Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track

Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track with Cristal Balk

There is a plan for everything and that includes marketing. Think about how your strategies will lead you to your goals. Set measurable metrics to stay on track. We can’t fix what we don’t measure. Reevaluate strategies.

Sharing is caring Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn

About Cristal

Cristal is an Entrepreneur, Marketing Consultant, International Speaker, Podcaster, Magazine Publisher, and San Diego Leader for World Women Conference and Awards. 

Cristal Balk is the Founder of Unstoppable Marketing Solutions where she consults her clients on reaching their marketing goals.

Her passion is to leave a legacy behind where more women will step out of their comfort zone and do what they are meant to do in this world! Cristal is the San Diego Leader for the World Women Conference and Awards where she helps women be innovative, educators, and to be change-makers for the San Diego Community. 

Cristal has been featured in San Diego Voyager, USA Today, KCBQ The Answer, Telemundo, CNN, and many more. She is an Amazon #1 Best Seller for an international book called De Cero Al Exito which means from Zero to Success. 

Unstoppable Marketing Solutions Website

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/Cristal-balk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cristal.balk.3

Listen to more great episodes of The Business of Business Podcast

Full Transcript Below

Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strate…

 59:51

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, business, marketing, talking, book, plan, absolutely, day, important, world, clientele, success, women, bit, year, crystal, podcast, san diego, clients, literally

SPEAKERS

Cristal, Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  00:03

Hello and welcome to another episode of the business of business podcast. This is Roy. Of course, our show is designed to bring a wide variety of guests on a set of diverse topics to you know, try to help small medium entrepreneurs solopreneurs any business that can really our business or manager or somebody that can take away something from this conversation and help them through their daily activities. So, without further ado, today, we will just jump right in.

We’re fortunate enough to have Cristal Balk is an opera entrepreneur, marketing consultant, international speaker podcaster magazine publisher and San Diego leader for World women conference and awards. Cristal is the founder of unstoppable marketing solutions, where she consults her clients on reaching their marketing goals. Her passion is to leave a legacy behind were more women will step out of their comfort zone and do what they are meant to do in this world.

Cristal is the San Diego leader of the world women conference and awards where she helps women be innovative educators and to be change makers for the San Diego Community. Cristal has been featured in San Diego Voyer, USA Today, k CB, Q, the answer, Telemundo CNN and many more.

She is also Amazon an Amazon number one bestseller with for an international book. And I’m gonna let her say the name it’s a little bit a little bit complex for me. And basically, I think it’s a Spanish, the title is in Spanish, and it means from zero to success. So without further ado, Cristal, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be here. I think that you know we we were all looking to go from that zero to success. So looking forward to talking to you to see what tips that you can give us today.

Cristal  02:09

Well, first of all, thank you, Roy, for having me today. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you a little bit more . And privileged to be on the podcast today. More importantly, being able to just, you know, give knowledge and information to people out there that want to learn. And want to adjust and grow, you know, especially for 2021.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  02:29

right? Yeah. And before we get too far down the line, if you could pronounce the name of your book. That way people can go out there on Amazon and look that up? That’d be great.

Cristal  02:40

Yeah, absolutely. It’s called Del Cero Al Exito, which does mean from zero to success. We wrote it in Spanish birth, which we there are 16 others. So I’m one of them. I’m co author in that book. In which you have the book tours coming out soon to get them very excited for that. And then the English version is coming out this year. So we’re very excited about that. That’s great. I’ll aim to give you one ROI. So you can get a signed version, that you can have it with you.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  03:12

Yeah, I would certainly appreciate. Thanks. That’s Thank you so much. And, you know, it’s, it’s been interesting. I think the last six months, you know, I have interviewed a lot more young women. So, I mean, I think it’s awesome. I think that it’s great that you’re, you know, involved with this world women conference. Because, yeah, we need to encourage, you know, young women coming out of college, to jump in, follow their passion. And do you know what they feel. Not, you know, I’m not that. I’m kind of in that age group that, you know. When women came out of high school, it was more, you know, having family staying home, and there weren’t a lot of options.

But even more important. I don’t think there were a lot of role models and a lot of paths for success. So first off, just congratulations on you know, all the things that you’ve got going on. I can see you’re very busy and in demand. Even you know more appreciative of you taking time to stop by and talk with me today. So what is I guess what sparked you want. What you know, got you into, you know, the unstoppable marketing but wanting to be this, the, you know, be a leader in the San Diego area for the world women’s conference, kind of what sparked that in you?

Cristal  04:36

Yeah, so the the reason why I started marketing was I actually started in colleagues. So I was one of those people that started their marketing business a while they were in college. And so what happened was that I was you know. I was trying to finish college. It took me a little bit longer than most people would take just because I was independent and my own. And I had to pay for my own bills. And we all know California is not All right. So I just did my own thing and figure out, Okay, what am I meant to do in this world, right. And so I have a lot of family members in marketing. So I started imagining working with them. Just because the regular jobs wouldn’t give me the opportunity to change my schedule every semester.

And instead of relaxing, and so noticing a lot of different areas, in the working world. There’s a lot of different when you say marketing, that’s very, actually very general. You know, most people say, Well, you know, I do website development, or I do social media management. Or, like what I focus on as far as a consultation, I create marketing plans, social media plans, content plans. The overall strategy for your, you know, business, marketing, right. The reason why I wouldn’t do the planning was because people come to me, and even in the freelancing companies. And they didn’t really know the overall strategy. So we all know that if you don’t have your overall strategies, it’s really hard to move forward in your business. And in the marketing world, and you just kind of like, most people just do the tactics.

