Laura Pence Atencio is the Founder of Social Savvy Geek, LLC., and the Host of the Social Savvy Geek radio show and podcast.

Laura helps entrepreneurs share their voice in the most powerful ways by providing marketing strategies that include being active both online and off.

In this episode, Laura and I talk about how she went from being a financial adviser to working with speakers, authors, and coaches who want to be influencers and make massive changes in the world, why you must have a clear understand of your voice and what it is that you do before you even start thinking about marketing yourself or your business, how to effectively network offline, the pillars of Facebook and how to use them properly, and more!

Take a listen to the episode below!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Nail Your Elevator Pitch Challenge
• Voice of Influence Academy
• Laura Pence Atencio’s Website
• The Social Savvy Geek Podcast
• Marketing Content Course: Marketing Strategies to Get Seen and Win New Clients

Play here (the red triangle below), on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn Radio (Amazon Alexa) or wherever you listen to podcasts.

 

Hey, hey! It’s Andrea and welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast.

Today, I have with me Laura Pence Atencio from the Social Savvy Geek.

Welcome to the podcast, Laura!

 

Laura Pence Atencio: Thank you for having me.

Andrea: Now that I figured out how to say your last name, I tried how to do that like four or five times to get it right, because it’s like a tongue twister huh! Anyway, it was great.

I’m so glad to have you here. It’s nice to connect again because you had me on your podcast recently. It was fun to be a part of the Social Savvy Geek too.

Laura Pence Atencio: Thank you and I’m very much enjoying the live radio aspect, but the podcast, it’s got like so that’s my favorite.

Andrea: Oh yes. Why don’t you explain that just briefly because I don’t know that the influencers will know what you mean by that? So it’s both radio and a podcast?

Laura Pence Atencio: Right. So yeah, the Social Savvy Geek Show is recorded out live and airs over originally on KDMT 1690 AM in Denver, Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 and then it’s distributed through iTunes and sent through all the regular places as podcast. So it’s a radio show and a podcast.

Andrea: That is so cool. OK, what is Social Savvy Geek?

Laura Pence Atencio: Well, it started out as me, I was the social savvy geek and now it is a company I have been running since 2010. I had natural affinity for online marketing and business networking. I’m using old school business tactics and new online marketing tactics to get leads and close them as a financial adviser. And _____ 2009, I was asked to teach, train, and lead as a social media influencer and that’s where I started my company.

Andrea: Ah OK, so you were doing that four other financial advisers?

Laura Pence Atencio: Mostly for speakers, authors, and coaches through the River City Express chapter of the American Business Women’s Association. I discovered business networking and all these women who are fantastic amazing business owners encouraged me to speak and lead as social media instead of looking for another job.

Andrea: Gotcha! OK that’s really neat that even though you had a job that _____ because the economy _____ that you had this other way of moving forward. So how did you get into this in particular, and why did you go towards authors, speakers, and what not as the person that you’re serving with this company?

Laura Pence Atencio: So I was a financial adviser and people were seeing me market successfully online without violating any _____ rules which is a big deal.   So they’re like “How are you doing that?” And the people who are most interested were the leaders within these women organizations and the leaders were all speakers and authors and either coaches or consultants.

They were enthusiastic, outgoing, positive women and who does not want to work with those people? So these are my first clients. I had clients before I officially named my business but I did it some point stray away from my niche and go wide. That was a mistake.

So, I re-centered myself and said “You know what; these are original people I’ve been working with. They’re my people and that’s who I want to work with and I’m not serving _____ business or ecommerce, it’s speakers, authors, and coaches who want to be influencers and make massive change in the world.

Andrea: OK, so obviously that’s perfect for our audience. So what was it about those people then that drew you to them? Why them?

Laura Pence Atencio: Well, they came to me so that was a big aha. They found me. They sought me out. And when people want you, it’s easy to want to serve them.

Andrea: Hmmm this is true.

