We recently connected with Tracey Lee Davis and have shared our conversation below.

Tracey Lee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers?

I do a lot of presentations in my business, and I am fortunate to be a volunteer class instructor at SCORE Silicon Valley, so I get in front of small business owners every month and talk with them about social media and email marketing. Because I have this great relationship with the organization, I was contacted to fill in as a speaker at an event when another marketing instructor couldn’t make it at the last minute. And boy, am I glad that happened! I got to speak at the 6th Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Downtown San Jose in 2017 and was included in a social media and branding session. Also presenting in my session was the U.S. Digital Marketing Manager at Kiva.org and the Social Marketing Manager for eBay for Business, eBay’s seller- and small business-facing social media channels. To say I was a little intimidated is an understatement. Through meetings with the event team, we put together presentations that complimented each other to work for the session. Despite feeling a little out of my league with my co-presenters, it was an incredibly fun and exciting experience, and they couldn’t have been nicer or more down to earth. As is usual for me, I got selfies with my co-presenters (as well as San Jose Councilwoman Dev Davis) and with the crowd and then tagged them appropriately on social media, of course.

Fast forward a few weeks, Audrey from eBay contacted me, asking if I was interested in doing some work with eBay. Um, yep, sign me up! That conversation led to me going to Las Vegas for eBay Open, their annual seller’s conference in 2017. There, I ran their social media lab with another social media expert from Las Vegas, as well as giving a few presentations in their expo hall.

I was then invited back the next year, where I gave FIVE breakout presentations about social media at eBay Open 2018. Each session had about 250 people in attendance.

My co-presenter for those presentations was the Community Content Manager for eBay, and he and I really clicked. Since then, I have been a guest on the Selling on eBay podcast three times and went back to eBay Open in 2019.

So because of one guy needing to cancel a speaking gig, I have:
✔ Gotten to share the stage with presenters from eBay and Kiva, which elevated MY brand
✔ Gotten paid to speak at eBay Open three times
✔ Been featured on the Selling on eBay podcast three times
✔ Gotten many new clients
✔ Made a fabulous new friend
✔ Made a connection with another social media professional who I refer to all the time
✔ Created a strong relationship with a HUGE corporation

So the moral of the story is to say yes to opportunities that fall in your lap, as they just might take your business to the next level!

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?

I’m a marketing expert with a unique background in animal-related fields. Before starting my own business, I got my Wildlife Biology and Zoology degree from Colorado State University. My whole world revolved around animals. I spent years in various animal-related fields, including wildlife rehabilitation, shelter work, and, eventually, dog training.

My journey into the marketing world started when I was hired as the manager at a brand-new daycare, boarding, grooming, and training facility in the Bay Area. While there, I wore all the hats and got to really understand the struggles of a small business. I developed a passion for supporting local businesses and helped to grow the company to three locations, eventually becoming their Director of Operations.

The company’s growth was supported by my learning to use email marketing and social media. The learning curve was steep initially, as I had no background in marketing. However, when the company acquired a competitor in 2005, I inherited a Constant Contact email account. This email platform elevated our marketing efforts and led to immediate results, with every email bringing in new business, even with me not knowing exactly what I was doing.

I’d been using social media personally since 2003. So when social media started becoming the new buzz for marketing small businesses in 2008, it was a no-brainer for me to start using it for the company.

I could see that we had immense potential to grow our business with social media and email marketing. I wanted to know more about using them both. I immersed myself in seminars and training sessions to learn everything I could to benefit that small business.

Then, as tends to happen in the Silicon Valley, I was laid off. I was very fortunate to work with a career coach who got me to articulate what I loved about my job (and what I didn’t). Her exercises showed me that I had fallen in love with marketing. I had also cemented my passion for supporting small businesses. I realized that most small business owners don’t start a business because they love owning a business. They start a business because they love training dogs, or styling hair, or helping people organize their homes, or cooking delicious food. They are passionate about something and want to bring that passion to the masses. They don’t start a business because they love all of the admin work, or the payroll, or the marketing. And I’ve learned over the years that most people just don’t know what to do in these areas, and so they struggle.

About six months after getting laid off and failing to find a new job, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands, and ZingPop Social Media was born in January 2014. I started offering various marketing solutions: websites, printed materials, blogging, social media management, and email marketing. Fortunately, I was able to learn pretty quickly where my strengths lie and narrowed my focus considerably.

Almost ten years later, my goal has always been the same: to help small businesses feel confident, competent, and empowered to join the conversation in this new digital marketing world. Now I am a social media coach and an email marketing manager. I am hired by business owners who are resistant to their marketing, usually because it feels so big, complicated, and overwhelming. I give my clients a simple starting point and a plan to get more exposure, make more money, and look like a rockstar online.

