 Today I'm excited to be with Sarah Santa Proce and we're going to be talking about the gentle marketing revolution First, let me say hi to you Sarah. I think to be here Yeah, so I wanted to share your work with my people because you have been Reframing how marketing is typically done into into what you call the seven peas and I thought that it was so interesting that I think everyone watching this is going to find it interesting, too But let me just first say that your background first of all you're in Switzerland So it's this international connection here. We met through Paul Zellerser of Awarepreneurs, so thank you so much Paul Yeah, and you your experience was originally in more traditional marketing So you've you kind of have that Background and you know marketing really well and then in the last a decade or so you Started consulting people on their LinkedIn marketing so LinkedIn profiles and LinkedIn strategy, etc So for those of you who want to learn a lot more about LinkedIn and get your LinkedIn game going Sarah's a great person to turn to for that And then besides LinkedIn more recently you also Started this thing called the gentle marketing revolution is what we're going to talk about Where you are reframing marketing as a way that is that is more Aligned I think for how most of us want to actually do it. So so thanks for doing this interview and Where would you like to start maybe can tell us how you decided to make that Gentle marketing revolution. What kind of inspired you to yeah, I think that's a good place to start so I've been running an online LinkedIn consulting business for over 12 years and you know living in this online world as as you are and as you know, George It's it is a competitive world. It is You know, we are being trained a certain way to do marketing a certain way and for the longest time I was doing what everybody else told me to do and then I was telling my people to do it this way and you know, so many shoulds and and this is how it's done. So eventually I turned 40 a bunch of years ago and in Renee Brown calls it the the midlife unraveling. That's really what happened for me. I'm like, what am I doing? This is not even fun anymore I can't continue doing the marketing the way I've been doing all this time If I felt so out of integrity that I really realized that I Needed to change something, you know, we don't usually change unless things are so bad that we can't keep going the same way So so that's when I said well I need to change something and and really this this idea of gentle marketing just kind of was downloaded To me and I was like one morning I woke up and I had this message that I had to reserve the domain name the gentle marketing revolution and it kind of goes with my Story and and that also had to do with the fact that I felt like I was hiding behind a mask for so many years Because I never really brought my full story to the picture to my business So I grew up in a in a hippie community so my parents bought an apartment building with six other families and Really, we were as kids we were raised in this commune that you know was all about peace and love and also very political so very Left-wing and and my parents were all very engaged And so these values of community and equality and and all of that was really Engrained into me, but I felt like it was embarrassing because as a kid if you grow up differently than anybody else It's always embarrassing. I was embarrassed by my parents that they didn't have a car that they came to pick me up at school With their bikes and things like that And so I thought for the longest time that that's something I had to hide Especially that going like focusing on LinkedIn, right? I chose the most stiff professional platform if you will and so Yeah, for all these years, I never brought my upbringing to the picture I just had to pretend to be like, you know, this professional Consultant and and so when that unraveling happened that all came into the light and I felt like so relieved being able to take off my mask and And I felt this calling that since my parents created something Revolutionary if you want, you know a different way to to raise their kids and be in society I felt like well, maybe that's what I need to do I need to show all these entrepreneurs that Marketing doesn't have to be a certain way You don't have to follow all these shoulds and and and that you can really just go back to who you are and and that's kind of what the seven piece are about instead of Focusing so much on our target audience and our avatar and you know, who are we serving? Which is you know, still a good concept But I felt that I spent 12 years focusing too much on the audience and the wrong audience Without really paying attention to myself first, but I really want it what my values were what my world view was Mmm, I love this. I love that you are You know kind of aligning with your with your roots and with Your true values and bringing that out. So this is why gentle marketing was born. It makes a lot of sense I want to share my screen because you created this beautiful Mandala of what gentle marketing is I want everyone to see it and I love for you to kind of talk through this Would that be okay? Yeah, that sounds great. It's actually my son He's 16. His name is Simon and he drew that for me on on his computer So yeah proud mama moment. Yes So we can see here that you kind of list out the traditional marketing the seven piece of traditional marketing and I've taken marketing classes. So I recognize these two And then you have got the