Zero To A Hundred – Episode 14: Building A Personal Brand And Scaling Your Business With Tessabella!

Accelerators! 🚀 Today’s episode features the incredible Tessabella Jelten, a marketing strategist, real estate coach, and one of the top digital marketing educators in the U.S. 💼

Tessabella shares how she built her personal brand and scaled multiple businesses through innovative marketing strategies, storytelling, and out-of-the-box lead generation tactics. Whether you’re in real estate, marketing, or any business, this episode is full of actionable insights to take your brand and business to the next level!💡

🔹 What’s on the Menu:

• How to use storytelling to build an unforgettable personal brand 💡
• Strategies for inspiring investor confidence and scaling businesses 🎯
• Creative digital marketing tactics for generating leads and boosting profitability 🛠️

🔥 Why Tune In?

• Tessabella’s journey from flipping her first house with just grit and determination to building a successful brand across real estate and digital marketing is filled with valuable lessons for every entrepreneur. Learn how to position yourself, elevate your brand, and stand out in any market!

💬 Gem from Tessa: “A brand people buy into for a lifetime is one that tells a story—bring them along on the journey.”

📞 Get in Touch with Tessa:

• 📧  Connect with Tessa on Instagram: @tessabellaa

Don’t miss out—hit that subscribe button and let’s take your business from zero to a hundred! 💥

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Zero To A Hundred – Episode 14: Building A Personal Brand And Scaling Your Business With Tessabella!

Accelerators, welcome to the show. I am very excited to introduce Tessabella Jelten, who is an acclaimed Marketing Strategist, a Real Estate Coach, and one of the top Digital Marketing Educators in the US. I’m also very proud to call her a dear friend. She has a unique way of building, scaling, and branding companies that you’re going to want to hone into.

We cover some really good topics that are going to help you build your business and become more profitable. Everything from inspiring investor confidence all the way to telling your story in a way that is going to resonate with your audience, and key and interesting ways of using digital or virtual courses as a method of lead generation. Totally outside of the box. I think you guys are going to enjoy this one.

For those of you who do not know me, I am the Founder of BoxFi. We are payment consultants who help businesses like yours create more profitability. I’m excited to share the network that I have built over my many years of entrepreneurial journey to help you grow your business and, most importantly, become more profitable. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s accelerate together.

Tessa, thank you for joining us on the show.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited.

I’m very much so looking forward to this conversation because, at a young age, you’ve done a ton of things in your career, and I would love for you to talk to our audience about how you got started in real estate right out of high school at a very young age.

It was right out of high school. I moved down to Arizona. Right at the very beginning, I gave myself an additional hurdle to jump over, which was I’m in a market where I know absolutely no one. For anyone in real estate, tends to be a challenge because a lot of your early business will come through your sphere of influence. I was in this completely new place. I was working multiple jobs and going to college. In the little bit of downtime that I had, I always enjoyed watching HGTV. As silly as it sounds, I did love watching these flipping TV shows. I kept thinking to myself, “I feel like I could do that,” and so I enrolled in the University of Google in addition to going to a real university.

I started just watching whatever I could. I actually found this pirated version of Sam Merrill’s Fortune Builders. I’d watch the screen recordings that someone else posted on the black web or whatever. That was initially how I learned some of those primary skills, and I went out and really started pitching myself to just about anyone whose ear I could get. It’s so funny because I was really introverted but I’ve always loved the phrase everyone has something that makes them an instant extrovert.

I became so obsessed with real estate that that became my instant extrovert topic. I could talk to anyone about it with a degree of confidence. I got somebody to fund my first flip when I had negative 36¢ in my personal bank account. Somehow, my eighteen-year-old confidence shined through, and I got somebody to believe in me probably even more than I did, and I was off to the races.

Let’s talk to the audience about how you were able to get that first deal done with that first investor. How did you approach them? Whether it’s your 1st deal or your 25th deal, bringing in investor capital can be very tough. I would love for you to tell the audience a little bit more about what you actually did.

It’s interesting because you hear different people say different things, but for the most part, I think most people will say if you find a great deal in real estate, the money comes easily. If you have a great deal, you can bring that to other people, and they’ll be much more inclined to invest in that. I went in the opposite direction. I said, “I’m going to find the money first. I want to make sure I have somebody who can back an investment.” I put together a slideshow. I spent so much time on the little spinning transitions and making sure it had all the cool stuff, as if that would matter. I started talking to anyone and everyone. I was a manager at the time at this little coffee shop.

I was talking to a regular of mine, and he goes, “I have a guy that has money.” I was like, “Okay. I love that for you.” I don’t know if that’s $10 or $10 billion. I have no idea. I ended up getting on a Skype meeting with this guy and went through my whole presentation. I remember then sitting there. It felt like 30 minutes of silence afterwards. It was probably five seconds but I was just petrified at what he would say afterwards. He basically said, “Yeah, let’s do it. Find a property, bring it to me. I’m interested. I like your excitement, your passion. You seem like you’re going to go out there and get it done. Let’s see what we can do.” It was definitely someone taking a chance on me.

