Scaling Smart: Marketing Clarity, Sales Growth & Personal Development | Jennifer Christensen

What causes some businesses to scale while others stay stuck in survival mode?

Jennifer Christensen, co-founder of Beacon Media + Marketing, knows the answer firsthand. After growing her Alaska-based digital marketing agency to the Inc. 5000 list, she shares the honest story of how expanding too fast—and too wide—nearly ended it all.

In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Jennifer pulls back the curtain on the real growth strategy that saved her business: radical clarity. By cutting services, redefining her mission, and doubling down on what worked, Jennifer turned a debt-ridden company into a thriving national agency.

She explains:

• Why clarity must come before marketing
• How chasing every marketing trend can sabotage growth
• Why trust is the most valuable currency in today's economy
• How customer reviews and a humanized website outperform flashy funnels
• And how her biggest breakthrough came not from strategy—but from personal development

Now operating in the “age of intelligence,” Jennifer says modern business owners must evolve or risk being left behind.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, scattered, or unsure where to focus—this episode is a must-listen.

Jennifer Christenson: Beacon Media + Marketing Co-Founder

Website: https://www.beaconmm.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferchristensenak/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beaconmm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beaconmm/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BeaconMediaMarketing

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3BDBxY9jDasCTJtRkX7EJ2

 #SmallBusinessPivots #JenniferChristensen #BeaconMediaMarketing #MarketingStrategy #BusinessGrowth #DigitalMarketingExpert #Inc5000 #EntrepreneurJourney #MarketingClarity #SmallBusinessSuccess #BusinessTransformation #WomenInBusiness #TrustInMarketing #PersonalDevelopment #BusinessCoach #AlaskaEntrepreneur #MarketingMistakes #ScalingSmart #MichaelDMorrison #BusinessPodcast #Oklahoma 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Jennifer Christensen
• 4:16 Overcoming Business Failure
• 12:29 Clarity Before Marketing
• 17:15 Maximizing What Works First
• 23:06 Digital Marketing Essentials
• 28:41 Personal Growth for Business Growth
• 39:31 Learning from Client Interviews
• 43:19 Final Insights: The Age of Intelligence

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivot. Today we have another special guest and we are here to help small business owners grow their business past the stuck phase, and I know that no one can introduce their business or themselves like the business owner, so I let you have the floor to do that. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from and your business in your business.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here as well. My name is Jennifer Christensen and I own a digital marketing company. This is our 13th year in business. We started a small agency in Anchorage, alaska, and served our local market for the first six years and then we decided to expand nationally. We picked a niche market to do that in in the health and wellness, mental health space, and we have grown substantially. We now serve clients all over the U? S. We have staff all over the U? S. I am still in Alaska, but my co-founder is in Reno and glad we have clients everywhere. East coast is actually our largest client base now. So it's been an incredible journey and have learned a lot about myself and the business along the way.

Speaker 1: 1:09

I bet, I bet. Well, what do you think we're going to talk about to help our business owners with today?

Speaker 2: 1:17

I have, I have open, I have I've had three areas that I feel like when I share with other business owners, either when I'm speaking on stage or in person, and that is really you know, what is it that gets us stuck and how to get through that. I mean that's, you know, every business owner I know is very solution oriented. They're like you know, I know I need to get to this next phase or something's holding me back, and they don't always know what, and that's normal. So the personal development, I would say growth side of even knowing yourself, having that radical honesty and emotional intelligence, is a huge component and I'd love talking about that because there's no way we would have scaled to an Inc 5000 company like we have. I'm a radically different person today than I was six years ago.

Speaker 2: 2:07

I bet, so that's one and then definitely just some of the more you know business challenges as you get to different levels are very different that you're facing. So it's even understanding that just because you know you get to that first million, that's kind of like one section. And then when you get to, I would say, like the next layer where you're adding on employees beneath you that are basically focusing on the culture and the running of the company, that is a whole nother phase, and so I love talking to people about that too, because all you think of at least for me, I thought it was just growth and it would all kind of look the same, but it doesn't.