So like, for example, just creating podcasts and creating social media links and stuff. But there’s no anything going back to the main goal, the main mission, right, the main vision of why you’re doing what you’re doing. What is the overall goal for that particular year. And so that is where I decided to focus on because I realized, even in some of these larger companies, a lot of them do do a great job of creating the marketing plan. But when you are a small business owner, you don’t know what a marketing plan is, right? You don’t know what that requires what you need to add in.

So that was is where my main focus is, and small business owners medium size as well, like yourself, that creates that initial plan for then you can execute into, you know, a good job above the execution. And also, I teach, I teach the importance of some of the areas in marketing that they use specifically for their business, like, let’s be realistic, each business is different. Yes, they’re gonna have their own clientele. And different platforms, not every platform is going to bring you the sales, not a platform, it’s going to bring you the right clientele.

Technically, bogus, depending on how your packages are, or your product is selling to the right people, you should be able to be making your six figure goal, if that is your goal, within half a year, because if you’re just working your time and energy on the right people, in the focus of that thing, you will definitely meet those numbers. And that’s kind of where I focus more realistically. I was focusing a little bit last year, but more To be honest, I’m going to talk more in it because our market has shifted completely.

So what is happening, that a lot of people are going to meet marketing plans, it’s much more than strategy, because our whole world has returning from an online world where a lot of these people that used to be in business for 30 plus years and and just basically, were on a referral basis. And were supporting their their business and they were doing fantastic. Those are the ones that are struggling the most because they’re like, well, I don’t know anything about this technology. I don’t even know where to start windows super open. They’re already pretty discouraged by the whole situation that’s happening as as it is, right. So I like to come in and bring in some peace.

And so that’s something that would definitely work specifically for that client. I don’t, I don’t believe in templates. That’s just me when it comes to marketing plans, because every business and every person is completely different. You know, they personalize the way that it’s going to be effective for them. And that will work for them right now. So a lot of times a lot of people are like, well, Facebook is big, but I just like Instagram, I just can’t. Okay, start with something that you can manage first, and then work your way up. Right.

And these are some of the tips and ideas that I give to my clients, because there’s a lot of information out there in the can be overwhelmed. So I just basically say, all right, I just basically all I do is like grab their ideas, and I put it together and I put it together in a tech tactical form that will work for them. And it’s workable for them and it’s not going to overwhelm them to into their pace.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  09:35

Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, ya know, and that’s it’s an important part that, you know, we’ve talked about before that if if you have a marketing person that comes to you and doesn’t ask you any questions and just says, hey, I’ve got this great plan. That’s usually a red flag to run because unless they are very into that space, and even if it’s the same industry, your same type of business, each business has a little bit different of a value add for their clients most of the time. So, you know, I think that’s great that you don’t use a cookie cutter template that you want to sit down, get to know their business, their audience and then design an individual unique plan that’s going to help them very important.

Cristal  10:24

Oh, absolutely. And here’s the thing, even if one person is doing, let’s say, they’re in the same industry, and they’re doing fantastic with, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the next person can do great with it, because each individual person has their own skills, or event that they do very well. So that doesn’t necessarily mean just because you have a template that you’re going to work exactly the same person, there’s, there’s no way right. And so a lot of people use templates, and it works for them. But personally, we’re a marketing plan and an overall strategy. I don’t believe the templates.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  10:56

Yeah, and I think it’s important we have, sometimes it’s very repetitive, because I use it over and over with, with strategy, marketing, finance, with basically any topic is, you know, we’ve got to have a roadmap of where we want to go or where we’re going. And the most important part of that is to be very honest, and thoughtful about where we are starting. Because, as I use examples before, if, if you want to go to Chicago, and you just say, I’m going to jump on the highway and go east, but you’re in New York, and you really needed to go west, then your your plans not going to work out very well.

So we need to know, excuse me, you know where we are, and then start from there. And like you said, we shouldn’t be embarrassed or not our feel, I guess, under knowledge about where we are, because everybody has to start from zero. I like that about the title of the book as well, you know, zero to success, because at some point, and in a lot of different areas, you know, we’re starting at zero. So, you know, just like us, we, if we don’t write down our plan for the week, things can slip. And we forget about what we wanted to put out on Thursday.

So I think that’s another thing is, you know, having that roadmap, because the small businesses, entrepreneurs, even, you know, some midsize businesses, everybody’s so focused on the serving the customer, you know, the sales part, bringing in the money doing that, that sometimes that setting down and thinking about what are we going to do for, you know, a social media post or blog post this week?

Really, we should be weeks out, but you know, what are we going to do three weeks from today? It’s like, well, we don’t have time for that right this moment. Let’s just get through today. And we’ll worry about that tomorrow. Then tomorrow comes, and then all of a sudden, you know, you’re trying to sit down at a computer and right up 1200 word blog, you know, overnight, and like myself get frustrated, because like, it doesn’t flow or I got all these changes where, you know, for me to work, right, I need to do something, let it kind of set and cook for a little while and then you know, be able to change it and altered over time. So I think that clans are so important in this area.

Cristal  13:26

Oh, absolutely. And there’s a plan for everything right. And, you know, honestly, the overall strategy really makes, I’ve been noticing business owners really think of all their actual business goals, they’re their client to be, what are we going to do? What are we going to really focus on. Because when you’re in the business, when you are working in the business, you’re not always thinking about the outside stuff, and the overall stuff. Because we don’t have time yet because we literally matter with them too.

