a lot of people will build this really pretty site with lots of bells and whistles, and sometimes they can spend tens of thousands of dollars on these websites and end up having nothing happen with it. And sometimes they’ll say, “Well, maybe I just need to spend more money on ads.” And so they’ll spend a whole bunch more money on ads to drive traffic to a site that doesn’t convert. So it’s like double whammy, right?
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
So instead, you’ve got to flip that around and go, “Okay, number one… I always think that it should go in this order. Number one is build a site that converts. So figure out what the person that’s coming to your site is looking for and make sure that you customize that message to what they’re looking for.
Number two, make it as easy as possible for them to buy something from you. If you’re service, I’m a big, big believer in free consultations. I think those, for most businesses, unless it’s a real simple product that you know that they want, then they can go to your website, there’s no explanation, they just know they want it, they’re going to click buy, and off they go. But for a lot of businesses, there’s a bit of an education perspective, or they need to feel comfortable with you. So in that case, having front and center a free consultation, some way for them to get in touch with you is huge, right?
Then once you’ve got that, so you build that first, you send it out to a few people. If you get a few bookings or if you get a few purchases, well then, you know that your site is converting. Now it’s time to focus on the traffic and either whether that be ads or whether that be social media marketing or whatever it is, it’s time to drive the traffic. But don’t drive the traffic to something that you don’t know for sure is converting.
So those are the things that I see people making mistakes on and how to fix that.
Sukhi:
So that would be, in other words, a good place to start with your digital marketing is to do those three things that you’re saying?
Tim:
Yeah. Or find somebody that can.
Sukhi:
Right. Yeah, absolutely. So what’s the key strategy of having a successful presence online, or is it just really trial and error? What are your thoughts on that?
Tim:
It’s a little bit of both. So every business, well, yeah, every business probably has its own sort of strategy. And some of them, there are some things that do work. And I just mentioned one. So the free call is a strategy that works for a lot of businesses, but maybe not all. And a buy now button is a strategy that works for a lot of businesses, but maybe not all of them.
And really there is a little bit of a component of trial and error in there, but really that’s just measuring and testing. I mean, in any business, you’re going to want to continue to keep up on the numbers. And I suppose that’s another just massive thing that I think that every business really needs to keep track of everything. Not only the time that they spend on certain tasks, but also keep track of the analytics on your website, see what kind of traffic is coming, and then make sure you track those conversions. If you don’t track that, then how do you know whether your strategy is successful or not? You’ve got to really keep that tracking.
So I guess it’s a little bit of both. Find some best practices depending on your industry, try them out, and if they’re not working, make some changes quickly.
Sukhi:
Right. That sounds like great advice. In my humble opinion, I believe clear message, branding, and fostering relationships is essential to growing your business. What do you consider essential in growing a business, especially an online presence?
Tim:
Absolutely. Well, actually, and even further than that, your clear message and branding in the online world, so depending on your business. So if you’ve got a brick and mortar business, well then, yeah, you’re competing with the people in your neighborhood. Right? So that’s one thing. But on an online business, if you are a business that can do business anywhere on the internet, well then, you’re competing with everybody in the entire world. And so really, if you don’t have a really concise niche, like a target of who you’re looking to serve, you’re going to have a hard time with any type of marketing because you’re competing with everybody everywhere. So the narrower you can get with your messaging on who it is you serve, the better.
There’s another benefit to that too, is that people just, nobody’s going to believe that you are amazing at everything. They’re just not going to believe that like, “Oh, we help everybody, and no matter who you are, we’re going to be the best choice for you.” I mean, hey, maybe that is possible. It’s probably not.
But really everybody can though be an expert in something, in a certain niche. And that’s where things really get amazing is because number one, if you figure out who it is that you already serve, or if you choose an audience that you want to serve, the more you serve that same little slice, the better you’re going to get at it. You’re going to build better systems.
In my case, I mean, my onboarding for a client gets better and better the more clients that I work with in that same area because I know what questions to ask. And actually, I already know what those answers are going to be.
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
So the more you focus on that, then the better you are going to get over time, which just kind of snowballs. Now, all of a sudden, you’ve got all these testimonials from people that are exactly what you’re looking for. And it also makes it easier to get targeted marketing because now you’re actually targeting specific keywords that are in a niche, and you’re going to get more response and more cohesion with your message as well.
Sukhi:
Right. So I guess what I’m getting from you too is that overall it’s really important that you have a plan, you know your target audience, you’ve researched them, you understand them, you speak their language is what I seem to be getting from you, and that you also know how to create a online presence that actually gets their awareness but at the same time has some form of connection or some form of engagement with that target client. And that’s sort of how you sort of open it up and then begin to convert them. And those are the key things.
