May 23, 2024 • 38 mins
Get in touch with Darcy Neighbors of CIM Marketing Partners here: cimmp.com
Or call her at 702.812.7325
Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!
Send us a message to join the show for free business guidance: https://pointnortheast.com/contact-us/
Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time.
I'm your host, Sarah Frasca,restaurant owner,
keynote speaker and businesscoach. I've spent my career not
only in corporate America butalso as an entrepreneur,
(00:23):
carrying on my family's legacythrough my restaurant, now a
business coach and consultant.
I'm helping other businesses touse creative problem solving and
innovative thinking to drivelasting change. Stay tuned to
hear some inspiring guidancethat will help you to level up
your business. Well, great.
(00:46):
Hello, everyone, and welcome toanother episode of our level up
your business podcast. I'm SaraFrasca with point Northeast, and
I'm joined today by a goodfriend and compadre in serving
clients. And that is Darcyneighbors from CRM, marketing
partners. Welcome, Darcy.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
I'm happy to be here today.
(01:08):
Really excited? You're here. Andyeah, and this is I mean, gosh,
such a, I don't know what theright word is. But we are such
kind of compatible partners inserving. And so I'm just really
excited to chat with you todayand talk to you about kind of
helping people to motivategrowth for their businesses.
(01:31):
Wonderful.
That's what I love to do. That'swhat gets me up every day. So I
know,I know it is, which is again,
just why we are such kindredspirits. That's the word I was
looking for. That's perfect.
Yes. Well, Darcy is in Vegas.
Right? Yes. Help a little bitabout your business? And how the
heck did you build a marketingagency?
(01:53):
It's been quite the journey. Butlet me start with the fact that
I've always, even from a youngchild have had an
entrepreneurial spirit. I mean,I remember my first business was
collecting aluminum cans on thebeach, believe it or not Sara
near where you guys live. And Iwould, I would go out and
(02:17):
collect aluminum cans and makemoney. And then I got a paper
route. And then I babysat, I dideverything where I could, you
know, make money and save money.
That's kind of what I alwaysdid. And I was an athlete
growing up. And my mom alwayssaid, Gosh, Darcy, if you put
all the efforts you put intoyour athletics into your school
and to your business, you wouldbe very successful. And so I had
(02:39):
gone through, you know, highschool and college, played
volleyball in college, and thengot injured my third year in and
it was like, Oh, now what am Igoing to do? Because my whole
focus had been athletics. Andthen I had to kind of regroup. I
taught myself this really datesme, Sarah, I taught myself word
processing back in the daylanded a job at Kennedy Space
(03:02):
Center. And as a word processor,and within two months, they
promoted me to a businessanalyst position, where I
checked every line item thatwent on the shuttle. So I was
keeping track of all that Ihappened to be down at Cape
Canaveral, the day theChallenger blew up. And that was
very devastating. So that was inJanuary, and then in May, I'm
(03:24):
like, it's kind of feeling likea morgue. It was very sad to be
around there. So I had savedmoney. every paycheck, I was a
workaholic six days a week, sixto six. And I said you, I'm
going to start my own retailbusiness. So at age 24, I picked
up and opened a shop in St.
(03:44):
Augustine, Florida. And within16 months, we had grown, we were
ready to open up anotherlocation. And I had a foreign
gentleman walk into my shop oneday and say, Darcy, I'd like to
buy your business. And I'm like,what, it was really hard to get
a location. So I said, I calledmy attorney and she said, you
(04:05):
would be foolish not to takethat. So I did. And then that's,
you know, I sold the company.
Then I went back to school fulltime, my parents had moved to
Vegas, I moved to Vegas. Andwithin that short period of
time, I landed a job at a bank.
And then shortly after thatfinish my degree at UNLV started
working as the first marketingdirector ever hired by a law
(04:27):
firm in Las Vegas. And it was aboutique estate planning firm
worked there for five and a halfyears. And then I had three
attorneys start asking me tomoonlight for them. And I'm
like, I don't feel comfortabledoing this. My daughter was one
and I said, I'm just going tothrow up my hands and try this
and start my own company again.
Because I knew after I sold myretail business, I wanted to
(04:47):
have another business but I knewit would never be retail. Again.
It had to be service. So Istarted the company in 1996.
And, you know, grew it out of myhouse had five people working in
my My house, and then it justkind of slowly grew from there.
And, you know, 27 years later,here we are. And we have now
(05:07):
clients all over the country.
And it's also all in theservices arena. So professional
services 70% are attorneyclients. But I just have a
passion. You know, when I wasplaying volleyball, I was a
setter. So I always felt like Iwas the one setting up the the
(05:27):
spiker for the kill, I do thatin business. Now, I set the
companies up for the kill. And Iget up every day. And I love
what I do. And I get up and playand, you know, have fun growing
companies.
It's really great. Gosh, and Ididn't know that I your
background at the Kennedy SpaceCenter and the St. Augustine
(05:48):
retail shop, I mean, that I justlearned so much. And my jaw is
dropping because you've done somany things. And that's really
impressive.
When it comes down to is thatI've got a drive. I think, a
competitive drive with myselfand always have had, my mom had
four kids, and she's like, Idon't know where you came from,
(06:10):
because you just have this, thisdrive that, you know, she never
quite understood. But you know,when you find something in life
that you're really, reallypassionate about. It's it
doesn't it's not work anymore.
It's play. And it's gratifying.
And you know, now at the stageof my career, you get to the
point where you say I've had agreat amount of success. But now
(06:32):
what am I doing significantly inmy life? And what does that look
like going forward? So that'skind of the stage I'm in right
now.
Fun. Okay. So CRM marketingpartners, tell us a little bit
about the agency itself. I mean,you talked about the makeup of
the clients, but how many folks?
Is it just the one location likeeverybody's kind of in the same
(06:52):
zone?
Yeah, we are located in Vegasand the kind of a hot pocket in
the, you know, DowntownSummerlin, which is a beautiful
area, we have 16 on our team, Ihave been as high as 18, before
the crash in 2007. And that wasa fun dip that we had to take
and come back up. But we have ahybrid model always have had, as
(07:16):
far as working from home, wewere fortunate to be working one
day, a week from home androtating before COVID. And then
COVID happened and it was just anatural that we had. So we
probably, you know, any givenday, we probably have half of
the company in the office,depending on if we have a client
meeting or a team meeting. Butwe have we're full service,
(07:39):
there are a few things that wewill contract out for. But we
love to handle a relationship ifwe possible from A to Z, because
we keep all of the players andall of the talent involved so
that we don't have, you know,one agency out there doing, you
know, the website name, we'vegotten another agency out here
doing social and PR, so we tryto as much as possible, although
(08:03):
we do work with a lot ofcompanies who have other
agencies, and we do very wellwith that. But there's a many of
clients that stay with us, we'vehad clients with us for 2324
years. And in marketing, thatsays a lot. Because if you are
not getting results, you're outof there. And so we've been able
to grow a lot of companies andyou know, really grow their
(08:25):
brands over the years. So, yeah,have a really incredible team.
I mean, it's it's fun again, youknow, I think you and I are cut
from a very similar cloth. I amUber competitive, like I'm so
driven. But I think you and Iand hopefully this is the case,
you know, for me, but I know itis for you, you have this
humility, and this you know,like starting from your humanity
(08:53):
as you serve. And so that's,again, one of these reasons why
you've had clients for 20 someyears. I mean, it really is. So
yeah, it's a credit to justagain, you know, the service
first mentality and your team isbuilt with that.
