SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00] Amy Kehs: there’s something to be said for. Borrowed courage You know, sometimes we’re too close to our own problems and so when you have group of people saying like, you can do this, it just gives you the courage to kind of take a leap over something that you’ve probably been overthinking.

[00:00:19] Amy Kehs: you know, the first 20 years of my business, I didn’t realize what I was missing. I didn’t realize that I was missing at those like water cooler chats and things from being in an office and. This time together, like every Monday for an hour. I’ve been in this Mastermind for over a year now.

[00:00:40] Amy Kehs: Like that time with each other really adds up. And having a group of people that you can, look to and, and that know you so well, really makes a huge difference.

[00:00:52] Jeff Sieh: Hello folks. Welcome to Creator News Live. I’m Jeff Sieh and you’re not,

[00:00:58] Paul Gowder: I’m Paul Gowder, and [00:01:00] this is the show that keeps you up to date with what’s happening in the world of the creator economy and so much more.

[00:01:06] Jeff Sieh: you ever wish you could gather a few smart creators around a table, talk about what’s actually going on in your business and get honest feedback from people who get it. You know, the people understand algorithms, thumbnails, email lists, launches, and why you spend two hours adjusting a caption font. That nobody else will ever notice.

[00:01:25] Jeff Sieh: If that sounds familiar. Well, today’s episode is going to be a little bit different.

[00:01:30] Paul Gowder: Yeah, that’s right Jeff. So normally on your show we bring on a guest, pick their brain, get to know their business. But today we’re gonna do something a little different. We’re gonna pull back the curtain on our weekly mastermind and give you a little taste behind the scenes of how we do this.

[00:01:42] Jeff Sieh: So we’re gonna run this live mastermind session right here on the show, And how are we gonna do it? Paul?

[00:01:46] Paul Gowder: alright, we’ll start with what we start with every week and that is the wins of the week. And then we’ll put somebody on the hot seat or maybe do some open discussions. But let’s start with the wins of the week, because as our friend Lou says, celebrating those small wins is so important.

[00:01:59] Paul Gowder: once again, you [00:02:00] know, we wanna get you guys involved too in the comment. So if you’ve got ideas, suggestion, or just wanna play along with our mastermind at home, you can jump right in the chat and be a part of this mastermind. so if you ever wondered why so many creators swear by mastermind groups, you’ll see that, today exactly how they work. So sit back, clear schedule, clear mind, and get ready for this week’s episode of Creator News Live.

[00:02:22] Speaker: If you are building all alone and could he use a smarter zone? Jim Kiara, Amy Rich, and Paul Nest. Reminds help when problems call Jim’s got live video dialed in, right, helping your streams look sharp and bright. Kira keeps your socials on track so your [00:03:00] audience. Coming down, Amy helps museum share their story, turning great ideas into pr.

[00:03:11] Speaker: Glory. Paul makes email marketing saying, turning your listening to a powerful thing. Rich brings dirt race. To the show, helping fans who wanna know, put those minds around one call. That’s the magic on the mastermind.

[00:03:44] Jeff Sieh: Well, there you go folks. Our amazing mastermind. that was a quick introduction, but before we kind of get into our wins of the week, I do wanna go around and let people kind of introduce themselves, since this is kind of a different kind of format, kind of introduce themselves, tell us a little bit about your business.

[00:03:59] Jeff Sieh: And we’re [00:04:00] gonna start Ladies first with Amy. Amy, talk about who you are, and what you do.

[00:04:04] Amy Kehs: I am Amy Keys. I have owned Keys communications for. 25 years now. It started as just a PR firm for whoever would hire me. but now I’ve niched down and I do public relations, brand strategy, communication, strategy for museums.

[00:04:23] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Awesome. Kira, how about you,

[00:04:26] Kira Pogge Brewka: Hi, I am Kira Pogge Brewka I’m a content and social media strategist, and similar to Amy, when I started my business, it was just kind of. Blanket for everyone, small businesses. But I’ve really made a shift thanks to this mastermind and I’m focusing on my heart space, which is theater. So theaters and arts

[00:04:42] Kira Pogge Brewka: organizations, helping them with their strategies to build audience and community.

[00:04:47] Jeff Sieh: Jim? What about you my friend?

[00:04:49] Jim Fuhs: Yeah, I’m the, uh, President of Fusion Marketing, and I’ve been. Really focusing on, aside from Substack is helping businesses educate and grow using video.

[00:04:59] Jeff Sieh: [00:05:00] Awesome. Rich Watts.

[00:05:01] Rich Watts: Hey, good morning Jeff and everybody. I’m Rich Watts. I own addicted to dirt, PR and media management. We handle, dirt motor sports, PR marketing, for our teams, helping them improve their visibility and promoting their partners. we’re just kicking off our seventh season, in business and, uh, you know, primarily based in the Northeast, but we’ve got clients, spread across the country, so different regions.

[00:05:23] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. My friend Paul Gowder.

[00:05:25] Paul Gowder: Good morning Everybody,. I’m Paul Gowder. I founded powwows.com, the leading place for you to come explore, experience, and connect with native culture. I also help creators, level up their game using email marketing and building community.

[00:05:38] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. So that’s everybody in the Mastermind. We have a great, a great group and it’s kind of an eclectic group a lot of us met at Momentum. We, you know, we talk about Lou Mongello a lot on here. and Jim and I have known each other for a long time from back in the Social Media Marketing World Days.

[00:05:52] Jeff Sieh: So this group came together and it’s just been a, a wonderful part of my week and helping all of us grow kind of together. So [00:06:00] what we usually do in a format on Monday nights is we meet together, we come in, we just kind of chew the fat for a little bit, but then we start with the wins of the week. Then we go into what we call a hot seat, where somebody from the group, either we go around kind of, once a week to somebody or somebody asks specifically like, Hey, can I be in the hot seat?

[00:06:16] Jeff Sieh: ’cause I, I have this thing I wanna work on. And then we kind of deep dive into that person’s problem or project and we all kind of help them, uh, make breakthroughs, give them, some things to think about, maybe some things to change or things they haven’t thought of before. And we discuss that as a group.

[00:06:31] Jeff Sieh: And it really does make a difference because one, you have, you have to get ready for your hot seat. And two. You’re accountable ’cause people are like, Hey, you haven’t done anything for like the last time you were here. What’s going on? So the accountability helps too. But, we’re gonna start just like we do and we’re gonna do wins of the week.

[00:06:47] Jeff Sieh: And I’m gonna start with once again, ladies first. Amy, what is your win o the week?

[00:06:53] Amy Kehs: Well, I am in the hot seat today, which means I had to get ready for the hot seat. [00:07:00] So that is when I win of the week. I, have been working and you’ll hear. A little bit, more in a minute, but I’ve been working on my brand messaging this quarter. I’ve had a couple of hot seats, around it, so I’m kind of coming to the hot seat today with homework and yes, I, that’s what I’ve been working on this week.

[00:07:19] Amy Kehs: So it was a nice kick in the pants to get that done.

[00:07:22] Jeff Sieh: Nothing like a kick in the pants. so Kira, what about you? What is your win of the week?

[00:07:26] Kira Pogge Brewka: So I launched my Substack newsletter officially last week and have been growing subscribers over the weekend, but got my first paid subscriber, which I know I shared with some of you before. so I’m so excited about having that newsletter actually going. And then I relaunched my podcast later this afternoon, actually.

