September 12, 2025 • 18 mins
Join Courtney Greenwood, founder of Greenwood Marketing Collective, as she shares her expertise on crafting effective go-to-market strategies for mission-driven startups and health tech companies. In this episode, Courtney discusses the intricacies of launching a product or service, developing compelling messaging, and executing successful marketing campaigns. Get ready to transform your startup dreams into reality with practical insights and actionable strategies!
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https://brainworkframework.podbean.com/
Connect with Courtney Greenwood:
Instagram: @greenwoodmarketingcollective
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenwoodmarketingcollective/
Connect with Chris Troka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-troka-3a093058/
Website: https://focused-biz.com/
Website: https://christroka.com/ #brainwork #framework #business #marketing #campaign #practical #strategies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's hard to articulate what you do.
I know when I go to networking eventsand I stand up and speak, or I'm just
talking to someone, their attentionfor X amount of time, and you wanna
tell them everything you can, but youhave to be succinct and concise and
targeted, and that is what I thinkmany businesses have a hard time doing.
The other thing is consistency,and I mean that in two ways.
(00:22):
Consistency with.
Your marketing, literally timeline of whenyou're putting pieces out into the world,
but also consistency in your messaging,your branding, your colors, all of those
pieces that if someone sees an ad on awebsite or they see a social post, or they
see somewhere out in the world, they seeyour logo in an instant, they know who you
(00:43):
are because it's consistent in all places.
If you don't have that,that's not gonna help.
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
Welcome back to another episode.
With us today is the founder ofGreenwood Marketing Collective, Courtney
Greenwood, a marketing consulting agencyfocused on mission driven companies,
(01:05):
startups and health tech companies atany stage, focusing on go-to market
strategies, launches, messaging,positioning and all the fun stuff that
goes into productizing your business.
Courtney's so excited to have you on.
How you doing today?
I'm doing great Chris.
How are you doing?
I'm doing wonderful.
Thanks for asking.
We always like to ask our guests, tellus about your entrepreneurial journey.
What were you doing before that kindaled you into what you're doing now?
(01:27):
Thanks for asking that.
Before this I was alwaysworking corporate positions.
Mostly big tech companies, healthcare,some mission-driven organizations,
nonprofits did some grant writing.
Although were mostly in the healthcarespace and I learned so much through
those experiences, but what always leftme feeling a little unfulfilled is that
(01:48):
it wasn't my own company and I alwayswanted to have my own business and also
in the same moment make an impact in.
Either the communities I actuallyphysically live in, geographically,
but also the greater communityat large about helping people get
better services and what they need.
And what I mean by that is,focusing on healthcare or education
(02:11):
or mission-driven nonprofits.
I want my daily work to make adeeper impact on those around
me for the greater good.
Working in corporate is amazingand you can do some good
there and you can learn a lot.
You can climb a ladder but for me,having the ability to also find a way
to now do this is really fulfilling.
(02:31):
That is fantastic.
And a lot of us start in some sort ofnine to five job or the corporate world
and we're itching for something more.
We feel like we've either reachedour limit or potential here or we're
kind of striving for something more.
Maybe it's time freedomor financial freedom.
But you had this crazy idea ofto want to go into business.
How has that been for you beinglike this new entrepreneur
from the corporate experience?
(02:51):
Tell us what thatentrepreneur stage is for you.
It's a journey.
I'm sure everyone says that itis filled with highs and lows.
Usually it's a low followed by anextreme high to back down in the
valley again and I wouldn't trade it'cause I am learning so much every day.
I'm challenging myself every day.
And basically when I started this inJanuary of 2024, I had this dream back
(03:18):
since I graduated with my MBA, I've had itfor too long and I left it on the shelf.
I just said in 2024, let's do this.
I need to do this and at least try.
The journey has been doing something everyday to put one foot in front of the other.
Some days it's big things.
Some days it's little things butevery day making some sort of movement
has been the process for me andalso not making myself an island.
(03:41):
Ensuring that I havea community around me.
I'm very big on community.
I'm probably gonna say that word a lotof times throughout this conversation
but it really is so true becauseI wanna help other people and I
feel a lot of fellow entrepreneursalso wanna help others do the same.
Absolutely.
I totally agree with the senseof community and just sharing the
collective knowledge, the tips andtricks, the mistakes and the successes
(04:03):
that we've all had throughout business.
We can prevent people from making thosemistakes and just get a little bit further
but it's that action and the perseverancethat kind of keeps people going.
