Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leslie Cramer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Leslie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I have started upwards of 5 businesses in my life. Some went on to become 6- and 7-figure businesses. Some barely make a few thousand dollars.

I discovered that the determining factor for whether a business was successful or not was 2-fold.

1: strategic business alliances. Having other business generating leads, providing complementary services/products, and encouraging each other was vital to success.

2: Self-kindness and self-trust. It’s really easy to feel imposter syndrome as a business owner. If you don’t have skills (and it is truly a skill) in self-kindness and self-trust, you will spiral under the pressure and fail.

Leslie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been an entrepreneur. Whether as a dance teacher, independent distributor, a photographer, or a speech therapist, I’ve almost exclusively worked for myself.

I never considered going into marketing.

It just never occurred to me that I would be good at it.

I started as copywriter for the flexibility. As a word nerd, I knew I could write.

Copywriting was the gateway drug into marketing for me. It opened my eyes to this field where I could be creative and analytical and I immediately fell in love.

At first, I thought I was starting over. A whole new career.

But I quickly learned that I had been developing marketing skills for decades, but didn’t know it.

You can’t build a successful business without branding and marketing.

I took the time to fill in the gaps in my skills and have slowly built my authority in the industry.

Now I work with businesses with an annual revenue of $10M-$100M and looking to improve their messaging and enter another growth phase.

This started as a side gig that I needed for extra income as a single mom and has become a career that I genuinely love.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I have grown my clientele through strategic business partnerships.

I can say with confidence that these partnerships are why I have been successful and grown as quickly as I have.

I had to find businesses (typically solopreneurs like me) who serve my ideal client, complement my service, and align with with price point.

When I had did this, it was no longer just me looking for new clients. I had a collaborative of professionals all working together to send each other best-fit clients.

Closing sales was easier because I could offer more services by white=labeling for my partnerships. And they did the same for me.

My business have grown nearly 10x because of this strategy.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Soundtracks by Jon Acuff.

As entrepreneurs, we are often growing alone. So it’s important to have a safe space inside your own head.

Learning to control my thoughts and how I talk to myself has stopped my self-sabotaging patterns and allowed me to grow my business in a relatively stress-free manner.

This book, along with coaching for accountability, have significantly impacted my approach to entrepreneurship.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lesliecramer.com
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lesliecramer