The Power of Messy Action: Marketing Professionals Share their Insights

Kristina Stubblefield: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of WedPro Business Solutions. I've got two of my friends here with me today, but the best part about it, they're also marketing professionals. I could go on and on. It's so much more than marketing professionals, but I wanted you to not only hear from me, but to hear from them.

Christy Smallwood, Brittany Murphy, but now probably hyphen. Well, now Brittany Nagy. Oh, Nagy. Okay. introduce yourself just a little bit. 

Christy Smallwood: I don't know. Basically short version. I am Wonder Woman. I own multiple businesses, I have my own show.

I have a lot going on. I have a team of people to help me get the things done. So it's not just me by myself. But yeah, that's it. 

Brittany Nagy: Short version, and this was the show I was previously on, correct? 

Kristina Stubblefield: It is. And as a matter of fact, just recently your episode aired, recapping. After you got married, so a little backstory, if y'all didn't catch that episode with Brittany, we did a three part series and [00:01:00] we just reran it where we broke down, you had some frustrations and some things you questioned because you were a marketing professional from reaching out and working with vendors or trying to work with vendors. So if you didn't catch that, you don't want to miss that. It was now a four part series. And then the recap of that just went out. So thank you for coming back again. Sorry, Christy. She's been on here more than you. 

Christy Smallwood: No, you know what? No, if this is going to be all about Brittany, not a problem.

I have been gloriously divorced for almost 20 years, over 20 years. Yeah, nothing has stuck since. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Did you all hear that? That means she could potentially be a client one day. 

Christy Smallwood: You never know. Like I'm never gonna say never because that is totally a kick in the ass. 

Brittany Nagy: Yeah, so fix all the shit that I bitched about during my episode.

Christy Smallwood: Before you get to me because I will point it out. 

Brittany Nagy: Yes. Live in person. Then you can get Chrissy's business. 

Kristina Stubblefield: So if Brittany looks familiar, that's why. But in all honesty, I'll let you introduce yourself. [00:02:00] We get together. Once a quarter or so, sometimes more often and we record a podcast together, which is on Christie's podcast for small business 

Christy Smallwood: Success Talk. And we are together The Marketing Mavens. So we just recorded one where we were all up in each other's 

business, keeping each other accountable. 

Kristina Stubblefield: We're trying to Brittany before we run off on a tangent, which is going to happen. Yes. Just tell them a little bit about you, if they didn't catch the other episodes.

Brittany Nagy: So I'm a past bride now, a married wife. I'm no longer a bride, just someone's wife. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You will always be his bride. Don't say it like that. I love that Friends episode, sorry. 

Brittany Nagy: But I'm with one thing marketing and I focus more on helping home trades and home service businesses with their marketing. So roofers, plumbers, electricians, anyone that likes to show a butt crack in a home are my type of people.

Kristina Stubblefield: Y'all know how Brittany is from previous episodes. So this is nothing new. Blunt Brittany. Honestly, I asked them kind of spur of the moment to [00:03:00] record an episode for WedPro because of the topic we just covered and honestly, it was, I don't wanna say it was all over the board, we circled back in on ourselves and it really came around to accountability and actually taking action.

And that's why I wanted to say something to you all about being guests on here because. I like sharing with my audience. You are not alone. Just because we're in marketing or we're business coaches or we're this or that doesn't mean we don't go through the same thing. 

Christy Smallwood: Oh, no. Cause one of my businesses, so I have at the marketing company, but then I also have the training and development, which is business coaching.

And you talk about all of the things happening to me. I just have categorized it into two 

different businesses. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh my, the buckets. I wonder if your buckets match up kind of with my buckets. 

Brittany Nagy: Your fuckets 

Christy Smallwood: your fucket buckets. 

Kristina Stubblefield: They went there. It's my favorite sign. 

Brittany Nagy: And that's actually one of the topics we talked [00:04:00] about was, am I allowed to cuss on this one as well?

