The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth Molly Knuth

In this episode format called “Coaching Calls,” a small business owner/entrepreneur is given an opportunity to submit a question they would like me to answer about marketing, business growth, personal development, or anything that’s on their mind!
 
Today’s submission is from a fellow marketer in northeast Iowa, Alex Monaghan of MAK Marketing, who asked, “How do you keep up with the algorithm?”
 
This is a layered question, but it’s one I think we all need a reminder of as we promote our products and services, specifically on social media.
 
Key Takeaways:
“The Meta algorithms, so Facebook and Instagram, and those are really driven by engagement. And engagement on those platforms looks like a hierarchy of interactions.” “A video engagement is considered a three-second view.” “What might my ideal audience be looking for? What are the words they're going to use? What are some of the phrases that they might search? And we want to make sure that we include those in our titles and in our captions to help those algorithms serve our content more.” “So I've learned over the years, there is…a very distinct difference between marketing for a product based business and marketing for a service based business.” “My perspective has always been to just give, and the right people will find me.”  
Time Stamps:
 
3:27 Meet Alex
7:04 “What is an algorithm?”
7:47 Meta algorithms
10:09 TikTok algorithm
11:24 YouTube & Pinterest algorithms
13:25 Timing the algorithms
23:03 How much is too much information to share?
 
A little more about Alex and MAK Marketing Co
MAK Marketing Co is a full-service marketing agency that helps rural, family-owned businesses bring their stories to life. MAK helps their clients anticipate market trends and consumer needs, ensuring that they are using marketing strategies that are relevant and effective in the long term.
 
From creating logos and branding, graphics, and print designs, to email marketing, social media marketing, and the strategy that unites it all, MAK helps their clients innovatively grow and connect agriculture businesses to their clients, one story at a time.
 
Connect with Alex and schedule a free consultation at https://www.makmarketingco.com/ or reach out to alex@makmarketingco.com.
 
Be a Guest on a Future Coaching Call
If you’d like to ask Molly your business or marketing question on a future episode of The Found Podcast, click the link below to enter your name and burning question: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchWWpkpdlzqnDJI0ocMcGgCXGkBk_8mIEFPKjLwkQ-W1oLYg/viewform

This one is for the ladies out there….myself included.
 
Over the past few years, I have been on a health journey. 
 
In 2015, I found strength training and really loved how my brain and body responded to weight lifting (more on that in this episode from the Re-Find miniseries of the podcast). Then, in 2018, I dove into nutrition and started paying attention to macro rations, portion sizes, and caloric deficits with the help of my friend Coach Erika at Sweat Inspire Sisterhood (hear from her in one of the very first episodes of the podcast). 
 
But in the years since, with the Covid of it all, different seasons of business, and stressful life circumstances, I’ve found myself at my heaviest weight ever and carrying a LOT of it in my midsection.
 
I’ve been pretty vulnerable sharing about this journey on my Instagram Stories, and thankfully through the magic of social media I was able to connect with Bri Edwards, owner and integrative nutrition health coach at Healthy Foundations Dubuque.
 
Through her proven Mind Body Nutrition Method, Bri guides women to their healthiest and most vibrant selves. 
 
Because she believes you don't have to continue looking for the next right diet.
 
You don't have to continue looking for the next right fitness plan.
 
You don't need to push harder. 
 
You don't need to have greater self control. 
 
You just need to unlearn and relearn the truths about your body as a woman, nutrition and how you can utilize both to transform your life.
 
In this episode with Bri, you’ll learn simple steps to set you up for success each day, ways to manage your stress levels through the foods you’re eating, and how to listen to your body in order to understand what you need most.
 
This is an episode every woman needs to hear.
Key Takeaways
4:53 Meet Bri 7:12 Bri’s Health Journey  8:47 What Women Were Told about Their Bodies 12:46 Phases of Women’s Cycles 20:44 Stress and its Impact on Women’s Bodies: 27:56 Stress and Weight Loss 31:10 Nutrition and Stress 35:40 Setting Yourself Up for Success Helpful Resources
Book a Clarity Session with Bri Healthy Foundations Dubuque website Healthy Foundations YouTube Channel Flo Cycle Tracking App Do Less by Kate Northrup Episode 137 The Found Podcast with Guest Jada Dobesh

In this episode…chaos ensues. Wardrobe malfunctions, losing my train of thought, jumping from topic-to-topic, this episode and all that happens within is very fluid and unscripted: much like my business and motherhood journey. I’m not exaggerating when I saw that within the first five minutes of this episode, you’ll hear the most embarrassing mishap of my podcasting journey so far…and we’re over 160 episodes in!
 
As we open the month of June here at The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth, we are breaking down what I’ve learned in my 7+ years of business, and how my experience as a woman has largely affected the way I show up as a leader and entrepreneur.
 
