Matt Ward 0:02
Hey there, and welcome to the Mass Business Podcast. My name is Matt Ward and I am your host. Today’s guest is Nicole Porter. She helps small businesses navigate the large and overwhelming world of social media by focusing on what’s really important. We’re going to talk to Nicole about her business, her business growth, and all fun things about business growth, networking, and referrals. Are you ready? Let’s go.

Intro 0:42
Welcome to the Mass Business Podcast where small business owners, also known as risk-takers, share their stories about the growth of their business and themselves. Our interviews and our content is focused on growing a small business, and understanding networking and referrals. I say it all the time. And I’ll say it again today. You never know where your next referral will come from.

M- Hey there, welcome. Welcome to the show. Nicole. Happy to have you on. Welcome.

Nicole Porter – Thank you so much, Matt. I’m so excited to be here.

M – Yeah, well, this is Episode One of a brand new podcast, we’re happy to have you. I’ve known you now. For Oh, I don’t know, I’ve known your husband a really long time. And he connected us last year. So it’s been exciting. I’ve watched your growth as a small business owner here in Massachusetts and just skyrocket over the last year. And it’s a lot of fun to see what you’re doing and the changes that you’re making. So just sort of share with our audience just a little bit about just a brief overview, not your whole origin story. But what is it that you do?

N ,- 1:55
So I help small businesses with their social media. So the real bread and butter of what I do is just taking it off their plate so that they don’t have to worry about it. We do everything soup to nuts, all their captions, scheduling everything.

M – 2:08
Okay. And so, as a small business owner, what do you find the biggest challenges for you?

N – 2:14
I think growth strategically probably was the biggest challenge for me, you know, as an entrepreneur, you kind of out on an island on your own. And I think just strategically growing on my own was very difficult for me.

M – 2:30
Right. So how do you? I think, as small business owners, we often don’t know what we don’t know. And in fact, you know, I, I’m a big believer that small business owners left the corporate world or what, or the employment world right, to start their own business, because they wanted three things. Right. They wanted more money, more time, and more freedom. And they got those. They got none of those, right.

N – Yeah.

M – Oh, what is? So why is that? Like, why? What’s the biggest challenge with getting those things in your mind?

N – 3:11
Well, you know, I think, for me, I’m in kind of a unique situation, I’ve young kids at home. And so I have to be very strategic about my time. And I think that is probably, you know, one of the reasons that I didn’t see that those three things so that time, you know, more time, more freedom, more money, because to balance life, and business can be a challenge, I think, for most people, and I think, you know, as entrepreneurs, we tend to go a little bit too far towards the business side of things, you know, we have a tendency to always be working, and maybe we’re not working on the right things. And I think that that was a huge thing for me as, as I was growing is how am I going to work on the right things? How am I when I have such a limited time? You know, I have young kids at home, I have distance learning going on? How am I going to work on the things that really matter that are going to drive growth in the right ways?

M – 4:15
Are you how do you compartmentalize that? How do you figure that out?

N- 4:19
Well, with help I for sure. I think, um, I think it was, what can I do? And what can I do well, and what can I outsource? You know, and what time do I have to work? When can I work? When can I carve out these moments in my day, my week to spend time on my business? And when I do carve out those times, What’s going to be most effective? Is it going to be you know, writing an email? Probably not. Is it going to be sales-focused activities, probably. So it was really honing in on what you know what’s going to make the biggest difference for me and that was really making those connections and having in sales driven conversations and just building relationships in general.

M – 5:09
I love what you just said, Nicole, you said sales-driven conversations you didn’t say you didn’t say cold calls, you didn’t say sales, you didn’t use it sales-driven conversations. And I think a small business owners, something that maps our day that maps our true business trajectory. And the things we think, are the words we say. And what I love about what you said was that sales does have to be top of mind, you have to have sales activities. But you don’t have to start your day making sales. And when I talk about relationships with my clients, I talk about sales activities, relationship-building activities, and I love how you put that. Sales-driven conversations. Do you feel like you’re successful at having those every day or every week?

N – 6:07
I would say every week, I don’t think right now, it’s an everyday thing for me, hopefully, in a few months, I will be in that place. But every week, definitely, you know, and that was really stepping out of my comfort zone and having tried to push myself to have those conversations. And you know, and going into them, not just for myself, but you know, building relationships and seeing how I can help those other people as well. So it’s not just having sales-driven conversations for myself, it’s going into it, learning about them, and figuring out how we can mutually help each other, not just myself, and, you know, having those conversations for me.

