October 23, 2024 • 28 mins
10 Minute Marketing's Sonja Crystal Williams is joined today by Dr. Lori A. Manns, an acclaimed business coach and marketing strategist, who shares her incredible transition from the corporate world of sales to establishing the Quality Media Consultant Group. Discover how Dr. Lori's journey, as well as her industry keystones such as the Trailblazer Business Summit, empowers purpose-driven entrepreneurs to boost their brand value and revenue.
Dr. Lori reveals the critical role of continuous learning and professional development in seizing growth opportunities, and they also dive into the real-world challenges of engaging with sponsorships, corporations, and more. Learn from her experiences about the pitfalls of a broad market strategy and the magic that happens when you define your ideal client. By understanding the transformative impact of how to properly package your services, you can refine your marketing strategies and cultivate thriving client relationships.
After the episode, listeners are invited to get Dr. Lori's free "7 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make In Sales" (and more!) here.
About Dr. Lori A. Manns and Quality Media Consultant Group
Dr. Lori A. Manns is an award-winning business coach, marketing expert, sales trainer, who works with purpose-driven entrepreneurs and small business owners to help them elevate their brands, get more dream clients and increase income. In a word, Lori is a trailblazer who has excelled in the corporate arena, small business, and philanthropy. Dr. Lori is the President of Quality Media Consultant Group, a business consultancy firm specializing in media, marketing, and sales solutions for optimal business growth and success. Dr. Lori is the founder of the Trailblazer Business Academy where advancing entrepreneurs go to learn growth strategies about how to run a profitable business the soulful way. Prior to founding Quality Media Consultant Group, Lori worked as a senior multi-media account manager for two major radio conglomerates in the United States: Cox Broadcasting and CBS Radio Group.
After leaving Corporate America in 2009, shortly after Lori decided to start a non-profit organization dedicated to children's health and wellness. In 2010, Lori founded Live Healthy & Thrive Youth Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit with a mission to educate, activate, motivate and empower youth in the areas of academic achievement, fitness, nutrition, and total wellness. One of the organization's main objectives is to help children develop healthy lifestyle habits so they are more likely to avoid obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
As an accomplished entrepreneur, Dr. Lori has been featured in Who's Who in Black Atlanta consecutively from 2011 to 2022. Lori is a member of the Dekalb Chamber of Commerce and a former member of the esteemed Forbes Coaches Council, where she is a regular content contributor for Forbes.com. Known as a leader in her industry and sought after speaker, Dr. Lori produces networking events, lunch and learns as well as sales workshops across the United States.
Learn more about Quality Media Consultant Group here, and follow Dr. Lori on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, and LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (00:05):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10 Minute Marketing.
I'm your host, Sonja CrystalWilliams.
Well, joining me today is DrLori A Manns.
She is an award-winningbusiness coach, marketing expert
, sales trainer and she workswith purpose-driven
entrepreneurs and small businessowners to help them elevate
their brands and get dreamclients.
(00:25):
Welcome to the show, Lori.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (00:28):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Sonja Crystal Willia (00:30):
Absolutely so.
I just want to jump right inbecause I feel like you have
such an amazing background andthere's a lot of different ways
that you work with businessowners and I want to jump into
one of the ways that you and Ihave kind of worked or collabed
throughout many years, becauseevery year you host an annual
(00:51):
event and I want you to justshare a little bit more about
the event and why you do it forbusiness.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (00:56):
So my company is Quality Media Consultant
Group and I started this companyback in 2009.
After I had been downsized frommy corporate job I was in radio
sales for 20 years and I wantedto create an event that would
bring together purpose-drivenentrepreneurs and give them a
(01:18):
safe place to ask questions thatmaybe they didn't know and just
meet other entrepreneurs sothey could get information about
how to grow their revenue.
Because that was something thatI struggled with the first year
that I started my business, andeven the second year was
maintaining consistent revenueand income.
(01:41):
And with my background in sales,I was like, well, you know, if
I'm struggling, I know thatthere are other people like me
who could be struggling as well,because you know it's different
once you start your ownbusiness and you are the brand
and you are selling yourself andyou're selling your services,
and so it really, for me, was amission of just creating an
(02:07):
event that could be centeredaround helping entrepreneurs to
understand how they can increasetheir income and monetize their
skills in a way where it wouldbe consistent.
And then, of course, I wantedto put a little food in there so
we could eat, drink and bemerry, and then, you know,
because it's my businessanniversary.
(02:27):
I wanted to just say you know,cheers, let's celebrate the fact
that we're still in business.
Let's celebrate the fact thatwe have a lottery of
entrepreneurs mainly soloentrepreneurs and micro business
owners who are just trying touse their talents and make a
difference in the business world.
Sonja Crystal Willia (02:49):
Absolutely so.
I want to talk a little bitabout the nuts and bolts of like
what it looks like behind thescenes as you're putting this
together.
I participated a few times anddefinitely learned a lot in the
sessions.
I want to ask you one part,which is when you're arranging
and lining up speakers toparticipate in the event.
How valuable has this eventbeen to you, even growing your
(03:13):
own business as a result?
I mean, obviously you're doingit to help people, but I mean
you run a business too, so howvaluable has it been for you
from that standpoint?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (03:21):
Oh, extremely valuable because the event is
called the Trailblazer BusinessSummit and I invite trailblazing
entrepreneurs, just like Iconsider myself to be one, and
you have been invited twicebecause I consider you to be a
trailblazing entrepreneur andjust the value of information
(03:42):
that you and others have sharedover the years has helped me
tremendously, because I am agiver and I believe in sharing
information.
If I know something that canhelp you in business, then why
not tell you?
And if it is a paid servicethat I offer, I'm going to give
you a couple of tips to help youunderstand.
(04:04):
Listen, this is why you needthis service.
