September 25, 2024 • 45 mins
Jean is a seasoned business woman with a knack for turning around a failing business - and she does it with serious (and unconventional) style. Today we're talking about her journey from fearing she was about to lose everything to owning a successful franchise business. As if that weren't enough, now she's reinventing herself again, and helping other women find their own second acts. If you've ever felt stuck and hopeless, this one's a serious kick in the pants... in the best possible way.
Can't-Miss Moments:
- Jean's "milk crate moment" - the rock-bottom low that forced her to pick herself up and turn her failing business around...
- How do you get yourself out of a funk when everything's going wrong? Jean and I share what got us up from our self-pitying puddles so we could get out there and kick ass...
- The surprising reason Jean sent customers directly to her competitors (there may or may not be chocolate-dipped cicadas involved)...
- A cautionary tale on using outreach attempts for easy content: what happened when Jean recognized that she was the "bitch" a prominent business owner was talking about on Facebook...
- Out of context quote featuring a full on rant courtesy of Jean: WHOLE ASS IT! (you gotta listen - it's SO good)
Jean's bio:
Jean Kuhn, is a serial entrepreneur who became self-employed on April 29, 1985, at 8:52pm, when the nurse put that first baby in her arms, and she immediately knew she wasn’t going back to a job she hated.
In 2002, Jean bought her first bankrupt franchise business, and turned it into a profitable cash generating machine in 12 months. In 2006, she bought a second bankrupt franchise business and created another cash generating machine in less than 12 months.
In both cases, Jean added $100,000 to the bottom line for each company in the first year. She did this with no list, no help or training from the franchise, and no budget for marketing. She created low cost/no cost marketing strategies that she still teaches her clients today.
Jean, has been a successful business strategist since 2006, when she started helping all types of businesses grow and scale their businesses.
Links and resources:
- Jean's website
- Free marketing strategy session with Jean
- Jean's Second Act event
- 5 Marketing Ideas download
- Marketing Outrageously by Jon Spoelstra
Let's collab:
Let's connect:
If you dig the show and want to help bring more episodes to the world, consider buying a coffee for the production team!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie Colee (00:03):
Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass, the show
that gives you a virtual seatat the bar for the real
conversations that happenbetween entrepreneurs.
I'm interviewing all kinds ofbusiness owners, from those just
a few years into freelancing toCEOs helming nine figure
companies.
If you've ever worried thateveryone else just seems to get
it and you're missing somethingor messing things up, this show
(00:24):
is for you.
I'm your host, angie Coley, andlet's get to it.
Hey, welcome back to Permissionto Kick Ass.
With me today is my friend,jean Kuhn, say hi, hi.
Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited forthis one and I love this.
(00:44):
Okay, so, for people thataren't watching the video,
there's this sign in thebackground that says lucky me,
which I just.
Oh, I love, I love, I love.
I bet there's a story behindthat one too.
But before I go down the rabbithole, please tell us about your
business and what you do.
Jean Kuhn (00:56):
I help small business owners use really unique
marketing strategies like out ofthe box over the topme-crazy
marketing strategies to increasetheir revenue fast.
Angie Colee (01:09):
Oh, I really, really love that.
You know, what you just saidreminded me of a book that I
read once upon a time calledMarketing Outrageously.
It's a fantastic book andyou'll recognize it by a sumo
wrestler doing a slam-dunkbasketball move on the front
cover.
It's so fantastic.
I learned about that when I wasan impetuous young copywriter I
(01:30):
mean, we're talking thecopywriter inside the corporate
office that would ask formeetings with the president,
because I have a few ideas.
I have some ideas on how wecould do better, and you
probably don't know what it'slike down here at the urgent
level here, but I got some ideasand one of the presidents there
were three during the time thatI was at that particular
company, but he goes.
You know you should probablyread this book.
(01:51):
It's called MarketingOutrageously and it's about how
a sports marketer his name isJohn Spellstray, I believe helps
turn around a losing franchiseby turning these sporting events
into like family events insteadof just games, and so it's
fascinating and now I need toreread it.
Yeah.
Jean Kuhn (02:11):
Well, I, I actually started creating these for
myself when I bought a bankruptfranchise right, a chocolate
franchise and I'm like I didn'thave.
I took out just enough money toget to buy the business Right
and they practically give thoseaway.
I didn't have.
I took out just enough money toget to buy the business Right
and they practically give thoseaway.
But I didn't take any extramoney for marketing.
This was pre-social media and Ihad to freaking, look, figure
(02:36):
out, how am I going to turnaround this business.
But I had been readingmarketing books Like I don't
even know why, long before Ieven became an entrepreneur.
I have no idea how that evencame into my existence, but I
love different marketingstrategies that are so different
that.
(02:56):
Are you familiar with SavannahBananas, angie?
Angie Colee (02:59):
Oh, yes, I recommend those to everybody.
Jean Kuhn (03:03):
Right, I recommend those to everybody.
Right, and Jesse Cole doesexactly like in 2020, right
2020,?
Angie Colee (03:18):
when he bought it, he does exactly the kind of
thing to a higher level than Idid it when I just had a little
chocolate store, oh my God.
So for anybody that isunfamiliar with the magic of the
Savannah Bananas, you need tolook these guys up.
You need to watch as manyvideos as you can, because they
are a local minor leaguebaseball team in Savannah.
Right, they wear these brightyellow outfits and they are
(03:38):
renowned for doing ridiculousthings.
We're not just talking likemascot dances or anything like
this.
These guys did a dirty dancingreenactment, complete with the
flying leap.
They've done baseball on stilts.
I don't even remember all thecrazy things banana costumes,
(04:07):
right, and they.
Jean Kuhn (04:07):
Here's the.
What Jesse says is they?
What's really interesting aboutthem is that he's trying to
find that friction in themarketing, meaning what is the
part about baseball that peoplehated?
Right, and what they hated isthe game was really long, could
get really long, so it's a twohour.
It's a two hour game and it'scalled banana ball.
Long, so it's a two hour.
It's a two hour game and it'scalled banana ball.
(04:28):
Right, there are like I can'teven remember all the rules but
to banana ball.
But if you're a baseball puristyou would hate these guys, but
I love them because it's a wholetwo hours of entertainment.
Oh, the other thing ballparkfood right.
When you buy a ticket to thebananas, all your food and soft
drinks are included.
I don't know if they havealcohol even.
Yeah, so, and the ticket islike crazy, like maybe $25 to
(04:52):
$35.
It's not a really expensiveticket.
Angie Colee (04:56):
Oh, that's incredible, Because I remember I
think I saw some documentary orsome interview where he was
talking about this.
I mean this was a failingfranchise.
Some documentary or someinterview where he was talking
about this?
I mean, this was a failingfranchise.
How many people love to like?
How many minor league games doyou imagine are selling?
Sold out, crowds, right, andeverybody is showing up for the
games.
That's just not reallyhappening.
And I agree, I always felt likesuch a I don't know like a
(05:18):
traitor or something, whenpeople would be like let's go to
a baseball game and I was like,no, those takes.
So that would be like threeinnings would be my perfect,
then I would go out with you,but nine.
Then I start to be like kind oflike the same with stock car
races oh, they're turning left.
Oh, they're continuing to turnleft.
This is so exciting.
(05:39):
Sorry, sports fans, don't comefor me, I am just not a sports
ball person but just the factthat they turned that into an
event and picked out the thingsthat most people just really
don't resonate with and turn itinto something new is fantastic.
Jean Kuhn (05:53):
And if you can do that in your business, find that
friction piece and make it soto kind of get rid of it, if you
can.
We all have things in ourbusinesses we'd like to.
I'd love to hear it.
When it's like that's ourpolicy, Well, maybe your policy
should be how about customerservice and how can you serve
the customer, instead offiguring out how you can not
(06:15):
serve them by saying that's ourpolicy.
Angie Colee (06:18):
No, just just convince them that the way that
I do it is the right way.
Don't actually listen to theirconcerns.
So tell me more about thischocolate company.
Like I've heard this storybefore, but I'm enthralled by
this and I think people aregoing to love it.
Jean Kuhn (06:32):
So let's go back to 2001,.
9-11 hit right.
So I had a dance studio at thetime for kids and I still had it
for a few more years.
But things were really turnedaround fast.
The market crashed, the economycrashed and we were really
(06:52):
looking hard to find anotherrevenue source other than the
dance studio, because we lost30% of our kids, which at that
point was the first year we wereever going to be profitable was
2021.
We had such a good signup andwithin three weeks we had lost
30% of our student base for thedance studio, which put us right
back to where we were notmaking any money.
(07:13):
So I was looking for a revenuestream.
I had a friend who owned one ofthese franchises.
She says, hey, there's anotherone down, this you know, down in
LaGrange you could buy, youknow, go look at that.
So I went and looked at it,loved it.
I knew immediately what neededto be fixed.
I could see all the wrongthings, right, what they were
doing wrong when I walked in andI'm like this should be easy
(07:34):
peasy, two weeks in, right,first of all, the franchise did
not know I bought that store.
I didn't know, right, I mean, Iknew that they didn't know, we
had not been approved yet.
But the guy told me he's likeyou, either buy it on this date
or we're closing it and theoffers you know it's not even
going to be an option for you.
So I bought it right, and tofind out that the franchise
(07:58):
could have taken that away fromme had they chose right.
So anyway, two weeks in, I'venot been trained by the
franchise because they don'tknow that we own it and we're
just doing our best.
And I happened to walk in thekitchen of the chocolate store
and there was nobody there.
But what was sitting there wasa milk crate and I sat down on
(08:19):
that milk crate and I juststarted sobbing Like nobody's
coming into this stupid bankruptfranchise I just bought.
I made the biggest mistake ofmy life.
My kids are never going to goto college.
We're going to lose the dreamhome that we built and took a
loan out on to buy the damnchocolate store.
So I had a really good, you knowpity party, like snot's
(08:42):
dripping out of my nose.
I my eyes are all red and youknow how when you cry, your eyes
get really puffy at least minedo and red.
My nose turned all red.
I looked like I'd been drinkingback there and it was just a
horrible, horrible feeling.
And then after about 20 minutesI don't know, I just I'm not
one who stays down long, usuallyit's a little more than 20
(09:03):
minutes.
But I realized pretty fast Ibetter get my ass up off this
milk crate and go to work.
