Ep. #1162 - Expanding Your Business with Multimedia Magic

Lauren Conaway  00:01

And we’re back. Thank you for joining us for yet another episode of the Startup Hustle podcast. I’m your host Lauren Conaway, founder and CEO of InnovateHer KC. And today’s episode of Startup Hustle is powered by FullScale.io. Hiring software developers can be really difficult, but Full Scale can help you build a software team quickly and affordably. And they have the platform to help you manage that team. Visit FullScale.io. Check out the show notes for a link to learn more. All right, friends, so today we have with us a fabulous member of InnovateHer KC. I’m very, very excited to talk to Shae Perry. Shae and I, you she and I have known each other for a little while I feel we see each other out at events and things like that. But I don’t even know that we’ve actually had like a full on, sit down, chat, conversation. So I’m very excited about that. But Shae is a multimedia specialist at Crux KC, as well as an on air personality at Carter Broadcast Group’s Hot 103 Jams and so has a lot of experience with multimedia action, marketing and branding and making sure that you are positioning your brand across multimedia channels. Well, Shae, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today.

Shae Perry  01:20

Oh, thank you for having me. I greatly appreciate it. I’m excited to be on Startup Hustle.

Lauren Conaway  01:25

All right. Well, that well, let’s go ahead and crack right into it. You know how it goes. So tell us about your journey, Shae. I want to I want to hear more about this. I because I don’t think I know.

Shae Perry  01:36

How much time do we have now.

Lauren Conaway  01:39

You’re gonna take the full 40 If you want, you can do anything. You’re awesome.

Shae Perry  01:44

I appreciate that. A little bit about me. As you mentioned, Shay Perry’s a multimedia specialist at Crux KC and on-air radio personality at HOT 103 Jams, but I born and raised St. Louis, Missouri. So still a Cardinals fan for sure. Hopped on the Chiefs bandwagon, most definitely when they picked our Rams.

Lauren Conaway  02:04

I know. The Rams went to Los Angeles. So for those who don’t know, Shae and I have actually bonded over the fact that we’re both originally from St. Louis.

Shae Perry  02:10

So, it makes a lot of sense. I love when I see other St. Louis people but so I came to Kansas City actually to attend UMKC. My parents, they love the school when I went for a visit and it was just like, oh, wow, this is the school. So you know, if your parents or your parents liked the place, then that’s where you’re gonna go. So actually, I had a really great experience. My first time on campus, for orientation, our orientation leader happened to be someone from St. Louis. She also happened to attend the exact same high school and she also played basketball under the exact same coach that I did.

Lauren Conaway  02:48

Wow, it was synergy.

Shae Perry  02:51

It was so it was like wow, like this is this is meant right? The stars are aligning, right? And so from there, I just was, like, this is what this is what it’s meant to be. In my first day on campus. As a student, I met the president of the radio station. And I didn’t even know they had a station. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. Basketball was my thing. I wanted to hoop and be, you know, Candice Parker, and all those different things. You know, God had different plans, of course, but

Lauren Conaway  03:18

How do you make God laugh? You make a plan, baby.

Shae Perry  03:22

Exactly. Took the words right out of my mouth. And so from there, he invited me to the show. And that’s kind of what led me to just kind of dabble more and more in media and radio. And I also had some really great professors that just kind of were there. They were like, hey, try this out. And I asked thousands of questions. And so they knew and they always knew when Shae is around, she’s gonna ask you some stuff. Yeah, so that’s kind of what really just sparked my love for media, videography, audio, and those type of things. So that’s, that’s kind of where I found that my passion for media in general. And then throughout my four years at UMKC, was just super active on campus. I tell people, all the time, college’s what you make it, you know. You can’t go to any place, whether it’s a school or a job and just think it’s going to work for you, you got to at least put some type of energy in. And so I was definitely blessed with a lot of people, peers, and professionals just just kind of passed the baton to me and just kind of led me down the path that I’m currently on. And so about maybe my senior year, 2019, it’s like, okay, four years has been great, but how are we going to get out in the real world? Like, we gotta you know, I love my mom, but I don’t want to go back to St. Louis and sleep on her couch. What am I going to do, right? Sure. And so I’m like, okay, cool. I’ve done this great stuff. What are we going to do about it? KPRs was definitely in my sights. I knew this was the number one station for hip hop and R&B. I’m like, man, I gotta get on it. You know? Yeah, history is rich. The oldest continually ran black station in the country is majored. And then at the same time, I was like, okay, well, let me find another way to get out in the community. And so, before I graduated in 2019, I got a call from Big Brothers Big Sisters, um, to be their brand ambassador and then also got the job at KTRS to be on air. And so I started both of those jobs. 2020, 3 months of normal adulthood, right, and then COVID hits. COVID hits.