Laura Pence Atencio: So I mean, it really was this simple as these are the people that encouraged me but then also as I worked with these people, I realized that I am this people. They are me and I am them. So I’m a part of a multi chapter or multi author book now by different people and I’m working on my first solo book and I have a publisher interested in that.

I developed my own social media platform, of course, through system of steps daily. You know, if you take the action, you get the results. Now, I’m getting bigger and better and more popular speaking engagements than ever before and was offered a radio show. And if you’re prepared and you’ve built your platform then when opportunities come, you’re prepared to accept them, fulfill your obligations and then you just keep moving. It’s actually an amazing thing.

Andrea: I like that because I often talk about this. It’s like laying bricks because social media especially, I mean it’s the same way with in person relationships. It takes time and I know that you’ve said that before in your podcast but it does feel like it’s laying bricks, it takes so long but you’re trying to build a really solid foundation.

So when authors and speakers first come to you and they say “OK, I need to do something with social, now I do, what are the steps that you lead them through?

Laura Pence Atencio: First, we figure out what they’re already doing, what brand is, what their structure of their business is, and what their end goal is. Because a lot of people do say, “I want social media. I know I need to do it,” and they’re really just want to check the box. We’re not checking boxes. We’re not going to do things that are waste of your time, energy, and resources when you have an end goal.

So we need to figure out, who are you serving and where are they then we can go to those places, like if they’re on Instagram, great. If they’re on Snapchat, you could go there but I have not found that to be the case, but people say, “Oh I need to do Snapchat.” “Why, why?”

Andrea: Because _____ said to.

Laura Pence Atencio: There’ll be curses too much from me, so I have a chance to _____.

Andrea: I know but it’s kind of what they end up thinking, “Well, he said, I should do it so….”

Laura Pence Atencio: But, he doesn’t know you.

Andrea: Exactly, exactly.

Laura Pence Atencio: If your audience is millennials and younger then perhaps. But most of the people that I’m working with have an audience that is mature, you know; XX, boomers, and some millennials but even the older millennials are not snapchatting this much.

But you find at where your people are and find out what they are doing there and what their purpose is and then you give them what they need so that you can interact with them.

So right now that would normally from our speakers, authors and consultants would be having our Facebook page that’s forward-facing that the world can see so that you can advertise through it. And then get your most active people into a group where everybody will see what you’re doing, because with the pages, people don’t see what you’re doing but they’re still necessary for your ads strategy.

Andrea: Right. OK, can you take us a little deeper into that because I know it’s getting really confusing for people about what to do with Facebook, period. And I agree with you that Facebook seems to be about advertising on your page and going deeper in your Facebook groups. But what should people be doing on their public Facebook page outside of creating ads? What should they be doing before they even start to think about that or is there anything besides that?

Laura Pence Atencio: No, there is. So basically, you want think of Facebook has three pillars; you have your personal profile, your page, and your groups. So three separate areas and they’re all related and overlapped a little bit but you treat them individually. So on your personal, you want to make connections and friends and you can either use that for business or not, but even when you’re using it as a business networking thing, it still needs to be mostly personal because that’s the purpose of it.

So when people try to get around having a page and use their personal profile for business, it’s highly annoying. It turns people away and it makes you look like an immature. It’s mostly MLM, you were being taught to do that. I love MLM, I have plenty of friends and family who have done it. Multiple streams of income are great, I’m not knocking them alarmed, I’m knocking the behavior of that particular thing that’s popular right now.

 

So then on your page that’s where you want to post events and let people know what you’re doing and have your events that people can register and now can link up to payment sites and you can actually register people and take payments through Facebook, which is relatively new that people haven’t really caught on to that. Then you also want to publish your blog post there. The content I recommend is 70:20:10.

If you are newly established and you’re not yet recognized as the expert in your field then it’s 70% _____ content, 20% branded useful content that you can create from a place of service for your audience and then 10% promotional.

If you’re the influencer and you are recognized as the expert in your industry and you’ve developed a platform in an audience who are rabidly waiting for your content then 70% used for branding content, 20% trusted; referral partners and sponsors and 10% promotional, always 10% promotional.