Key Takeaways
10:05 The boobs of it all: minimizing myself, my talents, and my gifts and playing small, much like the pre-pubescent me who wanted to minimize certain “aspects” of myself. 20:40 The bullshit of it all: the structures we still ascribe to in 2024 that were put in place in the patriarchal 1940s and 1950s. From overtly misaligned gender norms to even subtle aspects of our work expectations, women have to handle a lot of extra bullshit as they are building their businesses. 34:20 The burnout of it all: ladies, we simply try to handle SO much. Trying to be strong all the time, trying to feel and look like we've got our shit together, and knowing that it doesn't feel as good on the inside as we sometimes see on the outside can come at a cost. Without properly practicing self-awareness and putting supports in place, we can teeter into the land of burnout when we try to tackle too much on our personal and professional journeys. 14:27 “A lot of what I've been learning in recent years about the choices we make as adults is rooted and grounded in some of the experiences and thoughts that we had as children.” 18:18 “I knew for sure that the people that I saw running businesses or thought of as these, like, great business minds, whether locally or  on the internet, they didn't look like me. They didn't look like a mom who was in her sweatpants and a hat. in her office with three kids coloring on the floor behind her.” 20:40 “What I'm talking about here is the natural way that our bodies work, the hormones and how women operate on a monthly cycle. I'm talking about how we have emotions and feelings and those should not be separate from business. Business is personal.” Helpful Resources
Episode 137: “Wholly Herself with Jada Dobesh” Our guest next week, Bri Edwards, teaches women all about hormone health and nutrition Episode 7: “What I Learned from Being a Waitress”

This is one of my favorite things to do ever: take YOUR burning questions and answer them live. 
 
Just last month in April of 2024, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of approximately 150 people at the Young Professionals Association of Dubuque, Iowa. They had me in to talk about marketing and how to get seen by more people, particularly through your digital marketing strategies.
 
When I went to  this function, I love to share what I know and came prepared with slides, supportive resources, and a 45-minute planned speech. But, as with many programs I’ve been to before, I felt like the biggest takeaways came from the Q&A portion of the event. When we have an opportunity to ask burning questions from the audience in order to get the perspective of the speaker, it engages the participants and allows for real-time learning and application.
 
This episode is the result of all those fantastic questions the YP attendees submitted.
 
Read below for a preview of some of the topics we cover (and my answers) and a few helpful links for more information!
 
2:37
Question 1: Where did you get your blazer?
Answer 1: Old Navy
 
3:27
Question 2: How do you encourage a client to utilize all parts of the flywheel in their marketing when a decent amount of local businesses have small budgets?
Answer 2: So this is a fantastic question. If you want to know what the heck is a flywheel, go over to my episode from the beginning of May, the very first episode, episode 162. That one's going to be all about the marketing flywheel, and how I encourage my audience or sorry, how I encourage my clients to develop a more holistic marketing strategy.
 
Short story: I would remind you that good marketing doesn't mean you have to pay more for it.  It just means that you are doing things in a way that your audience recognizes and appreciates, and you are meeting them where they are.
 
For example, in the attraction phase of your marketing, I really do recommend that you're doing things in your strategy that are getting new eyeballs on you. This could mean collaborations. For example, I bring guests onto my podcast. It doesn't cost them any money to come be a guest with me, but it's opening them up to a whole new audience.  If they go and do two podcast guest spots a month, then they're open to two new audiences each month. They're attracting a lot more people in.
 
It's not costing them money. It's just costing them time. And that's helping them really get clear on where their time and energy and efforts are spent for that attraction phase of their marketing. 
 
12:21
Question 3: Have you ever worked on a hiring campaign for a client? And if you have, what was successful and what was not so successful?
 
24:19
Question 4: Should a business still be using Twitter/X?
 
27:27
Question 5: What are your thoughts on Pinterest? Tap here to listen to a recent episode on this very topic!
 
34:31
Question 6: Besides social media, where else should you market in person events?
 
40:58
Question 7: Platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn have become flooded with entrepreneurs and businesses competing for the attention of their audience. They've essentially become red oceans (tap here for more info on the blue ocean vs. red ocean analogy). Has the shift away from traditional marketing actually created a large opportunity for some savvy people to leverage it?
Helpful Links:
Watch this on YouTube Episode 161 Coaching Call: “Should I add Pinterest to my business’ marketing?” Episode 162: 3 Things I Wish Small Business Owners Knew About Their Marketing Be a Guest on a Future Coaching Call
 
If you’d like to ask Molly your business or marketing question on a future episode of The Found Podcast, click the link below to enter your name and burning question: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchWWpkpdlzqnDJI0ocMcGgCXGkBk_8mIEFPKjLwkQ-W1oLYg/vi

Much like Chik-Fil-A, this week’s episode was a pleasure! Sincerely.
 