Lauren Conaway  05:16

2020, baby, and that’s when everybody’s lives just blew up.

Shae Perry  05:20

It blew up. And so I will say that I’m a little bit spoiled because my point of view of a workspace is remote or hybrid. So that’s my point of view being that young professional is I had three months of being in the office and then after that, it was like, let’s let’s hit up, zoom, let’s do

Lauren Conaway  05:36

Flex workspace. I do have a question about so well, actually, I have a confession to make. Are you ready for this, Shae? I’m here for it. You and I actually share something in common and that we were both involved with our universities radio stations. One WESN. When I where I went to school, I had a radio show. And do you want to know what the radio show was called? You’re gonna laugh? I have to know. Alright, so this is shame. Shame me. L Train in the Midnight Express. Oh, because it was a Wednesday night from midnight to 2 AM and like, I loved that show. But I am I’m just like, that’s gonna follow me. You say?

Shae Perry  06:20

And when you said the call letters, like I heard the radio voice peek out. I heard it.

Lauren Conaway  06:23

That’s why. Yeah. Well, I do have a radio voice. Yeah, I’ll put it on for the for the podcast, particularly when I do the intro. I think I think anybody who has done like radio or like you realize that you have to be very intentional about use your voice. Yeah, that’s interesting. But you and I share that in common.

Shae Perry  06:46

We have so much stuff in common St. Louis, and the L milk, midnight train.

Lauren Conaway  06:51

L Train in the Midnight Express. And yeah, like feel for you to spread that around. If you want to embarrass me a little bit.

Shae Perry  06:59

But next time I see you at a ribbon cutting, I might mention it, you know, maybe, maybe?

Lauren Conaway  07:05

Well, so tell me this, you know, you so you have this job with Big Brothers Big Sisters. You have the radio show. And then you ended up at Crux. And I want to hear how that happened. Because Malia is actually I think I believe she’s been on the show. She’s an awesome founder in the Kansas area. So how did that happen?

Shae Perry  07:24

MaLia’s great. And so about two years at Big Brothers Big Sisters, I was just at the point of my professional career, I was like, Okay, I’m young. And I want to try different things. That’s what worked well for me. And college is trying different things. And so I’m like marketing, let’s try something. And so I reached out to a couple of contacts, I had a chance to just meet Malia and sit down with her, we’re the same Enneagram number. So that means we literally anywhere three. So we just kind of hit it off from the conversation. And within about 30 days, I was working at Crux. And so I started almost, I’ve been there for almost two years now. But I was open to trying something different. And until I hopped into marketing, I really didn’t realize that a lot of the different departments and things that you do deliverables, I’ve already done those at one point, I just didn’t realize I had a name to it. So coming into marketing and being able to see how much work goes into it because it is a lot. But then seeing how the different teams work. And everyone is just kind of it’s kind of like a basketball team, in the sense is how I look at it is like everyone’s playing their position. You’re like, Hey, you’re the point guard, I need you to pass this deliverable off to the grind to let’s get this website done. And then they’re like, Okay, well, let’s, we got the website done. But let’s get the SEO done. Let’s make sure we’re, you know, using a search engine, and then we’re passing it to digital. So it’s cool to just kind of see the entire playbook from a perspective of now being in a marketing firm because I’ve, I’ve done some email marketing in my day at UMKC. I’ve done some different things here and there from our own brand. But to actually see what what goes into it is really cool. And I’ve been able to learn a lot just being here and my hat is off to anybody that’s in the marketing industry because it’s a lot of work. And I see the passion here within Crux of the people that work here, behind the marketing. That’s kind of what I think that stands out about Crux is, of course, that executive level marketing and the strategy is important. But besides that we support our clients. It’s not just like, Oh, we’re doing marketing for you, we’re gonna pass this off and then we’re we’re wiping our hands. We’re no we’re beyond that. We’re doing marketing efforts, but we’re also supporting our clients beyond what we assist with their projects. We’re just went to events and doing those other things that I’ve never really seen marketing firms do typically. So I definitely feel like the marketing was was different for me to happen to this type of space, different industry, but I was open to it, and then just kind of gelling in and learning more about what it what it means for companies and I really can elevate your brand and amplify your mission.

