Mindi Rosser started her first marketing business in the corner of an attic bathroom on an IKEA hand-me-down desk – prior to the advent of video calls (whew!) Though she failed with a few business ventures along the way, she has always been passionate about connecting great people with the knowledge, resources, and relationships they need to build healthy, happy, successful businesses.
As a Millennial, she’s been at the forefront of how social media has transformed the way we connect with each other, how we communicate, and even how it influences the people we become.
When she joined The Conversion Company in 2014, she discovered how social media, specifically LinkedIn, could be effectively used for strategic B2B lead generation and business development. Since then, she has focused on running their Performance Lab for clients, who are interested in connecting with their ideal prospects through highly targeted social selling programs and personalized prospecting.
No spam. No automation. No bots.
She also runs Mindi Rosser Marketing, where she helps B2B business owners connect with trained virtual assistants who have gone through her LinkedIn-specific training course.
She believes that building a great business starts with a solid business development foundation built on trust, authenticity, and consistency.
So how did I start out as a marketer?
I actually started with a Craigslist ad. So I found a Craigslist ad that was looking for a social media person in California, and I was moving to California. And so I decided to respond to the ad. And I got the job and come to find out I did okay, I guess with that freelance work, and that led to getting into the agency world.
So I started working ads in a marketing agency, one of the top ones in the country. And that led to me really wanting to do it on my own. I worked for some startups, also just kind of explored working with clients and found my stride in working as a remote worker as a marketing consultant specializing in LinkedIn.
So looking back What is my hardest struggle when it came to delivering results?
I think for me delivering results in the challenges around them comes back to the fact that I’m really a big numbers person. So I think for me, it’s really being able to look at the numbers and actually make strategic recommendations based on those numbers.
And so for me, it was a lot of learning in that department. So really learning how to analyze numbers and understand how numbers tell the right story.
And what story are those numbers telling?
And how does that translate to the client?
The person I’m trying to help?
How is it helping them reach their objectives?
So I think for me, that was probably one of the hardest things to learn. When it came to marketing.
The words came easy, talking to people, not so difficult. So it really was more on the numbers.
How did I get my first client back then?
Oh, so how I got my first client It depends on when you count my first client, I guess it was, it would be that client on Craigslist. So that Craigslist ad that I responded to.
So basically, I was looking on Craigslist for a side job and I saw that job and I responded to it. And what did I do for them? I posted tweets. So I learned how to use Twitter, I learned how to schedule posts, and I learned how to do marketing campaigns.
What do you find the most rewarding about what you do?
That was simple. I think for me, it’s about the relationships. So it’s really finding good people who wants to do good business and helping them accomplish their objectives.
So it’s really built on trust. It’s built on expertise. It’s built on experience, and really helping people figure out what that objective is. Sometimes they come with one idea in their mind and when you actually have a conversation to realize there’s a deeper objective.
So I think uncovering that and how Helping them actualize what that deeper objective is in the programs that we do together, whether it’s lead generation or a marketing campaign or building thought leadership.
That’s what I find rewarding and watching their faces when they actually get the results that we set out to achieve. So that’s really fun for me.
I have a lot of freelancers who are hell bent on becoming freelancers. Aside from freelancing, how else can someone earn online?
That’s a really good question. I think. If you don’t want to freelance, what you need to do is you need to look for a company that hires remote workers. And if you want to earn online, there are a number of ways to do that. A really good way to start is to start as a virtual assistant. I actually work with a number of virtual assistants.
It’s kind of another side angle of my business and I really enjoy working with them. Some come to me with a good number of experience. Some have very little to none but I think Becoming a virtual assistant gives you online credibility, it gives you the the tools, the exposure to the tools, it helps you understand the client experience.
It helps you learn how to work remotely, because in today’s day and age, you have to work remotely for the most part unless you’re considered any central worker in whatever country you’re in.
So I think earning online, I guess, being a virtual assistant could fall under freelancing. But you could also it’s kind of a pivot in a way to get into a more solid remote work job. And if you have a job that you were working at before, I would just look at those, the criteria, those experiences that you’ve had, and try to figure out how that translates to a job that you want to do online. So like looking at remote work gigs, that would be the equivalent to what you were doing before. And then exploring those options.
There are a lot of job sites that you can look at one that I would recommend is yondr.io and there’s 50 plus job sites yet this one is a really good resource. If you are trying to search for different jobs online and don’t really know where to look, there are a ton of jobs and resources here.
So that’s where I’d look.
If you were given the chance to build your career all over again, what would you do differently so that you would achieve your dreams faster?
I think that one would just then find a really good mentor.
If you can find somebody that’s amazing that you could work under that shortcuts that process so much like when I found a good, who’s the person who is now my business partner and one of my businesses.
She really helped me develop the confidence, the skills, just the you know, understanding client relationships, understanding objectives, from a new perspective and working with her has helped me grow and build my career and achieve my dreams faster. If I would have met her a few years earlier, it would have helped a lot.
So So I think, yeah, a mentor, look for a mentor.
How was your typical workday structured?
Because most of my clients are in different time zones. Well, all my clients are in different time zones. I am based in Hawaii. So most of my clients are from Sweden, to the Pacific Time Zone in the US. So it’s kind of a wide range, probably about 12 hours of time zone coverage there.
And then I have days that are in like the Philippines and other places. So yeah, pretty much feel like we’re around the world. So with my typical workday, and how it’s structured, I typically start really early.
So hitting the desk, my work desk about 5:30 am my time what I really tried to do focus on at the beginning of the day, is getting in touch with all the clients anything that has to be done right away. Because realizing I’m at the tail end of most people’s work day. I have to make sure that I’m Doing phone calls early.