I can't remember if I did last time, because that's just me naturally. 

Kristina Stubblefield: She definitely cussed last time. 

Brittany Nagy: But I think one of the phrases if I'm allowed to say it's kind of fuck it, just do it. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Messy action. That is one of the things I shared. One of the masterminds I've been is it is messy action and That can sound like you're, wait a second, you're just telling me just to do stuff? No. 

Christy Smallwood: We're telling you it doesn't have to be perfect to get it done. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Yeah. And you like whiteboarding too, right? Like me and Christy have whiteboarded the shit out of some stuff. I'm obsessed with my whiteboard. I mean, I went to extremes on my new whiteboard and I love it. It's like one of those that you see in a locker room, but it is, you can do all of that all day long.

You can plan, strategize, get all these ideas out, get the pieces aligned just the way you want them. But if it sits in a notebook or on the whiteboard or wherever it lies on the cloud, it can't work for you. 

Brittany Nagy: No, that's where it goes to die. 

Kristina Stubblefield: That's [00:05:00] exactly right. To die. 

Christy Smallwood: We didn't talk about this during my episode, but one of the things that I do when I have my whiteboard of ideas is I do give myself a timer.

You can idea for 10 minutes and then you have to pick the one that stands out to me the most the one that like jazzes me the most and then I Circle it and walk away and that's the only thing I'm focused on to actually get started with 

Kristina Stubblefield: One of the things that I noticed, Cuz I've done strategy sessions with clients a lot over the years and most the time that includes a whiteboard even though they're on zoom because I work with people all over and one of the things that I have now required, I'll say it like that in air quotes, is a follow up.

So not just the strategy session, but a follow up. What's your thoughts? Have you moved forward? Now we're back to accountability because if not, what was the point in doing the strategy session if there is no action taken, like there may be have to be some things that have gotten in place if you're just starting a business or starting [00:06:00] an additional business.

Like I get it. There's a timeframe for everything, but is something happening? And honestly, I had to turn inward to say how many strategy sessions have me and our team done over the years. And I actually went back and pulled up, cause I use Google photos. I went back and was like, huh? Yeah, there's five of them.

How much of that on there has been moved forward? And if I gave a percentage, it's really sad. Cause I don't know if it's 20%. And I said to myself, here I am encouraging, pushing be in that buddy system for wedding professionals or other businesses. And meanwhile, I'm back here parked, haven't even left the gate yet.

And I got called out about leading by example a few months ago. And that is a kick in the ass that I really felt like I needed because if you work with me, if you're at a networking event with me, if [00:07:00] we're together, if we're out in public. People probably know, like, we're go to people for multiple things.

Yep. What about the people on the internet? Or what about the people on social media? What about people out there? What's their online perception? What are we saying out there to those that we offer? And here I am saying to wedding professionals, if people don't know about your services, they can know you're a DJ or know you're a photographer or know you're this.

They don't know your style. 

Christy Smallwood: So we get stuck in our own head about the perception they have of us. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh, wait, we get in our own way? 

Christy Smallwood: We get in our own way all the time because we think we have a preconceived notion that it should be a certain way. We talked about should and good in the previous episode.

When in fact, when you say just do it, the authenticity comes through and that's the part that resonates with people the most is you just being a real person. Because you're real. That is a selling point nowadays is just to be real. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You're [00:08:00] saying real .Real , but honestly, authentic, I guess is the catch phrase.

Now I'm saying let's like real r e e l, let's talk about that because people are so, oh gosh, now there's real, now there's TikTok. Now there's. It's playing in your favor because you can just turn your phone on and record. It doesn't have to be highly produced. 

Christy Smallwood: We get stuck. Look, I'm talking from my own here. We already called me out on the last one. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Now she's pouring it from the heart. Are you picking up on this? 

Brittany Nagy: I am. It's okay. 