[00:07:44] Kira Pogge Brewka: So I’m excited to be working on that again and getting it out into the world.

[00:07:48] Jeff Sieh: So where can people find this, podcast and what’s the title of it?

[00:07:52] Kira Pogge Brewka: Oh, thank you Jeff. I, I appreciate you asking. the Authentic Communicator, it’s on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and yeah, [00:08:00] it’s actually a lot of these wonderful individuals have been on the podcast and more to come, um, talking about marketing and more theater and, and arts professionals will be on moving forward.

[00:08:10] Jeff Sieh: very, very cool. Yeah, that’s, and so it can be found at any podcast player everywhere. Awesome. Very, very cool. Alright, Jim, fuse your win o the week.

[00:08:19] Jim Fuhs: I’m gonna say my, wins of the week is Substack has been doing a lot with, video. They just launched a recording studio. they also, launched some new features inside of the desktop where you can actually screen share. And so I created a couple of videos slash post on my publication. I got it out on, YouTube, shared it on Facebook, LinkedIn, and I’ve gotten some really positive feedback, from it.

[00:08:44] Jim Fuhs: So, and then I. Was playing around this morning. you can actually use the recording studio on your phone, so that’s something I’ll be talking about later.

[00:08:53] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So, if you guys haven’t followed Jim, you need to follow him. ’cause he is like in all in on Substack. He’s got some [00:09:00] great tutorials. When something breaks, he usually. You know, talks about the what’s what a new feature. So he’s kinda my go go-to, go-to guy when I’m trying to figure out what heck the heck is going on over at Substack.

[00:09:10] Jeff Sieh: So, Rich Watts, tell us what about your win of the week?

[00:09:14] Rich Watts: Well, I’m, I’m glad you’re all sitting down

[00:09:16] Jeff Sieh: Okay.

[00:09:17] Rich Watts: I finally made the move over to Kit.

[00:09:18] Jeff Sieh: Oh, there we go

[00:09:19] Paul Gowder: Yeah.

[00:09:21] Rich Watts: I knew that would make Paul

[00:09:22] Paul Gowder: All right. Yes.

[00:09:23] Rich Watts: Um, yeah, I know we, we talked about the sequences and all of that as part of this group months ago. and, uh, yeah, I finally stopped procrastinating, made the move, got it all connected, to our sites.

[00:09:33] Rich Watts: Got the first couple little sequences set up and, uh, tested and we’re up and running. So,

[00:09:39] Jeff Sieh: Very cool. So are you have you migrated your, from like your old platform already over? Is that what kind of happened?

[00:09:45] Rich Watts: yeah. MailChimp was what we were on. you know, that was fine. First starter for the first few years. but, there’s so much more there in Kit and, and just so many more benefits. And so finally. Got that going and it’s, you’re, you know, you’ve been right all along, Paul. It’s so [00:10:00] easy to work with.

[00:10:00] Rich Watts: you know, got, got set over there. I think we’re, today we’re pushing one last newsletter out for one of our clients, out of the old software and then cutting the cord and done. So, yeah.

[00:10:11] Jeff Sieh: That’s really, did they help you migrate or did you do it all yourself?

[00:10:13] Rich Watts: Did it myself. It’s super easy. It’s, it’s really easy to import. it, it, yeah, it’s, it’s so intuitive, the whole process. Not just migrating, but creating stuff. yeah, highly recommend.

[00:10:25] Jeff Sieh: here’s a question, and this is a great question Paul, that you might wanna answer too. Is it better to clean your list before you move or did you clean it after? Are you planning on cleaning it after? Like what, what are you kind of your thoughts on that Rich?

[00:10:35] Rich Watts: I I’m gonna clean it after I, I thought about that. But part of the reason for that, for me is that we just went through kind of a, a winter break. our, you know, we’re a little seasonal. We a lot less content in the dead of winter around the holidays and so forth. And so people are sort of tuned out a little bit and that’s okay.

[00:10:53] Rich Watts: It’s a racing season break. We, we don’t do as regular content in the winter. So I thought for our purposes, I’m gonna wait, get the new [00:11:00] season going here, see who’s really reengaged, then clean, you know, in the next month or so here. Yeah.

[00:11:05] Jeff Sieh: Very, very cool.

[00:11:06] Rich Watts: But that may be different for others.

[00:11:07] Jeff Sieh: what do you think Paul?

[00:11:08] Paul Gowder: So, yeah, I, I think doing it after, ‘ cause the way I I like to clean a list is giving them a few emails to, to kind of, catch up or, or respond. Plus your deliverability is gonna be different on the two platforms. So give everybody a chance to get that last email. And I’m gonna need to clip of, of Rich telling me, I was right all along.

[00:11:26] Paul Gowder: So Jeff, if you can send that to me, that’d be great.

[00:11:27] Jeff Sieh: I’ll get, I’ll get that to you. Yeah,

[00:11:29] Rich Watts: you and my wife both.

[00:11:30] Rich Watts: she, she always wants proof too.

[00:11:32] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. rich Graham, the amazing, rich Graham says, kit versus MailChimp is like night and day. I would agree. I have, I had some clients on that, not fun to work with, but we skipped over. Paul. I wanna make sure Paul has a chance to do his win of the week.

[00:11:44] Jeff Sieh: So Paul Gowder your win of the week.

[00:11:47] Paul Gowder: I got two real quick. Let’s see. First I did launch a new live show that I’ve been trying to do for probably a year, so I got that launched the Say More show. It’s gonna be a weekly show where I just, uh, give you some interesting stories in my takes. And two, [00:12:00] after trying Justin Moore’s system a few times, I’m trying to be very deliberate on it and sending out emails to potential sponsors.

[00:12:08] Paul Gowder: I actually landed one using his system this morning, so that was kind of cool.

[00:12:13] Jeff Sieh: that is really cool. And by the way, folks, Justin Moore has been on the show, so make sure you guys, wherever you’re listening or watching from, go back and watch that. His book Sponsor Magnet is one of the best ones. if you’re trying to find sponsors or ideas from the show, or your podcast or whatever.

[00:12:27] Jeff Sieh: Really, really good. Really good, really good stuff. over there. so for my win of the week, I would say it would be also, we’re speaking about live shows. It would be Yes, that’s right folks. We started the Maker’s table. a show about crafting. So, Katie Fawkes and I, she crochets, I carve, we have conversation. It’s amazing. A lot of fun. We’re doing it at one o’clock, central again, today. So make sure you guys go over there after the show. Sign up. it’s at the Makers’ table, live over on YouTube. You can find that last time I screwed it up. Didn’t go to the channel, it’s all fixed now. We should be good for [00:13:00] today.

[00:13:00] Jeff Sieh: So make sure to check that out. ’cause that was a lot of fun. I had got a lot of great comments when I did it back in the COVID era just to do something and people have been wanting us to, bring it back and then I get Katie on the show. So it’s a win-win. We’d love to see you guys over there. really quick before we go into Amy’s hot seat Michelle says, yay, I’m following Justin too and have a few potentials in the work. So yeah, that’s, it’s such a great book. Yeah, his emails are amazing too, like the way he set up his emails. They’re really good. If you haven’t subscribed.

[00:13:27] Jeff Sieh: Highly recommend that. So, Amy, are you ready?

[00:13:30] Amy Kehs: Sure.

