Watch my interview with Growth Strategist, Jessica Roubitchek ! [video]
I really enjoyed having Jessica come to the VIP Group for Empowered Women of Chicago for an interview on LIVE WITH LIZ about “Growing a business that lasts: The role of community in sustainable success!”
We had a fabulous time chatting about:
💗 how Jessica got started as a Growth Strategist
💗 the importance of building community within a small business
💗 creating cohesive business plans with tactics that work
💗 business partnerships and collaborations for your target market
...and lots more!
If you’re wanting to know how to grow your business by building deeply loyal customer bases with clear, actionable, and supported strategies, be sure to watch the full interview with Jessica with the button link below and feel free to reach out to her at MBA Confidante!
Interview Auto-Generated Transcript:
okay guys good morning Liz Hansen here
let me know if you can see me and hear
me um the interesting thing is I think
you can see me but not
Jessica um which is unfortunate we've
had a little bit of a technical glitch
but the great thing is you still be able
to hear Jessica right say hi Jessica
good morning everyone Thanks for tuning
in and we are going to be posting the
video of Jessica so that you can see and
hear her in a little bit we're so glad
that she's here thanks for coming
Jessica thanks for joining morning thank
you so much for having me Liz so this
live with Liz series the whole point of
this is to um highlight local empowered
women and to hear about how we as women
can fulfill our missions in life and to
reach our goals so we're excited to have
Jessica here to talk about the
importance of community in building a
business so first off Jessica just tell
us a little bit about what it is that
you do and how you got started doing it
absolutely so right now I am a
sustainable growth strategist for small
businesses I help them create business
plans that incorporate multiple tactics
to ensure that they have a cohesive
comprehensive roadmap for marketing
their businesses and connecting with
their communities um the way that I got
started on I love that you work with
small businesses yes that is my passion
so it's so interesting I run a small
business and sometimes I run into this
problem where the solution that I want
or need is for bigger businesses yes or
for someone even tinier than me like
just getting started like finding people
who want to work with businesses who are
like up and running but aren't huge is
sometimes like a weird black hole I've
noticed it can be because sometimes the
smaller B businesses don't have the
budgets that people are after but I
prefer it because I really like
connecting with people that are
ambitious and have a plan but they just
need some help getting it into action um
you I don't really want to work with big
boards or have to pitch a bunch of
people I I I kind of know where I'm
going and I know where I want to take
someone and if I have one person's Buy
in that's great we're ready to roll so
small businesses are my sweet spot so
you help small businesses build
community work on their marketing and
basically get more clients get more
business get more absolutely yes awesome
how you I'm sorry R how did you get into
this line of work so because I was a
small business owner so my background is
in marketing um I've got you know I've
got the degrees on the wall in marketing
but what really taught me how to do what
I'm doing is that I owned two small
businesses for a combined total of about
15 years um the business that everybody
or if you if you know of any of my
businesses the one you probably know is
purple monkey playroom I ran that for 12
years founded it um and sold it this
past July and um I you know I did all of
my own marketing I did all of my own
strategizing and um um after I was doing
it for about three years people started
finding me um just you know on the
internet and saying um you know I see
what you're doing and I want to do what
you do can you teach me and so I learned
how to how to teach people what I was
doing and sort of refine my methods and
um when I ended up selling the business
I decided this is what I wanted to do
full-time that's great so tell us take
us back a little bit tell us about the
purple playroom tell us what it was and
tell us how you used Community to Market
your business absolutely so Purple
Monkey playroom is a um drop in play
space and birthday party venue in the
Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago right
on the border of Logan Square um and
right away I just sort of understood
that it part of my role of being in a in
a small tight-knit neighborhood was to
contribute to that neighborhood and to
the neighborhood surrounding it so we
did everything from you know any school
and even outside the neighborhood too
any school
any nonprofit that asked for our
assistance you know I couldn't
necessarily give cash to anybody but I
could give away playtime and so we would
give gift certificates to every auction
every raffle um for schools right in the
neighborhood for the handful I would
host playdates for their parents um for
parents to get to know one another to
help build community we did street fairs
for a bunch of schools we would bring
our staff out or I was on site a lot of