And I had a plan when I boughtit, right, and because I own a
dance studio at the same time, Iliterally would go from the
dance studio from nine to fourI'm sorry, the chocolate store
from nine to four, and then I'dgo over to the dance studio and
I'd work till nine o'clock atnight.
(09:24):
I was exhausted, right, and Iwas stupid.
I was just stupid.
So I started, picked myself upoff that milk crate, got to work
, implemented my plan.
I turned that store aroundwithin the 12 months before that
I bought it.
So by the 12 months later I hadmade it profitable and we had
(09:45):
added a hundred thousand dollarsto the bottom line.
Oh, that's four years later,yeah Thanks.
Four years later I boughtanother bankrupt one, right?
Same franchise turned that onearound in just under 12 months,
adding just a tad over a hundredthousand to their bottom line.
And I'm like, huh, I might knowa little bit something about
turning around a business, right, due to all of the marketing
(10:08):
books I read, because I didcrazy stuff in my marketing.
We sold chocolate, caramelapples and fudge.
I created a whole caramel applefestival right In October,
which was our busiest month ofthe year for caramel, for
anything, and I created a wholefestival around caramel apples.
(10:31):
And then the next month I gavea coupon to come back, kind of
like Kohl's cash, right, we allknow what Kohl's cash is, right,
I created something like thatthat they could bring their
apple bucks back in and exchangethem for product, and I had the
best November.
November was our second lowestmonth of the year, right.
So it was just about doingsilly little things, but always
(10:56):
watching.
What do I need to increase?
Do I need to increase ourcustomer count?
Do I need to increase ourticket account?
Do I need to increase revenue?
What is it that I'm looking for?
So I was.
I'm really lucky that myhusband was watching that while
I was working 12 hours a day, hewas watching what do?
Where are we at every singleweek where he'd let me know it's
(11:17):
like we're dropping.
We're not where we should be.
We need to do, we need tocreate another $1,200 or
whatever it is, and I would comeup with some some ridiculous
marketing strategy to get peoplein the door.
And if that meant I had to sendsomebody out on the street with
a chocolate tray dressed as ateddy bear, I would do it.
Angie Colee (11:39):
That's so fantastic .
All right, I'm circling back tothese marketing strategies
because I want to hear whateveryou want to share.
But before I do that, like, Ireally wanted to point out the
fact that I think, especially inAmerican entrepreneurship,
there's this, this fallacy oflike you have to figure it out
all alone.
And I was so glad because thatwas one question I was going to
ask.
Okay, you're working these 12hour days, you're going back and
(12:01):
forth between these twobusinesses, you've got this
overwhelm, plus all of thesefeelings of, oh my God, I just
messed up right.
How on earth do you make gooddecisions?
And then you pointed out okay,I've got somebody in my corner
who's supporting me, and I justwanted to highlight that and
tell people, if you're listening, this is important.
Stop trying to do shit byyourself.
(12:22):
Stop it.
You are not the most objective,especially when you're stressed
out and overwhelmed.
You need a support system.
It could be a friend,preferably somebody who's
familiar with business, becauseotherwise you've got employees
going well, that sounds reallyscary.
I don't know if I would do thatright and just amplifying the
doubts, but you need thatsupport system and you need to
feel the feelings, too, like Ithink that was one of the things
(12:44):
that really attracted me tohaving you on the show.
We had talked about this in thepast the milk crepe moment
right and I've been on your showtalking about my own milk crepe
moment Right, like you knowfeel the feelings and then go
all right, well, cool.
Now that I know that I feelthat way and like I've messed
everything up, what am I goingto do about it?
Time to get up and take someaction?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
(13:05):
Oh, my gosh, I love that.
Yeah, all right.
So, getting back to themarketing strategies, what else
did you do?
I'm so curious.
Jean Kuhn (13:14):
Okay, well, I had.
I had four that I reallyfocused on right.
Number one was customer servicebecause, first of all, it was
free.
Customer service is completelyfree and it doesn't take a lot
to smile when somebody walksinto your store.
It doesn't take much to helpthem and say yes to them.
We had a policy in our store wenever say no.
(13:35):
Now listen, I'm the first oneto say no to my kids, to my
husband, to my employees.
Right, I will say no to almosteverything till I can process
that through.
Is that a good idea?
But to our customers it wasalways we say yes and then we'll
figure it out.
But I was the only one whocould say no, and those are the
last people I wanted to say noto was the customer.
(13:58):
Somebody walks in and says, hey,can you create a fudge mountain
?
And I'm like, well, yes, I can,even though I've never done it
before and I don't know how todo it.
But how hard could that be?
To just pile some fudge up andmake it look like a mountain?
It can't right.
The first time I did it itlooked like a pile of dog dew,
right.
But I started doing it againand again and again adding a
(14:21):
little white chocolate.
So it's dripping down the sides.
It now looks like snow fallingdown the mountain.
Add a few little plastic treeson it.
Now we've got a forest aroundthe mountain.
It looked like Fudge Mountain,right?
So it's.
How can you say yes to whateverthat they're looking for?
And I always said yes becauseyou know why so many people
(14:42):
would say no, we don't do that,we don't.
We don't mold chocolate, wedon't.
We don't color chocolate, wedon't blah, blah, blah chocolate
.
Right, we would do everything.
You know it's so funny.
I did say no to one thing.
Want to hear it.
I'm just thinking about it nowbecause we're in cicada season
here.
I don't know if you guys getcicadas Not as bad as up there.
Yeah, we get.
(15:04):
I guess we got a double bunch.
I walked out yesterday.
It was deafening.
The one thing I said no to isthere was another chocolate
store that had moved in acrossthe street and they, when
cicadas came, they were, I guess, roasting them and dipping them
in chocolate.
And people came in asking mefor those and I'm like, oh hell,
(15:25):
no, we're not doing chocolatedip cicadas.
I know exactly where you can getthose right over there, exactly
yes, go see them, go buy them.
Angie Colee (15:36):
They're the experts in that.
I refuse Exactly.
Jean Kuhn (15:39):
Right, that was really the only thing I said no
to.
Angie Colee (15:42):
Love that and you get to do whatever the hell you
want to.
That's, I mean, within reason.
Obviously we're not talkingabout breaking the law of murder
or anything like that, Right?
But like if somebody comes inand says I want chocolate chip
dipped cicadas and that, like Imean, anybody watching the video
saw my faces.
No, I'm not doing that.
Hey, there's somebody overthere.
(16:07):
They can give you all the onesthat you want.
Jean Kuhn (16:09):
Tell them I sent you Right.
What did they come up through?
A ground full of Roundup, right?
Oh God, yes, that was mythought.
Is they came up eating Roundupand then we're going to ingest
that?
No, thank you.
Angie Colee (16:21):
No, thank you.
All right, so we have say yes.
What else did you try?
Jean Kuhn (16:26):
So one of the other things was I did my a friend of
mine from Arizona, christy Ellis.
We created something called umuh, shoot, uh, um, strategic
volunteering.
And strategic volunteering iswhere do you put yourself to be
seen in your community doinggood, right, people love it.
(16:48):
When they see their businesses,um, they they view it as giving
back.
I don't view it as giving backbecause, no, I never took
anything from anybody right.
I exchanged fair value productfor a price, right for the price
, but I didn't take anything.
So I don't ever look at it asgiving back.
I look at it as supporting mycommunity.
(17:08):
So Christy Ellis did it in sucha way which I'm gonna tell her
story because it's so cute.
She had twin daughters.
They're now in college, but Ialways think they're six years
old.
She would take hersix-year-olds to the Humane
Society every Saturday morningand they would read to puppies.
Right, they would read topuppies, they would play with
(17:29):
puppies.
I would watch her videos andnow she never mentioned her
business.
She never mentioned anything.
She'd just take pictures andvideos and post them on Facebook
of her little girls playingwith puppies and reading to
puppies, and I loved it.
But you know what it got her.
It got her a lot of exposurebecause people knew who she was
(17:50):
right.
The way I did that strategicvolunteering is I started
working with the businessassociation and I volunteered to
chair their summer art project.
It was at aroundondack chairsthat the businesses bought.
We had artists paint them andthen they sat around town for
people to sit in all summer longand then come fall we auctioned
(18:11):
them off for charity.
It's one of the biggest moneymakers that the business
association had ever made and itwas so much fun and I got to
meet a lot of business owners Ihad never met.
What that did for me was itincreased my revenue 30% that
year without doing anything else, because business owners were
(18:31):
now coming into my store buyingmy product, because I had met
them.
And, by the way, when I went tocall on them and ask them for a
sale, I always took chocolate,dipped strawberries or caramel
apple for them or somethingright.
I never went empty handed, sothat was super fun for me.
So one of my clients now was afinancial planner in that same
(18:56):
little town and he had anopportunity to and if you know a
financial planner, they canonly do marketing by basically
cold calling and referrals.
They are very limited by thegovernment, what they can and
cannot do, right?
So he was invited to join theboard of directors of the
(19:18):
Brookfield Zoo, which is our bigzoo in the Chicago area.
But with that came a $25,000price tag.
So he spent 25 grand to becomea member, a board member, at the
Brookfield Zoo.
And why would he do that?
He did it because he gets tohang out with his ideal clients,
(19:39):
the people who can afford,number one to donate money to
the zoo.
The zoo's always having blacktie, galas, right, dressing up,
hodgepodging, whatever that is.
And he was putting himselfintentionally, strategically,
volunteering, in front of hisideal clients Brilliant move,
(20:02):
right, brilliant move.
So that was another place.
I always put myself in a placeof doing good for other people,
right?
So the third one was emailmarketing right, this was around
.
I bought that store in 2002.
It was around 2003, 2004.
(20:23):
I started hearing commercialson my drive-in about constant
contact and I, first of all, Ireally like to write.
Second of all, I really like tolaugh.
So if I can amuse myself bywriting as something you know,
giving a little humor in mynewsletter, I was going to do it
.
So I started my own newsletter,which I had so much fun putting
(20:47):
together, but I came up withfive ways you should write your
newsletter, and I'll share thatwith you if you want, because I
think email marketing is one ofthe best ways to get your
message out there, and notenough entrepreneurs are using
email marketing these days.
They think social media is thebe all and end all of marketing.
(21:07):
Oh, hell no.
Angie Colee (21:09):
Oh yeah, I absolutely agree with you.
