Isabel: Welcome back to ‘ED Going Digital”. My name is Isabel and I am your host in this episode. We are discussing women in the digital marketing business today. I have a very special guest with me, the one and only owner of Englander Davis, Kirsty. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today about digital marketing. You were very young When you entered the world of business. What was it like being a young woman fresh out of school entering the world of business?

Kirsty: Thanks, It was pretty scary. I mean you kind of go from being told what to do by your teachers to all of a sudden being able to make up your own sort of rules and times to even get out of bed and having to really drive yourself in order to be successful. So it was a really scary process but one that I do not regret and very excited about. 

Isabel: Definitely that will be a lot of responsibility at a young age. 

Kirsty: Yeah, it was.

Isabel: So just like our clients you’re a business owner as well. What are some of the pain points when it comes to your business? 

Kirsty: So every business starts at very similar points and goes through very similar issues. And one of the first things that we experienced in Englander Davis was Cash flow issues. So naturally you need cash flow in order to invest in marketing and in a team and in equipment and even in an office and this is a massive, massive issue that many businesses experience. 

Another pain point which we still experience a bit is staffing. Englander Davis is very lucky we have a fantastic team but it’s very hard to expand that team because on the Sunshine Coast, especially it’s hard to find loyal team members. So I guess if I was to pinpoint the biggest pain point for most companies it would be cash flow and it would be having a decent team to rely on so that you can do the things that you know you need to in order to grow the business.

Isabel: How has being a business owner yourself impacted your opinion of digital marketing?

Kirsty: Massively. I’ve been in business since I was 15 and wow it’s been such an adventure and all the ups and all the downs. I have to be honest when I first started I tried to do everything myself and it was a bit of a joke. Like I didn’t do anything properly and therefore I never was able to survive in the business world. As I got a bit older and I started to realise that doing everything myself wasn’t the best option and started to look at actually employing digital marketing companies before I was one. It was the same as employing an accountant when you need your books doing or a lawyer when you need something fighting in court, you would always go to a doctor if you need an operation or some advice so you should always go to a digital marketer if you need help with your marketing, especially online it completely transformed my business because they knew what they were doing and at the time I didn’t know, it was that simple. 

Isabel: So you had a positive experience with digital marketing previously?

Kirsty: I had a positive experience in passing over the work. Unfortunately. I had a very negative experience with alot of digital marketing companies and they did screw me over a fair bit. So I ended up paying £10000 to £15,000 pounds at the time and got zero in return. 

So it was really fun. But it really opened my eyes and actually one of the reasons that Englander Davis was formed was because that wasn’t the first time it happened and I was promised the world by many and received nothing. Not even just 0 they actually messed up more. It was just an absolute pain. But I still recommend them, they’re not all bad. The industry is a good industry and I still recommend going to an expert and using them instead of spending six months or longer and 50 grand or more trying to do it all yourself. 

Isabel: Definitely and we hear about the negative experiences that our oncoming clients have had in the past with that as well.

Kirsty: Yeah, I would probably say 90% of our Clients have actually come to us from being screwed over by somebody. So now I need it fixing. It really is a big problem because obviously it costs, marketing costs in general you can’t invest a dollar and expect 50 Grand back and marketing should give you three times what you pay into it. So it’s important to get the proper advice and I think that’s what our clients now get as they can come to us. We’ll explain it to them. We’re not money driven in that way. Obviously we need to make money to survive in the business, but we will explain to them. A very very clear detail that you know what they can expect or if we can even help we have had to say that we can’t have some people in the past because they’re just not in the position. But yeah,  It’s A Hard world It’s like navigating through a jungle. But once you are with partners that understand you can very very easily succeed at it. 

Isabel: Perfect. All right. How have you seen digital marketing change over the time you have been in Industry?

Kirsty: So when I opened the company just over two years ago I had already been in digital a little bit prior to that because I used to consult between companies for digital and for business growth. So since I started understanding digital, I have seen massive growth like it changes every three seconds. So algorithms and hashtags and which platform you should be using how many posts you should be actually posting. It is just never ending even down to keywords and how a website should be built. So nowadays, we build a website, so that it is optimised for mobile phones first because that’s what people are mainly on and then we make sure it’s optimised to other devices second. 

