We were lucky to catch up with Tatiana Phillips recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tatiana, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I had recently graduated with my Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications and was freelancing on and off while I looked for full-time work. I had pivoted my career a few times due to life circumstances, but always knew I wanted to return to marketing. I was recently laid off due to my position becoming obsolete at a full-time job I took while I looked for a company I could grow with. And then, boom – the pandemic hit, and everything shut down. I thought to myself if I really want to live the life I’ve always wanted, now is my opportunity. Now is the time to reinvent what my career looks like. I already knew that with my 16 years of experience and working from home as a freelancer I had the discipline and knowledge I needed to strike out on my own. I just needed some clients to get things started. I had a passion for helping small business owners find their greatest potential and saw a need for businesses to pivot their original digital model. I knew that once I put the word out among friends and family I was taking the leap into entrepreneurship, I would get at least one bite – and I did!

Tatiana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started at MTV2 as an intern with the Affiliate Sales & Marketing department when I was 20. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do then, but I knew I had a passion for the music industry. What quickly developed was an unexpected love for researching psychographics (the interests, hobbies, and what influences the purchase behavior of target audiences). For the following year and a half, I spent my internship and eventually my freelance position with MTV2 researching the musical preferences of locals for over 150 different cities in the United States. I received an education in what would later become social media marketing, as I used a ton of research through Myspace.

I absolutely loved learning about what others enjoyed, why they enjoyed it, how that influenced others, and the different trends and patterns. Through my time at MTV2, I learned how to show people what they already desire in a way they didn’t even realize yet.

Over time, I realized that it wasn’t just the why behind what people crave but the impact that products and services can make on others’ lives. It was then that I learned that I not only wanted to help solve a problem for the end user but also help business owners be the brand solving it. I found myself thriving on the foundation of helping others.

I’m a very empathetic and caring person, so that crosses over into my business. As a marketer, I love seeing the successes of the companies I work with. I measure my success by theirs. What started as a social media marketing agency has grown into marketing coaching, fractional CMO services, blogging, and building websites. I love the blend of creativity, logic, and empathy that comes out through my job as a marketer.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been consistency. Consistency as a thought leader, consistency in having a social media presence, and consistency with my brand. When I started out, I knew I would have to present myself as the expert by offering up some marketing basics as free advice. I knew I would need to nurture relationships with small business owners on Instagram and Facebook. And I knew I would have to show my potential clients that I believe in leading from a place of empathy and humor. My brand was created to give people snack-sized pieces of information that would be easy to apply, experiment with, and remember. When those foundational pieces were in place for a few months, I received not only my first client, but the second and third came very quickly.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

2019 was my year of letdowns. After graduating with my M.S., I was offered a Marketing Director role with a small business that an acquaintance owned. I didn’t know at the time that the business was a sinking ship. Within three months, the entire company shut down – no amount of marketing in that period could save a business that was mishandling money. I received a freelance offer as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer for a new startup. The work was going well until the owner got cancer. She had to sell off the business and take care of her health. In the interim, she put in a good word for me at a conference company in Tampa seeking a Producer for a new vertical. It wasn’t marketing, but it was a paycheck. After three months with them, the director decided that the new conference track was unnecessary. I got laid off for the third time that year and had no idea what to do.

At the beginning of 2020, I was receiving unemployment and running out of benefits.

I kept thinking the universe was redirecting me for a reason, but I didn’t know why at the time. I felt I needed to follow the map that so many others had left behind: to work for a big corporation for 10-15 years, then become your own boss. I didn’t believe in myself enough to think I was ready to run my own business. I kept seeing myself through the lens of hiring managers, someone whose career had pivoted several times. I later realized that my past experiences leading teams, project management, and working full-time while attending school prepared me to be a one-person team at Let’s Taco ‘Bout Marketing. Through those layoffs, I now see that I was meant to work for myself all along.

After a year of working for myself, I thought I would apply to some dream roles and pie-in-the-sky companies, places that were on hiring freezes at the top of the pandemic. I’d make it several rounds in the interview process, but I was always passed over. When I decided to throw in the towel for working for others, I received two more clients without even putting in another ounce of effort. Another sign from the universe that this is the life I’m meant for. And honestly, I love it so much more.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.letstacoboutmarketing.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/taco_bout_marketing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/letstacoboutmarketing
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-phillips-digitalmarketer/

Image Credits
Jive St. Juste and Tynasha Barnes