gentle marketing revolution. So maybe you could talk us through what the Maybe the difference between the between the two or maybe maybe just briefly describe what each of these traditional ones Mean maybe mm-hmm. Yeah So so yeah, do you see that some things have changed and some things haven't What is still the same is the people? It's just that we don't start with our people So again, this is our client or our avatar or our target audience and in in the Traditional marketing model. That's often where the seven piece start we talk about our ideal client It's all customer centric and and so the for me the seven the people Module comes later after we paid more attention to ourselves Then there's one P that talks about physical evidence. So that's kind of signage and Location and venue and all of these things. Well, they're not as important in our online world anymore So I completely took them out and I replaced them with whatever either either the passion personal power or partnership So let's talk about passion Passion or could also be called purpose. It's you know, starting with paying attention to What who we are what we want what our values are what our world view is all of these things that Are about us the entrepreneur and how we bring passion to our business. So that's the the passion module then If you go back up, yeah, then there's the product we still talk about the product in in gentle marketing We are still selling a product or the product also means services. It's just that we focus more on a a product that is Not only functional, but that it's also beautiful. So I focus a lot on Design the way that Daniel H. Pink defines it where we are no longer just interested in whether it works We assume that we want something that works but we also want to really emotionally connect with our ideal client and therefore it needs to be beautiful and whimsical and and and all of these good Attributes that that make us emotionally connect with our clients then Here we have Pricing so that stays the same with a big focus on authentic pricing and fair pricing So so it's not just, you know numbers, but it's the ethics that go with the numbers So that's really important. Also. I think for the conscious client It's it's having different options available for different budgets. So you talk about that as well George, so you know what I mean And then the the next one would be promotion. We still have that in today's In the gentle marketing as well. I Think a lot of entrepreneurs today are Overwhelmed because there's too many options They're they're they're being told that they have to be everywhere. And so in my P for promotion I actually go into Really finding out and we've done that via the personal power module really figuring out Well, what is it for you that lights you up? I know that you George you're great on Facebook lives, right? But someone else they they're being told they have to do Facebook lives and they're like, oh, no, I can't do it Right, so it really is figuring out the one or two things for me It's podcasting one or two things that really light you up that you enjoy and then focusing on those in the promotion module and then Finally we have process and that is really all about You know kind of the customer Experience and I had that in there for the first edition of the gentle marketing program And then we kind of decided all together. It was a beta round that Partnership was much more important than process. Yeah, and I know you talk about Collaboration and that's what we're doing right here as well, right? Collaboration partnerships growing together not wanting to do it all alone That is a big part of marketing as well And so I just had to bring partnership in there and which one did we miss personal power? personal power is finding out really about Who you are your worldview? I talk a lot about Bringing more of you your stories. We talk about storytelling Bring that into your marketing rather than always focusing us on the customer bring more of you to your marketing So that you attract your ideal clients that the ones that you really enjoy working with instead of like me in the past Attracting the wrong kind of clients. Yeah, I love it. I love it So I want to ask you about this if you If you were advising somebody and oh by the way I want to share share the rest of the page with people. This is at you can get to it by the the gentle you know the gentle marketing revolution calm will take you there and You know the page has other information on it And of course it has the actual Mandala that we were talking about and this tell us about this tell Tell us about this program. This is a trading program that goes in depth into these things But tell us more Yes, so it I started it as a I spent all of 2019 basically running beta rounds three beta rounds for the program because after creating many programs for LinkedIn and I really wanted to make sure that I created something that was actually needed that people actually Said yes, that's exactly what I needed. So I kind of co-created the program with Participants and what it is it's it's a yeah, it's a program that instead of focusing on one thing like LinkedIn or Facebook ads or you know generating leads with some other Lead generation tool it kind of takes a big picture approach again and says well if you Don't actually Look at the big picture and think You know, what do I want for my business? What kind of clients do I want to attract? How do I want to attract them? And first of all do the hard in their work? Doesn't always have to be hard, but sometimes