I think that I really came with a decent amount of knowledge from what I had researched, but more than anything, I really think that my passion and commitment to making it happen were truly communicated and shined through in what I was saying. That was ultimately what got me to that first phase, with no shortage of challenges throughout the process. I took down a pretty small deal initially, and it ended up working out despite some of those challenges.

Elevating To The Next Level

Inspiring investor confidence is huge in any business. You’ve worked not only in real estate, you’ve been on the marketing side, you’ve been on the sales side, you’ve built other companies, you’ve been a CMO for a handful of companies, and have been very successful at it. Talk to the audience because our entrepreneurs who are reading are always looking for unique ways or insights on raising capital, on building that confidence with their potential investors. How do you do it? Especially if you’re an existing business and you already have something to show, how do you elevate to the next level and bring in the right type of capital to grow your business?

To break it down in the most elementary of ways, I think it definitely does come to what your offer is. If it’s just, “I need more money to expand my company,” that’s not super insightful. It doesn’t really give me any drive to actually invest with you. If you have carved out this corner of the market where there’s going to be a unique additive, I think that that turns the heads of just about anyone. The second piece would definitely be getting connected and networking, which there really is an art to that once you get into it. It’s not just aimless networking because it can be the biggest waste of your time and energy, but having intentional networking and conversations.

This has been a principle for me in so many ways. See how you can add value to other people in order to get a seat at the table. It may take longer than you initially want it to, but if you genuinely are finding ways to service other people, you’re going to continue to get in more and more circles and a spot at more and more tables. Before you know it, that’s going to open up a lot of conversations that ultimately result in investors, in my case.

I like what you said, and I want to make sure the audience is reading this clearly. If you’re going out to raise capital, you have to position yourself as what you are selling, your product or your service is unique and a value add in the marketplace. There are consumers that will desire what your product or service is. That is how you get the attention of the right type of investor for your business.

The one thing I do want to touch on, which I think is incredibly important because I share the same concept or thought around building relationships, is how do you go after adding value to a potential investor or someone in your network where you ultimately will be able to make an ask for them, but doing it genuinely and authentically? How do you do that when you’re first starting to build those relationships?

The Power Of Networking And Adding Value

I think it definitely varies a bit depending on the industry because, obviously, that’s going to look a little different for a plastic surgeon versus a high-level real estate investor or something like that. I tend to just start off a conversation with, “What does a great referral look like for you?” They’re going to dive into it a little bit more. Another benefit of that is 9 times out of 10, they’re going to reverse that question and ask you the same thing as well, so you’ve potentially created this referral network.

However, the real key is that you take that information and you actually go out and try to form a genuine referral to them and actually follow through on sending something over, at least attempting to. I think even if it doesn’t turn into something, if you put a genuine effort into actively pursuing an effort to give them somebody who fits that archetype of an ideal referral to them, they will really appreciate it and it tends to get you further conversation that can maybe turn into lunch or a meeting, a conversation that goes a little deeper than that initial meeting.

One thing that I learned from one of my mentors is that the most interesting conversation that someone will have is about themselves. If you can engage that person and find out more about what makes them tick, whether it is professionally or personally, you can start to connect the dots. It doesn’t always have to be from a business perspective. It also could be from a personal perspective because you might have contacts in your network that can add value to the individuals you’re talking to, their husband or wife, their kids, a family member.

That’s always a value add as well. Another one of the key points is just connecting people within your network. I’ve done that successfully, and how it’s a way in which I’ve built some of my biggest relationships is just like, you need to meet XYZ friend, put them together, and let them take it and run with it.

I think that there’s also a tasteful way in doing this. This is something you do really well because, obviously, I’ve experienced it on the other end, but just for those reading, it’s not just, “Okay, let me introduce and put all these people in group text messages and group emails and all that stuff,” because that can actually be more harmful to a relationship than beneficial if you haven’t vetted that introduction. I think that there’s a lot to be said for that, too. Think about what a valuable connection is.

I tend to usually reach out to the individuals first also and say, “I would love to connect you with this person. Here’s why I think it would be valuable. Are you okay with an introduction?” I’ve never had somebody say no, but it’s just that additional courtesy that you’re really teeing up that relationship. I think that gives them a little bit more runway to take that ball and run with it.

It shows that you are thinking about the person, and you do that so well. When someone realizes that they’re top of mind for you, that also makes them feel good. They get warm and fuzzy from that. That’s a huge value add. What most of the business owners need to realize that are out there, and a lot of our audience are experienced, seasoned business owners, is you have almost everything you need in your network. You just have to learn to be more resourceful. Ask for the favor, and add value to someone else so they want to add value to you. Continue to connect with your network, and you will be able to build the success that you want to build by using the resources that are there in front of you.