And so being able to just be an outsider coming in, and just basically put it together because at the end of the day, it’s your plant. It’s your business, all I do is just put it in together and put it like in the nice bow. And I work with you throughout the process. I don’t just like here’s your plant. That’s right, I do. But I do like to keep put it into agreement in there that I’m going to keep helping and adjusting and showing you every everything you need to know in order to be successful. Because we all know that a plan is great. But it’s not going to work if it’s not being executed.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  14:37

Exactly. Yeah. And as a consultant, you know, I’ve been to some of my repeat clients with awesome plans that I’ve given them for something and you know, you walk into the office and it’s got dust on it sitting on somebody’s shelf. So, you know, it’s important to you know, the plans are only as good as the execution and so we need to, you know, not only have the plan, we need to execute But, you know, this year has taught us a lot too, is that we always need to be re evaluating things change, things change market changes. But the other thing I kind of wanted to touch on for a minute that you said is to, you know, you get the business owners or business men to think about things, maybe outside of marketing.

And a great example is I was at a roundtable one day with a couple of, you know, there was like, three or four owners and I was meeting with a couple and one was like, well, we need to emphasize price. We’re, we’re price conscious. And the other one was like, Well, no, this is our value add. And so sometimes there’s not even a cohesive message within the company that you know, even though that’s not the actual focus, it can be a awesome byproduct, is you can get everybody on the same page to say, you know, what are we doing here? Are we trying to be the price leader? Are we trying to add, you know, this value and command whatever price that we need to?

Cristal  16:04

Yeah, absolutely. Any, you have a partner of people, they all have to be on the same page. And that’s why given knowing that, okay, what is what is going to be a plan for this year. It’s right every year, to be honest, where you should be readjusting your plan. And even if, like, for example, I’m one of them’s like, last year, I reached, I reached my goal, my overall goal in the middle of the year right now. It was crazy.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  16:29

That’s awesome.

Cristal  16:31

And yeah, thank you. And there’s just so much out there, right. So I had to readjust my plan in the middle of the year. Just because your goal and your plan doesn’t need to necessarily say, Okay, I’m done. No, it’s all we want to do better and shoot for the stars now. A lot of times, the ownership comfortable all work out exactly where we want in the meeting comfortable with the moment we get comfortable with the moment we start losing because our competition is not comfortable. Yep. Right. Yeah, they’re not.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  17:06

Yeah. So that that kind of leads us to the next point about measurement. And, you know, I’m a more analytical, I’ve been very fortunate in my life to, to work in, you know, sales, marketing, and the more analytical side of things that the other it’s, it’s, we have to set out metrics, you know, not only to see if we’re having a success, but I think, also, when we do those plan reviews, we can look at our metrics to see, you know, did we get a lot of, you know, maybe Facebook wasn’t our main focus, maybe we were YouTubing, or whatever. But all of a sudden, it’s like, something blew up on Facebook, and we had good luck with it.

So we need to, I think, you know, we need to be diligent about measurements, we can go back and look and say, Well, what caused this to either blow up, or what caused us to take a nosedive. And I’ll just put one of my situations out there is that I do some Google some YouTube ads that they’re the the skip, I don’t even know all the technical names, but it’s like a skip ad you put in and all of a sudden, last week, I noticed that, you know, my account isn’t going long, you know, climb and climb, and then all of a sudden, the bottom just fell out of it and went to zero. And, you know, I thought, well, what happened and add quit, you know, did you know this is message stale?

You know, there’s a lot of things that could be fortunately, it was just Google doing an audit of the account, you know, for a few days that kind of knocked the traffic down is what they told me. So, you know, we’re back up and running, and it’s good. But the reality is, you know, if that would have been something with messaging, then it’s good to catch that. Because if it happened today, and I didn’t do my review, or didn’t look at that till June, and it was something that needed fixing, then I’d be sitting here without, you know, very much marketing on that platform for 364 or five months, you know, whatever.

Cristal  19:12

Right. And it is important to measure a lot of times people are just throwing things at platforms and websites and etc. and are wondering why the results are not happening right. Now, everything is a test run in marketing world, we are testing all the time, right. 500 posts, let’s say, but two of them really, really blew up. Then those two were worth it. Yeah. You know, you think from the numbers perspective of it, you are measuring your platforms, the following. You know, and I gotta be clear about this. your followers.

The number of following does not give us sales. Yeah. Okay. And if you’re just getting whatever followers but they’re not your ideal client. followers think you’re literally wasting your time. And also that needs to be measured. Right? Like you have followers? Yes. But from those followers, how much do you really build relationships? what sells? building those relationships? Right? Connect? Yeah,

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  20:19

I usually talk about those as vanity likes, and you know, because I’ll be honest, I got into a situation years ago, where, you know, a guy reached out to me and said, Man, I can get you, you know, a lot of followers on this, I think it was Facebook. And so what I started watching was, he did, he generated a lot of traffic, but it was all overseas, you know, and what I call them is kind of like, you know, like, boiler rooms that, you know, there’s guys sitting around that they get paid, you know, a few dollars a day just to like, like, like, and so, you know, my analogy is always that. So after that little experiment, took 3000 likes over to the bank and tried to deposit it.

You know, they didn’t take it, the electric company doesn’t take likes. And so, you know, we think that’s such an important part that the managing expectations and talking to clients about likes, need to, at some point, equal business. If you’re, you know, again, that’s why we, when somebody calls in, it’s always good, where did you hear about us that, you know, trying to find out what is, you know, where these leads are generating? Because if you find out, they’re all coming from one platform or another, you can shift your resources or, you know, tweak your messaging on the other one, but I think that’s a valid point that have to be so careful about.

Cristal  21:45

Absolutely. It’s crazy, because now a lot of bigger companies are like, Well, no, the only way we’re going to work with you is how many likes you have, and I’m willing to Okay, well, I have 2000 genuine people that genuinely Follow me and they’re not just a random person. And there’s a lot of people that are doing overseas, know, what kind of value and benefits that bring you into your business? Because other than you, you’re just wasting money thrown out the window, right? And where you’re going your awareness, but where is that taking you?