Lauren Conaway  10:03

Yeah, well, so I have a marketing background as well, because apparently we’re the same. You’re just like 20 years behind me. But so one of the things that always appeals to me about marketing and one of the reasons that I think it’s so important, particularly, like with the advent of social media, so so I’m going to show my age here a little bit. But I was considered a social media early adopter, and I was a social media consultant before that was even a thing. Like, that’s not a real job. And I’m like, is I make money doing it? And I’m very, but that being said, like one of the things that always appealed to me, was that story piece, like, how do you help brands define who they are, but then communicate that to the community at large? How do you help them tell their story in a way that will resonate with their, their audience or their customers or whoever they’re trying to speak to? Yeah, that was like, my favorite part about it. Because I love stories. Yeah. And I feel like that’s kind of the through line for your life. You know, you’re a radio personality. And now you’re in a marketing firm. And you’re, you’re helping an even I imagine it Big Brothers Big Sisters, like storytelling is a huge component of that. Yeah. So talk to us about, you know, what resonates with you with with that marketing piece. I mean, I love the the basketball analogy, you know, that you’ve landed in a really great agency, and the agency environment is awesome. I

Shae Perry  11:33

Un-agency, so we’re un-agency environment. So that curveball in there you

Lauren Conaway  11:38

Be un-agency, you’re working for an entity that like marketing is what you do. Yeah. It’s not like you’re a marketing department. That’s a part of a larger company that is doing, I don’t know, making widgets or whatever. So, so talk to us about what speaks to you about marketing beyond the team.

Shae Perry  11:58

Yeah. So you kind of touched on it a little bit is the storytelling piece. You know, no matter what industry you’re in, whether it’s nonprofit, you know, b2c b2b, whatever it is, you got to convey your story. And you got to do it in a in a manner that actually resonates with people to understand. So I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity, regardless of where I’ve been to help other people, whether that’s me being on air and getting somebody on here to promote their business, or whether that’s me getting a small business in with Crux. And finding a way for them to partner with us or working on a website, just finding a way that we can continue to partner. But that storytelling piece, I feel like it’s something that definitely resonates with me, because I’ve had plenty of times when I started at Crux I came in as an account coordinator. And then I switched into a sales and marketing coordinator role, which was more so me helping crooks. How I say it is helping crooks market themselves. Because of course, as a marketing agency, we have to be on our toes and making sure we’re doing all the things. So that was kind of the social campaigns, that was the brand awareness working on internal video efforts. That was kind of what I assisted with, with our brand and growth team. And then now I’ve grown into a multimedia position, because media is kind of my background and makes the most sense. So for me within the role that I am in now, I’m out in the community. So I’m storytelling a little bit and telling people not just about the marketing firm, but about the history, how Malia got started. And being a woman owned business, it means a lot, you know, those types of doors,

Lauren Conaway  13:38

we love

Shae Perry  13:40

those things. So I think, especially within Kansas City, I enjoy being here, because there’s so much story to tell around us. So it’s it’s great to be on the team, where I’m getting the chance to hear the stories. And we’re like, why is that not on the website, we’re gonna figure out a way to articulate this, where you feel comfortable, and the target audience can understand it, and we’re gonna put this in a video, or we’re gonna put this in an infographic, or you know, we’re gonna maybe even talk about this on a podcast or those types of things. So I really enjoyed that storytelling piece, as well as just being able to just kind of assist and you know, make that handoff and make those connections.

Lauren Conaway  14:18

Yeah. Well, and I mean, you’ve landed in a fantastic place. And for those of you who don’t know, Crux KC is the un-agency. They have a really stellar reputation within the Kansas City area, just up for the Mr. K Small Business Award, which is like one of the more prestigious business honors that we have here in Kansas City, and so clearly Crux is doing it right. And one of the things so one of the things that I always talk to people about regarding marketing, like, I feel as though a lot of companies and organizations, they make assumptions about what their customers want and need. They don’t create those kinds of touchpoints to figure it out. So and I can give you an example. So we were I was in a previous job, I was working with an organization and they wanted to have an event where they interfaced with young, young high school kids. And so they, they were like, hey, you know, tell us what kind of products you need, tell us what you need in order to engage with us. And the problem that they thought they had was not actually the problem that they had, we were expecting these kids. So it was a financial institution. Kids, we were expecting them to come up with solutions that were very tech-based, like, they’re all going to want an app, or they’re all going to want like some kind of gamification. And really what they wanted, like, we had all of these high school students who were, like, literally, just come to my high school, bring us pizza and talk to us about finance because we don’t even know how to balance a checkbook. We don’t know anything about finance. And so we had assumed, or I guess, the organization, the institution had assumed that the problem that they had was that they didn’t have enough technology. They kind of, like, iPhone, stuff that kids into, but really, the problem that they had was that kids don’t have a fundamental understanding of finance. And so I feel like people make a lot of assumptions based on their own experience, but assumptions about the narrative that you need to be telling. And so things that I want to know, and we’re going to talk about tactics later. But really, how does Crux and how do you as a as a personality and host? How do you help people find their story, the right story, the one that’s going to resonate? Like, what does that process look? Like?