Christy Smallwood: We get stuck in the, Oh my God, I really, I love scrolling my reels and there's some really funny stuff that I have saved in my bookmarks and I have them nice and categorized and I'm like, I've got to be like that because it was something I liked and if I resonated with it, I can't possibly be this. This isn't, I have already told myself, my self talk has convinced me. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You've already failed yourself. 

Christy Smallwood: I've already failed it. I didn't even try because I convinced myself it wasn't worth it. [00:09:00] Stop. Stop. Don't jump off that cliff. 

Kristina Stubblefield: What did we say? What did we say in the last one? 

Brittany Nagy: The car, the bridge analogy? No, stop.

Kristina Stubblefield: Well, the bridge analogy, but you said it about thinking, wasn't it? Stop thinking. Stop thinking. 

Brittany Nagy: Yes. Just, it was your joke with the lyrics artist that kind of created it. And that's, yes, in the Christy's story, the analogy I like that you made that hit home for me was, you can't cross a bridge that's 95% built.

And to Christy's offense, you had already seen Reels and you kind of stopped yourself there so you didn't start building the bridge. My example I gave that I was able to bash myself for was, I had built the bridge to 98%. All I had not done, I did all the background, I had everything ready, I just didn't sit in front of the camera and start to record the video yet.

I had done every I was literally there, ready to do it, and just had not pushed the button to do it. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And what opportunities lie if you would have put that out? If you would have went through it? 

Brittany Nagy: Well, I don't know, first off, but let's just go on a positive idea. This was a video I was going to put on every sales and marketing piece, possible the website, social media, newsletters. It was going to be like a case study, [00:10:00] quick video, quick hitter. 

Kristina Stubblefield: So the opportunities would be more than what they are now. 

Brittany Nagy: The phrase I said before, you miss a zero percent of the shots you don't shoot.

So if you're not going to actually shoot your shot and try to take it, then it's never going to get you anywhere. And that's the part where, yeah, marketing, even the grand scheme, you don't. fucking try it. You're never going to know if it works. Cause my joke was if I could give a tactic to any business owner is to track everything you do, but if you don't do anything, then you don't even get to the step of tracking what's working and what's not.

Christy Smallwood: A speaker friend of mine spoke at a conference last year I was at and he relayed another speaker friend of his had said one 10 second moment of boldness can change a person's life. And I wrote that up on the board. And then I added even my own. It's not for me to just give advice to other people. Do what your own damn self do.

Kristina Stubblefield: Yeah. And the thing I. I've become really passionate about working with wedding professionals. I've loved the wedding industry. Fortunate to be worked in it for as a vendor for seven years. And it was something that really I was just [00:11:00] drawn to. And I think what the reason I keep talking more about getting out of your own way and just doing it is because of the trend that we're seeing post covid.

I know we try not to say post shutdown. We try not to say that word much in the event industry and others, but in all honesty, what it did is it pushed people more towards using the internet, researching online. There wasn't wedding shows that you could go do or open houses or venue walk through, so to speak, that wasn't readily available.

So now where we're at, wedding shows pretty popular coming out of the pandemic. Why? You hadn't really left your house that much, probably. You hadn't gotten to meet others. But now, the phase, what we're seeing, the conversations that I'm having with people, the numbers are going down. The numbers that are registering for the shows are going down.

But then, the percentage of people that [00:12:00] register that actually come are going down when there is a plethora of opportunity on social media to connect with your ideal clients. It doesn't even have to just be engaged people to your ideal clients, but if they can't find you on there, if they can't know who you are, know what you offer, you can't be considered as a vendor for their special day, we touched on some of this, but in the last few weeks I've had so many conversations with people about things aren't the way they used to be and I don't see them going back that direction.

Christy Smallwood: It's not going to, I've talked to like real estate people costs. The real estate cost keeps going up. It's never ever gone down. So this huge jump that we saw in real estate even. It's not going to come down. It might plateau, but it's never going to come back down. So my sticker shock, I have to get over that and adjust [00:13:00] accordingly because it's never going to, there is no bottom out.