Andrea: Yeah. So what’s the difference between promotional and the branded content?

Laura Pence Atencio: So the branded content is your podcast or your blog articles or whatever type of content you’re creating videos but it’s useful and it’s valuable and it’s not a sales pitch. It’s you teaching or sharing valuable information and it should have a call to action that absolutely lead to something promotional but the majority of it is not “Hey, look at me, look at me.” It’s about the person you’re serving, not about yourself.

Andrea: Sure!

Laura Pence Atencio: And then the promotional stuff is where you say, “Look at me, here’s what I’m doing. Here’s my promotion. Here’s my new product.” It’s anything where you’re making and ask that is for yourself and you do need to do that.

Andrea: Yeah, right.

Laura Pence Atencio: You have to do that. People forget that part too. They either tend to do all promotion which is bad or no promotion, which is bad. You have to do some that’s thewhole point. But then you take to the groups and inside the groups there are other people who are there to see you and they care about you and that’s usually, mostly your staff and it’s useful and it’s branded but then you’re engaging people and within groups of people actually see all your posts.

Then people say, “So I should have everything on Facebook?” No, no, Facebook is a least building opportunity. It is an advertising tool but it is not…I would never put all my eggs in a basket because they change the rules. I mean, look at Facebook pages, you used to get free traffic and now it’s expensive. They can do whatever they want at anytime. There are people who had hundreds and thousands of fans in a group and they just shut it down because they don’t like something you said or for no reason.

So you always within your group want to use your questions to get more information on people. When they opt-in, you can say, “Have you taken whatever action you’re doing right now?” Have you bought my book? Have signed up for this webinar? Have you done whatever you put the link out there? And it doesn’t matter if they say yes or no; it’s just reminding them that that thing is there for them.

And then you ask questions saying “What can I do in this group to help you the best? What do you need from me?” And then they tell you what they want. That’s awesome. And then on the third thing, you would say, do you want…whatever is your best opt-in right now, put your email address and then you have their email address.

Now, you know who they are, where they are even if they leave Facebook or Facebook shut down tomorrow.

Andrea: Perfect! OK, s you start people out then basically with Facebook and understanding how to use that and figuring out where there are people are and getting on the platform that they’re at where they are. I know that you also really focused in on the offline marketing as well.

Laura Pence Atencio: I do.

Andrea: So explain that because I think for one time I was under the impression that if I just stayed on Facebook, and I hid behind my computer screen, I wouldn’t have to face people that I know and let them know that I think that I’m expert at something. Let’s just be really honest. But eventually, it became clear that that was not working and that I was going to need to get out in front of people as well.

So tell us more about what you encourage authors and speakers and influencers to be able to do offline?

Laura Pence Atencio: Absolutely! I actually teach an entire class on developing your marketing calendar and thinking about your right marketing mix because it is not the same for everybody. I’m an extroverted introvert, so I do like ____ into speaking engagements but I have skilled back on networking and these things change depending on what phase of business you’re in.

So when you’re brand new, you need to get out there and see people and network. After you’re more established, then you can get up in front of 500 people at a time and you don’t need to do as much old school networking because you have 500 people who some percentage of which are now going to ask to do business with you. But that changes over time.

But I do say that it is the best thing you can do to have a mixed of offline and online of people’s behavior doesn’t change. When I moved from Richmond, Virginia to Denver, Colorado, I thought, since my business is online, it would be a smooth transition. No, it wasn’t because some of the people I’ve been working with in Richmond, they want face-to-face, local person. They don’t care that the business was online. They knew I was right around the corner and they get to come in if they wanted to and they didn’t renew. That was shocking to me.

I’m like “I come to Richmond four weeks a year in person,” and they’re like “No, we really want a local business.” And I’m like “That is so weird.” But that is the older generation and they’re “No, I want a physical office where I can visit you.” And then you’ve got people who are actually younger who really don’t care where in the world you are. They just want the best, but you need to take an account of your audience and how do they operate.

Andrea: Totally.

Laura Pence Atencio: It matters, but I think that it’s good to participate in a few local networking events and then also online networking. You can do it from your computer. I have a friend who lives out in Cheyenne and she’s coming in the middle of nowhere. She does more online than offline because in her community, offline is not very effective.

So you need to take an account where you live. Here in Denver, there is tons of in person networking experience that any day of the week I can go out and see people face-to-face if I want to.

Andrea: Yeah. That’s the part that I think can be a little bit confusing of how much of what do you do. I think some people kind of land themselves too in person and others land themselves too behind the computer screen. But I appreciate that call to doing both.

Laura Pence Atencio: There is, but the thing that’s messing usually isn’t getting out or not getting out or being on the computer not being on the computer. It’s the follow-up. You need to know why you’re going to the places you’re going to whether they’re online or off, irrelevant. You need to know, why am I taking my time to do this? Who am I going to meet there? What is my purpose in doing it? And when I do it, how am I gonna follow up with the people I met?” Because I will see people who are out networking every single day of the week and they’re not getting any business but they’re so busy worrying about the top of the funnel but they’re not taking any further action.

So if you go to a networking meeting and you met a hundred people and you get 10 business cards from these people and then you just go to another thing doing that but you don’t follow up with the 10 that you got, why are you going?

Andrea: Totally. OK, talk to us more about this, because I think that follow-up can be really confusing. So what kinds of follow-up could you share with us now that you would recommend that we really keep in mind? What do we need to do?

Laura Pence Atencio: Sure! So before you go to an event, you need to figure out what you’re going, because there are separate types. It could be a local networking. It could be like an evening event. It could be an expo and then you need to go “Are you going as a vendor, an attendee, or speaker?” Just know why you’re going, what you’re going to do, why you’re there and then how you’re going to follow-up with people.

So assuming that you’re an attendee of an event, you go, you meet people, you talk to them; you need to know as soon as I get back to my office, all of these people are getting an email. You can write it in advanced. You can have a template for this and all you got to do is go in and change out the name or the venue you met them and the date and then send it out saying “Hey, it was great to meet you at…”or wherever you met them, but put a time at the calendar to talk and send it.

And then some people will send back and you can put a link to your calendar in there and you need to decide in advanced, are you going to physically trying to coffee with this people? Are you going to do a Skype? Like how are you going to follow-up and then you suggest it, because then you’re taking control of your calendar.

I’m not driving all over down there to have coffee with people. They may talk with me via video but I’m not driving all over…it takes an hour to get anywhere here. I’m like “You can come to my office if you want to, but I’m not coming out.”

Andrea: Yeah, it would eat up your whole day.

Laura Pence Atencio: It would. It really does, it does and traffic around Denver is just insane. So I would say, you take control and let them know your preferred method of meeting and then if they say “Why don’t we do this?” That’s up to you. I couldn’t tell you how you meet with people. But I would recommend doing this, Skype or Hangout or whatever online method works for you.

So then some people take you off on that. Talk to them. See who you know that you can introduce them to. See if there are any synergies, you know whatever. You’ve talked to the person; you’ll know how to take that conversation. Are they a good fit for your program and should you offer them whatever you’re selling. Don’t think just because you met some of them at networking event that you can’t make an offer. Yes, you can if it’s appropriate. Don’t push it around people, but if you’re a relationship coach and you met someone out at a networking event and they were talking there like “Yeah, my marriage is falling apart,” make them an offer. You can help. You’re doing people a disservice if you hide your skills.

And then some people won’t follow up and then you know that three days later, you sent something saying “I sent you an email requesting a meeting. My calendar is available on this time,” and see if they answer you. If they answer you, fantastic. You’re moving on to your 10 people. By now, you should have gotten like seven of them. For the last three who didn’t connect, you could send them one last email that says “You know, I’ve tried to connect. I see that you’re busy. I’ll see you around, basically.” It’s like your breakup, like little breakup saying “Sorry, we couldn’t make it work. Keep in touch.”

