Do It My Way Podcast

A third-generation Tulsan, Paula Marshall has served as CEO of Tulsa-based international food manufacturer, Bama Companies, Inc. since 1990. Paula has served, started or partnered with numerous organizations and causes in the Tulsa area, including Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, Tulsa Area United Way, the Margaret Hudson Program, DVIS, Food On The Move and Ronald McDonald House Charities. Paula has also been recognized for several awards and recognitions, including being inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame, Advocate of the Year for DVIS, The Journal Record’s Woman of The Year, and being named one of the 25 Tulsans Who Shaped Our City by Tulsa People Magazine in 2011, and most recently, becoming a 2021 inductee into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Listen to Paula explain how she deconstructed systems in place at Bama Companies and created a family environment to support her team members and partners.

Tulsa native, Teresa Gawey, left her corporate job and did not know the direction her career path was going in. She graduated college with a journalism degree, worked in the corporate world, then pivoted to get her master’s degree in social work and worked as an executive director at local nonprofit, Tulsa Area United Way. After having a premature baby, her life flipped upside down and she decided to become a stay at home mom. After more than a decade of raising her kids, she found a need for yoga in the Tulsa community. She took a risk and opened SALT Yoga. Her studio is all about inclusivity and fun while moving your body, at any level. Listen to Teresa share invaluable insights to other aspiring entrepreneurs and what it’s really like to be a business owner.

I had too much fun interviewing lifestyle photographer, Amy Herndon, on the DO IT MY WAY Podcast this week! Amy explains how she started her business at the perfect time when her style was rare and Instagram was just becoming popular. She shares how to stay relevant in industries that are constantly evolving. Find out how Amy went from stay at home mom to sought after lifestyle photographer flying all over the country capturing her client's most precious moments.

Sometimes it's hard to look at the good life when things are crumbling around you, but mindset is everything! Mia Fleming is a highly accomplished and captivating TV host, known for her magnetic personality, infectious energy, and strong journalistic background. At the height of her career, Mia had a paralyzing realization that success doesn’t always equal fulfillment. She left her successful career, committed to letting go of limiting beliefs, prepared to face her fears, and got out of her comfort zone. Mia came face to face with adversity from infertility to related health ailments which led to years of debilitating pain. Yet, she continually reminded herself to look for the good in life, and she began to find it again. At the height of the pandemic, she decided to create TV segments called the “GOOD Life List” -- a play on bucket lists, but instead they are about living life to the fullest and sharing good life lessons by daring herself to take different adventures and inspiring viewers to live their lives to the fullest. The TV segments are a part of her Hello GOOD Life with Mia! brand which exists to provide people with the tools, community, content, and inspiration needed to live their own good lives. Find out how Mia used a positive mindset when she was facing adversity to launch Hello Good Life with Mia Fleming, which goes on tour across America this fall.

Several years ago my goal was to have Fridays off. It would be the day where my kids were still in school, my husband was working and I had free time to do whatever I wanted. It was a great “errand day” to get things done while other people were working, picking up my dry cleaning or getting my hair done without having to stress about work. Most Saturdays were spent at the soccer field or on a basketball court with my kids, so it left very little time to get things done outside of work. At D2 Branding, we implemented the four day work week, only working 28 hours a week, a few years ago and we will never go back! It has left our team members very happy and grateful and most of all productive! Find out how you can implement a 28 hour work week on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast at D2Branding.com/podcast!

Can you think of a time in your life when money played a factor in an important decision you made? Or maybe you couldn't make the right decision because you did have the money to do so. My mom got pregnant in high school with my older brother and had to quickly get married because my dad’s family was Catholic and lived in a small town in Kansas where having a baby out of wedlock was unheard of at the time. My mom was an amazing mom who raised three kids and sacrificed all of her dreams to be a mom. She always says being a mom is all she ever wanted to do but before she turned 40, my dad had an affair and left her. She had no high school degree, she had only gotten her GED but never worked a day in her life and she found herself a single mom of three kids needing to get a job. She stayed in that marriage longer than she needed to because of money. What would she do? Who would hire a single mom with no college degree or work experience? I saw money dictate her decisions. I was in 7th grade and vowed right then and there I would never rely on anyone for money. I would be self sufficient and if I needed to pack up my kids and move to have a better life, I would do it. I read a quote the other day that hit home for me and reminded me of that story. “Money or the lack thereof will put you at the mercy of someone else.” There is not a more true statement. When you don’t have your own money, you are at the mercy of the person paying you. Here are six ways to manage your money in your small business on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast!