Speaker 1: 3:07

Right? No, you're, you're absolutely right, so I'm ready to dig in. Well, founder and CEO of Boss, where we make business ownership simplified for success. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours. At businessownershipsimplifiedcom, we have a special guest again today and she shared with us a little bit of her insights that we're going to talk about today. But you're also a marketing guru and AI and some other things. But let's start with. The biggest challenge that most business owners have is they start this business, they go through the honeymoon and then they want to jump off a cliff because everybody else seems to be successful except for them, and they just can't figure it out. And you mentioned the word stuck, so let's start there. Did you have a journey where you got stuck and how you overcame that, so that people can learn from your experience?

Speaker 2: 4:10

Absolutely. I think failure is a great teacher and we've had many failures along the way or areas that we were very stuck. So I'll give one example in the beginning that happened, which is we launched, you know digital marketing company in Anchorage, alaska, 2013. Nobody else was really in the market there was a couple freelancers, but we were early to market. We actually got some pretty great response right away. We started growing year one and year two with some of the smaller businesses, which was our passion to serve. So that was really exciting.

Speaker 2: 4:44

And then, as we got into it, two years in, it was almost like our success. I don't want to say went to our head, but we started losing focus, and what I mean by that is that we knew we were supposed to stay in this digital marketing niche. That was what made us stand out in the market. That was why people were coming to us. But instead, when clients started asking us to add the entire rest of their marketing on so meaning, like print and trade shows and all these other things that a lot of marketing agencies do media buys we didn't want to lose that business. Hey, these clients love us, we have good relationships. We'll now expand into all these other areas.

Speaker 2: 5:28

Well, all these other areas we didn't know well, and so it wasn't like replicating the success of what we had already done. Now we had to learn all these other areas. We didn't do them as well. We had to hire people to help us. It was two years into that really that expansion, what I would call horizontally and we almost filed bankruptcy. We were at the point we were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. We had gone from being profitable at year two to now year four. We're hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Many people told us we should just quit at that point, but we're both two very stubborn women.

Speaker 2: 6:02

We wanted to continue to succeed and we also didn't want to let down on our commitments. So we just dug in. We literally had to cancel like a third of our business. We got rid of a third that was outside of our core focus. We returned to our true North, I would call it, and it took us about a year to pay everybody off, to dig out of that, to refocus on what we were supposed to do. I look back on it now in a year. It's really a miracle that we were able to do that. And then we got to the end of 2016, 2017, and we were positioned to be able to grow again. I would love to say we've never made mistakes like that again and we, you know, stuck again. But that is not true. But this, that one, was very painful.

Speaker 1: 6:51

That was a very painful Let me ask real quick because, as a business coach, you mentioned something you said you lost focus and I'm looking at your website and you've got your core mission and values. Did you have those before you lost focus or did you get those afterwards? Because I have business owners. They get frustrated. They feel like some of these exercises are just busy work. Can you explain how impactful those were to get you out of that hump and get you refocused?

Speaker 2: 7:27

we actually. I remember sitting and writing those with my business partner. It was so overwhelmingly depressing and scary. When we wrote those out, we were literally at the bottom and everything in you. When you're, like you said, in that situation, the last thing you think you want to do is do quote unquote busy work.

Speaker 1: 7:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:42

Right. So, like, I just need to make money, I just need to like we got to solve these problems right now. But after being through this painful experience where we were, we realized if we don't focus on who we actually are, who we want to serve, what really matters to us, moving forward, we don't really have a company anyway, and so we took the time to do that in 2016. Company anyway, and so we took the time to do that in 2016. It was again. It took almost like incredible discipline not to oh right, it's like you want. It's like it's like when you're really struggling on a diet and you know you need to exercise, but it's like the hardest thing in the world to do that first step.

Speaker 2: 8:22

So that did guide us out of it. Once we had those principles, then we started making decisions based on those principles. That's how we decided to even niche down. We actually did a full analysis of every client that we had and we picked the top 20% of clients that we loved working with, that we gave great experience to, they loved us, we got good results for, and that's how we decided to expand is off of that one niche of that top 20%. But that was all based on those exercises of mission, values, beliefs, niche, all of that together.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Wow, that's a powerful statement because I most business owners you can relate to, because when they're in a slump they want to get more sales. Right. But just because you get more sales doesn't mean you're going to make more money. It's so you're. You're saying it was costing you money to get those sales. Is that what I'm hearing?

