EP.07 - Expanding Your Digital Influence with Social Media

The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast presents Dawn Raquel Jensen as this week's guest.

Dawn is a sought-after international speaker and 23-year technology-training veteran who has served as an embedded CMO/CXO to many organizations, leadership teams, and growth-stage businesses worldwide.

A stand-out among professional women, Dawn is also the CEO of one of Central Florida's select social media & technology training firms, Virtual Options Coaching & Training.

Dawn marries creative marketing strategy with leadership coaching to develop strategic marketing frameworks for successful entrepreneurs and high-performing leadership teams. Her social media expertise equips her clients to build an online presence, increase their credibility, authority, and expand their digital influence and develop a global reach.

As a social business advisor and speaker, Dawn educates business owners, executive teams, emerging leaders, and organizations on a wide variety of digital and omnichannel marketing topics including, social media content, integrated marketing, digital marketing tools, tactics, and strategy. She trains and advises organizations on how to increase influence, impact, and income in the communities they serve.

Do you know?
Dawn loves to travel and has even met a Pope. She has snowmobiled and hiked a glacier, swam between the continental divide, and hiked through a rain forest around a volcano.

Join Roy and Dawn on an intriguing journey starting from a meeting with Pope to the modern marketing era. Tune in now to hear her great advice on using Social Media to grow your business

About Virtual Options
Virtual Options Coaching & Training was founded by Dawn Raquel Jensen, in 1998 for business owners and entrepreneurs who needed on-site custom training and organizational development solutions. In 2007, there was a shift to integrate emerging online search, new media, and marketing together. This gave small business owners a level same playing field to gain visibility and getting known online.

Virtual Options provides creative and integrated marketing training and solutions support for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Special Bonus:
Check out Dawn's Calendar to  Book a Free Social Business Assessment Call with her.

Get in touch with Dawn Jensen:

• Dawn's Shor.by
• Virtual Options Coaching & Training
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Phone (407) 588-7246
• Email: training@virtualoptions.net

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The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast is sponsored by Aurora InfoTech, A Cybersecurity Firm catering to the information security needs of small to medium-sized businesses.

Transcript

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:00:00):

Welcome to this week's edition of the dynamic business leaders podcast. And I'm your host, Roy Richardson, the dynamic business leaders podcast is brought to you by Aurora Infotech cybersecurity firm based in Orlando, Florida, specializing in the information security needs of small to medium-sized businesses. And folks I'm excited today because my guest today is a sought-after international speaker and 23-year technology veteran who specializes in merging social media, digital marketing, technology, training, and entrepreneurship skills together to help organizations increase, influence, impact, and income in the communities they serve. In 2001, she founded one of central Florida select social media technology training firms, where today she works with business owners, executive teams, and emerging leaders on a wide variety of digital of omnichannel marketing topics, including social media content, integrated marketing, digital marketing tools, tactics, and strategy. She's a social media coach and a social media speaker who has served as an embedded chief marketing officer and chief experience officer to many organizations, leadership teams, and growth-stage companies and businesses, the world over. And if that was not enough, she's also an adventurous traveler who has met the Pope,  snowmobiled and hiked a glacier,  swam between the Continental Divide, and hiked through rainforests around the volcano. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me in welcoming Dawn Raquel Jensen to the show. Dawn, welcome. It's great to have you here. Hi Roy, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How have you been?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:01:38):

It has been a busy and productive week. So it's been amazing.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:01:42):

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, you know, I'm really looking forward to sharing your journey with our audience. And so one of the first things that came to mind when I was reading your bio and I want to, I want to delve first into the adventure side of things. Tell me a little bit about, you know, meeting the Pope and, and, and some of this stuff that you were on. Yeah. Give me the give, give us the skinny on that.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:02:03):

Well, you know, it's, it's interesting. A lot of things happen by kismet or happenstance. I had an opportunity when I was in college to go study Polish culture and Rome for the summer, and that's part of my heritage. You wouldn't know it to look at me, but, and part of that is spending three weeks just immersing in the, at the time. So let me give you a little bit of context and this will also tell my age, so don't count it too much, but at the time the Pope was Pope John Paul, the second, and he had a Polish home. He has a, it's kind of a people's home. So anyone of Polish descent could, could apply and stay in the home. So as part of the three weeks of learning about Polish culture and trip, we had surprised we were surprised with a private audience with the Pope and surprisingly not. He's very funny. He's very funny. He was a playwright when he was younger and very creative. It was, it was an amazing experience to meet him.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:03:13):

Wow, wow. That, that's a, certainly a once in a lifetime type experience and, and I'm glad that you share that with us. So tell me a little bit, you know, how did you, how did you venture into, you know, social media and what it is that you're doing today and, and how did you go about starting your business?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:03:32):

Well, I think I come by entrepreneurship. Honestly, I'm a third-generation entrepreneur, my grandmother, who was a former world war two flight nurse came to central Florida and married and opened up her own business. She was a real estate agent and had her own agency, I guess you call it an agency at the time. And so the entrepreneurial bug, or just being kind of self-sufficient bootstrapping it a little bit and helped me, I identify and relate to entrepreneurs and the different stages of, you know, a startup to growth to, you know, kind of being the, helping, being the catalyst for their success. My start got right almost right out of college. I was an established Navy journalist published nationally and internationally. And in the journalism side, when my first kid, I want to see my first real job was working with a software training, small business to go into mom and pop businesses and train them on.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:04:42):

