Ep 203: How To Get Booked Out With Relationship-Led Sales with Marjorie Agin

Welcome And Season Timing

0:38

Welcome to Tiny Marketing. I'm Sarah Noel Block, and oops, I accidentally lied. I said that I was going to reveal season six this week, but I looked through my log and I have a few more episodes with solo consultants explaining how they got their start and how they ended up getting booked out. So we're gonna continue this series for a couple more weeks before we get into my reveal of season six. Enjoy

Meet Margie And Her Clients

Marjorie Agin 1:08

Sure. Hi, I'm Margie Agan, and I'm the founder and chief strategist of Center Board Marketing. And they come to me when they hit kind of an inflection point in their growth when they, they've moved from a startup, they've got product market fit, and now they're ready to really accelerate their growth and, um, and, you know, put the, put the metal, the metal foot on the gas, shall we say?

Sarah Noel Block 1:35

Pedal to the gas.

Marjorie Agin 1:38

I was mixing some metaphors there, Put their foot on the gas and really commercialize their solution and get it to market.

Landing Early Clients Through Subcontracting

Sarah Noel Block 1:44

We're gonna do some time travel. So how did you find your first client 13 years ago?

Marjorie Agin 1:51

Sure. So, um, I will say that I started consulting, um, more as a subcontractor. So I did not go out in the world and say, "I wanna start a business," you know, "I'm going to be an entrepreneur," and, um, you know, and with a business plan and everything all buttoned up I, um, honestly got kicked out of the nest. Um, w- I was laid off from my job, and I think that's a story that we a lot. And I kinda had one foot, you

Sarah Noel Block 2:23

doing a series with solo consultants, and I would say 80% that that was their origin story.

Marjorie Agin 2:31

Yeah. And, and at the time I also had, um, I had just come back from maternity leave, so I,

Sarah Noel Block 2:37

That's not new, which is sad

Marjorie Agin 2:40

not new, right? Which is kind of interesting. And, um, so I s- slunk back home, um, but was also happy, uh, like not to have an intense full-time job at the, at the time. And so I started subcontracting, and I started kind of taking on consulting projects that sort of came to me through my network. And it was honestly a few years into it when I had to make another decision, and this has happened several times along the way, where I said, "Do I wanna go back to full-time or do I wanna stay consulting?" And it wasn't until that point a few years in that I said, "You know what? This, this is a business, and I should treat it as such." So in the very beginning, like to directly answer your question, um, I had folks from my network. Um, I had worked for, uh, long enough at three different companies and knew a lot of people that, that knew me as an individual and wanted support with what they were doing. And then I had a former boss who had been, um, building her own consulting practice, and so when she had client needs that exceeded what she could do, she would bring me in and we would kind of tag team it. And that was a nice way to start because I didn't have to go out and sell myself, um, and, um, I could kinda build my experience being an external consultant and build my kinda book of logos and experience what that was like with less risk than I think if I had started entirely on my

Sarah Noel Block 4:26

Yeah that's a nice way to start. I would say, like, at least half of my work in the beginning of my business came the same way, and it w- it was nice. Yeah, you don't have to sell. You don't have to market. You just have to be known by that, you know, those couple of people who subcontract to you, and

Marjorie Agin 4:49

Um, yeah. I think there's a... You know, it was a great way to start. I also think that the, the world of 13 or 14 years ago was maybe different than it is today.

Sarah Noel Block 5:00

is definitely different.

Marjorie Agin 5:01

and so, and but in so many shapes and sizes it's quite an understatement, right? But in terms of being a consultant, especially in the area that I have focused in, which is product marketing and in, and content marketing, at that time, those were... Well, content marketing was definitely something people outsourced, and product marketing was, like, a new and emerging area in many companies. And so there just, the market was not as crowded as it, as it is today. Um, and it, so it was more unusual. But I think the downside is that it really did take me a while to sort of get serious about it being a business and putting in place the structures that I needed. And also people hired me 'cause they knew me. I was, as opposed to knowing the outcomes I could deliver or the services that I could provide. They just knew me and they said, "You're a smart person. I like you. Can you just do that thing that you did that time

Sarah Noel Block 6:03

Yeah I mean, that is how it usually is at the beginning.