Speaker 2: 9:23

Well, yeah and I mean we just had this discussion here we are 13 years in and we just had this discussion yesterday at our executive meeting you cannot sell your way out Now. I know it feels that way in the beginning and there is a certain amount. Yes, you do have to sell and market. To get to a certain point Like it's called what I call MVP or I think what everybody calls it that You're proving the value proposition of your business. You have to know that you actually have a viable business first. Once you've got that and you've basically proved, okay, this is a viable business, whatever mistakes you make, if you're selling the wrong thing, or it's not your core product or it's not profitable, you literally can sell yourself into bankruptcy, like we almost did.

Speaker 2: 10:09

If you look at our numbers at year four, we had grown like 500% right From year one and yet we were hundreds of thousands in debt. I trust me. I come from a sales and marketing background before I became an entrepreneur. That is my entire focus. I get it Like. That seems like that solves the problem. It does not for long-term business growth.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Yeah, sounds like it compounded the problem, or could have.

Speaker 2: 10:40

It did.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Yeah, that's, that's awesome. So you had your first failure, so you failed forward, as they say. What kind of came next? Because it sounds like you have the typical small business growth pain.

Speaker 2: 10:56

We did. What came next out of that was one just this. I mean, I remember like the incredible relief we paid everybody off, we're back to kind of zero, so to speak, and there was just this, I don't know such an excitement that we had made it through that. We now knew our goals and our mission. We felt good about the next steps at that point. Um, a lot of in digital marketing, everything changes all the time. The algorithms were constantly changing, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:25

So in that period we started really digging into who do we want? Now we know who we are overview. What services do we really want to focus on? So we started really digging in on that.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Um, that's when we decided to expand nationally. We chose the mental health and health and wellness markets, and so we started figuring out how do we reach what we call in Alaska the lower 48. So how is these two women in a small agency in Alaska? How are we going to reach nationally? And so we created basically our own SEO campaigns, our own content marketing campaigns, our own social campaigns, and we started that whole marketing presence to dive into the market nationally. And that was actually a really exciting time, you know, coming out of that that, you know, dip, I never thought we would be where we are now. I didn't. I mean, it's hard to imagine when you're there, you know, just starting that one is actually going to work, and then it's, you know it's going to grow to that level, um, so that's been great. But yeah, that was a, that was a special time.

Speaker 1: 12:32

We talked earlier about business owners wanting to market themselves, but they're not quite ready, and so for those business owners, some of them come to us as well in that situation. But how do they get ready? I mean, what does it take to truly, because you're a marketing company, where do they truly need to be as a company, focused wise? Is it based on revenue? Is it based on just clarity, like the processes exercises that you went through? What does it look like?

Speaker 2: 13:04

Yeah, that is such a good question. As I was telling you, we're only able to take a small, pretty small percentage of the clients that come to us, and one that's just being ethical, because other people would sign up but they wouldn't really get the value from it. But what we've learned over the years as a marketing agency is that clarity you already said it is probably the number one thing that is going to achieve success, and what I mean by that is that we've had clients come to us that actually have very low revenue, like you know, $100,000. Like they're just really at that startup phase right, they've proven viability and they're just kind of there. But they had so much clarity about who they are and what their vision is and what their mission is and they're willing to invest in the deeper work of brand, of really like establishing who they are and their ideal customer.

Speaker 2: 14:00

We have a lady, a testimony on our website. She went from like I think it was under a hundred to like I want to say half a million the next year, and now she's a multimillion dollar company, but she was so clear on what she wanted to do. And then we've had other people that have come in. Maybe they even have, let's say, a couple million revenue, but they're all over the place Right and they just even. They can be very successful marketing.

Speaker 2: 14:27

But there is what I call a humility and confidence that need to go together. So the humility is being willing to really listen and learn and really hear from experts on. If you don't know where you are at that moment or where you're going to really listen to people like you and even people like us that they're kind of there but they're not quite sure we can give them all that market data and research. If they're not open to that part of it, if they just kind of want somebody else to solve all their sales problems and their revenue problems, we know that that's not going to be a client that's probably going to do well, so we would just be taking their money if, if and not and not getting the results. So I don't know if I've said it well enough. There's so much to the process because I always say like. I mean there's that common saying of like you have to slow down to go fast.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Yep, I say it all the time.

