We were lucky to catch up with Emily Sereno recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

At The Servicepreneur Network, our mission is to empower servicepreneurs with the knowledge, strategies, and practical tools they need to build, market, and grow their service-based business, on a budget.

When I launched my business, I didn’t have the financial means to outsource every service and had to strategically prioritize the things I knew I couldn’t do (or figure out) myself, like my legal contracts, trademark application, and accounting/financial services. Which meant things like building my website, designing my brand, or setting up email automations, for example, were all things I had to learn and do. I had a steep learning curve, despite being at an advantage working in corporate marketing for over a decade prior, and realized that there are so many other servicepreneurs who need help, but can’t afford it.

I’m a firm believer that everyone deserves access to the same information, the same resources, the same guidance, and money shouldn’t hold you back from getting the support you need to be a successful servicepreneur.

The Servicepreneur Network takes a community-driven approach to growth, where members learn business and marketing strategies from myself and other experts, they can collaborate with other servicepreneurs, they can ask questions and be held accountable in their business, and most importantly shorten their learning curve to see maximum results, in less time, and even less money.

When you’re in those early years, it can be stressful to know where to spend your money – I know because I’ve been there. Our goal is to take that stressor away, and replace it with the knowledge and confidence servicepreneurs need to create the right foundation and turn their vision into a reality.

Emily, 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 Emily Sereno, a corporate marketing executive turned entrepreneur, branding consultant, podcast host, and founder of The Servicepreneur Network, where I help entrepreneurs build, market, and grow their service-based business, on a budget.

For more than a decade, I worked with Fortune 500 companies, fintechs, startups, and large corporations on content marketing and branding initiatives to gain market share and position their executives as credible experts in their industries. Today, I help service-based businesses put the right marketing foundations in place, empowering them to show up confidently in their business and align their marketing strategies with their business goals.

My business has two sides: the first is The Servicepreneur Network, an entrepreneurial community where service-based business owners can learn, network with other servicepreneurs, find clients, get referrals for services they need, be held accountable, launch their speaking/podcast tour or find guests for their podcast if they have one. Unlike social media where there’s a lot of generic advice shared, but doesn’t always translate to results in your business, members know the advice they’re getting will work for their business model since the community is designed exclusively for service-based business owners. This low-cost, high value community is an incubator for small business success, and the perfect solution for someone who needs marketing guidance, but doesn’t have a big budget to allocate to marketing.

I also work one-on-one with clients who are ready to start promoting their services, but don’t know where to start or struggle with what they should talk/write/post about. I offer content packages where I help servicepreneurs translate their expertise into marketable topics they can use to promote their services. From there, I help them build out their entire marketing strategy, including all of the channels and the topics they’ll post, for the year. Clients can then choose to continue working with me in a monthly capacity to get marketing feedback, business guidance, and someone to hold them accountable to the tasks we map out together. True to my mission, affordability is front and center with different payment options to ensure clients who need my help, can get it.

For servicepreneurs, our businesses are based on our knowledge, our skillset, and our expertise, and our abilities to provide a result or transformation for the clients we serve. There isn’t a product we can hide behind, so to truly show up in your business you need to be comfortable and confident in yourself – an area I work closely with my clients on. There’s nothing that brings me greater joy than seeing a member or client realize how intelligent and capable they are, and tell me that they feel seen, heard, and understood in the way I help connect the dots for them and bring to light what’s most important in the work they’re doing.

I am also the host of The Servicepreneur Podcast, where I talk about marketing and bring on guests to talk about other aspects of running a service-based business. The premise of the show is to help you shorten your learning curve and get tactical tips you could implement in your business after each episode.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was “you have to be this perfect, polished professional all the time.” That it’s okay to be vulnerable and share a personal side of you when you’re an entrepreneur – it can help your business, not hurt it.

When I worked in corporate, especially as a senior executive, there’s a level of professionalism you carry, representing the company you work for.

Building my personal brand as an entrepreneur, I stayed true to that perfect, polished, professional image I’d worn for so many years before. I thought that if I talked about the challenges of running a business (despite never having run one before) or shared some of my personal struggles, people wouldn’t take me seriously or think I was capable of helping them with their marketing strategies.

For a long time though, I kept feeling this resistance, like I was holding back part of me. That I was playing it safe, and I had more to share, more people to help. Knowing that people buy from people, I decided to let my guard down and share a deeply personal experience about my fertility journey and the struggles I’ve had building a family and a business, on a podcast with millions of downloads.

And the response was incredible. I realized that me showing a softer, more vulnerable side of me made me human and relatable, and more deeply connected to my followers and clients in a way I had never experienced before. It didn’t make people think less of me as a marketer, the exact opposite happened where people wanted to work with me more. It was one of the biggest lessons in authenticity I could’ve asked for, and it’s given me so much clarity since in how I show up in my business.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

To build my reputation, I’ve focused on serving others. I’m constantly thinking about how I can help members in my network, or clients I’m working with. How I can connect people in my community who wouldn’t otherwise have met. How I can be there to celebrate the big wins, but also in the little, unexpected moments that might end up holding more weight to the person on the receiving end of say, a quick voice note or text after a particularly hard day.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to be known for in the industry, beyond being seen as a marketing expert for service-based businesses. Certainly, I want that too, but I know how lonely entrepreneurship can be, especially when you’re just getting started. People just want to be seen, heard, understood, and supported – I see it every day in the work I do, and it’s one of the reasons why I created The Servicepreneur Network. By focusing on helping others succeed, I’ve built this reputation of support, collaboration, and connection, which are the same core values I’ve established in my business.

There’s a saying that what you put out into the world comes back to you, and I absolutely believe that if you focus on helping others succeed, you, too, will be successful. It’s just a matter of time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theservicepreneur.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theservicepreneur/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilysereno/
• Other: The Servicepreneur Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2vAqcjFNlK4xTGbz3yGAAs

  The Servicepreneur Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-servicepreneur-podcast/id1745968828

Image Credits

Carley Storm Photography, LLC