At the time it was Microsoft, Microsoft office programs fast forward maybe about five or six years. We have the age of, you know, Yahoo and Netscape and internet service providers and being able to be the catalyst or the person to help explain how all this fits together, how they can run their business more efficiently and effectively utilizing technology to do the heavy lifting. And that comes into more corporate and classroom training. I was blessed to work with a nonprofit that had librarians as trainers and librarians. If no, if your audience doesn't know, librarians are S are super Uber ref resourceful, and they're one of the first people to use technology. And at the time it was new media and then social media. So when we were training librarians and academics in all the municipalities and the universities across in the region and the area in the state, we were introducing things like Facebook and YouTube and, and things like that. So I was able to look at it as a whole to say, okay, where are the spots that businesses are particularly small businesses can get on the same playing field that larger competitors and enterprise companies can do. And I found that social media was that equal playing ground.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:06:12):

That's awesome. That's awesome. And, and, you know, I guess a lot of people probably will not notice, but the libraries were actually one of the first academic institutions and by extension libraries were, were the first institutions to actually, you know, we're on the world wide web back then. And, and for the most part, that's where people went to go to, to get on the worldwide web, you know, via Mozilla and all these other, you know, names that probably the generations out there today are probably scratching their heads saying, what are you guys talking about? Right. So, Oh, that's okay. Okay. So I got you now. So, you know, and endless process, of engaging with these small businesses and teaching them the ins and outs on and how they can position themselves to be like the bigger guys out there, you know, what have you learned on your journey? And, and what's exciting right now.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:07:04):

Oh gosh. Okay. So as far as trend-wise, the exciting thing, which I have been harping on since when everybody, you know, kind of blowing smoke into the wind almost and 2009 and 2010 was AR augmented reality. You know, we see this when Yelp had monocle and then further along with Google glasses. And, you know, if you look at a day in glass, I think it is from DuPont. You can see the earlier versions of what AR you know, digital overlay over real experience. And so now finally, I believe we're at a, at a point where businesses and business owners and operators do understand that how they can use it and then apply it to make the customer experience for their clients and customers more robust in, I wanna say juicy, but just robust and well thought out. So that's one.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:08:06):

The other thing that I'm excited about, and this has been around a while, but applying to a, you know, growth in small businesses, it's the adoption rate is a little bit less than if you have a marketing team and a bigger organization. And that's what was, I was going to say verbal, but that's voice search. So voice search, I think, because you're able to share the information out about your company, your products, and services, your spokes, your, you can educate and inform about that to your clients and prospects and make them your brand ambassadors, you know, utilizing the tools and the technology, whether it's Alexa or on your phone, if it's Siri, you know, utilizing those tools are gonna make your job a lot easier. So, you know, we see this multiple channels, not just social media anymore, there are multiple channels to reach a client and being able to serve them at the level that they expect, meet them, where they are, and how they engage and want to engage in your, in your product or service is going to be important.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:09:11):

So if I go back here a little bit on what you just said with the augmented reality, for someone who may not necessarily, you know, have been exposed to that, and maybe, you know, in, in our audience who, you know, maybe they're, they're hearing you, but not being able to wrap their concept around it. Can you break it down a little more in terms of when you said that, you know, it can make it a little more, a bit more juicy, how that, you know, how that plays out for them?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:09:35):

Let me, let me go back in and talk about, you know, if you're anybody who's done a Google search on Google maps will understand that turn by turn instruction when they go to their browser and they put in an address and they see it is a hybrid model, they can see the, actually the roads and the, you know, local restaurants listed, overlaid over where they're, where they're supposed to be, where they are. So what we're looking at, and what I recommend that you think about is in what way can your product and service do the same thing? So if there's an informational educational video that is connected to your logo or to a spot on your website, or if you have an app, some, some business owners to is there a way that they can get more information or enhance the experience or even if they were to, in, in the case of security, if they were able to hover over an area of Wi-Fi I'm riffing right now. So are they able to look at, or could they be designated kind of areas of points on a place or placement in real-time where you can provide access or other information that would be, you know, warning or just notices and things like that, does that help at all? Does that help

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:11:01):

Explain

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:11:04):

Whether it is your marketing collateral brochure business card that has an element or a point that we can overlay and connect whether it's animation or connect video or connect voice, we want to be able to make sure that the experience for the employee or internally and externally the experience for the client or the customer is full, complete, just the way it is. And it helps with the sales cycle, and it helps with the onboarding as well. There are different areas that this can influence and reflect.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:11:43):

Gotcha. Gotcha. You know, it's amazing. I mean, because when we think of marketing and if we, you know, if we turn back the clock of time and we think of marketing, you know, traditionally many, many years ago, in many moons, it was just print marketing. Right. And all of a sudden then came digital marketing. And then within digital marketing, there are all these different realms. And now, you know, there were social marketing, and even within social work, you know, we have all the different platforms. Now we start talking about augmented reality, we're stocked on by artificial intelligence. We start, you know, bringing all these different pieces together. And now you're talking about voice and tying that in. I mean, it just it's, it seems like, you know, in order for most businesses out there to really have that marketing edge, they need to have someone like yourself who understands all these different elements and could break it down into layman's terms for them, but to be able to put it together and, and, and, and really bring it to them and that, and that's what your company does. Right.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:12:42):