Leveraging Your Network To Grow Your Business

I’ve always said, “I believe that I can get to absolutely anyone in the world within six degrees of separation.” I have full confidence. I think there’s something to be said in that, but you need to take a look more at your network and not just the primary people that you could call and talk to immediately, but think about how to expand that out a little bit more and more. It’s not to leech onto other people, but if you really think about it and you do have a way to insert yourself in a situation or a conversation where you’re with somebody who is two degrees away from you and you can bring them more into your inner circle, that’s how you truly grow and expand.

I think you’re uniquely positioned to talk about this because your foundation is around real estate, but you’ve done so much in the marketing and branding side and in various types of business. What I would love for you to talk to the audience about is the importance of building a brand as a business owner and strategies on how you can do it successfully. Whether you’re a big company or you’re a small company, how should business owners be looking at building their brand in the market?

I have one initial thing that I think is really applicable to anyone, no matter what level of business you’re at. It’s a principle I’ve always really stayed committed to, and that is that a brand that people buy into for a lifetime is telling a story. Whether you are an individual building your personal brand or you’re a larger organization, one of the best ways to get audience buy-in and truly cement your brand in the market and the industry is by telling a story and bringing them along on the journey. I think that so many people think, “I don’t want to market something until it’s the finished product. It’s the best it can be,” and yet people love to see that hero journey.

An example I always tell my new real estate agents is I say, “Don’t wait until you get your license and you’re with a brokerage to start sharing that you’re getting into real estate on social media. Start documenting it from the day you sign up to get your license. Document going to the classes. Document this journey. Before you know it, you have people who really watched that evolution.”

I still, to this day, in my marketing pieces, will pull back something from ten years ago and be able to reference that. It is some of my top-performing content every single time because people see, “She’s really been at this for that long, building this brand and layering onto it.” I think when you start with that in mind, it also allows you to have so much more flexibility and fluidity in your brand as you grow. If you only wait to market yourself around one finished product, that’s the best it’s ever going to be, it’s hard to pivot because people have only seen that one finished, polished thing. Instead, if you’re showing the journey the entire time, I think it makes you much more limber as a brand. You’re able to pivot and really show that evolution if you focus on a new niche or you’re expanding, or whatever that may be.

I want to come back to the content creation, but let’s stick to the telling of the story because I think that’s really important. You hear various ways in which you should approach this. Some are telling the story of you and your company. Others who are master marketers will say, “You need to focus on your customer, the problem that you’re solving for the customer, how you solve that problem differently than anyone else, whether it’s the best Italian food in the area or the best fitting alpaca sweaters in the nation.” As a business owner, how do you create that balance between serving the customer’s needs first and selling what you do and its uniqueness?

I think the best way to explain that is a phrase that I love, which is, if you can explain your customer’s pain, desire, or problem better than they can, they will automatically assume that you have the solution. More often than not, we can explain that because it was an experience that we had firsthand ourselves, and if it wasn’t, you’ve probably helped other people have that firsthand experience. I think that weaving some of those personal stories and those key elements in, but I do believe the most important piece is speaking to what they are thinking, feeling, wanting, craving.

That can be applied across just about any industry because if I have a desire for a specific type of plastic surgery, a specific type of financial outcome, or a specific Italian meal, any of those three things, all three are very different. If somebody can explain what I’m wanting better than I could even put into words, they are automatically the person I’m going to. That has cemented them in my mind as the go-to solution despite just about any other factor.

I want to make sure that I get this right for the audience, and I’m writing it down myself because that was very, very impactful. If you can explain the problem, the pain point, or the issue the customer is having better than they can, they are going to believe that you are the solution. As a business owner, I think that’s also something super important. What process do you have to go through to get to that in 30 seconds, the elevator pitch, which we’ve heard a billion times, to actually hone in on the problem that you’re solving? What audit of your business do you need to go through to create something that’s super seamless and streamlined so your customers hear that when you’re marketing?

I think there are three ways to get there. In an ideal world, you’ll have all three, but I think even 1 or 2 of them can definitely get you there. First being your own personal experience navigating that problem or issue because, again, in most cases, what we build a business around is a solution that we once needed ourselves. I think really assessing that journey of your own personal navigation.

Second being, of course, past clients. I hope you’ve already helped somebody achieve that outcome, so you can go back and ask them questions. You can incentivize them. It’s a really great way to stay in touch, even with past clients and past customers, incentivize them to do a quick survey or an interview and feature them in some way, and ask some of these questions to dive deeper into how you helped them navigate it, what the outcome was, and what were some of those things that came up during the process.

Third is, and this is great, especially for those newer business owners out there, if you maybe haven’t had a large sum of clients that you’ve helped, is people in your network, even if they didn’t go to you. This always blows my real estate agents’ minds when I talk to them about this. If you need help crafting your custom methodology and approach to helping somebody buy or sell a property, look at your network and talk to the people in your circle, friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances who have gone through a transaction.