Like I've run creative teams,I've helped a lot of people with
email automations and emailmarketing.
Shameless plug for Angie if youwant to work on your email
marketing but you don't ownsocial media, like I see
business owners in onlinesupport groups every single day
going.
(21:29):
I just got locked out ofInstagram.
I just got flagged on TikTok.
I had over a million followersthere.
I can't get a hold of a humanbeing to get my account back.
Like that stuff can happen toyou, it can't really happen with
your email list, because evenif you got shut down at constant
contact, well you've still gotthe contacts there.
You could import and start allover again without having to
(21:51):
rebuild.
Jean Kuhn (21:52):
Exactly, I love email marketing because it's a great
way to get your message out in anon-salesy way, but providing a
ton of value.
Right, and we are in a I justheard somebody use the term the
other day.
Education-based marketing iswhat's really hot right now,
right, education-based marketing.
So that's a way to useeducation-based marketing is in
(22:13):
your newsletter.
So there's five ways to write anewsletter.
Now, angie, you may disagreewith me, but I'm going to tell
you my five ways, right?
Number one you've got to have akick-ass subject line.
So last year, two years ago, Iwas unsubscribing from a bunch
of emails.
Don't you do that every once ina while?
You're like, really, 46,000unread emails in my box, right,
(22:36):
okay, let's unsubscribe.
I was unsubscribing.
I put in her name.
Her name was Kim.
I put in her name, her name wasKim.
I put it in it, pulled up allof her emails and I was just
going to click on them anddelete really quick, right, go
through there.
That had to at least be acouple hundred emails.
The first email that popped upthe subject line was well, slap
my ass and call me Sally, and Iwas like that is the best damn
(23:00):
subject line I have ever seen.
I'm opening this up and findingout what the hell does that
mean?
Open it up?
She was selling an Instagramcourse.
I reached out to her thisInstagram because I hadn't
opened these emails.
The Instagram offer ended a dayor two before.
I didn't even know who she was.
I just reached out.
(23:20):
I sent an email back that saidhey, kim, I'd love to be part of
that.
I know nothing about Instagram.
I'd love to be part of thatprogram.
Is it too late?
Can I still get in?
I didn't hear anything for likefive days, six days, and then
she emailed back and said Icould, but I'd moved on.
Right, I'd moved on.
I was busy doing something elseand I I didn't respond.
(23:41):
I didn't.
Anyway, let's fast forwardanother week or two and I'm on
Facebook and we're Facebookfriends and I see an email about
she's like what would you do ifsomebody calls you up and told
you they're unsubscribing fromyour list, which I did and I had
said hey, kim, I'm gettingready to.
I was getting ready tounsubscribe from your list, but
that subject line was so killermade me open your email and read
(24:05):
it and I saw the blah, blah,blah.
I thought I was beingcomplimentary, but apparently
not, because she said that bitch.
That bitch said she wanted todo my Instagram program.
I got back to her.
She never answered and it washysterical.
Now, listen, I didn't.
I was mad for about fiveseconds, right?
I don't really hold on to abunch of stuff.
(24:26):
I was mad for about fiveseconds that she called me a
bitch, right, there's a lot ofthings you can call me.
Bitch is probably not one ofthem, but so I didn't do
anything.
Well, fast forward a year andwe're now in the same.
We both are using the samecoach, which means we're in a
community year.
And we're now in the same.
We both are using the samecoach, which means we're in a
community.
And she reaches out to me andshe's like Jean Kuhn, you're so
(24:49):
funny, let's do somethingtogether.
I'm like okay, okay, let's dosomething together.
So we get together, we work outthe details.
It's like but hold on a minutebefore we go.
I got we should have a littleuncomfortable conversation
because I'm that bitch, right,and we both laughed about it
because she had no idea that wasme, right, and I knew who she
(25:12):
was.
I was not.
I purposely wasn't reaching outbecause she already thought I
was a bitch.
Right, I don't want to, I'mlike I just wouldn't reach out
to her, so but I also just letit go.
But I needed if we were goingto work together, I needed to
let her know who I was right,that bitch.
So it cracked me up.
She is now a great friend ofmine.
(25:33):
She sponsors my events.
I will sponsor hers and itended up being right.
When you don't get mad aboutstuff in business, right, you
can do amazing things, butthat's having a subject line.
That subject line right therekept me from unsubscribing.
Number one.
Number two it gave me a greatcontact lead later, regardless
(25:59):
of the Facebook post.
Right, it was a great lead forother things because she does
something.
She's actually known as thequeen of Pinterest, so she's a
whatever she like you know howpeople used to work with
Facebook for things that sheworks directly with Pinterest.
There she's on like their piecethere that I don't know what
that means, but I don't want shedoes?
(26:21):
All I know is she does myPinterest now.
So, yeah, that's nice, yeah, soit's there's really great
things, can that?
Can come from that.
But the subject line is thevery most important piece of
your email.
I don't care what you writeinside, but you better get me to
open it to start with yeahRight, absolutely, absolutely
Right.
So number two is put somethingpersonal in there, right,
(26:46):
something personal.
I, when I was started writingthat I, I was that mom who
always complained about the factthat teachers got the summer
off.
Why are these kids home with meand not in school, where they
should be?
Right?
I am running two businesses.
I don't have time to take careof my kids during the day when
I'm working.
Right Now, was I kidding?
Of course I was, but again,it's just trying to find that
(27:09):
connection.
So when you share somethingpersonal, you're able to connect
with all of your audience.
Right, because you can talkabout kids, I can talk about
fine wine, I can talk aboutgreat restaurants, I could talk
about places to go and do thingswith your kids, pets these are
all just different ways that youcan connect with your people.
(27:31):
I would always show pictures ofmy dogs as a matter of fact,
someone said to me from thatsame organization it was
Mother's Day and he said to mehe says I have carnations for
the moms.
And I said, well, I didn't getone.
He goes well, these are justfor moms.
I'm like I've got three kids,right.
He says I only see pictures ofyour dogs.
(27:51):
So it's like how do you, how doyou keep that?
My daughter worked at the storeso I would put her picture in
there when she graduated, right,put her college graduation
picture in there.
People knew her since she'dbeen working in that store since
she was 12 years old.
The connection there with me.
Another mom reached out to mefrom Tennessee and she said my
(28:15):
daughter is also in nursingschool.
She had to take the lastsemester off because she just
had twin baby girls.
She said but she's going backand she said thank you for
sharing the story about yourdaughter.
That's how you connect withpeople, right?
It's not because buy mychocolate, right, because buy my
chocolate right.
So, interestingly enough, thefranchise, after I was having
(28:37):
such success with emailmarketing, they decided to get a
constant contact account forevery franchise owner and they
would write the emails and theywould.
You could send it out, thenright For them, right.
But what do you think theemails were about?
Buy my chocolate.
We have dark chocolate andwhite chocolate and milk
chocolate and chocolate dip,marshmallows and pretzels and
(28:59):
blah, blah, blah, fudge, right.
My emails were not about that.
My emails were about how do Iconnect with people?
And Angie, I'm not going to lieto you, I didn't even know I
was doing it at the time.
I didn't even understand thepower that I was creating at the
time, because I was really goodat making connections with
people, so I'm embarrassed tosay that now.
Angie Colee (29:22):
No, there's no like .
There's always a huge learningcurve in all of these things and
there are things there are somany things that we all, I think
, are instinctively aware of.
We do something that feels good, that feels right, without
really understanding why we'redoing it.
So I think you have nothing tobe embarrassed about, because
you actually trusted yourinstincts.
That's actually one of thenotes that I wrote down was
about personal connection,because I've had people that I
(29:44):
work with where I suggest thatyou know personal connection,
telling your stories who have,like, this huge wall of
resistance of like I'm a veryprivate person.
I don't want the business to beabout whether they like me as a
person.
I want it to be about what Icould do, and it doesn't sound
like you ever had any hesitationlike that.
But have you worked with peoplewho have resisted like being
personal?
Jean Kuhn (30:06):
I've had a few clients that were not wanting to
share too much about themselvesbecause they wanted to be.
You know, I think we as asociety gives business owners,
especially small business owners, the impression that you have
to be professional all the timeand if you're personal you're
not professional.
That is such bullshit, right,bullshit, bullshit.
(30:27):
That way you get to be, um, uh,business you get business is by
being personal, right?
It's crazy how that works.
Angie Colee (30:39):
And I respect that, because you can be a private
person who doesn't know.
So I've worked with people who,for instance, didn't want to
share pictures of their kidsTotally understandable, and also
, what else personal can youshare?
And so there was one lady thatI worked with, I remember, and
it got emotional.
We were pushing her in amastermind group to share some,
some personal stories and buildthat connection, right, because
(31:02):
she's such a great person, andshe resisted to the point of,
like you could tell she was veryvisibly upset and so I said,
hey, hey, why don't?
Why don't we attack this fromanother angle?
Why don't we look at this adifferent way, right?
Why don't we attack this fromanother angle?
Why don't we look at this adifferent way, right?
It's a very personal decisionabout whether to share personal
details, right, so you couldtalk about the internal
(31:22):
wrestling that you have abouthow much details to share about
your personal life and the kindof person that you are and who
you and how you want to beauthentic.
Like that is still verypersonal information, but you're
not revealing the intimatedetails of your life, just of
your thought process, likeyou're still connecting.
And I like to anybody thathears this and resists like oh,
(31:43):
I can't be my full personality.
First of all, if you've beenlistening to the show for any
amounts of time, you know I'vetold stories about being in mosh
pit fights.
I've told stories aboutaccidentally flashing my butt on
stage, which was like mynightmare come true at the time,
because I was always terrifiedthat that would happen if I
auditioned for a band.
I'm going to make an ass ofmyself.
I did Surprise.
(32:04):
I didn't blow up on stage andlike instantly evaporate into
the universe, like disappear,because that was the end, all be
all.
But you can share what makesyou human and that's going to
make people like you andresonate with you and want to do
business with you.
I've literally had people reachout, go.
I've been following you for awhile and I've been knowing we
need to work together and I justhaven't been able to until now.
(32:25):
Let's do this.
So that was kind of a big oldramble, but I agree with you, no
but you're 100% right on all ofthat.
Jean Kuhn (32:34):
Right, that when you share yourself, that's how you
connect with people, it's nottelling them how, listen, we all
are solution problem solvers.
Right, our customers have aproblem.
