Ep. 46 The Stern Truth: How to Maximize Your Marketing with Melissa Guenette

Grit. Determination. A little bit of delusion. These are the things that our guest, Melissa Guenette, says help make businesses successful. On the other side of the coin, self-doubt was one of the things that Melissa initially faced when she created her company, A-List Media Solutions. But she didn’t let that stop her from growing. 

Melissa also started her business quite suddenly, without laying down a foundation first. As we all know, small businesses have to strike when the iron is hot, and Melissa was no different. She faced a challenging start, but when you grow a business, that’s the only guarantee.

Trial and error was the name of the game when starting A-List. That helped her to focus on what she does best, leveraging clear and concise messaging to get more traditional media exposure. She also believes in the power of experiential marketing to make that personal, real-life connection, one that can’t be replicated online. 

We discuss how to make processes that make your clients' lives easier—once you make those processes, they’ll keep coming back to you. Like I said in Episode 34, the best businesses are the ones that make it easy to give them your money. 

Melissa gives so many great golden nuggets during this episode. One of them is to slow down and don’t take on ALL the clients you can. Develop foundations to expand your team and your business. Another is to have a great media kit to send to other businesses. 

We even found we had a shared golden nugget—keep track of your wins. Whether it’s a WINS folder on a drive or a handwritten Brag Book, just note them. Write down those wins. It keeps limiting beliefs at bay and shows you how amazing your business truly is. 

Curious about what Melissa does? Contact her at media@alistmediasolutions.com  

Get inspired and stay accountable with the Momentum Accountability group. Email me at marshall@marshallstern.net to join as a guest for no cost. See more here: https://attractwell.com/MarshallStern/page/momentum 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: All right, my friends, we are winding down 2025. Hard to believe. I know. So grab a pad of paper because today's episode, today's sit down is with the amazing Melissa, who's the CEO and founder of A-List Media Solutions. And we're talking about marketing, how to maximize your marketing, and as we wind down the year, we're going to get ready for 2026.

[00:00:25] Having saying that, I want to invite you, like I do every week to our Momentum Mentorship Group session. Don't wait until 2026. Join us as a guest now. Send me a message to Marshall@marshallstern.net and we'll get you set up for our next session. You will just come, you'll meet some amazing business owners and talk about business.

[00:00:48] Get some accountability now on with the show. Enjoy this one.

[00:00:57] Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do it all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows.

[00:01:16] I've been there and I get it. This podcast is here to change that. Every week I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar coat it. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place.

[00:01:40] This is the Stern Truth. 

[00:01:44] Alright, welcome back everyone, to another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered, and we have another amazing guest for you today. Melissa, how are you? 

[00:01:55] Melissa Guenette: I'm wonderful. And yourself? 

[00:01:57] Marshall Stern: I'm doing well. Little bit hot here. Not probably as hot as it is where you are. 

[00:02:01] Melissa Guenette: Yeah, today’s a little overcast, so I'm okay with it. It's nice to have a bit of a break from the intense summer heat we tend to get out here. 

[00:02:08] Marshall Stern: Nice. Now you're in Ontario, Ottawa. 

[00:02:11] Melissa Guenette: Ottawa, Ontario, so Canada's capital. 

[00:02:14] Marshall Stern: Canada's capital. Nice. So tell us, so A-List Media Solutions, that is your company. 

[00:02:20] Melissa Guenette: Yes. Yes it is. 

[00:02:22] Marshall Stern: Tell me a little bit about that. 

[00:02:24] Melissa Guenette: So we are a full purpose marketing and PR agency.

[00:02:29] So what we do is we help brands and businesses maximize their media exposure. whether it's through earned media or bought media. We also have a marketing team that's going to make sure that you are being well represented, that your business might enjoy some experiential marketing. They might enjoy some online marketing, anything along those lines.

[00:02:49] We take care of it from A to B. 

[00:02:51] Marshall Stern: Okay. Nice. So, you know, this, this podcast is all about the Stern Truths and about the ups and downs. So I have a whole bunch of questions for you that I've been looking forward to asking you. How did you get started? What made you get into the, your own business?

[00:03:09] Melissa Guenette: So I started my first business about 17 years ago. and I fell into it by accident. So I had recently finished up a contract with a company out in Toronto and I had come back to the city and I had a friend who had a restaurant and it just wasn't doing very well. And at this restaurant, it was fantastic, so I was like, it's just because nobody knows you exist.

[00:03:29] And in my previous job I worked a lot with marketing and PR firms to sort of help businesses expand and get to that recognition. So I was like, I have a little bit of knowledge in this, so let me help you out. It would be my pleasure. And it started out with me helping out a friend and before you knew it, I did a good job, developed a bit of a reputation, and then other clients started coming towards me and pretty soon it sort of snowballed into a company.