You’ll get more response from that than you would imagine. People go “No, no, no, I definitely want to meet.” And if not, great but all the people who didn’t get on your calendar, you just put them onto a quarterly follow-up. Check them on “Hey, I’ve just had some big break through on my business, what are you working on? Is there anything I can help you with?” Every quarter, just to remind them that you’re alive.

Andrea: That’s interesting. OK, I really appreciate that advice. So when you do put somebody on a quarterly follow-up or whatever, do you have any tips or tricks or tools that you would recommend for doing this kind of a follow-up? I mean, how do I remember who…

Laura Pence Atencio: Oh you don’t remember.

Andrea: Exactly!

Laura Pence Atencio: You put it in your email auto responder and you put the time around it. It goes out every 90 days and it’s an automation. So after 90 days, they get this first email and then it triggers the next email. Basically, if it opens then the _____ stops. If they don’t open it then it keeps going. You send it up however it makes sense for your business but you want to know if a certain trigger happens that you’re changing your _____. You’re not going to keep sending this to people who have already made into your calendar because then they’re on a different path.

Andrea: OK, so you’re certain to talk about some things that I know that not everybody understands. So you talked about triggers and email like auto-response and stuff like that and I really appreciate that stuff. I think I’m starting to understand it myself and I’ve been using it in my business for a while, but it’s a fun stuff for you which is perfect because now people know somebody that they can connect with that can help them with something like this.

So what do you do to serve your clients who need help with this stuff, because my clients are trained to kind of figure out their why. They’re figuring out a lot of their deeper kind of stuff and I don’t deal a lot with the tactical level. But they do get to this point where they’re like “Yeah, I’ve got all this… I’ve got all these ideas. I now know what I’m going to do but I feel like the technical stuff is gonna get on my way.” And this is where I come in and I say “OK, we’ll maybe you need _____ or you need to make sure that you’re following somebody that can help you with this stuff.” So what do you do?

Laura Pence Atencio: Absolutely! Well, it may not surprise you to learn, I was combat engineer in the Virginia Army National Guard and I’m a very mechanical minded in that way.

Andrea: Nice!

Laura Pence Atencio: And I’m like “Oh look, wall charts and spreadsheets, yay, and also I a financial adviser so I’m a geek in all the ways, right?

Andrea: Totally, perfect kind of a geek for influencers.

Laura Pence Atencio: Right. But I went to arts school as well. I’m left brained, right brained, brains right down in the middle. So I help people outline their business chart in the marketing sense. Like I am not business coach, I am a marketing coach. So I’m not going to tell you how to price your programs or what you should call them, no, no.

But when you have your business coach and you know who you are and what you’re selling, I can help you brand and tweak your messaging of course but I’m going to help you figure out from the top of the funnel to the phone call how that flow should look, like what pieces of social media do you need. Where did it start? Where did it go? Where is this email come in? You know, when you’re doing your email, how many email needs to be in your series and what offers are you going to make during that? Are you going to do webinar? Are you going to do in person event? Are you going do both?

Get that whole flow out down to the email and the flow for that which is someone comes in here. You make an offer. Did they accept the offer, awesome! They go down one path. Did they not accept the offer? Awesome, they go down this other path. It doesn’t matter if they accept or not, either way, you’re still going to continue serving them. So for me, it’s the fun stuff.

Andrea: Yeah, that’s awesome! That’s I love about like the world the fact that everybody is so different and that we can serve each other in these different ways. And I don’t think that we should expect to be able to do all of these by ourselves.

Laura Pence Atencio: No. And you can’t just ask for one person to help you with all the things either.

Andrea: Right. It’s true. It would be nice, but it’s not just realistic. Even if you have a VA that could handle one piece of it, it’s really…if you’re able to find somebody that could do all the other things then I doubt there’d be a VA.

Laura Pence Atencio: No, exactly.

Andrea: There need to be a business partner.

Laura Pence Atencio: I don’t actually implement anymore because I can’t. I cannot be the person who makes these things happen because I’m the person planning all the things so that if I take the time to make this happen then I can’t continue planning for someone else. So I have virtual assistants who can actually implements _____, because if you just get the plan and you don’t implement it then why did you plan?