Speaker 2: 15:24

Yep and the one that I love to use. It's actually part of our core values, if you look at it, is that you have to go deep if you want to go high.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:34

And so I'm a big mountain climber. That's one of my favorite things to do live in Alaska, so it's perfect for that. But before you start climbing mountains, you need to prepare and you need to like get your lungs together, and you need to have your um, your month, you know, your training done, and so I consider that the same thing. You have to be willing to go deep into really asking yourself those hard questions before you're going to be able to rise to a high level.

Speaker 1: 16:04

What were the first things that you did to actually increase your revenue so you could spend it to scale, to hire a business coach to do these things, that, to grow through? What were some of those things that you did to get the sales? I know a lot of business owners are also stuck, especially today with the digital marketing because it's so robust. I feel like it's unfortunate that the window is almost closed for small business owners. I know just five, 10 years ago it was wide open. It's like you have access to all these tools just like the big boys and girls do. Now you got to be a professional to use them or you're not. You know you're not. You're pretty much wasting your time, in my opinion. So how do people get sales so they can pay people like yourself and me and other professionals?

Speaker 2: 16:55

That's a great question and it has changed rapidly. I do think we're going to see a swing back with AI. That's going to make things more accessible for people. Small businesses again, we want. Yeah, I really believe that. I think we're coming back. Maybe the next six months to a year, you'll start seeing more AI driven tools that will be more approachable. So that window that we had about seven years ago. I think we're kind of headed back that direction, which is great. Small businesses deserve to be able to compete, right, but okay. So this is the number one lesson that I learned. I should know better. I have a sales and marketing background. I've done this for most of my life, but you know, when it's your own business, it's different, Right?

Speaker 1: 17:38

Right.

Speaker 2: 17:40

Right. So the number one lesson I would say to people is, instead of worrying about what you don't have in your marketing like I don't even want people to think about that at first what I want them to think about is what is working now. So if they are doing, if they have a referral program, if they're getting referrals, if that's how they're getting their clients right Just randomly. This is where this is what I think we all do as entrepreneurs. You think, oh, I've got a couple of people referring to me. I've got some business. Okay, now I need to add digital. Okay, well, have you maximized your referral? Like, do you have agreements with everybody? Are you like, giving the full value to, like, the people that are referring to you? Could you scale that? So, if you already have something that's working, first of all, don't throw it out. I've actually seen businesses do this, like they'll have a company helping them, let's say, do SEO, and then they don't quite feel like they're getting enough from it, even though they are getting some business, and they'll fire them and hire a company that does pay debts. It seems logical, but it's not, because now you've lost what was working, you're trying something new. There's going to be a crossover of probably less sales for a while before you actually get the benefit of the next thing, or it could be vice versa, right, but I've seen that over and over and over again, where it's like they try something and I have no judgment, because I've done exactly the same thing you try something for three months. You kind of start to get traction and then you're like, oh, I'm gonna go try something else, you know, and you do that three or four times and you're down the road a year and you're like, oh my gosh, like nothing's really working. So if you can just change your mindset to, if something is working and getting traction maybe it's just your Google business profile, maybe it's links that you're getting online, maybe it's chamber, maybe it's BNI have you totally maximized that out? Is there anything else you can do to kind of get the extra juice out of that so that you have more sales and have more revenue and then you can build? So I like to think of marketing as you're building like a foundation and they all work together.

Speaker 2: 19:57

So paid ads is not going to solve everything. Paid ads should only be 30% of your revenue. If you're trying to run a whole business on paid ads. That is very, very difficult to make that work from a revenue standpoint and a return from investment. Paid ads are very expensive. But if you have the social and you have referrals and you have an email list and you have other things that then combine with that, potential clients generally will see your ad. Then they'll go to your website, then they'll look at your Facebook page, then they might read a blog. It all works together as an ecosystem and if you're only trying to get one thing to solve all of your problems, it's just not going to work. So back to your first thing focus on what's working, maximize that and then build on that.

Speaker 1: 20:51

That's fantastic advice. I mean, no one has ever said it that clear, because I always tell people pick up the freaking phone, like, go talk to people face to face, you will get a sale today, versus spending the time to create an ad. Post it, work with it, tweak it next week, look at the algorithm. No, no, you know. So that's, that's perfect. And it sounds like I'm kind of building this little thing here. It sounds like if someone were to go, maybe, to their like, look at their client list and look at your last 10 to 15, 20 clients and see, like what you were talking about, see what's working and go make it work more, is that? I mean that would be a fair statement, I think.