And with your business, this is kind ofyour own unique opportunity to be your
own customer in a sense 'cause you're nowfiguring out, okay, I have this service.
How do I bring my product andservice to the market now?
(04:25):
And how would I treat myself?
Tell us more about that process.
What is it like for aclient to come on board?
Take me through the processbecause I feel like they're lost.
They have a great idea or they're like,I just dunno how to tell people about
it or get them to actually buy from me.
That's a great question.
And some people come to me and they'realready an established business,
an established product, and theirmessaging just isn't hitting right.
(04:47):
They're not getting their ideal audience.
They don't know whotheir ideal audience is.
They're doing a scattershot and theythink everyone's their audience and
that's the biggest way to fail orone of the biggest ways to fail.
Trying to talk to everyone but somepeople come to me for a refreshed
messaging, some people need afull go to market for their whole
business or product and go to market.
And for anyone listening who'snot familiar, I encourage you
(05:07):
to Google it and learn more.
My product marketing background is what Ireally attribute my passion for marketing
because there's so many pieces of itthat make you look at it holistically.
You're looking at it from amessaging framework to how to ready
the sales team, if you have one.
How to get your customersuccess teams ready.
How do you then plan what theactual marketing of the product is?
(05:28):
Is there an email campaign?
Is there a LinkedIn campaign?
Do you have content created?
What are you gonna have for white papers?
What did the beta process look like?
If you're in software,what does that look like?
What can you glean from that?
And then layer in.
It's a lot of different pieces andsometimes people come and they're
already an established company orproduct but they wanna get into
a different industry or vertical.
(05:48):
They might come to me if they'relooking to get into healthcare, if
they're looking to get into ed tech.
Then I have experienced there andspeak some of the language in those
different specific industries.
I was gonna say, working withme is usually a discovery call.
We kind of see if it's a goodfit, if I actually can provide
the services they need and thensee what do they actually need.
(06:09):
Some places they want a full go-tomarket support, which I can provide.
Other places just want the plan.
I will create it and pass over the fenceand offer consultation along the way.
While we do have set services, it's alittle bit of choose your own adventure
when it comes to some of these aspects.
Absolutely.
And I think a lot of businesses are gonnaappreciate just your flexibility that you
(06:30):
don't need to bring the entire packageto the table that you can pick apart.
I've identified the areas thatare gonna be most impactful.
Let's focus on that first.
With your experience, both incorporate and now in business.
What are they failing at whenit comes to them putting their
product or service out there?
That's a great question as well.
They usually are failing at messagingbecause I can attest to this too,
(06:52):
now that I own my own business, it'svery hard to talk about yourself.
It's hard to articulate what you do.
I know when I go to networkingevents and I stand up and speak
or I'm just talking to someone theattention for X amount of time.
And you wanna tell them everythingyou can but you have to be
succinct and concise and targeted.
And that is what I think manybusinesses have a hard time doing.
(07:14):
The other thing is consistency,and I mean that in two ways.
Consistency with your marketing, literallytimeline of when you're putting pieces
out into the world but also consistencyin your messaging, your branding,
your colors, all of those pieces.
That if someone sees an ad on a websiteor they see a social post or they see
(07:36):
somewhere out in the world, they see yourlogo in an instant, they know who you are
because it's consistent in all places.
If you don't have that,that's not gonna help.
I feel like those are two of the bigplaces that people come to me for.
Absolutely, and I think it highlightsjust the importance of focusing on
the client, the customer, the buyer.
What is it that they wantand need and what messaging
(07:59):
is gonna resonate with them?
What can we learn from that voice ofthe customer, from that buyer to help
us craft our messaging and just the waythat we kind of approach our launch.
I adore voice of customer interviewsand just talking to your clients.
It's the number one way you'regoing to figure out how to get
more clients and it's also a greatway to make your marketing easier.
(08:22):
They are going to say quotes and commentsand talking points that you're not
really going to think of or they'regoing to phrase it in a way that I may
not have phrased it and that just tellsme that other people who are like that
person who is my ideal persona, who'sa buyer, would also phrase it as such.
You're gleaning all these different bitsof information to help you ensure that
(08:43):
you are continuing down the right path.
Voice of customer work also can helpyou figure out what's my next step?
What's my next service gonna look like?
What's my next product enhancement?
Where is a mistake in the chain?