They didn’t use you because you didn’t market yourself well enough, weren’t yet licensed, or whatever it was, but ask them if you can interview them about that experience. You’ll learn so much in that moment about what was done right, what was not done well, how you can improve, and how you can actually get a leg up on your competition by talking with people that you didn’t even service.

Just to recap, because that was brilliant, I want to make sure that we hone in on these three things. When you are building your business’s story or brand, the three things you want to look at are talking about your personal experience and how you overcame or solved that problem. Two is having past client testimonials. You can get a survey, you can record a video, you can do an interview. It’s another good way to reconnect with your past customers as well. Number three is just using the network that you already have as a sounding board, as a resource to interview them and find out what they’re looking for when it comes to that product or service, whether or not they’ve actually used you, correct?

Understanding What Customers Value

Even if they haven’t yet transacted with somebody, you could say, “Hey, if you were going to do this, what would be some of those most important things to you, or what would you decide? Would a lot of past reviews and testimonials matter to you? Would years in service matter to you?” Asking those kinds of questions to see where your average customer is going to place weight on those different things is important because, a lot of times, we make assumptions about what’s more important that actually doesn’t matter too much in our customers’ eyes.

Finding out what is important to your customer is tantamount to success.

Absolutely.

You, as the business owner, sometimes we’re so in love with what we’re creating because it solves the problem that we have or have had that sometimes we miss the little nuances of what the greater community or greater consumer is actually looking for. Spending the time to do those interviews of past clients, present clients, or even people within your network who aren’t clients and asking them about your product or service and what they would want to see or what they wouldn’t want to see. Those are going to be key factors in building out what your storyline can be. All of this is incredibly important when it comes to creating a business that is highly profitable because we’re selling more product.

Absolutely. The key thing here, I think this should go without saying, is, as you’re doing those interviews and those conversations, make sure that you’re collecting information from the people who do fit the archetype of your ideal client. You can also collect that information from people who are not your ideal clients as a key indicator of what to steer away from in your marketing. If you have somebody that isn’t fitting that perfect description of who you would ideally like to service, you can still have that conversation with them. Maybe the things that appeal to them are some that you don’t include as much in your marketing because you’re speaking to a different segment of the market.

Content Creation And Strategy

Let’s dive into content creation a little bit more, and then we’ll talk about lead generation for the business owners and entrepreneurs who are reading. Personally, I struggle with content creation. I think the content that I put out there is all right. I’m working on my content strategy, but the challenge that I have, Tessa, and what I hear from a lot of business owners and friends, frankly, is feeling as if we’re putting out something that’s really genuine and authentic and means something. There are days I put out content and I think, “Nobody’s going to want to hear that.” Sometimes, it’s the days where I have the best interaction with the people who are looking at my social media. How do we determine or create a content strategy that’s going to speak to our customers to help drive more business?

I don’t want to harp on it too much, but it does build off of what we just talked about. The more that you know who you’re trying to attract, the easier it is to create content that’s going to resonate with them. If I have a really clear understanding of who I’m trying to bring into my business and my network, and I understand what their pains, desires, and struggles are, I can create content endlessly because it’s almost as if I’m speaking and addressing them directly in that content. I think that really simplifies the strategy piece overall, but the secondary filter to put that through is that everyone looking at content is looking at it through a lens of, “What’s in it for me? Is this entertaining me? Is this giving me something I didn’t know? Is this something I can share with other people in my life?”

They’re always going to be loosely putting it through the filter of, “What’s in it for me?” and so if we put out too much that doesn’t fulfill those desires, that’s when I think we get a lot of people that bypass us. That’s not to say that there isn’t a time and place for personal content and things that are heartwarming and whatnot. I do think that, in general, a really good rule of thumb for getting people more engaged with what you’re sharing.

Truly great advice. Let’s talk about the infamous lead funnel. I think a lot of business owners struggle with this as well. You are genuinely an expert because you’ve got killer lead funnels. Let’s talk about how you create the right type of lead funnel and give me an example of something that you’ve done that’s been super successful.

Leveraging Courses For Lead Generation

There are so many ways to go about it. I think that when it comes to building some funnel and having ways to collect leads, you do have to also pay attention to not overcomplicating it. I think it’s a pretty common thing in the lead gen space that there are these really complex funnels with upsells, downsells, cross-sells, and all this stuff. As much as that can work for some industries and for some markets, it’s not universally applicable.

In some cases, the easiest thing you can do is put out a great piece of eye-catching advertisement, get somebody to give you their name and email, and throw them into a drip campaign where they then convert. That honestly tends to be my most successful one. I love giving away freebies, lead magnets that are really targeted, again, to the specific pains and problems of my ideal client, and then getting them into us. We do a 7-day drip campaign over those 7 days.