Right, because, you know, youknow, I'm only as good as the
(09:13):
people I've surrounded myselfwith period. I mean, I have got
my creative director has beenwith me 26 of my 27 years. I
mean, I when I first startedworking with her, she spoke very
little English. And now I mean,she has just blown me away with
her talent and commitment to meand I've been committed to her
(09:34):
but you know, we really are onlyas good as our, our team and our
last performance. Soyeah, that's great. You know, I
was going to mention just sothat our listeners can
understand our connectionbecause you know, we do go back
a little while and I don'thonestly remember how we met met
but you were my agency of choicewhen I built the fireproof
(09:57):
consulting firm and And yeah,and it's so fun because you
know, I was able to be yourclient, I was able to see from
the, you know, when you talkedabout the A to Z, I think it's
important to recognize you guyswere with me as I built the
strategy for the brand, and downto the execution of building the
logo, building the website,building the social media doing
(10:20):
any collateral. I mean, all ofit. Yes, yeah. And so that it's
pretty fun. And, and so now youwere helping a lot of clients.
Now we're actually, you know,bringing in folks. And again,
there's a lot of law firms andsome really love. I Sarah, I
love attorneys, I don't knowwhat it is, but I don't know if
(10:42):
it's the challenge or theircompetitive Ness. I mean, I
absolutely love working with,you know, attorneys, it's just a
bunch of fun, um, you got someegos to deal with, which I kind
of find challenging. And I lovethat. And what's really amazing
is when you get a conversation,or you have an email that a
(11:04):
client says, Oh, my gosh, Darcy,you were right, the the business
is just booming, it's a tsunami,I'm trying to keep up with it.
And like, that's what I love tohear, because that's our goal is
to just, you know, continue togrow their companies.
Totally. And, you know, theother funny thing is that I
just, I mean, not only do Iappreciate your work, and your,
(11:27):
you know, kind of the core ofyour values and things like
that, but you guys are using theEOS kind of the Entrepreneurial
Operating System, and I don'tcoach in that particular, you
know, one lane any longer, but Ithink you are, you know, you've
got a great foundation, you'vegot a great team that is able to
(11:51):
really support clients.
Especially because, you know, Ithink the majority of businesses
out there are not wellorganized, they're not run as a
business. You know, so I do findthat the attorneys we work for
are eager for a little bit ofthat kind of foundation
building, they want to have amore simplified, you know, kind
(12:13):
of regimented business, insteadof running a willy nilly law
firm or whatever business?
Absolutely.
And many of them, you know,they, I think, no, I don't know,
if anybody's, you know, bornknowing what they need to do as
far as an entrepreneur. Andthere are some people that just
(12:34):
kind of get it more than others.
And I don't typically find thata lot of our clients, especially
in the attorney world, they're,they're great attorneys, they
may not be the best businesspeople, they may not be the best
marketers, but they know ifthey're smart, they know how to
bring the right team together.
And you know, find the rightpeople to, you know, help them
(12:56):
grow. But I the ones that do notsee that vision, they flounder,
and we've seen that, but theones that do get it and you
know, have that foundationalcomponent that you're talking
about. It's just it's amazing.
We've had clients that we'vehelped grow from, you know, 8
million to 50 million, and youdon't grow that without a huge
(13:17):
foundation and in a plan or aprocess in place. Sorry.
Well, okay, so you talked aboutthe A to Z support. And I want
to hover on that for a minute,because I will come across law
firms and professional serviceorganizations or businesses that
say they need help getting thephone to ring, right, they need
(13:39):
help building their client base,customers, etc. And some of them
do not have an in housemarketing leader. And there are
times when it is appropriate.
But one of the things I loveabout sending them to you is
that you can help them in that Ato Z, you can help them to set
the brand, the strategy, thecalendar of content all the way
(14:02):
down to actually executing. Sowhat I described to them usually
is if they hire an agency thatwill take good care of them like
your firm, then they get accessto a whole host of people
instead of having to pay thesalaries for 10 people. They pay
for one agency that brings thecontent and all the people that
(14:27):
is new, you said that perfectly.
And in today's world, it's justtoo costly to have specialists
in every single marketing, youknow, discipline, I guess you
could say, because it's just,it's just impossible to have one
person that has that skill set.
You know, you don't have thesame like in my team. I have
(14:47):
great digital marketers. Thatwould be horrific when it comes
to content. So you've just gotto in the beauty of that is that
you're not having to pay forthat person full time. I'm paid
benefits, manage them, all ofthat, you know, takes time and
money. So that's, that is reallythe full service marketing
(15:09):
approach and we serve probably70% of our clients, we serve in
that capacity for them. So it isin, I'm really cautious trying
to find those right fit peoplethat, you know, can fit our
culture, but also fit theculture. And I'm very careful
with who do I put on an accountbecause there is a personality,
(15:31):
there's a culture involved withthat client. So we're really
careful with how we match thoseup. Because that's, that's
critical. And you grow withthem. I mean, we've had clients
where, you know, we might havestarted with them when they were
doing when they were eight or 10million. Well, now they're, you
know, pushing the 25 or 30million mark, it may take a
different team, it might take adifferent plugin of someone else
(15:53):
with a different skill sets. Soit's not that we have one
person, I mean, there's a, atany given time, there's five or
six of our team touching anaccount.
Yeah, you know, the other reasonwhy I think an agency can be
really helpful. And and I'lljust give a little example of my
background. So I was at GeneralMills, which, you know, towards
(16:16):
the end, I was actually managingthe digital marketing program
for a couple of businesses,couple of the brands. And the
funny thing is, I would notconsider myself even close to a
digital marketing expert anylonger. And my point is, it
changes on almost a daily basis,and there's no way unless you
(16:37):
have a specialist that you cankeep up, in my opinion,
what do you say 1,000% agreewith you, we have been drinking
for from a fire hose for decadesat this point. I mean, the stuff
when I started the company backin 1996, we had none of this,
now, it is coming at us so fast.
Now you now you layer AI on topof it, right? We're going who
(16:58):
knows where this is all gonnago, which is, which is fun for
me, because I love thechallenge. I love the learning.
And it's like, okay, where arewe going to be, you know, three
or five years from now, that'spretty exciting to me to think
about. And I have to surroundmyself, with the people on the
team that can can keep it up cankeep staying up on abreast of
(17:19):
everything. So yeah, it's it'squite, it's quite fun and
challenging. I've beenincredibly blessed to have had a
career and continue to have acareer. Like I do. I do want to
address your question earlier,though, Sarah, about where do we
go from here? Great. You know, Ithink as an entrepreneur, we we
(17:41):
have, we go through peaks andvalleys, and it depends on you
know, the economy different, youknow, things that you might have
a great employee that leaves youfor a better opportunity. So
there are things you have to gothrough and adapt, you have to
be very adaptable as anentrepreneur. But what was
interesting is about a year ago,we, I read a book called u
(18:04):
squared. And very simple bookuse is so simple, but it's all
around the concept of taking aquantum leap. So that resonated
with me so strongly that I hadmy entire team read that book
and our retreat last December,ask that every single person
write down what their quantumleap was. And then I shared with
(18:27):
what my quantum leap was, andtalk about transformational. I
mean, it gets everybody excitedabout, okay, we're not just
getting up every day and doingthe same thing over and over,
what are we going to do to takethat quantum leap. And it may be
different for everyone. But whatI found was that many of the
(18:48):
team because I wanted to sharemine first. So they knew where I
was where my head was going,many of theirs came back,
supporting what my quantum leapwas, but it was a quantum leap
for them. So it's prettyexciting, you know, because you
can't, you just never want toget stagnant. As a business
(19:08):
owner, you have to always beevolving and moving and
challenging yourself andchallenging your people. So that
has been kind of where we'regoing. And just to share with
you what my quantum leap was wehave multiple revenue streams,
but my my, my quantum leap wasto double retainer monthly
retainer dollars in three years.
