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Redefining Marketing for Small Businesses
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In this episode of The Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast, host Kofi Anyemedu sits down with Amber Gaige, founder and CEO of Far Beyond Marketing, seasoned marketing strategist, author, and proud third-generation entrepreneur.
Amber shares her inspiring entrepreneurial journey, the lessons she’s carried forward from her family’s business legacy, and the unique challenges of carving her own path. She also dives deep into her groundbreaking framework The Four C’s of Effective Marketing, a proven approach that has helped countless small businesses grow and thrive.
From demystifying common marketing misconceptions to offering practical strategies that every business owner can apply, Amber brings clarity, wisdom, and fresh perspective to the ever-evolving world of marketing. She also discusses insights from her book, The Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook, which serves as a roadmap for building sustainable and impactful marketing strategies.
Whether you’re a startup founder, small business owner, or simply passionate about entrepreneurship, this episode is packed with actionable advice and powerful inspiration.
Tune in to discover how to take your marketing and your business far beyond the ordinary.
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Transcript
Understanding Value and Service Mindset
00:00:04
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The other thing I would say is you have to get out of your own way and recognize that even if you don't feel that you have something of value to bring to the world, you actually do. Every single person has value and you will attract the customers that appreciate your unique approach to business. And then lastly, i love this quote by the great Zig Ziglar. If you spend enough time helping other people get what they want, you never have to worry about getting what you want. So i'm always out serve your fellow man.
Meet Amber Gage and Her Entrepreneurial Journey
00:00:31
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Amber Gage is the founder of Far Beyond Marketing. She's a seasoned marketing strategist speak and a third-generation entrepreneur. know speak With a passion for helping small businesses grow, Amber has developed the four C's of effective marketing, a framework that has transformed countless businesses.
00:00:54
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She's also the author of the Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook. where she shares powerful insights on building sustainable and impactful marketing strategies. In this episode, Amber takes us through her entrepreneurial journey, the lessons she's learned, and the marketing strategies that every business owner us should know.
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Whether you're startup founder, a business owner, or just someone looking for game-changing marketing advice, this conversation is for you. So let's dive right into our conversation.
Family Influence on Business Perspective
00:01:31
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Welcome to my show, Amber. I'm so happy to be here, Kofi. Thank you for having me. All right. So let's start off our conversation by you telling us a bit more about yourself and your childhood. When my childhood was not traditional, my parents were also business owners and our business was located in our home.
00:01:52
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And so we spent a lot of time working in the family business, going to school, answering the telephones, doing anything that we could with our humble beginnings to try and make sure that our businesses survived.
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We were a blended family. I had two older brothers. I was too little to go on the construction sites. My stepfather was a plumber. And so I answered the phones and I worked in the office.
00:02:17
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And being from a family-owned and operated business definitely shaped my education from an early age. Okay. So can you share your entrepreneurial journey and what really inspired you to start Far Beyond Marketing?
Motivation Behind Far Beyond Marketing
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That many different entrepreneurs were getting very poor results from marketing. And they were not receiving really good information from marketing experts.
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about what marketing they should be doing for their businesses to grow their companies well. They were getting put into standard products and processes that really did not align with the operational goals of their unique business. And I wanted to start a marketing company that did more than marketing, that helped entrepreneurs achieve their goals and their dreams.
00:03:06
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so that Okay. So coming from a family of entrepreneurs, How has your third generation entrepreneurial background, how has this influenced your approach to business? It has influenced my approach to business because when you are in a family business, every dollar has a job. and Every person has a purpose.
00:03:24
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And you take very much amount of pride and responsibility for it every single thing that you do in the business. So it makes it more personal. It makes it more highly accountable.
00:03:36
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And it helps you to understand that real lives and there are real implications on the line for every single business decision that is made. So you come from rich background, but what are some key lessons you learned from your family that have really shaped your success? success Learned that you must always work hard. I learned that nothing is given to you Nothing is guaranteed. I learned that every person has value and a unique talent.