Shae Perry  16:32

That’s a great question. And we ask the question, I guess is the simple form, the long, the long answer is when we do have a kickoff for the client, we’re not just asking you what you think your story tells. We actually ask those that work there, we ask the customers. So we do a full kickoff. And we get the perception of everyone, your target audience, who you think is your target audience, the different people who might be actual consumers, people that are on the staff, entry level, high level, getting everybody and then we put it together and a full presentation and just kind of like the audit, and we go over it. And we review it with our clients before we get started on marketing efforts. Just so we can be on the same page. As far as lingo, we can get that boilerplate down. Making sure that we’re all on the same page because I think within marketing, the biggest thing, especially I grew up in a social media area era. I was on Twitter when I was 12 when it started, and I’m still still there. So

Lauren Conaway  17:32

Incidentally, I think that the TOS states that you have to be at least 13 to be on.

Shae Perry  17:37

It does. And I have a funny story. I have a funny story about that. We’ll talk about that later. But you’re you’re absolutely right. With that social media, what I see all the time is message, message, message. And that needs to be the same message that’s being portrayed too. You can’t have one person that’s high level speaking about the company in this manner. And then the people that are actually filling in and experiencing you are having a completely different experience. So asking those questions and making sure that we’re all on the same page, so that we can go forth with whatever copying material and saying like, Okay, this is what we’re gonna go. This is how we’re going to speak about this organization. And this is the story that your customers tell. So this is a story that we should be telling because this is the actual experience. And if you want to shift it, then we can work to strategize and shift it a little bit.

Lauren Conaway  18:27

Yeah, you want to know one of my favorite opportunities for market research. I love this. So so you know this, but you and I both go to a lot of networking events. And one of my favorite things to do is people will introduce me and they’ll be, like, this is Lauren Conaway. And then what’s fascinating for me is she is the founder and CEO of InnovateHer KC and then I my ears perk up, I start listening because they listening to how they explain it to other people. I’m like, Okay, I either need to adjust IHKC’s mesh messaging to reflect what those people take away from with them, or I need to go hard at what I want people to be saying that I want to be telling, so that we can get that again, as you said, like getting on that same page piece. Yeah. And I love that so much. And I think one of the things that I hear feedback about consistently with with Crux is the fact that there is so much help and assistance on the front end, like, people parse out what do we want to say and why? Who are and why? And I love that.

Shae Perry  19:34

I was important, like, you can polish something up and make it look cute and go forth with it. And then in six months, you’re like, I didn’t think about this strategy. You know, people they didn’t ask me the right questions. And so I think that’s where Crux definitely comes into play by asking those questions that could could be uncomfortable. It’s, like, wow, I haven’t thought about this since I started the company is something visible. You know, those are the tough conversations. But at the end of the day, those are the conversations that you know, help you expand your business, expand your reach, you know.

Lauren Conaway  20:03

Exaclty, right. Exactly right. You know from something else that can help you expand your business is the right tech support. I don’t know if y’all know this, but today’s episode of Startup Hustle is powered by FullScale.io. They are a software development platform huge friends of the Startup Hustle podcast, InnovateHer KC. And you know, with Full Scale, finding experts, software developers doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you visit FullScale.io where you can build a software team quickly and affordably. Use the Full Scale platform to define your technical needs. And then see what available developers testers and leaders are ready to join your team. Visit FullScale.io to learn more. Now friends, we are here today with Shae Perry, multimedia specialist at Crux KC and on-air personality at Carter Broadcast Group, aka Hot 103 Jams, which incidentally I love the name of the station. But that being said, Shay is a you’re a multimedia goddess, that’s what we’re going to call you like this. That’s going on the business cards, baby. So, so we were talking about how you help customers find their story. But what I really, really, really want to dive into is how do you help customers determine where and how to tell their story? Because I mean, we’ve already talked about different channels. We’ve talked about podcasts, we’ve talked about. show we’ve talked about, you know, there are any number of ways social media, I don’t know, across really like there are all kinds of marketing strategies and tactics that you can use. Yeah, it’s really overwhelming to the average layperson, the person who’s not entrenched in this every day. Yeah. Talk to us about it. Talk to us about that, like how do you help your clients and customers identify the best channels and the best ways the methods to get their story out there?

Shae Perry  21:54

Yeah, no, that’s a that’s a really great question. And I think it’s definitely important in the day and age we live in, because there’s so many different types of mediums. Like, it’s like you have different social media every day, you have a new app that’s popping out and it’s something that’s so it’s like, um, gee, this can be overwhelming, where am I going to really set a fort down and you know, build. So I think that has a lot to do with your target audience. You different social media, of course, have different demographics. There’s all demographics on all social, of course, but different social media is stronger in different areas. So I actually just talked about just kind of like social media branding on a workshop with the brand lab at UMKC, the other the other day where Haley Finch so that this is right on the money. But we talked about knowing your audience on those platforms. So if you’re a company that’s like, Hey, we’re on the latest trends, like you have, you have, let’s use the source or double XL magazine, those are the entertainment type of type of blogs type of companies. And so for them, their target target audience is probably going to be people that are entrenched with the culture, hip hop culture, and most people are typically on Twitter, speaking, speaking from experience because I am definitely part of that community.