Andrea: Exactly.

Laura Pence Atencio: Yeah. I have multiple coaches myself. I have money coach and business coach and all the coaches, because I’m a top player. Top players have coaches and I would feel out of integrity to ask someone to coach with me and I don’t have a coach, what is that?

Andrea: Yeah, I mean it’s true. It’s true, but I think when people are starting out, they feel like they’re not totally sure if their message is going to go anywhere. They’re not totally sure if they should invest in things. So I think one of the important pieces for the influencers is that you do need to get clear in your offer.

You do need to have a really clear sense of what you’re trying to offer and who you’re offering it to and kind of also what drives you because you need to have that sustaining power behind you, because if you don’t have those things then it’s silly to work with somebody like Laura or to buy all these courses about marketing.

I think there’s a lot of people I’ve ended up in courses with, and even myself who at times, when you’re in these courses and you’re talking about all these technical things then you’re sitting there and you’re going “But I don’t really know how I’m gonna apply this.”

Laura Pence Atencio:   Right. And that’s the thing…

Andrea: Or what am I applying it to?

Laura Pence Atencio: Yeah. I have people come to me and they’re like “I want this,” and I look at them and I’m like “I can’t fix a broken business. Your marketing isn’t your problem. Your business is your problem. You need a business coach.” And then I will refer them off to business coach and say “I would love to help you market once you know who you are and what you’re doing. But I can’t tell you who you are and what you’re doing.” I mean, if it’s just a small hole or a little gap, of course I can point that out and fix it. But if your entire business model is a mess and if you can’t commit to a project, I can’t launch that project for you.

And I have run in to that before where someone just…they come in, they’re clear, we’re doing this and then they want to change it “Oh, I’m gonna do this other business instead.” I’m like “OK, have fun but not with me.”

“We’re doing this project and if you want to go out and do another business, have that. But I need people who are going to be persistent, consistent and do the work. I can’t help you with your squirrel. I got my own squirrels.”

Andrea: Exactly. That’s funny. Yeah and I love helping people figure out the rest of the stuff. I love the first parts.

Laura Pence Atencio: Right. I want people after they work with you.

Andrea: Yeah. You’re not the first person who has said that to me. That’s awesome. OK, with somebody who is just in that starting out place and they’re thinking “OK, I’m just kind of gotten this a sense of what my next steps are. I know that I have this offer. I know that I have this ideal client. I got my Facebook page and…I mean, do you have a particular…you know, we’re talking about speaking, we’re talking about writing…there are also writing books and all these other options that people can do. When people are just getting at that point, whether like “I think I know what I’m doing. Now, what should I do next?” Do you have any thoughts about that?

Laura Pence Atencio: I do actually. I worked with a marketing strategy and writing coach, named Monica Miller and we served the “just getting started” people, because often people come to me and say “Oh I’m your person.” I’m like “You are my person, but you’re not at the level for the VIP staff yet, because they’re new and they just started and they can’t physically afford to pay fees yet. But I don’t want to leave them hanging because they are my people.

So we have a mini course called _____ that talks about how to build your list and how to get on podcast and guest blog posting and what to do with your social and how to start blogging so you can get your platform setup. You know, you’ve got to get out there and get seen. So how do you get seen when you don’t have your own list or you borrow other people’s list. Borrow other people’s authority.

As long as you’re passionate and convicted and know what you’re talking about, people will let you talk on their show. So the thing is that you got to prove it that you’re willing to stick around. I can’t tell you how many people. You know, I’ve been doing this since 2008, and I have seen other companies come and go and other experts come and go. You’ve got to know when you got that this is your thing and that you’re not going to quit.

Andrea: Now, that’s an interesting little thought. So why do you say that? Where does that come from?

Laura Pence Atencio: Well, I have seen people just drop off because their husband put pressure on them or their wives put pressure on them. Their family put pressure on them. People are going to put pressure on you. You know, if you’re having a bad quarter and people say “Well, your income drop, go get a job. Are you going to go get a job?