Speaker 2: 21:35

It's totally. I mean again, I did the same thing, so I completely relate to this Guilty Yep me too.

Speaker 2: 21:40

Yeah, we're all looking for that next bright, shiny object and we might only be getting 20% off of like what we're already kind of getting success from. So even like the client list, like you said, what if you just called all those clients and said, hey, love that, your client, you know what are we doing well for you? What could we do better? Who else do you know? We all know that, but like that's the scary part. Like nobody really wants to do that Right, but that's a goldmine usually right there. You know that that part, like nobody really wants to do that Right, but that's a goldmine, usually right there.

Speaker 2: 22:09

You know, that, that part yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:13

So how much? Since we're kind of on this early stage, because that's where most people are, I think I think less than 8% ever hit a million dollars. I think was the last statistic. So that tells me that we got some people that are stuck down probably in the a hundred 200, and I just can't seem to get out of that phase.

Speaker 1: 22:34

So, with all the digital things, I love what you said about find where you're getting your clients, but you know, sometimes you do have to have some kind of digital presence. So what's your recommendation where? Here's the essentials of where you absolutely have to be, because I see a lot of people wasting time on videos and shorts and reels and it's like that's a long term. Play those ads, all that stuff. What would you say is kind of like at least do this so you can be found? You're listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is produced by my company, boss. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. Now let's get back to our special guest. What would you say is kind of like at least do this so you can be found.

Speaker 2: 23:40

Yeah, so thank you for that. That's a great question. It does depend a little bit on industry. So the way I like to have people think about it is there's two basic ways that marketing works in today's era. You either are at the place and you show up online and or in person at the place where people are already looking for your service. So that's what we call inbound marketing or outbound marketing, which means you are presenting them with an ad or something where they not they aren't necessarily looking for your service, but they find out about you. So that would be like the shorts, the reels, things like that, and that's kind of the mentality of a lot of people. Think you know, okay, well, I want to. To like as soon as they see my ad, they're going to be so excited about what I do that they're going to call me and buy my cutting board or buy my activity or whatever it is Right, and think about all you have to do is just break it down and go. Okay, human psychology Do people really buy from an ad of a company they've never heard from and they don't know who they are and they have no connection to them and there's no trust?

Speaker 2: 24:51

In today's economy, trust is the most scarce thing that exists, and when something is incredibly scarce, it means it has high value. So, taking all that that I just gave you in mind, back all the way up. What is going to increase my level of trust for the least amount of money? What is going to increase my level of trust it for the least amount of money, like what is going to give me social proof and have people trust me so that when I do show up where they're looking for my service whether it's google, my facebook page you know somebody refers them to me or I have an ad out that they actually will convert and buy. The best way to do that is to have real people that write reviews for you. That's the number one way that people look at you, know, decide if you're trustworthy or not. A video on your website is also really helpful them seeing you, knowing you, liking you, trusting you.

Speaker 2: 25:45

You have to have a website, you have to have an online presence, like that is non-negotiable. Um, if you can't afford word, you know wordpress or any of that stuff to start with. Don't worry about it. I have built sites for friends of mine and wix. I don't even like wix, but they couldn't afford it. You know, and it was just. But you have to have something to start. So if it's that 500 bucks, um, that is where you can start. Think of it as your foundation, that you can start building all that social proof. So you're going to want to have reviews on there as soon as you can get them. You're going to want to have photos of you and your team.

Speaker 2: 26:21

Anything that's personalized in the era that we're in now, like, take you up a notch completely in that trust factor. So website number one, but just a basic website that says nothing about you, that will not do anything for you. Like it just doesn't work. Like I could make that website. People don't even know if it's legit. It could be a foreign website was copied. That happens all the time. So it has to have those personal markers. You need to have at least two to three social accounts. So Facebook, linkedin, depending on your industry. Facebook, linkedin, instagram are usually my go-to. Youtube's great if you're into video. Everybody says video converts better. That's true. But if you don't have the foundational basics and you're a typical service business in America or even retail, and you're below a million dollars, like, you are wasting your money. So the chances of you going viral are and I hate saying this because I love video. It's very effective, but it's everybody wants to get like, ignore the foundation and go to the sexy thing.