If you have a customer journey fromfirst talking to sales all the way
to purchase, go live, implementation,whatever you wanna call it, depending
on your industry and business, what'sall those touch points look like?
(09:05):
That's another place where thingscan really fall apart, is not
having a tight customer journey.
Absolutely.
When you're going back to reeducateyourself, the continuing education that
goes through, are there certain eitherYouTube channels, podcasts, books,
authors, anywhere you go to find acollective resource that other business
owners can use for their product launches?
Finding the voice of customer andmessaging and things like that.
(09:29):
Mention one other thing someone saidabout voice a customer or a testimonial
I got, I don't know if that works.
Absolutely.
When it comes to the voice of customer,can you tell me more about either the
clients you've worked with and whatthe feedback we can learn from them?
Sure.
One of my clients that I workedwith recently, you can see
this on my Instagram page.
They gave me a great testimonial sayingthat I really listened to them and
(09:53):
that was one of the differentiatorsis that I really sat down and took the
time to understand their whole businessand really understand who they were.
And again, it's hard to marketyourself and talk about yourself.
Sometimes I'm looking for storytellingas well within what I'm doing for their
narrative, for their messaging framework.
A client might tell me their why, howthey got into it, what their education
(10:16):
was and they might miss some of thesethrough lines that are consistent
across everything they're telling me
'cause they're so far in it, they'reliving this day to day and their
brain's going a million miles anhour as an entrepreneur and they're
just missing all of these fun wayswe could tie the story together.
And that's something that Ithink is really a differentiator.
A lot of people do marketing and messagingbut I really try to listen to not just
(10:39):
about the business but also the ownerbehind the business or the founder to
say, how you opened up this conversation.
Why did you do this?
How did you get there?
Because that's where the real magic is.
A lot of ideas out there aren'talways revolutionary on their own
but it's the person that's doing itthat can kind of make it as such.
Absolutely.
I feel like speaking directly to theclient or the customer and getting that
(11:02):
feedback is the ultimate cheat code.
You're learning what phrases andeverything that they use to describe
an issue or a problem but directlyspeaking to them opens up this insight
that you wouldn't have gained otherwise.
And when it specifically comes to sales.
People are too focused on talking abouttheir features and their benefits or
talking instead of asking questions.
Whereas the sales process ismore about asking questions.
(11:24):
I feel like you uncover so much moreand just as your client stated, they
felt heard, people wanted to ask 'em.
Right.
And what you just mentioned about featuresand those kinds of statements, this many
gigabytes, it could hold this and that.
I always think back to the Apple example.
I'm sure you've heard it and it'sbasically when they launch the iPod.
They didn't say it this manygigabytes and it processes this fast.
(11:46):
They're like a thousand songs inyour pocket and it's right there.
And that is what quantifies it fora buyer because at the one point we
didn't hold our entire phones and lifein this device, we had so many devices.
So just that proof point, that statementin the messaging and the marketing is
what really blows out of the water andthat's the type of things that I wanna
(12:07):
help people come to in their messaging.
That is wonderful.
Now, for those who are interestedin getting connected with you
and finding you online, wherecan they reach out and connect?
Sure.
You can check out my website atwww.greenwoodmarketingcollective.com.
You can find me on Instagram atGreenwood Marketing Collective.
I answer dms there or youcan reach me on email,
(12:27):
courtney@greenwoodmarketingcollective.com.
I love that.
And we have some more questionsabout the products and the launching.
I was curious, are there certain channelsthat you recommend for a business
and they've done all the work andthey're trying to launch this product.
Where do I go to find this buyer?
Or what channel should I use?
Is there a tried and true methodfor finding that channel or the
(12:48):
most profitable channel or shouldthey just try a bunch of tests?
As you'll see, if you look at mywebsite and anything about me, I like
to use the word simplify to amplify.
I do not recommend to clients tryingto be on every channel, every social
media platform or everywhere at once.
It's going to leave you tired andjust looking kind of disjointed
'cause there's no way without agiant team to keep up with all that.
(13:10):
And if you did have a giant team,that's not the best strategy.
You need to do some more personalresearch, customer research
about where your people are.
Are they more boomers?
Are they Gen Z?
Where do they go for information?
Is it a product or servicethat's super local?
Well then maybe you're buildingsupply company locally and you work
in one community, maybe you wannasponsor the little league team.
(13:30):
It's just like knowingwhere your buyers are.
Another example is I have a entrepreneurfriend who owns a business optimization
and workflow streamlining business.