Marjorie Agin 6:07

Mm-hmm

Sarah Noel Block 6:08

I, I said, like, half of my work was subcontracting, but the other half was people that knew me, like old coworkers or old bosses that brought me in 'cause they liked working with me

Marjorie Agin 6:19

Yeah and actually that does say a lot for you because it's still that way even 13 years later. Uh, I sound a little crisper and, you know, I know I'm more, like, clear around what I offer, but it's still very relationship-based business. There are people that I have worked with three, four times as they have moved from company to company, and there is... I just talked to someone the other day that I have known since 1999, and we were like, you know, coming up together. We have a special bond, and it's still because they know

Sarah Noel Block 6:51

Yeah, I was literally at lunch yesterday with my old boss from nearly a decade ago.

Marjorie Agin 6:58

Yeah. You, when you've been through the trenches with somebody, you, and sat

Sarah Noel Block 7:03

to the other side

Marjorie Agin 7:05

get to the other side and now these people that I sort of grew up with are CMOs and CEOs and chief operating officers of really interesting companies. So, you know, the network, staying in touch with people and giving back to your network and just reconnecting with people is not just for the beginning of the business, it's all along the

Sarah Noel Block 7:25

okay.

How A Recent Retainer Started

Sarah Noel Block 7:25

So we talked about how you got that first client. How did you get your last client?

Marjorie Agin 7:34

My last client, which was a longer-term retainer. So very different from the first clients, which was project work, hourly work. Um, now these are folks that are... May- maybe sign on for three months or six months to start a long... And this one actually has been 18 months that I have worked with one client. Um, so we've had multiple projects together. And actually, so this is someone that I knew through a former client, so they're part of the network,

Sarah Noel Block 8:17

the relationships

Marjorie Agin 8:18

rela- still relationship, and it took... I probably met her, and then she was in between jobs. So at that moment it was more just a connection, interesting connection of somebody who was kind of in the same circles and looking at the same kind of companies. And at that time, I was willing to introduce her to people and connect her to people and, you know, wanted to make her successful. And that seven months later, right, after she landed her job and came in, and her company was a, um, roll-up acquisition of multiple different companies. So she looked around and was like, "Wow, there's a heck of a lot of work to do here, I can't do it alone." Um, so, so she called me. So I think that's the investment in... And it's not, you know, I mean, it, it's not, it's not, it, it's not like it's predatory entirely. I wanna help people. I wanna help connect people to other people and stay involved even when they can't be of immediate help to me. But, you know, seven, eight months later, she, she remembered our conversation and what we'd talked about and said, "Ah, I, I... That's the problem that I now have," and she predicted it. So,

Sarah Noel Block 9:40

So

Marjorie Agin 9:41

so that's how

Sarah Noel Block 9:42

that, I mean, yes, I want to reiterate for the audience that I think that there may be a misconception when I talk about relationship-led marketing or relationship-led sales, that it's all manipulation, but it's not. It's actually building genuine relationships with people,

Marjorie Agin 10:01

Yes Yes.

Sarah Noel Block 10:02

when they

Marjorie Agin 10:03

And it's an investment in the future. We all know this, especially these days, there's so many people looking for jobs and, like, just making connections and talking to people and being genuine, and then trying to add some value where you can, even if it's introduction to somebody else or like, "Oh, I read this and thought of you." Like, um, even if, even if it never pays off it might pay off in ways you don't even realize behind the scenes.

Sarah Noel Block 10:29

absolutely. Like maybe you just got a cool friend out of it, and that's also awesome.

What Companies Still Pay For

Sarah Noel Block 10:36

Okay, so let's talk about how other consultants can start building their retainers. So the first thing that we wanted talk about is what are consulting clients willing to pay money for when things are a little wonky? Right now, Like hiring is slowing down, and people are being a little tighter with their wallets when they're making hiring decisions and like contractor decisions. So what are they willing to pay for?