it is because as an entrepreneur a lot of the Success has to do with our confidence has to do with our money stories So all of that is the kind of the work that goes into the personal power looking at that You know those stories that that we bring as an entrepreneur and then from there going Okay, so now that I know all of that How do I now tell these stories so that they attract the right kind of people and which platforms do I tell them on? How do I collaborate? so that's the Really the curriculum of the program and I I run it live two times per year in January and in September just because I like the you know the Collaboration and the the the live group and then the rest of the year It's it's an online program where people go through their Through the videos and the assignments and then they have access to a Trello board where they where they ask questions So that's interesting now if somebody joins in the middle of the year What happens when you when you do it live again? Do they do they? Do they have an access to it? How does that work? Yeah, so if they join now they get access to the online version, right? And then in September, I'll invite them to kind of pay a little upgrade because obviously that the live program is More expensive and and definitely join at a lower rate Cool, great Yes, I was I was gonna ask you when we're looking at the mandala like if there's a Have an order to what you recommend and this is the order Yeah, you recommend people go through right like you you kind of start with passion here You could you start with your yeah, like what really drives you, right? Mm-hmm, and your uniqueness and then talking about the people that will most benefit from what you do and then the actual Offering itself product and then the pricing and then how do you actually get the word out and then using partnerships, etc? Very very good. That's awesome. I love it. Yeah, so I will of course include the link in Notes of the video so folks can check it out. If anyone has any questions about this They what's the best way for them to contact you about it? There's a forum on my website where they can reach out sarahsonacrochet.com Yeah, I'm always best reached on on linkedin still that's still my main platform where I hang out a lot So just send me an invite and mention that you've seen us talk on Yeah, and you have you've got a podcast of course People to check out Can we talk a little bit about LinkedIn actually since LinkedIn is such a big big part of your your work Um Well, I mean people can look you up on LinkedIn. So I'll unless you you think we should look at it What what what's like one of the biggest? I guess misconceptions people have about LinkedIn that should get cleared up Mm-hmm. I think the biggest one is still that LinkedIn is for B2B That's what most people heard, you know, 10 years ago and that's still what sticks to them Business to business meaning like big company to big company. Yes. Yeah. Yeah And so they're kind of intimidated by that thought and think well, you know, who am I? I'm not working with companies So what should I do on there? And so I Yeah, what I tried to tell them that it's not even a question of B2B or B2C business to Consumer it's a it's a question of human to human age to age So even if you are let's say you're a coach and you're working with Companies like you want to do workshops in companies even so you're still doing business with the human in the company You're a company is an entity of humans. So in the end, we don't really care whether it's Companies that pay your bills or its individuals that pay your bills. They're all humans And so I think that is the biggest shift that People realize. Oh, I had no idea like I yeah, that's what is it's all about and so even though LinkedIn is kind of the Or has this reputation of being the the chamber of commerce of platforms of social media Kind of the boring one. It has changed a lot like a lot, right? And and it's it's no longer that kind of platform So so some people like the old folks they actually think oh my god It's it's like Facebook now or worse like Instagram So so it definitely has changed a lot and I think it's it's an interesting platform If you're working with any kind of professional Yeah, and what would you say is the so like I see I see a lot of people think okay. I'm just gonna update my LinkedIn profile and then I'm done You know and and yeah, that is definitely part of it having an optimized LinkedIn profile, right? But what's like the overall strategy you typically recommend to? So lupiners like us maybe people who are watching and listening are you know healers They are mentors of some kind. They are coaches They have some kind of service to provide or some program to sell What's what's your the overall strategy on LinkedIn with your recommendation, right? Yeah, it's funny because just yesterday on a podcast This person also was surprised that you can even share content on LinkedIn They hadn't even realized that that's an option. So so yeah LinkedIn is not just your LinkedIn profile That's the beginning but but then it's pretty much similar to any of the other platforms where you you know Share content position yourself as an expert in your field and and engage with with the people in your network so It's about building a targeted network So so that is a bit different from from some of the other platforms because you actually are in control You can choose who you're adding to your network. You can choose who you're reaching out to For let's say potential clients and adding them to your network