I mean, I have my husband said to me at one point, he lost his job and then he said “I lost my job. You need to go get a job.” And I was like “Are you insane? I make more money here. But I was like “So since you lost your job, you think that I should stop running my company and go get one of the things you just had that you didn’t like? That was taken away from you and you had no control of it.” That’s insanity.

However, I’m a tourist and I’m not serving anybody. But I’ve known, this is what I’m doing. This is my path. This is who I am. This is what I’m doing. You can’t make me quick, you just can’t. Quitting is not an option for me. Had quitting been an option for me, there’s plenty of time over the past eight years where I could have tapped out. This is too hard. Yeah, well, so is working for somebody else. I’m never going back. But I’m just saying. You have to be willing to grit it out because if people are going to put their time and their energy and their love into you and you’re just going to quit? That feels bad to me.

Andrea: When you’re talking about “when people are putting their time and energy into you,” you’re talking about other coaches? Who you’re referring to?

Laura Pence Atencio: People who are saying, I have a mission and a method and I’m a change maker. You got to dig your finger in and be willing to get out there and share your message and not let other people convince you that your message isn’t important and you should go back to job. If you’re going to ask people to put you on their list and promote you on their show and put their word behind you, you better show up.

Andrea: I love that. I love it.

Laura Pence Atencio: You better show up. I’m not saying you need to be perfect and you’re not going to screw up, because of course you’re going to screw up. Screwing up is fine. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying. I mean, I _____ myself 20 times but I keep going. I’m just saying, don’t quit, not try to be perfect that’s not realistic.

Andrea: Oh gosh, it’s so true. It can feel really discouraging; I think especially when people are just starting out, like everything feels so vague. It’s just the intensity of all of these experiences, “Oh man, I didn’t go anywhere that Facebook ad.”

Laura Pence Atencio: Oh no, you’re not going to get it right the first time. You got to try, but that’s why we scale the budget up. You’re not going to dump a bunch of money into an untested ad because that’s not going to work. I mean, you might get lucky either so you _____ but I feel like a lot of people forget. Is that they see these people who they want to be like and they think “Oh they were an overnight success. Everybody knows who they are.”

But look at people like for example Mari Smith and she will say “Yes, I was an overnight success after 10 years of hard work.” And it’s true, just because somebody suddenly appears on a scene and everybody now knows who they are that doesn’t mean that they just started. The people who become the person in their industry with under two years behind them are _____. It’s super rare and they’re usually had some pretty good funding up front and don’t be comparing yourself to other people.

If you’re just starting out and you’re comparing yourself to somebody else, you better look and see how long they’ve been in the business. I have seen some things where it kind of leads you to believe that they just did this overnight. Well, they may or may not have but usually there’s been years of prep behind that.

So consistent, persistent actions, and determination. If you keep showing up and you keep taking actions, you’ll get what you want. Everybody’s timeline is different. I can’t tell you when that thing is going to happen. It’s going to prepare you where you want to be, but if you don’t start now and get ready, you can have it so you need to get ready.

Andrea: Yes! You know that’s interesting. I’ve had other people say if I waited until I was ready then I wouldn’t have done it and I would never be ready. So it’s getting ready so that you are ready to jump when you do have the opportunity.

Laura Pence Atencio:   Yeah and if somebody says something and gives you an opportunity that scares you, say yes. _____, like we want you to have a radio show and I was like “What? OK.” But was I comfortable? No. Does it matter? No. It’s fun. I’m really good at it. But what if I had said no, you know. So I was just like “This is an opportunity. This makes a difference. This is huge. I’m doing it and people looked at me like I have three heads so I don’t care.

Andrea: Who looked at you like you had three heads? Just like people there around you.

Laura Pence Atencio: It’s amazing. It’s just not matter how well you were doing and how many people are following you on Twitter. It does not matter because the people who are closest to you and your friends and family are going to look at you like you have three heads when you tell them that you’re going to have a radio show. “Really, you? I mean, my dad listens but he was on radio.

