Marketing Should Be Fun

If you're a long-time listener, you know a little less than a year ago Kelsie set out to launch her own agency focused on social media and email marketing. Today, Austin is interviewing Kelsie to explore what launching Curate Social has been like, what the biggest successes and challenges have been, and how she regained her confidence as an entrepreneur.This was such an encouraging conversation—if you're launching something new, are growing a business, or are considering stepping out as an entrepreneur, this episode is for you!//

You can't just harvest all the time; you need to plant seeds too. In this episode, I welcome Mitch Nelson back to the show to dive into the balance between brand marketing and performance marketing, and why focusing only on short-term results can limit long-term growth. We talk about how brand builds future demand, creates deeper trust, and opens doors for opportunity down the road.If you've ever wondered how to balance creating marketing that works now and builds momentum for the future, this one's for you.//

We're back with Part 3 of our spring cleaning series! After taking a look at our mindset in Episode 59 and our platforms in Episode 60, we're zooming out to talk about the driver behind everything we do: Our goals.What are you tracking?Why are you tracking it?What do you need to adjust as you look ahead to the rest of the year?//

Every leader of a business or organization wants to see more people taking action alongside their brand. So how do we both capture existing demand and create new demand for your product or service? When we're looking to balance short-term and long-term wins, intentional marketing and sales funnels are one of the best ways to do this.In today's episode, I (Austin) am welcoming Kristi Zobrist, Chief Strategy Officer at Savage Content Collective, to the show! She's an incredible marketer with a ton of experience, and we're breaking down the basics of how to start thinking about creating effective lead magnets and funnels in your business.In fact, here at Savage Content Collective, we just launched a full-service offer for funnel development, including lead magnet & landing page creation, email funnel development, and ongoing performance monitoring. We'd love to work with you!//

We're back with Part 2 of our spring cleaning series! After taking a look at our mindset last week, we're going super-practical this week with 14 quick actions you can take across your social media, email marketing, blog creation, and podcast that can help you see some extra momentum.(Oh, and we get a little deep on our "this or that" for the week!

It's not just your closet that could use some freshening up this Spring... your mindset might need a little spring cleaning, too. In this episode, we're dusting off the limiting beliefs that keep us stuck and replacing them with powerful truths that help us move forward.After a "this or that" about the best airplane seats, we're walking through 8 mindset shifts we all should make as we look ahead to the rest of the year.Think of this one as a deep clean for your confidence—because who you are is already enough.

Ever feel like you're bothering people with your emails, posts, and marketing efforts? You're not alone! In this episode, Kelsie and Austin tackle one of the biggest fears leaders have when it comes to showing up consistently: What if people start to get annoyed with seeing our content regularly?We're breaking down the misconceptions behind this fear, the mindset shifts you need to make, and why your core audience wants to hear from you (yes, really!). If you've ever second-guessed hitting “publish,” this one's for you. Let's stop undermining our expertise and start owning our value.

What if your customer support wasn't just about fixing problems—but actually informed your approach to content strategy?In this episode, Austin geeks out over Baldur's Gate 3 (because what other video game has 7,000 different possible endings?

Onyx Storm is the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years.

What's the biggest "hack" to building a brand through content marketing?Not stopping.It's true! During our recents ABCs of Content Marketing, consistency came up again and again. Consistency is a huge part of how we add value, how we build trust, and how we create community.But sometimes it's easier said than done. In today's episode, we're covering the 4 most common barriers people have to creating content consistently, and some shifts to consider for each challenge.//

We're keeping it casual for this one, and after a New Years Eve themed "this or that," we chat about the past year and what we saw change and continue with content marketing. It's so fun to look back on the year and evaluate the changes we saw on social (Instagram specifically), podcast performance, blog strategy, and email marketing.Come look back on the past year with us—we hope you enjoy this conversation!//

Every effective content marketing strategy is built on three basic principles: Adding Value, Building Trust, and Creating Community. In this mini-series, we're walking through each of these essentials!In today's conversation, after a "this or that" about the best way to drink hot chocolate, we're diving into the details of how to use content marketing to build connection and community with your audience. Connection makes all the difference, and we hope this conversation helps you think through how you can move from talking AT your audience to talking WITH your audience.We hope you enjoy this episode!//