Exactly. Okay. So, you know, it's always, it used to be that someone's nephews, neighbors, son can put my website up and put me on Facebook and that's Cybersecurity. And that's, you know, that can be a response, probably not the most secure or adaptive for what the business needs. And, but at the same time, you know, businesses, if you want to go far, you can go a little go at alone, but if you want it or excuse me, what if you want to go fast, you go to the line, you want to go far, you build your team. So in the aspects of, you know, starting a small building deliberately and being consistent, it can get overwhelming for any business owner. So if you could look at, you know, your FAQ's or the common questions that you're asked, whether it's through Facebook messenger or on the phone, or via email, you start with those things as, as those foundational answers that you come up repeatedly, that you can repurpose across those different channels. Right. Okay.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:13:50):

Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and of course it's important to have the same messaging across all those different channels. Right. Because a lot of times we see where there's a lot of disconnects which, which kind of leads me into my, my next question here is, you know, where would you say that, you know, business owners go off course in their marketing.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:14:10):

I, and I, this is very common. So one is they want to be all things to all people. They want to be on all platforms all the time, 24 seven, instead of having a contained, direct, specific approach for a specific goal and outcome. So sometimes, you know, when you start small, it's really having a mastering being where your clients are, right. And being able to create those pivotal pieces of content that move the needle. So, you know, for you right here with the podcast, it's, it's transcribed into articles or voice. It can be the video embed and it's whether it's medium or, or YouTube or other aspects on the website and through the newsletter, you know, you've got amplification and syndication of content for business owners. There's an overwhelm. And they, I think for most people, there's not necessarily a method.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:15:19):

They have a Jackson presentation. We'll just throw it up and see what sticks and hope and pray versus getting the messaging flat, getting the branding flat, you know, working with somebody who focuses on that or taking what they have and, and making sure that the consistency of the message all the way across to how they're shown from their website to their email signature to social and knowing that wherever they are right now is okay. You know, if, if I spoke with clients five years ago, one of the things about, about business owners eating, and this is the bootstrapping mentality is they feel like they have to be masters in everything. You do have to have the knowledge, so you're not taking advantage of them for sure, but they make themselves bad or wrong for being where they're at. Well, I don't know about you, but when I graduated college, there were no social media. Yeah. I hate to tell you we had just moved into windows nine, CompuServe, and AOL, but, you know, and I had an ad PR Or say, well, if you did master Microsoft office, you might as well not apply for a job. Well offered this, are you kidding me right now? 

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:16:45):

So I know when business owners are looking at social media and going okay, I understand how I can, you know, talk about kittens and oatmeal and family stuff on Facebook. But when we translate it to real-world, you know, solving real-world problems they have for the clients and how to get the information out there, you know, there is a public persona, there's a private persona and there's a personal persona. And even in those lines of demarcation, we really need to kind of strengthen and shore up a little bit, especially in this day and age and this environment, you know, we don't pretend that things have strong walls anymore. We are, you know, there's transparency. You know, my, my line between professional and personal is, is rather the bar is rather low. And for me, and when I say the bar is rather low, it's easy for me to step over and be one and the other, you're not going to find a different, a different Dawn on personal Facebook, then you are my professional. You'll find what I'm passionate about, the environment and nature and things like that. And archeology, which is nothing like social media, but at least you have a sense of who I am. Generally speaking. And I think business owners are the same way they have to reflect from the same point.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:18:09):

Now, that's interesting that you say that because a lot of w you know, a lot of businesses that we engage with you know, at the end of the day, when it comes down to marketing and look, my, you know, my, my undergrad degrees in advertising, right. And, and, and with a minor in marketing but you know, it's, it's about establishing that relationship on a personal level with people, people buy from people. Unfortunately what I see is a lot of businesses still have not grasped that, and they go at it purely from a commercial standpoint and not really, and I'm speaking more from the social media perspective, you know, it's, it's more, it's more Uber business, but not really bringing that, the personal flair into it that helps build that persona and helps to, to draw in people that, you know, that can, how do you say relate or drawn to that persona?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:19:03):

Yeah. You know, it's, it's interesting that you say that nothing, nothing repels me more than somebody reaching out on LinkedIn, wanting to connect with a genuine, you know, personal connection and then literally the next, you know, next note. And sometimes I'm like, yeah, you know, this new course, this new thing, what do you think? And, and while that first out of the box would have probably worked seven, eight years ago, we have come too far. And the technology and the expectation now that we are all digital natives, that, that doesn't work anymore. There's a new playbook this new year for a lot of different reasons. You know, the fact that we are working from home more, there is a, you know, there is a professional illness that comes in the comfort level that comes, but there's, there's the veils down, half my meetings with my team. I may or may not have a PR you know, makeup on, and that never would have happened. I'm telling you it never would've happened. And you get to a point where it's like, you know what, it's human to human contact. Yeah.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:20:18):

And, and that aspect, you know, and, and, and yes, and if I make light of that, you know, we, we all know when, when, when the pandemic came about and everybody went into there, you know, working from home for, for people like yourself and myself, we are we're accustomed of this zoom environment. So, you know, we know that we can have a meeting where, you know, you may only see my picture on the other side and not necessarily see me on these other days. You may see me, but in some cases, I mean, there were some blenders out there where people were just, you know, walking in there on these and to the restroom and wherever else, just totally forgetting that you know, Hey, Dara, they're in a completely different new realm though.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:20:54):