(19:34):
That's substantial. That in a ina business like ours, that's
very substantial. And but myalso said a personal one, and my
personal was that I was going toget to a point where I can take
two weeks off a month. I've beentaking one week off a month so
that I can actually enjoy myfreedom that you're trying to
create as an entrepreneurbecause I think a lot of people
(19:55):
get, you know, stuck in beingyou know, the businesses
controlling them. They're notgoing Trying to business. So the
idea is like, Okay, how do I getto a point where I'm taking two
weeks off a month doing what Ilove to do, but also
volunteering and doing thingsthat, you know, my heart wants
to do not just my business mindwants to do. So when I told the
(20:15):
team that, that they were like,Oh my gosh, how is she going to
be gone? And they're justadapting to it. So. But that's
the fun stuff is to, you know,challenge yourself and challenge
your team, so you don't getstagnant. That's great. Tell me
how it's going. Are you takingtwo weeks off a month?
I'm at, I'm still at one. But Iam getting ready to take two
(20:36):
weeks off in June, I'm gonnaride across my bike across
Nebraska, which will be fun.
Good, I do take the time. And Itook I took two weeks off in
March to go on a cruise with myoldest daughter. So I'm getting
some that might say once aquarter, I'm taking my two weeks
off. So I'm getting there andthe financial side, we're
hitting our numbers. I mean,we're getting there if we
(20:57):
continue how we're doing. Andit's just mind blowing to me how
you kind of set this intention,and then you will get there. So
I've always been a goal setter.
I mean, every quarter, I said,there's
a separate. Yeah. That's right,guy. You got to be the title of
(21:18):
your book.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I'vealready written one book. Yeah,
nine elements to ignite yourgrowth. And it's just a simple
book that if anybody'sinterested, they can contact me,
and I'll send him a copy of it.
But it's just talking about themain nine elements that we feel
will get a company positionedfor growth. Cool. So yeah, but I
(21:39):
definitely want to write anotherbook one day, but right now I'm
in the quantum leap of growingthe company. So
great, that's really great.
Well, um, you know, a lot of,and I would say entrepreneurs
and business owners, kind of,you know, sometimes forget about
themselves, and the business,they are working for the
(22:03):
business. And so I have to do alot of convincing that the
business should also serve theowner. Correct. You know, and,
and I would say, there aredifferent motives. I mean,
honestly, I don't think everymotive or, you know, kind of the
way that the business serves,the owner is the same. Sometimes
it can be financial terms, thatcan be other things. You, you
(22:25):
know, my personal backgroundwith my restaurant is the legacy
of my family. It was a way forme to, you know, kind of serve
my community in the way that mymom did. And, you know, so
anyway, yeah. And so it wasn't aget rich scheme, right. It was
done for a different reason. Butanyway, my point being, I'm
(22:48):
really kind of, you know, happythat you shared the story of
how, you know, through the ages,you lean in, and there's kind of
the give and take with thebusiness and now it's like,
Alright, you've got a new ask ofthe business. And new life
stage. I, I can't remember ifyou have grandchildren. No,
(23:10):
but I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Ihad a wedding. I
had I have two daughters. Okay.
All right. We've had we had aweight wedding about three years
ago, actually, this coming upmonth, but yeah, grandbabies are
on the horizon. So I'm lookingforward to that. But yeah, I
just, it's so life has just beenfun. Now, don't get me wrong.
(23:33):
There were some very, very hardstages within the business. I
mean, when that when thateconomy crashed, I had a perfect
storm. I mean, it was my husbandwas a civil engineer, all the
civil engineering jobs weregone. We had a client that was
that was doing illegal things.
They took me for $360,000. Andthen you had the economy crash.
(23:56):
It was like, Oh, my gosh, how amI going to manage this? And
there were days I went in andwas like, I just feel like I'm
going to freefall, how muchfurther amount of fall? When am
I going to hit the ground? Andthat makes you stronger for your
future tests? Because I've beentested since then. But it hasn't
felt as overwhelming assomething like that. But I think
(24:20):
that's just entrepreneurship.
It's just, I think everybodythinks they want to be an
entrepreneur, but they don'trealize that it takes a lot of
grit. It takes a lot of work.
But it also takes a lot ofpassion to get up every day and
you know, help other people dotheir job and encourage and
(24:41):
motivate and lead other people.
So, but I find that verychallenging, man.
Yeah, it's a it's a beautifulstory. I didn't know you had
that kind of perfect storm cometogether and, gosh,
I'll never forget Sarah the oneday where I can't Man, and I was
(25:01):
bleeding so bad. I came in and Ipulled my team together. And I
said, guys, I have to lay upeverybody except three people,
me included as one of thosethree. It was devastating. But
it was and I wasn't the only onedealing with it. It had. I mean,
I could relate to other businessowners more so after that, you
(25:25):
know, that are going throughchallenges. But yeah, that was
very difficult. Yes,I can imagine. Oh, boy, um, talk
a little bit about being amompreneur.
Oh, gosh, you should have youtalked to my girls. Um, you
know, I don't think they knewanything different. I mean, I've
(25:47):
just always worked and my, mymom was like, the perfect. stay
at home mom, and she had a hardtime for a long time
understanding me. And thenfinally, you know, I think my
kids were seven and 10, orwhatever. And she goes, You
know, I think I understand now,this is what you need, you have
to do this in order to be thebest mom, you can be. So, but
(26:11):
she helped along the way, butthey all in there, they both
work really, really hard intheir own rights, but they never
wanted to have anything to dowith my business. Which I
understand because that's nottheir passion. But it's been a
challenge, you have to have apartner, my husband and I
complement each other very, verywell. I mean, in today's world,
(26:32):
it's very hard for two people towork full time. And I think that
there was given take on thatfront. The beauty is I hardly
ever missed a game, a dancerecital, anything, you just
juggle, and you do what you haveto do. Again, it was very hard.
But I again, wouldn't change itfor for anything, it's just
(26:57):
been. And that's what I try toencourage people now that are
moms in my organization, orother clients that we work with,
is, I don't know, if we everfind the balance, Sara, know, if
we ever find the balance, youjust do what you have to do that
day. And get through that day.
And try to find the pockets ofjoy where you can and try to be
(27:18):
present at that moment. Withthat daughter, or I was always
good about taking every single,or every one of my daughters,
I'll take them on a trip, orwe'd have a date. So we always
had that focus time together. Soyeah, that's kind of it's really
understand, you know what I doeven to this day, but
(27:43):
But yeah, it's funny, I have asimilar kind of, I would say, my
kids also probably would say,they didn't know anything
different. It just was a youknow, they were brought into the
world with a working mom who waspassionately evolving forward.
And I think that there'ssomething to be said, for that.
