Megan Brame is a 5x award-winning entrepreneur, author, podcast host, and Advanced Digital Marketing Strategist. She helps entrepreneurs develop value-based marketing initiatives that don’t feel like homework.
What is your business all about?
I’m a 5x award-winning Advanced Digital Marketing Strategist. I help entrepreneurs develop value-based marketing initiatives that create ride-or-die customers for life, without making it feel like homework.
How did you start your company?
I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was a kid, so there’s always been a fire in me that pushed me in the direction of going my own way. Professionally, I’ve been involved in UX (User Experience) and Digital Marketing for nearly 2 decades. I started as a Quality Assurance Analyst, testing websites for clients. From there I was promoted to a Producer which was essentially a project manager and I was in charge of developing non-e-commerce based websites for our clients so I had the opportunity to work with some major players in the luxury space like Harry Winston and Verdura. It taught me the value of a brand and how targeting a market in just the right way can unlock massive revenue.
Eventually, I worked my way up to a Director of Marketing and Communications for a multi-million dollar recruiting firm. It was my job to build their marketing department from scratch and because of my initiatives, they went from page 9 to page 1 of Google results in 120 days. It instilled in me a confidence that I knew what mattered most in marketing (the user), and that I could do it for entrepreneurs like me, with whom I felt more drawn to than corporate clients.
I left the corporate world officially in 2019 to go full-time into marketing strategy for entrepreneurs, startups, and nonprofits. I’ve written books, launched a podcast (called Stop Sucking at Business), and have had the privilege of seeing over two dozen businesses grow because of my work.
What are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Critical – Not of yourself, but of the status quo. To be successful, you need to have a foothold in the marketplace that sets you apart. What is it about the current state of your industry that made you say “nope, not good enough” and compelled you to create your business?
A Willingness to be Nerdy – No one will love the business the way you do, and you’ve got to own that. Embrace the things you love about what you do and be unapologetic about it. If there are ever cocktail parties again, I would be the one cornering you to talk about UX and how it affects marketing. Is it interesting? To me: incredibly. To someone else, probably not. But it’s that nerdiness that keeps me going, keeps me learning, and compels me to keep going no matter the roadblocks.
An Ability to be Fallible – Understand mistakes happen and will continue to happen. Failures aren’t the thing that end a business, it’s the inability to pivot away from the failure that does. Let yourself be a human who messes up occasionally instead of omnipotent and unable to accept hiccups.
What has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Culling the ecosystem where we market. In the beginning, I felt that I had to be everywhere: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, youtube, Instagram, etc. It was a Sisyphean task trying to keep up with it all, even with scheduling apps, so I finally decided to let most of it go.
I looked at where my target demographic was and leveraged those platforms harder than the others. I moved away from Instagram and Facebook (to be fair, I still have a presence on these sites, but they’re not where I focus my energy) and went on platforms that I felt were more effective for me to connect with my clients: YouTube and my podcast.
My process is embarrassingly simple: answer questions and solve problems that I know entrepreneurs are faced with, have CTAs that can further help provide solutions, analyze the data to see what’s working, and create more content around that.
What were your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
I had to learn how to give up control and let people into my business. My first go as an entrepreneur was in the skincare industry. That business garnered industry awards and was in over 100 publications, but the backend was a hot mess. I was afraid to bring people in to help me grow the business because then they’d see what a dumpster fire I had created, so I clung tightly to control everything: product creation, marketing, shipping, bookkeeping, customer service, package designs, you name it.
I ended up burning out and closing the business because of it. I could’ve sold it, but it had become such a toxic part of my life that I just wanted a clean break. When I started doing marketing strategy, I knew that I’d have to learn from that old business and instead let people in right away and focus on what it was I was best at.
It’s still not easy as I have a love-hate relationship with knowing the goings ons of my business, but the more I’ve found people, apps, and services I trust, the looser I’ve let go of the reigns.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
That my work had value and that it wasn’t wrong to charge appropriately for it. I was afraid of pushing people away and of not having “enough” (whatever that means) to command a liveable wage for my work. It took a lot of therapy and some breathtaking American Express bills for me to realize that what I do is transformative for my clients, and I need to see the value of that transformation, not the hourly rate for my time.
Appsumo for finding startups that are doing really incredible things that can help move your business forward (I did a nearly hour-long video on YouTube about all of my purchases there. It’s addictive.)
The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss – Lately this has become more controversial than it was years ago, maybe due to the name? I read it right out of college when I was working a temp job while trying to give my first business a go. It instilled in me the belief that delegating shouldn’t be seen as laziness, but instead as a way to effectively utilize your own strengths and leaving the rest to others more capable than you.
This American Life – So, okay this is obviously not a business podcast but I love it because of that. Not everything needs to be enveloped in this ecosystem of entrepreneurship…I learned the hard way that making your business all-consuming leads to burn out. TAL is a great way to get perspective on the lives other people are leading and how we all face challenges.
If you had the chance to start your career over again what would you do differently?
I don’t think I’d do anything differently. There were hard times for sure, but all of those little pivots and setbacks led me to be here talking to you today.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I’d buy a website, have a brand created on 99 designs, get WordPress loaded onto it, churn out a few blogs that have a specific CTA to a lead magnet so I can begin a conversation with my readers, then invest a good portion of the rest into marketing apps that can help me get more eyes on the blog posts.
What is your favorite quote?
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win…”
-President John F. Kennedy
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring new entrepreneurs?
It’s trite but…you have to believe you have it inside of you to make it happen, otherwise, cracks will form in your narrative that affects your productivity. You need to have a Teddy Roosevelt-ian level of belief that what you’re doing is the right path for you and there is nothing that can stop you from achieving that which you’ve set yourself up to achieve.
How can we get in touch with you?
I’m a big fan of 1:1 communication rather than 1:infinity so feel free to hit me up at hi@meganbrame.com or DM me on Instagram @stopsuckingatbusiness.
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