[00:03:56] I had that company for about 13 years before I sold it, and after selling that company I took a bit of a hiatus, worked in a few different fields, and then started A-List Media Solutions about two years ago. 

[00:04:08] Marshall Stern: Nice. Okay. What would you say in your time owning the different businesses, what would you say would be some of the challenges that you faced at the time?

[00:04:18] Melissa Guenette: So there's challenges every day, big and small, no matter how you look at it. I had three major challenges. One was myself and a little bit of that self-doubt going into it because it was not something that I had particularly studied. I had to pick up and outwork a lot of my competitors and really educate myself independently.

[00:04:39] That's always challenging, always staying motivated, not letting things sort of like bum you out and still showing up the next day ready to conquer again. The second was because my business started a little bit more accidentally. I didn't have the foundation set up correctly with a proper accountant.

[00:04:59] I didn't have the foundation as set up just with like processes and procedures and really a mission statement or a business outline that I, most people do, going into a business. Then lastly was not understanding who I can best serve at that time. So every once in a while you'll come across a client that's a difficult, that maybe isn't meant for you.

[00:05:20] And it was really understanding that. Because in the beginning it was more just like, oh, I'll take on all the clients, and I really wanted to do the best I could for every single person. However, some clients you just have to let go because you're not the right fit for them and that's okay. Just to like, let that be okay.

[00:05:39] Marshall Stern: I love that. I love that. I talk about that a lot in our episodes – actually everything you've said I think is a common theme among a lot of small business owners or business owners. And I hate the term small, but I'm trying to compare, separate the small from the corporations right.

[00:05:56] Business owners. Yeah, I love that. I'm curious, so with the foundation part, how did you build that foundation? 

[00:06:06] Melissa Guenette: I didn't. So I – in the beginning for many, many years, kind of kept playing catch up all the time. And because that foundation wasn't there and I really feel like it caused a lot of undue stress that I probably didn't need to experience at the time, had I really taken the time to step back, slow down, put those into place.

[00:06:26] So if I could like, give anyone, it would be any advice is like at some point you're going to have to maybe stop taking on clients. Slow down, really develop those processes and procedures so that you can grow. Because once they're there, you can really bring on other people to your team.

[00:06:43] They will know how to do their job. You don't have to be as hands-on. It really does create a good foundation for your business to keep rising. But if you don't have it the whole time, you're going to be a little bit on shaky ground. And I just feel like it's possible and you can do it. It's just becomes a little bit overwhelming.

[00:07:00] And it's unnecessary. If you take that step back, it's just also hard to take that step back because you don't want to lose the momentum that your business has been gaining. And sometimes you're in it a little too deep to really sort of see what you need to do. 

[00:07:12] Marshall Stern: But how, for you, how did you, like, was it just trial and error? Was it just learning on the fly?

[00:07:18] Melissa Guenette: Yes. 

[00:07:19] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:07:19] Melissa Guenette: A lot of trial and error, a lot of Googling, a lot of associating myself with other business owners who are at similar levels to myself or just a little bit higher. I often tell people you don't want to compare yourself to somebody who is like light years ahead of you in your business.

[00:07:36] You really want to associate yourself with people who are just a few steps above you, because it wasn't that long ago that they were where you were. And then you can really sort of. Look up to them and gradually get there naturally by assessing yourself with them. And then, you know, find a few people who are a few steps higher than you next time, and so forth and so on.

[00:07:53] And kind of climb the ladder that way. 

[00:07:55] Marshall Stern: Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. So in your business, so how do you – tell our listeners how you help your clients? 

[00:08:05] Melissa Guenette: So in my business now, I help my clients really make sure that they are putting their best fist forward when it comes to their time in the media.

[00:08:15] So a lot of times you might have a business and you might get an article written about you. You might get on the radio, you might get the opportunity to do an amazing podcast on the Stern Truth. You might get a television segment. Anything along those lines. When you have that media, how are you going to maximize the effectiveness of that media?

[00:08:34] So are you really saying the right words? Are you using the correct phrases? Are you getting your message across clearly, concisely to those that need to hear it? Or are you just there for your five minutes in the sun and you're not really benefiting from it? And then it's what are you going to do with that media once you have it?

[00:08:51] So are you just going to put one quick blurb on social media saying like, hi, I was here this one time, this cool thing happened. Or are you going to leverage that into getting more media? Are you going to leverage it into maybe bringing on more clients, getting your message across to new individuals? 

[00:09:09] Marshall Stern: So when you, you, when you talk, mention media, you're talking about traditional media or social media and traditional media?