Speaker 1: 27:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:32

Like that. It's just just think about your own behavior and how you buy things right, the chances of you seeing a video that even appeals to you and you click through. If you click through to their website and there is nothing that tells you this is a legit company and they want a significant amount of money beyond like 10 bucks or something you're not going to buy it right. So, if I can get you know, when you're in that business owner space it's hard to think this way, but you have to think like you have to think like your most, your toughest customer yeah, like what, what is right?

Speaker 1: 28:11

Yeah, that's golden advice. And you mentioned something earlier, kind of got off on marketing, but that's important to grow your business. But you mentioned something that you are a different person today and I think a lot of business owners forget that. And or at least I say this until I change, nothing around me changes right. So if I'm just stagnant, my business becomes stagnant. What were some of those things that you went through, that you're changed today, that you mentioned personal development and all that good stuff.

Speaker 2: 28:41

That's so great. It's my favorite subjects. I think that a couple of things. One, my business partner moved to Reno in 2019. And so we actually became a remote company before COVID hit, and I did not like that.

Speaker 2: 28:56

I'm a super extrovert, I love being around a lot of people, so that was like a forced change which made me have to reevaluate Okay, well, one, do I like this? And two, how do I grow in this area? How do I expand this? And two, how do I grow in this area? Or how do I expand my knowledge? How do I learn other ways to still get joy, even though I would rather be in a work environment? So that really prepared me for COVID, which was great. I was already ready. But the really big thing is we hired a business coach. I think it was 2020 or maybe 2019, right around there and those deeper questions. What I started realizing is at that point we were, you know, we had just become like a seven figure company, um, which is a huge. You know that I totally get what a big deal that is. I used to have that percentage actually on my wall of like how many women entrepreneurs ever hit that number.

Speaker 1: 29:49

And it's actually 1% for women, yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:53

A little bit under 1% and so I had that. That was like my first goal, right, and not that it should be money all the time, but it just helps me not feel bad. You know, it helped give me like perspective and feel like, okay, we're working towards something. But the business coach it wasn't even. It was like the sum total of all the things that were talked about in those conversations, the books that we read, changing my way of thinking. The big aha moment for me was realizing like we were going for this next really huge goal and realizing would I hire myself in the position and the company? I know other people have said this, but it hit me like a ton of bricks would I hire myself to do the work that I'm doing for beacon to be? And if the company were at that level where we're going, you know, 10 times basically bigger than where we were now, and the question was mean, the answer was unequivocally no, I would not hire myself. I was not prepared for that. So it led me down this whole path.

Speaker 2: 30:58

I actually went back to school, took some business courses at Harvard. I read, I like read a book a month. I still read a book a month. Like started really like getting into following people who had already been there so that I could learn from them and their thinking. I had to literally change the way my brain thought because I had no experience in that corporate, bigger world. And so reading like for me, reading stories and biographies, and I mean even like people like Winston Churchill, like I expanded it even by on business you know leaders right, how to how to leaders operate I was a little disappointed there weren't that many women that I could read about, but I did find a few that were, that were helpful, but that started to expand my thinking.

Speaker 2: 31:47

And then, as we face problems at the higher level, which you're going to face, different problems there I felt so much more prepared and you know other people had faced them, so I didn't feel like I was facing them for the first time. I had knowledge and information of okay, this is how other people have walked through, that. This is not unusual. This makes sense for the phase that we're in, Right, and I mean the answer today is what I hire myself is yes, so that's so. That really built my confidence too of just knowing that I had this next goal to look forward to. I want to be proud and feel good about the work that I'm doing in the company and then eventually exit Right. For right now I want to feel like you know what I'm contributing, that I could answer that question. I feel good about it.

Speaker 1: 32:38

Wow, what is your? So? Two books. What is your favorite person that you enjoyed reading about, that you learned a lot from, and then, secondly, what is your favorite business book that you would recommend to somebody that really impacted you?

Speaker 2: 32:53

Oh my gosh, I have so many. The most impactful book for me personally was Chris Voss. It's called Never Split the Difference.

Speaker 1: 33:02

Oh yes.

Speaker 2: 33:04

Yeah, and what an amazing storyteller for one thing. Like he's a great storyteller. What an amazing storyteller for one thing he's a great storyteller. One of my biggest weaknesses, coming off of what I would say kind of a lifetime of being a people pleaser, more personality, not liking conflict and I don't know if most people really like conflict, but I really didn't like conflict. So you can imagine, as a leader growing a business, you're going to have conflict, you're going to have negotiations. That's a big part of business.