Every effective content marketing strategy is built on three basic principles: Adding Value, Building Trust, and Creating Community. In this mini-series, we're walking through each of these essentials!In today's conversation, after a deep-dive into our Halloween traditions and perspectives on Almond Joy, we're diving into the details of how to build trust with your audience through content marketing. Growth happens through connection and relationships, and content marketing is an effective way to build relationships at-scale.(Want to jump straight to the marketing advice? Just skip ahead to 7:50!)//

Every effective content marketing strategy is built on three basic principles: Adding Value, Building Trust, and Creating Community. In this mini-series, we're walking through each of these essentials!In today's conversation, after our first-ever "this or that OR that," we're diving into the details of what it means to add value, 5 practical ways to incorporate value into your content, and why adding value paves the way for both trust and community.//

We're back with a brand new conversation! In today's episode, after a football-themed "This or That," we're diving into some exciting updates coming up in Kelsie's life, the emotions that come along with team transitions, and 3 aspects of content marketing that we're doubling-down on this Fall and beyond.//

For Episode 49, I had the opportunity to chat with a friend from college with a different but parallel journey to my own. I loved connecting with him for this conversation!Luke Waite is the founder and principal consultant of two companies: Pomelo Coffee Consulting and The Lev Co. His background is marked by turning inefficient cafes, cold brew companies, and coffee roasters that are in the red into highly efficient companies that are solidly in the black.In this conversation, we talk about his journey of discovering a "niche" in coffee, how he has learned to address the reality of loneliness in entrepreneurship, common mistakes he is helping coffee roasters identify in their operations, and the importance of remembering what we need as humans.Enjoy this episode—it's a good one!Pomelo Coffee ConsultingThe Lev CoFollow Luke on LinkedIn//

It's incredible to see long-term clients gain momentum through hard work and consistency, and that's exactly what has happened for Tara Bohm. Tara helps women with curly hair understand how to embrace and care for their curls, and has grown by over 80,000 followers on Instagram in the past two years.In this conversation, she and Kelsie discuss the challenging part of rapid growth, how she has determined the right time to add new things to her business, the power of consistency that she's seen firsthand, how she deals with negative comments, and a TON more.So much great insight in this episode!Follow Tara on InstagramTara's Website//

Check out Austin's LinkedIn post featuring the MrBeast tweet being discussed.Can you imagine going from 15,000 views a year to 13 billion views a year on your content? That's what happened for MrBeast, the 2nd largest creator on YouTube. And guess what? It only took 12 years!In this episode, Austin and Kelsie are diving into an insightful tweet MrBeast shared a couple years ago, how to respond to years when you see a dip in engagement, why consistency creates momentum for new and old content, and so much more.We hope you find value in this episode!//

Lisa DeWeert is a long-time friend of Austin's and the Co-Founder of an incredible organization called Moxie Adaptive, an organization committed to creating a space to connect and empower individuals with limb differences. Lisa was born with smaller muscles in her arms and hands, and as a result of a significant research project, met hundreds of people who didn't have a space to talk about the intricacies of life with a limb difference, which ultimately led to the launch of Moxie Adaptive.In this episode, Lisa shares about the role affirmations have played in her life personally, a crazy connection that led to her meeting a contestant from Bachelor in Paradise, how Moxie Adaptive has shifted their content strategy to better support the creation of in-person community that they're looking for, one of the biggest barriers they have experienced in community development, why understanding her Enneagram has been a game-changer, and so much more.Moxie's Website: https://moxieadaptive.org/Follow Moxie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moxieadaptive/ //

Have you heard the principle of content having a "shelf life?" Perhaps you've heard the statistics about how posts on certain social media platforms only have a "shelf life" of just a few hours. While this is certainly true in relation to algorithms, we believe this is an overly-simplistic way to look at content marketing and today we're sharing why.After a "this or that" about March Madness (Austin's favorite sports event of the year!), we're sharing 2 stories of old content helping us close sales, the role old content plays in the perception of your brand even if it's not being consumed as often, and how consistency connects to a topic like this.//

In today's episode, after a "this or that" about calling/texting (apparently Austin is the only person who calls Kelsie other than her mom and grandma