You just get through the nextthing, you just figure out that
(28:07):
week. This and we have this andyou just navigate it. And my
husband also is a tremendouspartner with the juggler. I
mean, it's it'san It's a dance, I mean, it's
it's a it's a dance, and you youyou end up getting through it,
but when you look back on it, Imean, my husband, I will now say
(28:29):
how did we ever do it. But thebeauty now is that I am able to
go on a 13 day cruise with one Ican go to New Zealand and hike
mountains with the other one. Sothe business has allowed me the
freedom and the finances to beable to do that now, and just
wouldn't change that for theworld. It's been very fun.
(28:55):
Yeah. And that's amazing. And Ido feel like, you know, even
though there are moments where Iwould say this was General
Mills, as well as when I was amompreneur. But, you know, when
I'm at work, I'm worried aboutthe kids. And when I'm with the
kids, I'm worried about work,right like that. But there's
also this beauty to showing yourchildren that they can do it all
(29:19):
they can be whoever it is, theywant to agree. And so anyway, I
think they'retotally agree with you on that.
I mean, I'll never forget I wasmy daughter for 15 and 17. I can
still visualize this. And we hadthey were at my office doing
their homework one night, andthey go, Mom, we need to talk to
you. And I'm like, oh, man, asone of them pregnant, something.
(29:42):
I don't know what's going on.
And they said, Mom, we just wantyou to know, we don't want to
have anything to do with yourbusiness. Oh, and I'm like, Oh,
okay. Why? And the comment frommy oldest was, well, we don't
want to work as hard as you'vehad to work. Huh, that's quite
(30:02):
the comment. But now inretrospect, they both work so
hard in what they do. It's justbecause they found what they
they love to do. And I alwayssaid, when I, when they were
growing up, I said, I just praythat one day you find a career
that you feel like you get upand go play at every day. And
(30:23):
it's not a job so that it'ssomething that you enjoy. That's
wonderful.
I know. Yeah, I mean, it's,again, it's what we do for the
majority of our day, we betterlike it, we better have fun.
salutely. And I wanted to alsogo back to you to ask me about
what maybe sets our companyapart, I do want to cover that
(30:46):
really quick, Sarah, really whatwhat transformed our company, I
think makes us a differentagency is about 20 plus years
ago, we developed a conceptcalled the strategic marketing
Summit. And it's a trademarksconcept that we use, because
people will come in there, theywant to try this, they want to
(31:07):
try that and there's nostrategy. So our goal was,
before we start any kind ofrelationship with a client, we
have to determine what thestrategy is. So we go through a
four hour program, and we talkabout where they've been, where
they're going, where they wantto be one, three and five years
from now. And then we come backwith a really solid strategy
(31:29):
recommendations plan, so thatthey can get there. But I can't
tell you how many companies havebeen burned. And firms have been
burned by marketing companies,and then they hire us. And it's
a new experience, and they'venever experienced anything like
that. So we kind of have toclean up the mess of how other
people have. You know, I don'twant to say screw people, but
(31:51):
have a very difficult business.
And I think there's, especiallyin the digital world, there's a
lot of smoke and mirrors. Andyou know, we just don't do that.
It's got to be strategy firstcreative after. So
I'm glad you said that. Becauseagain, you know, we both serve a
(32:12):
lot of law firms andprofessional service
organizations that I thinksometimes they get maybe
hypnotized by the fancy, youknow, shiny things and the new
term and the and, you know, Ifind it to be that the smartest
(32:34):
people I know, speak thesimplest. And it's like, I'm not
trying to pull one over on you.
I'm trying to actually make aconnection through words so that
you understand, and I understandand so I think when I have
worked with your team, it doesget to this, again, just very
(32:54):
human, very comfortable level oflike, Oh, I know exactly what
they're doing. I know exactly.
Plan is. And so yeah, I haveseen a lot of clients burned as
well, Darcy because, again, theindustry, the marketing agency
industry is ripe with snake oilsalesmen. Unfortunately,
(33:20):
I agree. And that's, that's sohard to follow. But at the same
time, it's good to follow whenwe come in. And I mean, the
other day, we did a diversifiedmarketing portfolio for a new
client. And you know, that'sjust our detailed budget, but he
sat back in his chair, and hegoes, I just want to cry.
(33:41):
Because I can't believe you guyshave turned this around. And
you've made this simple for me.
And they don't know wherethey're spending money. I mean,
when you put it all into onething, and it that's just mind
blowing to me, but they get sobusy doing what they do, they
don't have time to do kind ofwhat we bring to the table. So,
yeah.
(34:02):
Okay, so I think that's a goodmoment for us to have. How can
people contact you? And I knowthat in the background,
Allison's ready. But yeah,definitely visit
our website cinp.com. We're CRMmarketing partners based out of
Las Vegas, that's my cell phoneon there, feel free to give me a
(34:23):
call. Don't give that out often.
But for you, Sarah, for sure.
You've been such a great partnerwith me, and I appreciate that.
So and, you know, if anybody'sinterested in just having a
conversation, you know, theydon't if they're not even ready,
and they just want to have aconversation about where they
are, where they want to go. Andif they want to take that
quantum leap. We've got manyclients that we're working with
(34:46):
that are taking their ownquantum leap. So would love to
be able to help any of thosepeople and listeners that you
might have today. That's great.
That's great. Yeah, and again, Iam like a walking billboard.
Word for your business becauseI've been in client, and now I
get to work with you partneringto help support clients. Thank
(35:07):
you, sir. You've been amazing.
You, you know, you find gems inthis world, and you're one of
them. You know, and I justappreciate that when you do
connect with someone, and youhave like minded values and
clients, there's, there'snothing better than
relationships. I mean, when itcomes down to building
companies, and being anentrepreneur, it is who you
(35:30):
surround yourself with. That maybe better than you are in
something. But as long as youcan kind of come together that
then everybody, everybody wins,and it's a it's a very
gratifying place to live.
I totally agree. Well, I just Imean, you're, you're amazing.
(35:51):
You're an amazing mompreneur andan amazing leader for your
organization. I hope you'll tellall of your friends Hello,
within your I will.
Oh, for sure. Absolutely. And Ican't thank you enough for
having me on your podcast. Andoh, I wish you continued
success. You You deserve that.
Sarah, you really do a lot ofgreat things for people. So
(36:12):
we have an awful lot of fun.
Just like you, you know, it'sfun to see people thrive and
enjoy the businesses that arethe fruits of their labor. I
mean, it it has to be that twoway street. And if it's not,
they better call one of us tofigure out.
Exactly when we know we can takewe can we know we can take him
(36:32):
there. That's the beauty of whatwe do. So yeah,
good. Well, I just appreciateyou being on I can't wait to
come out to Vegas to visit yousoon. Or see you on the road,
you know.
And I'm sure we'll see eachother soon, for sure. And I got
to come back down to Palm Beachor sometime and look for shark's
teeth on the beach. I mean, thatwas my favorite place to look
(36:53):
for shark's teeth when I lovethey're so it's
so fun. And I love it as well.
Actually, I have a little dishthat has all my findings. Of
that. Well, thank you, again forbeing just such a wonderful
friend and colleague andcompadres in serving these
clients. And I am here and Ihope that if a client or a
potential client is out there,and they need help, now they
(37:15):
know where to go for theirmarketing, agency strategy all
the way down to the execution.
So right Thank you, sir. Iappreciate you again.
All right, you to the folkslistening. I hope you have a
wonderful rest of the day. Andif you need some help taking
your business up into the right,you know where to find us. So
(37:36):
thank you. Thank you. Have agreat day everybody.
Bye bye.
I think so much for tuning intothis episode of level up your
business with me, Sara Frasca.