[00:13:31] Jeff Sieh: So, give kind of a overview of your project so people who are watching live can kind of understand it. We’ve, you know, we all know what you’ve been doing, but just kinda a little overview and what you’re wanting the masterminds help with today.

[00:13:42] Amy Kehs: Yes. So as I said in my intro, I started my business doing PR for whoever would pay me. and in the last few years decided really, I love museums and that is who I wanted to focus [00:14:00] on. And so a couple of years ago, I really niched down, and now I really only work with museums. And one thing that I talk about with my clients a lot is the importance of your brand messaging.

[00:14:13] Amy Kehs: You kind of have to practice what you preach. So a few years ago I redid all of my brand messaging. I also know that you have to keep revisiting it. And so I worked with a copywriter actually right after I did this. She was amazing But things have still changed. Like as I’ve been working with museums, as I’ve been doing research, helping more museums, collecting that data, my process has changed and my messaging needs to change.

[00:14:45] Amy Kehs: I’ve also changed how I work. Most of the work that I do is implementation work, so I’m coming into a museum and helping them with an exhibit opening, but now I wanna be able to help more museums. So [00:15:00] I’ve added some consulting offers. And so what I’ve been working on in the hot seat the first quarter of this year is my messaging.

[00:15:10] Amy Kehs: I’ve been using StoryBrand, by Donald Miller, and so I’ve gotten the group’s help on this StoryBrand framework

[00:15:20] Jeff Sieh: yeah. Real quick, really quick. I wanted to let people know when she says museum, like people think, oh. Yeah. Museum. She’s, she can’t say it, but I’m going to, she’s talking about the Smithsonian, so she does a lot of work with the Smithsonian. They’re, they’re, they have how many museums, Amy?

[00:15:35] Amy Kehs: a lot. 20 some. Yes. Yeah.

[00:15:38] Jeff Sieh: So, so just museum. That’s what we’re talking about. Folks, go, sorry, Amy, go ahead.

[00:15:44] Amy Kehs: Thank you. So yes, I work with a lot of really big museums, but museums are my passion. I wanna be able to help smaller museums. and so I’ve been working on like really thinking about like, what are their pain points? [00:16:00] What are the problems that they’re having? And so I’ve been working on my messaging and so I brought to the group all of the homework that I’ve been doing.

[00:16:08] Amy Kehs: So looking at the. Character, you know, using that StoryBrand framework. So the character of my story is museum professionals. They are really seeking people to come through their doors. Museums are always trying to get visitors through the doors and looking at what their problem is. low attendance rates.

[00:16:32] Amy Kehs: They’re frustrated over ineffective marketing strategies. A lot of these museums that I’m helping now, they have really small staffs. They’re having to wear like all of these hats. and lots of times they don’t have the expertise of marketing. So I also want to be able to give them something, a strategy that they’ll be able to use on their own.

[00:16:53] Amy Kehs: So I want to kind of meet them where they are. I wanna give them a plan. So step one of my [00:17:00] plan is to schedule a call to find the right package for your team. I have put together over the last few years a method I call it the Love My Museum method. So it works with museums of all shapes, sizes, small staff, large staff, and really it’s a communication strategy that they can customize to fit what their museum is.

[00:17:24] Amy Kehs: and then you launch your new strategy and you watch, hopefully lots of first time guests come through your museum, have a really great time and love it so much that they want to come back. They bring a friend, they buy the t-shirt, they become a donor, like just creating a lifelong relationship with.

[00:17:47] Amy Kehs: Their visitors. So this is what I have been working on.

[00:17:53] Jeff Sieh: So real quick, Amy, I wanna ask how do they get into this like, funnel? ’cause you kind of talked about, you know, getting them in.

[00:17:59] Jeff Sieh: Is it through your, I [00:18:00] know you have a podcast and you have a website and a newsletter. So how do they, like, what’s the

[00:18:04] Amy Kehs: Oh, they find me. Yeah. my podcast is about to turn two, I’ve been doing the podcast for a couple of years. That is a great way. I feel like that’s a, a good way for people to find me. It also gives them a lot of help, a lot of resources. For free and they can also get to know me. So it’s that know, like, and trust factor.

[00:18:27] Amy Kehs: I also have a few lead magnets. I have a planning calendar. I have a metrics template, and I also have written an ebook. Again, I want them to know, like, and trust me, but also have something valuable that they can take and that’s going to make their marketing and their communications work easier. So that’s sort of like the top of the funnel.

[00:18:51] Jeff Sieh: So on this, this plan, ’cause you kinda have the step one, two, and three, what do mu museums like measure for success? You said that you wanna get ’em the door. are they taking what your plan [00:19:00] is and then putting it up against like, Hey, we got, you know, 50 more people signed up for this opening event, for this exhibit?

[00:19:06] Jeff Sieh: Or like, how do they define success as a museum?

[00:19:08] Amy Kehs: A lot of them aren’t Collecting that data. A lot of them aren’t even doing those metrics, which is why one of the, the first things that I do when I’m working with a client is to set them up so that they are collecting that data so that they can see a difference. It also really helps them, like if, if they’re going after grants, so if they’re applying for a grant or if they’re talking to potential donors.

[00:19:33] Amy Kehs: Having that, those metrics really helps them. And a lot of museums aren’t tracking that.

[00:19:40] Jeff Sieh: Mm. So how do you make them start tracking it? Like, do you, like, do you say like, Hey, get a punch card. Like, you know,

[00:19:46] Jeff Sieh: have like sign ins at the, like how do you, ’cause I mean, that’s data that you need, like

[00:19:51] Amy Kehs: Yes. Yeah. ‘

[00:19:52] Jeff Sieh: cause otherwise, like, people say, oh, you, we want you to do this project. And then like, well, what does success look like?

[00:19:56] Jeff Sieh: I was just telling my daughter this today, you’ll really have to go in [00:20:00] and, when you’re meeting with somebody who wants to get your services, you’re like, well, what’s your definition of success? Like. Because I don’t have any, I don’t have any gold posts or lines to, to cross unless you tell me.

[00:20:09] Amy Kehs: And a lot of times too, either they don’t know or they might have an idea. So in addition to like getting them to start working on their metrics and just start recording it, I tell them This template has everything that they need. And to just start doing that every Monday, and then at the end of the month taking a look at it, it, it’s a little bit of a learning curve, right?

[00:20:32] Amy Kehs: Like get into that habit. But also we put together a communications plan, whether it’s for a new exhibit, and we talk a lot about those goals. and sometimes those are things that nobody’s ever asked them or they haven’t even thought about before. So even just the process of thinking about like, what is our metric for success?

[00:20:52] Amy Kehs: What, what is that? Just talking about that is a huge help.

[00:20:56] Rich Watts: like Amy. I’m, I’m assuming your client base is a lot like mine. [00:21:00] there’s a, a lot of diversity in that, meaning they have different goals. You know, they, they could be two small museums but have two completely different goals or two large museums and have two complete.

[00:21:09] Rich Watts: Different goals. You know, I have clients who really want to promote, the, the YouTube side of their image or, you know, whatever. And so I’m sure you see the same thing,

[00:21:17] Amy Kehs: Yeah, definitely. And also just one thing about our mastermind, just because all of us do different things, Rich and Kira and I all do some sort of public relations or marketing, but for three totally separate audiences, like we often like share ideas and figure out ways to help our audience based on what the other person has done.

[00:21:43] Amy Kehs: That’s one of the things I love the most is the diversity, but also not quite like their, their commonalities that run through it.