But let me just hip you to thegame and tell you why it's so
important for you to knowwhatever it is I'm sharing.
And then when my friends comeand they speak on topics that
they're experts in, it just isso incredible because you know.
(04:25):
One of the things that I'velearned about entrepreneurship
is simply, you don't know whatyou don't know.
And as long as you become astudent of the game Right, and
you are a student of businessand you learn and you grow,
every single year you know alittle bit more than you knew
the year before.
That's a beautiful thing.
(04:46):
So, and that's the only way youcan really grow and scale your
business is to continually belearning and growing and and
invest in professionaldevelopment.
So that's what the TrailblazerBusiness Summit is all about.
That's why I host the event andthat's why I host, you know, my
sponsorship event as well,because I want to educate
(05:06):
entrepreneurs about the factthat they can work with
corporate sponsors and use other.
All help each other grow and,you know, use our expertise and
(05:28):
individual gifts and talents tocome together and be fierce and
unstoppable.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:34):
I love that, fierce and unstoppable.
So this is a great segue.
Bringing up the sponsorshipevent you do too, because I
wanted to talk about some of theother workshops that you host,
so one.
I wanted to talk about some ofthe other workshops that you
host, so one packaging.
Talk to me a little bit, Lori,about how should and you do it
really well, so please do useyourself as an example.
But how should business ownersbe packaging themselves,
(05:54):
especially when they are in aservice-based business where
they're offering coaching orconsulting or something along
the lines to their clients?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (06:02):
Well, I think packaging really comes into
play when you want to be knownfor a specific thing.
And so I like to say that I'm abusiness coach and consultant,
and I gave myself that titlebecause when I started out, I
was just calling myself thepresident of my company, right.
(06:25):
And as I started consultingwith other entrepreneurs and
small business owners, theystarted calling me a trainer, a
coach and a consultant.
And I started thinking, yeah, Iam all of those things.
And so when I package myself, Itypically just say that I'm a
(06:47):
business coach, slash consultant, depending on who I'm talking
to.
In corporate settings, it'smore of a consultant role.
In entrepreneur settings, it isa coach role or trainer role,
because I believe that you wantto be known for that one main
thing, and that one main thingthat I like to be known for is
(07:09):
sales, like helping you toincrease your sales and revenue,
and it falls under businesscoaching, right.
And so I feel like when you arepackaging yourself, you want to
package yourself as that onemain thing that you want to be
known for and use your talentsand I like to call it your
trailblazer factor.
(07:30):
It's that one thing where youreally excel in that thing and
you do it so well that otherpeople just can't touch that,
because you are unique in thatgift, you are unique in that
talent, and in the sales worldwe call that the unique selling
proposition.
Right, it's the unique valueproposition another word for it
(07:52):
and it's just really you knowwhat's you know different and
unique about you, what'sdifferent and unique about your
products and services?
And when you use that topackage yourself, then you're
going to set yourself apart fromeveryone else.
And I always tell my clients toadd a little bit of your story
in there Right, your backgroundand your story, just so people
(08:15):
can relate to you.
And when I use that in my story, people can relate.
I use the fact that I had amedia sales career for 20 years.
I use the fact that I worked inpublic relations and
communications prior to that,and so that helps me with
(08:37):
messaging.
It helps me to learn how tobrand myself and help my clients
brand themselves.
So, in summary, to answer yourquestion, it's all about
packaging yourself with thattrailblazer factor, aka the
unique selling proposition.
What's different about you, whydo you do what you do, who do
(08:58):
you help and how can you helpthem?
Sonja Crystal Williams (09:00):
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about
the sponsorship and sales piecetoo them.
Okay, so let's talk a littlebit about the sponsorship and
sales piece too, cause you saidsomething really tantalizing.
I don't know if y'all heard it,but she said you can get other
businesses to sponsor and helpfund your business.
How do you teach people how todo that?
How does even someone evenbegin to figure out where to go
(09:22):
with that?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (09:23):
Yeah, so that came across my trajectory
because of my career in sales inthe media industry, right?
So I sold corporationsdifferent sponsorship packages
for everything that we did inthe radio world.
(09:46):
Anything that wasn't tied down,we used to say we will sell it
and get a sponsor for it.
And so when I started doingevents in my business and
workshops, I knew I had to havemoney to put those events on and
I knew I needed to.
You know, have things like swagbags and you know food and
(10:08):
prizes and all of those thingsthat you have when you do an
event, because you don't want tojust ask people to come into a
room and sit, you know you needto have certain things that are
going to appeal to them,including food and whatnot.
So, you know, I knew I didn'twant to pay for the food.
I knew I didn't want to pay forthe prizes and all of that, so
(10:29):
I would go and get sponsors.
And the thing of it is I lookedfor businesses that had
alignment with my business,right, I looked for the kinds of
businesses that also wanted toreach the audience that I wanted
to reach.
And then I looked for what wasthe synergy and alignment
(10:51):
between what their purpose isand what my purpose is and you
know my mission and vision andall of those things, and so as I
began to research thosecompanies, then I would reach
out to them to say, hey, youknow how can we work together?
What are some of the things youlook for?
And you know together, what aresome of the things you look for
(11:14):
?
And whether they were a cashsponsor giving me money, or they
were an in-kind sponsor, givingme products and or services
that would save me money.
So the fact of the matter is,there are corporations out there
, whether they be Fortune 500corporations or Fortune 1000, or
even small business owners thatare in your local neighborhood
(11:35):
that would want to partner withan entrepreneur like me or you
for various reasons.
One would be brand recognitionand getting loyal followers and
being able to audience and getthat loyal following that you
have to also know about theirbrand and their business.
(11:56):
So that's, that's justsomething that it just makes
sense.
I call it joint venturepartnership and partnership is a
way.
