We recently connected with Gina Stenback and have shared our conversation below.

Gina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Taking risks has been at the cornerstone of the foundation of my life (both personal and business). This RISK story defined a lot of what my life (and business) is today.

Let me take you back to December of 1996, Columbus Oh, right before my college graduation.

My plan was simple: graduate, go see my family in Puerto Rico for a month, then move to Brazil. One of my degrees was in Portuguese, the others were general enough to work in any industry that I would’ve here in the states. So, why not? I was most certainly done living in Ohio… or so I thought.

I didn’t plan to renew my lease, get a job and had gotten rid of most of my stuff. I also put in my resignation at the side retail job I kept throughout my entire college career. You get the picture, after graduation I would have no job, no place to live and no stuff 😱.

Backtrack to mid September that year, I was meeting my best friend at a new bar in town. We hadn’t seen each other for a couple of months and were eager to reconnect. Most of all, I was happy to wrap up that last quarter, move and start my new life in Brazil.

Little did I know, what was about to happen would lead to the firsts RISK that would outline much of my life at least till the present moment.

What happened?

Love did! That afternoon I met the man who’s now my business partner and husband of almost 22 years.

So what was this big RISK?

Back to December, graduation day and two days before I was supposed to leave for good. Needless to say my mind was more preoccupied with “I’m in love and I’m leaving” than any “graduation” business. My parents came for graduation and as most folks do, we went to dinner afterwards.

Halfway through that dinner, I made the split decision to stay. Also the perfect moment to deliver the blow that made me feel like Mike Tyson in a big heavyweight championship fight: “Dad I decided I’m going to stay in Oh for a while and I’m going to need you to help me with rent until I find a job”.

Honestly, until that moment at that cozy Outback Steakhouse table, I didn’t know if I was going to “Go for it”. Take that RISK on a relationship that was so young.

It was a last minute gut decision that was scary in the best of ways and the worst of ways. Not only was I putting my dream future at risk, but also my heart. Even though I’ve taken some mad risks after that, to me this was still one of the most defining mack daddy RISK.

Fast forward to today, my husband and I now run Stenback Digital Media together. On personal note, we’re two crazy nature inspired and coffee fueled marketers who love to travel and wouldn’t have life any other way.

Taking that leap, making that spontaneous gut decision and major risk, had another big impact in my life: TAKING A RISK became a necessary thing.

To this day, when I shy away from the right risks, it’s usually when things don’t work out.

What’s the lesson? If you want it, go for it and TAKE THE RISK!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

If you had to guess how I got into my current business, what would you say?

You guessed it! Taking another RISK.

Before going into marketing and copywriting full time, I had a holistic health coaching business. We had just moved cross country to Colorado from Florida where I had multiple ventures in the wellness industry. A year into this health coaching business, I knew I was done but taking the RISK took me longer this time.

After desperately trying to grow this biz while also keeping multiple side gigs and part time jobs one day I had enough. It was time to step away from a 17 year career and take the leap towards a new passion, digital marketing. The second best RISK that is now Stenback Digital Media.

If you’re self-employed, a business owner or consider yourself an entrepreneur you know without the right marketing, you won’t have sales. You’re also constantly pulled in a 1000 different directions and usually have a to-do-list that’s never-ending.

Who’s got time to learn and implement all the marketing pieces you need to have a sustainable business?

One of the things that led me to close my previous business was trying to do it all instead of focusing on what brought in revenue. Learning all the ever changing marketing tactics and trying to apply it all half ass, only to see it flop. But it was that failure that got me to fall in love with this industry.

What we do is simplify your marketing to help you focus on only what you need in your business at any given time.

One thing that sets us apart is that you work directly with us, a power couple that has your back. We only take you on as a client if we believe in your mission as much as you do (or more). Our Marketing, Simplified framework takes your big vision and distills it to help you focus on only what you need.

Funnels, online advertising and copywriting services are the core of our marketing services. We also provide website development and maintenance, but if I’m honest, most businesses do not need a full-fledged website.

You want us to handle setting up all the moving pieces of your entire marketing plan, we got you covered. You want us to teach you the Simple Marketing Method to get you started, we got your back. We love helping new businesses launch and understand that budgets at that stage can be tight.

The main thing you need to work with us is commitment to your business success. “Your Vision is Our Mission”

What am I most proud of?

We’re committed to helping launch 100 new online businesses in the next year with the Simple Marketing Academy. Bold? Maybe… But hey, it’s all about TAKING THE RISK!