[00:21:52] Jeff Sieh: Very cool.

[00:21:53] Paul Gowder: I wanted to go back, Jeff, you were talking about how, how is she getting people in this? I know this is a little bit off topic, but Amy, I [00:22:00] thought about you this week because I’m seeing more posts about people wanting an analog experience and I think it’s time for museums are gonna need to lean into that and be like, stop looking at history on.

[00:22:13] Paul Gowder: TikTok and actually go and see it, feel it, experience it. So I, I think that’s another way we could start getting people in it, whether it’s you going to a museum and just filming yourself, walking through it. But yeah, I’m hoping that museums kind of lean into this analog age we’re going into.

[00:22:29] Amy Kehs: Yeah, me too. Me too.

[00:22:32] Jeff Sieh: and and you know what you, that just brought up something, Paul, when you were talking about that, like, because Paul has the meta glasses and you know, the, the, the ability to create content easily now for even like. People who don’t consider themselves techie, you could give some of those, you know, museum, people who work in the museum, some of those glasses and just say, turn it on and go look and, and talk through some of the exhibits.

[00:22:53] Jeff Sieh: And you would have a ton of like short form content that they could do to put out on the socials or, or whatever. So it’s getting really [00:23:00] easy. They don’t even have to hold up a phone anymore. They can just hit a button on their, on their glasses and start recording what they’re seeing,

[00:23:04] Amy Kehs: Yeah. And I also think for museums it’s a great way to use volunteers or interns. That’s one thing that I talk about a lot. especially for those smaller museums that have these like really small staff, like how, how can you involve the volunteers that you have or, you know, your summer intern that put together a plan last summer for.

[00:23:29] Amy Kehs: She was like, I have a summer intern and I don’t know what to ask them to do. I was like, let them like shoot some B-roll that even after they’ve left in the summer, like you’ll be able to use that all year long. So, that, that’s another thing that we talk about a lot is, is just kind of thinking outta the box and how you can get some of these marketing things done.

[00:23:51] Amy Kehs: One of the things that I wanna talk about, today in my hot seat is a lot of museums feel like, a strategy, a [00:24:00] communication strategy or a marketing strategy is like a, a nice to have. And it’s really not like it’s, it’s essential.

[00:24:08] Jeff Sieh: Right,

[00:24:09] Jeff Sieh: right.

[00:24:09] Amy Kehs: How do I tell them that?

[00:24:12] Jeff Sieh: that’s a great, let’s just, let’s talk about that a little bit, and I won’t, I’ll just throw it out there. Like, how do we, I, I guess it’s pr we have to do this to our clients all the time. Like, how do we. Prove that the ROI for hiring us is worth it. Right? and museums think a lot of times, like every other small business, like after the fact, they wanna market when they’re panicky and like the numbers are down and something’s, funding’s gonna get pulled or something like that.

[00:24:35] Jeff Sieh: So how do we educate our clients to market when things are good, maybe there’s a, a, a new grant or, you know, a foundation gave ’em some money. So they, they’re thinking of all these things that we really need to focus their thoughts on marketing. Like, okay, right now you’ve got some cash in, let’s do some of these video projects and, and, and put together a tracking system.

[00:24:55] Jeff Sieh: What are your guys’ thoughts on this? Like how do you, Jim, educate your clients on like, [00:25:00] okay, live video, you need to do it now and not wait till you know you’re in a panic and you need people in the door.

[00:25:05] Jim Fuhs: Well, I think, I think part of it is you, you have to ask the question like, well, how are you attracting people now? Or, how do I even know what you do? Because if there’s nothing out there, and, and I’m sure you’ve all run into the, we’ll call it the, the older people, even though I’m entering that phase of like, well, I, I get business from referrals.

[00:25:22] Jim Fuhs: It’s like, what? From the Yellow pages?

[00:25:24] Jeff Sieh: Right. What are those?

[00:25:24] Jim Fuhs: I, I mean, I think it’s that whole thing of how are you educating people about what it is you provide? What problem do you solve? Like what, what problem is a museum solving for people? Is it, well, it’s giving me a way to learn, a way to entertain a way to, you know, open somebody’s mind to something they maybe didn’t realize.

[00:25:45] Jim Fuhs: so that’s what you kind of make them think about. You know, it’s not so much about us, it’s about them. And I think it kind of goes back to the whole hero’s journey thing of you’re making them the hero. So there through the Donald Miller and there for you.

[00:25:57] Jeff Sieh: There you go. I wanna go to Kira real quick because there’s a lot [00:26:00] of similarities to me between museums, getting people in the door and theaters getting people in the door because they, they both are, are kind of relying on foot traffic to pay the bills at the end of the day.

[00:26:11] Jeff Sieh: So what do, what do you think, Kira, like educating your theater clients?

[00:26:14] Kira Pogge Brewka: I think one thing that came up when, when you were talking about that is the fact that, you know, if you, if you put a bunch of museums next to each other on Instagram and you covered their logo, would you be able to tell by what they’re posting and how they’re talking about their museum and how they’re engaged with their community, what that museum is, and where they’re located, who they are.

[00:26:35] Kira Pogge Brewka: And I think that’s a really good question to ask them going in is like, how do people know what differentiates you from all of these other places? within your content? How are you engaging in your community? Can you do like little popups at coffee houses and like playoff Paul’s idea, like bringing those analog features.

[00:26:51] Kira Pogge Brewka: I don’t know if you guys have seen the reels where they have like. Gen z Gen Alpha and a millennial hanging up a phone and the millennials always like [00:27:00] smashing it. And the Gen Z’s like doing this, you know, can you go into coffee houses with something really interesting from the museum and like bringing the analog.

[00:27:07] Kira Pogge Brewka: So bring it to the community first and then bring the community in. but I think another good question to ask them is what museums do you admire? Because chances are museums that are doing really well, that are showing up, whether it’s on social media, their website, and their community, if they’re admi, them ’cause they’re doing well, they’re probably doing things that Amy wants them to do.

[00:27:26] Kira Pogge Brewka: So then you can point to those museums and say, well they’re doing really well ’cause they’re investing in marketing, communications, pr, and without that, how do people know to come and see you and spend time with you? And the same is true for, for theaters. Totally.

[00:27:40] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So I wanted, Rich, I know you had something to say, and I think it’s, it’s really interesting because both you and Paul are kind of event based. A lot of your business is event based. And so I, I want to kind of contrast that to what, Jim and Kira said, how do you educate your clients of what success looks like?

[00:27:56] Jeff Sieh: You know, when you’re talking about dirt track racing.

[00:27:58] Rich Watts: so I, I focus on [00:28:00] storytelling to be honest. I want people to connect with that, that. Driver, that person, that team. and so I, I try to tell the story of their personality and their challenges and while it is always easier to ride a wave that’s already building, you know, sometimes you have to create the wave as well, right?

[00:28:17] Rich Watts: And so the, the storytelling is where it’s at. So I have clients who, in the beginning, they don’t understand, and I’m sure Amy can relate to this, like they don’t wanna talk about it. Things that aren’t going well, but that’s what people connect with. When, when things are down, that’s when you need to, you still need to have your name out there.

[00:28:36] Rich Watts: You still need to be talking about it. And the empathy, sometimes fans or sponsors feel for a client who’s struggling and the challenges they’re facing is more attractive than. Success stories, you know, so I, I think bottom line is it boils down to storytelling. And that’s not just the racing side, it’s the human side.