Today on the podcast, we welcome not one, but two guests: Jan + Erin Johnson of Trailblazher Co. They're a mother daughter duo of multi-passionate women who have developed the grit, resilience, and gutsiness that comes from the ups and downs of being entrepreneurs over the past 24 years in business - together!
 
As you’ll hear them share in today’s episode, Jan + Erin’s skillsets complement one another so well, and together they love to create and bring new ideas to life. While they love working alongside one another, their true joy comes from sharing stories of rural women across North America.
 
Through their work at Trailblazher Co, they not only publish a gorgeous quarterly magazine, host a weekly podcast and connect rural women, but they're inspiring women along the way.  As you'll hear in today's episode, we cover a lot of ground, but the common thread is all about telling our stories as women. And how the peaks, the pits and everything in between can help the next generation of women who want to live rural and who want to grow rural businesses. 
 
This conversation is incredible, and I think you, like me will laugh, tear up, and feel so much joy and gratitude from the lessons Jan + Erin teach us in today’s episode of The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth. 
 
Key Takeaways
“We are storytellers” “We use the word trailblazher because [the women we feature] have that grit and resilience and risk taking and bravery, and we're astounded, honestly, every week with the women that we talked to and what they're creating in their life and all the things that they have going on. And despite all of that, they're so determined to bring their biggest dreams to life.” “It hasn't been a linear path. It's been messy at times. It's been on our knees like, Oh my gosh, what are we going to do next? But that thread that connects us is this purpose.  and drive to make an impact in women's lives. And where does that come from? I'm not really sure. Maybe it is to grow ourselves into the biggest and best version of who we are.” “No path is linear. No, it just, it just isn't. And that's what makes for great stories, right?” “You have to go through some personal growth, some,  sometimes some dark valleys, sometimes you're at the height of the mountaintop, but it's in that, that you find yourself, you get even more grounded into your purpose. And then you've got these great stories to share with others.” “How many other women have wares or goods like fresh produce that they want to sell and they need help with getting it out there? And so we actually started with, it was called at the time, The Rural Collective, and it was a directory to help rural women list their businesses so that we could find each other and have women in the cities find them rurally.” “Stretch out. Reach out to people who are ahead of you, who could mentor you, help you, advise you, consult with you.” “Every story of every person who you know, they have these same stories of times they tried things. They were gutsy, and they took a chance and they made it took a risk…maybe didn't work, but it gave them the knowledge to try something else or to pivot just slightly into the thing that made it work.” “Inspiration is at the root of creativity, inspiration, joy.”  
 
More about Jan & Erin
 
Jan is the connector on the Trailblazher Co team. Her jam is content writing and ideas. Whether writing feature stories for Trailblazher magazine, web content or upcoming course materials, Jan is gifted with a pen! She is naturally skilled at connecting ideas in ways that influence the direction of the company. Jan is also a gifted people person and insightful communicator striving always to acknowledge and draw out the unique and highlight what makes people special (shaped by her 30 years as a lifeskills coach). Jan is fuel

This might be the most actionable, helpful episode of The Found Podcast I’ve ever released. Not kidding.
 
In today’s episode, we dive in to the three things I wish all small business owners knew about marketing in order to get people to take action. And I don’t tell you to adopt any short-term trends or spend a bajillion dollars to do it. 
 
Nope, we focus on three key components:
People do business with people You choose the trends, don’t let the trends choose you Everyone has a story to tell  
In each of these components we drill down further to help you create a marketing strategy that fits you, your audience, and your business, and we use examples to help you take action just in time for summer. 
 
This episode also comes with plenty of resources, so be sure to tap the links below to access my 100 Story Starters downloadable tool and the slide deck that accompanies this information.
 
And if you want the help of a strategic marketing expert to walk through this process on behalf of your business, reach out at molly@mollyknuthmedia.com to discuss a 1:1 Strategy Session to give you a clear plan for your 2024 marketing.
 
Timestamps
 
2:27: 3 takeaways I want you to have from the episode
3:25 Meet the host, Molly Knuth
8:45 How my eyes opened to social media marketing as a teacher
11:55 People do business with people
14:15 How to approach your marketing in the summer months
16:59 Attract - the first phase of the marketing flywheel
19:13 Nurture - the second phase of the marketing flywheel
21:25 Serve - the third phase of the marketing flywheel
24:45 Choosing your marketing avenues for each part of the flywheel
27:34 Concrete examples of businesses using a marketing flywheel
37:39 Everyone has a story to tell and formatting your marketing content for your audience
38:32 Set a goal
38:44 Develop your serve marketing assets first
39:34 Developing your nuture sequence
39:56 Developing your attract assets using the SEEN model
 
Links
100 Story Starter Download SEEN Slideshow Amanda Hofman episode about merch Strategy Session Discovery Call link