It's a marketing strategy aswell as a sales strategy, so
it's definitely a good way toincrease your revenue streams so
you can tap into other people'smoney as well as their
(12:19):
resources to help you grow yourbusiness critical factor when
looking for sponsorships,whether that be for an event,
workshops, anything thatsomeone's hosting as a business
owner.
Sonja Crystal Williams (12:34):
I've seen some businesses have
concern or worry or fall flatwhen it comes to sponsorships.
Sometimes Maybe it's the fearof reaching out, maybe it's the
inconsistency of follow-up.
What do you think are some ofthe challenges there that people
need to overcome and how dothey overcome some of those
challenges, maybe one or two,that you see them faced with
(12:56):
when it comes to sponsorship?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (12:58):
Well, when it comes to sponsorship or sales
in general, people have a fearof rejection.
You know, people have a fear ofrejection in sales because they
don't want to be told no.
Me personally, I don't careabout being told no, right?
Every no that I get just makesme feel like, okay, well, I'm
closer to getting a yes, becausewhen someone tells you no in
(13:20):
sales, it simply means that theydon't have enough information
to say yes.
Right, because it's not alwaysabout budget that they don't
have the money.
Sometimes it could be, but I ama believer that when people
want to do something, they willfind the money right.
And unless it is a strictbudget situation in a
(13:42):
corporation, which it sometimesis right they only have a
certain amount of money thatthey have to spend for the year,
and if you've caught them whenthey've spent it all, then you
have to wait to the next year.
But when it comes toentrepreneurs working with
corporations or even localcompanies, one of the things you
have to put aside is the fearof rejection.
(14:05):
You have to put aside the fearof, oh, they won't call me back.
You have to put aside the fearof, oh, they won't call me back,
or if they don't respond at all, you don't let that stop you,
because the bottom line isthey're busy, right, and you're
not a priority.
Yet until they know you, untilthey know that you can bring
(14:26):
them value that value that Italked about before with the
unique value, aka sellingproposition until they know what
value you bring to the table,you're not a priority.
So nothing you do in terms ofsending them an email or giving
a phone call or any kind ofcommunication you do, is going
to be a priority for them.
(14:46):
So you can't take it personalwhen they don't respond or it
takes them a while to respond.
You just have to keep reachingout, and purpose is very
important.
You have to reach out withpurpose, right.
You don't reach out saying, hey,did you get my email?
You got to reach out withpurpose and intention and have
(15:07):
some type of substance to whatyou're saying in every
communication that you make.
So the biggest thing I seepeople being afraid of when it
comes to sales it's just a fearof rejection and it's also a
fear of the objection right.
People don't know how to handleobjections.
When people give you alldifferent kinds of objections in
(15:29):
sales, all different kinds ofobjections in sales, people
don't study people.
Sales is about people andrelationships.
So when you study people andyou understand that, sometimes
you get objections that are justto block you right.
Because they don't want to giveyou any time, and so sometimes
(15:49):
people just give you objectionsto make you go away.
Well, I've been in sales solong.
You give me an objection, I'mgoing to meet it, you know, and
I'm not going anywhere, right,until you, you know, actually
say no, I'm not interested, I'mnot going anywhere.
I'm going to keep coming backand keep giving you value until
(16:11):
I win you over, and so that's,you know what sales is about.
You know building relationshipsand not having that fear of
rejection or fearing objections.
Sonja Crystal Williams (16:23):
I love it.
I love it.
That's so well put.
So, one of the resources thatwe're going to share and
everyone this will be availablein our podcast description seven
big mistakes that businessestend to make and, if you
(16:46):
wouldn't mind sharing maybe twoor three, which is that fear of
rejection to me, which goeshands in hand with the
sponsorship and something thatwe, as business owners, have to
overcome if we're going to beeffective at sales or at least
increase the ratio of how manydeals we're closing.
But what are some other thingsthat you see, maybe just peeking
from that and everyone, you'llbe able to download it to get
the full set of resources as faras big mistakes businesses make
(17:08):
.
To get the full set ofresources as far as big mistakes
businesses make.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (17:12):
One of the biggest mistakes, I think, is
believing and trying to totarget everyone and not having a
typical customer or client inmind that you want to reach.
And you know, when you have sucha broad spectrum of who you're
(17:36):
trying to sell to, who you'retrying to market to and who you
are trying to reach, thatincludes so many people, and all
of those people are not goingto buy from you as a solo
entrepreneur or micro businessowner.
You kind of have to major inspecificity, right.
(18:00):
You have to get clear on who isthat real target consumer, who
is that real ideal client?
Who is that service?
And then, what is it about theactual service that is
(18:29):
transformative for them, right?
What is it about what I'mselling that is going to really
make a difference for them?
Where they can, you know,eliminate everybody else and say
this thing right here, this isthe thing that's going to make a
difference for me.
And so I, like you know, for myclients to be really convinced
(18:50):
that they want to work with me,right?
Because one of the questions Ialways ask is why do you feel
like my business or me, you knowis the solution for you?
You know, I want to know whatthey think about me and what I
offer, and so it really helps meto identify who it is that I am
(19:13):
targeting.
And I think one big mistakethat I made when I first started
my business was you know, partof my business is a media agency
, so we do media buying for ourcorporate clients, and so I was
just like, oh, I just want tobuy media for anybody.
No, Lori, you can't just buymedia for anybody, you have to
(19:34):
really kind of narrow down whoyou want to buy media for.
And so I started narrowing itdown to, you know, universities
and education, the educationindustry.
And so I was able to get youknow clients once I identified
that's really where I wanted togo, and then I identified.
I wanted to, you know, getgovernment contracts and okay, I
(19:55):
wanted to go that route.
Well, what do you do?
You get certified.
You do all these things becauseyou want to narrow it down to
who is it that you really wantto work with?