[00:28:56] Rich Watts: I’ve had people connect with a team because they found out the [00:29:00] driver’s a big fan of sushi. Well, I like sushi too. So, you know, like it’s silly things, right? It’s, it’s human, it’s storytelling at its core.

[00:29:07] Jeff Sieh: Very cool. Paul, what about you? I mean, ’cause you’re also events, like you go and, and live stream powwows from across the country. So when you go to a, like say a new powwow that you haven’t, you know, had a contract with before, like, how do you say what success is for that live event?

[00:29:23] Paul Gowder: for me, it’s a little easier ’cause I’m able to show, numbers because we’ve been doing it for so long and I know, Amy, you’re a little handcuffed because you can’t show all of your past work. so I think it is, trying to find some examples of people, you know, using your framework and then showing before and afters.

[00:29:38] Paul Gowder: I go back to, I, I like what Rich said too, when we go to a powwow, so I’m heading to one later today, we’re gonna be focused on, yes, we’re gonna be streaming the whole thing and I’ll be able to show those numbers. Like, here, here’s how many people viewed it. But I’m also trying to create. Story for that powwow.

[00:29:53] Paul Gowder: So that, and going back to what Kira said, you know, can somebody identify that powwow? Just from looking at it, I want to express like, here’s [00:30:00] what this powwow does different. So when somebody thinks about it next year, they know, oh, okay, this is the one where they do this and this and this. So it, it’s, those are the things that, and, and then you can approach the committee and say, th this is why you hire us, because we’re gonna do this for you.

[00:30:14] Paul Gowder: We’re gonna build your, your personality. and I’m guessing a lot of museums really don’t. Yeah, my, my idea, my, what I imagine is these social media people, if they, if that’s even their job, ’cause I know they wear lots of hats, is that they’re probably stressing over a post for days before they make a single one instead of just posting, something real.

[00:30:34] Paul Gowder: So yeah, it’s about trying to get them to tell the story of, of who they are as a museum. And then you can show that before and after.

[00:30:41] Amy Kehs: Yeah. And that, and that telling their, the story of their museum is very different than their mission statement. That’s another really tough thing to kind of get across. And also, like you guys were saying, they shouldn’t be event-based, but lots of times they are like, they think like, oh, here’s a new [00:31:00] exhibit, and then they don’t think about PR until the next exhibit opens.

[00:31:03] Amy Kehs: So convincing them that it has to be sort of a, a consistent thing.

[00:31:08] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So, by the way, if you’re, listening in the comments, when you go to do a pitch to a, a new client for a service. I’d love to know how you guys kind of get to that angle of like, what do they look like for success?

[00:31:17] Jeff Sieh: Do you just ask them like, what do you think success is? Or how do you come about it when you’re talking with your clients, when you’re trying to set up some work? So, Amy, go ahead and let’s, let’s go really quickly. Gosh, this is flying by. We had a little extra stuff. So usually we’re a little bit deeper into this stuff, but why don’t you, kind of really quickly run through your offer, stack what it is and how it kind of works.

[00:31:34] Amy Kehs: yeah, I’ll quickly go through this and then I’ll tell you what my,

[00:31:37] Amy Kehs: my new questions are. so I have created, I’ve been talking about sort of three different offers. One is, is kind of a, a low friction entry offer. It’s a museum digital assessment. I. Kind of go through. I do an audit, like an online audit.

[00:31:57] Amy Kehs: I talk to people a lot about how when [00:32:00] someone is walking through your museum stores, that is not your first interaction with them. They’ve been stalking you online, they’ve looked at your website, they’ve tried to look up your hours. So this offer is a, a one month timeframe where I’m looking at that and then giving them like a checklist.

[00:32:18] Amy Kehs: And then we have a follow up call to say like, how did it go? And they also have Voxer access, to be during that month to kind of keep them on track. The second one is a three month consulting. We do biweekly calls. It really is focusing maybe on one problem. I try to make it customizable, but also have some boundaries for myself, and so that I’m not like recreating an offer or recreating something every time.

[00:32:47] Amy Kehs: So this is, you know, maybe they need to do a communications plan. Maybe they have a big renovation coming up, or maybe they have an exhibit coming up, but it’s really like teaching them. one of my [00:33:00] favorite like testimonials is someone said she’s the Mary Poppins of museums, and

[00:33:07] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:33:07] Amy Kehs: like, she, she leaves things better than they found it.

[00:33:10] Amy Kehs: And actually, one of my questions for you today is that word consultant. It kind of makes museum people a little prickly. And I remember this from working in a museum. Like they think of a consultant as like they’re gonna come in, they don’t really understand how we work, they’re just going to talk at us like we’re stupid.

[00:33:30] Amy Kehs: They’re gonna throw a plan on the table and then they’re going to leave. And that is not how I work at all. Like I stick around, I help them, we create like a new system, a new strategy together, but then I stick around to make sure that it’s usable. What do we need to tweak? So I’ve really been thinking in the last few months, what’s a better way to describe myself than consultant.

[00:33:57] Amy Kehs: And my idea right now it’s a [00:34:00] strategic partnership.

[00:34:01] Jeff Sieh: like that.

[00:34:02] Amy Kehs: I hope that that will kind of land a little bit better. and then so that second offer is really more of a one-on-one. Maybe it’s somebody who’s never had any marketing training, but now they’re wearing that marketing hat. So like teaching them sort of, how to do things, but, but giving them a, a system.

[00:34:22] Jeff Sieh: So you called this, the tier one, thing. A strategic systems residency. Why did you call it residency? That seems very medical field to me.

[00:34:31] Amy Kehs: Oh, I, I was thinking more of like a, museums are very much like colleges and so like, there might be, you might have a residency, It, it sometimes it’s also called like a fellow. You’ll be, there’ll be a museum fellow or a fellowship where they’re coming in, maybe they’re doing certain kind of research or they’re helping on a certain project.

[00:34:52] Amy Kehs: So I wanted to give residency. I wanted to give that idea of like, I’m coming in and I’m part of your [00:35:00] team. Like for the whole team. and that tier one is not just external communications. That’s a six month commitment. it’s also internal communications.

[00:35:10] Amy Kehs: A lot of times museums are working in like these departmental silos where nobody’s talking to each other and it creates so many problems, not just internally, but also for your external communications. So that, that’s how that one is different.

[00:35:26] Jeff Sieh: do, do they, so there’s a thing going around like marketing circles where they call it a fractional, like CMO. would, would museums understand what a fractional partner

[00:35:35] Amy Kehs: That’s, I’ve seen that too. That’s a good question.

[00:35:37] Paul Gowder: Jeff, I was thinking about that same kind of thing as like a part-time, not consultant, but like your part-time PR exec, something to, to make it feel like you are part of the team with, you know, when I worked in government, the word consultant, we, it always threw us back and we did not want a consultant in the building.

[00:35:55] Paul Gowder: yeah,

[00:35:55] Jim Fuhs: what do you think about the word either advisor or strategist you [00:36:00] know, even a, a museum specialist. Because you, ‘ cause I could see, ’cause it, you know, advisor kind of fits into college. You know, we all had our advisors, specialist because you do know so much, but you don’t wanna call yourself an expert.

[00:36:14] Jim Fuhs: But its specialist really has expertise.