If I can stir things up a bit what’s got me super excited right now is planting trees. We just launched our coffee business Nature Fueled Coffee and partnered with One Tree Planted. With each order, we help plant a tree. 🌱 How cool is that?

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

One of the things that most qualifies me to help you launch and market your business, is that I’ve been at this business thang. for a very long time.

In 2005 a friend and personal training client started a new venture. We had the crazy idea of opening a gym and building it from scratch. Not just any little ol’ gym, a full service 12,000 square feet facility, complete with a juice bar and all. Man oh man, talk about going big or go home… and home we went (eventually).

From the get go we ran into some major obstacles. Hurricane Wilma was just one of them that slowed down construction to a crawl. Our opening was delayed, pre-opening sales were non-existent and expenses kept piling up. This alone was enough to dry up a huge chunk of our startup capital. No matter what we did, we couldn’t keep our heads above water.

Even when we managed to purchase the membership from another gym down the street that closed its doors, it still wasn’t enough. We couldn’t afford the best employees so not only was turnout a problem, filling shifts was nearly impossible.

We were at the gym 24/7, 7 days a week. My partner opened most days at 5am. I closed most nights at 11pm. We were the janitors, the sales staff, the front desk, the managers, the book keepers, the juice baristas, for me the marketing manager, personal trainer, group instructor when needed and on a few occasions even the child care gal (laud’ help those kids – lol)

Needless to say the burnout was real. The stress was all consuming. The fear of not meeting payroll became a norm. On multiple occasions, we took out mini loans just to meet payroll. Always chasing capital took a huge toll on both of us and our relationship. It was a nightmare!

Against my advice, intuition and will, my partner sold the business to a “gentleman” I knew was going to be bad news. Enter my worst “entrepreneurial moment” – the day he took over, he kicked me out of my own “built on sweat and tears” business. (physically kicked me out of the building)

Though my partner stayed to finish the transitional period, she never saw the money owed to her. The gym was closed within a few months. And that’s not all, the equipment leases were still all in our names, so guess who they came after?

Want more? The landlord took the equipment hostage, after all he was owed too. So we couldn’t just hand it back. The lessons kept coming. We ended up settling on some lawsuits and getting out of others.

My credit was ruined for quite some time, but that wasn’t as painful as the failure and humiliation that would follow me for years to come.

What were the lessons?

– Never sell out of desperation – we would’ve been so much better off closing the business ourselves
– Shit’s gonna happen in business, things are going to take longer than you think, be ready for this
– Do a ton of research before committing to any big project and/or partnership
– Take the risk, but be prepared, cover your butt, get legal advice and be kind to yourself in the process

Here’s the Biggest Lesson – I wouldn’t change this experience.

Yes, I took a ginormous risk that didn’t pay off monetarily, heck it ruined me in many ways, but I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for this monumental failure. This was really the beginning of my marketing career. One of the few things that kept us afloat for a while was my direct marketing campaigns.

Before Social Media and FB ads, there was direct marketing. And I’ve had copywriting in my veins ever since. 😉

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

This may be a surprise coming from a digital marketer. Our most “effective” strategy isn’t the latest, sexiest, trendiest of all. It’s tried and tested good ol’ networking and referrals.

Of course we love and use funnels, email marketing, social media and webinars especially for our lower ticket offers. To this day our most effective strategy for enrolling high ticket business clients is networking.

The differentiator here is its effectiveness.

It’s effective because it’s quick, you can make a real connection to build trust and rapport instantly. And in a lot of cases, it’s free, especially online where you don’t need to take time to drive anywhere.

I don’t network nearly as much as I used to when I lived in the city and I rarely (if ever) go to in-person events. But it’s important to note that we still get clients from the “seeds” I planted when I was networking in person on a regular basis over 3 years ago.

Don’t neglect the seeds you plant at any given time.

Here’s what I’d love to leave you with, take the leaps, start the businesses, commit to success on your own terms and most of all don’t shy away from TAKING THAT RiSK.

From my journey to yours, stay bold, keep it simple and always stop and smell the flowers!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stenbackdigitalmedia.us/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stenbackdigitalmedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gmstenback
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stenbackdigitalmedia/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJAGNh4_1fkrAv3UvYgEtpA
• Other: https://www.naturefueledcoffee.com

Image Credits
photo credit – Alan Stenback Photography