We have a solution.
If you sell anything, there'salways you're selling something
to help somebody else's problem,right, fix somebody else's
(32:55):
problem.
There's always you're sellingsomething to help somebody
else's problem, right?
Fix somebody else's problem.
If we can't share ourselves,right, they don't care to buy
the solution from somebody thatthey don't find.
Actually, I'm going to say thisinteresting, right, you have
got to become interesting andyou're much more likely to like.
We're not JC Penney's, right?
You're not buying walking intoour big conglomerate where
(33:17):
you'll never meet an executive,you'll never meet the owner,
you'll never meet anybody ofhigher up, right, anybody who's
making a decision, but you willmeet a floor salesperson who
could change your experience onwhether you ever shop there
again.
Yep, so how do we, how do we dothat in our businesses?
Right, absolutely.
Angie Colee (33:37):
Well, and I mean, there are so many people out
there that I think in theirmarketing they get so hung up on
on the traditional marketingelements positioning and pricing
and competitive advantage andall of that stuff.
You are a competitive advantagebecause literally nobody else
can be you.
They could just be a poorimitation of you and like, for
instance, I was griping aboutthis on Facebook yesterday, I
(33:59):
don't know whose fucking SEOprogram just let out, but I
literally in the last coupledays, have gotten at least a
dozen random contacts frompeople who are clearly all like
following the same playbook ofhey, I just found your YouTube
channel.
It's unfindable.
Irony of ironies, um, andhere's what would make it
(34:19):
findable.
Here's everything that's wrongwith it.
I can help you fix all of this.
And I just went like I don'tgive a shit.
First of all, you told me youcouldn't find it, but you found
it.
But you're what?
None of this makes sense.
And second of all, like, pleasedon't tell me my baby's ugly if
you ever hope to work with me.
I just like I've worked toohard and YouTube is definitely
not my forte, but it's somethingto work on.
(34:41):
It's just lower down thepriority list, right?
And if you want to help me,maybe talk about the content
that you did find useful and belike it's a shame that this is
not getting out there to morepeople I can help with that.
Is that something you'd beinterested in talking about?
That's a connection that'spersonal.
You showed me a little bit ofwhat you do and how you're
interested in me.
Yeah, that stands out from thedozen people that I just got.
(35:05):
That said the exact same thingto me and I went, go away go
away.
Jean Kuhn (35:09):
But isn't it interesting that they want to
help you, right?
And so many entrepreneurs willread that and think they're not
good enough, right, that?
That's one more thing I'vescrewed up, right?
One more thing that somebody iscomplaining about.
One more reason I shouldn't bedoing this.
Instead of going every day, Iget up and I work imperfectly
(35:31):
every single day, and you knowwhat?
There's?
No, there is no every singleday.
And you know what?
There's?
No, there is no.
What's the word I'm looking for?
There is no shame around it,there is no.
I don't feel bad about myselffor being imperfect every day.
There's and listen, there's nojudgment.
I don't even judge myself aboutbeing imperfect, right?
So, there, if you can get upevery day and do take any action
(35:56):
, even imperfect action, you aregoing to be a success.
It's the people who sit backand can't get over their own
crap and can't get out there andhave to process every damn
thing they're doing and checkwith 14 different people,
including your cousin who'snever had a job in her life,
right, right, it's, it's crazy.
Just get up and do imperfectaction every day.
Angie Colee (36:18):
Follow your instincts.
Try shit, see what happens.
Detach from the results.
It doesn't mean you're afailure if it doesn't work.
Like there are so many reasonswhy shit doesn't work and it
could have nothing to do withyou.
Like I've, oh gosh, this onlinedebate with newer entrepreneurs
who are frustrated by people whoteach marketing, which, on one
hand, I totally understand.
(36:39):
The online marketing industryis a landmine, to say the least.
Right, with some peopleteaching some unethical and you
know FTC is going to come foryou kind of shit, and other
people who teach stuff that justreally doesn't work.
But these folks just go.
Oh, you know I can't getanybody to guarantee results.
Nobody can guarantee anything,anything ever, right.
(37:03):
It just frustrates me becausethe example I use with folks is
so you remember when I love thisjoke way too much.
When, hell, I mean Texas frozeover in 2021?
I can say that I'm from Texas,don't come for me.
A lot of marketing campaignsfailed that day, especially if
they were marketing to people inTexas who were literally not
(37:25):
online checking their emailsbecause they were frozen right.
So there's no guarantees inlife.
You can try something and youhave it planned, you have it
vetted, you've got money in thebank to support you in case it
goes wrong.
And it goes wrong and it hasnothing to do with you.
That's just the way this works,so you just got to keep trying
shit.
Jean Kuhn (37:42):
Just keep trying shit .
But you know what?
The people who ask for thatguarantee are usually the people
who don't do the work.
So if you can't guarantee thema result, well then there's no
way they're going to work withyou, because you won't guarantee
them anything.
But I can't guarantee you'regoing to do the work.
Right, I'm going to tell youwhat you need to do.
Angie Colee (38:03):
Isn't that so bass-ackwards too?
I've vented about this before,and this is no judgment if this
describes you, because this hasbeen me.
I am grumpy with past me forholding myself back for so long
too.
But there's no guarantee thatyou'll do the work.
And also, approaching it fromthat perspective of I'm not
(38:23):
going to put my full effort intothis unless I know for sure
it's going to work, means thatyou're coming at this half-assed
already.
How do you expect something towork if you're not even putting
in effort because you're alreadycoming at this from well?
It's probably not going to fit.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Jean Kuhn (38:42):
Yes, yes, you better.
Full asset, full asset.
Angie Colee (38:48):
We're making a quote graphic of that.
That's going to be a video clipfor sure.
I love that.
Got a full asset.
Jean Kuhn (38:54):
Number three is you got to add some value.
You have to have some value inthat email, right?
So what does that look like?
Educate them a little bit, notover the top, just a little bit.
They're only looking for, likesound bites, right A value of
what you can put in there.
Number four is a call to action.
Yes, right, what's the call toaction that you have for them?
(39:16):
Make them do something, right,buy something.
Here's a coupon, take thiscoupon or whatever it was.
And then the last piece is doone more little thing extra.
I would put in their chocolaterecipes.
I would go to allrecipescom.
I gave them full credit in mynewsletter, but I would find
(39:37):
something that had chocolate init and I would make it a recipe.
And the only thing I wouldchange they would say I use
brand name Rocky MountainChocolate Factory, right, so now
I just told you my franchisewas but Well, we're going to
have a link in the show notesRight, so I don't have it
anymore.
(39:57):
I left both my franchises tolive my second act fully,
completely and happily so yeah.
Angie Colee (40:06):
Tell me more about that.
Jean Kuhn (40:09):
Oh my God, I could talk all day about women in
their second act, because thoseare my people, right?
The woman over 50 who knows shewas meant for more and maybe
she's coming out of corporateand she's starting a new job.
Or maybe the person that's likeme.
I had been self-employed forthe last 39 years and it wasn't
until I was 53 years old that Ieven figured out that there was
(40:33):
more that I wanted, right?
When that last kid turned 21,.
I was like it's my turn now.
I have taken care of my familyfor the last 20, 30 years and
I'm like it's my turn to createwhat I want, because before I
was just helping pay the bills.
Right Now it's my turn tocreate what I want.
I don't have to worry.
(40:54):
I don't hardly cook anymore.
I definitely don't clean myhouse anymore.
That's why, when I work reallyhard to have a cleaning lady, I
do what I want to do now increating the life and the
business that I want that willsustain my husband and I for the
rest of our time together Right?
So that's the woman I help,right?
(41:17):
Is that woman over 50 who knowsshe wants more, she knows she
can do more, she doesn't want tobecome irrelevant.
She wants to make a ton ofmoney.
And, angie, I don't know if youknow this only 12% of female
business owners ever hit sixfigures.
Angie Colee (41:33):
There's undercharging.
I did a podcast with somebodyyesterday where we were talking
about busting money myths and Itold them look, I'm not the
world's foremost expert on money, but here's what I've learned
over my time in business.
Right, we've got to look at howwe charge and our relationship
with value and money.
That's a hole.
We could rant about that fortwo more hours too.
Jean Kuhn (41:54):
Right.
But once they get it right,once they get it, they get it,
and then there's no stoppingthem.
Angie Colee (42:01):
Yes, oh, my goodness, I want to keep ranting
for like three more hours.
This is so much fun, but I justlooked down and realized, holy
shit, we're already at time.
Jean Kuhn (42:11):
Oh man, Awesome.
Well, I get it right.
Yeah, Time flies when you'rehaving fun right Time flies when
you're having fun.
Angie Colee (42:21):
So tell us a little bit more about your business.
We want to learn everything.
Jean Kuhn (42:28):
Well, one of the things I do is I help small
business owners, like I said atthe beginning, use really
interesting marketing strategiesto up their revenue in the next
90 days.
So what can I tell what I havecoming up?
Can I talk about that?
Absolutely so when I say comingup, it's October 2nd through
the 4th, it's a three day.
It's called my second actconference.
Second act conference and it'sfor that woman business owner
(42:50):
over 50, who's doesn't haveenough leads, doesn't have
enough clients and definitelyisn't making enough money.
How can we turn all of thataround for her in three days?
Nice, so that's really what Ihave coming up.
Next is that three-day eventfor women business owners,
(43:10):
because it's my goal mission inlife to help as many women as I
possibly can get to six figures.
Angie Colee (43:16):
Yes, and business is a skill.
It is a skill that you canlearn, and if you are worried
about your ability to learn thatskill, trust me, nothing makes
looking at your financials andyour P&L more interesting than
when it's your business Right,like?
I say that as somebody with abusiness degree who, like, just
didn't get it, didn't understandit, until I had the context to
(43:39):
apply to my own business, andnow this is suddenly very
interesting to me to think aboutall of these abstract concepts.
But I love that.
I'm going to make sure.
And where's your website?
Where can we check you out?
Jean Kuhn (43:50):
Oh, you can check me out at Jean J-E-A-N Kuhn
K-U-H-Ncom.
Angie Colee (43:57):
Fantastic.
I'm going to make sure there'sa clickable link in the show
notes.
Thank you so much for being onthe show, thank you and can I
give away something?
Jean Kuhn (44:04):
Yes, absolutely Okay.