A strong company culture is the most important thing to grow your business but it often gets overlooked. Companies with a positive culture have more employee engagement and fulfillment in their jobs, which makes them work harder and results in higher revenue. Culture is your employee’s beliefs and attitudes about the way things are done in your workplace. It may not be discussed every day, but culture is always there in the background, affecting every bit of work that gets done. I have coached businesses that have amazing company culture and you can feel it right when you walk in the door. Everyone is smiling and genuinely happy to be working there. On the other hand, I have walked into organizations that were actually large companies making money and not one person was smiling or acted like they wanted to be there. The employees never had conversations with the leadership team or each other for that matter. Everyone came in and out daily with little interaction and zero fun. Who wants to work in an environment like that? You spend more time each day with your work family vs. your own family at home! Creating your company’s culture starts at the top with the Founder/CEO and leadership team. What kind of environment do you want to create for your employees to work in? Check out my tips for creating a positive company culture on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast.

I can’t believe I am on my 100th podcast! What a fun learning experience with ups and downs. I originally wanted to write a book, but realized I am a much better talker than I am a writer, so I shifted my focus to launching a podcast. I have several coaching clients that I have helped launch podcasts so I also thought I better practice what I preach and launch one myself! I get asked a lot of questions about my podcast so I just answer a few of the most common questions for you: Is my podcast perfect? HECK NO! Did it take me out of my comfort zone? YES! Did it help me learn and grow? YES! Has my podcast made me a ton of money? NO! Has it helped brand me as an expert in marketing and business? YES! Does it provide great advice to business owners and anyone wanting to master marketing? HECK YES! Is it easy? Some days YES, some days NO! Since this is my 100th episode, I thought I would do a podcast about what I have learned over the last 100 episodes. If you are thinking of launching a podcast, listen up!

One of the hardest things to do when you are starting a business is to come up with the name! You want it to be memorable, mean something, easy to say, easy to Google, eventually become a household name and make you money! That is a lot to ask from a brand name! The process of coming up with a brand name is one of the most important steps in establishing your company's identity and creating a lasting impression with your consumers. An amazing brand name can evoke emotions, communicate the company's values, and differentiate you from your competitors. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a brand name, there are certain strategies that we use at D2 Branding that can guide you through the process. I am going to share with you five ways to come up with a brand name and give you examples of how companies successfully developed their brand names on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast at https://www.d2branding.com/podcast/!

I have a coaching client I am working with that has an amazing e-commerce product. The founder is an inventor who created an incredible patented one of a kind product that solves a massive problem in their industry. They recently attended a highly visible trade show and got a ton of traffic to their website. Sales were good, but when they looked into their “abandoned cart” customers, they realized they had close to $1 million dollars in abandoned cart orders! This is a massive problem that needs to be fixed because if they just got 10% of those orders, that would be an extra $100,000 in revenue! I started to do some research that I thought would help anyone out there who has an ecommerce product they are selling on their website and came up with 7 ways to sell more products online on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast.

If you have been listening to this podcast for a while, you know I love Google. If you can get to the top of Google for key terms in your industry, you will win! I get asked all of the time if it’s better to do Google Ad Words or SEO. It all depends on your specific business goal, target audience, and budget. Google is not a gamble in marketing. If you are at the top of Google for key terms in your industry that people are searching for, you will get leads! It is important to find out how many searches were on Google in your area for those key terms over the last 30 days before you start. If there were 10 searches, it's probably not worth going after, however if there were 100 searches or 1,000 searches, then it makes sense! Find out if Google Ad Words or SEO is better for your business on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast at https://www.d2branding.com/podcast/!

Producing a compelling video in your digital marketing campaigns is so important to grab your potential customer's attention! People are scrolling mindlessly and they have to be stopped in their tracks to pay attention to your brand! What is the "hook" that is in the first few seconds of your video to get them to stop and pay attention? To create a great video to use in your Facebook and Instagram ads, there are several key elements to consider: Grab attention quickly: Facebook and Instagram users have short attention spans, so it's important to grab their attention quickly. Use an attention-grabbing hook in the first few seconds of your video to capture their interest and encourage them to keep watching. Focus on benefits: Instead of focusing on features, focus on the benefits of your product or service. Use the video to show how your product or service can solve a problem or improve someone's life. Keep it short and sweet: Facebook videos should be short and to the point. Aim for a length of 30-60 seconds to keep viewers engaged and avoid losing their attention. Listen to the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast where I share examples of three companies that used video that absolutely changed their business bringing massive brand awareness and increased sales!

I do a lot of personal branding coaching and one thing I always say when they are starting is, “You’ll never regret launching your personal brand!” It will follow you wherever you go! Let’s just say you are a well known attorney and you are an expert in your field. No one outside of your field would know this unless you built a personal brand around it and started posting as you are the expert on your social media. Then you create a podcast on a subject you are passionate about or an expert on. Then you decide to launch a website with your personal brand to put your podcasts on and have a place for people to inquire about hiring you. Then you decide to write a book on the same subject and put it on your website for sale. This will lead to speaking engagements that may be for exposure in the beginning and eventually you start getting paid $10,000 to speak for one hour on the subject because you are the expert! Then you are asked to consult businesses and individuals on your expertise and get paid to do it! Do you see how starting to post as an expert on your social media can lead to a full blown business? If you are thinking of launching a personal brand, check out these five steps on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast!