Lauren Conaway  23:20

like Black Twitter as a whole thing

Shae Perry  23:22

That’s a thing, you know, and people and people

Lauren Conaway  23:24

Much more interesting than white Twitter, by the way, but that’s just personal.

Shae Perry  23:27

You know, people don’t know like different communities really live on Twitter. And you know, what, I’m just kind of going back to your original question is, knowing your audience, you have to know that and that kind of goes into just that kickoff, that survey, that survey-type of strategy is asking, Hey, what is the makeup of the people that are members of your organization? What are the who are the makeup of the people that you think that you know, or the people that are the members just kind of getting wrapping your head around that is roughly a starting point. Because if you get on Twitter, Twitter is more informal is how I view it is to is culture in general. There’s a lot of trends, we’re talking about news, there’s going to be sometimes I go to Twitter as my MSNBC, but I’m 26 years old, so that’s kind of where I go whereas my mother, she’s going to actually go to MSNBC or CNN and then you have people that are going to Fox so it just depends because based on your age, you do view different sources differently you’re like I’m just gonna wake up and look at Twitter and see what Elon

Lauren Conaway  24:34

I don’t even want to talk about Facebook group  like I did not sue so when InnovateHer KC first started like I did not imagine that it was gonna blow up the way that it did. So I was not thinking long term strategy. Just want to have a little Facebook group like no. And now we’ve reached a point where like, I’m finding that too so our membership skews kind of like middle of the road as far as age you know, we’ve we’ve got definitely got some young members Our core demo tends to be folks who are between the ages of 25 to 40. Yeah, somewhere in there 40. I think 44 is actually like the most the measured number, but I found out and I didn’t even realize this, which, you know, my bad, but like, I was told Facebook is for the olds, and I’m like, okay, great. So, but you’re exactly to your point, like, if we want to skew younger, and if we want to start appealing to that younger demo, we’re gonna have to get our butts off Facebook, and we’re gonna have to go to Tik Tok, and we’re gonna figure out like, Where? Where are the young people?

Shae Perry  25:36

Yeah. That ties in like, even, you know, a better question is, you know, the integrating, you know, multimedia into their, you know, operations, but just knowing the right message in the right platform, because the language I use on Facebook is very different than the language I use on Twitter. For me, personally, my Facebook is for family, family and friends. So I joke a little bit there. But I don’t say anything too much. I don’t want my mother, my mom to call me and say What is this, you know? And then LinkedIn is a completely different environment. LinkedIn is way more professional, in general, those are good professionals in that, you know, age wise, that’s a big range. But just the language and the tone is very different than something I would say on Twitter and then TikTok is definitely the younger generation, I would say, it’s a great way for people I’ve been seeing a lot of a lot more businesses utilize TikTok, which I think every business, regardless of the industry should look at tick tock because that is in from my point of view, a very easy way to engage with tons of people in your city and outside.

Lauren Conaway  26:50

They do like I’ve noticed that TikTok seems to folks seem to grow very quickly on TikTok mass followers quickly. For me, it’s one of those things, it’s a matter of prioritization because I always tell my clients, when I when I’m consulting, which I still do from time to time, but I always tell my clients, like if you’re not going to use, like, if you put in the effort to learn this new system, or this new platform, and but you’re not going to use it because you don’t like it or it doesn’t speak to you like, then it’s it’s useless. Like, only you should be putting your time and attention around the vehicles that you’re going to learn to master. But more like the ones that you’re actually going to use. Yeah, that being said, I do agree. I have been very slow to adopt the TikTok bandwagon. It’s just another thing to learn. I was I was like on social media, when Zynga was a thing and live there and like, I don’t even know if you’ve ever heard of this shit, but I’m learning like AOL chat rooms saying like they were these were the predecessors to the Facebook’s and the Twitter’s you know, Twitter, I think, did Twitter come around in like, 2008, or something like that? Then about that? Yeah, somewhere around there. I don’t remember exactly. But it was, you know, it’s so interesting, but they continually roll out these new platforms. And I’m just like, Oh, God, here we go. It’s another thing to learn. And so I tend to pick up the newest stuff, even though the dinosaur on social media.