Which you know is is a bit different than some of the other platforms I'm thinking of whether or where that's not an option for example. So so It's still about creating a content strategy where you you know You really position yourself as an expert and and from there as you know You do on Facebook it then leads to being seen as the expert being an authority and creating Basically a relationship that then leads to business Yes, absolutely and when you are Adding people to your network. I mean How does how do you find the right people? Maybe that's one question like on LinkedIn? Do you do you search using keywords or do you? Yeah, what's your recommendation there? Yeah, so so LinkedIn is is one of the the great platforms really like that's what Recruiters that that's what they do. They find candidates by searching via keywords. And so as entrepreneurs, we can do the same thing For example right now, I'm working with a client who is in e-commerce And so he is looking for clients who have an e-commerce site So clearly one of the keywords is going to be e-commerce and that's what we're looking for to you to find Clients that fit his ideal client description and and from there, you know LinkedIn spits out a list of profiles potential profiles. You need to actually go through them and and I'm a big Believer that automation does not work. It doesn't work on any platform, but especially on LinkedIn Because again, it's it's humans that are actually behind the profiles and by now, you know I think we're all smart enough to smell the minute we see an automated message and we're like, not so interested and and so that's why Building real relationships takes more time and it may be taking longer, but that's the only way I I just don't see it working how we can send out thousands of automated invitations and expect real business from it. In fact, I think that's one of the Things that people don't like about LinkedIn Is that they get these kind of spam messages or people who Pretend that they've looked at their profile, but they don't really care. It's it's a lot of its automates So I'm so glad that you're kind of Sharing this message of let's make authentic relationships here. So Any you have a lot on this and we'll talk about but what what's what's like one quick tip you can share about optimizing our profile So because the profile itself there's a lot to it Is there something you want to say about that and just in a minute, you know Just like it really give us a taste of what what what you do with that Yeah, I would say that still today the headline is probably the the most important part of the profile Really optimizing that so that you don't just say a lot of coaches I work with or Healers or people like that. They still think their name of their company is more important than their own Expertise and so often you will see founder of Dot dot dot or owner at dot dot dot and that that's not a good way to present yourself as an expert because it doesn't tell us What you're good at so really focusing on what you're good at what you bring to the table and nobody Nobody really cares about our company name. Let's just face it. It's yeah, it's just not interesting to people They care about you and not your company. Yeah So how can people so how what do you tell us what you provide in terms of the LinkedIn? expertise and Services and how can people kind of work with you on that? Yes, so it starts with the profile as we said all the roads somehow lead back to your profile and that's where you first You know really position yourself as a as an expert and as an introvert I always say it's it's nice to have that LinkedIn profile because you don't have to do any selling anymore after that It's all on the profile and if people are somehow interested in you that profile sells you because You don't want to add any selling in your you know in your messages on or in your outreach So so the profile should really do the job of selling Your expertise and and so what I help people do is is First of all, yeah improve their profiles Optimize to make sure that they get found that they position themselves as experts and then I also Offered coaching to then take it further and really Use LinkedIn to proactively I don't like this term anymore generate leads But what we're really trying to do is is build relationships that then lead to business Nice nice wonderful Well, Sarah, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us And I hope folks who watch this found it interesting the seven Ps are kind of a nice way a nice framework to help us think through You know our own strategy for for marketing and business and then LinkedIn of course people can check out your services and your profile to find out more Any other sort of words before we we finalize this interview finish up anything to send us off with Maybe just if people are interested in the seven Ps They can go over to sarah's and a crochet calm one the number one page That's my opt-in with the one page marketing plan and it kind of gives a Kind of takes them through with seven emails one per day Through thinking about their one page marketing plan in the form of the mandala and Kind of reflect on who they are What their passion is what their personal powers are et cetera et cetera. So that'd be a good place So so it's Sarah Santa crochet comm slash the number one just the number one page PAGE so that's it. Okay, cool Sarah, thank you so much. And yeah, those who any questions, please feel free to comment below and I'll make sure Sarah sees it Thanks, Sarah. Thanks so much George