Yeah. It's interesting that the, that we have to come out at from a live mic scenario at all times, and my club, people that are used to being in front of the media, much more doing a press junket, some things. So, Absolutely. Yeah. but I hear you, I hear you. I hear you.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:21:20):

So listen, and this new environment that we're in right now, and, you know, we, we don't know what the next six months, nine months, whatever is going to bring, for the most part, everybody's kind of leaning from most business people that I've spoken to and saying, Hey, you know what, it's pretty much going to be continued, for the most part, work from home remotely, a lot of businesses have actually embraced it and said, Hey, you know what? This actually works better for us because we're getting more productivity out of our team. We're seeing, you know, where people are stepping up to the plate. And of course, it's, it's, it's a bottom-line issue, right? A lot of them are looking to reduce that overhead footprint that they had before w where they don't have to carry anymore. But in this age now where, you know, there's no, you know, where this office that was what I would call the walled garden is now spread over many different miles and miles. In some cases, continents, you know, how important is social media? And particularly with marketing efforts, you know, what is, what are your recommendations for businesses with regards to their social media this year, in this particular situation we're in?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:22:23):

I'm going to, I'm going to dress it in two different ways. I'm going to dress up businesses externally to clients. And I want to first address its businesses internally to the team. And I think because we are so spread out and we are working virtually remotely and different parts of the state, different parts of the world utilizing, you know, again, the technology to do the heavy lifting, whether it's through messenger or Slack, or using some third-party middleware to do like a Zapier, to provide some of the manual things that would you be able to walk over, or, you know, it would be easier when you're actually, face-to-face the other thing for employee and employee experience because when your employee experience is high, your sales are high. So the better, the employee experience is stronger. The team, the stronger the customer experience and the stronger those sales are going to be and long-term.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:23:23):

So when you have those kinds of disconnects we have meetings twice a week just to kind of update and, and we, and then we have, and those are kind of a work session, regular meetings. And then we have work sessions, which are longer so that we're able to at least be together in a way that there's some comradery when we're looking at what businesses can do right now. And next year is if they haven't done an audit on themselves in the digital realm, social media audit, that would be one of the first things to do is to claim the businesses or excuse me, claim the accounts that you need on the social platforms, make sure all the information is consistent. You know, these are the ways they can't go into a brick-and-mortar place anymore. These are the ways that they're going to get to you make sure that the information adds, no, excuse me, to the emails and the phone numbers are updated because things may change, be visible as the other.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:24:27):

So many times when we're letting social media go by the wayside, we kind of feel like it's a wrong code chicken. We can set it and forget it the way I tell my age the ability to, you know, make sure that you have your Google, my business page, if it's Yelp or manta or merchant circle, depending, or if it's your chamber and your, you know, make sure that those aspects of the things that you are a part of industries, associations, that you have, those your profiles filled out as well. And then let, let social media, the way that you create content, be the way that you do business. So sometimes you'll get a kind of a thought in your head or what you want to say while you're driving. You know, you might be thinking of a customer, a great, you know, sales call, make sure that that is documented somewhere so that even if you're talking into a voice memo, you know, that's probably the easiest way to start your article or start that prompt and then utilize whether it's Trent or rev or Fiverr to transcribe that and, and edit it, get your articles, your information out there. So those are kind of the first steps that I would recommend.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:25:52):

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. And I, I mean, I use the transcription tool from rev that's right on my phone and, you know, you just bring it up and press it, and you speak into the mic just as if you were having a conversation with yourself, which, you know, probably many years ago people would have said, Hey, dude, that dude's crazy. Look at him, he's talking to himself. But nowadays they don't know if you're really speaking on a call or not, but at the end of it, once I'm done, you know, rev transcribes, it sends it back to me, it's you know, editing hair and air. And all of a sudden they have a blog article, which is much, much easier for example, than if I was sitting here and typing it up from scratch. Right.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:26:31):

Absolutely. And, you know, even if you were utilizing that as an outline, you have it as an article, utilizing it as an outline. And then you did a live like this, where, where you're recording, you may pull in that you're recording examples from client experiences things that work, things that you ever had to overcome. It makes the brand and you more human, because right now it's not the logo that people are purchasing. As you mentioned before, it is the relationship. And so looking at other ways to connect is going to be crucial.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:27:04):

Interesting, interesting. And, you know, I can, I can sort of hear, and my ears hear my audience. And they're like, Oh my God, this is great information, but this is not. And yet on that, I'm trying to talk, where do I start now? You know, Dawn is, is this the type of stuff, all this that you're talking about here, where a company can come to you and say, you know, Dawn helped me with this.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:27:27):

Yeah. So absolutely dance. That's the short answer. When, depending on how they want to work, sometimes we have clients that, that have the time to do it themselves. They just need a little bit of guidance. That's sort of a coaching relationship. And I have course courses that take them through that as well. Sometimes they need a little bit of handholding. They've got it. They just need to shore up different aspects, maybe gaps of engagement somewhere. And we engage in a longer 90-day program. And then there are others that, you know, they're like, I don't have the time. I don't have the manpower. I'm focused on sales. What do we need to do? And so we look at a longer engagement with strategy and campaigns and making sure that their branding is on point and the messaging is on point and their story, their brand story is going to reach and pull at the audience they need to serve.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:28:27):