M – 6:49
Yeah, you just said the word learning, which is interesting, because that’s our theme for Season One is educating yourself. And so what, you know, how do you think about educating yourself? I mean, are you are you a constant learner? Or do you like ebb and flow and just try to learn new things as they come? do you do that?

N – 7:09
I would say that I’m more of a constant learner, I love to learn new things. And I try to make it a part of my week, I make sure that I’m checking in on, you know, the latest social media industry news, business growth type things I really into personal growth. So I always have a personal growth book on audio that I’m listening to in the car. I just, I love learning, I’m just one of those people that’s a lifelong learner. And so it’s kind of it’s not necessarily one of those things that I say, Okay, I’m gonna go take a class every week, but it’s something that’s always in the background for me. Okay, I have five minutes. What can I, What can I listen to? What can I read that’s going to lead to my growth and the growth of my business.

M – 7:53
So do you think about listening to audiobooks and podcasts and things like this episode? For example, what do you think about listening to these types of things when you walk the dog when you do exercising? When you are said, you said it when you were driving in your car? I think I read it somewhere. I don’t know who to attribute it to. But it was um, it was it was a what they call it a nat activity and and a no added time activity, because you’re already doing something else. So then you can put the audiobook on, is that what you’re always looking for? as a way to learn more?

N – 8:30
Absolutely, yeah, that’s pretty much, as I said before, you know, I have young kids, they were just distance learning, I have limited time. So when I can add something on like that, I’m always looking to do that, like you said, walking the dog folding laundry, I listen to it, as I go to bed at night. I make sure that when I have those minutes that you know, it’s when you don’t have to be focused on really what you’re doing, you’re walking, you’re folding laundry, you’re, you know, going to bed or whatever it is driving in the car, and you can put your attention on that learning, I always make sure that I have something in the queue that I have ready so I’m going to be listening to that.

M – 9:09
That’s awesome. And so if you’re listening to this podcast or watching us on YouTube now we’d love to hear about what your no added time activities are. Do you listen to audiobooks in the car? Do you listen while you’re walking? Feel free to comment on our Facebook page or on our YouTube comments. And tell us what you think. How do you educate yourself and what do you do to educate yourself? That’s an important part that we want to help other people learn because the things that you share with others are things that people can take away and that’s sort of what our mission of this podcast is. What types of things, what have you learned recently, that you’d like to share with the audience what one thing whether it’s social media related or not about business or anything else? What when has impacted you that you want to share with other people?

N – 10:03
Oh, man, that’s a good question. What one thing have I learned recently, um, you know, I think it’s more of a reminder. And I think it’s just the importance of building good relationships. And I really think about how that just, oh, it’s overarching, in everything you do, it’s in your conversations, but it’s also on social media, it’s not just interacting with somebody just to interact with them, it’s really being thoughtful about your interactions, and how those relationships are just so beneficial for everybody involved, not just for yourself, but for the other person as well. And you know, maybe that’s, it’s not going to lead to sales, maybe it’s going to lead to personal development, maybe it’s going to lead to business development. Um, you know, you’re going to maybe take a nugget away from something you have during a conversation, something you get during a conversation with them. Maybe it will lead to sales, but maybe it’ll lead to sales for them. Um, and I think that’s a really important part of business in general, is really just authentically connecting with people, and building authentic relationships. has really, it’s come to the forefront for me over this past year, I think. And it’s, it’s been very important to overall growth, not just business growth,

M – 11:31
So, so something that I get asked a lot about, is this word authentic? Right? How do you find the authentic self? How, how did you define? What is that defined as to you? And how did you find it?

N – 11:48
I think it’s a little bit about letting your guard down. And just really being who you are, you know, and not, you’re not going to connect with everybody, not everybody is going to be in that bubble of your world, but really connecting with the people that, you know, you kind of feel in your heart that you resonate with, and they have similar values, and not caring quite so much about putting on a front or putting on, um, you know, so like, a facade that you think people want to see. It’s more I think about just being your authentic self, you know?

