Arm wrestling and how our history of relationships follows us forward
Laura McGuire – CEO/Founder of Vinea Group and Founder of Saligent talks about how your history – going back as far as you may remember definitely affects where you are today. She started out as a competitive swimmer, one of seven children, Army brat and so much more. She was always faced competition, change and challenges with vigor!
She cites her friend MacMcintosh and their mutual “life’s too short” test. No nonsense – life is too short. Bring your integrity, your willingness to learn, change and adapt and you will succeed.
Laura has been named to the 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management for several years and has topped the list more than once. She has also been named to the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management for a few years.
Hear her joy, her passion as she talks about the journey. THAT’S an entrepreneur.
0:30 – Introductions
2:00 – Arm wrestling – really!
4:43 – Given the run around by venture capitalist and determined she needed to shake it up, “Let’s decide this with arm wrestling.” Speaks volumes as to who she is, but at the core she is the same: she adapts, she is strong, self-starter, develop relationships when you move and carry them forward – this is what she has done with her upbringing as an “army brat.”
5:50 – Consistently on the list of the 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management (http://50mostinfluential) and 20 women to Watch in Sales Lead Management (http://20women2watch.com)
6:38 – Worries and projects must pass the “Life is too short test” – she and her friend, MacMcIntosh agree on this.
7:30 – What is considered success? “The people we’ve come to grow and love.” She’s still in contact with the people from her original account at NEC 25 years ago. “THAT is the most gratifying thing.” That is success. You’ve maintained a rapport through the years and continue to support each other.
8:46 – How long did it take to get the confidence that you didn’t have to work for someone else again? When did you know you could make it and continue to bring these relationships forward?
10:00 “You don’t know what you don’t know when you start out – but thank God for that.” She’s a natural risk taker, but not knowing she may not make it was a huge help.
11:00 Rabbit hole story about Jeff Zigler and her first cinderblock building location – wide-eyed, but not as much as the door-to-door sales telecom people that came to their door. Laura and her crew 3 of them – tech savvy, unbeknownst to the sales visitors. By the time they left, they had an appointment at the telecom HQ facility in Kansas City and sold them!
12:45 Laura admits, “SUCH A RUSH to be an entrepreneur!”
13:01 Most fun when invited to speak because of entrepreneurial experiences to incorporate successes and failures. It tells the true story.
14:06 Susan’s story: As she went into labor with her first child, she decided that she was never going back to a traditional office and would make it on her own. Her first client was her recent employer – he supported her dream 100% and helped her get more clients because he believed in her.
15:00 Laurie’s story of “One Client” before there were the terms: marketing automation, sales lead management. We used a lot more words to describe what we were all doing.
16:45 By the time she opened Vineya Group, she was able to do it with only company funds and no other investors or loans.
19:30 Ronnie Bincer common friend. He’s a force on Google+ and Hangouts, even though he started out in SEO – he saw the connection and the value of combining video, great content, and relationships as the key to continue to build credibility, reputation and sales.
19:45 LinkedIn becoming more of a content resource.
20:00 – Laura is adding to the toolbox with Google+.
SAAS tools, Cloud tool, social media platform – they rarely are what they started out as 2 years later. She sees where this is going. T
21:00 It about matching a client’s value proposition to a known need.
“We finally puts words around their problems.”
Ronnie, like Susan is a nationally prominent in understanding Google+ and Hangouts.
started out in SEO
22:00 Video SEO is critical to reach.
Susan says “It’s huge in building authority – relationship building.”
Laura says, “Do your due diligence about every tool in the arsenal.”
For a while, we were all in the HubSpot frenzy – inbound digital, fanning your digital feathers – have them come to you – but there is so much coming at us at such a pace.
23:15 “Please don’t make me learn something new today! Give me a day off!” This is part of the fatigue coupled with the huge excitement.
Prospect engagement and converstion – fill in the top of the funnel – based on THEIR NEEDS and what’s relevant to THEM. We understand the tools, good-old fashioned email marketing digital retargeting.
24:25 Laura McGuire says, “Folks, you need to get better understand the power of Google+. I can get the fatigue, but there has been a phenomenon of adoption. There has been more growth in Google+ – despite naysayers – than any other social platform in that amount of time – even Facebook.
Because of YouTube and Hangouts – not instead of – but it will eclipse tools that we thought were ‘whiz-bangy’ as recent as a year ago.”
25:15 – Shifting the hub of your communication. Where are you the most effective when you only have a limited amount of time. That’s where you need to be. Laura agrees.
25:45 No one can be the expert at everything, but as a leader and decision maker, you need to quickly understand how things need to be plugged in and applied to the people you are serving.
26:15 enterprise marketing automation in mid-to late 90’s – duked it out. Learned a lot.
Laura and her companies kept their eye on the concept of cloud before the term came up. Like other scrappy regional agencies, they set up their cloud labor the first day when Citrix set up their cloud server about 25 years ago. They ended up with a large number of patents, some of which were earliest and most cited patents in crowd sourcing and cloud labor space.
27:35 Cannot remove that human element, the relationship – you have to use voice to voice and face to face to truly develop true relationships.
We will be investing a lot of our time and treasure, it will definitely change the face of labor in the next 5-10 years. Vineya is constantly looking at cost containment and profitability measures – crowd sourcing. It’s rocking the content marketing world!
About the Author: Susan Finch
Susan has been a web solutions provider since 1997 and combines it with her years of experience in Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising. In her own company, Susan Finch Solutions (http://www.susanfinch.com) Susan provides training, design, set up, strategies, and graphics for clients online and for print. Susan has been a director for the SLMA since 2008.