This is where we are. And there was another thing that came up for me in my brain of when we're out networking to build a business, if I'm not in the room and somebody asks a buddy of mine for a referral, That I happen to be that person that would be perfect, but I'm not in the room, but my competitor is guess who's getting the onsite referral, the introduction.

 So we're, we need to be incentivized by providing our people an easy button, and if we're not there, if we're not accessible, if they can't, if they can't find us and we're not accessible, there is no easy button for that person to Or a search engine to refer us. 

Brittany Nagy: One of the examples I gave, I was looking for a DJ. All I would love to see is just quick samples of what it sounds like. Do they mix songs together? Are they on the microphone the whole time? Which is what I didn't want. Are they doing like they're like, wherever that air horn is. I don't want to hear that the whole time either. 

Kristina Stubblefield: That was [00:14:00] when she said that I was thinking myself, I don't think I've ever been to an event.

I'm not sure what event she's been to, but go ahead with your story. Cause it's. It's great. It will resonate. It will resonate. 

Brittany Nagy: People know what the air horn is. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Could you do that one more time for me? 

Brittany Nagy: I don't know if I could. Sorry. Please crop that as the first thing people see. I don't edit these just so you know. Okay. But I was just looking for small clips like that.

So think of, to me, in my head, I said, how hard is it for a DJ? While they have that song spinning to just do a video out like this to show the dance floor and just put all the raw, unedited, just 60 seconds of what does the dance floor look like? How are people interacting with it? This is how I can perceive how you would uplift my event.

I'm not going to a vendor bridal event to find my DJ. I met some there, but I had to go back because I wanted to see, well, what do you sound like? Okay, all I see is pricing and what includes and light setups. Great. What does your light upset setups actually look like in real person? What does the music sound like?

[00:15:00] It was just those things where I was like, how is this so hard in their heads? Just get something so simple like that for me to get an answer and choose yes or no from you. And it's like, yes. That's a simple, easy thing you can do. And also even for our businesses, what we were able to yell each other about is we're talking about the exact same thing.

Just a raw unedited 60 seconds, answering a question, answering that FAQ for your clients. So therefore they get to know you and they get to know your services. Super simple, amazing marketing tactic. And what we're saying, don't even freaking edit it. Don't think about it. Just take a sip of bourbon, sit down and answer the question like you would a friend.

And people might actually fall in love with you because you're just being real with them. That's my sales strategy. I'm blunt. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You are. 

Brittany Nagy: Cussing Britney is basically what people call me nowadays. But that's where you 

Kristina Stubblefield: But their perception though, we talked about it in the other one. 

Brittany Nagy: We talked about perception, so go check out Small Talk to see what that perception is there.

All those things do go hand in hand, so that's the whole point of marketing. Stop thinking, just do it, because again, if they're not your eventual client, if they're not going to buy from you, that video is not what unsold them. That's just what cut you out from being a client that was never going to be a good fit, because they were looking for [00:16:00] something that you were never going to provide.

Kristina Stubblefield: Ideal clients? 

Brittany Nagy: Imagine that! 

Kristina Stubblefield: But what the whole thing that I hear you saying and screaming from the rooftop, seriously, quickly, fast. Please show up. Yeah. Please show up because people can't consider you if you're not found. If you wait six months to perfect a video to put on your website, your Instagram, your TikTok, how many opportunities have you missed out on in six months?

Christy Smallwood: Look, we are again, completely transparent here. I am trying to build a speaking business. And I don't have my content out there because my impression is if it's not the perfectly professional sizzle reel that people, quote unquote, I'm air quoting here, make decisions from. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Did we not talk about this like six, eight months ago?

Brittany Nagy: Wow, you're really calling out Christy now. 

Christy Smallwood: I have a sizzle reel and it's still not good enough. 

Brittany Nagy: You have one of the five. 

Kristina Stubblefield: It appears I'm [00:17:00] calling her out, but what I'm sharing with the audience is 

Christy Smallwood: It still happens 

Brittany Nagy: to a marketer.

Kristina Stubblefield: You're in the industry. 

Christy Smallwood: I am in the industry. 

Brittany Nagy: a marketer. 

Christy Smallwood: Yes. 

Brittany Nagy: To someone that bitches at you every day to do this for your own business. It is hard for us to do this too. Trust us. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And that's why I love just being relatable. We are not perfect, but we have spent a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort working on our skills. And a lot of times we have to really push ourselves out of our own way. We have 

To really move 

Christy Smallwood: the needle. We have strong expertise and master it every day. But the thing is even masters muck it up. And I always, as I come in, I want to be able to master all of my stuff, but I started as if I'm a beginner.

That's why I think I'd never know enough. Kristina said on the behind the scenes, telling us different things about tech, and I was like, where have I been the last? 30 years. And yet this shit only happened the last three months. So I'm like, I feel like I'm behind. My feelings are not also reality of the situation.

And when I made feelings mess up my [00:18:00] thoughts, then I've convinced myself it's not even worth the effort. So when I work with people on the coaching and getting out their own heads, so you can move things forward. I have a coach. I have an accountability partner that helps me do the same thing. And we can also see that progress.

Part of me, I do strategy. I have an overall plan for each of my brands, and my life. 'cause I have ultimately, what do I wanna experience every day, even when I walk in the kitchen, what do I want my kitchen experience to be like? 'cause currently I hate my kitchen, so my new kitchen will have a certain experience to it.

But I know what I want those experiences to look like. But then I also, to get the work done, I have set priorities because if I get lost in my head, I come back to my priority list and make sure I've checked off that, which is really important for today. And then I can get to my other stuff, which is unfortunately a longer list than it probably needs to be.

But I just have to, each thing takes its turn. I will get to it and back to that. Like it's this cycle of feelings to thought to behavior, [00:19:00] feelings, thought to behavior. Like it's just over and over and over again. And I just have to make sure I find a centering point to stop the madness. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And I promised you all I would keep this brief.

I'm definitely going to have them back for sure. Cause we can talk about this literally all day long. And turn it into many other things besides a podcast episode. But I think the takeaways, and we talked about this on the other one, was about accountability. Having an accountability buddy to start with can be a huge benefit.

I've done episodes before about the benefits of having some type of coach. Doesn't have to be me, doesn't have to be Christy or Brittany. No matter what, look at possibly having a coach for your business. 

Christy Smallwood: Quick side note, even if you find something specific you want to work on, find a coach that specializes in that specific area.

Kristina Stubblefield: And then also. If you come up or you devise a plan, make sure you write out a couple items you're going to do immediately, the next day, the next week, don't wait [00:20:00] a month, don't wait, I come back, I've talked about that in a previous episode, messy action, but like we've said, just stop thinking and start doing, because if you do not show up online, wherever we can go over Google, social media, YouTube websites, we can talk about it all day long, but if you don't show up, You won't be part of a conversation for engaged couples or other businesses out there to consider you.

Christy Smallwood: Absolutely. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Like Christy said and Brittany said, just do it. 

Brittany Nagy: Just frickin do it. 

Christy Smallwood: Just frickin do it. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Alright, I'm gonna let them go. You'll have all the connection information in the show notes, and I cannot wait to hear y'all's feedback. If you're not part of the free Facebook group, join me, WedPro Business Community.

You might see them pop in there or something, who knows what we can do. I would love to hear your feedback on this episode. What are you struggling with? What are things that You wish were easier for you. Let's talk it out. Let's have a conversation about it and let's move out of everyone's way, including our own [00:21:00] and get our businesses out there.

So everyone take care.