M – 12:27
yeah, and I think you bring up a good point, you’re like, when I first moved into the speaking world, I had what I call speaker’s voice. It was the voice that I thought everybody in the audience wanted to hear from me, it was this idea that I couldn’t say or do certain things on a stage because they wouldn’t be acceptable. It’s this idea that I need to show them what they expect. And you know what the problem with that, Nicole is, it’s very simple. That is the need for approval coming through. And the minute we shed our need for approval from other people, which by the way, is a constant thing that we all probably are working on, I myself have shed it and then got it back, and then shed it again, and then got it back, right. It’s like a roller coaster or a seesaw if you were ever on one of those as a child. And so I’m constantly redefining what I want in my life from other people and to show up in the way that I choose to live. And one of my coaches, Tamsen Webster taught me very well, that you got to know who you’re for and who’s for you. And once you compartmentalize that, it’s not about not caring about other people, because we need to care about other people. But it’s so much more about not worrying what other people think. And once we can get to that point, then I think we show our true authentic selves, which is what you’re defining as just really showing up. I mean, I kind of think of it like this. If you Well, if you don’t know, I know a little bit about Nicole, she used to be a chocolatier, right? She used to be a chocolatier. And so like if you’re a chocolatier, it’s about not worrying that other people used to think you were a chocolatier before you had a social media marketing company. Yeah, because it’s not the end of the world because many people don’t even care like, In fact, they’d like to hear that because they probably want some of that great chocolate you still make from time to time. By the way, my shipping address is on my website.

N – 14:42
Yes, that’s a I think that’s a great point. And it’s I think it’s like you said it’s a continual process. It’s you don’t just shut it and it’s gone. Because you’re always trying to be that authentic self. And, you know, for me, like you said, I used to be a chocolate cheer that’s definitely part of it but I, you know, I talked about I have three kids, I have two rescue dogs, um, you know, things can be a little chaotic at times. But I think that just kind of adds to the real world part of things. And it helps you resonate. Like you said, it helps resonate with the people that you truly want to connect with. And it helps you help the people you want to help as well. So I think that’s a really big part of it. And I think, building that and all parts of your business, you know, if you’re on social media, it can be really hard to be authentic. But it’s important, but it’s important in your conversations, it’s important and how you come across, everywhere you are, everywhere you come across.

M – 15:39
Absolutely. As we start to come to the end of this podcast, you know, I love it, some of the things we’ve talked about, I’d really want to know what one piece of software or business tip, tool or tip, you could give the listeners that might be able to help them whether it’s in social media management or not, it can be in business management, it could be a piece of software, a tool that you use something you absolutely love that saves you time, makes you more money, gives you more freedom, whatever it might be, what’s that one thing that you could share?

N – 16:15
I think, right now I’m addicted to Asana A-S-A-N-A, and it’s my project management tool. And it is my task list. And it helps me stay organized. It helps me manage my time. And I really couldn’t live without it. Because I’m able to say, I’m able to compartmentalize with it, and I’m able to say okay, I know I need to do this, I’m gonna put it on for Thursday. And then when it’s done, I can check it off. And then a little unicorn goes across the screen when I do that? And it makes me so happy. So that is my favorite tool is asana.

M – 16:53
So you’re driven by the unicorn? Yeah. Great. Awesome. And so if you’re an Asana user, you know, jump into the comments and let us know like, I mean because now you can have like a little Asana user community out of this whole thing. You never know. I mean, I’ve heard of Asana, I’ve never used it. I know people that use it. But I never never knew about the unicorn. Oh, it’s amazing. It’s so great. You know, it’s what I love is that you’re talking about a project management tool, a task management tool. And one of the things that I always do when I’m working with my clients is make sure that they have something that helps them remain organized. And it’s so important that it’s not the tool that I want. It’s the tool that they’re comfortable with. Right? It sounds like you’re super comfortable with this tool.

N – 17:43
Yeah, I love it. I tried other ones. And this just happened to be the one that fit. It worked for me other people like there’s a bunch of different project management tools, but this just happened to be the one so I really like it. It helps you compartmentalize it and you know, manage your time. And it helps manage stress in that way too. Because you can say, Okay, I know I’m going to be doing this particular task on Thursday. I don’t have to stress about it on Monday. I know what’s on my plate for this day. I know I’m organized. I know this is going to happen. So I don’t have to be worrying about it in the back of my mind. So that’s one of the reasons I love it.

M – 18:17
Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks so, so much for jumping on episode one of the mass business podcast, really excited to have you on the call. Please share with everyone where they can get in touch with you about your services that you offer.

N – 18:30
You can find me on my website Monomoysocialmedia.com and I am on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn as Monomoy social media so you can find me on any of those as well.

M – 18:43
Yeah, we appreciate you having you on. Stay tuned and we will wrap it up right here. We appreciate you having it on and that’s it for the first episode of the massive business podcasts will check you on the next one.

Speaker 19:12
Thank you for listening to the mass business podcast where we focus on growing a small business and understanding networking and referrals. Don’t forget to like on your favorite platform and share out this podcast. This show has been produced by Heather Grant. Music by Cailte Kelley. All rights reserved. I’m your host, professional speaker, author, and word of mouth referral consultant, Matt ward.

Don’t forget to live happy. smile a lot., and High Five everyone around you.