Awesome. Awesome. So is this the type of stuff and that's great, thank you for that. For, for breaking that down for me. I want to go back on your, you know, the work that you did as a chief marketing officer and chief experience officer for organizations. Can you speak a little bit about that in terms of what that looks like and, and what, what benefits that brings to a business who maybe, you know, who may not necessarily be thinking of this, but after hearing, you know, you today or seeing you, they may say, Hey, you know what, this is what we need.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:28:59):

So one of the things that some companies do when they're in the growth stage is they don't have the kind of a role necessary for a full-time marketing person, but they have a lot of need to get and shore up the brand and get it out there and get it known. So part of, part of the done with you kind of portion is where it's boots on the ground. It's when we say at the hip I'm, I'm literally at the hip, in the, in the boardroom with the, in the meetings and with the strategy as, as another team member working with the team. And sometimes it's day to day, sometimes it's week to week, but providing the same thing that an employee would, but in a way that we can get more done because I'm bringing the team and you see me.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:29:54):

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So in terms of, you know, passing on knowledge or some people that are, who may out there may say, you know, what, where do I start otherwise? You know, what are some books you read? What are some, some online, you know, resources that, you know, may have influenced you along the way that you feel could be good nuggets for people out there?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:30:19):

Well, there's I'm gonna, so there are personal books that have influenced me in people that have influenced me along the way. And there are industry-specific things I think will help a business. So for a small business owner or a marketing person, or, or someone who's working kind of as that role, they might be an executive assistant, or they might be in something else. But they're asked and tasked to do with marketing companies like hoot suite, and HubSpot has certification programs that will give them the overview. And it's very helpful. And I believe some of them are free and some of them if you want the piece of paper, it's nominal for the price, but at least it's something that they can carry with them from place to place. And it gives them more value as a client for those smaller organizations then, you know, to do an audit of where you are right now, I would look at places like no, M K N O w E M, or name check, and a M E C H K, to see your brand where your brand is on other digital platforms.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:31:24):

And that is a way that you can claim your business as even if you're not, not filling the information out right now, but you can do that in phases. I think anytime that you look at, I'm always, I'm going to kind of go against the grain of some of the notable social media people who say you need to create 500 pieces of content and get it all out there. And, you know, look, the fact of the matter is quality is going to Trump quantity any day of the week. And when you get down to the source, the core of a business, and really why you do what you do, or the Simon snack, right? Why you do what you do. Then we get at the passion of the entrepreneur and the business owner. We understand that they're going to still be doing this, whether they get paid for it or not, they would still be doing this because they understand, and they love what they do.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:32:20):

And taking that information and being able to share that the only way they can in their own words, their own voice, their own tone is what is going to be the difference between a good company and a great company. So whether it's thought leadership pieces, positional educational, informational pieces, whether it's taking the little juicy bits of nugget, you know, nuggets like sticks to you like peanut butter on the brain, right? Foldables, you know, that are pulled out from that information. You can have a really good article and really good content. And you can create 20 or 30 pieces of information that can be then put up on social media management tools like, like Hootsuite or buffer or, or PostPlanner, Edgar, you know, all of these things. So there are, it's going to take some time, right? You have to dedicate at least to get started about five or 10 hours of your time to really get in and get under the hood, but more so it is your, your brand personality, your brand story. It's the essence of that business that is keeping people. And I'm going to, I want to say this the right way. And I don't know that I will. So we're going to, we're going to try this together when you are in tough times when you are standing in the face of no agreement, the only thing that you have is your belief in your product or service, and that you can do it the best that it better than anybody else. And that is what you want to share online.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:34:06):

Awesome. And it's you, you said something there earlier, which I think a lot of people don't necessarily realize is that you know, organic content or content that you produce on your own that you come up with is far, you know, ways far greater than reposting, necessarily other articles, et cetera.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:34:27):

Yeah. You know, your own voice is why people, learn about you. They learn about your company, your organization, they learn what you stand for, your philosophy, the tenants the work ethic of the business, and that makes them knowledgeable about the brand and brand ambassadors. So whether they purchase from you or not, they're more knowledgeable and they can share about you now, does that mean you can't share or repost or not at all? I, you know, you have that curated content whether it's industry news or other articles that you have an opinion on, and that opinion is important. Right. So though that's all part of that content mix that you want to provide on social media.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:35:14):

Interesting. Interesting. So you mentioned just now about facing adversity. So, you know, I happened to look over here, on some of your fun facts that you shared with me. So tell us a little bit about swimming between the continental divide.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:35:30):

I am a Florida native. I do not like the cold or so I thought anything below 80, I probably have a sweater or something on, or I'm headed to Chile. And I decided to take my daughter to Iceland. I'm one of the last can I before she went off and went to college and everything else. And so a year ago, December, actually a year ago, this month, this month, yeah. This month, I forget. Cause everything runs together. We actually spent some time in Iceland and, and I thought it would be super cool to swim through the tectonic plates. Now it's freezing anyway. Like it's, you're just, you're just all bundled up anyway. But we had to, we had, this is embarrassing. There's an Iceland. There are no locker rooms, you know, you just, you just kind of undressed. It's very European. But we had a mixed group of tourists from all over the world and we're in a national park and there is no restroom, there's no restroom, no bathroom.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:36:39):

We all have to put on these, these thin-set suits. And then we overlay with our actual scuba gear, but everything has to be covered because we would freeze. So if you've ever been on a commercial bus a guide tour bus, you know, that the aisle is probably less than three feet across plus, you know, the seats that are, so we have 33 people having to figure out how to change on the bus because everybody's, you know, it's like, everybody's doing it, so everybody's gonna be their underwear. It really doesn't matter.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:37:19):