[00:09:16] Melissa Guenette: I say traditional media primarily. Social media is wonderful. There's plenty of experts out there in social media. I used to do a lot more social media and we sort of cut a little bit of that from what it is that we do. We now act more as that media liaison between the businesses and traditional media.

[00:09:34] Marshall Stern: Okay. So, so here's my question. So you're on the podcast now, so I have two questions here. Okay. So you, number one, what are you going to do to leverage this podcast episode? Question number one and question number two, what should I do as a podcast host to leverage not just this episode, but all my episodes?

[00:09:52] Melissa Guenette: Traditionally, what I would do if, on a podcast episode like this one is I would usually announce that I'm going to be on it a few days prior to being on it and creating some beautiful graphics, maybe your face next to mine, adding your logo next to mine, so that we're really building that strong brand association.

[00:10:09] Afterwards, I would be very excited. Maybe take a few behind the scenes photos of us having this amazing chat right now. A few clips, just giving people a sneak peek into the behind the scenes of what's going on, how I prepared for this, a little bit of a bio about yourself so that people understand what it is that I'm speaking about and who I'm speaking to.

[00:10:29] And then after that, I would share it on all of my social medias and I would add it to my media kit as well so that I can leverage this conversation that we're having now. To other media outlets, other podcasts, to slowly sort of build that reputation as an expert in my field. 

[00:10:47] Marshall Stern: So do you – okay, so you bring up really, really good point there.

[00:10:51] Where I want to just delve into something. So for people who might be an expert in their space – I use the word experts loosely, whatever they are - do you help them, is a part of your business is to help them get on podcasts as well? 

[00:11:07] Melissa Guenette: It depends on some of them, yes, I do. Everybody has varying needs.

[00:11:11] Everybody has different needs in media, right? Some people are happy with bought media, and that is absolutely okay as long as, again, you know how to leverage it properly. You know, you can spend thousands of dollars being on the cover of a magazine and having your business out there in all sorts of very, very reputable publications.

[00:11:29] However, if you don't know what to do with it afterwards, you really sort of like just dropped the ball on that ad spend. So yes, that money was spent, but was it spent to and used as maximum of its ability. 

[00:11:43] Marshall Stern: Okay. So we have a lot of business owners that listen to this.

[00:11:48] And they're, I don't know exactly who they are, right, from the stats. I know some of them, but a lot of them are in the business to business space, but even B2C, B2B, and they're at a certain point, okay. And they want to get to the next level. They want more exposure. And we all know, obviously it's hard to stand out.

[00:12:04] That's what obviously what your business helps your clients do. What would be some – I always like my clients. I deliver them and I like my clients to deliver the golden nuggets. Right. Even just one thing. What would be something that they can do to be seen more? 

[00:12:22] Melissa Guenette: There's two things. So one, you really want to have a solid media kit that you are pitching to members of the media. So that is a really good one. There's lots of templates online. If anybody wants to email me – I don't know if you'll put my email link on the bottom of this – I'm happy to, you know, sit with them for 10, 15 minutes and talk about what really would go into the best media kit for themselves.

[00:12:43] The other one, which I think a lot of businesses sleep on is experiential marketing. Often referred to as excel marketing. And I'm sure you've all seen it in one way or another, but it is the best way to have the strongest impact to a direct audience, especially if you're a business to business, or business to consumer.

[00:13:05] Anything along those lines is really what you want to start setting up at those home shows. You want to start setting up a convention. You want to have an interactive booth where people can come, they can ask their questions, you're reaching out to them, you're adding an experience to your business or product. That is an emotional tie that a lot of people forget to add.

[00:13:25] Everyone scrolls online. We all see fun things online, but how often do you get to have a pleasant experience with a brand or business? So if you can go and you can have an amazing experience, maybe get a memento, something along those lines, then that kind of triggers an emotional connection to a brand or business.

[00:13:43] And I think that is something that a lot of people don't consider doing nearly as much as they should. It's also the one type of marketing that like AI can't replace is that human connection. The youth of today and, you know, anybody 55 years and under, spends more time, and more money on experiences every year than they have in the past.

[00:14:06] So really making sure that they have a positive experiences, setting up at fairs and festivals, music concerts, things along those lines where there's already a positive association and they want to be there. You are now there in a space where they're happy, they're receptive to the message that you have to provide to them. 

[00:14:24] And I think that is a lot, has a lot more impact than people give credit for. 

[00:14:29] Marshall Stern: Okay. So, so people like, like you and me, in the business to business space, right, or coaches, other marketing agencies, people in that space. What would be an example of something that they can do other than them going to a trade show? That's one way, obviously, I guess like you're saying, set a trade show.

[00:14:47] What other ways can they offer this experience –  I can't even say the word. 