And that's what she does as a consultant.
Her audience would be on LinkedIn'cause she's trying to get those
bigger corporate clients, whereas heraudience wouldn't really be on Facebook.
That's where people are sharing things.
It's not the same typeof business done there.
(13:52):
It's really just doing that psychographicresearch to figure out who your
client is and where they will be.
Absolutely.
I think that's so important whenwe're trying to decide what we
should do a little bit test thingsjust find that audience get found
or get in front of the right people.
Build that network.
And I think your content and the wayyou present yourself if you're solving
a really big pain point for people,people will be knocking down your doors.
(14:13):
You'll start to get more organicinbound leads then and just
kind of build out your business.
I wanted to ask, we're about halfwaythrough 2025 you've been in business
for a year now but what are youlooking forward to most in 2025?
Do you have any new initiatives orpivots that you're going to be doing?
Or are you just kind of stickingwith the tried and true?
Everything that's been working sowell so far and continuing that.
(14:35):
This year I'm going to be stickingmostly with the tried and true what
I've been doing but I'm also planningto start offering hourly consultations.
What I've been finding and notto get political by any means but
what I'm finding is that based onthe economy and some uncertainties
in the world we have right now.
Some people are a little hesitant tomake the investment in marketing 'cause
(14:56):
it can't come with a big price pointand there are no guarantees always.
I'm finding that maybe if they havein-house teams, they want to still
try to DIY it themselves but they wantto have a little bit of consultation.
Offering a little bit of light supportin that way where they could just book
my time on a few hours a week or anhour once a month or whatever works for
them so they can still get the benefit.
(15:17):
And that's really more focused forthe smaller to mid-size entrepreneurs
or small business owners that can'talways afford something bigger but they
still want help with their businesses.
And again, my altruistic heart is alwayswanting to help others and support
their dreams so they can also win.
And you're just like, how do I breakdown this barrier, this obstacle
that people are running into?
(15:37):
Let's restructure how we're presentingthat and just bring more value to people.
I love that strategy.
Yeah.
I'm hoping that I can helpreach more people and do a
little more for the community.
I love that.
Now, Courtney, is there anythingthat we haven't talked about
today that maybe you're passionateabout or you wanted to discuss or
share with the audience of otherentrepreneurs who might be listening?
I would just say one of my pieces ofadvice, I wish I'd done it sooner.
(16:00):
If you're scared, just startwherever you are, just start chipping
away at it and go for it becausehonestly, it's not that scary.
And what's scarier is waking upat 70 and regretting not trying.
People do all kinds of wild andcrazy things on the internet and
post all sorts of things and youtrying to build a business in public.
Isn't the craziest, weirdest, scariestthing out there, just do it like you even
(16:25):
do fall flat on your face, who cares?
Just go for it.
Absolutely.
I totally agree.
It's that action.
We're scared we could spend all the timebuilding our great idea or the website or
what we think people might want but justgo out there and start taking action and
get some feedback from the real people whoare gonna be using your product or service
and suddenly you're gonna be growing yournetwork, you're getting real time feedback
(16:47):
from clients and it's gonna help build youup as a business owner and entrepreneur.
You're gonna do it and you'rescared, just do it scared.
Many people do things scared everyday I do things and I get nervous
before I'll get on a webinar whenwe're a speaker or something.
I will look at my Apple Watch and my heartrate will be a little more elevated than
it is doing my normal day-to-day work.
I mean we're all human, we're allgonna have nerves, so just go for it.
(17:11):
Even for myself being in businessfor 10 years and doing the wedding DJ
and podcasting, there's still thosenerves and anxiety that come with.
Doing something differentor even the same thing.
I've done hundreds of podcast episodesbut still there's some butterflies
in my stomach when I am getting toknow someone new and throughout the
process but it's that action thatcreates confidence, creates experience.
(17:33):
And then you just build off of that.
I would rather have thatthan not even try it all.
And it only gets easierthe more you do it.
You build that muscleand that's with anything.
Whether you are fresh outta college, goinginto a corporate job and you're learning
how to live in corporate America, whetheryou are taking over a family business
and now you have a new responsibility,it's gonna get easier over time.
And then months later, years later,you're gonna look back and not even
(17:56):
remember when you didn't know howto do the thing you do every day.
Absolutely, Courtney.
I love the action andambition that you take.
Welcome to the new world of businessownership and entrepreneurship.