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I learned that tenacity will take you farther than talent. And I learned that if we can find our unique voice, then there is always someone that we can help.
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We should always be servant leaders, never be the smartest person in the room, always be someone who's willing to serve another person. So coming from such rich background in entrepreneurship, Were there any challenges or pressures in you following the footsteps of past generations?
00:04:34
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Absolutely. I didn't want to do it. I wanted to go... For someone else, I wanted to go and sing opera worldwide. I was not interested in being an entrepreneur.
00:04:45
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But then as I became a mother, I realized that entrepreneurship is what provides real
Challenges in Small Business Marketing
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freedom. And there's no better blessing than being self-employed and having the control and freedom over your life and over your time and over your money. So how long have you been an entrepreneur?
00:05:02
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Well, I asked my dad for a puppy when I was eight years old and I had to write a letter explaining why I wanted a dog. And that became a dog breeding business.
00:05:13
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So I think I've been an entrepreneur my entire life. Okay. so so So in your opinion, how do you think entrepreneurship has evolved over generations? And what are some timeless business principles that have remained relevant and um in the same?
00:05:31
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Well, timeless business principles is that people do business with people they know, like, and trust. We are our own brand ambassadors. Entrepreneurship has changed through the years thanks to technology, thanks to AI, thanks to relationships, thanks to platforms.
00:05:47
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Business will always continue to grow and change, but people and the relationships that we have are what will really drive businesses forward. So you specialize in marketing.
00:05:59
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So I'd like us to spend some time talking about what you do best. um So my my my questions now will be based on what you do best. That is marketing. Can you share with us?
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Some of the biggest marketing challenges that small businesses face today. The hardest thing that they face is to know what kind of marketing to do and who to trust with their marketing and whether or not that marketing will actually help their business grow.
00:06:26
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Education and confidence and transparency are hugely important aspects. Thank you. and not many entrepreneurs know where to begin that's why i wrote my book the far beyond marketing guidebook i wanted to empower entrepreneurs with the knowledge that they needed to make well-informed marketing decisions and so that they could have education and confidence to know how to grow their business I found myself saying the same thing to all of my clients. That's why I wrote the book, is I wanted my clients to understand what we did differently and our unique approach to marketing through the four C's of effective marketing. And I found that this this framework really works.
00:07:09
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Okay. So later in our conversation, we'll talk about your book. We'll also spend some time talking about the four C's, which you just mentioned. But how does your company, Far Beyond Marketing,
00:07:22
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How does your company help small businesses overcome these challenges you've highlighted?
Innovative Marketing Solutions by Far Beyond Marketing
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Well, first of all, everything we do is owned by the small business. We don't keep anything that we do. It's all work for hire.
00:07:35
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Second thing we do is we pride ourselves on white glove service. Every step of the way, our clients know that we are with them and that we are partners with them. Thirdly, we don't do any kind of long-term contracts.
00:07:47
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Our clients should feel confident that they can make a change at any point in time that they need. So we have a minimum timeframe to work with us for 90 days, at which time you can get out anytime that you want to. Usually a 30-day exit clause is what we request.
00:08:03
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And then lastly, we have full transparency. All of our clients have dashboards. They see everything that we're doing for them. They get monthly reporting. They know everything that's going on with their marketing. And we meet with them once a month to make sure they are fully empowered and educated about the decisions that we're making on their behalf.
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So you've been working with your clients, with these businesses, and helping them improve upon their marketing strategies. Can you share a success story of how a small business, a small business you worked with, significantly grew through the marketing strategies you offered?
00:08:39
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So one of our small businesses is an HVAC company here in Texas. And when he came to us, he had no insight or knowledge as to why his company wasn't growing. We did a thorough analysis into his paid digital ads and figured out that the ads that were running had nothing to do with his business.
00:08:57
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We also determined that the search engine optimization was not driving traffic to his websites. Since that point in time, he's been with us for over a year. His brand recognition has grown and his call count has grown as well.