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  22:19

Exactly?

Cristal  22:21

I think one of the things that, that I just, I can just touch real quick, Lauren. Sure

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  22:25

is,

Cristal  22:26

a lot of people right now are hidden ways. They’re generating all this, like likes and friendship, and so forth. And they’re like, Well, why I’m not selling? What is happening? Like, why? Why can I convert it into a sale? Okay, so the first thing I’m gonna say, is, you know, it all comes back to pre COVID. What were you doing pre COVID? Right? What kind of work were you already doing? Like you were already not in like doing something relatable to what you’re doing now. It’s gonna take you a little bit longer to be able to bring that awareness, that branding, and then you can eventually put it in sell. So your credibility and your transparency have to be clear, right?

Even you know, you’ve been in the business for 20 plus years, but now you are a business owner. Okay, well, that’s still part of credibility, because you’ve been in industry for 20 plus years, but you just turned into your, and you’re just learning about the intrapreneurship world. But as far as the actual you are, you know it right. And so don’t knock yourself down. Because, you know, overall, I’ve been in corporate for 20 plus years, but you know, I’m just starting, don’t do that. Because at the end of the day, you had 20 plus years in corporate, but you know exactly what you’re talking about. And it comes down to self, if you’re not comfortable and aligned with yourself, what makes you think that you were going to buy from you

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  23:51

exactly,

Cristal  23:52

you gotta be what you do. and deliver, most importantly, deliver every single time. Even if it takes you a little bit longer than what you originally said, then you’ll notice, okay, well, this is what we’re capable of. This is not what you know, we’re just gonna have to take a little bit longer. Yeah, the worst thing that I’ve seen with people, because, you know, remember, we’re in such a digital form, and it’s so easy to do a click a form and contact other people and get their feedback, right. The worst thing that someone can do is not deliver, right?

Then somebody else new communicating, getting in touch with them, what was your experience with this particular person or servers product, etc. And they talk negative about it because you were not able to deliver what you said you were gonna deliver. So it’s always sometimes good to talk it down a little little and over deliver, rather than under deliver, right and that goes with your reputation. So if you have somebody that is already, unfortunately, now let’s say you’ve been happening for like that, Since a 1000s of people in you have one bad apple, right? They just didn’t like something about it, then that’s different. But when you’re starting off, you cannot afford a bad apples.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  25:10

Right? Exactly.

Cristal  25:13

You don’t have that much of measurement, right, go back to the measurement. We’re not just measuring the social media platform, we’re measuring the clientele as well.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  25:23

Yeah. And I think a couple things I picked up on that you were talking about is, of course, this is another extension of managing expectations that if you are changing your direction a little bit, or even if you’re maybe getting into a new platform, let’s just say you haven’t done YouTube, and now you’re getting into YouTube, it’s that things take time, we are in an instantaneous world where people click and they want immediate results. But you know, if we’re talking about a 345 $10 item, you know, I’m not saying crystal that money, just on the fact that, you know, if I lost $10 on her product, if she didn’t deliver, it’s not a big deal.

But if you’re asking me to send you 25, or $30,000, for you know, some kind of a consulting arrangement, I need to feel very comfortable with you, and you have to take time to build that relationship. So it’s important to manage that expectation. But I think it leads into this, why are we not translating into sales is that because we are in this instant gratification. Where we have, you know, zero patience anymore, it seems. I’m one of those people. I’m the same way, if I click on something I want, you know, in, I want it to come up instantly, no delay.

But there is, you know, I use the agric agrarian example is that, you know, when you want to grow a plant, you have to put the seed in. And then you cultivate it, you water it, you weed it, you do all the taking care of it, loving it, nurturing it, and then you harvest it at some other point. And I feel that in the digital age over the last five to 10 years, it’s been a growing expectation that if I throw the seed out there, I’m going to get an immediate harvest.

Cristal  27:19

Right. And that’s the problem. And that’s why a lot of people sometimes spill energy in the street, and they get frustrated media into like, someone’s son did it in less than a year, when you don’t know what other health disorders don’t get. Right? If you’re starting from scratch by yourself, it’s gonna take a little longer, but if someone has had some of our already Mani pockets into it, to throw into market you to throw into all the different platforms, and absolutely, then they’re gonna be able to do it within the year.

But you know, a lot of times we just narrow it down, but you got to see all these different factors around it that come into it. So that’s why I always question Okay, well, what do you do exactly? How do you do it? Believe me read six questions. By the time we do the sixth question, you will find out how that person did absolutely everything, right. And how they did it. So it’s surface doesn’t necessarily mean that is everything. Again, this was only one thing.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  28:15

Yeah, and this has come up in the last three or four conversations. So again, sometimes I feel like I’m beating a dead horse. But on the other hand, I want to get this out there for listeners to think about is that social media is awesome for keeping up for new ideas. It’s great, and I love it. The drawback that I will say for is that a lot of people aren’t as vulnerable and transparent as you think. And so we post or we tend to see the very best thing that happened to that person this day, or the very best thing in their business life. Or maybe we haven’t seen this business before. And we see it in their successful but we don’t think about for a minute that this guy has been working for 10 years to get to this point.

Just because we found him today doesn’t mean that he started yesterday, and now he’s a success. So, you know, we can’t really set our expectations on what we see through social media because, you know, people don’t post the the bad and the ugly. And, you know, I always say business’s growth is not typically just a straight line up. I mean, it’s usually up and down and crazy and all over the place. And it just takes in this gets back to the marketing aspect to is that it takes consistency.