times doing glitter tattoos twos so
really visible in the community doing
things that were easily Within Reach for
us that really helped you know move the
needle for a lot of the fundraising that
needed to be done I love that I love
small businesses that understand they
are part of their community that they're
in and want to
bring bring their business to the
community and the community to their
business it's such like a a good give
and take right it's so important because
a sustainable business doesn't just
extract value from a Community it
reinvests and um you know it should feel
organic and it should feel good but also
people see that and they want to support
you in turn for sure and I think so
often people want to support small
businesses over big corporations but
they don't always know how or when or
that's right available but as soon as
you are in the community like you said
doing glitter tattoos you're on all the
school auctions like people you become
top of Mind in the community you become
top of mind and people like oh I know
her let's you know they they think of
you as a friend my friend has this
business let's support this or let's go
to this one so trust Factor exactly it's
a give and take and it's it's wonderful
when it's done
correctly so talk to me a little bit
about building this marketing business
that you have now tell us the name of it
how you founded it and what were some of
the challenges in getting this new
business venture started absolutely so
the name of my new company is MBA conf
Confidant and it's sort of a play on the
fact that I have the degree but you know
I want to dive in with you I want to
work side by side with you and kind of
be your Confidant and getting what
you're doing um either off the ground or
moving forward in the way that you
envision um but just need a little bit
of help with um and I'm only seven
months in so I even though I've been
Consulting for a really long time my
clientele has always found me they
always knew exactly what they wanted
from me and they just told me this is
what I need and then I said okay well
this is we're going to do and now the
challenge is communicating what I do to
people um and figuring out how I can
help individuals so I know what I'm
capable of but um not everybody's needs
fit into a into a neat little box so
creating packages but also being able to
tell people you know this is what I've
got on my website but we can work on
something completely different if this
doesn't fill the need so it's basically
like if I'm a small business owner and I
wish I could talk to an MBA about what I
need I can call you Jessica you can call
me I would love to talk to you okay so
you're we helping people with marketing
Strate for people who are watching this
and don't really know the difference
what's the difference between marketing
and strategy I hear you say those words
those sound like MBA words can you
explain a little bit what that means
sorry to use MBA words okay so I
actually want to um between a strategy
and a tactic so when people say well
I've tried marketing and it doesn't work
I'll say okay what have you done and
they'll say well I've posted to
Instagram a couple times and nobody pays
attention Okay so Instagram is a is a
tactic and it can be a really powerful
part of an overall strategy are you
connecting with your community are you
utilizing brand ambassadors are you um
providing incentives for your clients
there are all sorts of components that
go into a a well-rounded strategy I call
my strategies holistic marketing
strategies because they don't just
Encompass One Touch point they Encompass
the entire um sort of ecosystem of what
you can be doing and then you know of
course when I'm working with small
business owners you are one person and
you're usually doing all of that work
it's one person in One budget and so
it's prioritizing you know which tactics
and in what order and um you know how
that's going to look six months from now
a year from now three years from
now yeah I mean I'm a small business
owner myself and I have everything
you're saying resonates in the sense
that you cannot just do like one little
thing and be like it didn't work it's so
you know like right your word out
getting people to know you like you and
trust you is a
multifaceted
multimon many touch Point project right
yes and it's it's a long-term process
too so yes you will see the needle
moving but it's not a get-rich quick
type thing it's marketing is is for the
long term it's an investment yeah so
like when you were running Purple Monkey
playroom um talk to me a little bit
about about that so you you would you
wouldn't just do one street fair and be
like we should be booked for the whole
year you wouldn't just give out tattoos
and think that right like talk to me a
little bit more about that I mean I
tried I I tried anything that ever came
to mind in terms of marketing tactics
and what was so great is that you know I
wasn't reporting to a board or anything
like that and so I just threw the
spaghetti in the wall at the wall and
you know whatever stock stuck um so
street fairs I wouldn't say that I got
business from them that was just giving
back but there's a lot of visibility
like oh my gosh um I've never heard of
purple monkey and I live apparently
right around the corner we have to stop