If you have a problem in yourbusiness that's keeping you up
at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
(37:56):
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
friends
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time.
I'm your host, Sarah Frasca,restaurant owner,
keynote speaker and businesscoach. I've spent my career not
only in corporate America butalso as an entrepreneur,
(00:23):
carrying on my family's legacythrough my restaurant, now a
business coach and consultant.
I'm helping other businesses touse creative problem solving and
innovative thinking to drivelasting change. Stay tuned to
hear some inspiring guidancethat will help you to level up
your business. Well, great.
(00:46):
Hello, everyone, and welcome toanother episode of our level up
your business podcast. I'm SaraFrasca with point Northeast, and
I'm joined today by a goodfriend and compadre in serving
clients. And that is Darcyneighbors from CRM, marketing
partners. Welcome, Darcy.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
I'm happy to be here today.
(01:08):
Really excited? You're here. Andyeah, and this is I mean, gosh,
such a, I don't know what theright word is. But we are such
kind of compatible partners inserving. And so I'm just really
excited to chat with you todayand talk to you about kind of
helping people to motivategrowth for their businesses.
(01:31):
Wonderful.
That's what I love to do. That'swhat gets me up every day. So I
know,I know it is, which is again,
just why we are such kindredspirits. That's the word I was
looking for. That's perfect.
Yes. Well, Darcy is in Vegas.
Right? Yes. Help a little bitabout your business? And how the
heck did you build a marketingagency?
(01:53):
It's been quite the journey. Butlet me start with the fact that
I've always, even from a youngchild have had an
entrepreneurial spirit. I mean,I remember my first business was
collecting aluminum cans on thebeach, believe it or not Sara
near where you guys live. And Iwould, I would go out and
(02:17):
collect aluminum cans and makemoney. And then I got a paper
route. And then I babysat, I dideverything where I could, you
know, make money and save money.
That's kind of what I alwaysdid. And I was an athlete
growing up. And my mom alwayssaid, Gosh, Darcy, if you put
all the efforts you put intoyour athletics into your school
and to your business, you wouldbe very successful. And so I had
(02:39):
gone through, you know, highschool and college, played
volleyball in college, and thengot injured my third year in and
it was like, Oh, now what am Igoing to do? Because my whole
focus had been athletics. Andthen I had to kind of regroup. I
taught myself this really datesme, Sarah, I taught myself word
processing back in the daylanded a job at Kennedy Space
(03:02):
Center. And as a word processor,and within two months, they
promoted me to a businessanalyst position, where I
checked every line item thatwent on the shuttle. So I was
keeping track of all that Ihappened to be down at Cape
Canaveral, the day theChallenger blew up. And that was
very devastating. So that was inJanuary, and then in May, I'm
(03:24):
like, it's kind of feeling likea morgue. It was very sad to be
around there. So I had savedmoney. every paycheck, I was a
workaholic six days a week, sixto six. And I said you, I'm
going to start my own retailbusiness. So at age 24, I picked
up and opened a shop in St.
(03:44):
Augustine, Florida. And within16 months, we had grown, we were
ready to open up anotherlocation. And I had a foreign
gentleman walk into my shop oneday and say, Darcy, I'd like to
buy your business. And I'm like,what, it was really hard to get
a location. So I said, I calledmy attorney and she said, you
(04:05):
would be foolish not to takethat. So I did. And then that's,
you know, I sold the company.
Then I went back to school fulltime, my parents had moved to
Vegas, I moved to Vegas. Andwithin that short period of
time, I landed a job at a bank.
And then shortly after thatfinish my degree at UNLV started
working as the first marketingdirector ever hired by a law
(04:27):
firm in Las Vegas. And it was aboutique estate planning firm
worked there for five and a halfyears. And then I had three
attorneys start asking me tomoonlight for them. And I'm
like, I don't feel comfortabledoing this. My daughter was one
and I said, I'm just going tothrow up my hands and try this
and start my own company again.
Because I knew after I sold myretail business, I wanted to
(04:47):
have another business but I knewit would never be retail. Again.
It had to be service. So Istarted the company in 1996.
And, you know, grew it out of myhouse had five people working in
my My house, and then it justkind of slowly grew from there.
And, you know, 27 years later,here we are. And we have now
(05:07):
clients all over the country.
And it's also all in theservices arena. So professional
services 70% are attorneyclients. But I just have a
passion. You know, when I wasplaying volleyball, I was a
setter. So I always felt like Iwas the one setting up the the
(05:27):
spiker for the kill, I do thatin business. Now, I set the
companies up for the kill. And Iget up every day. And I love
what I do. And I get up and playand, you know, have fun growing
companies.
It's really great. Gosh, and Ididn't know that I your
background at the Kennedy SpaceCenter and the St. Augustine
(05:48):
retail shop, I mean, that I justlearned so much. And my jaw is
dropping because you've done somany things. And that's really
impressive.
When it comes down to is thatI've got a drive. I think, a
competitive drive with myselfand always have had, my mom had
four kids, and she's like, Idon't know where you came from,
(06:10):
because you just have this, thisdrive that, you know, she never
quite understood. But you know,when you find something in life
that you're really, reallypassionate about. It's it
doesn't it's not work anymore.
It's play. And it's gratifying.
And you know, now at the stageof my career, you get to the
point where you say I've had agreat amount of success. But now
(06:32):
what am I doing significantly inmy life? And what does that look
like going forward? So that'skind of the stage I'm in right
now.
Fun. Okay. So CRM marketingpartners, tell us a little bit
about the agency itself. I mean,you talked about the makeup of
the clients, but how many folks?
Is it just the one location likeeverybody's kind of in the same
(06:52):
zone?
Yeah, we are located in Vegasand the kind of a hot pocket in
the, you know, DowntownSummerlin, which is a beautiful
area, we have 16 on our team, Ihave been as high as 18, before
the crash in 2007. And that wasa fun dip that we had to take
and come back up. But we have ahybrid model always have had, as
(07:16):
far as working from home, wewere fortunate to be working one
day, a week from home androtating before COVID. And then
COVID happened and it was just anatural that we had. So we
probably, you know, any givenday, we probably have half of
the company in the office,depending on if we have a client
meeting or a team meeting. Butwe have we're full service,
(07:39):
there are a few things that wewill contract out for. But we
love to handle a relationship ifwe possible from A to Z, because
we keep all of the players andall of the talent involved so
that we don't have, you know,one agency out there doing, you
know, the website name, we'vegotten another agency out here
doing social and PR, so we tryto as much as possible, although
(08:03):
we do work with a lot ofcompanies who have other
agencies, and we do very wellwith that. But there's a many of
clients that stay with us, we'vehad clients with us for 2324
years. And in marketing, thatsays a lot. Because if you are
not getting results, you're outof there. And so we've been able
to grow a lot of companies andyou know, really grow their
(08:25):
brands over the years. So, yeah,have a really incredible team.
I mean, it's it's fun again, youknow, I think you and I are cut
from a very similar cloth. I amUber competitive, like I'm so
driven. But I think you and Iand hopefully this is the case,
you know, for me, but I know itis for you, you have this
humility, and this you know,like starting from your humanity
(08:53):
as you serve. And so that's,again, one of these reasons why
you've had clients for 20 someyears. I mean, it really is. So
yeah, it's a credit to justagain, you know, the service
first mentality and your team isbuilt with that.