It’s adding value. We treat it as a mini-course across seven days with a subtle call to action every single day towards the end and then convert them at the end of it into our paid product. Almost every single time, just insane conversion rates. People love the free value. You’re front-loading so much value. At the same time, you’re also conditioning them in how you teach, so then when they get into your course, they end up purchasing. They’re also already conditioned for your teaching style, so they tend to have a better result going through that course or product.

Very interesting. This has been a huge topic. It has been teaching what you know, teaching what you do. How do you stand out from what is seemingly a crowded field right now of people who are experts and they’re going out and they’re creating these courses where they’re actually doing, whether it’s Skool.com or some of the other platforms that are out there? Udemy is another one where you’re educating people on your product or service but teaching them how to do it. How do you create something that is unique and going to stand out and still benefit your business to help you grow?

I think that there’s untapped potential and amount of people who will opt into a virtual course of some kind. I think that the myth of saturation deters a lot of people from following through with it. I think the conversion piece comes in when, and this, again, is sometimes when we’re in it, when you’re doing something every day. If I were to create a course on teaching funnels, I’ve done it every single day for so many years that it would be, I’m sure, overlooking so many of those elementary tasks that you would have to do before you can even get a really high-performing funnel.

Just by creating that course, someone would go through it and think, “This is way more than I want to invest my time into learning. Let me actually just pay you to do it for me,” and so that’s a really easy way to convert people. Some people love going through the course because they want to know exactly what to expect when they do work with you. Sometimes, it’s, “Pay for this course, go through it, and then you can actually credit the cost of that to our services.”

Once you choose to engage us, I’ve seen some cool things with people who were creating courses, like a restaurant, and I can’t remember what type of food it was, but they did a course on, let’s say it was Italian food, on making pasta, making the spaghetti sauce, etc. They sold recipes at the end of it, but they also had a couple of restaurants and it was supposed to be more localized, but they got national attention on it, and it grew their brand nationally.

That started to pick up even locally. More people were going to their restaurant. It’s something that you’re like, “I own a restaurant. What am I going to do? That’s unique and interesting.” That was actually really cool. I’ve heard of a doctor who has a med spa, and they go through how you do injections and procedures and skincare, but actually walking you through, like, “This is what I do as a doctor.”

When you’re talking to a doctor, here are the top ten questions that you need to ask them about what they’re going to do prior to going into that procedure to make sure that you’re going to get the outcome that you desire. All these little things that people have turned into courses that I was like, “How, as a plastic surgeon or a dermatologist, can you ever create a course that’s going to be interesting?”

To your point, and I love what you actually said, you said it’s the myth of saturation, that there’s a myth that the market is oversaturated. If I really step back and think about it, you are completely right. How many people are in your industry? Even if there are 200,000 people who are funnel creators or a million people who are funnel creators, there are billions of people on the earth. There are hundreds of millions of people in the US. There are so many people who don’t do it on a daily basis who are going to find it fascinating, interesting, want to learn, or just want to hire you.

When you create that course, when you are a teacher, it goes back to our programming from when we were in grade school, you look as if you are an expert. You can figure out something within your niche for your product or service to teach to your community of people. It could be 100, 10, or 10,000 people. It will help drive your business and help it grow.

It doesn’t even have to be a high-ticket course. I think that’s another thing that has often been misconstrued. We have helped a lot of people who previously used courses simply as a self-liquidating way to get leads. Let’s just say I throw out an ad, and I’m just trying to get leads for my. I’ll just use real estate business because that’s my industry. Let’s just say I’m trying to put out ads. I want new agents who want to come join my team. I’m going to be probably paying a higher dollar amount to actually get any lead through the door, but if I were to put out a low-ticket course, let’s just say $27, I’m teaching the basics of what to do in your first 30 days as a real estate agent.

I’m pushing that course. As you go through it, I’m probably only going to pay $15, $20 per person to convert into that $27 course. I’ve either got all those leads now of people who could potentially join my team for free, or I’ve made even a $2, $3, $5, or $7 profit off that. That’s another thing that I think can be used as a tool to collect high-quality leads and pay back the cost of actually acquiring those.

If you’re going to use a course as a lead capture to grow your business and find the type of team members that you want to hire, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a high-ticket item. What’s really interesting that you say that, I think about it, it is, let’s take real estate, for instance. If you want to teach people how to invest in retail, storage units, or multifamily, and you teach a course, that’s not $5,000. It’s really only $500 or $99. It’s because you want those people as investors versus trying to make money off of selling a course. I think when it really comes down to it, Tessa, maybe I should be a little bit more honest, I think a lot of people who are out there teaching courses are BS. They’re doing it to make money off of selling the course. They’re not doing it because they’ve done it.