[00:14:52] Melissa Guenette: You can say it. Experiential marketing. So it's basically just thinking of the client experience. 

[00:14:58] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:14:59] Melissa Guenette: Every step of the way. So it could be something as simple as maybe have a restaurant. What is the experience of the people waiting for their table?

[00:15:06] What is the experience of people going to the washroom? Or what are the small experiences that you can really enhance? That will make it a lot more enjoyable. Someone's coming into your brick and mortar store. What is their experience as they walk in? Is the lighting nice? Are they going to have a pleasant interaction?

[00:15:23] Is there like a little bowl of candy on the counter that they can just kind of like have a sweet treat at the end of their purchase? If you are shipping something, what is the unboxing experience? Is this coming in a ripped, beat up box or is it coming in a nice moment that shows respect to the client, respect for your business.

[00:15:43] Is it entirely involved? Same thing if you're a coach. What is the experience of someone signing up to your program? Is it challenging? Is it hard? Is your questionnaire too long? Is your questionnaire engaging? What is the experience that they're going to have when they meet you for the first time or when you set that appointment with them?

[00:16:01] Is it going to be an easy, seamless experience, or are they going to have to jump through five different emails and website pages just to get to where they want to go? 

[00:16:10] Marshall Stern: Okay, now I understand it more. I was thinking a different – I was thinking you were referring to something else. You were – but also this, so the experience, because I remember – 

[00:16:20] Melissa Guenette: So an experience in your mind, so it could be the same as in, let's just say you get a television blurb.

[00:16:25] What is the experience that people who are listening to you going to have? Are you just going to sit there all boring in a monotone voice, just sort of droning on about what it is that you do? Or is it going to be a fun experience for them? Is it going to be something that they enjoy watching? 

[00:16:42] Is this a photo shoot for a magazine going to have you looking like ill content on the top of it? And are you going to be mean to all the people on set, or is this going to be a fun experience that everyone there got to have with you alongside you? And that's something you can really take your followers on. In the back end as well. If you do have any social media followers or anything like that behind the scenes, it's always kind of fun.

[00:17:05] Marshall Stern: Yeah. No, no, that's, I love this. I'm taking some notes. I'm – these are golden nuggets I'm taking away. What do you think right now, obviously at the time of the recording of this and even when it's going to be launched out there, you know, the economy's still a little bit down. Hopefully by when this comes out, it'll be a little bit better.

[00:17:24] But summer 2025 economy's a little bit down. It's been down for a while. A lot of people are cutting marketing budgets. Big mistake for most people to do. Marketing seems to be one of the things going first. What do you, what should small, medium-sized, what should business owners do, or maybe even not do, in order to ride this wave?

[00:17:45] Because I've been through multiple recessions and we come out of it, some people don't, but what would you suggest people do to make the best of it? 

[00:17:53] Melissa Guenette: So never cut your marketing team and never cut your sales team. Almost everything else can go, but you need to bring in a revenue in order to stay afloat.

[00:18:01] That's just how it's, however, some people have been a little loose with their marketing budget, and I, that's what I kind of mean by like really maximizing any of your marketing dollars. So let's just say you're shooting a commercial for your business. Great. So we should be shooting one. We should also be doing a few reels about each actor that's in that commercial where they're presenting it.

[00:18:23] We should be recycling some of the amazing marketing content that we've already had or used. We should really be bringing people along the journey on the back end and not just the front facing area. So it's really just about making sure that every dollar you're putting into your marketing is. Giving you a significant return on whatever content it is that you're getting.

[00:18:42] You know, you can streamline things a little bit. Like obviously, you know, you'll have like some sales associates who produce more than others, and in that case I would invest a little more time in training, just making sure that everyone has it, and then again, everyone's competing for the same few customers.

[00:18:58] So what is their experience going to be working with you? Is it going to be a great experience that they're going to want to come back because it's easy. I make one phone call to this company, they solve all my problems immediately. Or am I going to be on hold for two hours? Am I going to have to like talk to customer support forever and never get to the root of the problem and have an issue solved. 

[00:19:17] Is it a store where I know the sizing is always consistent and the information that they have online is always up to date. Their Google presence online is up to date with their store hours. Like, is my experience with them going to be great?

[00:19:28] Or is it something that's going to be like pulling teeth and every time I go, it's closed and not my shipments aren't coming in on time and like, that's just frustrating. 

[00:19:38] Marshall Stern: Yeah, no, it is. And, and, and I think that is one area that a huge opportunity for business owners that they don't, they don't think of.

[00:19:47] Right.  I remember when I used to have own a sign graphics company, and I remember early on, you know, they had to – I was noticing the clients had to go through this step, this step, then this step to get what they needed. So some of it was confusing. There were a lot of questions. So rather than us answering all the questions, I started, I put together – e put together my team and I put together a form on, I can't remember what it was titled, but something like how to, it was basically how to make it easier for them to get what they wanted.