Right, because, you know, youknow, I'm only as good as the
(09:13):
people I've surrounded myselfwith period. I mean, I have got
my creative director has beenwith me 26 of my 27 years. I
mean, I when I first startedworking with her, she spoke very
little English. And now I mean,she has just blown me away with
her talent and commitment to meand I've been committed to her
(09:34):
but you know, we really are onlyas good as our, our team and our
last performance. Soyeah, that's great. You know, I
was going to mention just sothat our listeners can
understand our connectionbecause you know, we do go back
a little while and I don'thonestly remember how we met met
but you were my agency of choicewhen I built the fireproof
(09:57):
consulting firm and And yeah,and it's so fun because you
know, I was able to be yourclient, I was able to see from
the, you know, when you talkedabout the A to Z, I think it's
important to recognize you guyswere with me as I built the
strategy for the brand, and downto the execution of building the
logo, building the website,building the social media doing
(10:20):
any collateral. I mean, all ofit. Yes, yeah. And so that it's
pretty fun. And, and so now youwere helping a lot of clients.
Now we're actually, you know,bringing in folks. And again,
there's a lot of law firms andsome really love. I Sarah, I
love attorneys, I don't knowwhat it is, but I don't know if
(10:42):
it's the challenge or theircompetitive Ness. I mean, I
absolutely love working with,you know, attorneys, it's just a
bunch of fun, um, you got someegos to deal with, which I kind
of find challenging. And I lovethat. And what's really amazing
is when you get a conversation,or you have an email that a
(11:04):
client says, Oh, my gosh, Darcy,you were right, the the business
is just booming, it's a tsunami,I'm trying to keep up with it.
And like, that's what I love tohear, because that's our goal is
to just, you know, continue togrow their companies.
Totally. And, you know, theother funny thing is that I
just, I mean, not only do Iappreciate your work, and your,
(11:27):
you know, kind of the core ofyour values and things like
that, but you guys are using theEOS kind of the Entrepreneurial
Operating System, and I don'tcoach in that particular, you
know, one lane any longer, but Ithink you are, you know, you've
got a great foundation, you'vegot a great team that is able to
(11:51):
really support clients.
Especially because, you know, Ithink the majority of businesses
out there are not wellorganized, they're not run as a
business. You know, so I do findthat the attorneys we work for
are eager for a little bit ofthat kind of foundation
building, they want to have amore simplified, you know, kind
(12:13):
of regimented business, insteadof running a willy nilly law
firm or whatever business?
Absolutely.
And many of them, you know,they, I think, no, I don't know,
if anybody's, you know, bornknowing what they need to do as
far as an entrepreneur. Andthere are some people that just
(12:34):
kind of get it more than others.
And I don't typically find thata lot of our clients, especially
in the attorney world, they're,they're great attorneys, they
may not be the best businesspeople, they may not be the best
marketers, but they know ifthey're smart, they know how to
bring the right team together.
And you know, find the rightpeople to, you know, help them
(12:56):
grow. But I the ones that do notsee that vision, they flounder,
and we've seen that, but theones that do get it and you
know, have that foundationalcomponent that you're talking
about. It's just it's amazing.
We've had clients that we'vehelped grow from, you know, 8
million to 50 million, and youdon't grow that without a huge
(13:17):
foundation and in a plan or aprocess in place. Sorry.
Well, okay, so you talked aboutthe A to Z support. And I want
to hover on that for a minute,because I will come across law
firms and professional serviceorganizations or businesses that
say they need help getting thephone to ring, right, they need
(13:39):
help building their client base,customers, etc. And some of them
do not have an in housemarketing leader. And there are
times when it is appropriate.
But one of the things I loveabout sending them to you is
that you can help them in that Ato Z, you can help them to set
the brand, the strategy, thecalendar of content all the way
(14:02):
down to actually executing. Sowhat I described to them usually
is if they hire an agency thatwill take good care of them like
your firm, then they get accessto a whole host of people
instead of having to pay thesalaries for 10 people. They pay
for one agency that brings thecontent and all the people that
(14:27):
is new, you said that perfectly.
And in today's world, it's justtoo costly to have specialists
in every single marketing, youknow, discipline, I guess you
could say, because it's just,it's just impossible to have one
person that has that skill set.
You know, you don't have thesame like in my team. I have
(14:47):
great digital marketers. Thatwould be horrific when it comes
to content. So you've just gotto in the beauty of that is that
you're not having to pay forthat person full time. I'm paid
benefits, manage them, all ofthat, you know, takes time and
money. So that's, that is reallythe full service marketing
(15:09):
approach and we serve probably70% of our clients, we serve in
that capacity for them. So it isin, I'm really cautious trying
to find those right fit peoplethat, you know, can fit our
culture, but also fit theculture. And I'm very careful
with who do I put on an accountbecause there is a personality,
(15:31):
there's a culture involved withthat client. So we're really
careful with how we match thoseup. Because that's, that's
critical. And you grow withthem. I mean, we've had clients
where, you know, we might havestarted with them when they were
doing when they were eight or 10million. Well, now they're, you
know, pushing the 25 or 30million mark, it may take a
different team, it might take adifferent plugin of someone else
(15:53):
with a different skill sets. Soit's not that we have one
person, I mean, there's a, atany given time, there's five or
six of our team touching anaccount.
Yeah, you know, the other reasonwhy I think an agency can be
really helpful. And and I'lljust give a little example of my
background. So I was at GeneralMills, which, you know, towards
(16:16):
the end, I was actually managingthe digital marketing program
for a couple of businesses,couple of the brands. And the
funny thing is, I would notconsider myself even close to a
digital marketing expert anylonger. And my point is, it
changes on almost a daily basis,and there's no way unless you
(16:37):
have a specialist that you cankeep up, in my opinion,
what do you say 1,000% agreewith you, we have been drinking
for from a fire hose for decadesat this point. I mean, the stuff
when I started the company backin 1996, we had none of this,
now, it is coming at us so fast.
Now you now you layer AI on topof it, right? We're going who
(16:58):
knows where this is all gonnago, which is, which is fun for
me, because I love thechallenge. I love the learning.
And it's like, okay, where arewe going to be, you know, three
or five years from now, that'spretty exciting to me to think
about. And I have to surroundmyself, with the people on the
team that can can keep it up cankeep staying up on abreast of
(17:19):
everything. So yeah, it's it'squite, it's quite fun and
challenging. I've beenincredibly blessed to have had a
career and continue to have acareer. Like I do. I do want to
address your question earlier,though, Sarah, about where do we
go from here? Great. You know, Ithink as an entrepreneur, we we
(17:41):
have, we go through peaks andvalleys, and it depends on you
know, the economy different, youknow, things that you might have
a great employee that leaves youfor a better opportunity. So
there are things you have to gothrough and adapt, you have to
be very adaptable as anentrepreneur. But what was
interesting is about a year ago,we, I read a book called u
(18:04):
squared. And very simple bookuse is so simple, but it's all
around the concept of taking aquantum leap. So that resonated
with me so strongly that I hadmy entire team read that book
and our retreat last December,ask that every single person
write down what their quantumleap was. And then I shared with
(18:27):
what my quantum leap was, andtalk about transformational. I
mean, it gets everybody excitedabout, okay, we're not just
getting up every day and doingthe same thing over and over,
what are we going to do to takethat quantum leap. And it may be
different for everyone. But whatI found was that many of the
(18:48):
team because I wanted to sharemine first. So they knew where I
was where my head was going,many of theirs came back,
supporting what my quantum leapwas, but it was a quantum leap
for them. So it's prettyexciting, you know, because you
can't, you just never want toget stagnant. As a business
(19:08):
owner, you have to always beevolving and moving and
challenging yourself andchallenging your people. So that
has been kind of where we'regoing. And just to share with
you what my quantum leap was wehave multiple revenue streams,
but my my, my quantum leap wasto double retainer monthly
retainer dollars in three years.