And you know, it's like when Istarted working with
entrepreneurs okay, who would Iwant to work with?
I want to work with womenentrepreneurs who are
purpose-driven, faith-based andthey are primarily solo
(20:16):
entrepreneurs.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:17):
They're over the age of 40.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (20:19):
Why?
Because I have something incommon with all of them, right?
So I think it's really a bigmistake when you don't get clear
on who your target audience isand who your dream client is as
well.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:32):
I think that's huge and I know, for me
when I'm working with clients,it's one of those things that I
say it's the intangible thingand the intangible part of your
branding and messaging.
People want to do the logos andthe pretty colors on the
website and that's nice.
But if you can't get any ofthat right, you're going to spin
your wheels and I know, alsospeaking from experience of like
having done that in the past.
(20:54):
So I think that's reallyeloquently put that we have to
invest that time and it's goingto be uncomfortable sometimes
and you really got to dig deepto figure out who those clients
are.
Or, to your point, if you havedifferent cost centers in a
sense as part of your business,or different departments going
on in your business, it mightlook a little different per
department.
Or you might have two or three,in a sense, buyer personas in
(21:16):
the social media world thatyou're focused on, but that
needs to fit within the realm ofeither a personality type,
industry, vertical, something.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (21:23):
So yes, yes, absolutely.
You hit on all of that.
Whether you have differentdivisions, departments or
whatever within your business,you've got different verticals
there and you need to have adescription for each of those
categories of ideal clients.
Absolutely.
Sonja Crystal Williams (21:43):
Well, thank you.
This has been a lightning fast,really good conversation.
I hope y'all have been takingsome really great notes as we've
been chatting.
I always like to end everyinterview with a couple of quick
lightning round questions.
These are fast, easy, just funquestions to kind of wrap us up.
So first things first.
You have such an amazingbackground in radio, but I want
(22:05):
to ask you before you took thepath into radio and
communications, were there anyother paths you considered and,
if so, what other directionmight you have gone in if you
were in an alternate reality?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (22:17):
Yeah, I went to school for journalism.
My goal when I was in collegewas to be an anchor.
I loved Barbara Walters andCarol Simpson.
They were my sheroes and BarbaraWalters, you know, as far as a
media queen goes, she was it.
And Carol Simpson she was oneof the first Black anchors on
(22:41):
air when I was coming up.
So yeah, both of them were myidols back then and I wanted to
be a news anchor until Iactually did an internship at a
TV station in Alabama andfigured out that I had camera
shyness.
Sonja Crystal Williams (23:01):
Good to find out early.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (23:03):
good to find out early and, like I, truly
froze.
I went on assignment and trulyfroze.
I had the opportunity tointerview a presidential
candidate for the United Statesof America and I froze right
there in front of him and whilethe reporter was training me, he
(23:25):
kept, kept going it's okay.
It's okay, calm down.
Do you remember your question?
Sonja Crystal Williams (23:28):
And I was like I mean, that's a nerve
wracking experience.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (23:34):
And I've talked to other you know
journalists who had that happen,but you know, it clicked and
they remembered the question andthey were able to do the
interview, but I wasn't.
I actually, I was like sweating, I was nervous, I couldn't, I
practiced.
When I got there I was likecause, it was Michael Dukakis, I
don't know if you remember that.
Um, yeah, um, it was in 1988.
(23:57):
Yep, I was so scared, jesus, Iwas scared and just couldn't get
it together, couldn't remembermy question.
I was shaking, sweating.
I was like OK, obviously Ican't do this, you're not a
family star now?
Not at all, not now, but it was.
You know I didn't have theconfidence then and you know
(24:28):
somebody I really feel like Fornews anchors and news reporters.
They got to train you in salesfirst because you got to be able
to sell yourself you know, andyou got to be able to get the
story.
Yeah, but you got to have acertain bravado.
you know and confidence to goout and get in somebody's face
and put a microphone and askthose questions.
But hey, I'm not scared now,but I certainly was back then,
(24:50):
straight out of college, and thereporter who was training was
so nice.
He was like it happens to thebest of us, he's like you can do
this and I was like no, andthen I went home, had a meltdown
so I ended up saying you know,what else can I do in the media
industry?
Sonja Crystal Williams (25:07):
Pivoted.
Well, that's really cool.
Thank you for sharing thatstory.
One more question in the veinof media what are you listening
to in the world of media?
Whether that's a podcast or anygood audio books books, you're
reading anything along thoselines that you're enjoying
audiobooks, books you're reading, anything along those lines
(25:27):
that you're enjoying.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (25:34):
Oh gosh.
I have so many books that I'mreading right now and one of
them I just met, damon John, andhe has a book about being broke
, right, and he just gave methat book and I just cracked it
open this past weekend.
I can't even think of the titleright now, but it's something
about being broke and how thatyou know, financial situation
(25:55):
that he was in really drove himto succeed and he knew that he
wanted to, you know, besuccessful and be an
(26:17):
entrepreneur, because hebasically grew up poor
circumstances.
You understand that it is soimportant to learn from
entrepreneurs like him, who hadhumble beginnings, but they use
that to catapult them intoaccomplishing just enormous
(26:40):
success, right.
So I'm trying to find, let mesee, uh, it's called the power
of broke.
Sonja Crystal Williams (26:48):
Oh, cool title.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (26:49):
Okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (26:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (26:51):
Power of broke.
Sonja Crystal Williams (26:52):
Yeah.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (26:53):
Uh, I just started reading that book and,
um, it's, it's really a goodread so far.
And um, you know so so manyothers I have, and you know so
so many others I have.
You can see this bookshelfbehind me.
I have another book that I love.
It's called the Speed of Trustby Stephen Covey.