Shae Perry  28:23

Well, I understand is, it can be overwhelming. And I think from my my point of view, the main the main platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, yeah, those are kind of, you know, those are kind of like my, my starting five that are my main things. And I have times where I’m, that’s not, you know, on one more than the other I, you know, I switch around, but it can, it can be a lot. So I mean, you know, especially as an individual trying to maintain and manage so I my hat is off to you, because I think you do a fabulous job of posting, I can always, I always know that at the end of the week, I’m probably going to see a photo dump. And I appreciate it because the last last two photo dumps I’ve been included in so I’m my head is even more often

Lauren Conaway  29:08

Yeah, all right. Hey, incidentally, fun little search, social media algorithm hack. And I mean, they change the algorithm every day. So but like people are like, you’re so good at LinkedIn. And I’m like, I’m really not, I just take pretty pictures of people. And then I tag the shit out of them. And like, that’s, that’s what I do. I’m LinkedIn and for whatever reason, we have really deep engagement on LinkedIn, just Yeah, I tagged the shit out of people. And I’m like, level of work that I’m willing to put into this platform and just to work really, really well for us.

Shae Perry  29:40

Oh, and this is good because you’re, you know, as collaboration that’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen in my professional career. And even when I was in college is collaboration, whether you’re at an event together and you guys are, you know, collaborating on something or taking those pictures and then sending and tagging everyone that just is going to increase your engagement so I that is the that is a big tidbit that people should do because there’s there’s probably somebody that’s like, Man, I keep posting this one picture of myself, or I did a photo shoot, and I keep posting and it’s not getting traction. Yeah, well maybe into maybe instead of just posting a picture of you maybe post that picture and then also tag and say, Hey, shout out to the photographer, his team is great. My friend tagged the friend that was there that was on site to help you or did your makeup, you know, those type of things you really should show, you know, what we can’t see in the picture.

Lauren Conaway  30:30

Yeah, well, and so one of my favorite and this is, this is a tip that I’m just giving away for free. But like one of my favorite is, this isn’t even like really an officially officially marked marketing tactic. But I love kind of that secret insidious marketing stunt. And I’ll explain what I mean. So when I go out into the community, and somebody like introduces me, or I’ll meet someone new, and I’ll be like, Hey, have you ever heard of InnovateHer KC? If they haven’t explicitly heard of InnovateHer? One of the funny things that happens is like, very often the response will be, yeah, I think that I’ve heard of that. And like, they don’t know exactly what we are and who we do. But that foot in the door is useful to me because they’re generally assuming that they’ve heard of us in a positive light, and it allows me the just the toehold that I need to tell our story and already have people who think of us positively even if they don’t know exactly what we do. And it’s like, it’s this really tricky little thing. And it’s because, you know, when I’m tagging people, I’m showing up in everybody’s timelines, right? So even though the person that was involved was not the, the, I guess, focus of the post, right time and light, but people are still seeing our content, because I’ve tagged this person. Right, exactly. And so it’s just really interesting. So I want to I want to talk, I think that you’re going to be extraordinarily helpful in this. But one of the things that we’d like to do around Startup Hustle is talk about the best practices, the tips and tricks that you can use tomorrow or today, even. So, I mean, we’ve talked about know your audience, you have to tell a compelling story, you have to figure out what your story is. And then you have to tell it in a way that matters to the people that you’re trying to reach. So those are, those are some things that we’ve talked about, but can you give us some best practices for creating compelling multimedia content? I mean, what are your thoughts there?

Shae Perry  32:32

Yeah, I mean, I think the easiest answer, you know, is utilize the, the new wave of AI, you know, the ChatGPT, of the of the world.

Lauren Conaway  32:44

I promise you, you just said that. And we’re gonna get emails that you just said that, by the way. You know, some people seem to think that AI is the devil, but gosh, it is helpful

Shae Perry  32:55

You know, with everything, there’s going to come some pros and cons, you know, there, of course, we’re going to be unfortunately, just in general, people that might miss me misuse certain tools. You know, but I think that if you’re using it to propel your business and that type of sense, then of course, that’s, you know, a good way to utilize it. But I think, definitely, that I would actually have happen to have a meeting earlier today with someone externally, just about some different business stuff. And he was like, look, this is my, my source of truth, you know, and those AI tools of just kind of getting some coffee together for his website was just one of the things that he’s been, he’s been utilizing because as at the end of the day, we all are doing a lot of things, and we’re moving at a fast pace, you know, and so we can’t do everything. So when you can use those different tools, whether it’s that or you’re like, man, I need to I need a graphic like yesterday, Canva, you know, Adobe, and I’ve always been hooked on Adobe because that’s what I was taught at UMKC. And so I still use Adobe to this day. But there’s tons of different apps out there that you can just plug in some stuff and like why law, you’re able to just kind of go in nit pick a little bit sooner this a little bit.

