127: Everything I need to know about Marketing I Learned From Sonic The Hedgehog With Lee Caraher(Part 1)

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How do you take the skills from corporate PR like blowing up Sonic The Hedgehog and apply them to small businesses? Lee has the answer and she is the master. Join us in this episode as she breaks down for us how she applies her incredible corporate marketing experience to the current small business world.

My Guest: Lee Caraher:

Lee Caraher is the CEO of Double Forte, a national independent PR/Communications agency. An acclaimed communication strategist, Lee is known for her practical solutions to big problems. She’s on a mission to help small businesses break through the noise and make a big impact. Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high producing teams who have fun together at the same time and has authored two top-selling books about positive and profitable work culture. She is a straight talker who doesn’t hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humour have gotten her out of a lot of trouble. Her company works with some of the top consumer lifestyle, digital life, technology and wine brands in the country. Double Forte’s “Get on The Map” service is a foundation-building program that helps small businesses and individuals build authority and visibility to drive business success. Working with Lee and her senior team, small businesses and entrepreneurs learn how to “Show Up” and “Level Up” their footprints and influence to compete and grow their businesses.

Pivotal Moments:

·       Lee ran PR on a corporate level. She had many agencies. The role was to advance the company’s agenda in a positive way so you can reach the people so you can achieve your business goal. In a multinational business you do things differently in different countries.

·       Lee worked for Sonic the Hedgehog.

·       Lee was the spokesman for the company. She would help the third party development group have a good relationship with third party developers so that they would put their games on their platforms first.

·       Lee also had to work out how to convince people to buy.

·       Lee’s job was to create a story that advances the company’s objective.

·       11 People reached out asking what Sonics’ middle name was. This proved to them that people were so interested in the game.

·       Every time you put something crappy in the market it ruins your reputation.

·       In 2001 Lee left her job due to family duties. So in order to earn money she decided to open up her own company.

·       When comparing working for corporate to a small business it works the same. It is how we help our clients. We choose to only work with good clients, advance their cause and achieve their business goals.

·       Lee started her company; she only hired people with 10 years experience.

Advice:

Listen to your customers. Your customers are telling you what they care about, and when you double down on what they care about, they will care about you more.

Scale down and do less of good versus lots of bad, and then you get referrals.

Quote:

You make cake right? Listen to the cake expert; buy what the baker is telling you to do. Listen to the expert.

Links & Resources:

Part 2 of this episode where you hear more go to estierand.com/127-2

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About the author, Estie Rand

I love turning ideas into money, and helping others do the same. I help small business owners with everything from marketing to fiscal management, business plans to staffing, database architecture to work/life balance coaching and I love it all! What do you need help with today?

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