In this episode, Tara interviews Mary Scott, where she gives you actionable steps to set-up your business to thrive.

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Transcript
Tara Bryan:

Hey everybody, it's Tara Bryan and you are listening

Tara Bryan:

to the course building secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach

Tara Bryan:

or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on

Tara Bryan:

your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide

Tara Bryan:

them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give

Tara Bryan:

you practical real life tips that you can use today to build

Tara Bryan:

your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.

Tara Bryan:

Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people

Tara Bryan:

without adding more time or team to your business? If you're

Tara Bryan:

looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and

Tara Bryan:

use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

Tara Bryan:

Hey, everybody, welcome to course building secrets. I am

Tara Bryan:

here today with Mary Scott. And she is going to talk about

Tara Bryan:

giving some advice and tips on getting started in your business

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and what that looks like. So welcome, Mary, we'd love to hear

Tara Bryan:

just a little bit about your background. And, and give us a

Tara Bryan:

little bit of a some tips and tricks for how to get started.

Mary Scott:

Okay, thank you so much, Tara, I'm really happy to

Mary Scott:

be here. I'm Mary Scott, I'm originally from New York, I was

Mary Scott:

a videographer I did business to business videos, companies all

Mary Scott:

over New York City metro, I did two documentary films that made

Mary Scott:

money, one of them actually got nominated for an Emmy. And when

Mary Scott:

COVID hit, I thought, Okay, I'm tired of carrying around the

Mary Scott:

equipment. And let's see if I can get paid for what I know

Mary Scott:

rather than what I do. Having had all that experience, my

Mary Scott:

connections and my resources are the likes of which most people

Mary Scott:

can't imagine. So and I've always given businesses,

Mary Scott:

connections and advice so that they would look good on camera

Mary Scott:

and be able to get more business rather than just having me

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videotape something that that I showed up. So landed in St.

Mary Scott:

Louis, in the startup ecosystem, and started actually talking to

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the various resources in the startup ecosystem, who at the

Mary Scott:

time, kind of vaguely knew each other was there but didn't

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really talk to each other. Well, I'm a fan of one stop shopping,

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I remember how hard it was, as a startup to actually get find

Mary Scott:

what I needed, much less get off the ground faster. So I

Mary Scott:

collected all the links to as much of the business of the

Mary Scott:

startup ecosystem as I could I put it into STL startup

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ecosystem.org. One stop shopping, so startups can find

Mary Scott:

what they need here. And all the resources can know who each

Mary Scott:

other is. Because if you're not in the same book, well, you're

Mary Scott:

not on the same page, you are in the same book. Yeah, yeah. So

Mary Scott:

that's where that goes. And so I've been consulting and doing

Mary Scott:

workshops to help startup businesses be wildly successful.

Tara Bryan:

Yeah, that's awesome. So I'm super curious

Tara Bryan:

about your journey from actually going out. And and, you know,

Tara Bryan:

kind of being out in the field to transitioning to more of, you

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know, moving online or doing things that that, you know, see

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sort of had had to change how you were working, and package

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what you were doing in a different way, tell me a little

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bit about that experience, and what that look like and how you

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went from really being out there to pivoting differently and

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growing your business, either online or in a different way.

Mary Scott:

Oh, one of the first things was to get used to being

Mary Scott:

on camera for a change instead of buying the camera. So that

Mary Scott:

didn't take too long, because Zoom is a very user friendly

Mary Scott:

format. So not only was I able to connect with a lot of people

Mary Scott:

on Zoom, but because I was a video editor, I could always do

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what I wanted to with the recordings that I made and be

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able to edit recordings for other people as well. So that

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was that was really useful. And the fact that we can now connect

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globally, rather than just locally, has made a huge

Mary Scott:

difference as well. So those are things to just not be afraid of.

Mary Scott:

And if you're a little nervous. You start with Hi, I'm Mary

Mary Scott:

Scott, I'm new. Tell me about you. Yeah, yep. And let the

Mary Scott:

other person tell you who they are and what they need. And that

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way, you're not just telling them what you can do. You're

Mary Scott:

telling them what you can do for them. It's, it's ultimately it's

Mary Scott:

all about customers. ervice

Tara Bryan:

I love how you pivoted from being behind the

Tara Bryan:

camera to on camera and then showing up and helping your

Tara Bryan:

people. And, and solving that that need. That's awesome. So

Tara Bryan:

give us some tips. So if somebody is, you know, just

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thinking about maybe packaging their expertise and, and getting

Tara Bryan:

started for the first time and growing their business, like

Tara Bryan:

give us a couple of tips for how they can start thinking about

Tara Bryan:

getting started.