Marjorie Agin 11:10

Yeah. I think you're, you're correct. They're definitely slower to part with the money, and focus-- can only focus on a few things. So what you do should be at the top of their list of biggest, hairiest, most expensive, most pressing high-stakes problems as much as possible, right? I think in, in the past, you could maybe go to someone and say, "What's the thing that you really don't like doing that you would just like to get off your plate?" You know? And but, but

Sarah Noel Block 11:46

Now they're "I'll deal with that.

Marjorie Agin 11:48

I'll deal that, or it'll never get dealt with, or I'll give it to AI, or, you know, nobody cares but me, right? And so it, it f- if you're... You can't deal with something that's at the bottom of the list, so... And you're devaluing your- yourself. So it, it needs to be, what is the thing that you must get off your whiteboard in the next 30 days, and if you don't, you know, your neck is on the line in some way? And so that, that kind of urgency, I think, is the only thing people are spending money on

Sarah Noel Block 12:22

So that's a really good point. That means you need to find out what their plans are for 2027 now, and market to that. That needs to be your priority, is getting that And right now is time of year that people are building those strategic plans. It o- it starts in, like, late August, and now is when they're hiring for them

Marjorie Agin 12:48

Yeah, that's definitely true. They've at least got a straw man of, of their budget should know what their big bets are, and maybe should know what their hypotheses or their question marks are at this point. Um, I think this last year was a really strange year for budgeting because people were budgeting like a quarter at a time. They just didn't know. The future is so uncertain that- Mm-hmm.

Sarah Noel Block 13:14

and things like that, they didn't know how, like, if they would have the money for the next quarter and

Marjorie Agin 13:21

If they would the money, if they themselves would still be right? if there was another round of layoffs coming or what's happening with... Or AI, everyone knows that it's moving at such a pace that, like, there's always this feeling like, "Well, if we wait three months, there's just gonna be something better around the corner, so let's not invest right So there's just so much uncertainty that, um, I don't think we can assume they're setting their budget even this year for the whole year, you know? But they're, but they're making some hypotheses, and they maybe have realized-- I've seen this at the end of this year, too. They've realized that they were, in some ways, too cautious, and so some people actually have, have money right now at the end of this year that they would like to spend so that they can have it renewed in their budget for

Sarah Noel Block 14:07

Yeah. So let's, I've talked before, but I just want to highlight it, put a giant yellow highlighter over it in that this is the time of year that they're building their strategic plans for the next year. They, if it's an enterprise, they're going to be figuring out what their budget is for next year. If they don't use all of that budget, they lose it and they get less for next year. So when we're talking about enterprise level companies, the department is getting their budget, but the department head might not necessarily be planning beyond that quarter because they don't know what things will look like just particularly this year, because it's just so weird. It's a weird year.

Marjorie Agin 14:58

Yeah. It would be weird to look back at this year and say, "What did we do that worked and what, what, what's repeatable?" Um, everyone's having those conversations right now, but it's still, you know, it's, it's very up in the air So I think that's one thing is tying yourself, understanding what their, their biggest problems and concerns and stakes are, and trying to tie yourself in some way to that. Um, and I do think there are certain things that make sense, make more sense to outsource to an expert versus keep in-house for your team to do. And so f- that used to be, like, as I think back on my career, I used to think about content marketing.

Outsourcing That Beats Doing It In-House

Marjorie Agin 15:43

That was always, like, a way into a much larger conversation with an organization, and it was something that they were used to, um, they were, they were used to bringing in other people for, and that's a little bit different today. I'm just using it as an example. But I think, um, for example, an outside consultant is gonna give you a fresh pair of eyes with things like getting customer feedback or doing win-loss interviews. I do a lot of that, that type of work where you can clearly make the case that you actually want somebody outside of the organization to do it. Um, and there are certainly specializations or technical specializations. I know people in, in your community have a lot of different types of right? Right. But if there's a certain thing where you really do need a specialist to do, so either, like, an outside pair of eyes or a specialist that comes in, has seen this technical or business problem a million times before, like, "Yep, I got it. I know how to do it." Um- Yeah you know, you have an easier time of making the case that they should, um, bring in an external consultant rather than try to fix it first with their, with their own people. Um, and I think for, for so- a lot of companies, that the first instinct is to say, "Let's see what we can do ourselves," you know, or, "Let's see what, you know, AI can help us do," and they do that for a few months or longer, and then they realize, "Oh, now I know how hard the problem is. Now I'm willing to bring in