They’ve done one fix-and-flip in their lives. They’re trying to teach this course for $10,000 as if they’re the true expert, and they’re not. I think that’s where a lot of people run into that where you want to be genuine and authentic because you actually have the experience, and you see these yokels out there who are teaching these courses, who are supposed to be experts, but they’re really not experts. How do you differentiate yourself from a lot of people who are in the industry just trying to make money off of selling courses?

Another thing that someone said to me that blew my mind because, at one point, I got really frustrated with the amount of people that were claiming to be experts and selling these courses, it did deter me at one point. I listened to this podcast. I can’t remember who it was that said it, but in order to be 100% of service to someone, you only need to be 10% ahead of them. I think my way of really separating myself is focusing on, and though I do consider myself an expert in many ways in this industry, I really focus in on helping them solve a specific problem.

If your goal is that you have a decent flow of leads, but you’re not converting them well, maybe that’s what I’m going to focus and hone in on teaching you, how I can help you increase your lead conversion by 20% or more. Because I’ve done that, it’s something I have expertise in. I’m 10% or more ahead of the person who can’t convert their leads as highly. I’m 100% of service to them. I think that’s a really quick way to differentiate yourself from the masses. Honestly, you’ll probably end up selling more and attracting more people rather than just saying, “I can help you be a successful real estate agent.”

In order to be 100% of service to someone, you only have to be at least 10% or more ahead of them. I’ve never really thought about that because if you look at it from the standpoint of James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, it’s that one-minute step. If you’re making that one-minute step daily, weekly, monthly, it compounds over years. If you can learn one lesson that is 10% more than what you know from an individual who is 10% ahead of you, you might not be able to continue to learn from that individual, but they’ve taken you to the next level, so then in return, you can go and find that next resource, that next teacher.

Choosing The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business

Let’s talk about social media as a whole. I find it, in today’s market, tough to figure out what medium you should go down. I’ll use myself as an example. I’ve started to solely focus on LinkedIn as my social media. Everything else is secondary. I have a content strategy around them, but it’s not the same way with my LinkedIn because a lot of my business leads and my relationships live on LinkedIn, and it’s very buttoned-up, very professional. I like that. As a business owner, how do you determine where you should be taking that brand that you’ve built, that story, and that message, or the education and the content that you can put out into the market, and select the channel of social media that’s going to be best for you?

I do think you have to put your business through an initial assessment of where you think the majority of your audience is hanging out. If you are highly B2B focused, a place like LinkedIn is probably a much smarter place to put a lot of emphasis. At the same time, I try to encourage business owners to not talk themselves out of or deter themselves from other platforms by assuming that their audience is not there because you have to harness the power of word of mouth.

For example, one of the biggest things that people say is, “I’m not going to go on TikTok. It’s just a bunch of fourteen-year-olds dancing and doing whatever,” but first of all, it’s not. There are so many people on there. If you were to go on there and share about your business, there are also tons of people that may see that. You’re speaking directly to specific solutions that you have and ways that you solve these problems. It is not uncommon that somebody’s showing that to their mom, brother, business partner, husband, and wife gets this momentum as well.

My general rule of thumb is I do think you should choose a platform that’s your primary focus. That’s going to be like where you really spend a ton of time specifically crafting content for that platform. I think that you should have an additional sharing strategy across at least two other platforms. With so many of those AI tools and things like that, it gets easier and easier to do that somewhat automatically. I think that you’re selling yourself short if you completely abandon every other platform.

The Value Of Creating Courses To Establish Authority

Interesting. You have worked with, and this really plays into the social media, the sales funnel, the marketing, and branding side of the business. You work with some very big, famous people and help build their brands. Can you just walk us through what you did, how you got started, and how other people, whether it is a local brand or a national or international brand, can do the same thing to actually build their brand?

The way it happened is interesting. It was at an event. I was a part of this mastermind. At the time, I was at this mastermind and I was doing a round table. Everyone’s talking. I spoke about a course that I had created. It was my first ever course. It was Instagram for real estate agents. I was teaching them how to generate leads on Instagram.

The videographer at this event, funny enough, was really intrigued by what I was saying because he was a videographer for Tariq El Moussa from Flip or Flop. He pulled me aside towards the end of it and said, “We’re thinking about creating a course for Tariq. Would you be willing to just get on a call with me and tell me some of how you did it and how you got started?” I said, “Of course.” I got on a call. I think we honestly spent a few hours, and I just told him absolutely everything that I did, that I knew how it worked, and what I would suggest. It was the end of that. I didn’t think much of it.

I just completely told them everything. I never really assumed that would turn into some sort of client relationship. A few weeks later, I get a call again from this guy. I’m actually at the airport on my way to speak at another event. He’s like, “Hey, we have this emergency situation. We have the opportunity to launch a course for Tariq, but we have to do so within the next two weeks or something.” I was like, “I don’t want to say impossible, but that’s going to be tough.” He was like, “What do you need to make it happen?”