[00:20:16] It was just simple document and here's the type of files we need, here's what you do. And it's like, walk them through the steps. Make it easy for the - I always say to people, make it easy for your prospects or your clients to do business with you. Right. 

[00:20:30] Melissa Guenette: Absolutely. They called you to give you their money.

[00:20:32] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:20:33] Melissa Guenette: They would've reached out to you because they already know that they need graphics. But if you make it easy to them, then you're going to be their first call every time. I have a few people here in the city that I love to work with because of how easy working with them is being somebody that somebody wants to work with.

[00:20:46] And there's hiccups in every company and in every job, that's fine. But then it's taking ownership of them, like, I'm so sorry that this wasn't printed to the right specs or anything like that. It happens. But then someone taking ownership and then fixing the problem quickly just makes working with people a breeze versus, you know, some other companies that I've also worked with in the past that, like you said, make it challenging along the way.

[00:21:11] Marshall Stern: Well, like I say to my team, like, we, mistakes happen and it's how we respond to the mistakes. And sometimes when we make a mistake, we own up to and we fix the mistake. We actually look better for the client. The customer actually looks at us in a better light than if everything had gone well the first time because we actually did something that most people don't do.

[00:21:32] We actually took accountability and we fixed it. 

[00:21:34] Melissa Guenette: Exactly. And it's not just fixing it the one time, it's then like, okay, well how did this mistake happen in the first place? How can we fix it for every future client that's going to be coming to us moving forward? Mistakes are natural. They happen. Some of them are out of our control.

[00:21:48] Some of them might have not had anything to do with you or any of your employees. It just is what it is. 

[00:21:54] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:21:54] Melissa Guenette: But yeah. 

[00:21:55] Marshall Stern: One of the companies, and I hate to use the Amazon word, but they've got it like, they, and I mean they – I'm going to give two examples. Telecommunications companies, not just here in Canada, I'm sure in the US too, or cable companies.

[00:22:13] If you want to change something or you want to call them, or you need service or whatever, you're on the phone for like a good hour till you get through the automated thing. Amazon makes it easy, and that's why Amazon is so successful. Buy. Return it. The only thing I've had, couldn't return, was we bought an area rug, and I guess because it was oversized and where we bought it from, I didn't see the fine print and we would've had to pay to return it and it didn't make sense, so we had to keep it.

[00:22:39] But other than that, they do make it easy for you to return things. They make it easy for you to buy things. It's convenience. I'm not saying go buy it from Amazon because buy local when you can. They have figured that out, that make it easy. 

[00:22:52] Melissa Guenette: One thing I tell people is big corporations have already done the research.

[00:22:55] They have the focus groups, they have the money and the background to do all the research needed into it. Amazon does a great with the buy now button where you don't even have to keep inputting your credit card information. You can just literally buy now, ship to your address. You don't have time to second guess your buying choice.

[00:23:11] It just happens. And same thing happened to me with a tent. One time I bought something from Amazon, I couldn't return it because I would've lost half the valuation on it, by returning it because I also didn't read the fine print. But it's not just Amazon, it's a lot of companies with like the color of their logos with a lot of their fonts that they use, things along those lines.

[00:23:31] It's like they've already done all that research and you can piggyback off of that until you then. Get to the level that you can start inventing your own fonts and creating your own, you know, processes. The other thing that I think a lot of companies get away from, corporation wise, and hopefully someone from a corporation is listening to this, please, adjust this, but give your staff the ability to solve a problem.

[00:23:54] I feel a lot of the times I am calling a telecommunication company or I'm calling my bank, or I have an issue with something and the person I'm talking to that I've been on hold now for two hours doesn't have the authority to actually solve my problem. And I think that's where a lot of it comes in.

[00:24:11] And I don't know if they like expecting me to give up at some point and just be like, look, it's not even worth the hassle of trying to get my money back or to sort this issue out, which, you know what, sometimes I do give up. but it's really just giving, empowering your team to actually solve a problem.

[00:24:24] And I realize that not everyone on my team will solve a problem the Melissa way, because sometimes I'm not there to solve the problems myself. However, I just want them to solve it how they best think. I would solve that problem, and sometimes, you know what? Maybe I bite the bullet and maybe I lost a little bit of money on this, or maybe I gained some money.

[00:24:42] But again, it just made the client experience so much better when the other person on the side has the ability to solve a problem, especially if it's a small problem. Some things are easy. 

