We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jyll Saskin Gales. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jyll below.

Jyll, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

When I started my business, most entrepreneurs came to me because they wanted to start running Google Ads, and I convinced most of them not to. There’s this big misconception that ads will magically bring more customers, but it’s not the case; ads bring more visitors to your website, and then your website – and your offer – must turn those visitors into customers. One entrepreneur I met with agreed pretty quickly not to run ads, and instead I helped him clearly define his target audience and key marketing messages. It sounds so simple, but when we spoke again a month later, he said it had completely transformed his business. By focusing on one customer type, and articulating how his product uniquely solved their challenges, he was able to bring in more customers than he had ever had before – without spending money on ads. Even though I do some pretty cool things with Google Ads, I’m most proud when I show a business owner how to increase their sales without ads.

Jyll, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a digital marketing consultant, coach and teacher. It has been a convoluted path to get here. I studied Psychology in university, began my career as an entertainment journalist, got my MBA, worked in consulting, then landed a job in advertising sales at Google. I worked there for 6 years as an International Growth Lead, partnering with Canada’s largest retail, travel and B2B advertisers and helping them expand across borders through Google’s insights and ad products.

While I loved working at Google, I didn’t actually love my job. I left to pursue an opportunity at a startup, and when that fell through, I started posting TikTok videos from my bed while figuring out what to do with my life. I was fortunate to go viral pretty quickly on the platform, and my inbox exploded with messages from business owners all over the world who wanted to hire me. Suddenly, I had a business!

I think what really sets me apart is that I actually worked at Google, so I understand how Google works and how to use Google’s free and paid tools to your advantage. So many marketers take an adversarial stance against Google, and I get it – it’s a large company that, from the outside, can feel very intimidating and monolithic. But having been on the inside, I’m well-equipped to help business owners and marketers get the most bang for their buck out of Google.

Over the first year of running my business, I’ve been paid to speak, teach, write, coach, consult, audit, mentor, advise, manage and create. I’ve coached 40 business owners and marketers to make more money from Google Ads. I’ve spent 172 hours mentoring startup founders, helping them scale through effective marketing strategies. I’ve delivered 50 marketing workshops & training sessions at universities, conferences, marketing agencies, multinational corporations and local businesses. I’ve earned an online audience of 60,000 followers, subscribers and fans who turn to me to help them achieve their personal and professional goals.

My favourite part of my business is teaching and coaching, which is why those are the only services I offer now. One of the most rewarding moments in my business happened last summer, in a 1:1 coaching meeting with a female founder. She was struggling to grow her business, and felt lost in all the conflicting advice she had been receiving. I asked her to do an exercise with me, a common practice to help my clients build customer empathy. After a few minutes, she paused, turned to me, and said, “You just made marketing make sense to me for the first time in my life.” I’ll remember those words and that moment for the rest of my life.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I’ve never been a “social media person.” It never felt natural to me. When I started creating videos on TikTok, I produced 3-4 every day just to throw everything out into the universe and see what worked. Now, I have a much more intentional (and manageable and repeatable) strategy for building an audience.

First, get really specific on 2 key things: who are you trying to speak to, and what’s the unique value you offer them? A game changer for me was realizing that my audience and value could differ by platform. On TikTok, my audience is small business owners, and more specifically, new business owners. The unique value I offer is how to grow your business effectively with Google tools. On Twitter, however, my audience is fellow Google Ads practitioners, and my unique value is an insider’s perspective on Google Ads.

The next step is to give it all away for free. I’m a firm believer in offering as much free value as you can on social media, as this is what builds trust and loyalty. Talk is easy, doing is hard, and when your content lands in front of your ideal customer, it will do all the selling for you. The first year of my business, I did zero outbound marketing – all of my customers came to me through my content.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A lot of people assume that I left Google to start my business, but I would not have been brave enough to do that. I left Google because I received an offer to join the executive team at a startup. Unfortunately, that opportunity didn’t pan out as expected, and I only worked there for 2 weeks. I was devastated and embarrassed to suddenly find myself unemployed in my mid-30s, with a daughter and a mortgage and no path ahead.

To be clear, I recognize my immense privilege. I knew I would be able to figure something out. But I had never been so directionless in my life, and it scared me to not know what that “something” would be.

My business has been a happy accident. TikTok was never supposed to be the lifeblood of my company, it was something mindless to pass the time… until it wasn’t. Even as I was landing clients and passing 20,000 followers, I still kind of laughed the whole thing off. It wasn’t until I’d earned 5 figures by my second month in business that I turned to my husband and said, “I guess I’m an entrepreneur, now.” And 4 months later, I passed the 6-figure mark.

Contact Info:

• Website: jyll.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_google_pro
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jyllsaskingales
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thegooglepro
• Other: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the_google_pro

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