It's a crazy journey but I'm sureyou're enjoying that rollercoaster ride.
So excited to watch that progressthat you're gonna be making.
So thank you for coming onand sharing your knowledge
and tips and tricks with us.
(18:16):
Thanks for having me, Chris.
It's been a lovely conversation.
I appreciate it.
Of course.
Same here.
Thank you.
Thanks.
It's hard to articulate what you do.
I know when I go to networking eventsand I stand up and speak, or I'm just
talking to someone, their attentionfor X amount of time, and you wanna
tell them everything you can, but youhave to be succinct and concise and
targeted, and that is what I thinkmany businesses have a hard time doing.
The other thing is consistency,and I mean that in two ways.
(00:22):
Consistency with.
Your marketing, literally timeline of whenyou're putting pieces out into the world,
but also consistency in your messaging,your branding, your colors, all of those
pieces that if someone sees an ad on awebsite or they see a social post, or they
see somewhere out in the world, they seeyour logo in an instant, they know who you
(00:43):
are because it's consistent in all places.
If you don't have that,that's not gonna help.
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
Welcome back to another episode.
With us today is the founder ofGreenwood Marketing Collective, Courtney
Greenwood, a marketing consulting agencyfocused on mission driven companies,
(01:05):
startups and health tech companies atany stage, focusing on go-to market
strategies, launches, messaging,positioning and all the fun stuff that
goes into productizing your business.
Courtney's so excited to have you on.
How you doing today?
I'm doing great Chris.
How are you doing?
I'm doing wonderful.
Thanks for asking.
We always like to ask our guests, tellus about your entrepreneurial journey.
What were you doing before that kindaled you into what you're doing now?
(01:27):
Thanks for asking that.
Before this I was alwaysworking corporate positions.
Mostly big tech companies, healthcare,some mission-driven organizations,
nonprofits did some grant writing.
Although were mostly in the healthcarespace and I learned so much through
those experiences, but what always leftme feeling a little unfulfilled is that
(01:48):
it wasn't my own company and I alwayswanted to have my own business and also
in the same moment make an impact in.
Either the communities I actuallyphysically live in, geographically,
but also the greater communityat large about helping people get
better services and what they need.
And what I mean by that is,focusing on healthcare or education
(02:11):
or mission-driven nonprofits.
I want my daily work to make adeeper impact on those around
me for the greater good.
Working in corporate is amazingand you can do some good
there and you can learn a lot.
You can climb a ladder but for me,having the ability to also find a way
to now do this is really fulfilling.
(02:31):
That is fantastic.
And a lot of us start in some sort ofnine to five job or the corporate world
and we're itching for something more.
We feel like we've either reachedour limit or potential here or we're
kind of striving for something more.
Maybe it's time freedomor financial freedom.
But you had this crazy idea ofto want to go into business.
How has that been for you beinglike this new entrepreneur
from the corporate experience?
(02:51):
Tell us what thatentrepreneur stage is for you.
It's a journey.
I'm sure everyone says that itis filled with highs and lows.
Usually it's a low followed by anextreme high to back down in the
valley again and I wouldn't trade it'cause I am learning so much every day.
I'm challenging myself every day.
And basically when I started this inJanuary of 2024, I had this dream back
(03:18):
since I graduated with my MBA, I've had itfor too long and I left it on the shelf.
I just said in 2024, let's do this.
I need to do this and at least try.
The journey has been doing something everyday to put one foot in front of the other.
Some days it's big things.
Some days it's little things butevery day making some sort of movement
has been the process for me andalso not making myself an island.
(03:41):
Ensuring that I havea community around me.
I'm very big on community.
I'm probably gonna say that word a lotof times throughout this conversation
but it really is so true becauseI wanna help other people and I
feel a lot of fellow entrepreneursalso wanna help others do the same.
Absolutely.
I totally agree with the senseof community and just sharing the
collective knowledge, the tips andtricks, the mistakes and the successes
(04:03):
that we've all had throughout business.
We can prevent people from making thosemistakes and just get a little bit further
but it's that action and the perseverancethat kind of keeps people going.
And with your business, this is kind ofyour own unique opportunity to be your
own customer in a sense 'cause you're nowfiguring out, okay, I have this service.
How do I bring my product andservice to the market now?
(04:25):
And how would I treat myself?
Tell us more about that process.
What is it like for aclient to come on board?
Take me through the processbecause I feel like they're lost.