Sarah Noel Block 17:16

I tell this all the time is like allow people to feel their pain so that

Marjorie Agin 17:23

them an appreciation that, that for, yeah, how hard it

Sarah Noel Block 17:26

especially like if an initial sales conversation didn't go anywhere, let them feel that pain for a couple mon- months and then check in on them, because now they have a new perspective. They're like, "Wait, this sucks. This sucks and I don't do it." Um, I also want to add on that facilitation is often something that they should be and they want to outsource, because an internal facilitator of some sort of change management or strategy project usually has, uh, I wanna say animosity. Like, there's, there's friction when you

Marjorie Agin 18:06

No, it's

Sarah Noel Block 18:07

person doing it

Marjorie Agin 18:09

I think it's really interesting that you say that, um, especially at this time. Just before we hopped on this call, um, I'm taking a, a class about facilitation. Um, I want someone to help me get better at facilitating group discussions and decision-making with my

Sarah Noel Block 18:26

Yeah.

Marjorie Agin 18:27

So I'm actually really trying-

Sarah Noel Block 18:29

that's going to be a big outsourced thing

Marjorie Agin 18:32

I, I think so too, and I think you hit on some of the reasons why, which is the internal team. Everyone kind of has their own political bias or experience that they bring in, and as an external person, you don't really have skin in the game. Your goal is to try to help this group communicate and make a decision. Um, and I, I think even though there's so much focus on, on AI and, and tech, that piece of it, facilitation and group decision-making and organizational change, is all about human behavior, and AI is not solving that for us. So that I think are skills we're gonna need more and more and more going into this next phase, um, because the, the, the, the, the tension that's in the room when you get multiple perspectives together that need to make a joint decision is something that actually requires you to be in communication with each other in real time and, and not the robot.

Sarah Noel Block 19:36

my prediction with, like, AI can't touch this things are collaborations, like collaborating with strategic partners outside of your organization to expand your reach. Events, events are going to be huge, and facilitation. Those are three things that AI cannot take over. It's the most human elements of business, and if I were listening to this, I would be like jotting it down and be like, "Okay, I'm gonna reconfigure my offers that now

Gateway Offers And Micro Yeses

Marjorie Agin 20:12

Yeah. Um, and one, one last thought about configuring offers, which I am also actively working on, I don't have all the answers to this worked out, is, uh, to start with a small beachhead kind of an offer. You can paint the bigger picture. Like I talked about my 18-month retainer right? But today, most projects are, I find, are starting small with more tangible deliverables

Sarah Noel Block 20:40

them gateway offers.

Marjorie Agin 20:41

Gateway

Sarah Noel Block 20:42

first offer sets

Marjorie Agin 20:44

yes, we're gonna date before we

Sarah Noel Block 20:46

Yeah

Marjorie Agin 20:47

you know? So that piece I think is, is figure out a slice of what you do that gives them a taste of what it's like to work with you. They get some value, but they also see that there's a next step and a next

Sarah Noel Block 21:00

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the way I like to structure gateway offers is basically taking the pieces from the discovery and the onboarding and bring that into an offer that can provide one outcome that gets them to that stage where you're able to tell them like, "Okay, this is my prediction on what would solve this problem. This is the journey we'd go on." So you can map out what your execution would look like in that bigger project, that 18 months

Marjorie Agin 21:31

Yes. Yes. So I was like, as an example, I was talking about, um, voice of customer or, or win-loss interviews. That in and of itself is an aha moment for, for many of my clients. Like they, they're not gathering

Sarah Noel Block 21:46

I do love those. I think they're so impactful.

