February 22nd Newsletter

Table of Contents

• T-shirts for Scents Did Not Make Sense… Until It Did.

• Curate your Feed

• This Incident Made Me Quit High Profile Public Relations

• Content. Promote. Sales.

• Free resources for you

BIG MICRO OBSESSION GOALS & INITIATIVE

Representation for Micro Business Owners
Over the next 10 months, one of the primary focuses for TBMOi is representation in the media. I will be introducing micro-business-friendly campaigns to major media outlets for the holidays. The initiative aims to reduce the cost of basic memberships to ensure representation for a minimum of 1,000 micro-businesses exclusively. Basic members will receive all materials to start working on their marketing by March 1st.

If you would like to have a marketing officer quality check your market readiness and represent your business during media campaign meetings, become a member today!

Retail & E-commerce Partnerships Pending 
In a last-minute addition to what the initiative offers, I am currently building relationships with Etsy, Walmart, Target, Fiverr, Mercari, and Meta for Business. These partnerships offer multiple benefits:

• Strengthen media campaigns and extend credibility to micro-businesses attached.

• Provide inside information on how their platforms work for your success.

• Create higher chances to be discovered on these platforms.

The archives

I had the privilege to consult over 100 clients over the last two years. I have recently looked in my archives to pull out stories of business owners who have started with no resources and have gone on to make their first 5-figures from my guidance. Take what you need and apply it accordingly depending on where you are in your journey. Please note, names and entities have been changed to protect their privacy.

T-shirts for Scents Did Not Make Sense… Until It Did.

Down in Augusta, Georgia, corporate technical manager Akrin has been one of the few to go back to the office after a year of working remotely. She loved work when it was remote; now she has created a business to eventually escape the routine she finds herself in.

Each morning, just before sunrise, Akrin finds herself nestled in a quaint coffee shop near her workplace. Just under 2 hours before resuming her corporate duties, she is managing her e-commerce profile or sketching new designs for her aromatic-inspired t-shirts.

Akrin's latest collection, "Vanilla on Chocolate," is part of her passion turned business. Drawing from the indulgent combination of French vanilla ice cream atop chocolate chip pancakes, she infuses each design with her vision that captures the sentiment of the aroma.

She understands the concept seems delusional, possibly "crazy." This understanding made her feel like she was doing the wrong thing.

While Akrin is talented in what she delivers, when we first spoke there was a level of uncertainty. Doubt mixed with not knowing her audience locked her in the same position of dismissing product releases or releasing items just to have no one discover her work.

The competition in the fashion e-commerce industry on digital marketplaces looms large. No matter the dedication and tireless efforts, she struggled to find her community looking for her on the platform.

Akrin was adamant about not promoting herself on social media for fear of overworking herself without a guaranteed payout. She expressed how complicated she felt social media marketing/promotion can be. So we stuck to the path of making her discoverable on the platform she was using.

After reviewing her brand strategy we put together, I later found out that her brand wants to use partnerships as an end goal. Akrin’s overall goal is to have her company be the top brand fragrance companies go to for clothing brand collaborations. This meant pivoting into new markets that a normal t-shirt brand would not start with.

When consulting Akrin on how to get discovered, we decided to skip over the general t-shirt competition.

It was about going for the jugular and getting seen in the fragrance section of the e-commerce site. Not only would this confusion spark traffic, but it would also increase traffic by those “favoriting” her product or page, which also boosts traffic opportunities.

With newfound clarity (and confidence), Akrin realigned her overall brand and products to resonate with the feminine automatic markets of candles and perfume. This exposed hidden opportunities and breathed new life into her brand.

The slight pivot forced her to change her messaging, previous product positioning on the marketplace, and storytelling on each product she creates.

A well-defined goal can tell you what the brand will be doing. Competitors are not always those in your way; they can be future collaborators. Starting with a simple brand strategy can help with this and bring clarity, even if it is to sell your products on e-commerce marketplaces.

Why I stopped doing celebrity PR

Over the last 5 years, I've had the privilege of helping over 200 businesses with marketing and PR. A small percentage of that involved working with celebrities.

Even before getting my mentor in 2021, I consulted with celebrity teams and managers on how to position themselves based on upcoming projects. Since positioning comes naturally to me, I had no issues doing this for A and B-list entertainers. It was my soft skill that I wanted to perfect, so I invested in a mentor mid-pandemic.

Through a few personal contacts, I was introduced to my mentor Sheeraz Hassan—the man who positioned the Kardashians (and the only person in the world who never got sued when he revealed all their secrets to ABC News), Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Zendaya, Justin Bieber, etc. Through sheer luck, he took about 9 people in to personally mentor during this time. A few of those happened to be an up-and-coming broadcast journalist, another publicist, a photographer, an actress, and a reality star.

The feeling of being fortunate was brief

After people caught wind of my upgraded skills, once again through mutual contacts, I was introduced to many entertainers seeking a publicist with marketing experience. One entertainer in particular was championed through many of my contacts all within the span of 2 weeks. I decided to take a meeting.

During the meeting I learned the team that was working with them for almost 2 years could not move the needle. Turns out this celebrity was blacklisted by the media. This should have been my sign to drop out, but my love for problem-solving dismissed the red flags.

So through a series of multiple meetings, I shared my plan to get the entertainer back in good graces with media members. I had my own connections that superseded the original entity that blacklisted my potential client.