00:09:10
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So we're very happy to look at the data and let the data help us to understand what changes need to be made for our clients. oh that That's really inspiring.
00:09:21
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So Amber, tell me, what are some common misconceptions small businesses usually have about marketing? think that they understand that marketing must be consistent.
00:09:33
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I think a lot of times small businesses assume that if they will invest in marketing here or there, that it will be effective. Maybe if they just do social media, or maybe if they just do pay-per-click ads, or maybe if they just take out a magazine article, they assume that by doing a marketing tactic that they will find success.
00:09:52
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When really marketing requires consistency, I say nothing less than 90 days to test. And it requires layers. It's like a delicious layered cake. You must have marketing in a variety of places, from digital to print to in-person.
00:10:07
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You have to have a variety of different layers of marketing in order for your brand to be recognized and for people to do business with you when they're ready for your services or
Embracing Technology and AI in Marketing
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products.
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We find ourselves in a world where digital marketing is constantly evolving. How can small businesses stay ahead of the curve? Well, I think by embracing technology, I think by doing your homework and research, I think by understanding the benefits of artificial intelligence, and by using it to help you become more efficient, not necessarily to replace the value of human strategic thinking, but to empower you to be more efficient and expand your time. So earlier in your submission, you talked about the four Cs of effective marketing.
Exploring the Four C's of Marketing
00:10:53
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Can you please break this down for us to really appreciate? What are these forces? Yeah. The first C is clear copy. What I need entrepreneurs to understand is that you must be able to talk about your business in a way that people will stop and pay attention to what you are saying. If you can't talk about your business very well or people don't understand what you do, they will not do business with you.
00:11:16
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So it is hugely important that you have a great story and a great elevator pitch to explain what your business does well. The second C is consistent branding, making sure that your brand is well-known, well-established, and well-diversified so that people can find you where they need you and they're not confused by different versions of your logo or your colors.
00:11:38
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The third C is customer demographic, Who is actually buying from your business? And half of the time, it's not who we think it is, Kofi. It's the people that are actually paying you money and buying a specific product or service where we need to put our branding in front of. And we need to upsell those customers on other services or products that we offer.
00:12:00
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And that's what brings me to the final C, which is channel manager. Do you have a rinse and repeat process for consistently serving your clients again and again so that you are not doing it? So that's my four C's of effective marketing. When you put those four C's in place and you have a synergistic relationship, your marketing should score.
00:12:19
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All right. So thank you for breaking that down. But I still want us to delve in some more. So how can, practically, how can a small business implement the four C's you just highlighted?
00:12:33
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First of all, read the book and make sure that you understand the four C's of marketing. Secondly, you can take our course. We take people through all four C's to enable you to do the four C's of marketing in your business on your timeline in accordance to your budget.
00:12:49
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And lastly, way by implementing them in the order that I just established, you'll find that your marketing does become more effective. Concentrate on your copy. Concentrate on your message. Concentrate on your brand. Make sure your copy and your branding shows up on your digital marketing and on your website.
00:13:06
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Think about your calls to action and your specials and your services and your products. And then think about your opportunity to upsell. Follow the four C's marketing in the sequential order. Okay. So so looking at the four C's, which you just touched on, um which of these do you think small businesses struggle with the most?
00:13:28
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think a lot of times they don't know how to talk about their business in a way that people will listen and understand what they do. I think a lot of times people feel bored when they listen to us talk about our businesses. People need to understand that our businesses are solving a problem for our customer. When we stop talking about our customers' problems, they stop talking they stop listening to what we have to say.
00:13:48
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So the thing and that I see that people struggle with the most is talking about their business in a way that convinces their customers to actually engage with them. So I recall... In business school, we learned about the four P's of marketing.
00:14:03
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But how does the four C's, how do they align with or differ from the traditional marketing model like the four P's? Well, the four P's of marketing are certainly valuable, and I think the four C's are aligned well with them. It's just a matter of how you choose to implement and what order you choose to implement.