Marjorie Agin 21:50

It, it provides value right away, and at the same time, there's an-- there has to be a next step. What do you do with that information once you have that information? You shouldn't have everybody walking out of the room going, "Well, that was interesting." You know? "That was a great movie." Um, I'll do like a sizzle reel of what your customer said and analysis of what your customer said, and if everybody leaves the room going, "But I don't know what to do with that next," then it just, you know, noth- nothing ever changes. So we need a... That's the gateway. That's the gateway. The c- the voice of customer work, while having a short-term value, is the gateway to the next step, which is how do we then implement that and integrate it into our messaging and h- or how does that potentially change our our, product or our go-to-market So there, there has to be a breadcrumb, right? There has to be a series of breadcrumbs that takes us to the

Sarah Noel Block 22:45

Yeah, Yeah. I like to call them micro yeses. We're looking for just a, micro yes and then another then another, and that's you get to those big retainers

Marjorie Agin 22:55

and even if you see, like I clo- have to- having done this for 13 years, I know this is the what you should do next or next. I don't know exactly all the details, but I know there's gonna be a next and a next and a next, but they, they can't always see that. They can't afford to bite that off. They need to come to that in

Sarah Noel Block 23:13

Yeah And it overwhelms them if you give them they need at one

Marjorie Agin 23:17

Exactly. Exactly. So that's the lesson I have also learned over this is slow way down. want it to deliver so much value and you're like, you see it so clearly and you're ready to go ahead, but they are not moving at the same pace as you. So you, you have to move at your client's pace and, and h- help them by hand move along to the next

Sarah Noel Block 23:41

Yeah. I am absolutely with you there that like what consultants often come in with is like so much knowledge. They're so good at what they do, but they tend to then just verbally vomit everything that they know about how to solve this problem, and then that client is drowning because that is not their expertise. They probably don't even understand 50% of the jargon they used. You need to

Marjorie Agin 24:10

And then six months later, they get to the point where they're like, "Oh, but blah, blah, what about this?" And you're, and you're thinking,

Sarah Noel Block 24:17

said

Marjorie Agin 24:18

why we had conversation?" But they weren't there. They weren't at that moment Like talking to my teenager.

Sarah Noel Block 24:25

Yeah. That's a, like, that's the kind of image that popped into my head too. not going to give a kid the entire year's curriculum when they, on their first day of school, and that's basically what you're doing when just say, "This is everything you can do to solve that problem."

Marjorie Agin 24:43

right And it's not-- I'm not trying to denigrate them. Like, they also have a million other things on their plate. what you view as the most important thing to them may not be... That's one piece of their life.

Sarah Noel Block 24:56

Yes, that is true.

Marjorie Agin 24:59

Mm-hmm.

Sarah Noel Block 25:00

Like, the thing that's your whole world is their

Marjorie Agin 25:07

The Tuesday morning

Sarah Noel Block 25:09

Yeah, their Tuesday coffee problem. Like,

Standing Out With Niche And Stories

Sarah Noel Block 26:06

shit

Marjorie Agin 26:07

Right. No, but not having s-- it shouldn't just be a coffee problem, but meaning they, they have a whole world of other internal things going on that you don't even know

Sarah Noel Block 26:16

Agreed.

Marjorie Agin 26:17

Yeah.

Sarah Noel Block 26:18

Okay, so now consultants are listening to this and they're like, "Okay, well, what I do everybody else does too." So how do you stand out? 'Cause you're in marketing, I'm in

Marjorie Agin 26:31

Right

Sarah Noel Block 26:33

we don't do the same exact thing. How do you stand out?

Marjorie Agin 26:40

Niche is the, is the buzzword, right? The niches are, niches are in

Sarah Noel Block 26:45

The riches are in the

Marjorie Agin 26:46

niches. The riches are in the niches. Um, but there's a l- in, in reality, there's a lot of different ways that you can, you can focus and niche down. It could be the type of client that you serve So, you know, I know that by focusing on cybersecurity or, or technical subjects, um, there's, there's certainly other marketers who do that, but that's already putting me in a, in a smaller piece of the pie than marketers who would never wanna touch a technical subject like that with a 10-foot pole, and they, like, they stick to other

Sarah Noel Block 27:19

Yeah. And there is a smaller market for people who can understand that, the technical

Marjorie Agin 27:24

Yeah. So it could be industry, it could be, um, the piece of marketing. I mean, you know, marketing is so multifaceted

Sarah Noel Block 27:33

There so many little places that you could understand better.