(27:14):
He also wrote the Seven Habitsof Highly Successful People, yep
, and when he wrote the Speed ofTrust and he talked about how
important trust is in businessand how it speeds up business
(27:34):
when you trust somebody andyou're dealing with somebody
that you trust, I'm gonna haveto look that up.
Sonja Crystal Williams (27:39):
Yeah, because he's got a whole
training institute.
So yeah, there's a whole, but Ihaven't ever looked up that
book.
So thanks for sharing it.
Yeah, because he's got a wholetraining institute.
So yeah, that's a whole, but Ihaven't ever looked at that book
.
So thanks for sharing it.
Yeah.
So, dr Manns, how can peoplefind you?
Get in touch, learn more aboutyour services, workshops and
events?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (27:55):
Yeah, they can go to my company website,
quality Media Consultants dotcom and follow me on the
Internetqualitymediaconsultantscom.
And follow me on the internet.
I am Dr Lori Manns.
I'm on Facebook, instagram,twitter Threads and YouTube and,
(28:16):
of course, linkedin, so I wouldlove that
qualitymediaconsultantscom isthe website and I am Dr Lori
Manns on social.
Sonja Crystal Williams (28:21):
Thank you so much again for taking the
time out today.
Everyone else, until next time,have a good social.
Thank you so much again fortaking the time out today.
Everyone else, until next time,have a good one.
Thank you.
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10 Minute Marketing.
I'm your host, Sonja CrystalWilliams.
Well, joining me today is DrLori A Manns.
She is an award-winningbusiness coach, marketing expert
, sales trainer and she workswith purpose-driven
entrepreneurs and small businessowners to help them elevate
their brands and get dreamclients.
(00:25):
Welcome to the show, Lori.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (00:28):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Sonja Crystal Willia (00:30):
Absolutely so.
I just want to jump right inbecause I feel like you have
such an amazing background andthere's a lot of different ways
that you work with businessowners and I want to jump into
one of the ways that you and Ihave kind of worked or collabed
throughout many years, becauseevery year you host an annual
(00:51):
event and I want you to justshare a little bit more about
the event and why you do it forbusiness.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (00:56):
So my company is Quality Media Consultant
Group and I started this companyback in 2009.
After I had been downsized frommy corporate job I was in radio
sales for 20 years and I wantedto create an event that would
bring together purpose-drivenentrepreneurs and give them a
(01:18):
safe place to ask questions thatmaybe they didn't know and just
meet other entrepreneurs sothey could get information about
how to grow their revenue.
Because that was something thatI struggled with the first year
that I started my business, andeven the second year was
maintaining consistent revenueand income.
(01:41):
And with my background in sales,I was like, well, you know, if
I'm struggling, I know thatthere are other people like me
who could be struggling as well,because you know it's different
once you start your ownbusiness and you are the brand
and you are selling yourself andyou're selling your services,
and so it really, for me, was amission of just creating an
(02:07):
event that could be centeredaround helping entrepreneurs to
understand how they can increasetheir income and monetize their
skills in a way where it wouldbe consistent.
And then, of course, I wantedto put a little food in there so
we could eat, drink and bemerry, and then, you know,
because it's my businessanniversary.
(02:27):
I wanted to just say you know,cheers, let's celebrate the fact
that we're still in business.
Let's celebrate the fact thatwe have a lottery of
entrepreneurs mainly soloentrepreneurs and micro business
owners who are just trying touse their talents and make a
difference in the business world.
Sonja Crystal Willia (02:49):
Absolutely so.
I want to talk a little bitabout the nuts and bolts of like
what it looks like behind thescenes as you're putting this
together.
I participated a few times anddefinitely learned a lot in the
sessions.
I want to ask you one part,which is when you're arranging
and lining up speakers toparticipate in the event.
How valuable has this eventbeen to you, even growing your
(03:13):
own business as a result?
I mean, obviously you're doingit to help people, but I mean
you run a business too, so howvaluable has it been for you
from that standpoint?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (03:21):
Oh, extremely valuable because the event is
called the Trailblazer BusinessSummit and I invite trailblazing
entrepreneurs, just like Iconsider myself to be one, and
you have been invited twicebecause I consider you to be a
trailblazing entrepreneur andjust the value of information
(03:42):
that you and others have sharedover the years has helped me
tremendously, because I am agiver and I believe in sharing
information.
If I know something that canhelp you in business, then why
not tell you?
And if it is a paid servicethat I offer, I'm going to give
you a couple of tips to help youunderstand.
(04:04):
Listen, this is why you needthis service.
But let me just hip you to thegame and tell you why it's so
important for you to knowwhatever it is I'm sharing.
And then when my friends comeand they speak on topics that
they're experts in, it just isso incredible because you know.
(04:25):
One of the things that I'velearned about entrepreneurship
is simply, you don't know whatyou don't know.
And as long as you become astudent of the game Right, and
you are a student of businessand you learn and you grow,
every single year you know alittle bit more than you knew
the year before.
That's a beautiful thing.
(04:46):
So, and that's the only way youcan really grow and scale your
business is to continually belearning and growing and and
invest in professionaldevelopment.
So that's what the TrailblazerBusiness Summit is all about.
That's why I host the event andthat's why I host, you know, my
sponsorship event as well,because I want to educate
(05:06):
entrepreneurs about the factthat they can work with
corporate sponsors and use other.
All help each other grow and,you know, use our expertise and
(05:28):
individual gifts and talents tocome together and be fierce and
unstoppable.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:34):
I love that, fierce and unstoppable.
So this is a great segue.
Bringing up the sponsorshipevent you do too, because I
wanted to talk about some of theother workshops that you host,
so one.
I wanted to talk about some ofthe other workshops that you
host, so one packaging.
Talk to me a little bit, Lori,about how should and you do it
really well, so please do useyourself as an example.