So like the first half of my day is client calls, phone calls, slack messages, anything that has to be done in real time, I would say the last half of my day is really nice because most people are all done with the day. So I’m not getting bugged or pinged.
And what I do is I focus on all of my deeper work. So if I’m working on strategy stuff, if I’m working on LinkedIn profiles, building a new program, working on my products, anything that I can queue up for my team for the next day, that’s when I do that stuff.
So it’s pretty much kind of like a divide my day into like the calls portion and then the deep work portion can tell us about a time where you put in significant effort upfront and then wait a long time for success. With that one, I think putting significant effort upfront.
It would be a current project that I’m working on, which was creating my first products which is actually a training program for vast learning how to use LinkedIn. I started the process more than a year ago that thought had been in my mind before then as well.
But basically figuring out how to take my training and the implementation I do for my clients and turn it into something that can be replicated and with the right manpower, people that can actually learn how to use Lincoln in it. So I think waiting a long time for success. I haven’t seen that success yet, because I haven’t had a ton of people go through the product. It’s still in like beta tester mode.
So yeah, so I think that one is a very recent project that I’m still waiting to see the results from. But I know it’s a long term investment. And I think looking at my track record and what I’ve invested in in the past, this was the right next move for my business even though Yeah, it can be some time it’s, you know, the fledgling at Avaya an idea a couple years ago, and now it’s in the process of shipping to the world.
Can you tell us about a past situation where how to juggle multiple projects with competing deadlines?
I deal with this all the time. So this is something that you just as a freelancer with multiple clients, you are you always have competing deadlines. There are always deadlines for one project that coincide with another.
If you can figure out how to structure them once you get a little more experience, and you have a little more say so over your schedule, you can actually kind of bookmark these into your calendar, and you can create waiting lists for people or say, Hey, I can slot this project in here. But it really is figuring out number one, how long it takes you to get a project done.
Making sure number two, making sure you leave enough bandwidth for when things go wrong within that project, whether it’s family, something happens in the family, and maybe it’s you know, something with another client. So really building in a little bandwidth with your timelines.
And then number three I think it’s communication. So sometimes you are just not going to hit the deadlines and you have to push them. And there is no way around it. And so you just really need to be open with your clients and figure out which deadlines need to be met first, and prioritize accordingly. So it really comes down to prioritization and being a stickler for your calendar. And when things need to get done, and how.
What recently developed marketing strategy technique or tool interests you the most right now?
That’s a good one. Um, I think right now I’m really curious about how people build products, launch products, and build community with the people that are using those products. So when I’m talking about products, a meaning like online training programs, because as I mentioned before, that is a product that I am working on and trying to figure out how to sell to the right audience.
So I think for me, it’s really fun to dive into new products. products are and projects to figure out what i what i can learn from other people’s processes, how to tailor it for myself and what I can do better. So, yeah, so I think that’s what I’m looking at right now.
What do you stay up to date with new marketing techniques?
I pay attention to my LinkedIn newsfeed that’s important. I subscribed to some newsletters, from people I trust in my industry and outside of my industry who are inspirational. I listened to a lot of podcasts. And I talked to my clients, I think talking to my clients and figuring out what they’re hearing if they have different ideas and really listening to them not just telling them what I think they should do. I think that’s critical to staying up to date.
Can you tell us about a project you’re most proud of from your past work history?
Probably off there’s I guess there’s a number of them. But working with one of my clients, his name is Max trailer. What I’ve been really happy about with his program is that it’s really consistent. We’ve worked together for three years, he has consistently filled his calendar with calls with the people exact right people that he wants to talk to, based on the programs. We’ve been running for him on LinkedIn. And so to me, that’s a big deal, because we’ve been consistent. I think, in our delivery, he’s happy with us feeding his pipeline. And it’s a pretty simple and straightforward working relationship.
Which one book or blog post would you recommend every marketer read?
Anything by Seth Godin. So if you want to become a marketer, Seth Godin is the master at marketing, he looks at it from a lot of different angles, especially if you’re coming at it from the advertising side. The almost like the agency innovator side of things, Seth Godin is just amazing and he just makes you think outside the box, so read anything of his and he’s got a ton of books.
What advice would you share with other marketers who want to become more productive?
That one time blocking I, that’s I’ve heard a million people say it. But time blocking is really, really important. If you want to become more productive, figure out your workspace as well. So that would be number two is really think through what workspace and work environment works best for you.
And sometimes you’re not going to have the perfect work environment and you still have to get things done. So do the best with what you have in which you can and that’s okay. And number three is pick the best times in the day to do different things. So start paying attention to when you do what, and try to pick the same time like set the same time aside each day for doing specific tasks.
So for example, like checking emails, you do this at what times during the day responding to clients doing your calls, and just be a stickler for when you want to get things done. Because in reality, it’s there was a quota came across that I really like and it’s called, it’s very simple. So I am in control of my choices, my time, my life.
So if you take that to heart, you will become more productive because you realize your schedule is your own. And you can choose how to work it to make you the most productive you can be. I kind of answered this some already one marketing guru you’d recommend and why Seth Godin. He’s, he’s just the master at what he does. He’s a genuine person, he’s authentic.
He has a lot of good strategies. He has a lot of good resources out there. In courses if you’re interested. I went through alt MBA, which is like his flagship, one of his flagship programs. It’s a bit pricey, but excellent program. He has a lot of other ones that I’ve been through to other ones of his, and I was very impressed with the quality of them. So Seth Godin. So thank you for having me on for this interview. I look forward to seeing you bye.