What if you could predict your customers' next move and improve their overall customer journey? You’ve probably been hearing a lot about artificial intelligence and how it is changing the world. The world of marketing is no exception! Maybe you’ve heard people talk about AI but aren’t sure what it is? AI marketing uses artificial intelligence technologies to make automated decisions based on data collection, data analysis, and additional observations of audiences or economic trends that may impact your marketing. A great example of this is using AI chatbot to write marketing copy like a blog post, podcast script, Facebook ad or an article. All you have to do is tell the chatbot the topic you’d like it written about and give specific directions to get a 500 word article back in an instance! It’s insane! You can even ask it to create Facebook ad copy for a specific product and it will come back with copy for an ad! I have even seen an example where it told the bot to make the ad funnier and it came back funny! Find out the best ways to use artificial intelligence in your next marketing campaign on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast at D2Branding.com/podcast.

How present are you in your day-to-day interactions as a leader? Or as a mom, a friend or a spouse? I can tell you right now, this is one of the things I struggle with the most! Learning to be present in your day to day interactions with your team and with clients will up your leadership game! Often, many of us let distractions (online & offline) hold us back from fully being present in the moment. This prevents us from giving our entire attention to the conversation or the task at hand. As a result, we aren't able to give our 100% to anything, and end up missing key details or opportunities. While this already sounds like a bad thing, it's even worse in the case of leaders. I find myself distracted so easily with emails, text messages, phone calls, slack messages, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok notifications and more! You really could spend an entire 8 hour day just answering notifications and getting nothing done. I see it in my coaching clients and find myself guilty of it all of the time. Here are three key qualities of a present leader on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast at https://www.d2branding.com/podcast/!

Working with entrepreneurs for the last 20 years, there are some common traits I have discovered that make them successful. No matter what their business is or what industry they are in, their age, sex or income level, I have found the most successful entrepreneurs possess the following traits on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast at (link here)! If you strive to be a successful entrepreneur, adopt these traits in your life and start to see your life change and improve for the better!

There are two reasons you can get people to buy your product or service: Get them out of pain Bring them pleasure Let’s talk about pain for a minute. Think of the weight loss industry. They are playing off of pain. It is painful to be overweight, unhealthy, have low self esteem and feel bad about the way you look and feel every day. They promise a new life, they show pictures of people losing weight, having fun again and enjoying friends and family. They are taking you from pain and bringing you pleasure. For example, marketing can be painful for our clients. They try to do it on their own, they don’t know the best practices or how much they should spend on ads, or what platform to use to reach their ideal customer. It can be very painful! We want to get to the biggest problem they are having and tell them why we are the solution to solve their problems! If you solve people’s problems, they will BUY! Find out how you can include pain or pleasure into your sales presentation or marketing copy to get people to buy on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast!

I was listening to some podcasts over the weekend that were talking about masterminds. This is getting a group of experts together to share what they are working on right now and what they are struggling with to get peer to peer help in all areas of their life. It is so important to have people around you to help you grow in business and in life! It made me think not only are these great questions for a mastermind group, but also great questions to ask your team, your spouse, a friend or even your children! They are thought provoking questions that reveal a lot about a person right away. You may be surprised at some of the answers you get back. As a CEO/entrepreneur, sometimes you are so busy working on aspects of growing your business that you don’t stop and ask your key players how they are doing and what you can do to help them. They may be struggling with something you don’t even know about! Here are five questions you need to ask your team on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast!

Well they don’t call it the January blues for nothing. This time of year can be very depressing for many people as the holidays are over, you probably spent more money than you wanted to, maybe even gained a few pounds with all of the parties and it all starts to set in. Maybe you aren’t where you want to be in life and the new year reminds you of that. Another year older and nowhere closer to your goals. And if you live in my part of the country, it doesn’t help that the days are short, cold and often dreary. For me, it is harder to be happy after the holidays because there is nothing to look forward to. I recently read The Happiness Advantage where it says happiness comes first and then success will follow! The book shares 7 ways to create happiness in your life. It says not all of them will work for everyone but encourages you to pick the ones that interest you and be diligent about doing them! I thought I would share them with you today because I have definitely seen a trend with my clients where the happiest clients are the ones that gain momentum and propel themselves into success! I know in my own life when I am happy I feel like I can sell anything and there’s nothing that will stop me from success! Check out the 7 Keys to a Happy Life on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast!

This is the time of year I am always re-evaluating my life and looking for ways to improve with the new year. This is a great exercise to do in business as well as your personal life. I also do this exercise with my coaching clients evaluating all areas of their life including their financial freedom, time freedom, health, relationships and their spiritual life. In most cases if you are excelling in one area, there are a couple of other areas that are suffering. Balance is key and now is a great time to look at priorities, make goals and come up with a gameplan to get there. I came up with 7 ways to improve your life in 2023 on the latest episode of the DO IT MY WAY Podcast!