Speaker 2: 33:34

And reading his book, my husband said across the room I was like yelling as I was reading his book because it just opened a whole awareness and understanding for me that there was a way I could learn this. You know, I felt very stuck in that area, knowing that, like my inability to have hard conversations when you need to have hard conversations or to be able to negotiate in a way that was like a win-win for both people, was hurting our business tremendously, Like that was holding us back. And so I must've read that book eight times and it just like the, and I actually implemented stuff right away. It wasn't just like I read it, I implemented stuff immediately. It started working.

Speaker 2: 34:19

I still yeah, I still use today in my email signature that are from that book and it it actually again started changing my thinking because, as I had these hard conversations and then I had good results, that blew me out of the water. It was like, oh my gosh, people don't respect me because I'm not speaking the truth. You can say it in a nice way, I'm not standing up for myself, and they can sense that. People can sense that they're kind of getting the better deal and then it makes there's a lack of respect. There can become boundary issues, all of those things and I found people respected me a lot more. I respected myself more and our business was more successful. So I love that.

Speaker 1: 35:08

I love that. I love that. Who was your favorite person?

Speaker 2: 35:11

you've enjoyed learning their stories from gosh, this is probably gonna like not go well, but I'm gonna say it anyway. It's really true. Um so, elon musk, his the biography of elon musk not not I know it's a very controversial person not for the reason of necessarily it, maybe not. I'm not like an Elon Musk huge fan and I'm not an Elon Musk huge detractor. What I loved about reading about him probably like him and Steve Jobs were my two. This is going to sound arrogant, I promise you like this is not what I mean by this, but I could relate to both of them and that they were more like the visionary side of the company and that is more my style. Like that's more my contribution is more like the visionary piece and like the um, innovation side of the company and all of that and so and I was pulling that from them out of the book If you read the biography of Elon and like his horrible childhood and like, you just understand him a whole lot better as a person.

Speaker 2: 36:18

There's so much pain in that book. But the innovation side I actually learned pieces from that book of I would never communicate the way he does and I would not want to, but how he would like take the vision idea and execute it Like that is such a rare thing to be able to take this very kind of nebulous big idea and be able to communicate it in a way that other people could understand it and bring it to life. So that's probably my favorite book if you're really into innovation and have really to life. So that was that's probably my favorite book If you're really into innovation and really big ideas, there's pieces in that that are really incredible.

Speaker 1: 37:00

I had a podcast guest probably two years ago that did a similar thing as you, and I've done that since and so, but I haven't done it monthly. I study, pick one person annually and just anything that's written about them and mine is not controversial probably, but a lot of people don't like him and that's Jeff Bezos, because he's similar to Musk in the fact that you think about. He has the thing that anybody could have done but nobody did.

Speaker 2: 37:36

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 37:37

And how did you make that happen? You know what I mean. And so just that vision, because I think all business owners, that's probably our biggest weakness is we are visionaries and we can't slow down to go fast, because we're always thinking about the next big thing before the other thing, like you were talking about with sales. Where are your sales coming from? Don't switch it up, don't mess with what's working. Focus on that. And so, yeah, jeff Bezos has been one of my latest guys that I've been studying. You really can. So since that I don't remember his name, but since that guest mentioned what you do, the same thing I've been doing it and it's like wow, it is amazing the impact it can have on you.

Speaker 2: 38:17

It is. Reading is. I mean, I don't know if you follow Dan Sullivan or read any of his books, but I mean huge fan of him, of course, and it just is so comforting. I don't even know if I would be where I am today if I hadn't and I don't think this was from a book, but I remember reading about maybe it was like articles I was reading. I'm very, very ADD and I always thought that will keep me from ever truly succeeding at a high level, like Richard Branson and I can't remember who the other gentleman was but these incredible leaders and business folks that are incredibly ADD probably even more than me but how they learn to harness that and then grow with it. So I think reading about people's stories and their books of how they've gone ahead of you like that can not only inspire you but it can give you a whole different trajectory for your business.

Speaker 1: 39:16

Absolutely Well. We've talked about marketing, we've talked about personal development. What is one more insight that you feel would be relevant for small business owners who are stuck? It could be AI, it could be, it could be anything that you feel like would really be helpful to business owners.