Lauren Conaway  34:08

Like, I’ll use the template that’s available, or like even either chat GBT, like I’ll go in and I’ll be like, hey, write a short slip, social media blurb, x. And then I mean, of course, I’m gonna go in and I’m gonna make it sound nice and put it in our voice. But like just even having that base to build on. Yeah, extraordinarily helpful. You think fast, faster, you know, a running

Shae Perry  34:32

start is the best art. So I think that a lot of technology we have does that for companies so that they can nail that down. You’re like, I don’t know what I don’t like when I’m working on a paper or just kind of working on any project. And I’m just like, Man, I’m stumped on this word. Copy, I just start Googling stuff and try to inspire myself and say, Hey, what’s the synonym for this just so I can get my brain flowing. And so using the different tools as it does the exact same thing, well, there’s graphics, whether it’s words or you know, even video.

Lauren Conaway  35:05

Sometimes I do like I actually do, sometimes I’ll do something called wiki flipping where, like, I go into Wikipedia, and I’ll just like start hitting random links, because that’s, but sometimes that’s inspiration, sometimes I’ll just pull up thesaurus. And like, if I have a word in my head, I’ll just look at like the words that are essentially trying to get into my creative brain, like sometimes the most random stuff can serve as inspiration. Yeah, and, you know, I think that AI can definitely be a part of that. So creating compelling content, like one of the things that I always respond well to, is those really those slick, shiny fancy graphics. And that’s, that that’s just because I have like a marketing background. And so of course, it’s like, if you’re a party planner, and you go to a party, you’re just judging, you know, like,

Shae Perry  35:57

definitely, like, all day,

Lauren Conaway  35:59

But to one of the things that I want to talk about is like that, that perfect being the enemy of progress thing. Like, what if you don’t, what if you’re an organization that doesn’t have like, a really huge marketing budget and doesn’t have a lot of time? Like if you’re a solopreneur? Or if you are a co founder in a startup? What are some some other ways that you can make this work easier for yourself? Cuz I, that’s what we’re all about. Let’s make it as easy as we can. But still still keep that quote, like, do you think that you need to have the shiniest fanciest graphics in order to appeal to your audience?

Shae Perry  36:34

Um, no, I don’t I think you can manage, you know, and even then, like I mentioned earlier, you can have the pretty, pretty graphic, but they will you get somewhere you can, you can just tell it’s not organized, you know? So it’s like, yeah, you pull people live by this graphic, but then we got here and experienced it. And we’re not going to remember that graphic, we’re going to remember the experience. The saying always goes, you know, you might have forgot what someone said to you, but you never forget how they made you feel.

Lauren Conaway  36:59

That’s Dr. Maya Angelou. I love that quote, so great.

Shae Perry  37:05

And so with that, I think creating an overall experience is way more important than a fancy flyer. You know, and if, if you have the team to put the flyer together, that’s great. But I do understand being kind of being an entrepreneur myself, you don’t have time always. And sometimes I’m working on projects myself. And I’m like, this flyer isn’t cutting it. Like it’s not bad. I’m like, This isn’t bad, but it’s not doing it for me, do I? Do I want to just put this out because I’m pressed for time. And so that’s where you come to as a, you know, entrepreneur, you come to that point where you do have to make that decision? What do you want your brand to speak to? Like? Do you want your brand to you know, Are you Are you okay, with this putting this out? Do you think it’d be okay? Because I mean, depending on your industry, I do think that the bar is set differently to for different industries, you know, yeah. So, you know, if you’re throwing an event, and it’s your nightlife, your nightlife is your thing. Well, maybe your flyer, you know, if you have pool and there’s a lot of people that already RSVP, then maybe your flyer being the grandest is not necessary, because you have, you have the pool, you know, so I think people should all know their strengths. When it comes to that just knowing what you bring to the table and knowing like, Okay, let me call on my one friend, you know, and say, Hey, I need your help, you know, you got the pretty, pretty flyer, but you’re like, look, I don’t think anybody’s coming to my event, because no one’s heard about it, because I’m never on social media, then call that friend and try to, you know, and just kind of pull them in and loop them in collaboration is the biggest thing that I’ve done in my professional career is just reaching out to people, because if I don’t know, someone else probably does. They will know, they probably know somebody who might, so we’re just gonna keep going. And that’s kind

Lauren Conaway  38:46

of relationship building piece. Like, that’s all it seems like, it always goes back to that. Another thing that I just I kind of want to mention, you know, I love testing, like, one of my favorite things to do was like, Okay, let’s do the A B testing thing. Let’s do the the beta testing thing. And so So I would say that, like, if you are confused about what your brand is trying to say, and what you want it to say, when you’re trying to make those two things come into alignment, sometimes you’re gonna you’re gonna fail, like, try things and it’s not gonna resonate, and it’s not going to work and so track that shit. Exactly. Like you know, make sure like if you’re sending out emails and you’re sending out a couple of different kinds of emails to different segments of your base and like figure out all right, this one performed better this client so maybe future headlines, we kind of base off of that and understand that this is a process like I had so many clients who would come to me and they would be upset that I did not get immediate results within like a couple. We’re playing the long game here exactly. fine if you want to attract people who are going to become the brand ambassadors and the fanatics, the fans are going to be sharing your brand story, like if you want to create loyal customers and clientele, you’re going to have to figure out using follow the process, like try things, understand that they’re not all going to work. But he would like come to me and be like, how come I don’t have 10,000 Instagram followers, and it’s been a couple of weeks. If I were to get you 10,000 Instagram followers in two weeks, I promise you, they’re not the kind of followers that you want. They’re people who don’t care about what you have to offer, and you’re going to be shooting yourself in the foot for the long game. Yeah, play the long game.