They have a great idea or they're like,I just dunno how to tell people about
it or get them to actually buy from me.
That's a great question.
And some people come to me and they'realready an established business,
an established product, and theirmessaging just isn't hitting right.
(04:47):
They're not getting their ideal audience.
They don't know whotheir ideal audience is.
They're doing a scattershot and theythink everyone's their audience and
that's the biggest way to fail orone of the biggest ways to fail.
Trying to talk to everyone but somepeople come to me for a refreshed
messaging, some people need afull go to market for their whole
business or product and go to market.
And for anyone listening who'snot familiar, I encourage you
(05:07):
to Google it and learn more.
My product marketing background is what Ireally attribute my passion for marketing
because there's so many pieces of itthat make you look at it holistically.
You're looking at it from amessaging framework to how to ready
the sales team, if you have one.
How to get your customersuccess teams ready.
How do you then plan what theactual marketing of the product is?
(05:28):
Is there an email campaign?
Is there a LinkedIn campaign?
Do you have content created?
What are you gonna have for white papers?
What did the beta process look like?
If you're in software,what does that look like?
What can you glean from that?
And then layer in.
It's a lot of different pieces andsometimes people come and they're
already an established company orproduct but they wanna get into
a different industry or vertical.
(05:48):
They might come to me if they'relooking to get into healthcare, if
they're looking to get into ed tech.
Then I have experienced there andspeak some of the language in those
different specific industries.
I was gonna say, working withme is usually a discovery call.
We kind of see if it's a goodfit, if I actually can provide
the services they need and thensee what do they actually need.
(06:09):
Some places they want a full go-tomarket support, which I can provide.
Other places just want the plan.
I will create it and pass over the fenceand offer consultation along the way.
While we do have set services, it's alittle bit of choose your own adventure
when it comes to some of these aspects.
Absolutely.
And I think a lot of businesses are gonnaappreciate just your flexibility that you
(06:30):
don't need to bring the entire packageto the table that you can pick apart.
I've identified the areas thatare gonna be most impactful.
Let's focus on that first.
With your experience, both incorporate and now in business.
What are they failing at whenit comes to them putting their
product or service out there?
That's a great question as well.
They usually are failing at messagingbecause I can attest to this too,
(06:52):
now that I own my own business, it'svery hard to talk about yourself.
It's hard to articulate what you do.
I know when I go to networkingevents and I stand up and speak
or I'm just talking to someone theattention for X amount of time.
And you wanna tell them everythingyou can but you have to be
succinct and concise and targeted.
And that is what I think manybusinesses have a hard time doing.
(07:14):
The other thing is consistency,and I mean that in two ways.
Consistency with your marketing, literallytimeline of when you're putting pieces
out into the world but also consistencyin your messaging, your branding,
your colors, all of those pieces.
That if someone sees an ad on a websiteor they see a social post or they see
(07:36):
somewhere out in the world, they see yourlogo in an instant, they know who you are
because it's consistent in all places.
If you don't have that,that's not gonna help.
I feel like those are two of the bigplaces that people come to me for.
Absolutely, and I think it highlightsjust the importance of focusing on
the client, the customer, the buyer.
What is it that they wantand need and what messaging
(07:59):
is gonna resonate with them?
What can we learn from that voice ofthe customer, from that buyer to help
us craft our messaging and just the waythat we kind of approach our launch.
I adore voice of customer interviewsand just talking to your clients.
It's the number one way you'regoing to figure out how to get
more clients and it's also a greatway to make your marketing easier.
(08:22):
They are going to say quotes and commentsand talking points that you're not
really going to think of or they'regoing to phrase it in a way that I may
not have phrased it and that just tellsme that other people who are like that
person who is my ideal persona, who'sa buyer, would also phrase it as such.
You're gleaning all these different bitsof information to help you ensure that
(08:43):
you are continuing down the right path.
Voice of customer work also can helpyou figure out what's my next step?
What's my next service gonna look like?
What's my next product enhancement?
Where is a mistake in the chain?
If you have a customer journey fromfirst talking to sales all the way
to purchase, go live, implementation,whatever you wanna call it, depending
on your industry and business, what'sall those touch points look like?
(09:05):
That's another place where thingscan really fall apart, is not
having a tight customer journey.
Absolutely.
When you're going back to reeducateyourself, the continuing education that
goes through, are there certain eitherYouTube channels, podcasts, books,
authors, anywhere you go to find acollective resource that other business
owners can use for their product launches?