I'd like to give people thefive no-cost marketing
strategies that I use to turnthose two businesses around and
how they can make their businessmore visible by using them.
And we didn't get to.
The last one, which was themost fun part, was the marketing
things that I did right, allthe extra cool marketing stuff,
so I'd love to give that to them.
There's a couple of goodstories in there.
(44:26):
Absolutely, where can they grabthat?
You can grab that at five, thenumber five
fivemarketingideascom.
Angie Colee (44:34):
Fantastic.
I'll make sure there areclickable links in the show
notes.
Appreciate the hell out of you.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Jean Kuhn (44:40):
Oh, my God, thank you for having me.
It's been so much fun.
Angie Colee (44:46):
That's all for now.
If you want to keep thatkick-ass energy high, please
take a minute to share thisepisode with someone that might
need a high-octane dose of youCan Do it.
Don't forget to rate, reviewand subscribe to the Permission
to Kick Ass podcast on ApplePodcasts, spotify and wherever
you stream your podcasts.
I'm your host, angie Coley, andI'm here rooting for you.
Thanks for listening and let'sgo kick some ass.
Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass, the show
that gives you a virtual seatat the bar for the real
conversations that happenbetween entrepreneurs.
I'm interviewing all kinds ofbusiness owners, from those just
a few years into freelancing toCEOs helming nine figure
companies.
If you've ever worried thateveryone else just seems to get
it and you're missing somethingor messing things up, this show
(00:24):
is for you.
I'm your host, angie Coley, andlet's get to it.
Hey, welcome back to Permissionto Kick Ass.
With me today is my friend,jean Kuhn, say hi, hi.
Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited forthis one and I love this.
(00:44):
Okay, so, for people thataren't watching the video,
there's this sign in thebackground that says lucky me,
which I just.
Oh, I love, I love, I love.
I bet there's a story behindthat one too.
But before I go down the rabbithole, please tell us about your
business and what you do.
Jean Kuhn (00:56):
I help small business owners use really unique
marketing strategies like out ofthe box over the topme-crazy
marketing strategies to increasetheir revenue fast.
Angie Colee (01:09):
Oh, I really, really love that.
You know, what you just saidreminded me of a book that I
read once upon a time calledMarketing Outrageously.
It's a fantastic book andyou'll recognize it by a sumo
wrestler doing a slam-dunkbasketball move on the front
cover.
It's so fantastic.
I learned about that when I wasan impetuous young copywriter I
(01:30):
mean, we're talking thecopywriter inside the corporate
office that would ask formeetings with the president,
because I have a few ideas.
I have some ideas on how wecould do better, and you
probably don't know what it'slike down here at the urgent
level here, but I got some ideasand one of the presidents there
were three during the time thatI was at that particular
company, but he goes.
You know you should probablyread this book.
(01:51):
It's called MarketingOutrageously and it's about how
a sports marketer his name isJohn Spellstray, I believe helps
turn around a losing franchiseby turning these sporting events
into like family events insteadof just games, and so it's
fascinating and now I need toreread it.
Yeah.
Jean Kuhn (02:11):
Well, I, I actually started creating these for
myself when I bought a bankruptfranchise right, a chocolate
franchise and I'm like I didn'thave.
I took out just enough money toget to buy the business Right
and they practically give thoseaway.
I didn't have.
I took out just enough money toget to buy the business Right
and they practically give thoseaway.
But I didn't take any extramoney for marketing.
This was pre-social media and Ihad to freaking, look, figure
(02:36):
out, how am I going to turnaround this business.
But I had been readingmarketing books Like I don't
even know why, long before Ieven became an entrepreneur.
I have no idea how that evencame into my existence, but I
love different marketingstrategies that are so different
that.
(02:56):
Are you familiar with SavannahBananas, angie?
Angie Colee (02:59):
Oh, yes, I recommend those to everybody.
Jean Kuhn (03:03):
Right, I recommend those to everybody.
Right, and Jesse Cole doesexactly like in 2020, right
2020,?
Angie Colee (03:18):
when he bought it, he does exactly the kind of
thing to a higher level than Idid it when I just had a little
chocolate store, oh my God.
So for anybody that isunfamiliar with the magic of the
Savannah Bananas, you need tolook these guys up.
You need to watch as manyvideos as you can, because they
are a local minor leaguebaseball team in Savannah.
Right, they wear these brightyellow outfits and they are
(03:38):
renowned for doing ridiculousthings.
We're not just talking likemascot dances or anything like
this.
These guys did a dirty dancingreenactment, complete with the
flying leap.
They've done baseball on stilts.
I don't even remember all thecrazy things banana costumes,
(04:07):
right, and they.
Jean Kuhn (04:07):
Here's the.
What Jesse says is they?
What's really interesting aboutthem is that he's trying to
find that friction in themarketing, meaning what is the
part about baseball that peoplehated?
Right, and what they hated isthe game was really long, could
get really long, so it's a twohour.
It's a two hour game and it'scalled banana ball.
Long, so it's a two hour.
It's a two hour game and it'scalled banana ball.
(04:28):
Right, there are like I can'teven remember all the rules but
to banana ball.
But if you're a baseball puristyou would hate these guys, but
I love them because it's a wholetwo hours of entertainment.
Oh, the other thing ballparkfood right.
When you buy a ticket to thebananas, all your food and soft
drinks are included.
I don't know if they havealcohol even.
Yeah, so, and the ticket islike crazy, like maybe $25 to
(04:52):
$35.
It's not a really expensiveticket.
Angie Colee (04:56):
Oh, that's incredible, Because I remember I
think I saw some documentary orsome interview where he was
talking about this.
I mean this was a failingfranchise.
Some documentary or someinterview where he was talking
about this?
I mean, this was a failingfranchise.
How many people love to like?
How many minor league games doyou imagine are selling?
Sold out, crowds, right, andeverybody is showing up for the
games.
That's just not reallyhappening.
And I agree, I always felt likesuch a I don't know like a
(05:18):
traitor or something, whenpeople would be like let's go to
a baseball game and I was like,no, those takes.
So that would be like threeinnings would be my perfect,
then I would go out with you,but nine.
Then I start to be like kind oflike the same with stock car
races oh, they're turning left.
Oh, they're continuing to turnleft.
This is so exciting.
(05:39):
Sorry, sports fans, don't comefor me, I am just not a sports
ball person but just the factthat they turned that into an
event and picked out the thingsthat most people just really
don't resonate with and turn itinto something new is fantastic.
Jean Kuhn (05:53):
And if you can do that in your business, find that
friction piece and make it soto kind of get rid of it, if you
can.
We all have things in ourbusinesses we'd like to.
I'd love to hear it.
When it's like that's ourpolicy, Well, maybe your policy
should be how about customerservice and how can you serve
the customer, instead offiguring out how you can not
(06:15):
serve them by saying that's ourpolicy.
Angie Colee (06:18):
No, just just convince them that the way that
I do it is the right way.
Don't actually listen to theirconcerns.
So tell me more about thischocolate company.
Like I've heard this storybefore, but I'm enthralled by
this and I think people aregoing to love it.
Jean Kuhn (06:32):
So let's go back to 2001,.
9-11 hit right.
So I had a dance studio at thetime for kids and I still had it
for a few more years.
But things were really turnedaround fast.
The market crashed, the economycrashed and we were really
(06:52):
looking hard to find anotherrevenue source other than the
dance studio, because we lost30% of our kids, which at that
point was the first year we wereever going to be profitable was
2021.
We had such a good signup andwithin three weeks we had lost
30% of our student base for thedance studio, which put us right
back to where we were notmaking any money.
(07:13):
So I was looking for a revenuestream.
I had a friend who owned one ofthese franchises.
She says, hey, there's anotherone down, this you know, down in
LaGrange you could buy, youknow, go look at that.
So I went and looked at it,loved it.
I knew immediately what neededto be fixed.
I could see all the wrongthings, right, what they were
doing wrong when I walked in andI'm like this should be easy
(07:34):
peasy, two weeks in, right,first of all, the franchise did
not know I bought that store.
I didn't know, right, I mean, Iknew that they didn't know, we
had not been approved yet.
But the guy told me he's likeyou, either buy it on this date
or we're closing it and theoffers you know it's not even
going to be an option for you.
So I bought it right, and tofind out that the franchise
(07:58):
could have taken that away fromme had they chose right.
So anyway, two weeks in, I'venot been trained by the
franchise because they don'tknow that we own it and we're
just doing our best.
And I happened to walk in thekitchen of the chocolate store
and there was nobody there.
But what was sitting there wasa milk crate and I sat down on
(08:19):
that milk crate and I juststarted sobbing Like nobody's
coming into this stupid bankruptfranchise I just bought.
I made the biggest mistake ofmy life.
My kids are never going to goto college.
We're going to lose the dreamhome that we built and took a
loan out on to buy the damnchocolate store.
So I had a really good, you knowpity party, like snot's
(08:42):
dripping out of my nose.
I my eyes are all red and youknow how when you cry, your eyes
get really puffy at least minedo and red.
My nose turned all red.
I looked like I'd been drinkingback there and it was just a
horrible, horrible feeling.
And then after about 20 minutesI don't know, I just I'm not
one who stays down long, usuallyit's a little more than 20
(09:03):
minutes.
But I realized pretty fast Ibetter get my ass up off this
milk crate and go to work.
And I had a plan when I boughtit, right, and because I own a
dance studio at the same time, Iliterally would go from the
dance studio from nine to fourI'm sorry, the chocolate store
from nine to four, and then I'dgo over to the dance studio and
I'd work till nine o'clock atnight.
(09:24):
I was exhausted, right, and Iwas stupid.
I was just stupid.
So I started, picked myself upoff that milk crate, got to work
, implemented my plan.
I turned that store aroundwithin the 12 months before that
I bought it.
So by the 12 months later I hadmade it profitable and we had
(09:45):
added a hundred thousand dollarsto the bottom line.
Oh, that's four years later,yeah Thanks.
Four years later I boughtanother bankrupt one, right?
Same franchise turned that onearound in just under 12 months,
adding just a tad over a hundredthousand to their bottom line.
And I'm like, huh, I might knowa little bit something about
turning around a business, right, due to all of the marketing
(10:08):
books I read, because I didcrazy stuff in my marketing.
We sold chocolate, caramelapples and fudge.
I created a whole caramel applefestival right In October,
which was our busiest month ofthe year for caramel, for
anything, and I created a wholefestival around caramel apples.