Shae Perry  40:37

Especially, uh, you really just should I think that’s the best way. Because I mean, unless you have something that just happens and you blow up overnight, you still have to keep up with it. You know, it’s not gonna continue to last. You got to keep that fire. Yeah. So yeah, it is the long game. And I think sometimes we do get, as, you know, just humans, we get anxious, especially something that is our project or our company, that might be our baby. We’re like, I want this to happen. And it shouldn’t happen last year. Why is it not happening? Why am I not at 3 million yet? You know, I’ve been sitting in 1 million I’ve been stuck there, whatever. It’s like, you do have to put strategies in place. And sometimes we started, you know, as a startup company, like, or if you’re starting up a company, if you’re just like, Look, I’m just in my mom’s basement, I’m getting this thing started. It’s easy to just be like, this is where I want to go, and I’m just doing stuff with no strategy. You know, I’m just gonna put put a post this every now and then. But once you kind of grow, you’re like, I’m getting some good traction. But now I actually need that strategy, like, every thought will lead back to having some structure and strategy at the end of the day.

Lauren Conaway  41:44

Exactly. Well, so I love that. And I have been anxiously awaiting asking you the human question. And I’m really, really excited to hear your response. Are you ready, Shae?

Shae Perry  41:56

I am ready for it.

Lauren Conaway  41:57

Okay, so my question is, what do you daydream about?

Shae Perry  42:02

What do I daydream about?

Lauren Conaway  42:04

Yeah, you’ve got some time on your schedule, or you’re waiting for something to download or render, and you’re just kind of thinking to yourself, what, what’s crossing your mind? I need your family food. But that’s

Shae Perry  42:19

No, that’s that’s crossing my mind somewhere in that I think I’ll say right now because I’ve had this conversation a couple of times, not about the daydreaming but about what I should do. So I’ve been trying to plan vacation. So I think what’s on my little, my little daydream mind is me just I don’t know, if it’s a beach, I don’t know if it’s, I don’t know,

Lauren Conaway  42:42

You feel very beachy to me. And I don’t know why that is, but like, some umbrella during the beach, I can see it.

Shae Perry  42:52

A lot of something, you know, extra shot of, you know, tequila or something like that in there. But um, yeah, I think that’s kind of like where I’m at right now as I’ve been putting in some great work, I’ve been enjoying the work, which makes it harder to step away, of course. So I think just trying to find a little bit of time to just kind of kick back and relax and just actually be in the present and just look at everything that I’ve been able to just kind of be blessed with in the course of the last four years. I’m going on four years since I graduated. So to feel like I accomplished some stuff just sitting down and relaxing and not thinking about anything other than the now.

Lauren Conaway  43:36

Are you daydreaming to have the opportunity to daydream even more?

Shae Perry  43:40

Yeah, exactly. That’s exactly it is.

Lauren Conaway  43:42

Gosh, I love it. You’re so meta. All right. Well, friends. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us, Shae. I always love seeing any out you have such a good vibe and energy. And I just knew that this was going to be a fun time. So thank you for taking the time.

Shae Perry  44:01

Thank you so much for having me. I had a great time. I appreciate the human question. It was fun.

Lauren Conaway  44:06

All right. Well, that is wonderful. Something else fun. I don’t know if you heard but if you are looking to hire software engineers, testers or leaders, Full Scale can help. They have the people in the platform to help you build and manage a team of experts. When you visit FullScale.io, all you need to do is answer a few questions and then let the platform match you up with fully vetted, highly experienced software engineers, testers and leaders. At Full Scale, they specialize in building long term teams that work only for you. Learn more when you visit FullScale.io. And friends I do this all the time. First, I want to thank you for coming back to listen to us week after week. I do believe we recently hit 5 million downloads. And it is all because of individuals like you who take time out of their busy schedule to come and listen to the founder stories that we tell on Startup Hustle, we are very grateful. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have suggestions for guests or if you have topics that you want to hear about you can suggest a guest or give us your feedback at StartupHustle.xyz. Also, check the show notes for a link but keep on coming back we are very, very grateful for you and we will catch you next time.