And then also keeping in mind, you’re tracking your results. You’re looking at the analytics and analyzing what’s been working so far, what isn’t. And then I think as any entrepreneur knows this, anyone in business of any kind, I think this is very, very universal, is be prepared to pivot.
Tim:
Yeah.
Sukhi:
Be prepared to pivot, and you just have to ongoingly learn and adapt and keep at it. And I think that’s what makes it so interesting too to be entrepreneurs as well. So I do appreciate your comments on that.
My final question to you today is what tips would you give to businesses when they’re deciding on what marketing team to hire?
Tim:
So for a marketing team… Okay, one of the things that I’ve realized is that in order to build the right marketing strategy for a business, I really have to understand their business. Right? And I think that that’s a key part of the whole thing.
So if I look at it from the other direction, really what you’re looking for in a marketing company or in some sort of company that’s going to help with your marketing is somebody that you think gets you or has the ability to get you. Right? Because a lot of times what you’ll do is you maybe will look at a portfolio of a marketing company and you’re like, “Oh, wow, look at all these really beautiful sites that have nothing to do with my industry.” That might not get you the results that you want because they don’t really understand your industry. On the other hand, if you see that this company has worked with a bunch of people that are similar to you and are businesses that are similar to you, then you’re probably going to have a better experience with them.
And then the other part that I think, you got to follow your gut. I think that for the most part, almost everybody who was on my podcast that had mistakes that they had made, especially in hiring, they felt it first. There’s a gut feeling. There’s always a red flag. There’s always something that is like, “I’m not sure.” And if that is the case, just move on.
If you are now trying to convince yourself that this is the right marketing team for you, then chances are it’s not the right marketing team for you, and you’re going to find that out in the end.
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
And it’s not the right thing for either of you. I mean, you’re really wasting both of your time.
Sukhi:
Right.
Tim:
So you mentioned something about relationships earlier. I mean, that is key. If you don’t get along, if don’t get a good vibe from the person you’re talking to that’s going to do your marketing, then they’re probably not going to get you and they’re not going to give you the right sort of strategy that’s going to work for you.
Sukhi:
Yeah. So it’s almost as you have to have a rhythm that matches with each other and then that connection and that understanding of where you’re going and where you want your business to go and that they really get it. And if they can demonstrate that to you, then you know you’re with the right fit.
Tim:
Yep, agree.
Sukhi:
Yeah, that’s great. So in closing our time together, this was so fantastic. I learned so much. Thank you so much. And I hope our listeners got a lot of value out of this as well. But what I wanted to ask you just sort of concluding, if you could look back and think back of any of your clients that you’ve worked with or something where things just went so wrong but then you were able to turn it right back around. Is there any kind of story and a win that you have that you could share with us?
Tim:
You know what? I think I’m going to take a different… So yes, there have been some clients that things were going wrong and I managed to turn it around and all that stuff. But I would say have an exit strategy. I think that trying to teach people how to turn a bad situation good in the end and continue working with that person, you’re going to drain your energy.
On the other hand, have an exit strategy. I know for me, the way that I think that it would be a success is that when I start working with somebody, if I can’t get to a certain level, so let’s just say I have, in my case, so there are approvals on, let’s just say I’m doing a logo. I’ll offer two or three revisions on that logo. If I’m not getting to somewhere within those two or three revisions, I refund them and move on.
And I would strongly suggest you have an exit strategy, whether that be a full refund or maybe in your terms and conditions you can say, “Hey, 25%,” or whatever it happens to be that you need in order to make that work. You’ve got to be straight up front with that right off the bat and make sure that you’ve got a way to get out of a relationship as quickly as possible so that they can find the person that they really need and you can go find the person that you really need.
Sukhi:
That’s really sound, good advice, isn’t it? That sounds fantastic. Thank you so much, Tim, for joining us today and departing your words of wisdom on digital marketing.
Tim:
No problem. Well, thank you for having me today. That’s awesome. And yeah, I mean, I think that probably maybe the best parting words would be get yourself on podcasts, right?
Sukhi:
Yeah.
Tim:
Because really, nowadays, I think the podcasting and social media is, it’s a sweet spot that we’ve never been in this situation before where just little old me can go out there and get marketing around the world without having to spend fortunes and fortunes. So right now is sort of the time that if you’re starting a business and you’re looking for marketing, go get yourself on other people’s podcasts and talk about what you do. So that will definitely get you some results.
Sukhi:
Yeah, it’s true. But you know what? I think you’re undercutting yourself short. You’re pretty successful, you’ve come a long way, and your podcast and your business sort of speaks to that.
Tim:
Thank you.
Sukhi:
So congratulations on how well you’re doing.
Tim:
Thank you. Thank you. You as well.
Sukhi:
All right. You take care. Thanks to our listeners for listening. Bye now.
Tim:
Thanks.
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