We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tisha Marie Pelletier a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tisha Marie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?
I wish I knew back then what I know now! I love this question of if you were starting over, what would you do differently and how would it get you to where you are faster.
My biggest a-ha I’d tell myself is building a personal brand really matters in terms of boosting your confidence, finding your happiness and building your business. It’s all related, but I didn’t come to realize that until I was already 10+ years into my various business ventures.
I wanted to hide behind the ‘entity.’ Only show people the professional parts of my life. Appear to be the “put together” type of entrepreneur because I thought that’s what people wanted, yet I was far from that. I hired out my social media because I didn’t want to do it and it cost me money that didn’t garner any results.
Truth is people want real. They want to relate. They want to know YOU are a person they can do business with. A person who is aligned with their values.
What they don’t ask is the question, “Are you perfect?”
Perfection is way overrated. I vouch for progress.
I began building my personal brand in 2018 and have been consistently doing so which has created more opportunities, more visibility and more impact which has ultimately led to more income.
Best advice I can give? Figure out who you are and build your brand with YOU in mind.
Tisha Marie, 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?
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be on the news as a broadcast journalist. I was even called the next Connie Chung if that tells you my story. I graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School in 2001 and my senior year, I had an epiphany. I didn’t want to be in the news world anymore. I heard a speaker share what my future life would be like and within an hour, I had changed my mind completely. Instead, I wanted to design the life I wanted with my family and the freedom to do whatever and whenever I wanted. I knew that eventually I would become an entrepreneur, and I did, five times.
After working for ad agencies for a few years out of college, learning as much as I could and dealing with so-called “horrible bosses,” I took a leap of faith in 2004 and started my own company, Simply Put Marketing, working with small businesses on their marketing. I sat on the board for the American Marketing Association as their event chair in 2008 while I was pregnant with my son Caleb and found another calling, event planning, and started a second business, Details Event Management. Then, when I wasn’t sure where I belonged in the networking world since I was now a new mom and an entrepreneur, I got this calling to start a third business, The Mom-e Club, to surround myself with other mom entrepreneurs like me trying to do both. It became my outlet. I planned several events nationally for women and created a signature event called The Mom Entrepreneur of the Year that I ran for six years.
After running three businesses and having my second child Ellie, I was burnt out. In 2015, I had hit my midlife crisis and didn’t know what I wanted to do or who I was anymore.
I hired a business coach who gave me advice I didn’t want to hear – start a personal brand while you figure out your next move.
It took me four months to get behind this idea, but it really was the only way for me to go – self discovery, finding myself and my happiness in the process.
I began building my personal brand slowly attempting to figure it out solo and testing the waters and now, it’s what I do for others. It’s true what they say, “The obstacle IS the way.”
These days, I run two businesses – Tisha Marie Enterprises, LLC and Property with Personality, LLC. I received my real estate license in March 2021 after working with a handful of realtors and other solopreneurs in building their personal brand. I’m also a professional speaker, an author and plan a live, quarterly happy hour for entrepreneurs and business professionals called Social Connect PHX.
Because I’m also a solopreneur, I realized how much of an impact a brand has on others and after creating my own without guidance, it became something I was passionate about in helping others accomplish so they didn’t have to figure it out alone. It also set me apart in that I wasn’t just providing the blueprint to build a brand, I was going all in with my clients through a complete done with you program and mentoring.
Creating personal brands for my clients was truly my COVID pivot. I’m proud of how I was able to glean insight from my past experiences in building a personal brand and running a marketing firm and marry the two together so quickly. It truly is what differentiates me from others offering a similar service.
Now in my businesses, I’m using my talents and time to empower others to make things happen through speaking engagements, collaborations with others, featured guest spots on podcasts, articles and books, my weekly live stream #tishatalks LIVE, in person events and my personal brand building programs.
My favorite thing to tell people about me?
I was the girl who wanted to report the news. Now having my own businesses, I’m the girl who became the news.
Life is what you make it! Design your life surrounded by people and opportunities that bring you more joy and happiness. It truly is contagious.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
While CEO often refers to Chief Executive Officer, I love Chief Experience Officer more in that I’m always providing my prospects and clients with an experience they’ll always remember. I’m all about under-promising and overdelivering. The clients I work with have either come from word-of-mouth marketing, my events or by seeing my personal brand in action through social media. I haven’t ever had to advertise and don’t intend to as my business is about attracting the right people to me, not trying to bring in the masses.
The best compliment I received was a former restaurant client I worked with 10+ years ago. He messaged me out of the blue that he was starting a new venture and always remembered what it was like working together and could think of no one else he wanted to work with in his new venture. I was speechless he remembered me from so long ago. He also kept my very first business card through four house moves. What I call brand loyalty.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
For the record, I’ve never been a big fan of social media. I’ve always stated I have a strong love/hate relationship with it and as a business owner, I have grown accustomed to using it. It’s what most like to call a “necessary evil” for entrepreneurs. If you’re not on social media and in a business of your own, you’re missing out on all sorts of opportunities and leaving money on the table.
For years, I outsourced my social media until I realized that it wasn’t connecting me to people on a more personal level. I took back my social media when I began truly investing and nurturing my personal brand in 2018, decided LinkedIn was the platform to do it on, and it took off from there.
I no longer was curating other people’s content like Entrepreneur.com articles and “sharing” what they had written. Instead, I found my own personal brand voice and after being dubbed “the authentic girl with a touch of badass” after my PHX Startup Week presentation, that was the brand I wanted to lead with. Being authentic meant not holding back. Speaking my mind. Sharing more stories and as I shared more stories and lessons learned, I started diving deeper into conversations with people all over the world. I started a weekly video series years ago I called #convoinmycamry which has now upgraded to #lessonsinmylexus, and started gaining attention for these short videos I do in my car. Nothing fancy, just my phone and a tripod stick. I’ve even been recognized in random places around Arizona by people asking, “Aren’t you the girl that does the talks in her car?” Always makes me smile and it’s led to incredible relationships, business opportunities and collaborations. Why? Because it’s memorable and a part of my brand.
What I’d recommend to people just starting out on social media is this. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just has to be you. And you have to be consistent. Pick a platform you want to be on and just start. Begin by commenting and engaging on other’s posts that speak to you. Craft your own posts with the takeaway you want others to leave with once they’ve read your story or watched your video. Don’t always talk business. People want to know the real you so adding in some personalized posts about what you do for fun or the people you share your life with are key. It’s more relatable. Change up your posts meaning sometimes try a written post, then record a video. Keep the audience on their toes.
And the best advice I can give? Have fun! Engage back and never outsource your comments to your VA. You’ll catch yourself in a lie. What I’ve learned with social media is it truly is the gateway to starting genuine conversations. As people comment on your posts, take the next step. Comment back, then send them a direct message thanking them for their time and cultivate the relationship from there. That’s where the follow-up comes in.
By taking these steps, it has grown my business with more opportunities and collaborations, and the people who attend my Social Connect PHX event all say they came because they saw it on social media and/or got a good sense of who I am and the experience I offer through my social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: tishamarieenterprises.com
- Instagram: @tishampelletier
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/tishamarieenterprises
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/tishamariepelletier
- Twitter: @tmpelletier
- Youtube: http://bit.ly/tishaonyoutube
- Other: TikTok – @tishamariepelletier
Image Credits
Daphne Dixon, I Think Alchemy Gordon Murray, Flash Photo Video