00:14:22
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Marketing fundamentals are actually that. They're pretty simple, but it's the implementation and the strategic vision and the tracking and the return on investment that makes it effective.
Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Knowledge
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You talked about your book, The Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook. What really inspired you to write this I found that too many entrepreneurs were being taken advantage of by marketing that didn't work.
00:14:46
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And too many entrepreneurs were staying up late wondering why their marketing wasn't working. And far more entrepreneurs didn't understand enough about marketing to even make well-informed decisions.
00:14:57
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I wanted to create a back pocket guidebook to help busy entrepreneurs feel empowered and educated when it came to growing their business. All right. So still on your book, can you really highlight some of the key takeaways from this book?
00:15:13
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Sure. Well, first of all, it's an international bestseller. We had international bestseller status in four countries the last year, which is very exciting. I tell everyone that when you're reading the book, you should apply it to your business bit by bit.
00:15:26
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I give some good financial information about the amount of money you should spend on marketing, depending upon the size of your company. And then I actually have some downloadable guides and information that you can use in the book to start implementing the four C's for yourself. Okay.
00:15:41
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So Amber, you've been on this journey for a long time now. I'd like us to spend some time talking about the lessons you've gathered all these years.
Key Lessons for Entrepreneurs
00:15:52
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Can you share these useful lessons with my audience? Oh my goodness, there have been so many lessons, Kofi. First of all, I never want to pretend like I have all the answers because I don't.
00:16:01
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I think you should never be the smartest person in the room. Always surround yourself with people that are smarter and more talented than you. I definitely feel that way about my team. I have a wonderful team of people who are 10 times more talented than I will ever be.
00:16:14
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The other thing I would say is you have to get out of your own way and recognize that even if you don't feel that you have something of value to bring to the world, you actually do. Every single person has value and you will attract the customers that appreciate your unique approach to business.
00:16:30
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And then lastly, I love this quote by the great Zig Ziglar. If you spend enough time helping other people get what they want, you never have to worry about getting what you want. So always out serve your fellow man. All right. So we're just about wrapping up We are just about wrapping up our conversation today.
00:16:48
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um And I'd like us to spend some time with you offering useful pieces of advice to our listeners.
Advice for New and Struggling Entrepreneurs
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What would be your piece of advice to a small business owner and who's just started his business?
00:17:03
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What would be your piece of advice to such a person? Take your time to develop your company message and know what makes you unique in your marketplace. Take the time to establish a good, healthy online presence from the beginning.
00:17:20
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Always maintain ownership of your marketing collateral, such as your website, your Google business profile, and your other things. Don't give those over to someone else. You should always control them yourself.
00:17:32
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Three good tips for any new entrepreneur. All right. So how about somebody who is in business, who's done, let's say, five to 10 years in business? What be your piece of advice for for such a person?
00:17:46
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Think about your goals for the next five to 10 years. Where do you want to go from here? What kind of growth do you want to drive? Dig into the marketing that you've already done and establish what's working and what's not working. If something isn't working, don't be afraid to diversify your marketing into new opportunities to test new avenues.
00:18:05
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And lastly, make sure that your marketing is always creating more revenue for your company. So lastly, this is for somebody who's been ah business for quite some time, is facing a lot of struggles, and is on the verge of giving up.
00:18:21
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What would be your piece of advice to this kind of business person? Never give up. Find another way to win, to pursue. All right. So before we sign off, Amber, what would be your last words to my audience?
00:18:36
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I wish you abundance, joy, and love. All right. So thank you, Amber Gage, for sharing your rich experience with us today on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. We wish you the very best.
00:18:48
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So this has been another exciting episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. I'll come your way next time with another exciting episode. I remain your host, Kofi Animedu.
00:19:00
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As always, do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep hope alive. Cheers. Please be sure to subscribe to the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast on all your favorite podcast channels. And if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us on social media or in the comments section below.
00:19:25
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Dreams light up the sky tonight. Builders of tomorrow shining bright. From every land they find their beat.
00:19:35
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Yeah, it's the entrepreneur speaks.