Marjorie Agin 27:40

So I focus on telling your story, positioning, um, exactly what we're talking about, which is finding your differentiators and the words to s- explain why you're different. So that's one piece of marketing that's my kind of zone of genius and I do it for companies that are at a certain, not just industry, but certain stage or certain scenario. So that's, that's another way to, to differentiate and to, and to... By niching, is to say, "The companies that come to me are typically in this type of a situation." So for example, I work with companies that are often, they just finished an M&A, and now they have to tell a brand new story to the market that, um, that they're kind of improvising into because they don't have all the information yet Awesome Um, and so they have to come up beyond the better together fluff story and convince the market and have the market trust them about what's next. That's a particular moment in time. That could be a certain specialization. But someone else could have a specialization in, you know, I don't know, f- founders that wanna pitch to investors. Whatever scenario there is that is your scenario, if you become the go-to person, the obvious choice for that kind of a scenario, it's easier for other people to say, "Oh yeah, I know somebody who does that," right? And, and makes everything else easier. It is very hard. It is extremely hard. And, and it's hard for my clients to do that. It's the advice I give them, and then it's hard to turn it on yourself and say, "Oh, but I don't wanna give up. You know, I also like working with marketing technology companies 'cause that's kind of fun." So mean you can't

Sarah Noel Block 29:27

because I'm narrowing it down?

Marjorie Agin 29:29

Yeah. It, when, it, it's... Or y- y- you know, either it's harder or they think, "I, I don't wanna give anything up and I'm leaving this potential market on the table," or maybe even think, "I'll get bored if that's all I do." But if you find the thing that you love and you've seen that pattern over and over and over again, then I think it just becomes richer and richer. So it's, it is hard. It takes time, and you can change your mind. But the one way to differentiate is pick a problem that you know and understand better than anybody else because... And you know the people that have that problem, and you've seen the patterns, and you can tell the stories, and then no one else can be exactly like you.

Sarah Noel Block 30:14

Yeah Something that I keep hearing on marketing podcasts recently is that it's the transformation that sells, that could be part of your niche too, is like what does their life look like on the other end? However, you're mostly selling... Like, people usually only understand the pain that they're in in that moment, and they don't truly understand what problem is causing it. They're just in the pain. They're not the expert on

Marjorie Agin 30:45

They're at the symptom, they're at the symptom

Sarah Noel Block 30:46

Yeah, they're at the symptom level. So you are selling the transformation, but you need to understand what the inflection point is that causes them need that transformation, and that's, that's what they understand is, "This is happening in my organization, and now I need it to look like this." And that helps a lot.

Marjorie Agin 31:07

Yes. Yeah. Um, and if you can share some stories about others like that same person that have gone through that transformation and came out the other side,

Sarah Noel Block 31:20

great advice.

Marjorie Agin 31:22

that's, the, that's the best differentiator you'll ever is-- And it's not even your story, right? It's just the story that you know, and you were involved in helping that person get to the transformation. But that's a differentiator, is it real life specifics.

Sarah Noel Block 31:39

Mm-hmm.

Marjorie Agin 31:40

And there's just so much, I mean, you know, so much sameness. E- there was always sameness, and now because of AI wr-

Sarah Noel Block 31:48

There's even more.

Marjorie Agin 31:50

we all sound the same, literally. So the only thing that helps us really be different is real life examples, stories, um, emotions. Uh, it doesn't-- You don't even have to name the name of the person whose story you're telling, but if it rings so true because you lived it and you saw it first person, and you saw the mistakes that were made and you're willing to share them, I think those are definitely differentiators.

Sarah Noel Block 32:18

that content

Marjorie Agin 32:19

one else can tell stories. Yeah, no one else can tell those stories but you because you were in the room

Sarah Noel Block 32:24

Yeah. And just humans understand storytelling. When you're reading a book, you naturally put yourself as the main character. Like, okay, I'm sitting here and I'm in their head, and that's exactly how it is when you write a LinkedIn post, for example, as a story, is people can envision themselves in that role of that main character of your LinkedIn post, and they're like, "Yeah, shit, I'm actually there. That is my life, and this is how they fixed it." Storytelling really sell.