Mary Scott:

Okay, well, I'll tell you tips in the context of

Mary Scott:

three of the top 10 Mistakes startups make. First thing you

Mary Scott:

have to do is validate the idea, whatever product service thing

Mary Scott:

you want to do, ask people if they think it's a good idea. And

Mary Scott:

ask people if they would be willing to pay for you, for your

Mary Scott:

idea for your product for your service. Ask people who know

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you, and then get some bravery and go present to an

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organization like 1 Million Cups where you can ask total

Mary Scott:

strangers the same questions. Is this a good idea is Am I on the

Mary Scott:

right track? And would people be willing to pay? How much would

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they be willing to pay for this thing? The second part is to

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really know your market. Who's what problem does this solve?

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And know really specifically what problem verify that that is

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an actual problem. And that this solves that problem. Now, this

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may also solve other problems. So that's a nice place to do

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some brainstorming. And once you have validated your idea, and

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you have a really good idea where the market is, make a

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business plan, every community has something called the Small

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Business Development Centers, they're at usually located on

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university campuses, it's the SBDC. They're funded by the

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Small Business Administration. So it's free services, and they

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will help you create a business plan. So use that service.

Tara Bryan:

Yeah, that's awesome. That's great advice.

Tara Bryan:

Everybody do that, before you go out and start selling your

Tara Bryan:

thing. Because most of the time, right, and Mary, I'm sure you've

Tara Bryan:

dealt with this before in helping people is they go out

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and try and or they they spend all this time building the

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thing, before they've even asked if it's actually something that

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people will pay for it, or if it's something that solves a

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specific problem. So do your homework. First, make sure that

Tara Bryan:

people liked the idea and that they're willing to pay for it.

Tara Bryan:

That's key. What we do in in Learn Academy, which is one of

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our signature programs of teaching people how to create

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package and sell their online courses is like, don't build it

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first, right? Like, make sure that you're finding not like

Tara Bryan:

your mom and dad or your friends or your spouse, don't ask them

Tara Bryan:

if they like it, ask somebody who needs it, and then see if

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they're gonna pull out their credit card. If they don't, then

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you've got to keep honing in on what your idea is. So I love

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that. Because I think that the misnomer is you just can just go

Tara Bryan:

and throw it out there. And, and get started. So I love

Mary Scott:

to do a Google search. Make sure that nobody

Mary Scott:

else has this already. Right? Or if they do you have a better

Mary Scott:

version? Or if they have something similar. Maybe you

Mary Scott:

should collaborate, right? That's a good hole founders do

Mary Scott:

much better in the Success space than single founders. Right?

Tara Bryan:

That's so good. Awesome. Well, Mary, give us one

Tara Bryan:

like tool or resource or something that you can't live

Tara Bryan:

without as you are running and building your business.

Mary Scott:

I can't live without my CRM, that's a customer

Mary Scott:

relationship management system, CRM, there are a ton of them out

Mary Scott:

there. Some of them are, you know, $150 a month, the one I

Mary Scott:

use is $15 a month. And it's a way to keep your contacts and

Mary Scott:

all the things you do with them in one place. It connects with

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your calendar, it connects with your scheduler, it connects with

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your email, it connects with your your contacts, your phone,

Mary Scott:

text messages, so that all the notes about whomever you talk to

Mary Scott:

are in one spot with them.

Tara Bryan:

Yeah, that's smart. You use Mary,

Mary Scott:

I use less annoying CRM. That's what that's what

Mary Scott:

it's called. It was surprising to me because they're actually a

Mary Scott:

startup in St. Louis. They're only about 10 or 12 years old

Mary Scott:

now. And I was one of their early adopters. So I love these

Mary Scott:

guys. The best thing about less annoying so CRM apart from the

Mary Scott:

fact that it's reasonably nice is that you can get a hold of

Mary Scott:

tech support practically within an hour. Oh, that's sending them

Mary Scott:

an email, you will get an email back really quickly. If you need

Mary Scott:

to get somebody on the phone, you will get somebody on the

Mary Scott:

phone pretty quickly, like within the day or two, they'll

Mary Scott:

be on the phone with you and they can talk you through stuff.

Mary Scott:

They're amazing. They're so customer service oriented. It's

Mary Scott:

wonderful.

Tara Bryan:

Yeah, that's awesome. I love that name. I

Tara Bryan:

will such a sucker for any really good name. And so I'll

Tara Bryan:

have to go check them out. But go check them out. Mary

Tara Bryan:

recommends them see her CRM. It's fabulous. All right, Mary,

Mary Scott:

I'm happy to share links to the CRM and to I have a

Mary Scott:

downloadable for free that's called set up your business

Mary Scott:

legally in 10. Easy Steps.

Tara Bryan:

Perfect. That's what I was gonna ask is how can our

Tara Bryan:

listeners get a hold of you? So that's great. We'll put those in

Tara Bryan:

the show notes and and make sure that you're able to get that

Tara Bryan:

information from Mary. Awesome. Thank you so much, Mary for

Tara Bryan:

joining us today. It was great to have you as a guest on the