(10:31):
And then the next month I gavea coupon to come back, kind of
like Kohl's cash, right, we allknow what Kohl's cash is, right,
I created something like thatthat they could bring their
apple bucks back in and exchangethem for product, and I had the
best November.
November was our second lowestmonth of the year, right.
So it was just about doingsilly little things, but always
(10:56):
watching.
What do I need to increase?
Do I need to increase ourcustomer count?
Do I need to increase ourticket account?
Do I need to increase revenue?
What is it that I'm looking for?
So I was.
I'm really lucky that myhusband was watching that while
I was working 12 hours a day, hewas watching what do?
Where are we at every singleweek where he'd let me know it's
(11:17):
like we're dropping.
We're not where we should be.
We need to do, we need tocreate another $1,200 or
whatever it is, and I would comeup with some some ridiculous
marketing strategy to get peoplein the door.
And if that meant I had to sendsomebody out on the street with
a chocolate tray dressed as ateddy bear, I would do it.
Angie Colee (11:39):
That's so fantastic .
All right, I'm circling back tothese marketing strategies
because I want to hear whateveryou want to share.
But before I do that, like, Ireally wanted to point out the
fact that I think, especially inAmerican entrepreneurship,
there's this, this fallacy oflike you have to figure it out
all alone.
And I was so glad because thatwas one question I was going to
ask.
Okay, you're working these 12hour days, you're going back and
(12:01):
forth between these twobusinesses, you've got this
overwhelm, plus all of thesefeelings of, oh my God, I just
messed up right.
How on earth do you make gooddecisions?
And then you pointed out okay,I've got somebody in my corner
who's supporting me, and I justwanted to highlight that and
tell people, if you're listening, this is important.
Stop trying to do shit byyourself.
(12:22):
Stop it.
You are not the most objective,especially when you're stressed
out and overwhelmed.
You need a support system.
It could be a friend,preferably somebody who's
familiar with business, becauseotherwise you've got employees
going well, that sounds reallyscary.
I don't know if I would do thatright and just amplifying the
doubts, but you need thatsupport system and you need to
feel the feelings, too, like Ithink that was one of the things
(12:44):
that really attracted me tohaving you on the show.
We had talked about this in thepast the milk crepe moment
right and I've been on your showtalking about my own milk crepe
moment Right, like you knowfeel the feelings and then go
all right, well, cool.
Now that I know that I feelthat way and like I've messed
everything up, what am I goingto do about it?
Time to get up and take someaction?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
(13:05):
Oh, my gosh, I love that.
Yeah, all right.
So, getting back to themarketing strategies, what else
did you do?
I'm so curious.
Jean Kuhn (13:14):
Okay, well, I had.
I had four that I reallyfocused on right.
Number one was customer servicebecause, first of all, it was
free.
Customer service is completelyfree and it doesn't take a lot
to smile when somebody walksinto your store.
It doesn't take much to helpthem and say yes to them.
We had a policy in our store wenever say no.
(13:35):
Now listen, I'm the first oneto say no to my kids, to my
husband, to my employees.
Right, I will say no to almosteverything till I can process
that through.
Is that a good idea?
But to our customers it wasalways we say yes and then we'll
figure it out.
But I was the only one whocould say no, and those are the
last people I wanted to say noto was the customer.
(13:58):
Somebody walks in and says, hey,can you create a fudge mountain
?
And I'm like, well, yes, I can,even though I've never done it
before and I don't know how todo it.
But how hard could that be?
To just pile some fudge up andmake it look like a mountain?
It can't right.
The first time I did it itlooked like a pile of dog dew,
right.
But I started doing it againand again and again adding a
(14:21):
little white chocolate.
So it's dripping down the sides.
It now looks like snow fallingdown the mountain.
Add a few little plastic treeson it.
Now we've got a forest aroundthe mountain.
It looked like Fudge Mountain,right?
So it's.
How can you say yes to whateverthat they're looking for?
And I always said yes becauseyou know why so many people
(14:42):
would say no, we don't do that,we don't.
We don't mold chocolate, wedon't.
We don't color chocolate, wedon't blah, blah, blah chocolate
.
Right, we would do everything.
You know it's so funny.
I did say no to one thing.
Want to hear it.
I'm just thinking about it nowbecause we're in cicada season
here.
I don't know if you guys getcicadas Not as bad as up there.
Yeah, we get.
(15:04):
I guess we got a double bunch.
I walked out yesterday.
It was deafening.
The one thing I said no to isthere was another chocolate
store that had moved in acrossthe street and they, when
cicadas came, they were, I guess, roasting them and dipping them
in chocolate.
And people came in asking mefor those and I'm like, oh hell,
(15:25):
no, we're not doing chocolatedip cicadas.
I know exactly where you can getthose right over there, exactly
yes, go see them, go buy them.
Angie Colee (15:36):
They're the experts in that.
I refuse Exactly.
Jean Kuhn (15:39):
Right, that was really the only thing I said no
to.
Angie Colee (15:42):
Love that and you get to do whatever the hell you
want to.
That's, I mean, within reason.
Obviously we're not talkingabout breaking the law of murder
or anything like that, Right?
But like if somebody comes inand says I want chocolate chip
dipped cicadas and that, like Imean, anybody watching the video
saw my faces.
No, I'm not doing that.
Hey, there's somebody overthere.
(16:07):
They can give you all the onesthat you want.
Jean Kuhn (16:09):
Tell them I sent you Right.
What did they come up through?
A ground full of Roundup, right?
Oh God, yes, that was mythought.
Is they came up eating Roundupand then we're going to ingest
that?
No, thank you.
Angie Colee (16:21):
No, thank you.
All right, so we have say yes.
What else did you try?
Jean Kuhn (16:26):
So one of the other things was I did my a friend of
mine from Arizona, christy Ellis.
We created something called umuh, shoot, uh, um, strategic
volunteering.
And strategic volunteering iswhere do you put yourself to be
seen in your community doinggood, right, people love it.
(16:48):
When they see their businesses,um, they they view it as giving
back.
I don't view it as giving backbecause, no, I never took
anything from anybody right.
I exchanged fair value productfor a price, right for the price
, but I didn't take anything.
So I don't ever look at it asgiving back.
I look at it as supporting mycommunity.
(17:08):
So Christy Ellis did it in sucha way which I'm gonna tell her
story because it's so cute.
She had twin daughters.
They're now in college, but Ialways think they're six years
old.
She would take hersix-year-olds to the Humane
Society every Saturday morningand they would read to puppies.
Right, they would read topuppies, they would play with
(17:29):
puppies.
I would watch her videos andnow she never mentioned her
business.
She never mentioned anything.
She'd just take pictures andvideos and post them on Facebook
of her little girls playingwith puppies and reading to
puppies, and I loved it.
But you know what it got her.
It got her a lot of exposurebecause people knew who she was
(17:50):
right.
The way I did that strategicvolunteering is I started
working with the businessassociation and I volunteered to
chair their summer art project.
It was at aroundondack chairsthat the businesses bought.
We had artists paint them andthen they sat around town for
people to sit in all summer longand then come fall we auctioned
(18:11):
them off for charity.
It's one of the biggest moneymakers that the business
association had ever made and itwas so much fun and I got to
meet a lot of business owners Ihad never met.
What that did for me was itincreased my revenue 30% that
year without doing anything else, because business owners were
(18:31):
now coming into my store buyingmy product, because I had met
them.
And, by the way, when I went tocall on them and ask them for a
sale, I always took chocolate,dipped strawberries or caramel
apple for them or somethingright.
I never went empty handed, sothat was super fun for me.
So one of my clients now was afinancial planner in that same
(18:56):
little town and he had anopportunity to and if you know a
financial planner, they canonly do marketing by basically
cold calling and referrals.
They are very limited by thegovernment, what they can and
cannot do, right?
So he was invited to join theboard of directors of the
(19:18):
Brookfield Zoo, which is our bigzoo in the Chicago area.
But with that came a $25,000price tag.
So he spent 25 grand to becomea member, a board member, at the
Brookfield Zoo.
And why would he do that?
He did it because he gets tohang out with his ideal clients,
(19:39):
the people who can afford,number one to donate money to
the zoo.
The zoo's always having blacktie, galas, right, dressing up,
hodgepodging, whatever that is.
And he was putting himselfintentionally, strategically,
volunteering, in front of hisideal clients Brilliant move,
(20:02):
right, brilliant move.
So that was another place.
I always put myself in a placeof doing good for other people,
right?
So the third one was emailmarketing right, this was around
.
I bought that store in 2002.
It was around 2003, 2004.
(20:23):
I started hearing commercialson my drive-in about constant
contact and I, first of all, Ireally like to write.
Second of all, I really like tolaugh.
So if I can amuse myself bywriting as something you know,
giving a little humor in mynewsletter, I was going to do it
.
So I started my own newsletter,which I had so much fun putting
(20:47):
together, but I came up withfive ways you should write your
newsletter, and I'll share thatwith you if you want, because I
think email marketing is one ofthe best ways to get your
message out there, and notenough entrepreneurs are using
email marketing these days.
They think social media is thebe all and end all of marketing.
(21:07):
Oh, hell no.
Angie Colee (21:09):
Oh yeah, I absolutely agree with you.
Like I've run creative teams,I've helped a lot of people with
email automations and emailmarketing.
Shameless plug for Angie if youwant to work on your email
marketing but you don't ownsocial media, like I see
business owners in onlinesupport groups every single day
going.
(21:29):
I just got locked out ofInstagram.
I just got flagged on TikTok.
I had over a million followersthere.
I can't get a hold of a humanbeing to get my account back.
Like that stuff can happen toyou, it can't really happen with
your email list, because evenif you got shut down at constant
contact, well you've still gotthe contacts there.
You could import and start allover again without having to
(21:51):
rebuild.
Jean Kuhn (21:52):
Exactly, I love email marketing because it's a great
way to get your message out in anon-salesy way, but providing a
ton of value.
Right, and we are in a I justheard somebody use the term the
other day.
Education-based marketing iswhat's really hot right now,
right, education-based marketing.
So that's a way to useeducation-based marketing is in
(22:13):
your newsletter.
So there's five ways to write anewsletter.
Now, angie, you may disagreewith me, but I'm going to tell
you my five ways, right?
Number one you've got to have akick-ass subject line.