[00:24:53] Marshall Stern: Yeah, yeah. The client experience is massive, and I think it's a missing piece honestly, for smaller businesses, it's so much easier to do to deliver on, for the larger businesses, the larger you are, it's a lot harder because you have so many people, especially if you're – I used to be part of a franchise organization.

[00:25:10] If you're a franchise company and you have 50 or a hundred or 500 franchisees. You have your systems and processes and systems in place, but now you're relying on the owners of each of these franchise units to follow your guidelines to the T the way you want it to be done. And everyone's different. So there's a lot less control.

[00:25:26] Although they have the books, we had the manuals. There were a lot of rogue, as we called them, rogue franchisees at franchise operators. And it was difficult.  

[00:25:37] Melissa Guenette: Or so we don't give, in my opinion, enough grace to small businesses the same way that we do to franchisees. I can go through a drive-through and 70% of the time my order is actually wrong, but I'm like, oh, this was a $10 meal that I bought and I don't expect much from a bunch of teenagers who are working the window who like at this place, and I'm going to try to like keep them nameless.

[00:26:00] But we've all been through a drive through where they've gotten our order wrong. Very rarely do we ever take the time to turn around, either go through the drive through again, or walk inside to get that order corrected. However, we will go to a small coffee shop and if our coffee isn't exactly the way we like it, 

[00:26:16] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:26:16] Melissa Guenette: We insist on them or redoing it and rechanging it. Or small restaurant, or a small business in any way, shape or form. We'll order from Amazon, not get mad that we didn't read the fine print. If we were to order that from our local neighborhood store, then we would be like, oh, well how come they aren't honoring a return policy that should exist, even though they still might have a similar fine print.

[00:26:38] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:26:38] Melissa Guenette: So I think we just need to hold everybody accountable a little bit more would be kind of nice, but also just give some businesses some grace as long as they're trying to work better and be better and solve these problems and it's not reoccurring. Be nice. 

[00:26:52] Marshall Stern: And that's on the consumer side, right?

[00:26:53] So if you flip it as us as business owners, that's where the opportunity really is to be there for our customers, respect our customers. You know, there's that whole adage, the customer's always right. Well, you and I know it's not always the case. However, building relationships, building relationships with long-term relationships with the customers, we want to build long-term relationships with service them.

[00:27:16] It's all about being of service and the lifetime value of a customer. 

[00:27:22] Melissa Guenette: It's being of service. But then it's also, I'm just going to take it back to the marketing aspect of it is that, yes, the saying is the customer is always right, but I believe the end of it is in matters of taste and style. They're actually not often, right.

[00:27:39] The reason I hire an expert, it's because they're an expert and I need to trust their expert opinion. And I don't know if we do that enough. I remember in my first business, I had a few clients, especially when I was starting out, they were smaller companies. I realized that this was their marketing budget for the entire year that they had given me.

[00:27:57] And they're very attached to it because this, you know, might only be, you know, a few thousand dollars, but it's the few thousand dollars they have and they're really counting on it. And I would often put together a beautiful plan on how we're going to execute this. But then they would get cold feet, or they would read an article, or they would listen to a podcast and something would shift in them.

[00:28:17] They'd be like, oh, well, why don't we try it this way? Or, oh, this other company is doing it this way. We should do it that way. Every time you ask a specialist to edit their process, you're actually losing a significant amount of dollars because now an entire plan needs to be reworked and rechanged.

[00:28:38] So it's really trusting in the people that you hire, and I recommend doing your due diligence on any business that you're going to work with. But then once you have done that due diligence, you really do have to let them do what they do best. 

[00:28:50] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. It doesn't matter if it's a marketing agency or hiring a business coach.

[00:28:56] You're hiring a bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, videographer, whatever it is, event organizer. You're hiring them for a reason. 

[00:29:05] Melissa Guenette: Exactly. So like, right. Interview a few of them along the way, like make sure and do an internal check-in every once in a while to make sure that your voice is being heard and what you actually want, you're getting out of this relationship. 

[00:29:16] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:29:16] Melissa Guenette: But after that, it's, we really did hire these people. For a reason to take a task off your plate to help you with something to enhance your business, and you need to let them do that because there's no way you can be an expert in everything. You don't have enough time to do everything.

[00:29:34] It's not possible. So you really do have to trust somebody else will do it, even if they will not do it a hundred percent your way. Nobody will care about your business the same way that you care about your business. And nobody will understand it the way you do. No one will have that emotional attachment towards it that you do.

[00:29:51] But if you can find somebody, even in an employee that hits 80% of that's a beautiful win. And you really then have to trust them to find their own style within your business or within your company to flourish and to really assist. 

[00:30:08] Marshall Stern: Well said. Well said. Okay. I have two final questions for you.