But how should business ownersbe packaging themselves,
(05:54):
especially when they are in aservice-based business where
they're offering coaching orconsulting or something along
the lines to their clients?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (06:02):
Well, I think packaging really comes into
play when you want to be knownfor a specific thing.
And so I like to say that I'm abusiness coach and consultant,
and I gave myself that titlebecause when I started out, I
was just calling myself thepresident of my company, right.
(06:25):
And as I started consultingwith other entrepreneurs and
small business owners, theystarted calling me a trainer, a
coach and a consultant.
And I started thinking, yeah, Iam all of those things.
And so when I package myself, Itypically just say that I'm a
(06:47):
business coach, slash consultant, depending on who I'm talking
to.
In corporate settings, it'smore of a consultant role.
In entrepreneur settings, it isa coach role or trainer role,
because I believe that you wantto be known for that one main
thing, and that one main thingthat I like to be known for is
(07:09):
sales, like helping you toincrease your sales and revenue,
and it falls under businesscoaching, right.
And so I feel like when you arepackaging yourself, you want to
package yourself as that onemain thing that you want to be
known for and use your talentsand I like to call it your
trailblazer factor.
(07:30):
It's that one thing where youreally excel in that thing and
you do it so well that otherpeople just can't touch that,
because you are unique in thatgift, you are unique in that
talent, and in the sales worldwe call that the unique selling
proposition.
Right, it's the unique valueproposition another word for it
(07:52):
and it's just really you knowwhat's you know different and
unique about you, what'sdifferent and unique about your
products and services?
And when you use that topackage yourself, then you're
going to set yourself apart fromeveryone else.
And I always tell my clients toadd a little bit of your story
in there Right, your backgroundand your story, just so people
(08:15):
can relate to you.
And when I use that in my story, people can relate.
I use the fact that I had amedia sales career for 20 years.
I use the fact that I worked inpublic relations and
communications prior to that,and so that helps me with
(08:37):
messaging.
It helps me to learn how tobrand myself and help my clients
brand themselves.
So, in summary, to answer yourquestion, it's all about
packaging yourself with thattrailblazer factor, aka the
unique selling proposition.
What's different about you, whydo you do what you do, who do
(08:58):
you help and how can you helpthem?
Sonja Crystal Williams (09:00):
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about
the sponsorship and sales piecetoo them.
Okay, so let's talk a littlebit about the sponsorship and
sales piece too, cause you saidsomething really tantalizing.
I don't know if y'all heard it,but she said you can get other
businesses to sponsor and helpfund your business.
How do you teach people how todo that?
How does even someone evenbegin to figure out where to go
(09:22):
with that?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (09:23):
Yeah, so that came across my trajectory
because of my career in sales inthe media industry, right?
So I sold corporationsdifferent sponsorship packages
for everything that we did inthe radio world.
(09:46):
Anything that wasn't tied down,we used to say we will sell it
and get a sponsor for it.
And so when I started doingevents in my business and
workshops, I knew I had to havemoney to put those events on and
I knew I needed to.
You know, have things like swagbags and you know food and
(10:08):
prizes and all of those thingsthat you have when you do an
event, because you don't want tojust ask people to come into a
room and sit, you know you needto have certain things that are
going to appeal to them,including food and whatnot.
So, you know, I knew I didn'twant to pay for the food.
I knew I didn't want to pay forthe prizes and all of that, so
(10:29):
I would go and get sponsors.
And the thing of it is I lookedfor businesses that had
alignment with my business,right, I looked for the kinds of
businesses that also wanted toreach the audience that I wanted
to reach.
And then I looked for what wasthe synergy and alignment
(10:51):
between what their purpose isand what my purpose is and you
know my mission and vision andall of those things, and so as I
began to research thosecompanies, then I would reach
out to them to say, hey, youknow how can we work together?
What are some of the things youlook for?
And you know together, what aresome of the things you look for
(11:14):
?
And whether they were a cashsponsor giving me money, or they
were an in-kind sponsor, givingme products and or services
that would save me money.
So the fact of the matter is,there are corporations out there
, whether they be Fortune 500corporations or Fortune 1000, or
even small business owners thatare in your local neighborhood
(11:35):
that would want to partner withan entrepreneur like me or you
for various reasons.
One would be brand recognitionand getting loyal followers and
being able to audience and getthat loyal following that you
have to also know about theirbrand and their business.
(11:56):
So that's, that's justsomething that it just makes
sense.
I call it joint venturepartnership and partnership is a
way.
It's a marketing strategy aswell as a sales strategy, so
it's definitely a good way toincrease your revenue streams so
you can tap into other people'smoney as well as their
(12:19):
resources to help you grow yourbusiness critical factor when
looking for sponsorships,whether that be for an event,
workshops, anything thatsomeone's hosting as a business
owner.
Sonja Crystal Williams (12:34):
I've seen some businesses have
concern or worry or fall flatwhen it comes to sponsorships.
Sometimes Maybe it's the fearof reaching out, maybe it's the
inconsistency of follow-up.
What do you think are some ofthe challenges there that people
need to overcome and how dothey overcome some of those
challenges, maybe one or two,that you see them faced with
(12:56):
when it comes to sponsorship?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (12:58):
Well, when it comes to sponsorship or sales
in general, people have a fearof rejection.
You know, people have a fear ofrejection in sales because they
don't want to be told no.
Me personally, I don't careabout being told no, right?
Every no that I get just makesme feel like, okay, well, I'm
closer to getting a yes, becausewhen someone tells you no in
(13:20):
sales, it simply means that theydon't have enough information
to say yes.
Right, because it's not alwaysabout budget that they don't
have the money.
Sometimes it could be, but I ama believer that when people
want to do something, they willfind the money right.