So last year, two years ago, Iwas unsubscribing from a bunch
of emails.
Don't you do that every once ina while?
You're like, really, 46,000unread emails in my box, right,
(22:36):
okay, let's unsubscribe.
I was unsubscribing.
I put in her name.
Her name was Kim.
I put in her name, her name wasKim.
I put it in it, pulled up allof her emails and I was just
going to click on them anddelete really quick, right, go
through there.
That had to at least be acouple hundred emails.
The first email that popped upthe subject line was well, slap
my ass and call me Sally, and Iwas like that is the best damn
(23:00):
subject line I have ever seen.
I'm opening this up and findingout what the hell does that
mean?
Open it up?
She was selling an Instagramcourse.
I reached out to her thisInstagram because I hadn't
opened these emails.
The Instagram offer ended a dayor two before.
I didn't even know who she was.
I just reached out.
(23:20):
I sent an email back that saidhey, kim, I'd love to be part of
that.
I know nothing about Instagram.
I'd love to be part of thatprogram.
Is it too late?
Can I still get in?
I didn't hear anything for likefive days, six days, and then
she emailed back and said Icould, but I'd moved on.
Right, I'd moved on.
I was busy doing something elseand I I didn't respond.
(23:41):
I didn't.
Anyway, let's fast forwardanother week or two and I'm on
Facebook and we're Facebookfriends and I see an email about
she's like what would you do ifsomebody calls you up and told
you they're unsubscribing fromyour list, which I did and I had
said hey, kim, I'm gettingready to.
I was getting ready tounsubscribe from your list, but
that subject line was so killermade me open your email and read
(24:05):
it and I saw the blah, blah,blah.
I thought I was beingcomplimentary, but apparently
not, because she said that bitch.
That bitch said she wanted todo my Instagram program.
I got back to her.
She never answered and it washysterical.
Now, listen, I didn't.
I was mad for about fiveseconds, right?
I don't really hold on to abunch of stuff.
(24:26):
I was mad for about fiveseconds that she called me a
bitch, right, there's a lot ofthings you can call me.
Bitch is probably not one ofthem, but so I didn't do
anything.
Well, fast forward a year andwe're now in the same.
We both are using the samecoach, which means we're in a
community year.
And we're now in the same.
We both are using the samecoach, which means we're in a
community.
And she reaches out to me andshe's like Jean Kuhn, you're so
(24:49):
funny, let's do somethingtogether.
I'm like okay, okay, let's dosomething together.
So we get together, we work outthe details.
It's like but hold on a minutebefore we go.
I got we should have a littleuncomfortable conversation
because I'm that bitch, right,and we both laughed about it
because she had no idea that wasme, right, and I knew who she
(25:12):
was.
I was not.
I purposely wasn't reaching outbecause she already thought I
was a bitch.
Right, I don't want to, I'mlike I just wouldn't reach out
to her, so but I also just letit go.
But I needed if we were goingto work together, I needed to
let her know who I was right,that bitch.
So it cracked me up.
She is now a great friend ofmine.
(25:33):
She sponsors my events.
I will sponsor hers and itended up being right.
When you don't get mad aboutstuff in business, right, you
can do amazing things, butthat's having a subject line.
That subject line right therekept me from unsubscribing.
Number one.
Number two it gave me a greatcontact lead later, regardless
(25:59):
of the Facebook post.
Right, it was a great lead forother things because she does
something.
She's actually known as thequeen of Pinterest, so she's a
whatever she like you know howpeople used to work with
Facebook for things that sheworks directly with Pinterest.
There she's on like their piecethere that I don't know what
that means, but I don't want shedoes?
(26:21):
All I know is she does myPinterest now.
So, yeah, that's nice, yeah, soit's there's really great
things, can that?
Can come from that.
But the subject line is thevery most important piece of
your email.
I don't care what you writeinside, but you better get me to
open it to start with yeahRight, absolutely, absolutely
Right.
So number two is put somethingpersonal in there, right,
(26:46):
something personal.
I, when I was started writingthat I, I was that mom who
always complained about the factthat teachers got the summer
off.
Why are these kids home with meand not in school, where they
should be?
Right?
I am running two businesses.
I don't have time to take careof my kids during the day when
I'm working.
Right Now, was I kidding?
Of course I was, but again,it's just trying to find that
(27:09):
connection.
So when you share somethingpersonal, you're able to connect
with all of your audience.
Right, because you can talkabout kids, I can talk about
fine wine, I can talk aboutgreat restaurants, I could talk
about places to go and do thingswith your kids, pets these are
all just different ways that youcan connect with your people.
(27:31):
I would always show pictures ofmy dogs as a matter of fact,
someone said to me from thatsame organization it was
Mother's Day and he said to mehe says I have carnations for
the moms.
And I said, well, I didn't getone.
He goes well, these are justfor moms.
I'm like I've got three kids,right.
He says I only see pictures ofyour dogs.
(27:51):
So it's like how do you, how doyou keep that?
My daughter worked at the storeso I would put her picture in
there when she graduated, right,put her college graduation
picture in there.
People knew her since she'dbeen working in that store since
she was 12 years old.
The connection there with me.
Another mom reached out to mefrom Tennessee and she said my
(28:15):
daughter is also in nursingschool.
She had to take the lastsemester off because she just
had twin baby girls.
She said but she's going backand she said thank you for
sharing the story about yourdaughter.
That's how you connect withpeople, right?
It's not because buy mychocolate, right, because buy my
chocolate right.
So, interestingly enough, thefranchise, after I was having
(28:37):
such success with emailmarketing, they decided to get a
constant contact account forevery franchise owner and they
would write the emails and theywould.
You could send it out, thenright For them, right.
But what do you think theemails were about?
Buy my chocolate.
We have dark chocolate andwhite chocolate and milk
chocolate and chocolate dip,marshmallows and pretzels and
(28:59):
blah, blah, blah, fudge, right.
My emails were not about that.
My emails were about how do Iconnect with people?
And Angie, I'm not going to lieto you, I didn't even know I
was doing it at the time.
I didn't even understand thepower that I was creating at the
time, because I was really goodat making connections with
people, so I'm embarrassed tosay that now.
Angie Colee (29:22):
No, there's no like .
There's always a huge learningcurve in all of these things and
there are things there are somany things that we all, I think
, are instinctively aware of.
We do something that feels good, that feels right, without
really understanding why we'redoing it.
So I think you have nothing tobe embarrassed about, because
you actually trusted yourinstincts.
That's actually one of thenotes that I wrote down was
about personal connection,because I've had people that I
(29:44):
work with where I suggest thatyou know personal connection,
telling your stories who have,like, this huge wall of
resistance of like I'm a veryprivate person.
I don't want the business to beabout whether they like me as a
person.
I want it to be about what Icould do, and it doesn't sound
like you ever had any hesitationlike that.
But have you worked with peoplewho have resisted like being
personal?
Jean Kuhn (30:06):
I've had a few clients that were not wanting to
share too much about themselvesbecause they wanted to be.
You know, I think we as asociety gives business owners,
especially small business owners, the impression that you have
to be professional all the timeand if you're personal you're
not professional.
That is such bullshit, right,bullshit, bullshit.
(30:27):
That way you get to be, um, uh,business you get business is by
being personal, right?
It's crazy how that works.
Angie Colee (30:39):
And I respect that, because you can be a private
person who doesn't know.
So I've worked with people who,for instance, didn't want to
share pictures of their kidsTotally understandable, and also
, what else personal can youshare?
And so there was one lady thatI worked with, I remember, and
it got emotional.
We were pushing her in amastermind group to share some,
some personal stories and buildthat connection, right, because
(31:02):
she's such a great person, andshe resisted to the point of,
like you could tell she was veryvisibly upset and so I said,
hey, hey, why don't?
Why don't we attack this fromanother angle?
Why don't we look at this adifferent way, right?
Why don't we attack this fromanother angle?
Why don't we look at this adifferent way, right?
It's a very personal decisionabout whether to share personal
details, right, so you couldtalk about the internal
(31:22):
wrestling that you have abouthow much details to share about
your personal life and the kindof person that you are and who
you and how you want to beauthentic.
Like that is still verypersonal information, but you're
not revealing the intimatedetails of your life, just of
your thought process, likeyou're still connecting.
And I like to anybody thathears this and resists like oh,
(31:43):
I can't be my full personality.
First of all, if you've beenlistening to the show for any
amounts of time, you know I'vetold stories about being in mosh
pit fights.
I've told stories aboutaccidentally flashing my butt on
stage, which was like mynightmare come true at the time,
because I was always terrifiedthat that would happen if I
auditioned for a band.
I'm going to make an ass ofmyself.
I did Surprise.
(32:04):
I didn't blow up on stage andlike instantly evaporate into
the universe, like disappear,because that was the end, all be
all.
But you can share what makesyou human and that's going to
make people like you andresonate with you and want to do
business with you.
I've literally had people reachout, go.
I've been following you for awhile and I've been knowing we
need to work together and I justhaven't been able to until now.
(32:25):
Let's do this.
So that was kind of a big oldramble, but I agree with you, no
but you're 100% right on all ofthat.
Jean Kuhn (32:34):
Right, that when you share yourself, that's how you
connect with people, it's nottelling them how, listen, we all
are solution problem solvers.
Right, our customers have aproblem.
We have a solution.
If you sell anything, there'salways you're selling something
to help somebody else's problem,right, fix somebody else's
(32:55):
problem.
There's always you're sellingsomething to help somebody
else's problem, right?
Fix somebody else's problem.
If we can't share ourselves,right, they don't care to buy
the solution from somebody thatthey don't find.
Actually, I'm going to say thisinteresting, right, you have
got to become interesting andyou're much more likely to like.
We're not JC Penney's, right?
You're not buying walking intoour big conglomerate where
(33:17):
you'll never meet an executive,you'll never meet the owner,
you'll never meet anybody ofhigher up, right, anybody who's
making a decision, but you willmeet a floor salesperson who
could change your experience onwhether you ever shop there
again.
Yep, so how do we, how do we dothat in our businesses?
Right, absolutely.
Angie Colee (33:37):
Well, and I mean, there are so many people out
there that I think in theirmarketing they get so hung up on
on the traditional marketingelements positioning and pricing
and competitive advantage andall of that stuff.
You are a competitive advantagebecause literally nobody else
can be you.