[00:30:12] Question number one, I always like to ask my guests, what do you think? I'm putting you on the spot now, Melissa. What do you think separates those businesses and business owners who do really well from those struggle? Continually struggle? 

[00:30:28] Melissa Guenette: I have a few different things. The ones in my opinion, who do really well learn from their mistakes and fix their mistakes quickly.

[00:30:37] So mistakes happen. We all know that. But you just got to like fix them quickly. Don't, you can't sit on it for a while. It's just, it is what it is. Move on, move forward, move better, and make sure the mistake doesn't happen again. A lot of grit goes into starting a business. You have to have a little bit of delusion alongside that grit as well to believe in yourself that you actually can do it.

[00:30:59] I'm lucky enough that I've been around for over 17 years where I've seen so many businesses succeed or I deal with businesses often on a daily basis who don't nearly put out the same level of work that I do and are twice as successful as me. So it's like I know I can be easily as successful as they are because I actually put out better work.

[00:31:21] So that's an easy one right there, is like really understanding that. So you need a little bit of delusion. You need that grit to persevere. And then other than that, I'm going to say those policies and procedures because you can only grow so much and do so much yourself until you need to start taking people on, like, you need help, you need to start bringing people on board.

[00:31:43] And when you start bringing people on board and you don't have a clear vision, and the vision's only in your head and you're not communicating it clearly, you start bringing people on board and your books look terrible. And no one can decipher what is going on, or no one understands their job description.

[00:31:57] No one understands what the, what the company is supposed to be doing, and you don't have enough time to sit with them and walk each person through it. That is when things will start to crumble because it'll get too diluted and nothing will go well. 

[00:32:12] Marshall Stern: Okay, that's great. No, I'm going to have to re-listen to this because there's a lot of good stuff there, and I don't – I agree with, for what it's worth, I agree with all of it.

[00:32:20] I've seen it both in my own businesses and with my clients as well. The importance of all of it. I love the grit, I love the, you know, there's books about it, but not enough people talk about the whole idea of grit factor. And it's,  it's massive. It's massive. Because people think it's easy, it's easy to start a business.

[00:32:40] Anyone can start a business. It's fricking hard to run it and grow it and be sustainable. 

[00:32:46] Melissa Guenette: It's really hard, you're not going to make everybody happy. There's challenges along the way and grit is not consistent. So I have days where I have more grit than others. Like I have days where I also just kind of like have a breakdown and I need to.

[00:33:00] Like, take a step back and take an afternoon off or something like that. But it's the next day that I come back with more grit, or it's later in that afternoon. Another thing that I've recently started doing, it was recommended to me by a friend of mine who's this incredible author. Her name's Michelle Weger.

[00:33:17] She has grit in an entrepreneur than almost anyone I've ever known, and she's really taught me a lot about policies and procedures in her book, “Don't Snooze Your Dreams.” But what I think is really important is having a WINS folder as well. Or doing an annual audit. I remember in my first business I had a client who was like, they wanted to see a portfolio of work that I had to done before, so I had to, you know, worked my way through everything I had done this year, put it in this beautiful document and this brand deck, and it took me a minute to sit back and look at it.

[00:33:50] And I couldn't even believe I had accomplished all of that in a year. That was a real emotional moment for myself and like I didn't have time to enjoy any of it because I was constantly working on the next project and it was growing and there was so many problems that I'm putting out all the time.

[00:34:04] But just taking a step back and seeing the amazing reviews, seeing the fact that we accomplished all of these incredible things for our clients and events and it was really nice to see. So now I keep a WINS folder. 

[00:34:18] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. 

[00:34:20] Melissa Guenette: Like, here for the load is. 

[00:34:22] Marshall Stern: No, I love it. I love it because I always say, I call it a Brag Book or Brag Journal.

[00:34:28] You know, it's for yourself and it's not for you to go out and, you know, it's a win. I like the name, I like the term win, and I use it with my clients. What's the win? What's the win? But whether it's win or Brag Journal, it's just because there are those days where you wake up and you're just not feeling it.

[00:34:42] Or you lose a client or a client doesn't pay you or a prospect goes, you and you start going down that rabbit hole of why me? Imposter syndromes, limiting beliefs. Am I doing the right thing? And it's like, no, you know what? Open up that, that wins folder. And it's like, holy crap. Yeah, look what the company did.

[00:35:01] Look what we did for this company. Look what we did, look what we did. I'm on the right path. Keep going. And that's where it is. Time to time to step into our grit again or –  

[00:35:11] Melissa Guenette: Exactly. 

[00:35:13] Marshall Stern: You know, if that, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? 

[00:35:15] Melissa Guenette: I get you. 

[00:35:16] Marshall Stern: Step, step into our grit. 