You got to get up every day, you got to continue with the plan. You can’t get discouraged if you’ve got a good plan. It’s thoughtful, you got to carry it out. And because what you’ll see in a lot of things is zero to three months. Not much traffic, not much traction, and then, you know, four or five, that six months, all of a sudden things just take off. But if we you know if we’d given up at three We would have never found that success.

Cristal  30:03

I mean, I’ve been asked you actually, I know you’re asking the question, but I want to ask you a question about it. You’ve been in this long time. I mean, you’ve been pursuing yours. But how many times have you almost quit?

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  30:16

Oh, they’re during the day? Yeah. Sometimes, sometimes, dear. Yeah. You know, sometimes during the day is like two or three times, like, I’m ready to hang, you know, is it really worth it? Am I gonna hang it up? No, not really, I’ve been fortunate enough to always do things that I like, but yeah, there’s been, I will tell you, there’s been a few times where, you know, the thought was really what else is out there.

I’m not sure that I really want to do this. And, and, but it’s seeking out good counsel people like yourself to say, you know, cuz sometimes, even though you think you know what you’re doing, you can be so close to it that you really don’t. And so seeking out Counsel of professionals, like yourself, to have that outside look to say, Man, if you would just tweak this thing, just a tiny bit, and you know, what they read, it works that we don’t Oh, sometimes we’re so close to everything. We don’t see the bigger picture.

Cristal  31:14

Oh, absolutely. And you know, and you touch something, it’s like, you’re not alone, right? You’re not alone. And in a lot of us in intrapreneurship, eds, it’s, it’s not meant for everybody. It’s It’s tough. You know, it’s crazy accident, my husband, he’s in finance. And so he was listening to obviously just finance related stuff. And he was listening to the diagnosis. The guy was basically I don’t remember his name. But he was just basically it’s like, right now you just see that I have a lot of money in I’m doing great. And doing that. But do you have any yummy, I had to start how many times I had to start from scratch.

He started from scratch 10 times on different projects, until that one project was the one Yep. Yep. So if people are going to quit within the first year, you got to take a realization that people that you see that have been self made and been doing stuff for many, many years, they’ve been through their ups and downs, and it has taken them years, literally years, to get to where they are. And so I don’t want anybody to feel discouraged, I just want you to know that you have a passion, and you know exactly what you do, you can continue it and we just there needs to be a plan, you know, you know, in order to, to grow in the right direction that you want it.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  32:33

Yeah, and the other thing, I’m gonna say this, from an older point of view, is that at some point, you realize that money does not always dictate that you’re successful, because I know a lot of people make a lot of money who are miserable. Health is bad, you know, fam, no family, and it’s a lot, you know, there’s a lot going not saying that everybody’s like that. But I think what I would like to see people get more comfortable is that when you get out of bed in the morning, you’re excited to do what you’re going to do. Not that we’re not going to have hiccups during the day or the week or the month. There’s going to be times where like, I can’t, why am I doing this.

But for the most part, if we’re passionate about it, we love what we do, then we get up every morning, excited to do it. And we’re able to take on the challenges. Also there’s a guy named Ryan Holiday, that he’s got a great coin that I’ve gotten. I carry in my pocket with me and it’s like the obstacle is the way and basically, you know, we we can’t find always find ways around obstacles, we have to hit them head on to solve them because that is what I think that’s what separates the businesses that become successful with the ones that don’t, they hit the obstacle head on, solve the problem and moved on.

And then the the kind of the second part of that whole thing is that if you’re familiar with sand dunes, it’s like, you know, life business journey, it’s like a sand dune, when you get to the top of the one Dune that you’re climbing, that’s not the end of it, we don’t reach the peak and life is just at the top of the mountain from now on. It’s, you know, in the sand dunes can be very deceiving if you’ve never been to one but you know, you climb up a peak and you think you’re at the top and then you look over and there’s 12 more in front of you.

It’s just a constant, you know, up and down. Now you keep you know, getting higher and higher. But, you know, I think the point is that life is gonna throw us struggles and you know, we have to adjust our mindset in order to take those obstacles on just personal observation.

Cristal  34:42

Whenever you talk about the mindset of it, because before you do any, your mind has shifted in a direction of intrapreneurship when I went from corporate intrapreneurship I was like, Oh Lord, Jesus Christ. Like I jumped into it. I was like, I Everything I learned from school, everything that it was, like, in so many ways is out the window. And I had to relearn absolutely everything. And so I’m grateful that I did. But in our book, actually rooms are things like that we talk about, you start off, literally from the beginning to the end.

So everything you need to do from the very beginning, so the mindset, right, the changing of the strategies, and then the marketing, the execution, and then the selves, literally, from beginning to end. And even in the book, it says, like, you shouldn’t read it all at once, you should read it little by little, because you want to take in that information, apply it. And you know, it’s kind of like a mini also meaning worksheets, involved of things that you can do yourself kind of as far as the tactical side of of it. Because it’s great that you can read a book, right? Again, again, if you like planning, integrate, then you can plan but if you can’t execute, and I can actually implement that, then then it’s not useful, right.

And so a lot of people are buying all these courses, buying all these books, and that’s great, you know, learn and so forth, but you’re not executing as you go. You’re wasting your money, because you’re not going to get anywhere. There’s a lot of people out there that just do courses in books. And what it is, is that they’re scared to launch or scared to make that one step and, or let me tell you, all of you that are out there Spark, I jumped into it with my two feet, literally left my job. And the next day, I was like, okay, marketing, probably not the best, not the best way to do it, but I actually had mental health for my husband. So that made it a little easier for me. And then for me to work on it, right.