I basically listed out, not even monetarily, just like, this is what would have to happen content creation-wise, platform-wise, all this stuff. We ended up making that happen. That first course that we were pushing for, we ended up scrapping, long story there. We rebuilt something else, which is still his primary course, Homeschooled by Tariq El Moussa. It was, again, just by providing a bunch of upfront value with nothing really expected in return that turned into that relationship. Through that, I was able to really help craft a brand story and take someone’s package and turn that into something that can really continue to live far beyond that.

It’s really in your mind, and you are an earlier adapter to this. It’s the courses, which is one thing that can really help set you apart.

I definitely think so. I think it can help to concreteize your position within your industry because there are a lot of people. You made this point earlier, naturally, you’re going to make the assumption, whether it’s true or not, that somebody who has a course or has written a book or has been published in a bunch of articles, the general population is going to automatically assume that they have more authority and expertise in a matter. Unfortunately, We have seen people that use this negatively, but you can also really use that in a positive way within your business to highlight what you know and your level of expertise. I think it really sets you apart and makes you look legitimate for years to come, especially if you have multiple that continue to pile up over years.

I think about this, and it is really enlightening because what I’m working on doing as an entrepreneur myself is reframing the way I look at things. If I and one of my buddies who’s a marketing guru has a funny timeline on, depending on your age, how you look for information, like people who are my age in their early forties, they’re going to go to YouTube. People who are younger look at things on TikTok and so on, like how-to’s.

I had to get into a safe and I had the combination, but I couldn’t remember how to turn the dials. I googled it and went through two videos and I found a video that gave me the information on how to get into the safe. I got into the safe, opened the key and got what I needed. I was also talking to one of the individuals we interviewed, who has had a successful mechanical and plumbing business, which they sold for eight figures.

Even if you were in a mechanical and plumbing business, or you were in a safe business, teaching a course on locks and safety and how to make sure that your house is ironclad, teaching a course on keeping your systems updated in your house, because the value that it adds when you go to sell it, the prevention of leaks and problems that you might potentially have. If you were to do that because somebody who’s a homeowner and they want to keep up the value of their home, that is a very different way than how to fix and flip, how to market and sell my home.

That is a really unique way of saying, no, I’ve got this asset that I’ve got to take care of it. How do I do that? The best I possibly can. In return, they’re selling probably a lower-cost course, but they’re going to get business out of it because they become an expert. They can take testimonials. They can take clips from the course that they’ve created, push that out on their social media.

It gives them a unique marketing angle, and that we’re having this conversation, I’m thinking of courses in a different way than I’ve actually thought of them. I’m not putting a course late. I don’t have time to do one, but it could be a really creative way for a business owner to get out there and garner more leads for their business.

It’s also, as you’re saying, a shift in mindset. I think that’s something we’ve seen in the past. I’ll even say years ago, there was a point where webinars were really the biggest way to use internet marketing to collect leads and to get people to potentially convert. I think a really great way to look at courses is almost a shorter condensed, on-your-own style webinar. As you think about it, most people would even register for a webinar, not attend live, but just because they know they’re going to get that replay that they can watch on their own time. The course, in some ways, is sort of a similar thing. It’s just breaking it down into easy-to-digest video course modules that they can access at any point. That serves a very similar purpose in many cases.

You know what’s really cool? I didn’t expect the conversation, sometimes we never know where the conversation is going to go on this podcast, to really hone in on this. I think this is really unique and something that many of us are completely aware of. All of us have bought a ton of courses, I’m sure, as consumers in general. Some we’ve watched, some we haven’t watched, to your point. Some we file away and watch later, or we watch the follow-up recap video of the course.

However, if you step back and look at it from the standpoint of, “I’m not trying to make this my bread and butter. I’m using this as an informative lead capture.” This is something that absolutely will differentiate my business. A course is a massive value add. Let’s just talk really quick before we go into the rapid-fire section. If you are thinking about launching a course, what platforms are out there today that are really great for doing so?

Platforms For Launching Courses

I’m a huge believer and a fan of Skool.com. I just think it’s extremely intuitive. It’s very easy to use. I have had hundreds of people in my community, across all different age brackets, who have said it’s very easy to use. They’re having an easy time navigating it. It’s as if a course platform and a Facebook group combined. You can also have that community element. You can have a calendar.

It has a bit of gamification. You can incentivize some engagement. That’s just my personal favorite. I think it’s really easy to use. If you don’t go that route, I do think Kajabi is a good one that’s been around for ages. It’s a bit more technical as far as figuring out exactly how it works, but I think that’s a great alternative.

Great insight. You have dropped some bombs and shed a ton of light on us. I think this is going to be very, very helpful to the audience. Now, let’s do the fun stuff. Let’s go into our rapid-fire section. Are you ready?

I am ready.

In a fight, who wins, Barbie or My Little Pony?

My Little Pony.

Is it the hooves?

Yeah, I think I picture doing a little kick back.