So just everything even down to building like we used to build websites to look pretty and as a bit of a business card and would call it the glorified business card in Industry, but now we Build them as a sales funnel. So it’s as good as walking into a shop and going directly to want what you want. So the industry is constantly evolving. It’s literally not staying still and that’s a good thing because the fact that it’s evolving means that we are growing and you know, if you don’t evolve your dissolve so, the industry is going to continuously grow. We’re going to continuously see new trends and we’re going to have to follow them and we’re going to make sure our clients move with them and we’re happy to advise anybody else as and when.

Isabel: Definitely all right. So what is your personal favorite digital marketing platform to use and why and I personally love social media?

Kirsty: I love Instagram. I think it’s so visual and it’s pretty and when you go through you’ve got your videos and you’ve got your satisfying videos and you’ve got your imagery. It’s not all about the content. It’s a lot about hashtags so you can literally search a word and then all of a sudden what you’re looking for comes up. I think Instagram is a great platform and I dont think it’s used a hundred percent properly but for me Instagram and Instagram ads and obviously that will lead to Facebook ads and some proper posting can see your brand of your business just rise like you can’t imagine so I loved it. 

Isabel: I must say that Instagram is definitely my favorite as well. 

Kirsty: Yeah, it’s always good to scroll on. 

Isabel: So what advice would you give to young women who are just starting out in the business world?

Kirsty: I probably say be consistent, you know, there’s going to be so many people that try and push you down or have 50 billion different opinions and you’re going to try and take everybody’s but you’ve got to remember that, if you fail they’re going to sit there and say that it’s because you didn’t do x y and Z and if you succeed they’re going to sit there and say well that was because of me so you kind of have to follow your own. Listen to other people but take it with a pinch of salt. 

So if you don’t agree with it, don’t do it because it has to be your way. You know, my attitude was to fail at my own hands is okay to fail at somebody else’s hands is really really hard to take. 

So just consistency and be persistent and be strong and be confident because you’re seriously going to need it but enjoy the process because it doesn’t always have to be hard. It doesn’t always have to be upsetting. It’s Roller coaster. So if you like going on roller coasters and you enjoy a bit of a thrill then business is the place for you. It doesn’t end. 

Isabel: Did you have any sort of mentor when you started out? 

Kirsty: Not really I did grow up in the business world because my dad’s in business and my mum was also a little bit in business and my stepdad is also in business, but for me, I went into business purely because I wanted the freedom and I wanted to. My whole reason was to help people also in my eyes. The more successful I can make my business the more people I can bring and help them and guide them and move them to where they want to because not many people get many chances.

Along the way I’ve met people,  I’ve met some very very successful people who have guided and in their way and I’ve had previous business partners who in their way have also guided and I basically learn from everybody I meet whether it’s my team it can be a four year old child because everybody has a message for you to learn from and that’s kind of what I do. So in that sense, I guess everybody’s been my mentor. I just have to keep my eyes open. 

Isabel: Yeah, that’s amazing. Isn’t it?

Kirsty: Yeah. 

Isabel: Okay. So being the owner of a digital marketing company. What is the secret to online success?

Kirsty: Persistence. You can’t be scared of the growth pattern like you can sit there and say well I’m not going to invest because you know, I can’t afford it or I need to do this first, marketing and sales is the number one place. You should be and obviously now that everything’s online. We should be investing in online marketing and if you’re persistent with it, and if you are able to continuously grow yourself and brand yourself and have a consistent message online. You will absolutely succeed like there’s no two ways. It’s the same as doing an old mail merge, so we’d send letters out in the post and get a response and you can hit 3 4 even 20 times more people just by doing online. 

So If you want to succeed you’ve got to be persistent and you’ve got to move yourself into a mindset that you’ve got to sort of invest to progress and that’s where a lot of people struggle because it’s kind of like well do I pay my rent or do I pay marketing and, you kind of need to do both, but if you pay your marketing then you could double your return or even triple it is where you want to be. So just be persistent, make sure your platforms are the same, make sure your story’s the same, make sure people Understand your message. Even if it doesn’t really fall in line with what everybody tells you. It should be who you are. That’s how you do it  in my eyes. 

Isabel: Thank you that Insight was amazing and super inspiring for young women looking to enter the world of business. I know that you are extremely busy. So thank you very much for your time today. Kirsty: It was a pleasure.