You've heard us say it before: Content performs on a human level. This is one of the most important foundations of an effective content marketing strategy. But what does that look like in practice? How do contextualize content that is personal alongside the value we want to provide to our audience?Ep. 15: Why Human Connection & Relationships Are Key to Brand GrowthEp. 38: Consistently Relatable: Building a Community That Would Follow You Anywhere//

Have you seen the trend across social where brands invite you to comment a specific word leading to an automatic DM popping up in your inbox? The primary tool that makes this possible is called ManyChat, and this has been a major opportunity for many brands recently, especially on Instagram. At the start of this year, we started offering ManyChat management to our clients and have really seen it be a game-changer for engagement. Like a 1000% increase kind of game-changer...Today we're talking about our favorite Taylor Swift albums before we dive in to how ManyChat works, why it's helpful, and what we're seeing across client accounts! //

We've got a fun one today: Kelsie's brother Kendall, Advisor & Partner at 210 Financial (and one of our clients!), is joining us to talk about their journey to growing their firm by 10x in the last 6-8 years. In this episode, Kendall walks through how they've restructured their team, how they are marketing to an audience that is primarily over 50, what it's been like to launch and host a podcast, how he has personally grown over the years, and so much more.Learn more about 210 Financial: https://210financial.com///

Austin recently released the 101 Affirmations coffee table book series!

This week on the podcast, Austin is interviewing someone he PAYS to play Dungeons & Dragons with. That's right: Jesse William is a paid game master, someone who tells collaborative stories for a living. In this episode, you'll hear what a paid game master is, an in-depth review of why Lord of the Rings is better than Game of Thrones, how to add elements of mystery into the content you create, the journey of building a community organically, why creating content that actually excites you makes a difference, and so much more. Listen in!Find all of Jesse's links here: https://linktr.ee/jessetwilliam//

What do Taylor Swift, Nate Bargatze, and Noah Kahan have in common? They've built communities that are excited to follow them wherever they go.In today's episode, we're exploring the connection between relatability and community, how you can take a step towards incorporating more genuine personality into your content, why the value we have to offer goes beyond the education we can offer, and much more. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Kelsie is here this week with a 6-minute solo episode with some GREAT encouragement for you about making sure what you do is clear to your audience. Approaching the end of the year, how can we make the best next steps simple for people? How can we balance value-centered content with clear offers?We hope you enjoy this episode!

While Austin is in the middle of moving this week, we wanted to compile some of the monthly videos we send to clients of Savage Content Collective and share them with YOU here on the podcast!

Having a rhythm and plan is so important. Occasionally, though, it's also valuable to challenge yourself and switch it up in the content you're creating! This can create some fresh excitement for yourself in your content marketing and can give your content a little burst of life in how your audience interacts with it. Today, we're sharing six ideas that you may want to give a try!//

Threads, which is Meta's new text-based app, has had a few weeks of life now! If you've joined or are considering creating an account, in today's episode we are sharing a few things to keep in mind as you're sharing content on this new platform. We hope this is helpful!//

Entrepreneurship and leadership can be discouraging sometimes. Today's episode is just a 2-minute pep talk from Austin. No fluff, no extras, just a pep talk. Save this episode for whenever you need it, and be sure to share it with a friend who could use some encouragement as well!//

Remote work has certainly become much more normal in the past few years, but the transition hasn't been easy for every organization. As someone who has only held jobs that are remote, for Austin, launching Savage Connect Collective as a remote agency was a no-brainer, and today we work with people and clients from all over the country.In this episode, we're sharing a few simple tips for leading a remote team effectively! This, of course, could be a long and detailed topic, but we hope these tips are helpful for you as you consider the structure of your team.//

Do I have to show my face?I just don't have the personality for people to care about what I'm saying.I don't want it to be all about me.I'm not an expert.There are some common hesitations we hear as people are considering their content creation strategy, what type of content they should be creating, and how personal they need to be. Today, Austin and Mitch are responding to some of the most common hesitations we hear!//

Let's be honest, we're all in summer mode already, so we've got a simple episode for you today. ☀️ We both put together a list of what we don't do content marketing without, and are walking through what made our Top 5! We hope you enjoy and find some fresh inspiration.//

Today, Austin is solo sharing a brief story about a conversation we had with a client about their podcast analytics. Sometimes we can get a little caught up in the details of each individual piece of content and forget to look at the performance of our content overall. Today we're exploring why that matters!//⛳️ Find the fun golf channels I've been enjoying here, here, and here.