Marjorie Agin 33:00

And it do- and it's okay to, to share a story. In fact, I think probably is even better to share a story that makes you a little vulnerable or shows that you didn't succeed at first and that you learned from these mistakes. Like, that's real

Sarah Noel Block 33:16

Yeah. Yeah, and just people are craving that realness more than ever. So, if you were to look back right now on your LinkedIn posts and the impressions and the engagement on your posts, you're gonna see that the ones that you were the most real and raw are the ones that resonated with people Okay

Marjorie Agin 33:48

I think that's true. I definitely think that's true. Yeah. The ones where you're... I've done all k- tried all kinds of things. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out how to, what my LinkedIn strategy is So I, I don't even know if I have enough data to, to, to make a decision,

Sarah Noel Block 34:07

six months and

Marjorie Agin 34:08

Susie, Yeah

Sarah Noel Block 34:09

at it and you're gonna that, that, that is what hit for people. I looked at mine other day and I was like, yeah, it was the stories that sold. It was, like, being real and, like, being truly my voice where I'm a little unhinged. It's like

Marjorie Agin 34:29

And pe-, right. When you about es- I get really embedded with clients and we were talking about relationships, I'm not... This is not a transactional sort

Sarah Noel Block 34:38

No, this is not a transaction.

Marjorie Agin 34:40

So they're gonna... I may seem kinda buttoned up in the first couple meetings, but, you know,

Sarah Noel Block 34:46

Then they get to know you. Yeah, I

Marjorie Agin 34:51

they think I'm funny or they don't, you know?

Sarah Noel Block 34:55

I try really hard to be 100% myself in my podcast, on my LinkedIn,

Be Yourself And Where To Find Margie

Sarah Noel Block 35:02

in my email, so that I am attracting people who would actually like me and would be enjoyable to work together, and repel everybody else. The other day, I had this guy DM me and tell me that he was going to unfollow me. I was like, "Okay, you don't have notice." But clear that my attract and repel content was working.

Marjorie Agin 35:26

I hereby unsubscribe That's hilarious.

Sarah Noel Block 35:31

Like "Sir, you might be new here, but you do not have to give notice you unfollow."

Marjorie Agin 35:39

Funny.

Sarah Noel Block 35:41

Uh, but I love it bec- and when I get those emails like, "Unsubscribe," in all caps. And I'm like, All right I repelled the right people."

Marjorie Agin 35:53

That's good, 'cause I- it shouldn't be a surprise what it's gonna be like

Sarah Noel Block 35:57

No.

Marjorie Agin 35:58

you, right?

Sarah Noel Block 35:59

would be absolutely miserable to work with me if you just, if you don't like my vibe.

Marjorie Agin 36:07

Uh-huh

Sarah Noel Block 36:08

So consulting is a very intimate relationship. You're

Marjorie Agin 36:13

think it is,

Sarah Noel Block 36:14

talking a lot and you have to trust each other

Marjorie Agin 36:19

Mm-hmm.

Sarah Noel Block 36:21

All right, we'll wrap right here. Can you tell everyone how they can work with you and find you online?

Marjorie Agin 36:28

Sure. Um, so LinkedIn, and then you can, you can see how unhinged I might be or, like what I think is funny anyway.

Sarah Noel Block 36:38

We love an unhinged TR.

Marjorie Agin 36:40

on Link- please connect with me on LinkedIn. Um, and my website is, uh, centerboard-marketing.com. Um, so there's more information there. Um, and yeah, I mean, I would love to talk with anybody that's interested in just comparing notes on what they're finding. And, uh, there are a lot of consultants that I have partnered with over, over the years also who have kind of compatible services. So, you know, I like-- I'm a solopreneur, but I like to say I have, like, a circle of friends because there's... The clients that we work with have so many different types of situations and needs, and sometimes it's nice to just con- you know, say, "Oh, I know somebody

Sarah Noel Block 37:22

Yeah, and that happens all the time. I... All of my work last year came from other consultants who were like, "I knew, I know someone."

Marjorie Agin 37:34

Mm-hmm.

Sarah Noel Block 37:35

Oh,

Marjorie Agin 37:36

Yeah, absolutely

Sarah Noel Block 37:37

much for joining me today

Marjorie Agin 37:39

Thanks. It was a pleasure. It was really fun talking with you