I find joy in helping people achieve business success by turning around aspects of business ownership they may not enjoy, like marketing, and delivering outstanding results. I work with an eclectic set of clients, which keeps things exciting. I bring expertise and a fun approach to marketing, empowering clients to feel confident in reaching their target audience.

I am one of the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2022 Silicon Valley Woman of Influence, Alignable’s Local Business Person of the Year for San Jose (2018-2023), and a Top 25 U.S. Business Mentor of 2021. I am a Certified Content Strategist, a Constant Contact Certified Partner, a SocialBee Ambassador, and an Alignable Alliance Ambassador Founder. 

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

When I left the pet care industry, I was fairly well-known in the area, as I had worked hard to build relationships with other pet-care professionals. I wasn’t famous by any means, but people in the Silicon Valley knew my name and the company I worked for. Now I was entering completely new territory. It was pretty overwhelming and intimidating. At the recommendation of that wonderful career coach who helped guide my new way, I went to a social media Meet Up to meet other folks in the industry. I attended the events a few times and got connected with a man who was doing roughly what I wanted to be doing. We saw an opportunity to collaborate and started hosting the Campbell Social Media Group.

In these free monthly workshops, we invited local small business owners to come and learn about social media from us. We held these events for a little over two years. Through CSMG, I met dozens of small business owners and got to demonstrate my knowledge and expertise. They got to know me as a person, how I worked with people, and how I helped people relieve some of their social media pain. It was an excellent way to get my foot in the door to a new world.

At the same time, I started going to networking meetings through the Women’s Networking Alliance. I technically started going to meetings before my business had actually launched. I was new to networking for business and was definitely overwhelmed. But I was also so inspired. I was surrounded by all these fabulous, successful business owners, and I knew I wanted to be just like them. My first client was a member of my WNA chapter. And just like with the CSMG, the women in WNA got to know me, know my level of knowledge, and saw how I help people through my services, so they started recommending me to their friends and clients. Having a group of women who solidly had my back was empowering, and their support really helped me to grow. I love WNA so much that I wound up purchasing it from the founder with my business partner, Carla Bohnett, back in 2018.

One more thing that helped me build my reputation was getting involved with Constant Contact. I attended a Constant Contact event to help me further my marketing knowledge and spoke with the speaker after. This woman, Elyse Tager (who was a Constant Contact employee) had been one of the first speakers I learned from when I started my marketing journey back in my previous career. I told her what I was up to, and she suggested I consider joining the Constant Contact Solution Provider Program (now called their Partner Program). We made an appointment to talk more, and from there, I became a Solution Provider, then a Certified Solution Provider, and then I joined an “elite” group of SPs called Authorized Local Experts. As an ALE, I was tasked with going out into the community and speaking on behalf of Constant Contact. I started presenting at local SCORE Chapters, Chambers of Commerce, and other business organizations and associations.

I have remained a Certified Partner since 2015. I still speak regularly about marketing. It is so incredible that I may very well be the person who is inspiring someone to get passionate about marketing, just like Elyse did for me. It blows my mind that I have come full circle in this regard!

So starting from nothing, I made a name for myself through my community and network. It’s certainly possible that I could have grown my business in other ways, but I am so grateful to the Campbell Social Media Group, Women’s Networking Alliance, and Constant Contact for making the process so much smoother!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I don’t think it will be surprising to learn that giving presentations and networking have been my best sources for new clients. Both allow me to meet people “in person” (even when it’s virtual) so they get a feel for who I am as a human being, which is important when deciding to work with someone. Every time I give a presentation, I follow up with an email so people have another way to connect with me. In those emails, I link to my website and social channels, allowing for even more touchpoints.

Presentations and networking get me visibility and digital marketing allows me to stay connected easily. It is not uncommon for me to hear from a new client that they saw me in a presentation four years ago, they’ve been getting my emails ever since, and they are finally ready to take that next step. We can never predict when someone will be ready to work with us, so staying connected and sharing your value and expertise keeps you top of mind.

Another fantastic source of new clients has been Alignable. Alignable is a social media platform for small business owners. I have been using it since 2016, and for me, it is by far the best-performing social platform for acquiring new customers. It’s interesting to me that so many small business owners discount it as a viable social channel. If I had to pick only one platform to be on for my business, it would be Alignable!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zingpopsocial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zingpopsocial/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/zingpopsocial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zingpop-social-media
• Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/zingpop-social-media-san-jose
• Other: https://www.alignable.com/san-jose-ca/zingpop-social-media https://vimeo.com/zingpopsocial http://g.page/zingpopsocial?gm

Image Credits
Main headshot and green door: Carla Bohnett Images at desk: Kristina Rust Photography White background in purple top: Juniper Spring Photography