in or oh I met you at the Street Fest um
you know that that you just you you make
friends with people people see you at
the grocery store they know who you are
they trust sending their care givers
with their children to your place or
they think of you for a birthday party
but more than that um I invested very
early in a lot of digital marketing I
was running Google ads I was running
Facebook ads this is before I mean I
started it before even anyone was doing
anything on Instagram um and I wasn't
afraid to just throw a couple dollars in
and see and see what worked um I spent
money on Yelp but I also did a lot of
clever promotions and Partnerships
Partnerships were absolutely huge in
building my business business and small
businesses if you're not utilizing
Partnerships and collaborations you're
just missing out on um a huge way to
build trust credibility access warm
audiences and do it for very little
money what does that look like what does
a what does a bus Business Partnership
look like I'd love to hear you talk more
about that yeah so I mean there's a
couple different ways um that you can
partner and collaborate so I think of
Partnerships as something that's a
little bit long term so for example um
we partnered with some Nanny agencies um
pre pandemic uh for drop off care so um
we worked with chime and sitter city um
so I would I would think of that as a
partnership um whereas collaborations I
anybody and everybody that I met who had
a touch point with the same audience
that I had or was trying to reach so um
my first partnership ever was with uh
Katherine mchenry's building blocks toy
store um
I'm trying to think what we did off the
bat I think she had some of her toys on
my shelves and then also I gave her gift
certificates really nice looking gift
certificates um card stock um which
looked like um building blocks was
giving a gift to their um to their uh
customers and she would put them in gift
bags that she did around the holidays or
around some of her promotions um so
that's just one example of a really
successful collaboration if a parent or
a caregiver is shopping for a toy they
might also want drop in care and a
birthday party at Purple Monkey right so
it's the same correct it's all the same
people same people so if you're
listening to this and you're a small
business owner I would love for you to
think about like where are your people
also shopping where are your people also
hanging out and can you reach them there
as well I'm guessing Jessica that an NBA
Confidant that's the kind of question
you'd be asking a small business owner
absolutely and identifying it for them
because sometimes people just you know
they get stuck and so I'll do the Deep
dive we'll figure out who their target
market is but really Beyond you know who
they think it is so yes parents um are
are are clients of purple monkey for
example but what kind of parents where
do they live where do they shop what do
they do what do they value um so I'll
look at what the what Their audience is
and then figure out you know based on
the values of the people that they're
trying to reach and the and the um the
objectives and the dream Dre of people
they're trying to reach where are these
people how do we find them and how do we
connect with the people that have a
touch point with them you said earlier
that you sometimes have people say to
you like well I've tried marketing and
it doesn't work like what what does I I
hear that a lot too um what do you think
is really behind that do you think it's
that people haven't tried enough things
or given it enough time or people just
don't realize the magnitude of Labor
required to Market a small business like
what does that mean to you when someone
says I've tried marketing and it didn't
work I think it's anxiety around time
and money because um if you're not
looking at it as an investment you're
looking at it as an expense and people
always want to know what is the ROI on
this and I just listened to a
presentation yesterday it was a
brilliant presentation on how Roi is
incredibly difficult to measure when
you're talking about marketing because
there are so many touch points before
the final sale that it's really hard to
figure out what was the Tipping Point
and what were the big um the big things
along the way that that really moved the
needle and so you have to be willing to
to give marketing a chance to work again
you know we're so used to instant
gratification and marketing is an
instant gratification and not everything
can be measured U measurement is
important but sometimes you just have to
take a leap um and trust that these are
are methods that do work and can work
for you I abs abolutely agree with what
you're saying I I have had so um I'm in
like a lot of groups where I talk with
other photographers about running a
business because I'm a photographer and
I run a small business and they'll say
like well I dumped $500 into this and I
didn't get a booking or I I I spent the
or I went to this show or I I printed up
these gift certificates and I didn't get
any bookings but what what I think
people small business owners need to to
look at is that you're playing the long
game you're playing the long game you
make some cont so we'll plan down the
road I have people all the time who tell
