We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful C. Reneé Mangum. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with C. Reneé below.

Hi C. Reneé, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

When I first started my business, I did what most people do. I leaned on my family and friends. However, I did it very intentionally, which is what helped me land my first full paying client. I hand picked 5 people in my immediate circle that needed new websites and help with their social media presence. I completely transformed them, while documenting parts of the process on social media for people to see. Social proof is powerful.

When the work was done, I required that those friends write a public testimonial on social media and tag me in it, telling their audiences what I had done for them. Through my continuous updates about helping new business owners and their posts vouching for my skills, someone I did not know became interested. She was a believer in the work she saw and asked for my price to do the same for her. I was so nervous to quote my price! No one had ever paid me as much as I knew I deserved for the work.

I emailed her my proposal and price, and walked away from the computer. A couple of hours later, she replied and asked me to send her an invoice to get started right away. I was so excited! Finally… I was professionally doing what I loved to do and being paid to do it. It was such a boost of confidence to have a stranger take me seriously.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is C. Reneé Mangum and I am the founder, CEO and Chief Strategist of Thee CRM Group. We are a business development firm that helps entrepreneurs and business owners with branding, marketing, social media management, PR and developing business strategies. We have been established for five years and we are based in Phoenix, Arizona. Essentially, we help businesses build strong platforms, especially in the digital space. To date, we have worked with many of the emerging businesses in Phoenix, especially in the black community, as we are a black woman run company.

Our clients are not industry specific. We have clients that range from product-based businesses to virtual services. We work with real estate companies, hairstylists, business and life coaches, bakers, caterers, attorneys, doctors, trucking companies, fashion companies and the list goes on. We have been known to work largely with companies that are brand new, having less than one official year in business. However, we do get clients that have been established for 10+ years. 90% of our clients are locally based in the Phoenix area, but we also have national and international clients. We have 5 lead strategists for branding and marketing, multiple social media managers, and a 9-person PR staff. We also have a photo and video production crew that consists of creative directors, hairstylists, a wardrobe stylist, photographers, a videographer, makeup artists, a set designer and production assistants.

Currently, our company is most known for our primary offer, which is called the Happily Ever Branded Experience. During this experience, a business owner works with me to develop their brand (or rebrand) foundation. The community has coined the phrase Fairy Branding Godmother to describe my leadership in developing their brands. After consulting with the client to develop the brand foundation, they do a brand photo shoot with the full production team, which for our client feels like a celebrity-style photo shoot. It is a magical experience where they are completely catered to. Their makeup and hair are done on set. The wardrobe stylist has helped them select their clothes, steams the clothes on set and makes sure they look perfect throughout the shoot. The creative directors, set designer and photographers work together to deliver brand-specific photos for the client. From there, we create or rebrand their website, social media presence, logo, business cards and more. They also get strategy hours with myself and other strategists on the team, to develop their strategic brand launch or relaunch.

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

When I first launched the business, I began as a website developer. I am a self taught graphic and web designer. In doing websites, I started to realize that many of the business owners were lacking the information I needed in order to build a full site. They were unclear about their brand, their messages and the functionalities they actually needed in their site. They knew what they wanted to sell and what services they wanted to provide, but everything else was unclear.

I knew that I could help them gain clarity, so they could clear communicate their value and see the results they wanted from their websites. I went back to school for New Media Communications, to dive further into how to properly and effectively communicate in this digital world we live in. After finishing that program, I was ready to launch into consulting and strategy development.

Through many consultations and strategy sessions, I found branding to be my favorite part. From great branding, everything else can flow.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I currently have almost 19,000 followers on Instagram, but most of my business actually comes from my Facebook audience. Let me explain why. Early in my business development, I decided to use the two platforms in very specific ways.

I realized that Facebook had my primary business audience, because 35-44 year old business owners tend to frequent Facebook more than any other platform. Instagram has a large presence of 25-34 year olds, and they loved fun, high definition visuals. My wardrobe stylist took me on as a client while I built my business. I would post fashion content paired with a “boss babe” caption on Instagram, because it was fun and could grab people’s attention visually. I posted most of my business social proof (meetings, website development pictures, expert knowledge statuses, etc) on Facebook.

As time went on, I started to see my audience on Instagram grow into people who knew I had a business but were more interested in my attire. Facebook became an audience of people who hung on to my expert advice and loved to see how I was impacting people’s businesses. They both worked in my favor. I got clients for my business from Facebook, and I started having popular brands reach out to me to be an influencer for them on Instagram – a new stream of revenue.

I also learned quickly that, in order to really grow my audience, I had to be SOCIAL first. I had to become everybody’s biggest fan. Not famous people, but every day people that I wanted to follow me. I started spending more time engaging with other people’s posts, rooting for them, cheering them on, offering advice, etc. This made me a fan favorite on both platforms, and these people became loyal to my platforms.

My advice is, understand your audience and what they actually want to see, and SOCIALIZE. Social media growth is not an overnight thing, if you want it to be authentic. Focus less on the number of followers and more on the amount of engagement you’re getting, in terms of shares, saves and comments.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theecrenee.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/theecrenee
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creneemangum
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/creneemangum/