00:00:05:09 – 00:00:40:08
Mara Shorr
Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. I’m your host, Mara Shorr. I am a partner in the medical practice management company. Yes, Shorr Solutions. Who is the other partner, you may ask. Easy answer. That would be my father. Our founding partner, Jay Shorr. Together, we now have an amazing team and clients across the country. Listen as I chat, converse, strategize and commiserate with brilliant guests, colleagues, friends, clients, and influencers. It’s time to listen, learn, and be inspired. Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast.
00:00:45:20 -00:02:25:17
Mara shorr
And welcome back to another episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me again today. And I have with me today someone that I am proud to call not just a colleague, but truly a friend. And I have with me today. Kaitlyn Study, Kaitlyn is a founder and creative director of South Street Company, a marketing agency that offers really a variety of services through a custom tailored approach.
Kaitlyn is like me based right here in Central Florida. So honestly, when we’re not quarantined at home, we get together for coffee every other Friday morning and talk about what it’s like to be a fellow female business owner. She is one of my favorite humans, truly. She is just a master of so many trades but has really written and original and interesting twist.
One of Kaitlyn’s first jobs in her field was when she worked at a dermatology office here in Central Florida and helped them completely rebrand. Eventually, she redesigned another website, implemented social media blogging SEO, and over the next two and a half years, helped to double the footprint of the practice to 17 offices in Florida and three out of state.
So eventually Kaitlyn went on to really branch out on her own, and that is when she created not just South Street and Company, but is in the process of creating another business as well called Becoming a Local. And we will get into that as well. So, Kaitlyn, thank you so much for joining us on Shorr Solutions: The Podcast!
00:02:27:01 – 00:02:29:14
Kaitlyn Study
Thanks for having me. I love the intro.
00:02:30:09 – 00:03:14:10
Mara shorr
Let’s start out by talking a little bit about South Street and Company. And for anybody that’s listening, I first and foremost recommend that you check out South Street and Company on Instagram because very you know, I’m going to say selfishly, but I think that they have an absolutely beautiful and really productive we’ll call it Instagram. And I have to admit that we snag a lot of our own ideas for Shorr solutions from things that South Street and Company does.
So if you aren’t already, I strongly encourage you to follow South Street and Company on Instagram. But Kaitlyn, can you talk about how you went about founding South Street and who you guys are and what you’re doing now?
00:03:15:10 – 00:04:51:23
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, like you mentioned in the intro, I found my first job, believe it or not, on Craigslist, and it was for a dermatologist at the time when I joined them, they had ten offices in Central Florida and didn’t really do a lot of marketing. So I helped them rebrand the company, implemented social media, email marketing consulting and not consulting, but blogging and really implemented their SEO and created their digital footprint.
So that was part of my job. And then the other part of my job was going out and meeting with doctors who did refer or who could refer to the practice. So I was able to really learn a lot of skills that I went to UCF, but UCF didn’t teach me as in like, Hey, this is actually what you have to do on a daily basis for social media.
You can’t just post something, you have to respond and interact with people. So I really got to take a deep dive into what it took to grow a practice and what it takes to grow a company. Overall. I was with them for two and a half years and then during that I kind of felt like I wanted to do something else.
So I was introduced to my first client. That was in February 2014 and helped her revamp her website, helped her with her online marketing, and she started getting leads in. And then she referred me to another person. And then I started this little side hustle that was not named at the time. So I started that from like the second bedroom of my apartment.
00:04:52:02 – 00:05:09:00
Mara shorr
It always starts as a side hustle. Shorr Solutions started as a side hustle as well. So out of us, you know, out of a spare bedroom in our townhouse at the time was my townhouse before I married my husband and I. We always start as a side hustle, don’t we? That’s how we started, too.
00:05:10:01 – 00:05:33:06
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah. And I kid you not. I found my first desk. We got it from a neighbor. They were putting it out to get rid of, and I was like, Hey, is this. Do you mind if I take this? And they’re like, Oh, yeah, nothing wrong with it. I was like, Okay, thanks. And so we cleaned it and painted it white and put it up there.