[00:36:17] Amy Kehs: I like that. I, I also do like the word strategist because that really is what it is. Like I want to create a strategy that they’re going to be able to use and reuse, like a system. Yeah. I like this.

[00:36:32] Rich Watts: I might put those things together, Amy, meaning strategic partner. because I really, I love the word partnership. I focus on that. in my calls and stuff, like initial contact with people, I really try to get to know them and we exchange ideas. It’s not just how can I help you? It’s, I’m wanting to know.

[00:36:51] Rich Watts: They can help me and, and they don’t necessarily realize that’s what I’m asking, but I wanna work with people who make me better too. And, and I, I find [00:37:00] clients that, I mean, it, it’s not just words to me. I, I really am looking for that. And I have clients who have made me better because they’ve challenged me or they’ve brought ideas to the table.

[00:37:09] Rich Watts: And I think, so that strategic partnership, it’s a two-way street, we’re working together, for me goes a long way.

[00:37:14] Amy Kehs: Thanks guys.

[00:37:15] Jeff Sieh: by the way there, if you can help Amy out, that would be great for us in the comments. We already got some people, popping in, but mostly Disney says, I kinda like Mary Poppins of, of museums. He kinda likes that. and then c Chris says, fractional for a lot of people just translates to a person who works part-time for less money.

[00:37:32] Jeff Sieh: I like strategists better. I wonder if it, tell me if I’m wrong, but I was thinking of strategic curator, because curators are in

[00:37:38] Amy Kehs: I like that. Yeah.

[00:37:39] Jeff Sieh: they put stuff together and they pull different Yeah, like.

[00:37:42] Amy Kehs: Communications curator.

[00:37:44] Jeff Sieh: Or virtual curator or something. I don’t

[00:37:45] Jeff Sieh: know. So I was just off the top of my head.

[00:37:48] Jeff Sieh: By the way, if you guys know anything better than what we’re having, this is why we’re doing it live. Let us know in the comments, what you think. Wait, go ahead.

[00:37:55] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And, and Rich has a great point he has partner seems really overused these days. [00:38:00] So yeah, that’s why I was kind of going with Curator or something.

[00:38:02] Jeff Sieh: Museumy, you

[00:38:03] Jeff Sieh: know, I don’t know your mummy of marketing.

[00:38:07] Jeff Sieh: I don’t, know.

[00:38:08] Kira Pogge Brewka: I just to throw this out there and I don’t know if it’d work ’cause I think it kind of depends on who you’re talking to as well. Like what level of the organization they’re in. But I keep thinking of the word mentor ’cause you, you talk like museum mentor. ’cause you talk to a lot of people who are wearing a lot of hats.

[00:38:22] Kira Pogge Brewka: Maybe they don’t have PR marketing background and they come to you and they’re just like, I need this. I know I need it. I know the value of it, but I don’t even know where to begin. And you’re kind of. You’re teaching them as you’re helping them, right. So that they can take some of it on themselves over time.

[00:38:37] Kira Pogge Brewka: so maybe that there’s something to play with there. But I like partnership too, even if it’s used a lot. ’cause it’s just that you, you are collaborative when you have a client like that and you can’t do it without them. And they can’t do it without you. So.

[00:38:49] Amy Kehs: Yeah, definitely.

[00:38:50] Jeff Sieh: All right, Amy, take us through the, I think you have one more of your stack. and then your questions, ’cause we’re on, we got like 15 minutes left. This is flying by. This is

[00:38:58] Amy Kehs: Well, yeah. And, I would also [00:39:00] love to talk about like, why we like our mastermind

[00:39:02] Jeff Sieh: We’ll have time for that. I just went, I wanted to get to your questions first, so,

[00:39:05] Amy Kehs: yeah.

[00:39:06] Amy Kehs: So really, so there’s the, the. Museum digital assessment, which is just looking at that online presence. Then the advisory is three months focusing, sorry, on one person. And then the residencies six months. And it’s really the whole team, and it’s looking at external communications and internal communications.

[00:39:29] Amy Kehs: and so the next part of my process is we get on it a call and sort of talk about, like, what you need, what are your problems, what’s going on right now? And those always go really well. but then I don’t hear back, like I, I send follow-ups, I send a, a follow-up strategic partnership guide.

[00:39:51] Amy Kehs: I have been doing like a video. and so I’m wondering, and, and one thing that. we’ve talked a little bit about is, [00:40:00] is there information that I’m missing on the discovery call? I also know, and Kira and I have talked about this, that it takes a little while for my potential client to get the funds together or to like build something into their budget so it, it can take like a year before I hear back from people and that is rough.

[00:40:24] Amy Kehs: So, and I know that Rich has used like a pitch stack before and things like that. So, would love some ideas

[00:40:33] Jeff Sieh: so it was funny ’cause I was just, talking about this the other day and Paul jumped into, A lot of people wanna kick the tires, and it depends on your industry. when I was doing like BNI, they’d wanna pick my brain and take me out to lunch and basically give ’em a plan and then they wouldn’t pay me for it.

[00:40:46] Jeff Sieh: So I started charging for an audit. Like if you want me to go look at your books and give you ideas, I mean, I’ll meet with you and have a discovery call for 15 minutes. That’s great. But after that, if I’m doing any sort of research, I need to get paid for it. And you’ve got this year turnaround, is there, I mean, I [00:41:00] know you have some of these offers now that you can kind of plug in there to kind of do that.

[00:41:03] Jeff Sieh: Is there anything else that we’re not thinking about to get them to pay you quicker than that? That’s the the kind of thing, I hate for you to do stuff for free.

[00:41:11] Amy Kehs: yeah. And I do, I do a lot of research to get ready for the discovery calls. I also have a, like a strategy session, like an hour. Call that I don’t promote very much, and maybe I should talk about that more. Paul’s gonna say probably in my email list.

[00:41:28] Paul Gowder: No, I, what I was gonna say in your discovery call, are you I know when we did have consultants coming into my government agency, the ones who were very successful in our discovery call, made a point to, put it on us to define who is the person responsible for this project and commit to a certain amount of time each week.

[00:41:47] Paul Gowder: and they, you know, that, that was the couple that we worked with that were really, really successful with us. They were almost hardcore, like in the discovery call. Kira, you are going to be the point of contact and you’re gonna have to commit two hours a week to this [00:42:00] project. Can you do that? And I don’t know, maybe you need to actually have somebody step up and do that each time so that you don’t go unanswered.

[00:42:07] Paul Gowder: I know that’s probably tough for some of the smaller museums, though.

[00:42:09] Amy Kehs: Yeah.

[00:42:10] Amy Kehs: No, that’s a great idea.

[00:42:11] Kira Pogge Brewka: I wonder too if, if part of that is saying we’ve had this great conversation and, and letting them know that you understand the industry. Like I know you have to go back and get budget approved by a board. Maybe you’re working on a grant, and I totally get that. Can we put something on the calendar three months from now while we’re on the call together so that I can make sure that I’m supporting you in that process?

[00:42:32] Kira Pogge Brewka: And that if they have questions about. Writing a grant. ’cause that’s also something they’re probably juggling or you know, whatever else they’re working on that you could maybe be there for 20 minutes to be like, how’s it going? Do you need help with anything? and then you have something on the calendar.

[00:42:45] Amy Kehs: I love that idea too.

[00:42:47] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, and I wonder if there’s some way that, I don’t know, like you can tease something that’s part of a paid thing. Like here’s, I have, here’s like the first part of like a audit I’ve done for you. That’s a deep dive, but you only get it if [00:43:00] you book me for this or you know what I’m saying? Like there’s a part one and part two and they have to pay for part two.