(19:34):
That's substantial. That in a ina business like ours, that's
very substantial. And but myalso said a personal one, and my
personal was that I was going toget to a point where I can take
two weeks off a month. I've beentaking one week off a month so
that I can actually enjoy myfreedom that you're trying to
create as an entrepreneurbecause I think a lot of people
(19:55):
get, you know, stuck in beingyou know, the businesses
controlling them. They're notgoing Trying to business. So the
idea is like, Okay, how do I getto a point where I'm taking two
weeks off a month doing what Ilove to do, but also
volunteering and doing thingsthat, you know, my heart wants
to do not just my business mindwants to do. So when I told the
(20:15):
team that, that they were like,Oh my gosh, how is she going to
be gone? And they're justadapting to it. So. But that's
the fun stuff is to, you know,challenge yourself and challenge
your team, so you don't getstagnant. That's great. Tell me
how it's going. Are you takingtwo weeks off a month?
I'm at, I'm still at one. But Iam getting ready to take two
(20:36):
weeks off in June, I'm gonnaride across my bike across
Nebraska, which will be fun.
Good, I do take the time. And Itook I took two weeks off in
March to go on a cruise with myoldest daughter. So I'm getting
some that might say once aquarter, I'm taking my two weeks
off. So I'm getting there andthe financial side, we're
hitting our numbers. I mean,we're getting there if we
(20:57):
continue how we're doing. Andit's just mind blowing to me how
you kind of set this intention,and then you will get there. So
I've always been a goal setter.
I mean, every quarter, I said,there's
a separate. Yeah. That's right,guy. You got to be the title of
(21:18):
your book.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I'vealready written one book. Yeah,
nine elements to ignite yourgrowth. And it's just a simple
book that if anybody'sinterested, they can contact me,
and I'll send him a copy of it.
But it's just talking about themain nine elements that we feel
will get a company positionedfor growth. Cool. So yeah, but I
(21:39):
definitely want to write anotherbook one day, but right now I'm
in the quantum leap of growingthe company. So
great, that's really great.
Well, um, you know, a lot of,and I would say entrepreneurs
and business owners, kind of,you know, sometimes forget about
themselves, and the business,they are working for the
(22:03):
business. And so I have to do alot of convincing that the
business should also serve theowner. Correct. You know, and,
and I would say, there aredifferent motives. I mean,
honestly, I don't think everymotive or, you know, kind of the
way that the business serves,the owner is the same. Sometimes
it can be financial terms, thatcan be other things. You, you
(22:25):
know, my personal backgroundwith my restaurant is the legacy
of my family. It was a way forme to, you know, kind of serve
my community in the way that mymom did. And, you know, so
anyway, yeah. And so it wasn't aget rich scheme, right. It was
done for a different reason. Butanyway, my point being, I'm
(22:48):
really kind of, you know, happythat you shared the story of
how, you know, through the ages,you lean in, and there's kind of
the give and take with thebusiness and now it's like,
Alright, you've got a new ask ofthe business. And new life
stage. I, I can't remember ifyou have grandchildren. No,
(23:10):
but I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Ihad a wedding. I
had I have two daughters. Okay.
All right. We've had we had aweight wedding about three years
ago, actually, this coming upmonth, but yeah, grandbabies are
on the horizon. So I'm lookingforward to that. But yeah, I
just, it's so life has just beenfun. Now, don't get me wrong.
(23:33):
There were some very, very hardstages within the business. I
mean, when that when thateconomy crashed, I had a perfect
storm. I mean, it was my husbandwas a civil engineer, all the
civil engineering jobs weregone. We had a client that was
that was doing illegal things.
They took me for $360,000. Andthen you had the economy crash.
(23:56):
It was like, Oh, my gosh, how amI going to manage this? And
there were days I went in andwas like, I just feel like I'm
going to freefall, how muchfurther amount of fall? When am
I going to hit the ground? Andthat makes you stronger for your
future tests? Because I've beentested since then. But it hasn't
felt as overwhelming assomething like that. But I think
(24:20):
that's just entrepreneurship.
It's just, I think everybodythinks they want to be an
entrepreneur, but they don'trealize that it takes a lot of
grit. It takes a lot of work.
But it also takes a lot ofpassion to get up every day and
you know, help other people dotheir job and encourage and
(24:41):
motivate and lead other people.
So, but I find that verychallenging, man.
Yeah, it's a it's a beautifulstory. I didn't know you had
that kind of perfect storm cometogether and, gosh,
I'll never forget Sarah the oneday where I can't Man, and I was
(25:01):
bleeding so bad. I came in and Ipulled my team together. And I
said, guys, I have to lay upeverybody except three people,
me included as one of thosethree. It was devastating. But
it was and I wasn't the only onedealing with it. It had. I mean,
I could relate to other businessowners more so after that, you
(25:25):
know, that are going throughchallenges. But yeah, that was
very difficult. Yes,I can imagine. Oh, boy, um, talk
a little bit about being amompreneur.
Oh, gosh, you should have youtalked to my girls. Um, you
know, I don't think they knewanything different. I mean, I've
(25:47):
just always worked and my, mymom was like, the perfect. stay
at home mom, and she had a hardtime for a long time
understanding me. And thenfinally, you know, I think my
kids were seven and 10, orwhatever. And she goes, You
know, I think I understand now,this is what you need, you have
to do this in order to be thebest mom, you can be. So, but
(26:11):
she helped along the way, butthey all in there, they both
work really, really hard intheir own rights, but they never
wanted to have anything to dowith my business. Which I
understand because that's nottheir passion. But it's been a
challenge, you have to have apartner, my husband and I
complement each other very, verywell. I mean, in today's world,
(26:32):
it's very hard for two people towork full time. And I think that
there was given take on thatfront. The beauty is I hardly
ever missed a game, a dancerecital, anything, you just
juggle, and you do what you haveto do. Again, it was very hard.
But I again, wouldn't change itfor for anything, it's just
(26:57):
been. And that's what I try toencourage people now that are
moms in my organization, orother clients that we work with,
is, I don't know, if we everfind the balance, Sara, know, if
we ever find the balance, youjust do what you have to do that
day. And get through that day.
And try to find the pockets ofjoy where you can and try to be
(27:18):
present at that moment. Withthat daughter, or I was always
good about taking every single,or every one of my daughters,
I'll take them on a trip, orwe'd have a date. So we always
had that focus time together. Soyeah, that's kind of it's really
understand, you know what I doeven to this day, but
(27:43):
But yeah, it's funny, I have asimilar kind of, I would say, my
kids also probably would say,they didn't know anything
different. It just was a youknow, they were brought into the
world with a working mom who waspassionately evolving forward.
And I think that there'ssomething to be said, for that.
You just get through the nextthing, you just figure out that
(28:07):
week. This and we have this andyou just navigate it. And my
husband also is a tremendouspartner with the juggler. I
mean, it's it'san It's a dance, I mean, it's
it's a it's a dance, and you youyou end up getting through it,
but when you look back on it, Imean, my husband, I will now say
(28:29):
how did we ever do it. But thebeauty now is that I am able to
go on a 13 day cruise with one Ican go to New Zealand and hike
mountains with the other one. Sothe business has allowed me the
freedom and the finances to beable to do that now, and just
wouldn't change that for theworld. It's been very fun.