And that was, that was the first desk.
00:05:33:06 – 00:05:58:00
Mara shorr
Mine was Craigslist IKEA. I say the only thing that’s less sturdy than an IKEA desk is a second hand IKEA desk that you end up with like leftover screws. And we did. And my husband would come in eventually as we got married and he would he would come in at the end of the day to check in and see how I was doing, because I was working from home.
And I always had to tell him, don’t lean on the desk, because it was like I’d watch it just shake. So I, I totally am right there with you. I understand.
00:05:58:21 – 00:06:29:03
Kaitlyn Study
So but hey, it’s fine. And that’s all I needed to start. And I basically just built it up, put in my my two weeks notice about a year, a little over a year. So it was in March 2015 after I got my first client and then I just hit the ground running in. So now fast forward five years.
We specialize in helping small to medium sized businesses grow their reach online, and that’s through website design, social media, SEO, blogging, email marketing and consulting.
00:06:30:09 – 00:07:28:04
Mara shorr
So part of my goal for this podcast is always to pick the brain of the people that I’m interviewing with the questions that people ask all around. One thing that I love that you pointed out is that even in a marketing position, you took it upon yourself and really would go out and meet with doctors that were referring.
And that’s something that obviously South Street doesn’t do now, South Street and company companies doesn’t do now. But I just want to point out to our our practices that are listening, if you do have somebody in-house that is able, whether it’s a patient care coordinator or a marketing position at any level, make sure that you are setting goals for them, for how they can go out and meet with referring providers because that’s so important and often it just falls to the wayside.
So it’s such an important way to get out. And because you are, you’re out, you’re meeting and mingling and talking with people at events now, and now it’s on behalf of South Street and Company. But you’ve always been someone that’s that’s out and networking and uses that to your advantage too.
00:07:29:07 – 00:07:58:06
Kaitlyn Study
I love going out and meeting with people. Even now we have done like Zoom Happy hours. Believe it or not, last night actually, my friend’s husband is a deejay and he’s putting together a promo video to pitch corporations on doing at home parties just to keep the morale up. And so he needed a bunch of friends to hop on a Zoom call and just recording us dancing.
00:07:58:06 – 00:09:19:08
Mara shorr
I love that. It’s oh, I love that. I think it is all about keeping morale up to, like you said, it’s all about keeping up morale because everything has changed for companies. I want to, you know, I want to touch on something that as we get back to some of the intricacies of what you guys specialize in. So at Shorr Solutions, we work with practices all over the country.
So it’s we’re not just local to Florida. We have practices all over the country. So our clients are all in different markets. And the we were founded, it was myself and my dad, Jay Shorr. I always talk about Jay in every episode and Jay and I really still to this day, make sure to talk to all the practices about being involved locally and what they can do locally.
I want to talk about some of the best tips and tricks that you have as far as how South Street and Company helps clients and therefore the tips you can pass on helps your clients be found locally through the digital form, right? What can they be doing to help them with their search engine optimization through GoogleMyBusiness and social media and reviews?
Like there’s so much, how do you recommend they pull together strategy and get started and then how do they go about doing that?
00:09:21:04 – 00:11:38:19
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, so one thing to note is that marketing takes all of these different pieces of the pie and all of these pieces, different pieces of the pie are divided into exactly what you just said. So you can’t just do social media, you can’t just do email marketing, you have to do a little bit of everything, and that creates a whole campaign.
So going back to what you mentioned earlier about going out and meeting with doctors who did refer or who could refer, that was actually the position that I was hired on for. And I came in and said, You know, we need to look at digital marketing and online marketing because that’s something that’s going to help your practice. So I really think that if you’re a practice that markets locally, that that should be going out and meeting with physicians or providers like parties or NPs.
That’s going to be a really big piece of it because that significantly helps the practice grow. But not only that, now people Google to Google is a verb now, and now people are doing that. They have their phone in their back pocket, in their purse. It’s with them all the time. They have a computer on their wrist now.