Andrea: But that’s really an important point because I think a lot of my guests could say this as well that it’s not the people that are closest to them are their followers, it’s just isn’t. Even if they need what you are talking about, even if they serve as father for your content, that is not mean that you are there to serve them.

Laura Pence Atencio:   No, my closest friends and family whom I’ve known for longest outside of business world, because in business world, I surround myself with beautiful peers. People get it. People who are like “Yeah, girl, you get it.” But in my kind of real world circle where I’ve met people at church or I’ve met people through school, they have no idea. It’s like stepping into an alternate universe. They go to work. They come home, they watch TV you know. And I’m like “What’s this TV who watch you speak?” I don’t know watch TV and they’re like “Oh about this _____.” I’m like “That’s a show, right? I have never seen it.” “Oh didn’t you watch the Game of Thrones?” “No, I haven’t.”

And I’m like “You know what, I love the Walking Dead, it’s my favorite show. I haven’t seen it since like the second episode of the season.” I don’t have time for that because I’m making time to have what I want in my life. I want to travel the world. I’m going to go to Australia next year and the UK the year after that and I’m going to do _____. I have fabulous plans and they don’t involve watching somebody else’s pretend life.

Andrea: That’s pretty funny.

Laura Pence Atencio: And I’m not _____. I managed movie theaters for 10 years. I love entertainment industry. I just don’t have time for it right now.

Andrea: Yeah. I hear yah. It’s funny because people…well for me, people sometimes they’ll say things like “You’re just doing so much.” And I’m like “Yeah, I’m working my tail off.” I don’t want to stop. I just want to keep going because I have some pretty big goals and when you do know that you have a passion, you have a purpose and stuff, you keep going. You’re not going to be one of those people that falls off, you just know you’re not.

Laura Pence Atencio: I’ve got people to help and it’s _____ those things for people who are like “Well, you’re not paying attention to politics.” I’m like “I don’t have time for that. I can’t make a difference unless I’m a billionaire which may happen who knows.” But in the mean while, I’m like “The way I can impact the world is helping and empowering people and being kind and generous to those around me and helping more regular people to empower themselves through financial literacy and having their own business.”

We’re changing the world, one entrepreneur at time. We’re not trapped into these jobs anymore where we do the “I go to work. I come home. I watch TV and I do as I am told.” “No, no. That game is over.”

Andrea: For many of us, it is.

Laura Pence Atencio: And we need to spread this around and let people know there’s another way. You don’t have to sit in a desk 10, 8 hours, 9 hours a day and have somebody else dictates when you can have time with your children. I don’t have to beg to go on vacation. I’m going back home to restaurant. I get my daughter. We get on a plane and we go. I don’t have to ask permission from anyone. There’s airline tickets available, I buy them and go.

People have said to me “Well, your daughter will be in kindergarten soon and you’re going to have like be at the school at a certain times, and I’m like “I don’t have to do anything. There are tutors. There are home schools. There are options. You will not tell me how we have to run our lives. We want to run our lives.” Why? Because I own my own business and I have my own income and you’re not in charge of me.

Andrea: I hear yah. I think there’s a few of us.

Laura Pence Atencio: Great! But then my family looks at me like I have three heads, like you have to do this and I’m like “No, I don’t.”

Andrea: It is kind of hard to be that one that goes against the grain. The one that’s sticking in our heads to say no, but that’s not the way it’s going to be.

Well, thank you for leading the way. Thank you for the work that you do with influencers, with people who are writing and speaking and doing this sort of thing and needing help in this very tangible way of what in the world they’re going to do with their marketing. So thank you for your voice of influence, Laura!

Laura Pence Atencio: Well, thank you very much for listening to my voice. The other thing I tell people they need to remember is it doesn’t matter how many people are listening to you. If you have one person listening to you, you’re making a difference. So keep going and keep talking and more people will come along.

Andrea: Huh, awesome! Alright, thank you so much for being here on the podcast today, Laura!

Laura Pence Atencio: Thank you for having me!

 

END