They could just be a poorimitation of you and like, for
instance, I was griping aboutthis on Facebook yesterday, I
(33:59):
don't know whose fucking SEOprogram just let out, but I
literally in the last coupledays, have gotten at least a
dozen random contacts frompeople who are clearly all like
following the same playbook ofhey, I just found your YouTube
channel.
It's unfindable.
Irony of ironies, um, andhere's what would make it
(34:19):
findable.
Here's everything that's wrongwith it.
I can help you fix all of this.
And I just went like I don'tgive a shit.
First of all, you told me youcouldn't find it, but you found
it.
But you're what?
None of this makes sense.
And second of all, like, pleasedon't tell me my baby's ugly if
you ever hope to work with me.
I just like I've worked toohard and YouTube is definitely
not my forte, but it's somethingto work on.
(34:41):
It's just lower down thepriority list, right?
And if you want to help me,maybe talk about the content
that you did find useful and belike it's a shame that this is
not getting out there to morepeople I can help with that.
Is that something you'd beinterested in talking about?
That's a connection that'spersonal.
You showed me a little bit ofwhat you do and how you're
interested in me.
Yeah, that stands out from thedozen people that I just got.
(35:05):
That said the exact same thingto me and I went, go away go
away.
Jean Kuhn (35:09):
But isn't it interesting that they want to
help you, right?
And so many entrepreneurs willread that and think they're not
good enough, right, that?
That's one more thing I'vescrewed up, right?
One more thing that somebody iscomplaining about.
One more reason I shouldn't bedoing this.
Instead of going every day, Iget up and I work imperfectly
(35:31):
every single day, and you knowwhat?
There's?
No, there is no every singleday.
And you know what?
There's?
No, there is no.
What's the word I'm looking for?
There is no shame around it,there is no.
I don't feel bad about myselffor being imperfect every day.
There's and listen, there's nojudgment.
I don't even judge myself aboutbeing imperfect, right?
So, there, if you can get upevery day and do take any action
(35:56):
, even imperfect action, you aregoing to be a success.
It's the people who sit backand can't get over their own
crap and can't get out there andhave to process every damn
thing they're doing and checkwith 14 different people,
including your cousin who'snever had a job in her life,
right, right, it's, it's crazy.
Just get up and do imperfectaction every day.
Angie Colee (36:18):
Follow your instincts.
Try shit, see what happens.
Detach from the results.
It doesn't mean you're afailure if it doesn't work.
Like there are so many reasonswhy shit doesn't work and it
could have nothing to do withyou.
Like I've, oh gosh, this onlinedebate with newer entrepreneurs
who are frustrated by people whoteach marketing, which, on one
hand, I totally understand.
(36:39):
The online marketing industryis a landmine, to say the least.
Right, with some peopleteaching some unethical and you
know FTC is going to come foryou kind of shit, and other
people who teach stuff that justreally doesn't work.
But these folks just go.
Oh, you know I can't getanybody to guarantee results.
Nobody can guarantee anything,anything ever, right.
(37:03):
It just frustrates me becausethe example I use with folks is
so you remember when I love thisjoke way too much.
When, hell, I mean Texas frozeover in 2021?
I can say that I'm from Texas,don't come for me.
A lot of marketing campaignsfailed that day, especially if
they were marketing to people inTexas who were literally not
(37:25):
online checking their emailsbecause they were frozen right.
So there's no guarantees inlife.
You can try something and youhave it planned, you have it
vetted, you've got money in thebank to support you in case it
goes wrong.
And it goes wrong and it hasnothing to do with you.
That's just the way this works,so you just got to keep trying
shit.
Jean Kuhn (37:42):
Just keep trying shit .
But you know what?
The people who ask for thatguarantee are usually the people
who don't do the work.
So if you can't guarantee thema result, well then there's no
way they're going to work withyou, because you won't guarantee
them anything.
But I can't guarantee you'regoing to do the work.
Right, I'm going to tell youwhat you need to do.
Angie Colee (38:03):
Isn't that so bass-ackwards too?
I've vented about this before,and this is no judgment if this
describes you, because this hasbeen me.
I am grumpy with past me forholding myself back for so long
too.
But there's no guarantee thatyou'll do the work.
And also, approaching it fromthat perspective of I'm not
(38:23):
going to put my full effort intothis unless I know for sure
it's going to work, means thatyou're coming at this half-assed
already.
How do you expect something towork if you're not even putting
in effort because you're alreadycoming at this from well?
It's probably not going to fit.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Jean Kuhn (38:42):
Yes, yes, you better.
Full asset, full asset.
Angie Colee (38:48):
We're making a quote graphic of that.
That's going to be a video clipfor sure.
I love that.
Got a full asset.
Jean Kuhn (38:54):
Number three is you got to add some value.
You have to have some value inthat email, right?
So what does that look like?
Educate them a little bit, notover the top, just a little bit.
They're only looking for, likesound bites, right A value of
what you can put in there.
Number four is a call to action.
Yes, right, what's the call toaction that you have for them?
(39:16):
Make them do something, right,buy something.
Here's a coupon, take thiscoupon or whatever it was.
And then the last piece is doone more little thing extra.
I would put in their chocolaterecipes.
I would go to allrecipescom.
I gave them full credit in mynewsletter, but I would find
(39:37):
something that had chocolate init and I would make it a recipe.
And the only thing I wouldchange they would say I use
brand name Rocky MountainChocolate Factory, right, so now
I just told you my franchisewas but Well, we're going to
have a link in the show notesRight, so I don't have it
anymore.
(39:57):
I left both my franchises tolive my second act fully,
completely and happily so yeah.
Angie Colee (40:06):
Tell me more about that.
Jean Kuhn (40:09):
Oh my God, I could talk all day about women in
their second act, because thoseare my people, right?
The woman over 50 who knows shewas meant for more and maybe
she's coming out of corporateand she's starting a new job.
Or maybe the person that's likeme.
I had been self-employed forthe last 39 years and it wasn't
until I was 53 years old that Ieven figured out that there was
(40:33):
more that I wanted, right?
When that last kid turned 21,.
I was like it's my turn now.
I have taken care of my familyfor the last 20, 30 years and
I'm like it's my turn to createwhat I want, because before I
was just helping pay the bills.
Right Now it's my turn tocreate what I want.
I don't have to worry.
(40:54):
I don't hardly cook anymore.
I definitely don't clean myhouse anymore.
That's why, when I work reallyhard to have a cleaning lady, I
do what I want to do now increating the life and the
business that I want that willsustain my husband and I for the
rest of our time together Right?
So that's the woman I help,right?
(41:17):
Is that woman over 50 who knowsshe wants more, she knows she
can do more, she doesn't want tobecome irrelevant.
She wants to make a ton ofmoney.
And, angie, I don't know if youknow this only 12% of female
business owners ever hit sixfigures.
Angie Colee (41:33):
There's undercharging.
I did a podcast with somebodyyesterday where we were talking
about busting money myths and Itold them look, I'm not the
world's foremost expert on money, but here's what I've learned
over my time in business.
Right, we've got to look at howwe charge and our relationship
with value and money.
That's a hole.
We could rant about that fortwo more hours too.
Jean Kuhn (41:54):
Right.
But once they get it right,once they get it, they get it,
and then there's no stoppingthem.
Angie Colee (42:01):
Yes, oh, my goodness, I want to keep ranting
for like three more hours.
This is so much fun, but I justlooked down and realized, holy
shit, we're already at time.
Jean Kuhn (42:11):
Oh man, Awesome.
Well, I get it right.
Yeah, Time flies when you'rehaving fun right Time flies when
you're having fun.
Angie Colee (42:21):
So tell us a little bit more about your business.
We want to learn everything.
Jean Kuhn (42:28):
Well, one of the things I do is I help small
business owners, like I said atthe beginning, use really
interesting marketing strategiesto up their revenue in the next
90 days.
So what can I tell what I havecoming up?
Can I talk about that?
Absolutely so when I say comingup, it's October 2nd through
the 4th, it's a three day.
It's called my second actconference.
Second act conference and it'sfor that woman business owner
(42:50):
over 50, who's doesn't haveenough leads, doesn't have
enough clients and definitelyisn't making enough money.
How can we turn all of thataround for her in three days?
Nice, so that's really what Ihave coming up.
Next is that three-day eventfor women business owners,
(43:10):
because it's my goal mission inlife to help as many women as I
possibly can get to six figures.
Angie Colee (43:16):
Yes, and business is a skill.
It is a skill that you canlearn, and if you are worried
about your ability to learn thatskill, trust me, nothing makes
looking at your financials andyour P&L more interesting than
when it's your business Right,like?
I say that as somebody with abusiness degree who, like, just
didn't get it, didn't understandit, until I had the context to
(43:39):
apply to my own business, andnow this is suddenly very
interesting to me to think aboutall of these abstract concepts.
But I love that.
I'm going to make sure.
And where's your website?
Where can we check you out?
Jean Kuhn (43:50):
Oh, you can check me out at Jean J-E-A-N Kuhn
K-U-H-Ncom.
Angie Colee (43:57):
Fantastic.
I'm going to make sure there'sa clickable link in the show
notes.
Thank you so much for being onthe show, thank you and can I
give away something?
Jean Kuhn (44:04):
Yes, absolutely Okay.
I'd like to give people thefive no-cost marketing
strategies that I use to turnthose two businesses around and
how they can make their businessmore visible by using them.
And we didn't get to.
The last one, which was themost fun part, was the marketing
things that I did right, allthe extra cool marketing stuff,
so I'd love to give that to them.
There's a couple of goodstories in there.
(44:26):
Absolutely, where can they grabthat?
You can grab that at five, thenumber five
fivemarketingideascom.
Angie Colee (44:34):
Fantastic.
I'll make sure there areclickable links in the show
notes.
Appreciate the hell out of you.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Jean Kuhn (44:40):
Oh, my God, thank you for having me.
It's been so much fun.
Angie Colee (44:46):
That's all for now.
If you want to keep thatkick-ass energy high, please
take a minute to share thisepisode with someone that might
need a high-octane dose of youCan Do it.
Don't forget to rate, reviewand subscribe to the Permission
to Kick Ass podcast on ApplePodcasts, spotify and wherever
you stream your podcasts.
I'm your host, angie Coley, andI'm here rooting for you.
Thanks for listening and let'sgo kick some ass.
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