So you do need some kind of support for sure. In order for you to continue, because it’s like is that up and downs, all the way. In, it’s my very, very strong, and you literally like really say, if you’re going to do something, do something that you’d like, you’re gonna wake up every single day happy for it, because the struggle become easier, it will be worth it, it will wake up with a purpose in life, right? You will not feel ever again in your life will have a different mindset, a different understanding, a different perspective thing, you will start attracting the right people in order for you to start growing.

So a lot of it too is kind of like we we tend to put ourselves in a Oh, I can do that. I’m not meant to do that. And we keep putting ourselves in a lot of excuses of what not to do. But if we turn that around and say, Oh, I can do this, and I can do that. And I can imagine how your subconscious work? Yeah, when you start saying, I believe in this, I can do this. I don’t know this, but let me try it. If you change the negative into a positive, you’re reaching Junior.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  38:00

Yeah, and I think you you talk, you know, there’s so much there to unpack that, you know, like people surround yourself with good people. You know, a good entrepreneur, a good manager, it’s not somebody that has all the answers. It’s just somebody that knows how to find the answers. And because a lot of times, I talk to people that I have, I call it analysis paralysis. They want to get what I need to know more about this, I want to get this perfect, I need this. You know, it’s all these things that they feel like they have to line up before they step out there. And I’m not saying that you don’t need to plan before you step out, definitely make sure that you’re doing the right thing and you do have a plan.

But every you will never be able to start something new if you have to wait till everything is perfect. And the stars align up just right, because they’re not going to and, you know, it’s just like with me, and you know, podcasting will take that is like you know, I didn’t know much about it, bought some equipment and just started doing it. And hopefully I’ve evolved a little bit since the very beginning. But you know what, it’s something I love to do.

And so I’m happy with being able to talk to people like yourself, because I learned so much you know, I selfishly tell people that you know, this podcast is for me, because I learned from all my guests and I just get to share it with others. But if I had waited till I was the perfect announcer podcaster host and all that stuff, I’d still be sitting here not doing anything. So

Oh, one more point I want to kind of touch on that. You know, when we’re talking about success and money and things like that is you know, we get people get into become entrepreneurs for different reasons. Then one thing I will say is that we have to be careful and you know, I liken it to the dog and the tail is you know, we need to be the dog and the businesses the tail where we wag the tail, and it’s so easy to fall into that trap of landing The tail wag the dog, you know, we, we let the business dictate our life and I’m guilty.

I have to say that sometimes you know, I have to get the tap on the shoulder that time to slow down time to get up and go do something or you know, spend some quality family time things like that I try to be mindful of But anyway, I will just say for you know, younger entrepreneurs or people thinking about it is just remember that it’s a means to an end. It’s not the it should not become your whole life.

Cristal  40:33

And I’m glad you touched upon that, because I don’t know if you ever heard the same people saying entrepreneurs are Workaholics. Right, right. In a lot of a lot of them have. You know, don’t have strong relationships and voices and so forth. Because the workaholic right? So I agree with you, I had to kind of put some adjustments myself every weekend, just for my family. So doing stuff together we used to do, it gets crazy because I was posting. He was his birthday was not not not too long ago. And I was posting some stuff from back in the day. I’m like, Oh, God, Honey, I’m like we used to travel all the time. We used to have fun all the time. Look what happened.

He said the business happened. Right, right. And I was like, Oh my god, we’re in a taking consideration. But, you know, the reason why we’re creating a business is to make a living, right to make something that we’d like to do a living but at the same time, we don’t want it to, you know, be the for a whole entire life when grinding and grinding grinding. because technically the numbers right? If you’re working 1617 hours every single day you didn’t numbers of how much money you’re bringing in. And you divided it up and you see how many you’re getting an hour. It might not be like a regular job. You actually might be

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  41:57

right. Yeah. And it’s it’s

Cristal  42:01

harder, not always smarter.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  42:03

Oh, I’m sorry. Go ahead. Yeah.

Cristal  42:08

Not only becomes like an addiction, almost because you’re so in it. You’re so in it, I want to do XYZ. The work whenever I feel guilty myself right now I’m training more people to you know, with my team right now in the middle of training. So I have to work this weekend, right? Yeah. But it’s been such a long time that I’ve worked in a weekend. Yeah. Yeah, that was like, oh, Lord, weekend. But absolutely. Give your site. Give yourself.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  42:34

Yeah, you know, because it’s a curse. And if you’re lucky enough to find something that you’d love to do. It’s not really work. And so you know, that’s the that’s kind of the rub with me is like, you know, doing things. I don’t really take it as work. It’s fun. It’s enjoyable. I like a challenge. I like trying to take that next step and figure out, you know, how can we tweak this around? So anyway, just it’s kind of one of those messages is that yeah, it can be fun and exciting and thrill. But we still need to, you know, nurture relationships outside of our entrepreneurship as well.

43:12

Absolutely, yep.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  43:13

So we’re going to wrap up, we’ve had a great conversation. I know we’ve gone a little longer than what we initially talked about, and I appreciate your patience and going on. So before we get away, though, I want you to he did mention the book, but tell us a little bit more about the book. And then I want you to really stress this world women’s conference be that way we can get more, not only just women in general, but we can get more young ladies involved in entrepreneurship.

Cristal  43:48

Yeah, absolutely. So I will start with the back. So like I said, it’s constant from zeros, from zero to success. And literally, it’s short, it’s a 200 page book. It’s very, not long, super easy to read. There’s even some pictures here. And as far as for my marketing, didn’t I that I wrote, there’s only one marketing section, which is mine. And I basically just talked about different strategies of how more like plan tactics, like getting the importance of sometimes immediate marketing, right? So a lot of times when businesses start, they, they want to get awareness, but they don’t know from there somewhere, where do we where do I go? And you’re very knowledgeable and you already know what you’re doing. But nobody knows who you are, right?