(28:55):
Yeah. And that's amazing. And Ido feel like, you know, even
though there are moments where Iwould say this was General
Mills, as well as when I was amompreneur. But, you know, when
I'm at work, I'm worried aboutthe kids. And when I'm with the
kids, I'm worried about work,right like that. But there's
also this beauty to showing yourchildren that they can do it all
(29:19):
they can be whoever it is, theywant to agree. And so anyway, I
think they'retotally agree with you on that.
I mean, I'll never forget I wasmy daughter for 15 and 17. I can
still visualize this. And we hadthey were at my office doing
their homework one night, andthey go, Mom, we need to talk to
you. And I'm like, oh, man, asone of them pregnant, something.
(29:42):
I don't know what's going on.
And they said, Mom, we just wantyou to know, we don't want to
have anything to do with yourbusiness. Oh, and I'm like, Oh,
okay. Why? And the comment frommy oldest was, well, we don't
want to work as hard as you'vehad to work. Huh, that's quite
(30:02):
the comment. But now inretrospect, they both work so
hard in what they do. It's justbecause they found what they
they love to do. And I alwayssaid, when I, when they were
growing up, I said, I just praythat one day you find a career
that you feel like you get upand go play at every day. And
(30:23):
it's not a job so that it'ssomething that you enjoy. That's
wonderful.
I know. Yeah, I mean, it's,again, it's what we do for the
majority of our day, we betterlike it, we better have fun.
salutely. And I wanted to alsogo back to you to ask me about
what maybe sets our companyapart, I do want to cover that
(30:46):
really quick, Sarah, really whatwhat transformed our company, I
think makes us a differentagency is about 20 plus years
ago, we developed a conceptcalled the strategic marketing
Summit. And it's a trademarksconcept that we use, because
people will come in there, theywant to try this, they want to
(31:07):
try that and there's nostrategy. So our goal was,
before we start any kind ofrelationship with a client, we
have to determine what thestrategy is. So we go through a
four hour program, and we talkabout where they've been, where
they're going, where they wantto be one, three and five years
from now. And then we come backwith a really solid strategy
(31:29):
recommendations plan, so thatthey can get there. But I can't
tell you how many companies havebeen burned. And firms have been
burned by marketing companies,and then they hire us. And it's
a new experience, and they'venever experienced anything like
that. So we kind of have toclean up the mess of how other
people have. You know, I don'twant to say screw people, but
(31:51):
have a very difficult business.
And I think there's, especiallyin the digital world, there's a
lot of smoke and mirrors. Andyou know, we just don't do that.
It's got to be strategy firstcreative after. So
I'm glad you said that. Becauseagain, you know, we both serve a
(32:12):
lot of law firms andprofessional service
organizations that I thinksometimes they get maybe
hypnotized by the fancy, youknow, shiny things and the new
term and the and, you know, Ifind it to be that the smartest
(32:34):
people I know, speak thesimplest. And it's like, I'm not
trying to pull one over on you.
I'm trying to actually make aconnection through words so that
you understand, and I understandand so I think when I have
worked with your team, it doesget to this, again, just very
(32:54):
human, very comfortable level oflike, Oh, I know exactly what
they're doing. I know exactly.
Plan is. And so yeah, I haveseen a lot of clients burned as
well, Darcy because, again, theindustry, the marketing agency
industry is ripe with snake oilsalesmen. Unfortunately,
(33:20):
I agree. And that's, that's sohard to follow. But at the same
time, it's good to follow whenwe come in. And I mean, the
other day, we did a diversifiedmarketing portfolio for a new
client. And you know, that'sjust our detailed budget, but he
sat back in his chair, and hegoes, I just want to cry.
(33:41):
Because I can't believe you guyshave turned this around. And
you've made this simple for me.
And they don't know wherethey're spending money. I mean,
when you put it all into onething, and it that's just mind
blowing to me, but they get sobusy doing what they do, they
don't have time to do kind ofwhat we bring to the table. So,
yeah.
(34:02):
Okay, so I think that's a goodmoment for us to have. How can
people contact you? And I knowthat in the background,
Allison's ready. But yeah,definitely visit
our website cinp.com. We're CRMmarketing partners based out of
Las Vegas, that's my cell phoneon there, feel free to give me a
(34:23):
call. Don't give that out often.
But for you, Sarah, for sure.
You've been such a great partnerwith me, and I appreciate that.
So and, you know, if anybody'sinterested in just having a
conversation, you know, theydon't if they're not even ready,
and they just want to have aconversation about where they
are, where they want to go. Andif they want to take that
quantum leap. We've got manyclients that we're working with
(34:46):
that are taking their ownquantum leap. So would love to
be able to help any of thosepeople and listeners that you
might have today. That's great.
That's great. Yeah, and again, Iam like a walking billboard.
Word for your business becauseI've been in client, and now I
get to work with you partneringto help support clients. Thank
(35:07):
you, sir. You've been amazing.
You, you know, you find gems inthis world, and you're one of
them. You know, and I justappreciate that when you do
connect with someone, and youhave like minded values and
clients, there's, there'snothing better than
relationships. I mean, when itcomes down to building
companies, and being anentrepreneur, it is who you
(35:30):
surround yourself with. That maybe better than you are in
something. But as long as youcan kind of come together that
then everybody, everybody wins,and it's a it's a very
gratifying place to live.
I totally agree. Well, I just Imean, you're, you're amazing.
(35:51):
You're an amazing mompreneur andan amazing leader for your
organization. I hope you'll tellall of your friends Hello,
within your I will.
Oh, for sure. Absolutely. And Ican't thank you enough for
having me on your podcast. Andoh, I wish you continued
success. You You deserve that.
Sarah, you really do a lot ofgreat things for people. So
(36:12):
we have an awful lot of fun.
Just like you, you know, it'sfun to see people thrive and
enjoy the businesses that arethe fruits of their labor. I
mean, it it has to be that twoway street. And if it's not,
they better call one of us tofigure out.
Exactly when we know we can takewe can we know we can take him
(36:32):
there. That's the beauty of whatwe do. So yeah,
good. Well, I just appreciateyou being on I can't wait to
come out to Vegas to visit yousoon. Or see you on the road,
you know.
And I'm sure we'll see eachother soon, for sure. And I got
to come back down to Palm Beachor sometime and look for shark's
teeth on the beach. I mean, thatwas my favorite place to look
(36:53):
for shark's teeth when I lovethey're so it's
so fun. And I love it as well.
Actually, I have a little dishthat has all my findings. Of
that. Well, thank you, again forbeing just such a wonderful
friend and colleague andcompadres in serving these
clients. And I am here and Ihope that if a client or a
potential client is out there,and they need help, now they
(37:15):
know where to go for theirmarketing, agency strategy all
the way down to the execution.
So right Thank you, sir. Iappreciate you again.
All right, you to the folkslistening. I hope you have a
wonderful rest of the day. Andif you need some help taking
your business up into the right,you know where to find us. So
(37:36):
thank you. Thank you. Have agreat day everybody.
Bye bye.
I think so much for tuning intothis episode of level up your
business with me, Sara Frasca.
If you have a problem in yourbusiness that's keeping you up
at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
(37:56):
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
friends
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