And unless it is a strictbudget situation in a
(13:42):
corporation, which it sometimesis right they only have a
certain amount of money thatthey have to spend for the year,
and if you've caught them whenthey've spent it all, then you
have to wait to the next year.
But when it comes toentrepreneurs working with
corporations or even localcompanies, one of the things you
have to put aside is the fearof rejection.
(14:05):
You have to put aside the fearof, oh, they won't call me back.
You have to put aside the fearof, oh, they won't call me back,
or if they don't respond at all, you don't let that stop you,
because the bottom line isthey're busy, right, and you're
not a priority.
Yet until they know you, untilthey know that you can bring
(14:26):
them value that value that Italked about before with the
unique value, aka sellingproposition until they know what
value you bring to the table,you're not a priority.
So nothing you do in terms ofsending them an email or giving
a phone call or any kind ofcommunication you do, is going
to be a priority for them.
(14:46):
So you can't take it personalwhen they don't respond or it
takes them a while to respond.
You just have to keep reachingout, and purpose is very
important.
You have to reach out withpurpose, right.
You don't reach out saying, hey,did you get my email?
You got to reach out withpurpose and intention and have
(15:07):
some type of substance to whatyou're saying in every
communication that you make.
So the biggest thing I seepeople being afraid of when it
comes to sales it's just a fearof rejection and it's also a
fear of the objection right.
People don't know how to handleobjections.
When people give you alldifferent kinds of objections in
(15:29):
sales, all different kinds ofobjections in sales, people
don't study people.
Sales is about people andrelationships.
So when you study people andyou understand that, sometimes
you get objections that are justto block you right.
Because they don't want to giveyou any time, and so sometimes
(15:49):
people just give you objectionsto make you go away.
Well, I've been in sales solong.
You give me an objection, I'mgoing to meet it, you know, and
I'm not going anywhere, right,until you, you know, actually
say no, I'm not interested, I'mnot going anywhere.
I'm going to keep coming backand keep giving you value until
(16:11):
I win you over, and so that's,you know what sales is about.
You know building relationshipsand not having that fear of
rejection or fearing objections.
Sonja Crystal Williams (16:23):
I love it.
I love it.
That's so well put.
So, one of the resources thatwe're going to share and
everyone this will be availablein our podcast description seven
big mistakes that businessestend to make and, if you
(16:46):
wouldn't mind sharing maybe twoor three, which is that fear of
rejection to me, which goeshands in hand with the
sponsorship and something thatwe, as business owners, have to
overcome if we're going to beeffective at sales or at least
increase the ratio of how manydeals we're closing.
But what are some other thingsthat you see, maybe just peeking
from that and everyone, you'llbe able to download it to get
the full set of resources as faras big mistakes businesses make
(17:08):
.
To get the full set ofresources as far as big mistakes
businesses make.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (17:12):
One of the biggest mistakes, I think, is
believing and trying to totarget everyone and not having a
typical customer or client inmind that you want to reach.
And you know, when you have sucha broad spectrum of who you're
(17:36):
trying to sell to, who you'retrying to market to and who you
are trying to reach, thatincludes so many people, and all
of those people are not goingto buy from you as a solo
entrepreneur or micro businessowner.
You kind of have to major inspecificity, right.
(18:00):
You have to get clear on who isthat real target consumer, who
is that real ideal client?
Who is that service?
And then, what is it about theactual service that is
(18:29):
transformative for them, right?
What is it about what I'mselling that is going to really
make a difference for them?
Where they can, you know,eliminate everybody else and say
this thing right here, this isthe thing that's going to make a
difference for me.
And so I, like you know, for myclients to be really convinced
(18:50):
that they want to work with me,right?
Because one of the questions Ialways ask is why do you feel
like my business or me, you knowis the solution for you?
You know, I want to know whatthey think about me and what I
offer, and so it really helps meto identify who it is that I am
(19:13):
targeting.
And I think one big mistakethat I made when I first started
my business was you know, partof my business is a media agency
, so we do media buying for ourcorporate clients, and so I was
just like, oh, I just want tobuy media for anybody.
No, Lori, you can't just buymedia for anybody, you have to
(19:34):
really kind of narrow down whoyou want to buy media for.
And so I started narrowing itdown to, you know, universities
and education, the educationindustry.
And so I was able to get youknow clients once I identified
that's really where I wanted togo, and then I identified.
I wanted to, you know, getgovernment contracts and okay, I
(19:55):
wanted to go that route.
Well, what do you do?
You get certified.
You do all these things becauseyou want to narrow it down to
who is it that you really wantto work with?
And you know, it's like when Istarted working with
entrepreneurs okay, who would Iwant to work with?
I want to work with womenentrepreneurs who are
purpose-driven, faith-based andthey are primarily solo
(20:16):
entrepreneurs.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:17):
They're over the age of 40.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (20:19):
Why?
Because I have something incommon with all of them, right?
So I think it's really a bigmistake when you don't get clear
on who your target audience isand who your dream client is as
well.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:32):
I think that's huge and I know, for me
when I'm working with clients,it's one of those things that I
say it's the intangible thingand the intangible part of your
branding and messaging.
People want to do the logos andthe pretty colors on the
website and that's nice.
But if you can't get any ofthat right, you're going to spin
your wheels and I know, alsospeaking from experience of like
having done that in the past.
(20:54):
So I think that's reallyeloquently put that we have to
invest that time and it's goingto be uncomfortable sometimes
and you really got to dig deepto figure out who those clients
are.
Or, to your point, if you havedifferent cost centers in a
sense as part of your business,or different departments going
on in your business, it mightlook a little different per
department.
Or you might have two or three,in a sense, buyer personas in
(21:16):
the social media world thatyou're focused on, but that
needs to fit within the realm ofeither a personality type,
industry, vertical, something.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (21:23):
So yes, yes, absolutely.
You hit on all of that.