At the beginning of every year, Hubspot comes out with their new marketing trend predictions. Now that we're almost to the fifth month of 2023, let's look back and see how those predictions have stood up! In this episode, after a "this or that" about time travel, Austin and Kelsie are walking through some of Hubspot's 2023 predictions for content marketing and social media.//

Do you feel like your ideas are running thin for new content? Feeling a little stuck or uninspired? In today's episode, after a "This or That" about Easter candy traditions, Austin and Kelsie are walking through 10 simple ideas to add to your content plan. We hope this is helpful!//

We've got a fun one for you this week! In this episode, we (Austin, Mitch, and Kelsie) are going through some of our favorite resources for business & marketing, education, fun, and some inspiration. We enjoyed recording this one, and we hope you get some new books, shows, or podcasts to check out after listening!//

If you're going to ask for trust from your audience, it's important to extend that trust back to them. Today, Kelsie is back on the podcast and we're covering how to avoid a scarcity mindset in your marketing, why the unknown metrics of content can be challenging for creators, and how to balance calls-to-action with overall value. We hope this is helpful!//

Today's episode is a special one. I (Austin) am interviewing my mom, Jill Savage, about her experience building brands through content for nearly 30 YEARS (!!). We talk about the challenge of adopting new content engines, the personal connection available in our world today, how she tracks metrics and goals related to content marketing, and what happens when trust is deepened with an audience. I hope you enjoy!//➡️ Learn more about Jill's ministry: https://www.jillsavage.org/

What equipment do you need to start a podcast? What podcast host do we recommend? How do you grow your show? Today, Mitch Nelson, Partner + Podcast Director at Savage Content Collective, is joining Austin to chat about launching and growing a podcast. We hope this episode is helpful!//

There are times when it can almost feel like it's "cheating" to repurpose content you have created in the past. However, sharing a similar message in a variety of ways is actually a great way to add value to your audience. Today, Austin and Kelsie are walking through why repurposing content is a good idea, and some practical examples of what it can look like in action.

As we're all kicking off 2023, many of us are setting our intentions for our lives and businesses. So what intentions and commitments should we be making in regards to our content marketing efforts? In today's episode, Austin and Kelsie are diving into 6 commitments you should make for effective content marketing in 2023!

We talk about perfection quite a bit when it comes to content, and today we want to revisit that topic. Joining us for the conversation is Mitch Nelson, our new Partner + Podcast Director here at Savage Content Collective. In this episode, we're talking about how each of us relate to the idea of perfectionism, how Mitch is learning to let go of perfection as an Enneagram 1, and the good things about trying to pursue "perfection."

Kelsie recently had the opportunity to speak to a Communications / Social Media class at East Texas Baptist University. The students had some great questions, and a few of them would apply to you as well! On her drive back home, Kelsie recorded a solo episode, sharing some wisdom for content marketing about planning, consistency, quality, and more. This is a short episode filled with a lot of great info!

We've often been asked what tools we use in our business for project management, bookkeeping, communication, etc. Today, after some talk about breakfast sandwiches and spending money, we're jumping into all of the software we use to make our work at Savage Content Collective possible. We hope this is helpful!

Not too long ago, Instagram announced they would be pushing video content more than they have been. So how should we respond to changes to algorithms or changes to content marketing platforms overall? In this episode, after a debate about ketchup and ranch dressing, we're walking through why it can be easy to over-compensate when you hear about changes like these, and sharing some reminders to hold on to in your brand-building journey.

One of our clients, a nonprofit organization down in Texas, recently doubled their followers over a couple days. How'd they do it? By staying consistent for seven months. In this solo episode of the podcast, Austin is sharing that story with you, and four principles that come to mind from it. Thanks for listening!

When building a brand, it's easy to get distracted from the main thing. What's that main thing? Relationship-building. In today's episode, after a "this or that" about lunch and dessert, we're diving into why human connection is a core part of business growth. We hope this is a support to you!

Perfectionism is such an easy trap to fall into when it comes to content marketing, but it's not very helpful in building a brand or a community. Today, we're sharing 4 ways perfectionism limits the effectiveness of your digital content!