me listen I thought about doing a bwire
photo shoot two years ago when I first
heard about you but I didn't book
because I was scared but then I saw this
video and then my friend told me this
and then I downloaded this ebook you
wrote and then I finally decided to do
it this year and it it sometimes takes a
while for people to feel that sense of
connection with you before they finally
give you money and purchase that's right
and the technical term for that is the
sales funnel so you know you start
people at the top of the funnel and it's
just that exposure point that you have
to carry them through the funnel until
they trust you until they're ready and
that does not happen in a day it doesn't
happen in a month um you know even if
you spend $500 on something worthwhile
you might not see the return on that
$500 for a year um so there is that
trust element that you know that makes
people nervous and and rightly so when
you're a small business every dollar is
important and I've been there A lot of
times so I do understand it but I also
know the power of what can happen if you
um if you're willing to take some risks
you have to be willing to take some
risks for the return and those um things
that you invest in they start
compounding on each other that is right
yes it's the holistic
strategy yeah so you do the one thing at
the top of the funnel and you think well
it didn't do anything but then if you do
five things at the top of the funnel
those five things will work together
more than just if you had just done one
correct that's absolutely right yeah um
I spoke with somebody the other day who
has a problem that I think could be very
neatly solved by some um digital
marketing um Google ads in particular
and um she said you know my partner
would never spend money on that kind of
thing and I don't try to talk people
into things that they're not comfortable
with um that's not my job my job is to
just present the the information but my
immediate thought is that your partner
doesn't understand that this is an
investment that um you know the money is
going to be put in to come out five
times 10 times 15 times larger if it's
done correctly yes and it might not be
tomorrow but it might be in five months
yeah correct and and that's the thing
with marketing you have to keep doing it
so that six because six months down the
road every day moves it moves with you
right right right and marketing should
be baked into what you do it should be
baked into your overall business
strategy which is also hard for people
to grasp if they don't really understand
what the word marketing means
um so it's you know it's an education
process too how do you help business
owners understand the difference between
working in their business and working on
their business so for example when you
were working at the purple monkey
playroom were you also were you
providing child
care and and doing marketing at the same
time like how do you do both so uh so we
never provided Child Care um so the way
that it works is it's a drop inpl place
so parents and caregivers come with
their kids and they stay on site so
they're watching the kids when we did
some drop off care we had a a sitter
agency there and the sitters watched the
kids so um it when I was on site which
was most of the time in the first I
would say six years um I was running the
business from the behind the counter
while greeting clients so you know I'd
open the door for people I'd make
conversation and then we'd hit a l at
nap time and I would just power in and
um you know the greatest impetus for me
to work on my marketing was an empty
space if I wasn't you know filled to
capacity one day and I started to get
anxious my immediate question was okay
what do I need to do to to get the word
out who do I need to reach and some of
my best ideas you know came during those
moments of anxiety of like gotta get
people in the door what do I do
necessity is the mother of invention
yeah exactly mother of invention love it
and I'm guessing that business owners
who come to you for MBA Confidant are
also feeling that necessity that need
they're either feeling that need because
they've gotten started and you know at
first things are are great because your
friends and your family support you as
they should but your friends and your
family are not your long-term clients
right if you don't have a strategy
Beyond friends and family um you you
need you need one um so I get those
people that are six months in eight
months in and they're like I mean we're
doing okay but I I need more PE like I
need more people through the door um so
get those clients and I love to help
them because they're still very
optimistic about the potential of their
business they just know that now is time
to bring all the ideas together um with
a little bit of help and they know that
um you know they're they're ready to
trust that this process can work for
them the other type of client that I
work with are people that have a vision
of starting something you know really
making a new playbook I'm working with
three different women right now who are
trying to build businesses around
Community people are so lonely right now
and they see that and they want to use
their skill set to build communities in
different ways and so I'm actually
helping them with business planning um