But so it was like, it was an exciting and interesting time. And we had a great time. I mean, you just kinda, you kind of make light of what's going on, but it's actually because everybody's in the same boat, nobody's embarrassed. There's a point in time. I imagine it's the same way on a nudist beach, you know, everybody's, everybody's there with their clothes off, you kind of get used to it. And there you go. So but we waited, we were outside for about 45 minutes for the other teams because small, small teams swim in order to preserve and protect the environment. And so we were, we were standing outside for 45 minutes in this freezing cold air before we got in and even its glacier water. So the, you know, the water's running down from the glacier and it is into the, and into the Fisher and it was absolutely beautiful. Wow. And it was, I, I, Iceland is a, a beautiful harsh place at times, Hardy people and beautiful people. And it's just, it was an amazing experience. I am going back for sure.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:38:24):

Awesome. Awesome. Well, well, you, you are probably one of few who can say that they did this and, and, you know, I will have to put that on my bucket list because I, certainly haven't reached over to Iceland or even you know, and that continental divide yet, but it'll definitely be on my bucket list. So, you know and, and then, and then tell me a little bit about the volcano and, you know, hiking troll rainforest, and the volcano.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:38:54):

When I go on vacation, I'm not one to just sit on a beach and read a book. I want to do things. And the other part of that is in order for my brain to turn off, I have to challenge my body. And so when my body's definitely tired, that's all I can focus on. And it, it hurts sometimes. And it's very blissful generally, but we were, we were in Costa Rica and decided to hike a rainforest that could have gone through waterfalls and made it very easy. But apparently, I like challenges, so Costa Rica is in the ring of fire. They have a number of active volcanoes. It is a beautiful country. It is, I love the way that they are with nature. Their relationship to nature is so different, just like Iceland with a relationship to water in nature, so different.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:39:47):

And I, I adore, adore that, and we were, we had traveled about three hours. We parked in this little, in this little driveway of this little house. And the property owner gave us the restroom to use because we were going to be hiking for three hours. We walked in the back of the house and down all a Rocky Hill. And I come to this clearing and I see Crater Lake and it's part of his backyard. And a lot of the private owners the park is adjacent. So getting into the rainforest part was probably about a half-mile from his house, this young I should say couple's house. And then, it had been a lot really muddy, but the slope was about 30 degrees. So we were told to try and keep our hands to ourselves because of snakes and other poisonous things.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:40:54):

But if you did not rely on branches or trees, to some point you slid. And I fell on my butt a number of times, I, I, so I had bruises. I came out with bruises a little bit on my arms and shin. So those were my Steuben years. I took home that one of the things after you, you know, going through and around this Crater Lake, and the end result was a horrendous hike. I was not prepared honestly, but I will tell you the view and the vegetation and the lushness and the greenery was odd inspiring it. And it was a park that was open for everybody.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:41:44):

Yeah. Costa Rica is a beautiful place. I mean, it's, it's, it's, that's another one on my bucket list. You seem to be knocking them off here today. So I think, I feel as though you're making my bucket list for me, but awesome. Awesome. So let me ask you something here. If others wanted to, you know, provide marketing for clients, you know, where would the, where would you suggest they begin?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:42:06):

I think, well, one, one of the things that are going to help them is to kind of get a sense of the services. They provide a lot of marketers, a lot of marketing people have a specialty, it might be a search engine or SEO. A CRM might be social media. It might be digital ads. You know, so much, of that right now is very specific and there's even crossover. So people who used to do websites may do SEO or things like that. They need to have a sense of the services. And, and I would recommend an idea of the strategic partners that they can partner with to hole out, or, you know, complete the service package for them. It's going to be easier if they have the kind of defined network. So for instance, marketers that are focused on attorneys or dentist or insurance agencies have a set system or process. And so that system or process for those clients is going to be easier. And it's also going to be easier for them to scale having a platform whether it's, you know, Salesforce or HubSpot or something else, having a platform that can provide support for the client as well will help them not spend so many hours on the admin side and focus on the client, the filming side.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:43:29):

Awesome. Interesting. And you, you know, you said something there that actually, it made me reflect back on something that a lot of business owners today don't realize you know, a lot of people are still of the, of the idea I should say, or, or the, the mindset that simply, you know, registering your domain and having a website. You know, that you're, you're in the, in the realm of, of digital marketing. And actually, that's a very, very small subset in today's day and age of, you know, this entire digital marketing realm, right?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:44:03):

It is, it's a, maybe a sliver of a fingernail right now. I will say though, one of the things that I have found through the years working with clients is it is very important to know what you're purchasing. And to know that what you're purchasing, if there's somebody that's doing a website for you or buying a domain for you, that you have ownership and access. Thank you. Yes, it is. I have seen horror stories. Yeah. Of spending clients, spending thousands of dollars on something that they no longer can have access to and their whole, their whole online aspect of the business has gone. Yeah. So having a sense of, you know, what you're getting for the capital and the time that you're spending is going to be important. So you know, that you're not spending $10,000 and you don't know what you got for it. Right. Or you have a budget, budgets are really important and marketing budgets are, are particularly important, important. So, you know, that should provide you a sense of not only the value that it brings, hopefully, what, what you're spending, you're getting two, three, four, 10 X value for the money that you're spending. And if, if it is a per hour rate that you're spending on, you should have a, it's sort of like any contractor employee, you should have a kind of a list of deliverables.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:45:27):