Whether you have differentdivisions, departments or
whatever within your business,you've got different verticals
there and you need to have adescription for each of those
categories of ideal clients.
Absolutely.
Sonja Crystal Williams (21:43):
Well, thank you.
This has been a lightning fast,really good conversation.
I hope y'all have been takingsome really great notes as we've
been chatting.
I always like to end everyinterview with a couple of quick
lightning round questions.
These are fast, easy, just funquestions to kind of wrap us up.
So first things first.
You have such an amazingbackground in radio, but I want
(22:05):
to ask you before you took thepath into radio and
communications, were there anyother paths you considered and,
if so, what other directionmight you have gone in if you
were in an alternate reality?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (22:17):
Yeah, I went to school for journalism.
My goal when I was in collegewas to be an anchor.
I loved Barbara Walters andCarol Simpson.
They were my sheroes and BarbaraWalters, you know, as far as a
media queen goes, she was it.
And Carol Simpson she was oneof the first Black anchors on
(22:41):
air when I was coming up.
So yeah, both of them were myidols back then and I wanted to
be a news anchor until Iactually did an internship at a
TV station in Alabama andfigured out that I had camera
shyness.
Sonja Crystal Williams (23:01):
Good to find out early.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (23:03):
good to find out early and, like I, truly
froze.
I went on assignment and trulyfroze.
I had the opportunity tointerview a presidential
candidate for the United Statesof America and I froze right
there in front of him and whilethe reporter was training me, he
(23:25):
kept, kept going it's okay.
It's okay, calm down.
Do you remember your question?
Sonja Crystal Williams (23:28):
And I was like I mean, that's a nerve
wracking experience.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (23:34):
And I've talked to other you know
journalists who had that happen,but you know, it clicked and
they remembered the question andthey were able to do the
interview, but I wasn't.
I actually, I was like sweating, I was nervous, I couldn't, I
practiced.
When I got there I was likecause, it was Michael Dukakis, I
don't know if you remember that.
Um, yeah, um, it was in 1988.
(23:57):
Yep, I was so scared, jesus, Iwas scared and just couldn't get
it together, couldn't remembermy question.
I was shaking, sweating.
I was like OK, obviously Ican't do this, you're not a
family star now?
Not at all, not now, but it was.
You know I didn't have theconfidence then and you know
(24:28):
somebody I really feel like Fornews anchors and news reporters.
They got to train you in salesfirst because you got to be able
to sell yourself you know, andyou got to be able to get the
story.
Yeah, but you got to have acertain bravado.
you know and confidence to goout and get in somebody's face
and put a microphone and askthose questions.
But hey, I'm not scared now,but I certainly was back then,
(24:50):
straight out of college, and thereporter who was training was
so nice.
He was like it happens to thebest of us, he's like you can do
this and I was like no, andthen I went home, had a meltdown
so I ended up saying you know,what else can I do in the media
industry?
Sonja Crystal Williams (25:07):
Pivoted.
Well, that's really cool.
Thank you for sharing thatstory.
One more question in the veinof media what are you listening
to in the world of media?
Whether that's a podcast or anygood audio books books, you're
reading anything along thoselines that you're enjoying
audiobooks, books you're reading, anything along those lines
(25:27):
that you're enjoying.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (25:34):
Oh gosh.
I have so many books that I'mreading right now and one of
them I just met, damon John, andhe has a book about being broke
, right, and he just gave methat book and I just cracked it
open this past weekend.
I can't even think of the titleright now, but it's something
about being broke and how thatyou know, financial situation
(25:55):
that he was in really drove himto succeed and he knew that he
wanted to, you know, besuccessful and be an
(26:17):
entrepreneur, because hebasically grew up poor
circumstances.
You understand that it is soimportant to learn from
entrepreneurs like him, who hadhumble beginnings, but they use
that to catapult them intoaccomplishing just enormous
(26:40):
success, right.
So I'm trying to find, let mesee, uh, it's called the power
of broke.
Sonja Crystal Williams (26:48):
Oh, cool title.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (26:49):
Okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (26:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (26:51):
Power of broke.
Sonja Crystal Williams (26:52):
Yeah.
Dr. Lori A. Manns (26:53):
Uh, I just started reading that book and,
um, it's, it's really a goodread so far.
And um, you know so so manyothers I have, and you know so
so many others I have.
You can see this bookshelfbehind me.
I have another book that I love.
It's called the Speed of Trustby Stephen Covey.
(27:14):
He also wrote the Seven Habitsof Highly Successful People, yep
, and when he wrote the Speed ofTrust and he talked about how
important trust is in businessand how it speeds up business
(27:34):
when you trust somebody andyou're dealing with somebody
that you trust, I'm gonna haveto look that up.
Sonja Crystal Williams (27:39):
Yeah, because he's got a whole
training institute.
So yeah, there's a whole, but Ihaven't ever looked up that
book.
So thanks for sharing it.
Yeah, because he's got a wholetraining institute.
So yeah, that's a whole, but Ihaven't ever looked at that book
.
So thanks for sharing it.
Yeah.
So, dr Manns, how can peoplefind you?
Get in touch, learn more aboutyour services, workshops and
events?
Dr. Lori A. Manns (27:55):
Yeah, they can go to my company website,
quality Media Consultants dotcom and follow me on the
Internetqualitymediaconsultantscom.
And follow me on the internet.
I am Dr Lori Manns.
I'm on Facebook, instagram,twitter Threads and YouTube and,
(28:16):
of course, linkedin, so I wouldlove that
qualitymediaconsultantscom isthe website and I am Dr Lori
Manns on social.
Sonja Crystal Williams (28:21):
Thank you so much again for taking the
time out today.
Everyone else, until next time,have a good social.
Thank you so much again fortaking the time out today.
Everyone else, until next time,have a good one.
Thank you.
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