In social media, we all know, you know, has its ups and downs. And so one of the things that I really also help people with, in the sense, at least in the back is okay, well, your podcast even right now. It’s like create your own pocket. Valuable podcast right with your quality, clientele, potential clientele that you want. eventually meet and work with the right people. You really enjoy talking to her very information or knowledgeable, etc, you know, magazines articles, you know, it’s now it’s a different ways to get into articles, media press, you know, let’s say with the world woman conference in words, we use the media press, for our events, and so forth.

And so that’s where I use it for. So there’s different formats and media marketing things people can utilize to grow their awareness and their credibility without having to pay so much money out of pocket, you know, more organically in that sense, but they still get that credibility in that, in that awareness, per se. You know, we understand that a lot of people are doing, you know, social media advertisements, a great tool works for you. But when you’re starting off a business, you don’t have that much income to spare any, how are you going to do such a social media advertisement? Wouldn’t you even have awareness?

45:54

Right, right?

Cristal  45:55

Why even have a branding? So that’s where you start off. And so that’s a little bit more of that initial aspect, because the book is called losers from success and other co authors have done a fantastic job. I mean, we’re talking about eight different countries. Wow, we have authors, in countries all over the world that is copy in their industry, CEOs, founders, and financial institutions, like global institutions, and so forth. This book is literally not just anyone that was no part of it. It was top people from all over the world and the author, and helicoptering me This is the author did a fantastic job about bringing all of us together, and sharing that knowledge.

And we did it actually, during COVID. We did the book during COVID. And it was formulated more like the restructuring format. So actually, which will be perfectly for right now. He people want to buy it, and we should be having our English version coming out with the next couple months. So you know, once it’s out, you’ll be able to see it on my website at unstoppable marketing solutions, and where to get ahead in all that great stuff. Ever. We do have the Spanish version, always because that’s the first version that we thought. And the reason why we started off with the Spanish version first was because we have a lot a Latino in the US, US, you know, around the world.

It’s like, I think one of like, the second biggest, you know, pee culture and people in the in the world. So we wanted to showcase that, you know, we’re here to support you in any way they can. In there’s a lot of like, you know, Mexican Americans, at least here in San Diego, and a lot of great people that could definitely benefit from it. So that’s the reason why we started off with the, you know, the Spanish version, and then we’re converting into the English version. And again, but we also do the masterminds, and we do meet courses and things like that with everybody’s information in there as well.

Okay, so it’s not just about, I can actually voice I can use the link, and so you can send it to your team and so forth. And we should, unfortunately, we were already supposed to do a couple things. But COVID has already kind of backed up a couple of people in our group. So we want to give them a little bit more time.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  48:15

Okay. Yeah, I’d be glad to post all that in the show notes as well.

Cristal  48:21

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you, I think this is going to really benefit for people that are either transitioning from corporate to intrapreneurship. I know a lot of people lost their jobs, or what I do now, I like starting an incentive report times, but not that, you know, they get something else. Or people that are really already within the one or two years of the business, but it’s stuck in it’s not growing, right. It’s like literally not growing, it’s very static. And so those are the people that are going to really benefit the most from this book. But to be honest with you, there’s one like, mindset strategy, sells, micro offers financial literacy.

There’s like all kinds of like, topics here that even though you may not be at the beginning stages, I think it’s still good to refresh your memory in some of these areas, or just see what some people around the world are doing. Right? The market is different. But maybe some ideas can come into consideration into that. Then so that’s for the book.

And so for this ad world, a woman conference awards is a new organization that I’ve always wanted to join a women’s organization. And I love this organization, because it’s not just women, by the way that we actually have men as well. Okay. We like to learn men as well. But it is the conference. It is a woman. So I know a lot of people we can say it was just for women, right? But no, we have.

We have men and women in my team. I have two men that are in my San Diego chapter. It’s always good to have that balance right to have A little bit of a different perspective. But basically, the beauty of it is the mission of the whole organization is to filling the gap in your community. There’s a gap in your community that is not being filled. As an organization, as for example, the San Diego chapter becomes the middleman to make that happen.

So if you have the connections with politics, a, you know, financial institutions, etc. And we need to help someone in the lower level. So we make that connection and we make sure that that gap is filled. Okay. So every world every every chapter on the world, we have Europe, in the UK, we have dystonia. I’m sorry, there’s like a plane flying.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  50:43

Right now. We live by an Air Force Base, too. So I have those come over every now and then.

Cristal  50:50

Yeah, I’m sorry. We have a, we have a Sonia, we have Mexico, we have six chapters in the United States all over the US. I mean, it’s growing. And the beauty of it is that all of these women are super quality women professional, and they genuinely care about their communities in order to make a difference. We also have a section for the youth. Okay, so each, there is a section, so mentorship, of mentorship of the youth.

And, you know, especially right now we’re doing a lot of like online stuff, it’s one of their greatest youth programs right now is in Georgia. So in Atlanta, Georgia, they’re doing a boot test job, they even have a podcast for the young, young kids, they do a lot of activity on a weekly basis, a lot of stuff keeps them from, from the whole environment of them staying inside, and I’d be able to be with your friends and so forth the mental speech aspect of it,

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  51:52

right. Yeah.

Cristal  51:54

And then the, the friends even though they’re not like face to face, and so forth, especially with the us right now it’s meeting us more than ever in mentorship. So the idea is to, you know, we’re talking about high school and up, okay. The idea is to going to the schools, make clubs, interactive, you know, they go to college. So by the time we get out of college, there have already a network of people to contact.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  52:23

That’s so important.