Yeah, no. And, and you, you hit on on all very, very good points. And I can tell you, we ourselves have had, you know, one of the things that we do, and when we do a security audit for an organization is we'll look at their internet domain. And we look at many different things, domain ownership, you know, who has that? Is it secured? You know, how it records set up we're looking for email deliverability issues, which a lot of people don't understand that you know, that that is major, major. I mean, you can spend all the money you want in marketing, and you're doing all this online, you know outreach, but if things are not set up properly you're, you're just, you're just, you know, you're wasting money. And a lot, a lot of times we end up with scenarios where when we're going down or audit and we start asking for, okay, well, do you have the administrator credentials for the domain that you registered? Oh, no. That's where this and this person do. Is that person still in your employ? No, they're not in my employee anymore. So how do you gain access to that then? That's you know, like yourself, you've said you've seen a, a number we've seen our fair share and trust me, those are, those are some, you know, claiming ownership of our domain when you cannot prove that you are indeed the owner is an uphill battle.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:46:38):

Yeah. It is. It is so poor ethically. And it does it's for me in the, in what I do it, it really tells me the ethics of the company that they've worked with. Yeah. And, and it's just in Navy terms. It's UNSAT yeah. It's just, no, [inaudible] that doesn't work for me.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:47:00):

Yeah, no, I, I hear you. I hear you. And then the other part is, you know, the if I can throw in a nugget, there is, look, if you're going to go into social media with your company, remember this is your voice. This is your formal voice that you're actually putting out there. You want to secure those accounts, folks, because if you don't put the proper security to securing your social media accounts, and somebody gets hold of them, and they start speaking on your behalf with language that is not reflective of your company, you may find yourselves in a lot of problems. Number one, number two, it may be difficult for you to regain control of those social media accounts [if they get hacked]. And I've just helped some customers with that process. It's very, very ugly. And, number three, the damage to reputation that's done happens like this. And, you know, imagine yourself, you've spent 10 years building a company. And because you did not spend the time to really secure and put all the security in place on those social media accounts, somebody came in, grabbed them. And within a matter of seconds, they've destroyed 10 years' worth of goodwill. 

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:48:00):

That is, that is such a really good point, such a really good point, relying on a contractor or even an employee, a trusted employee. You never know what happens. Having access to that is a key. The other thing, you know, there should always be a social media brand guide, just like there should be a general brand guide. There should always be some kind of social media response or crisis communication plan anyway, and the way that you respond and training your employees in a way that they're expected to respond and you can't legislate what they do, what they say online, but when it comes to you, as speaking as you, there's very specific ways. So when I see a brand that has responded to comments or posting with incorrect grammar or just letters, and you, you know, as part of the, it, I, Hmm. It drives me little nuts because it's not, I can tell that's not the voice I can tell if they understood what, what was happening on their behalf, then it would, they wouldn't stand for it, but it's not in this case. It's not something, or I should say, it's something that they need to, to really have a handle on. Yeah,

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:49:16):

No, you're absolutely right on that. You're absolutely right. So, Don, let me ask you here. Your journey is, you know, I mean, from, from meeting the Pope through, you know, through your entire experiences of, you know, the glaciers and the volcanoes and what you're doing today with social media and how you've been able to actually, you know, move your company into being one of the premier social media coaching and technology training companies in central Florida. I mean, no easy feat. And, and, you know, congratulations. And on top of that, you will also serve in the military. So, you know, sincerely thank you for your service. You know, if you could change one thing on your journey, thinking back now, what, what, what, what is that? Why would you change it?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:50:02):

Oh gosh, I, I probably am still this way. I was stubborn came by that honestly, but it's all me and

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:50:13):

Ahem, my wife would probably say that I'm right there with you :-)

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:50:18):

I didn't, you know, so as entrepreneurs, we want to go at ourselves, you want to give it the yeoman's try. And we, we, we, you know, we want to fail forward, fail fast. And I think early on had I had the vision of what a business could look like and the knowledge of building a business and accepted help in the way that advice or coaching if I would have grabbed a business coach 15 years ago. Yeah. I know where I'd be now. Yeah. Yeah. And, and knowing that sometimes that investment early on reaps, you know, those five or 10 X rewards later, and I'm seeing that. I mean, every four, I think for me, you know, I have a coach, I think every business owner who wants to poach and because they, they take the blinders off and they're able to have a flat conversation with you on the kind of, what's working, what's not working, you hear background it's because I have Mon people, apparently, you like to,

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:51:33):

They must have left my place, just not went over to yours.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:51:38):

But really, I think that's the, I think that's the biggest thing. And the other part is, you know, as a business owner, I was so in love with the technology, right. I'm so in love with, with the new and shiny, and I see business owners go to new and shiny versus focused strategy. Yeah. And you know, I'm a generalist, I know a lot about that area, but if you asked me to do everything SEO or everything, digital ads, I don't have a clue to be able to tell you effectively, but I know who does, I know the experts in the field. So, you know, I'm, I'm an over, I'm very much an overview, big picture strategy and finding what's missing and put in place would make the difference.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:52:28):