with the marketing baked in I love that
you strike me Jessica as someone that
really enjoys being a small business
owner I love it what what about it I've
always known that I was gonna own my own
business I didn't know what it was gonna
be but even when I was just out of
college um I mean I did my MBA one of my
concentration was in entrepreneurship I
just knew that I wanted to be able to
take my ideas and run with them I wanted
control of my schedule um I just didn't
love the culture of working for other
people and in the roles that I was in
where I had bosses that sort of saw what
I was capable of I was given some birth
to do it that's where I thrived um so it
was always with a mind to to go going
out on my own I don't think I thought
that I would end up owning a kid's
playpl um but I uh situation
circumstances came together and that's
that that was how I started on the road
and then um Consulting strategizing that
just that was just the most natural
thing it was the most natural next step
for me I have to say if you talked to me
10 years ago I wouldn't have thought
that I would be taking budoir sexy
photos either so you know life takes
some interesting um twists and turns
along the way it does so when people say
what's your fiveyear plan I really don't
like that question because my five years
out has never looked how I thought it
would five years before yeah I can come
up with something but it's probably not
going to resemble the reality that we
end up
right um if you could talk to a big
group of business owners which you
actually are right now what are just a
few like uh tips or advice or what words
of encouragement what would you say to
people right now if they're running a
small
business don't give up on it you're
probably either just getting started um
or you know if if you're not just
getting started and you're struggling
think about investing in some outside
advice it's really really difficult to
figure out where to put your dollars um
you know when they're limited because
you're new or when they're limited
because things aren't going as they
should but sometimes just talking to
somebody with an outside perspective who
can see things that you can't is
it's an Irreplaceable thing to do I mean
um you you just you're so close to your
offer uh we all have blind spots so um
you know reach out um it doesn't have to
be to a marketing expert it could be it
could be anything an HR
expert um there are lots of people that
that have good ideas about how to make
your small business
Thrive I love that if I some of the best
things I did for my business is when I
hired people to help me and sometimes it
felt like can I spend this much money to
for this person to help me but then it
like you said it's an investment an
investment business and when you invest
in yourself and when you invest in your
business it's always a good idea yes
there have been things that I invested
in that didn't pay off necessarily on my
balance sheet in dollars but they paid
off in knowledge and confidence myself
and that to me is invaluable so correct
um Jessica this has been a really good
conversation I feel like could talk to
you all day um about I feel the same way
business um we have to wrap up but
before we do I ask everyone on this uh
live with Liz series to tell me what
does it mean to you to be an empowered
woman in today's
world yeah I think what it means is the
confidence to lead your life with
intention and not
obligation and it's owning your
decisions without seeking unnecessary
permission um while still valuing
collaboration and respect in
relationships
and that's hard to do I'm not always
perfect at being empowered all of the
time um especially when you're a mom and
you know you have a family and you
necessarily have to put people before
yourself but I think that's the
goal okay one more time it's living your
life with intention instead of
obligation that hit me like a ton of
bricks right I think a lot of times as
women we do a lot of things out of
obligation and not 100%
and again so you know if if you're if
you're living your life out of
obligation maybe you have small children
right you can't always be empowered all
of the time there are many times when I
have to
choose the needs of my family over my
giant hopes and dreams but I think the
goal is to not deprioritize yourself
unnecessarily to keep your eye on what
you want and what you need and um to
allow that to
evolve I love that I love that well
Jessica thank you so much for joining us
today we are going to leave Jessica's
information in the comments and as well
I see uh if you have questions or
comments Jessica's going to come in and
see th see those as well I'm also going
to repost this interview with Jessica's
beautiful face I'm sorry we had a little
bit of glitch with the video I hope you
were able to hear her but we will post
the recording and send that out so you
guys can all hear about it if you want
to learn more about MBA Confidant she's
going to leave some information for you
if you're small business owner you've
been wanting to grow this would be a
great way to get
started so thank you so much Liz yeah
we're so glad to have you I love this
community thank you everyone for
participating today and for joining us
and I hope you have a great Friday and a
great weekend