Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julie Hill-Lin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

Customer service, personal attention and valuing the employees.

Restaurant:
As owners, we are constantly working the floor and engaging with customers – getting to know them by name. We create relationships, and with care and attention, show our appreciation for choosing our establishment. We never take for granted any of the business we have.
We train our staff to show that same time of customer service and care with every table or carryout. Additionally, we are able to correct if there are any issues – we can catch these immediately. Resolving any issues promptly, creates a happy customer, who might otherwise take to social media with a bad review.
Valuing the employees is critical to a successful business! With turnover being what it is, and staffing challenges, it is more important than ever to treat your team with respect and care. About once a month, we order in a big lunch from another local restaurant (supporting our other local restaurateurs) and feed all of the staff that can make it. We also pay a higher wage than most and are deliberate with our compliments and support for our team. By making our employees feel valued, we have very little turnover, and they subscribe to how we want to run our business.

Julie, 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?

For this one, I’d like to talk about my Eleven Marketing and Consulting Business.

After 30 years in the advertising and marketing field, I started this marketing and advertising company. During Covid, my “corporate” company let go almost 50% of its staff – me included. For the year prior, I had been doing some “small business” marketing on the side and absolutely loving it! I knew this was the direction I wanted to go but had been hesitant to pull the trigger….until I lost my job. Within a week, I had my company name, filed the paperwork, had a logo and branding, bank accounts and had signed up a total of 3 accounts. I was so grateful for the blessing of losing my job because I”m not sure I would have had the courage to start my own business.

The main reason why I wanted to do this type of work, is because it seemed like the small business owner was often overlooked when it came to how to market their business. With social media being so prevalent, but with its complexities, and the fragmented media landscape, these business owners didn’t (and don’t) know what to do. I find that they either do nothing (a huge mistake), throw money at some sort of campaign with no strategy or attempt to utilize social media without knowing about algorithms and the “rules” to follow. All of this was leading to unsuccessful marketing. With my 30 years of experience, and by helping my husband create his own brand (Fortunecooking), I am able to help these businesses navigate and create strategic campaigns that build their brand, create awareness and grow their businesses.

Have you ever had to pivot?

One of the other things we own are 3 food trucks called Fortunecooking. We have been running our 3 trucks for about 5 years now. During Covid, all of our events got cancelled. With this being the majority of our business, along with private events (also cancelled), we had nothing to do. With good “fortune” we had a friend of ours who called us and asked if we would bring a truck to their neighborhood on a certain day and time, we would both promote it, and see if we could get the neighborhood and surrounding area to come to the truck – keep in mind, restaurants were closed, and people were really wanting something! We tried this out and sold out of food! People were so happy to get carryout that was hot and fresh and just steps from their door. We decided to promote this and try it out in other neighborhoods. We were so warmly and graciously welcomed and continued to sell out in most places. Within a short period of time, the local TV stations were doing stories about us, and we were running our 3 food trucks almost daily – doing more business than we ever had. It became a business model that would not have occurred to us had it not been for Covid.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Having worked for other companies for about 30 years, there was a LOT of time spent on what I will call busy work. Spreadsheets, data, conference calls, goal sheets…analysis paralysis!

I understand that data is important, but when I reflect back on work that I had to do that had little or no impact on my productivity, company or sales, it is a shame that I got stuck in the minutia. Much of what I had to do were time wasters!

Today, I do set goals for myself and reflect on them frequently, keep some spreadsheets with analytics and am mindful that I am steering the ship in the right direction, but I don’t get caught up in work that isn’t going to move me forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elevenmarketingandconsulting.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ltbluepearl/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/LeiTingsBluePearl
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hill-lin-22b6097/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCN_OQSDlEctydiiElhYykbA
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/lei-ting-milford?osq=lei+ting+blue+pearl
• Other: Google: www.google.com/search?q=lei+ting&hl=en&authuser=0&sxsrf=ALiCzsZzt6Kfk4zmzVO7EdKRE7CvSr2VGA%3A1668285017719&ei=WQJwY4HGK_6nptQP09iwqAo&gs_ssp=eJzj4tZP1zcsScvOKa7IMGC0UjWosLAwMja1SDQ2MzZJSTUyS7MyqDBJS0o0TjEzNDJNM7IwSUzx4shJzVQoycxLBwAyaBId&oq=&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQARgDMgcIIxDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnMg0ILhCvARDHARDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnMg0ILhDHARCvARDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnMgcIIxDqAhAnSgQIQRgASgQIRhgAUABYAGCzDGgBcAF4AIABAIgBAJIBAJgBAKABAbABCsABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Image Credits
Linda Busen Richard Lim