Cristal  52:24

by the author their career. Yeah. And that was to mentor them into leader. Little, little, little leadership. Yeah. Letter guy, they’re gonna be leaders.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  52:37

Yeah, that’s awesome. Because, you know, back, when I was coming through high school, there was a limited, you know, I knew and limited number of things that I might want to do with my life. And that’s the, you know, the great thing about the internet, the good thing about this conference is we’re exposing these young people to a lot of ideas that are out there.

And, you know, I think that’s something that’s been positive through COVID is I have seen so many more young kids, some younger than high school, but they’ve gotten into some kind of business, some of them, they’re not for profits, just, you know, helping others, which is awesome. But there have been some people that have come up with some really good products or good services, and they’re making money on it. And so, you know, I think that’s great to see. Well,

Cristal  53:25

absolutely, and are young men and women to girls and boys, we don’t discriminate or in any way like that, and we want both genders to be there. But just to know that overall, that basically some poor women as well.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  53:42

So we’ll be sure to put that link on our website. Again, Crystal, thank you so much for taking time out of your day. So I try to wrap up every episode with a question like, what is something that you use? It could be an app or a program, habit? Or rituals? What is something that you do in your daily life personal professional, that you feel adds so much value that you just couldn’t do without?

Cristal  54:09

Oh, absolutely, I think, you know, when we were in person, it was mentioned easier for me to connect with people and I’m connector. I love talking to people, I love learning about their stories, and so forth. So one of the things that I do on a daily basis, I literally connect with one person a day and get into some call with them every single day. And even though it’s 15 minutes, I get to have that personal interaction, then personal touch, and then we stay in contact more. And it’s not about the selling aspect, it’s about the connecting aspect of it, right. It’s like got to learn about what does the person need at that moment?

What How can I help them maybe have a resource maybe, maybe have some a contact that they can really benefit from? Right and because you got to think about it this way, okay. Maybe that person was not yourself, right. You can be yours. Nothing. You have In reality that you can sell them or give them as a product, right? But you get you help them with that one resource. And then when they have a friend are like, Hey, I really need help with some marketing and marketing planners like all over the place. You know what? I know somebody? I know crystal, yeah, he’s amazing care of you genuine, whatever it is.

And then there There goes, there goes your referral. So you know, even though you are talking to people that are potentially being clientele, at the end of the day, yes, you’re talking to people that are going to be interested. But more importantly, it’s going to be how you can help them at that moment how you can solve that problem. Yeah. That’s how they’re gonna turn determine whether you’re a quality person to work with or not. Yeah,

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  55:45

yeah, I think that’s important in networking is, you know, we can’t always just want to network with the person that we think we’re going to get the next cell. I think that we have to put ourselves out there and we have to help people without any expectations. And I guarantee you that comes back to us tenfold. Because, like you said, you build that relationship, even if it’s not your customer, they know people and then they will eventually refer you so great advice. That’s Yeah, especially

Cristal  56:16

Now because when it shifted, maybe back in the day you were able to make those calls, make sales, etc. Now it’s about there’s a lot of people suffering in the world. Yeah, there’s a lot of people struggling now it’s about how can we help them with that struggle? Right, right. Just tweeting it? Just a tad.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  56:33

Yeah. All right. Well, Crystal, so tell people who is your client, what can you do for them? And then of course, how can they reach out and get a hold of you?

Cristal  56:45

Yeah, absolutely. For me and like I said, my clients are small business owners, medium business owners, and help them with creating a strategy plan overall and in any other plans depending on where they are and level of their business. You know, it’s so important to get people off the floor awesome. Once you get off the floor, it becomes a little bit easier to manage everything but that off the floor the initial planning aspect is beyond important. And they are more than happy to reach me either at unstoppable Marketing Solutions.com which is my website, and I have a 15 minute free consultation. In I just initially talked to people sometimes I just basically like solved a problem, right there.

You know, if I feel like we need more time and stuff, then then that’s, that’s going to be like at a cost. But if I can solve your issue and those 15 minutes, then go ahead and set an appointment with me and speak with me because I am at the moment where I do want to help people and I am going to be helping people already as it is. But I understand the pressure and the frustration sometimes we’re so frustrating, we can even see beyond that. So just bringing in just 15 minute, clarity straight to the point time UK, I generally don’t even know where to start, then I guide you through it.

You know if it’s gonna be more than 15 minutes in the case, we’re gonna have to set another appointment and so forth. But being just basically unstuck you in the area that you are so you can keep moving forward and have that clarity, right. Yeah. Or you can email me you know, if you need anything at customers out at unstoppable Marketing Solutions comm I have all my social media links. So if you want to connect with me, I’m Cristal Balk, go ahead and find me.

Roy Barker – The Business of Business Podcast – Want Great Focus In Your Marketing Efforts? Develop a Strategy to Keep You On Track  58:34

Okay, awesome. Cristal. Yeah, y’all reach out to Cristal, see how she can help you, I know that she’ll be able to make a difference in your marketing efforts. Also, take a look for both men, women and the youth take a look at the world women conference and awards. And then be on the lookout Del Cero Al Exito if you if you read Spanish, it’s already out there and available. If if you’re an English speaker, like myself, waiting till the zero to success comes out in the English version. And we’ll be looking for that. Of course, I will put all those things up in the show notes as well.

So I think that’s gonna do it for this episode. We certainly appreciate you being a listener. Of course, you can find us at thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com on all the major platforms, Apple podcast, Google podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, and a lot more. If you use a platform that we’re not on, please reach out I’d be glad to try to get us added to that. So we are on all the traditional social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a copy of this video version of this interview will go up on YouTube when the episode goes live as well. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of those around you. Thank you

Unstoppable Marketing Solutions Website

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/Cristal-balk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cristal.balk.3

Listen to more great episodes of The Business of Business Podcast