[00:35:17] Melissa Guenette: I think the entrepreneurs listening will understand that as well.

[00:35:20] Marshall Stern: Step into your grit. Yeah. Cool. Last question. This is on, for your business. Okay. I kind of asked this a little bit earlier, but I'm going to rephrase the question. If you could give our listeners one marketing golden nugget that they could use in their business. It's a big question though. What would, what would that be right now?

[00:35:41] Melissa Guenette: Have an amazing media kit, so have your media kit prepared that you can send out to everybody. When somebody asks about your business, you can send it to them. It will really help you get press.Add any new press you've gotten to that media kit. It does create a snowball effect. 

[00:36:00] A lot of people want to sort of like, once you've been interviewed by so and so, then somebody else will want to interview you. And once your message got into this magazine, and then another magazine will sort of look at that and be like, oh, well they, if they're good enough for this magazine, then they're going to be good enough for that magazine and so forth and so on.

[00:36:16] So you really want to make sure that your media kit is up to date and that it represents your, you or your business really well. 

[00:36:23] Marshall Stern: So what would be an immediate kit? Profile, bio, photo, all that kind of stuff. 

[00:36:27] Melissa Guenette: Pretty much, yeah. So it's just a summary of all of your accomplishments and it is like any awards you've won, any, any sort of wins that you have.

[00:36:36] So yes, it'll have, if you're doing it for a business, then it'll have like a little bit about the business, maybe a blurb. Some info about the CEO. A few phrases that, you know, people can use in an article because you're giving them permission. A few photos of that business that, again, is in your media kit that are for media use only.

[00:36:52] It'll have like, you know, some links to any YouTube videos or your social media. It'll have links to anywhere that you have come up or your business has come up. And that's something that you can really share with. Other members of the media so that they can then find you should an article or an opportunity come up to represent you in that topic.

[00:37:15] Marshall Stern: Okay. I love it. Okay. Perfect. Media kit. I have to fix mine, update mine. So if people want to get ahold of you, I can put your info in the show notes. 

[00:37:26] Melissa Guenette: Yeah, absolutely.  

[00:37:27] Marshall Stern: You can reach out. Do you, do you, like, just even check out your website or discovery sessions? Like what do you, how do you work with people?

[00:37:34] Melissa Guenette: So the best thing to do is email me because everybody is so different. There is not a single cookie cutter way to go through this. I wish there was, or I would've just like, you know, made a PDF and just kind of given that to you to give out to everybody. So if they just want to email me, it's media@alistmediasolutions.com. 

[00:37:51] I will answer all my emails and if you have a question or you want to set up a quick 15 minute call, I'm happy to do that as well. 

[00:37:59] Marshall Stern: Awesome. Okay. I'll include that link into the show notes and any last parting tidbit for our listeners? 

[00:38:05] Melissa Guenette: I think that you should really just follow a lot more of your own gut and stop believing every time.

[00:38:12] There is no quick fix. There is no shortcut to success. You do have to take the long way is the only way to be genuinely successful. So all of those fun, wake up at four AMs and do a cold plunge and read these important business books. Honestly, take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Use what works best for you and leave the rest behind.

[00:38:32] Marshall Stern: And listen to the Stern Truth podcast every week. 

[00:38:34] Melissa Guenette: And the Stern Truth Podcast. Obviously, everything we said today is like, good. 

[00:38:37] Marshall Stern: Everything we said, so I, you know what? That's a whole other topic we can talk about. Just like the fact that there is so many shortcuts and there's so many so-called online experts out there telling you to do this, follow their system and you'll achieve, you can build a seven, eight figure business like me. That kind of stuff. There's no shortcut. It takes grit. It takes hard work, discipline.

[00:39:00] Melissa Guenette: It takes luck. But cast a wide net for luck to find you is a thing that I often tell people as well. And after that it's just hard work. 

[00:39:10] Marshall Stern: Love it. Well, Melissa, this has been an absolute pleasure and I thank you for being on the podcast. We might have to get you back one of these days just to delve even deeper because we could probably talk for another half hour. So I appreciate, 

[00:39:20] Melissa Guenette: I'd love to, if you're ever in Ottawa, look me up, I'll take you out.

[00:39:24] Marshall Stern: Sounds good. And for everyone else, I want to hear your feedback. I want to hear any wins. Wins – we talk about insights, takeaways, golden nuggets from our conversation today with Melissa and maybe what can you do to take your business to the next step and how you can you use some of Melissa's golden nuggets to get you there? 

[00:39:42] Until we meet again next week on the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered. Have a great week everyone.

[00:39:48] Thank you.

[00:39:52] Marshall Stern: Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in an upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net. 

[00:40:11] That's marshall@marshallstern.net. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and leading with confidence.