Finding the voice of customer andmessaging and things like that.
(09:29):
Mention one other thing someone saidabout voice a customer or a testimonial
I got, I don't know if that works.
Absolutely.
When it comes to the voice of customer,can you tell me more about either the
clients you've worked with and whatthe feedback we can learn from them?
Sure.
One of my clients that I workedwith recently, you can see
this on my Instagram page.
They gave me a great testimonial sayingthat I really listened to them and
(09:53):
that was one of the differentiatorsis that I really sat down and took the
time to understand their whole businessand really understand who they were.
And again, it's hard to marketyourself and talk about yourself.
Sometimes I'm looking for storytellingas well within what I'm doing for their
narrative, for their messaging framework.
A client might tell me their why, howthey got into it, what their education
(10:16):
was and they might miss some of thesethrough lines that are consistent
across everything they're telling me
'cause they're so far in it, they'reliving this day to day and their
brain's going a million miles anhour as an entrepreneur and they're
just missing all of these fun wayswe could tie the story together.
And that's something that Ithink is really a differentiator.
A lot of people do marketing and messagingbut I really try to listen to not just
(10:39):
about the business but also the ownerbehind the business or the founder to
say, how you opened up this conversation.
Why did you do this?
How did you get there?
Because that's where the real magic is.
A lot of ideas out there aren'talways revolutionary on their own
but it's the person that's doing itthat can kind of make it as such.
Absolutely.
I feel like speaking directly to theclient or the customer and getting that
(11:02):
feedback is the ultimate cheat code.
You're learning what phrases andeverything that they use to describe
an issue or a problem but directlyspeaking to them opens up this insight
that you wouldn't have gained otherwise.
And when it specifically comes to sales.
People are too focused on talking abouttheir features and their benefits or
talking instead of asking questions.
Whereas the sales process ismore about asking questions.
(11:24):
I feel like you uncover so much moreand just as your client stated, they
felt heard, people wanted to ask 'em.
Right.
And what you just mentioned about featuresand those kinds of statements, this many
gigabytes, it could hold this and that.
I always think back to the Apple example.
I'm sure you've heard it and it'sbasically when they launch the iPod.
They didn't say it this manygigabytes and it processes this fast.
(11:46):
They're like a thousand songs inyour pocket and it's right there.
And that is what quantifies it fora buyer because at the one point we
didn't hold our entire phones and lifein this device, we had so many devices.
So just that proof point, that statementin the messaging and the marketing is
what really blows out of the water andthat's the type of things that I wanna
(12:07):
help people come to in their messaging.
That is wonderful.
Now, for those who are interestedin getting connected with you
and finding you online, wherecan they reach out and connect?
Sure.
You can check out my website atwww.greenwoodmarketingcollective.com.
You can find me on Instagram atGreenwood Marketing Collective.
I answer dms there or youcan reach me on email,
(12:27):
courtney@greenwoodmarketingcollective.com.
I love that.
And we have some more questionsabout the products and the launching.
I was curious, are there certain channelsthat you recommend for a business
and they've done all the work andthey're trying to launch this product.
Where do I go to find this buyer?
Or what channel should I use?
Is there a tried and true methodfor finding that channel or the
(12:48):
most profitable channel or shouldthey just try a bunch of tests?
As you'll see, if you look at mywebsite and anything about me, I like
to use the word simplify to amplify.
I do not recommend to clients tryingto be on every channel, every social
media platform or everywhere at once.
It's going to leave you tired andjust looking kind of disjointed
'cause there's no way without agiant team to keep up with all that.
(13:10):
And if you did have a giant team,that's not the best strategy.
You need to do some more personalresearch, customer research
about where your people are.
Are they more boomers?
Are they Gen Z?
Where do they go for information?
Is it a product or servicethat's super local?
Well then maybe you're buildingsupply company locally and you work
in one community, maybe you wannasponsor the little league team.
(13:30):
It's just like knowingwhere your buyers are.
Another example is I have a entrepreneurfriend who owns a business optimization
and workflow streamlining business.
And that's what she does as a consultant.
Her audience would be on LinkedIn'cause she's trying to get those
bigger corporate clients, whereas heraudience wouldn't really be on Facebook.
That's where people are sharing things.
It's not the same typeof business done there.
(13:52):
It's really just doing that psychographicresearch to figure out who your
client is and where they will be.
