We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Corey Swann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Corey, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
Marketing Agencies, historically, take money for a blanket of services that are what many understand as cookie cutter. The issue with this is target markets, channels, and all sorts of other aspects come into play when it comes to reaching our audience with the right message at the right time. This is where a strategic, cost-effective application comes into play.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When it comes to marketing, I’ve been in almost every ecosystem that exists. From corporate, to agency, to sub contractor, and now leading my own F-CMO operation.
Opportunity came knocking through an entry level position where I was trained in SEO & SEM, Social, Email, and Website Coding.
This allowed me to provide value at the execution level. As my journey progressed with a few new positions – I found a strategic marketing operation that helped me understand the value of a strategy led execution. It’s paved the way to create what I find to be much more valuable to small businesses, and prevents the waste of company resources.
I would say I’m most proud of being able to serve others. I believe we are called to serve others, and serve them with excellence. I’m able to give work to others in return for great work for clients. It’s been an amazing journey thus far, and excited for what the future has in store.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn placing blame. We often do this to save face. There are few things that provide more trust than owning a mistake. I’ve made plenty, and where I may have tried to place blame previously, I just own it today.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
This is a great question for those that believe they are ready to make the leap. Talk to the local CPA, make a checklist to start your LLC, and begin building on the side.
My capital kickoff was less than $500 for website, logo, LLC filing, domain & email.
When it comes to getting started, we often weigh things too much.
Start small, find success, then expand. Oftentimes small business owners leverage capital gained back into the business as they grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: stxmkt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corey_stx
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-j-swann/