We were lucky to catch up with Jaecelyn Merseberg recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jaecelyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
It’s February 2011. Dallas is host city for Super Bowl XLV. I am in the Owners Box and introduced to “David.” I hand David my card and continue to move around the room. A few days later I receive an email from David with a job offer. What made me laugh was there was no conversation of a job offer or inquiry on my part… I simply was there to enjoy the game and network. My nephew overheard the conversation I was having with my sister and said, “Do you know who David is?” I replied, “Duh! How do you think he got my email address?” For the next 30 minutes he tried to convince me that I had to take the job and my response to him was, “You can have it!” It hit me, David wasn’t the kind of person you said no to; he was the kind that you came up with a way to “creatively” decline with the possibility of staying connected and working together at a later date.
The following week I flew out to Los Angeles to meet up with a team of people to see if I would be interested in the position. After a weekend full of events David called to see how things went and if I gave any more thought to his offer. After a little back and forth and inquiry of what was expected of me, I asked David, “Why me?” his response- “I could get someone to do it for half of what I’m paying you, but if you remember what Herb said when he introduced us he said if I wanted something done right I need you to do it. Well, I need it done right!” David turned out to be David Stern, former commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Jaecelyn , 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?
After moving to Dallas in 1996, I opened a consignment store and boutique. After a year I closed shop and went to work in wholesale at Dallas’ World Trade Center. I quickly earned the spot of Top Salesperson with more than $1,000,000 in sales for 3 consecutive years. I missed interacting with people in person (most of my clients were in Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina) so I left there and went to manage one of my local accounts.
In 2002 I opened Beyond Beauty, a boutique Public Relations firm. It was then when I worked with area businesses, non-profit organizations and a few cities to help them strategize and grow their brands. With a high success rate, I was asked to help structure campaigns for a few Dallas based politicians on a local and state level. In 2009 I closed my firm and went to work with a very influential Dallas based family.
The pandemic was truly a hidden blessing full of challenges and opportunities. It was March 2020, after being bored because of the lock down, when I began to take on a few clients, mostly family and close friends. Currently, my roster is comprised of authors, creatives, entrepreneurs, fashion designers, motivational/public speakers, non-profits, politicians, realtors, restraunteurs and more. In less than 2 years I went from 1 client to 19.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
I remember working with a client who was trying to build his business by targeting commercial businesses rather than residential accounts. After structuring our plan and putting everything into play we worked for a week together to build his portfolio. On our second to last day of working together we met the assistant to the President of one of our target businesses. When she realized that he (my client) was the CEO of the company she asked why was he there soliciting their business instead of a sales team. My response made her smile as I said, ‘We like to put a face with a name and a name with a face!’ she quickly replied with, ‘I love it! It’s something you don’t see anymore. Now you’re just an account number and not a person.’ She set up a face-to-face meeting with her boss the next day. After less than 3 minutes of introductions, we were getting ready to pitch the sale and convince him to sign with us, he (Mr. Smith) interrupts and says, “Let me stop you right there. You don’t have to try to sell me, sign me up!” Unbeknownst to us, they were the parent company to almost 80 accounts.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Word of mouth. Nothing beats it! Its free. Its personal. More people will buy (or not buy), patronize (or not patronize), support (or not support) and frequent (or not frequent) a business or product that people they know and trust like and refer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.JaecelynMerseberg.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/i_am_lady_jaecelyn?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamLadyJaecelyn