00:28 Hey, welcome back to the show. We are so excited today to have Wendy with us because not only, I've never met a Wendy I didn't like, but also her business, it just has the perfect name. So Wendy, will you please tell us who you are and what you do?

00:42 Yes, gladly. Thank you, Todd, for having me. So I am Wendy Leiber. I am the CEO and co-founder of Content Bacon. We are a... yes, everybody loves bacon, even vegetarians. We're a content subscription service. So we help companies tell their story through tasty custom content that passion is really just helping companies tell their story in a way that resonates with their target audiences.

01:18 I love that you said tasty content and I love that that's in your tagline. I just, everything about your brand has gotta be so fun. You guys must sit in front of a whiteboard and just think, all right, what else can we do? We got a pig, we got all, you know, this is just perfect. So I love it, love it, love it, love it. So Wendy, why? Why are you doing this? What is driving you to solve, what problem are you solving? Tell us that.

01:45 Yeah, so this is my second company. I had a strategic marketing company before that did a lot of like customized consulting, very, you know, just like everything was different. And A, I was looking for a way to grow and scale my business. And that was not the company that I wanted to grow and scale. And secondly, I was really noticing that companies were struggling with their content, all types of content. And it was becoming more and more important, you know, to have that consistent digital presence. And so that's kind of where the impetus for a content subscription service was born. And then I met my partner in the EO Accelerator program who had a branding identity company, and we decided to join forces to really solve that problem, to help companies be able to create and distribute content on a consistent basis that was actually compelling, interesting, and that they could afford. So I always like to say every company has a compelling story to tell, but most are either not doing it at all or not doing it well. And I believe we solve that problem.

03:03 I would have to agree with you 120,000%. I think honestly, there's a lot of great companies and for whatever reason, they have zero content strategy and you're looking at it like, you don't even have a listing on Google Maps, let alone Google and your website is horrible. How are you coming in? Who are your targets? Who's your avatar that you're really looking for? Is there a niche? Is there a specific group you're going after?

03:30 Yeah. I mean, we do a lot of work with companies in the technology space, healthcare, a lot of professional services, which, you know, is a big bucket of accountants, insurance agents, coaches, you know, financial services. So those are like our main, I guess, industry verticals. It's usually companies that probably have 10 or more employees. Maybe don't have a fully fleshed out marketing team. They might have one person, half a person, and they understand the importance of content. So we're not trying to convince anyone. You know, we kind of learned that that's not the audience. They either have tried it themselves and realized how hard it is and believe in the concept, what gets outsourced gets done, or they're doing it and have got a content strategy, but just they've seen it work and want more and so bring us in to help leverage what they're already doing.

04:32 I love it. I would imagine though that you're bringing in a lot of strategy with you, right? I mean, that's a lot of the value you're bringing in.

04:42 That's, that's a big part of it is developing the strategy, really helping our customers determine what their why is, how to articulate it, what those topics are, and then not only create that overriding strategy that then, you know, develop the content, post the content measure so that over, over time, we can really see the impact or not, if we're not having the impact we want and we can make the recommendations so that we get there. Cause it's definitely not like a direct response, like, hey, let me try this for a couple months. You're building an asset, as you know, I'm sure you get results from podcasts you did years ago and you have this asset, you know, we're in like a similar game where content that you created, yeah.

05:34 No, Wendy, you're hitting the nail on the head and I absolutely love you and your business because you're literally talking about my content strategy. We're talking about, everyone's got a unique content strategy and I know what mine is. You are awesome because you go into businesses who don't have one and say, guess where your people live? Right? And when you do that exercise with people, tell us about that. How do you help people determine who their avatar is and where they live? Because that is the fundamental prowess of what you do in content strategy, right?

06:15 Yeah, so I mean, it starts during the sales process, if you will, just by finding out where the pain points are, where the gaps are, what's working, what's not. And then we have a really strong onboarding process that our customers have to go through, you know, filling out a questionnaire. But then our team really does a lot of the research on their business, their competitors, their industry. And it's really, really important. In the beginning, it is a bit of a heavy lift. You know, there's a lot of conversation. There's a lot of, you know, questions and probing so that we can understand. And part of the content creation process, it's iterative. The more you do it, the more clear it becomes. So you may not know initially what the right tone, what the right personality is because you've never gone through the process. And it's only by going through it that you start to see what resonates, what doesn't. One of the easiest things I think, and for companies that are out there that wanna try to do it on their own is frequently asked questions. Either that your prospects and customers are already asking or you wish they would ask. That's one of the easiest ways to kind of start to build out a content strategy because just by those questions and starting to answer them and not just like one or two word answers, but really going deep as a company you learn a lot because you might not always have the answers. And so you start to have more, you know, meaty, sizzling conversations as a result where then content can get created.

07:51  Meaty, sizzling conversations. You are just on it. I just love how the bacon disputes out of you. It's like in you. This is amazing.

08:05 It's easy.

08:06 It is easy. I love your brand. Oh, it's so fun. All right. So Wendy, as you go in and help them figure out what sizzles for their business, there is a lot to it. I mean, I know you're giving some helpful hints and honestly, truthfully, For those of you out there, as big influencers like an Alex Formosy would tell you, just start, just start, because man, nothing worse than people that just talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, and then they never launch anything, right?

08:37 Yeah, I mean, that's like when's the best time to plant a tree, right? It was 20 years ago. So, you know, you can, you can either be pissed that you haven't done it yet and, you know, get mad at, you know, what your competitors are doing, or you can get started. And I think that's one of the things I love about our industry is that company, like smaller companies can compete against the big guys, you know, you can, because you can be more agile, you can pivot, you can maybe be a little bit more risky, right? Like when we've gone after or had larger enterprise type customers, sometimes going through the compliance, the approval process, by the time the content's ready, it's outdated because it takes forever. So I think, I think it's so great that companies can compete and, you know, you can be your own publisher. I mean, we've all got the means to get the content out there and it can begin working you know, effectively, I mean, Alex Hormozi, you mentioned like, it almost seems like he came up overnight. And, you know, it's like, he's been doing it. But it's like that guy pumps out a lot of content, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk, but you don't have to do to that extreme, because, you know, you can, so many industries aren't doing it at all. And so what you do can really stand out and differentiate very quickly.

11:24 I love it. I love, yeah, I was just watching an interview of him this morning and he was saying he went from producing like six pieces of content a week to 80 pieces of content a week. And so that is something you probably don't want to do on your own. Definitely that's advanced strategy, but Wendy, I love how you gave some advice on just starting with FAQs. Just start by telling people how to solve the problems that you solve. And I think that's a great place to go. What do they need to get going in podcast production?

11:58 Yeah, I think that having a place on your website where you're posting new content on a consistent basis that people have a reason to come back. I think another goldmine that most companies are missing is their own database and not reaching out to that database frequently enough. And there's usually, again, like I uh, you know, I like to say that most people have a million dollars sitting in their database. They just, you know, haven't mined it properly. So, you know, using your database with. You know, good content that solves a problem for your customers. It's not about you. It's about them and figuring out what, what is going to be useful. And it is like the give before you get philosophy. Not that I'm opposed that some of the content is salesy and asking for the order, but you've got to be useful because people don't want to be, you know, sold to and promoted, you know, you be, you promoting yourself all the time. So that to me is usually like low hanging fruit that just starting that you'll start to see some activity, obviously making sure if you have social media profiles, which you should, but if you're going to have them, make sure that you're contributing, that you're being social on them and that you're not just expecting to post some content here and there and the sales start rolling in, that you've got to actually, you got to interact with people. You got to be willing to comment on their stuff, share their stuff. But all that starts to work together and really build momentum. And then communicating with their customers. Sorry to interrupt, but that's another area where I think companies really drop the ball, is they forget that they've already got this you know, base of, you know, customers that actually like love working, you know, with you talk to them, keep them informed of what you're doing. That was a big aha for us a couple of years ago where companies started with us with the very basics and we weren't doing a good job letting them know. Well, did you know, we did these other things. And so they would be, you know, getting those services from other companies when they could get them from us, which is what they prefer to. And that's just solved through you know, content to current customers.

14:21 Awareness, yeah, no, it's so fascinating. You know, I've talked to so many people who have gotten serious about their content production game and sometimes the people with the fewest number of followers have the best group of followers and they literally are there because of the value they get and they say, hey, we're gonna do an event and Fort Lauderdale this summer, guess who comes? Like 80% of their followers. You know what I mean? It's great. It's awesome. So Wendy, as you come up and develop the strategy with people and they start to work through this ideation and how do I wanna be represented here, there are so many different ways to your point. You've talked about bringing awareness to your clients. You talked about trying to attract your clients, trying to attract them through solving the problems that they ask about on Google or YouTube. But there's also the idea of interviewing your clients, helping them get some growth. You know what I mean? It's a big deal. 

15:27 Absolutely. Yeah, we do a lot of what we call like subject matter expert type content where it's very much, you know, one of our editors with the actual subject matter expert, pulling out that information and then creating content, whether it's written, whether it's visual, video, all of the above to share that. And, you know, obviously what you do, you know, is a perfect way to you know, company, you know, companies should have podcasts because it's a great way to interview their, their customers to, to get at that, that expertise that again, most you've got gems in your company, but they're, you know, they just get out of their way to, to share it. And so, yeah, we, we love like pulling that out and turning it into something that is useful and that will have an impact on their audiences.

16:20 Love it. All right, Wendy, so now let's take a step back. I love, I love, love the conversation so far because I am obviously a big proponent of content creation. I do it every day, like every day. I'm producing content. And I will tell you right now, there's huge value in it. And people like Wendy are gonna be able to walk you through why it works and how you actually get this going. And if you don't have your own private team like I do, I'm very spoiled in having my own private team. You've got to work with a content production group like Wendy, I mean, it's all in the bacon. If the sizzle's working and the fat's burning, everything just works better. If it smells good, go to it, go to it. And Wendy, your company smells good. Pass the litmus test. So Wendy, let's talk about your business now. Content Bacon. You started eight years ago. I'm assuming everything has gone perfectly. Like give us some highlights of the growth journey.

17:23 Yeah, so we have had really, really nice growth year over year. Um, we've, you know, definitely through like expanding our team, expanding our, our product line, um, just doing our own content, right? Like, you know, taking, taking our own advice and, and reaping the rewards of that. So it's been a really fun journey. Um, things like the pandemic, you know, certainly for us, we didn't have an impact or we didn't have a negative impact, I should say. It's, you know, it affected us probably more positively because so many companies that weren't paying attention to their digital presence during that time period were like, wow, we better get serious. And even the AI boom, which many, you know, sometimes think, well, oh, content's going to go away because it's just going to all be AI, has actually given us a boost too, because it's created, again, more awareness on how important content is, and having that human touch to make it impactful. So, you know, those are the highs. We've certainly had our share of, you know, challenges or, you know, opportunities to solve problems, but you know, this has been for me just a really good journey. I think one of the things that I get the most pleasure out of is developing our team and, you know, having just such an amazing team that, you know, is really responsible for the success of our company. Previous from the company I had before where it was really just all about me, having a company that truly, you know, I just went on a 14-day vacation a couple weeks ago made the decision like I was going to really be checked out and just see like, did anything break? And nothing broke. It's a testament to my team. And again, at the end of the day, why we want to create businesses, right? Not so we can work harder, but so we can develop a team and we can work in our genius zone.

19:40 Love it, love it. I can't agree with you more. And for those of you listening, who are not yet at that blessed stage where you can walk away for a couple of weeks and rarely check in and things didn't break, if you're not there, you have to get there. Like that you cannot grow in scale without reaching that point of execution. And Wendy, tell us how that happened. I mean, it doesn't happen overnight. You know, typically in a beginning, at the beginning stages of a company, you've got all these multi hat wearing people that can do it just about anything. How did you start to recognize, you know what I need specialists. I need people that can run this part, this part, this part and this part. What did you do?

20:25 Well, I think part of it is me trusting my team more and not being maybe as much of a micromanager as I started out and just recognizing where I was interfering with the growth of the company by stepping in and not allowing my team to do what I hired them to do and also make mistakes and be okay with that. And, you know, I think it's, you know, when, when you go from having a company where basically, you know, I ate what I killed to having a company that I really like, you know, had a trusted team. It was, it was a mindset shift for me to really get clear on what I wanted and what I was willing to do to get there. So that was first and foremost. And then, you know, having processes, setting your team up for success, because when you have a team that is expected to wear multiple hats, you burn them out very quickly. 

21:26 Very quickly.

21:27 And we did that and it wasn't until we got very clear on what we were and what we weren't and willing to say no and really set our team members up for success because we had a consistent way to do it and we weren't just figuring it out all the time, that allowed us to grow and scale and really retain team members because they were experiencing success and fulfillment and not every day having to like wonder what fire they were going to have to put out, you know, which again, is fun sometimes, but when it's happening all the time, it's no fun. And so that was a big learning and aha for me because as an entrepreneur and, you know, I, you know, I can, I can work at that pace, but you can't expect the people you hire to be the same as you.

22:17 100% nor do you want them to be right? I mean, you do not want people just like you because as a founder, you have to set the vision. You got to set the culture. You got to show what you want to have done but then let other people better than you take it and run with it and go, right? Crazy, crazy. Oh, Wendy, I love this story. This is a great conversation. Now, as you've gone and grown and as you've been building out the strategy, and I know that content strategy today is not the same as it was in 2015, but as you've evolved with all of that, help us understand what big challenges have you hit? I mean, if COVID was a blessing to you, I'm curious to know what things have kind of smacked you in the face and you're like, ooh. Didn't see that one coming.

23:10 Yeah, I don't know that there's been anything like out there that's been the biggest challenge. I think it's just been how to structure the team, you know, how to, well, maybe like setting customer expectations. 

23:28 That's a big deal.

23:29 And I alluded to our onboarding process earlier, you know, I think that's been where we used to try to make it seem like it was easy, like, yes, we'll bring you on and instantly we'll be creating content for you and really getting clear that that's not the case and that we do need your involvement in the beginning. And so setting customer expectations and being willing to walk away from a sale if we're not aligned. So I think that was like a learning that again, trying to make it seem too easy when it really isn't that easy in the beginning ultimately, the goal, you know, it gets easier and easier. So I think that was a learning that, you know, I have to give my team credit for because they're the ones who, you know, would like help me understand where the challenges were. Yeah.

24:31 Right, right, right. Yeah, no, listen, if you're still doing onboarding, you're in the wrong place, because it's your team that really needs to onboard and let them know, okay, here's what's going on, it's gonna take us two weeks to get all your info, if we get it all in at a reasonable time, and then at that point, we can start talking this, right, I mean, to your point, setting the expectation through an onboarding sequence that actually works will change the entire customer experience in my opinion.

24:58  Yeah. I would say another area too, is transitioning from founder selling to having a team that can, can do business development. And I think that also goes back to having a process, having a strategy, because again, I think it's, it's sometimes easy, like, you know, to sell when you're the founder and like you created it and it's, you know, but then being able to train a sales team is very different. And bringing in the experts to do that and hiring the right type of people. So it's making sure we're outsourcing the things that aren't our core competencies so that we can grow and that we're not trying to do it all ourselves.

25:44 Right, I love it, love it. Wendy, love the conversation. I hope this is good content for you. I know it's great content for me. My audience is gonna eat this up because first of all, it's yummy, it's tasty, sizzles. It is good. And so for those of you listening, honestly, engage with someone like Wendy, engage with Wendy. I mean, this is really a great opportunity for you to get in the face of someone who produces content all the time. And if you don't have a content strategy, you really do just need to start. You gotta be in touch with your audience. They are there. There are people that you serve that are hanging out in places like LinkedIn or YouTube or wherever that they hang out. And if you're not there, guess who they're never watching? You. And guess who they likely are watching? Your competitors. Because most people have a content strategy and if you don't, you're gonna lose your clients to someone else. Wendy, will you please help us understand, as you've gotten into this, give a shout out to somebody who's kind of inspired you to do what you're doing now with your business.

26:52 Yeah, goodness, there's so many people. Who comes to mind right now is my second in command. Sarah Miller is her name. She's my integrator, my chief of staff. And I think what inspires me about her is one, it does allow me to operate in my genius zone and be the visionary and go out and create, new opportunities and have someone who, A, keeps me in check and is willing to push back when she feels the need, but also someone who can support and align with me and help us continue to take this company to the next level. And lately, she just keeps getting better and better. And I just feel so lucky. And I know other you know, CEOs out there that have that relationship. It's such a blessing when you have it. And when you don't, you know, it really can create a lot of turmoil. Yeah, it's heavy. Yeah.

27:59 It's heavy. Oh, it's so heavy. It's a burden. Yeah, it's just a burden. And when you need people to lift your burden, not add to it, right? Oh, love it, Wendy. Well, thanks for the shout out. And for those of you listening, you don't have someone in your corner like that that's taking burden away from you rather than just adding to it. You're hiring the wrong people. Hire up, get people that you think you can never get, and they will provide the value, hopefully, that you need to lift your burden. So Wendy, thanks so much for taking the time to be here with us, honestly. And I honestly am craving some bacon right now. I might go make some. So thank you so much for being here.

28:38 Thank you, Todd. I appreciate it. This was fun.