It’s a zombie apocalypse. You have to leave your home. What is the one weapon that you’re going to grab to protect you and your family?

A knife.

Number one business book that all of our entrepreneurs listening to the podcast should be reading?

I actually have a great answer to this because I just finished it and just told you to read it. 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less. It is truly one of the best books I’ve read in quite a long time, and I read a lot of books. I think that’s saying a lot.

I will second that. I’ve got 40 pages left, which I’ll finish this evening. It’s a good one. It’s got me rethinking that I really need to step up my game. I thought I was doing all right, but I’ve been 2X-ing, and it’s time to start 10X-ing. I’ll do a review on that this Sunday on my LinkedIn. Cool. Next question: dead or alive, if you had the opportunity to have dinner with anyone this evening, who would it be and why?

I think you’re going to laugh at me, but I would say Dave Portnoy.

Who?

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports.

Unpack that one for the audience.

Honestly, I think he’s extremely smart. I love that he is just who he is. I don’t think he changes his personality to appease any one person. For better or worse, love him or hate him, he just is exactly how he is all the time. I think that’s extremely rare, especially for people who have grown large public followings. I also am absolutely shocked by what he’s built, and then I’ve gone through ups and downs with Barstool Sports. I think it’s pretty incredible.

Who are two people in your life who have helped you get to where you are in your career?

One, absolutely, that comes to mind is my boyfriend Ramon. Not to be sappy, but he has helped me tremendously in so many ways. Just like truly having unwavering support and somebody who believes in you, especially on those days when you’re questioning yourself, which, as entrepreneurs, we have those days where sometimes you’re like, “What am I even doing? Where am I? Who am I? What’s going on?” Having somebody that’s just a really strong sounding board and supportive and has certainty and confidence in you is extremely powerful.

A second one would probably be somebody that I met in a mastermind group, actually. His name is Sammy Knight. He was my personal mentor for a while and helped me so much by putting things just into perspective of really what’s important and how you can build something scalable and sustainable over time without compromising the things that are important in your life.

Let’s say you are a business that is doing $10 million in annual revenue. I walk through your door this afternoon, and I hand you a $300,000 check. What would you advise that business owner do with the $300,000 to double their profits over the next 12 months?

I think by the sound of this show, I’m going to have to say you invest that into some creative marketing. I would say not just doubling down on what you’re currently doing but expressing it in a few new avenues, specifically leveraging user-generated content/influencers or some sort of ambassador program. I think that is really powerful.

Last but not least, what is the number one obstacle that you had to overcome in your life and career to build the success that you have?

I think it’s an obstacle I still face and still have to actively overcome on a regular basis, and that is getting in my own way. I think whether it’s from outside influence, my own self-doubt, or just those days where things don’t work out as you would hope, I definitely go through those ups and downs. It’s easy to think, “How did I get here? How did this happen? Why isn’t it further along?” I think, in reality, you always just have to acknowledge and appreciate that every single step has got you to this place. It’s all a part of a much bigger picture.

I always say even a step in the wrong direction is a step in the right direction because it shows you where not to go, constantly reminding myself of that and looking at the bigger picture instead of focusing too much on the details. I think that’s really well explained in the book I just mentioned, 10x is Easier Than 2x. They talk about the gap and the gain, so we’re often not paying attention to how far we’ve come. We’re just looking at this idealistic outcome that we’re hoping for. That idealistic outcome is always going to be constantly moving. You’re going to live in this lack and unfulfilling area if you’re only ever looking at how far away that next goal is instead of what you’ve accomplished.

Tessabella Jelten, please tell everyone where they can reach you if they’d like to contact you.

The best place to connect with me is on Instagram. That’s the best place to find me. I would love to connect with anyone. If you’re listening to this, shoot me a message. Let me know that you heard about me on the show, and I would love to chat with you.

Thank you for joining us on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Important Links

• Tessabella Jelten
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
• 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less
• www.Skool.com
• Instagram – Tessabella Jelten

About Tessabella Jelten

Tessabella Jelten is widely acclaimed as a marketing strategist, real estate coach and digital marketing educator in the U.S. today.

Her journey began directly out of high school, when she began her career as a bootstrapped real estate investor with no money to her name, sitting at her laptop trying to figure out the best way to acquire properties, raise capital, brand and market them and understand the ins and outs of real estate.

Through this process, she successfully built a name for herself in the valley remodeling and restoring historic properties. The entire time, she was documenting the process through social media, and building a brand which later became a residential real estate team partnered with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Through years of real estate and marketing experience in the field, Tessabella developed a unique approach to building, scaling and branding real estate companies.

Through strategic networking, years of hard work and a relentless passion for her work, she’s gone on to work with some of the largest names in the industry to build entire marketing suites, lead generation funnels and commercially recognized brands. Through the years of trial and error, she eventually cracked the code and has since been on a massive growth trajectory helping real estate professionals around the world through her signature success 4S Formula.