[00:43:05] Jeff Sieh: I don’t know. I’m just trying to think of ways to. Because I know one of your questions was on the discovery calls to get them so they don’t ghost you. Right? Like, oh, this is great. I can’t wait. We’ve all had those calls like, oh, we are, let me get meet with my team and I’m ready to go. And then crickets for like ever.

[00:43:20] Jeff Sieh: And then they’ll call you like two years later and you’re like, I don’t even know who you are. I can’t remember.

[00:43:24] Amy Kehs: Well, and it, it’s also hard because, like, I don’t want them to work with me if it’s like not the right time, not a good fit. And I even talk about like, this is, these discovery calls. I am not going to be pushy. Like this is just information. So like what information? Is there more information that I could give them?

[00:43:45] Amy Kehs: and now I am interested to see like now that I’ve added, sending a video because I think that that’s the other thing. And and I think Rich and I have talked about it lots of times, the person that you talk to on that call isn’t the decision maker or they need to [00:44:00] share it with other people.

[00:44:01] Amy Kehs: And so it’s a lot for you to expect them to go and do the same thing that you just did. So like, what tools can we give to them so that it makes their job easier doing that? Like if they have to go back to a board or they have to go back to a director, well, they shouldn’t have to. Sell what I’m selling, right?

[00:44:21] Amy Kehs: So how can I make that easier? and so we’ll see. Like if the video helps.

[00:44:26] Jeff Sieh: I wonder if you could take and rec say, Hey, we’re gonna record this conversation. Run it through ChatGPT and then give them like, so Social media examiner, one of the things they do that’s really good on their page for their conference is they say they have a whole thing of like how to tell your boss how to get your boss to send you to social media marketing world.

[00:44:41] Jeff Sieh: Something like that effect. Like, we had this call, here’s the bullet points, but here’s how you like, can sell it to your higher ups. And because of this, this, and this. And the other thing I was thinking while you were talking was like, okay, like do the same kind of thing, tease them, a bullet pointed like, Hey, you have this exhibit coming up.

[00:44:58] Jeff Sieh: I think we could do this, [00:45:00] this and this. Here’s this. If you want to have the full fleshed out plan, it’s X amount of money and we have to do another call or something like that. And you see what you like teasing, like what you can do and then let it go. I’ll let you. So we’re getting close to time. I want everybody to kind of give their thoughts on this.

[00:45:14] Jeff Sieh: I’ll shut up.

[00:45:15] Rich Watts: I was gonna piggyback on what you just said, Jeff, because I was already, I had made a note here to myself. First of all, I love the video part. I think it makes a connection, it makes it personal. You’re not just a voice on the phone. I think that’s great. But what Jeff just suggested essentially, is what I was thinking.

[00:45:30] Rich Watts: You’ve already done this homework before the discovery call. You’ve done a certain amount of work. You have ideas of what they need and who they are, and if you can leverage that, that you’ve already done to Jeff’s point and just make some bullet points and say, here’s what I already have found about you and what I think you need and, how I could possibly help, but we could work together on, they get a feel for what you’re gonna deliver already.

[00:45:54] Rich Watts: Like they get a feel, they understand that you have already invested, that you, you know, make, make [00:46:00] use of that, that work that you’ve already done and, and show them a teaser or an example. Yeah.

[00:46:05] Jim Fuhs: I, I’m gonna take it a step further. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with a book by a gentleman by the name of Stu Heineke. It’s called How to Get a Meeting with Anyone and you’re kind of wasting your time on the wrong people. So instead of going, you’re not even necessarily hitting the gatekeeper, you’re hitting someone that you hope is gonna take your information that you just spent a lot of time investing, hoping it’s gonna get to the right person.

[00:46:30] Jim Fuhs: So I think it’s about getting to that right person, and he’s got all kinds of ways. He’s shown how people have got them meeting with the right person, which are some are really kind of amazing and original. that that’s what I would take a look at as opposed to continuing to do things the way you’ve been doing them.

[00:46:48] Jim Fuhs: But we can talk about that later.

[00:46:51] Jeff Sieh: Thanks Jim. Anyone elso for Amy, advice as we wrap things up? for you guys watching. This is kind of an abbreviated one. We usually have a whole hour. We’re trying to stuff in some new [00:47:00] things and bring in your, your, comments, which we have some great ones by the way. Uh,Kevin says, from a doghouse a dog media says, I like mentor, partner, coach, something that hits on all the feels. And, he also says, an AI recap is a great idea. Ask questions that identify a timeline, cost the next steps. Test the waters to see how serious they are. This is great stuff. That’s why we do it live. So people give us great, great things and I, I think what did, uh, yeah, Chris says, I try to have Jim use Live Video Burgermeister, but he hasn’t done it yet. That’s why we love Chris Stone. Everybody from Cast dot net. let’s just kind of wrap up ’cause we’ve got about five minutes left. I would love for people to go around and, you know, I talk about in my emails a lot, I talk about when I do this show how important masterminds have been to my business.

[00:47:45] Jeff Sieh: And, and now we have this one that I do, I have a couple other ones that I, I meet with throughout the week. But, just, I would love for you to just, you don’t have to. You know, if you don’t like it, tell everybody, but if you do like it, tell a couple reasons why this has helped your business and what you’re looking forward to in the [00:48:00] Mastermind for the future.

[00:48:00] Jeff Sieh: So I’ll start with, Kira.

[00:48:02] Kira Pogge Brewka: I think for me, it’s three things. It’s growth, accountability, and then the friendship really. So growth, with this group, I have moved my business forward. I’m finally in the niche I wanna be in. There’s so many things that I kept, you know, putting on the, the ethereal whiteboard as, oh, maybe someday I’ll do this, that are finally moving forward because I had this amazing group of people to tell me.

[00:48:23] Kira Pogge Brewka: Yes, you should do it. Oh, do you think you should do it that way? Like, you know, there’s, there’s growth, but there’s also challenge in the best way. it’s very constructive, super helpful. There’s accountability. So like you talked about like, we have to get ready for those hot seats. We have to move every week.

[00:48:36] Kira Pogge Brewka: I’m like, what is my, one of the week did I finish something? Like I need to make sure I have something that’s really helpful. Um, and I don’t take it for granted. And then most importantly, the friendships. You know, when I left corporate, I had like this open floor plan marketing team. There were, you know, a bunch of us talking all day long, bouncing ideas off of each other.

[00:48:54] Kira Pogge Brewka: And then I went and worked in like a cone of silence, which was great for focus. But I ended up [00:49:00] talking to myself, my computer in the mirror a lot. so it’s really nice to have. These colleagues and these friends. I mean, I, I, we keep saying colleagues, it really is, like you said in the beginning, like family members, we know about each other’s families.

[00:49:11] Kira Pogge Brewka: We know stuff that’s going on in our lives cause business is personal. Like people say, it’s not personal, it’s business. But like as a solopreneur, entrepreneurs, our whole lives impact what we’re doing. So like, you guys know if there’s challenges going on outside the business or health things or whatever, and there’s support and love and care there, but then there’s also amazing ideas and collaboration and that’s so helpful.