Well, I think your, your lo you know, my belief is, and I, and I think a lot of people shared us, right? Smart business. People will always know and surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are and be who will, you know, who will realize that, you know what, they don't know. They don't need to know it all, but they need to know the people to call on that are reliable, who can get it done for them when they need them. Right. Exactly.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:52:55):

And, you know, and I always tell my clients if I do my job, you'll fire me because I mean, in, in, in some respects, there are, our relationship will be complete. You'll be on your way. And like, like a rocket ship, my job is to add jet fuel to whatever you're doing so that you can do that. And I say fire and I, you know, kind of pedantic way, but it's true. I really love it when I see the growth that clients have, it does heart good. It's like my babies are growing up. It's kind of sad, but in some respects, but it's like, my babies are growing up. So

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:53:31):

I'm the same way. So I, I share, I, I fully understand where you're coming from, you know, and, and it's, it's rewarding actually, when you see that and did you know that you have played, have you, might've played a very small part of that, but you know, you see the, you see where they're going and, and their successes are, you know, the roads out there ahead of them. So yeah. I understand where you're coming from. So let me ask you this here. And this is a question that I actually throw out to all my guests and it's, it's, it's one that sometimes gets people caught up, but you know, if you could assemble a dream board of advisors, of influential people that are alive, you know, who would they be? Why would you choose them and how would they help influence your journey?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:54:18):

The first person that comes to mind is my grandmother, you know, in the 1950s, when she was a business owner she was playing in an all-boys club and she did not have the luxury of networking with other females

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:54:33):

Different times back then.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:54:35):

And she also, you know, during the, during the depression and during world war two, you know, there are certain there's grit. And then later on in life, when, when she kind of came into her own as successful, there are so many things now as an older business owner that I could really with love to just kind of learn at the seat, you know, and I, I do miss. I miss her terribly. I miss both of them. I also think Ben Franklin, I really, in my reading of him in the way that he's the inventor side of him, the way his thought process maybe not the philandering, but the thought process is really, you know, it was, it's interesting to me. I'm inspired by people like Renee Brown when she changed the direction of how I relate to clients and how I do business her 2010 Ted Talk that I think it was the University of Texas that was pivotal to me.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:55:42):

I actually had everybody, I had my daughter watch it. I just, I had everybody, I could just watch that. And then now she's, you know, she's grown up. Jane Goodall, I have adored her. I met her when I was at UCF. I, I have adored her forever and her way of making the relationships that she has an understanding of the animal world and the way that we are in the way that we are with each other. There's a lot of, there's a lot of left lessons there. And I think there's a lot of lessons left to learn and Elisabeth Kubler Ross and is not a thing, you know, these aren't business people, but Elizabeth Ross wrote a book on death and dying. And I think it's, you know, whether, whether, whether you have you're in the stages of business, where, where, you know, you're having to deal with death or a death of it might be a death of a career.

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:56:43):

It might be a death of a loved one. It might be, you know, a pivot. So there's some tiny death in the way that in this day and age in this in my age now with so many life changes that are happening externally and internally, there are small deaths that happen of things that have to fall away in order for you to recreate yourself. And I think a lot of that self-reflection that business owners and operators are doing now there's some knowledge and wisdom from her book that can apply and then generally in life as well.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:57:20):

Yeah. Wow. That's a pretty impressive board from your grandmother to Ben Franklin, to the, to the others. I may, I might have a hard time trying to put a board against yours there, but I can, I can understand why you are one of central Florida's most successful social media coaches and trainers, and just keep doing what you're doing, Don. And it's really was a pleasure having you on here with us today, and really, really thank you for sharing your journey and providing, you know, knowledge and inspiration to others out there, you know, truly, truly enjoyed it. Thank

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:58:01):

You, Roy. Thank you for the opportunity. 

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:58:03):

No Problem. So I do have one final question for you though. And if a member of our audience wanted to get to know more about you or get in touch with you or reach out to you and connect with you, how would they go about that?

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:58:13):

So they can find all the information they need via virtualoptions.net. They can always reach out to me on LinkedIn I'm Dawn Jensen on LinkedIn. And there is a SHORBY. So SHORBY is kind of a cool tool. I'm going to spell it for you because I think all business owners could use this in their profile, but S H O R dot B Y it's like a link tree, but it's sure SHOR.BY/Dawn. And then I'll give you an opportunity to set a time with me. If you want to do a breakthrough session, or you want to learn more about the course or my training.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:58:53):

Awesome. So I'm going to make sure that we put all of Dawn's contact information down below. Thank you very, very much, Dawn for sharing all that you share today. And I look forward to having you back with us in a few months because we want to learn more. We want to hear more. And I know for me sitting here, I, you know, I've taken down some notes and some, some things that I need to polish up and we'll be in touch with each other, but thank you, and keep doing what you're doing and keep being you. 

Dawn Raquel Jensen (Guest) (00:59:50):

Thank you, Roy. Take care. 

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:59:53):

Thank you, folks. Thank you. This was another edition of the dynamic business leaders podcast. So happy to have you here with us today. Hope you learned a lot from Dawn. Make sure that you reach out to her. We're putting our information down below, and if anything, take her up on a, you know, on reaching out to her and letting her take a look at your, at your strategy and audit some of what you have out there because we only know what we know. And in today's day and age, everything is interconnected. And unless we're, you know, sort of attacking all the different channels that are out there, you know, you may be leaving a lot of opportunity on the table. Thank you. My name is Roy. It's a pleasure to be your hosts, keep crushing it and we'll catch up on the next one.