Absolutely.
I think that's so important whenwe're trying to decide what we
should do a little bit test thingsjust find that audience get found
or get in front of the right people.
Build that network.
And I think your content and the wayyou present yourself if you're solving
a really big pain point for people,people will be knocking down your doors.
(14:13):
You'll start to get more organicinbound leads then and just
kind of build out your business.
I wanted to ask, we're about halfwaythrough 2025 you've been in business
for a year now but what are youlooking forward to most in 2025?
Do you have any new initiatives orpivots that you're going to be doing?
Or are you just kind of stickingwith the tried and true?
Everything that's been working sowell so far and continuing that.
(14:35):
This year I'm going to be stickingmostly with the tried and true what
I've been doing but I'm also planningto start offering hourly consultations.
What I've been finding and notto get political by any means but
what I'm finding is that based onthe economy and some uncertainties
in the world we have right now.
Some people are a little hesitant tomake the investment in marketing 'cause
(14:56):
it can't come with a big price pointand there are no guarantees always.
I'm finding that maybe if they havein-house teams, they want to still
try to DIY it themselves but they wantto have a little bit of consultation.
Offering a little bit of light supportin that way where they could just book
my time on a few hours a week or anhour once a month or whatever works for
them so they can still get the benefit.
(15:17):
And that's really more focused forthe smaller to mid-size entrepreneurs
or small business owners that can'talways afford something bigger but they
still want help with their businesses.
And again, my altruistic heart is alwayswanting to help others and support
their dreams so they can also win.
And you're just like, how do I breakdown this barrier, this obstacle
that people are running into?
(15:37):
Let's restructure how we're presentingthat and just bring more value to people.
I love that strategy.
Yeah.
I'm hoping that I can helpreach more people and do a
little more for the community.
I love that.
Now, Courtney, is there anythingthat we haven't talked about
today that maybe you're passionateabout or you wanted to discuss or
share with the audience of otherentrepreneurs who might be listening?
I would just say one of my pieces ofadvice, I wish I'd done it sooner.
(16:00):
If you're scared, just startwherever you are, just start chipping
away at it and go for it becausehonestly, it's not that scary.
And what's scarier is waking upat 70 and regretting not trying.
People do all kinds of wild andcrazy things on the internet and
post all sorts of things and youtrying to build a business in public.
Isn't the craziest, weirdest, scariestthing out there, just do it like you even
(16:25):
do fall flat on your face, who cares?
Just go for it.
Absolutely.
I totally agree.
It's that action.
We're scared we could spend all the timebuilding our great idea or the website or
what we think people might want but justgo out there and start taking action and
get some feedback from the real people whoare gonna be using your product or service
and suddenly you're gonna be growing yournetwork, you're getting real time feedback
(16:47):
from clients and it's gonna help build youup as a business owner and entrepreneur.
You're gonna do it and you'rescared, just do it scared.
Many people do things scared everyday I do things and I get nervous
before I'll get on a webinar whenwe're a speaker or something.
I will look at my Apple Watch and my heartrate will be a little more elevated than
it is doing my normal day-to-day work.
I mean we're all human, we're allgonna have nerves, so just go for it.
(17:11):
Even for myself being in businessfor 10 years and doing the wedding DJ
and podcasting, there's still thosenerves and anxiety that come with.
Doing something differentor even the same thing.
I've done hundreds of podcast episodesbut still there's some butterflies
in my stomach when I am getting toknow someone new and throughout the
process but it's that action thatcreates confidence, creates experience.
(17:33):
And then you just build off of that.
I would rather have thatthan not even try it all.
And it only gets easierthe more you do it.
You build that muscleand that's with anything.
Whether you are fresh outta college, goinginto a corporate job and you're learning
how to live in corporate America, whetheryou are taking over a family business
and now you have a new responsibility,it's gonna get easier over time.
And then months later, years later,you're gonna look back and not even
(17:56):
remember when you didn't know howto do the thing you do every day.
Absolutely, Courtney.
I love the action andambition that you take.
Welcome to the new world of businessownership and entrepreneurship.
It's a crazy journey but I'm sureyou're enjoying that rollercoaster ride.
So excited to watch that progressthat you're gonna be making.
So thank you for coming onand sharing your knowledge
and tips and tricks with us.
(18:16):
Thanks for having me, Chris.
It's been a lovely conversation.
I appreciate it.
Of course.
Same here.
Thank you.
Thanks.
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