[00:49:34] Kira Pogge Brewka: you know, you can only brainstorm for yourself or by yourself for so long. so to have these conversations is huge. And they, they happen in the mastermind and then they happen in little sidebars outside the mastermind. Like, we continue having those conversations. and like everyone here has been such a gift in my life, so, so grateful.

[00:49:51] Kira Pogge Brewka: Thank you.

[00:49:51] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, it’s hard ChatGPT will just always agree with you, like, yeah, that’s a great idea, Kira. You should do that. You should do that. What about you, Amy? How about this mastermind for you?

[00:49:59] Amy Kehs: Oh, I [00:50:00] think everything that Kira said, I think, you know,

[00:50:03] Amy Kehs: there’s something to be said for. Borrowed courage maybe is the, is the right way to say it. You know, sometimes we’re too close to our own problems and so when you have a, a group of people saying like, you can do this, it just gives you the courage to kind of take a leap over something that you’ve probably been overthinking.

[00:50:26] Amy Kehs: I think to, you know, the first 20 years of my business, I didn’t realize what I was missing. I didn’t realize that I was missing at those like water cooler chats and things from being in an office and. This time together, like every Monday for an hour. I’ve been in this Mastermind for over a year now.

[00:50:49] Amy Kehs: Like that time with each other really adds up. And having a, a group of people that you can, look to and, and that know you so [00:51:00] well, really makes a huge difference.

[00:51:02] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Thank you. I’m tearing up. This is so good. Um,uh, Jim, what about you? You’ve been one of the, like, you and Rich I think are the longest, members in

[00:51:09] Jim Fuhs: Yeah, I think, I think there’s a couple things that, I mean, first of all, for those that don’t realize that every one of the people in this mastermind is in a different physical location.

[00:51:19] Jim Fuhs: So we’re literally, you know, coming from, well, I’ll just say all over the country to get together. And because it’s, it’s a small group and it’s focused.

[00:51:29] Jim Fuhs: I mean, you go to a, a, I’ll call it a business networking meeting, which I don’t usually do much of that anymore. And are you really gonna get to talk to anybody, even if you go every week where like they said, you know, and I know I’ve got my hot seat on Monday, you’re, you’re gonna be grilled potentially.

[00:51:45] Jim Fuhs: But it’s also an outsider’s perspective on what you’re doing. And even when I was in the military. We would have these boards that we had, you know, like in my case, logistics guys or people that weren’t necessarily someone pulling a trigger to [00:52:00] give that different perspective that when you’re too close to it, you sometimes forget.

[00:52:04] Jim Fuhs: And I think that that’s extremely valuable. And, and it’s, it’s similar to business coaching in a sense, but it helps you keep moving forward and, and I think the accountability is, is really good as well.

[00:52:17] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. It’s like your own C-suite that you can ask questions of that are people who are better at certain things than you. All right. Rich, what about you?

[00:52:23] Rich Watts: yeah, so basically my business, as I said earlier, is heading into its seventh year, but I feel like in a maturity way, it’s twice that old because. This group has helped me, just save an immense amount of trial and error time, right? I bring challenges forward. We talk about possible solutions. I move forward with one, sometimes a few months later, kit.

[00:52:45] Rich Watts: but, but the reality is that amount of time saved is amazing. The accountability factor, a hundred percent, a thousand percent. I mean, everybody said that it’s true. And the other thing I wanna share for anybody who’s thinking about getting in a mastermind or [00:53:00] do I need one and would it help and do I belong and all of that, I was really afraid I would only be kind of receiving help and not giving it in the beginning.

[00:53:08] Rich Watts: Because you know, when, when we first started, I mean, Jeff, Paul, we knew each other for a while, but you guys are already further along in your journeys and so forth, and I was. Well, only a couple years in at that time, I think. And that turned out to be absolutely not true. Even though my discipline of dirt motorsports is so far detached from what you guys do.

[00:53:27] Rich Watts: The overlap, the, the continuity, the dovetail, whatever you wanna call it was so much greater. And I, you know, it felt pretty good the first time or two. I’m on a call and I’m like, I put something out that you guys were like, oh yeah. You know, it, you can help each other. It doesn’t matter where you’re, where you’re at in your journey, you can help each other.

[00:53:45] Rich Watts: So don’t be afraid to jump into a mastermind.

[00:53:47] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And Rich, you have done a ton for this and that’s what’s so cool. Everybody, even though if they don’t think so, they contribute. Everybody has skills and talents and things that they contribute to the group. And that’s why we always, you know, we went, always said it was, it’s a six month commitment because [00:54:00] it takes that long really to kind to gel with each other and find out things like, oh, Rich is really good at this and Kira is really good at writing this kind of stuff.

[00:54:07] Jeff Sieh: And like, oh. And so finding that stuff out is, is fun. It’s almost like, you know, you, you see these people develop and they can help you develop your own stuff that you’re, you kind of have trouble with. Paul. What about you? Now Paul is being very quiet today. He’s not usually this quiet. He runs this, he’s being nice ’cause it’s my show, but, he and I run this mastermind together.

[00:54:25] Jeff Sieh: So Paul, what is this mastermind meant to you?

[00:54:27] Paul Gowder: Masterminds in general have been huge for my business. I’ve been, I, I was in one for years and,

[00:54:33] Jeff Sieh: then running this one for me back when I was not full-time doing this, it made me treat. My side hustle as a business and not just this thing I did on the side, made me be really intentional about it.

[00:54:44] Paul Gowder: and I was talking to my wife about doing this today and what she reminded me is that even though I can go to her and she’s very supportive and I can ask questions, you know, she pointed out that the number of times that I can go to a group like this, whether it’s celebrating a win or ask a question and you guys [00:55:00] all get where, what we are, because we’re, you know, all kind of in the same realm, even though different, disciplines of it, that makes a huge difference because this is like Amy and Kira mentioned, you know, this can be lonely being an an entrepreneur solopreneur.

[00:55:14] Paul Gowder: And so having a group of people that get you and you can have conversations with is, is major.

[00:55:19] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And by the way, this isn’t a commercial, but it kind of is. if you guys want to, and, and I hope you hear that, get in a mastermind. If that’s not one that Paul and I run, Paul and I are actually are starting another, mastermind, with another group of people. If you wanna be a part of that, make sure just hit us, send us a message, in any of our socials or in our newsletters or emails.

[00:55:39] Jeff Sieh: we’d more than happy to talk to you about that, but get in a mastermind, even if it’s not Paul and mine, get in one. ’cause it makes a huge difference. It’s what I, give a lot of the success to my business. I’ve been doing this for over 25 years. I think the masterminds and being with people who support you is what’s made a huge difference for me.

[00:55:58] Jeff Sieh: And by the way, I was so excited about all my friends [00:56:00] joining. I forgot to. Uh, I mentioned the sponsor of the show who allow us to do all these people inside of, Ecamm at once. I’ve got like six people on the, on the screen. I’m using Ecamm. It was really, actually, I was, I waited too long to set this up, but it was actually really, really easy.

[00:56:15] Jeff Sieh: If you wanna find out more about Ecamm, go to Ecamm dot com slash jeff to say 15% on your first purchase. Thank you guys. Everybody go follow all these folks because they’re amazing and each one of their disciplines, uh, I appreciate every single one of them. And with that, thank you guys so much for watching.

[00:56:30] Jeff Sieh: This has been amazing. Appreciate you. Thank you Paul, Amy, Jim, Kira, rich, everybody who watched today. Thank you so much and we’ll see you guys next time. Bye everybody.