Speaker 2: 39:35

I would say, if you're in that beginning phase that first you said you feel like most of the people podcast are probably right in that section whether they're stuck there I would say two things. I would say two things. One, whatever you can do with this, whether you're current clients or if you don't have current clients, take time to interview the people that either are clients of your business. So we're so excited to get those first sales that we often, you know and just like get those sales and momentum and grow on it that we often don't actually go back and find out okay, well, what was it really that made you decide to work with me? What is the value that you're really getting out of this relationship or this product? And there's so many ways to do that. I know we can do that through email. I know we can do it through, you know, online surveys, picking up the phone and talking to somebody or having coffee. You will get so much more information. So if you can do that with 10 clients, I guarantee you you're going to be shocked. I know I have been every time I've done it. What I will find, even now, 13 years into business, is that the value that clients are getting from Beacon is different than what we're selling. It's different from what we think is the value you know they'll come back to.

Speaker 2: 41:04

Oh, I don't have peace of mind about my tech, you know. I have peace of mind that my website goes down. I don't have to worry about this. That's not what we think we're selling. But that can be this huge component. I can call up my account manager. They always get back to me within an hour and they can answer this question of I don't know whether this is spam or not. That's not in our sales proposal, but that is literally this huge value piece. So that can actually help you create better services. That can help you make sure you're not cutting something off that is actually like the core of your business. You might cut that off and not even realize that was a value for your, for your clients. And then the second thing I would say is two options. You know, go to therapy, find a you know faith community, read books, find something that is going to help you grow as a person so that you can grow. Your business can grow with you.

Speaker 1: 42:01

Well, let's talk about how people can learn more about you and your business and what's the best place to follow you, because I'm sure you've peeked some ears that people want to learn more and we only have, you know, just a few minutes today. So what's the little bit about Beacon? Who they help, how they help and then how they can find out more about you.

Speaker 2: 42:24

Great, thank you. So beaconmmcom for Beacon Media Marketing. Please check out our website. We have forums in there. We have a chat bot. You can do a 15-minute call for free or 30-minute call for free. Definitely, people can reach out to me on LinkedIn. That's probably my number one channel where I'm talking to people a lot. I always do a free consult if somebody just wants advice. So many people helped me in the beginning and I am committed to that. So I have a couple of people that I mentor and, but you know, a 15, 20 minute conversation I'm always open to. So LinkedIn is JenniferChristensenAKcom. And yeah, just go to my LinkedIn and would love to chat.

Speaker 1: 43:07

All right, all right. Well, I always finish with one last question, and that is if you were in a room full of business owners different industries, different seasons of business what's one thing that could be applicable to all of them, because some of the stuff we talk about is for different phases of business, but what's one thing you found that could be applicable to all of them?

Speaker 2: 43:29

If I was in a business meeting today with a group no matter what phase you're in, we haven't really talked about this, but what I would say because I think it's so timely and important for right now, this is not going to change over the next couple of years.

Speaker 2: 43:42

I would say to them, if they weren't aware from my experience, what I've been studying for the last three years and interacting with we have moved out of the information age and we have moved into the age of intelligence, and so there is a massive shift to the market that is coming and has already started, and so, with that in mind, recognize that we're all in the same boat.

Speaker 2: 44:09

It's not something to be afraid of but, like everything, we have to embrace change if we're going to continue to grow and decide. You have to have the deeper conversation before you can move ahead with this new era. So, you know, if you were in agriculture when the industrial age happened and you, like, saw this coming which is again I think this is even a bigger shift than that was actually um, you would need to have that deeper conversation of okay, where do we want to be? Who do we want to be in this era? How does this work, for you know where we're going and then start slowly setting tools, get, get some experts, start moving that direction, depending on what you decide. But you can't ignore that we're in the middle of a seismic shift right now.

Speaker 1: 44:59

Yeah, it's almost like the people that said the World Wide Web is the dot com, all that's. You know, I'm not going to do that. Well, you should have, because you're not in business anymore. So that's sound advice. So I appreciate you, jennifer. You've been a wealth of information and a blessing to many today, and I wish you continued success.

Speaker 2: 45:19

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 45:20

Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is created and produced by my company, boss. Our business is growing. Yours, boss, offers flexible business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. If you need help growing your business, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.