So you have to think, how are you coming up online when someone is searching for you and one of the ways and one of the things that everyone should be aware of, whomever has a business, no matter what industry is, Google my business, which is also called Google Local. So that pops up on the right hand side of the page and it walks through all the reviews, your location, your phone number, scheduling an appointment, online, photos, all of the above.
But one thing that a lot of people may not know about is the ability to add service areas and to add services. So a couple maybe like a year ago now, Google got rid of Google Plus and integrated some of the Google Plus items into Google my business. So now you can also post on Google. So it’s the equivalent of if you post on Facebook, you can add service areas.
So whether it be counties, zip codes, cities, and then you can also talk about the services that you provide right on your Google my business page. And one pro tip for everyone is to make sure you’re updating your photos at least once a month because there are statistics that show if you update your photos, you tend to come up more in searches and to be more relevant.
00:11:39:03 – 00:12:18:18
Mara shorr
So if so you’re saying to update photos once a month, which in theory it seems absolutely feasible, Right. What types of photos would you recommend the practice utilizing, knowing that for the most part our listeners are medical practices. We do have that here and there. We have other other industries that listen. But if we’re talking specifically about medical practice, what sort of photos would you suggest keeping in mind to HIPAA compliance?
And what is it that Google frowns upon, i.e. before and after, since we do have body plastic surgeons that listen to this podcast? Well.
00:12:19:16 – 00:13:41:19
Kaitlyn Study
So the good thing is, is that if you log into the back end of your Google my business page, which by the way, you can claim by going to business.google.com if you haven’t already, if you haven’t already done that, that’s your homework after listening to this podcast. So Google makes it super easy. If you click on the photos on the left hand side, you’ll see a menu bar and it has the option for photos.
So if you click on that, it literally gives you categories. So you can add people’s headshots like the doctors headshots so that people can scroll through and know who they’re going to be speaking with. You can add like patient care coordinators. You can also add pictures of the exterior. So when people drive up, they know what to look for.
Sometimes places can be in a little bit like hidden area or, you know, maybe it’s not blatantly obvious where to park or where to go, and then also add interior pictures as well so that people know where the front desk is. If there’s a wheelchair accessible entrance, that’s also something to add as well and to denote on your Google my business page, but I don’t necessarily think you need to put before and after or any pictures of patients.
It’s mostly for people who are coming and looking you up and seeking you out in order to make sure that you’re going to be a good fit for what they’re looking for.
00:13:42:12 – 00:15:53:24
Mara shorr
And I would tell all, I know what I would tell our clients and our practices and anybody that’s listening, you want to make sure that you are keeping an eye on which photos are posted. So if a staff member is no longer with the practice, not to have their picture up there, their head shot up there two years later, especially if there was not an amicable parting.
And then another is that just like you said, once a month, we are all so busy and once a month tends to the fault tends to just fall to the wayside. You think I don’t remember when I did that last. I don’t remember what I’m supposed to do that next. So I would set a reminder on your calendar as part of your list of monthly tasks.
So and it doesn’t have to be the first of the month. It could be the the seventh of the month or whatever that looks like and the first Tuesday. But make sure by setting that reminder, then it’s not going to be something that doesn’t get done purely because you forget about it. And as long as it’s designated to somebody in the practice, it could even be that if we say in theory it should be somebody in marketing.
But for a small practice you might not have a marketing coordinator position. Some of our clients, still some of the practices we work with, some have entire marketing departments. So we want to say maybe it’s the job of is somebody at your front desk and it’s their job to take a look around the reception area and maybe newly freshened it up.
You know, you put in some some fresh landscaping or some beautiful new flower arrangements that have gone in. And so let’s take photos of what what the new lobby looks like or the reception area looks like. So and then it becomes somebody’s job not only to take those photos, but to then either upload them yourself or upload them to the company that you’re working with that manages your digital presence.
So I, I love those, those tips. Kaitlyn I think in that why every time I talk with you, I always end up jotting down notes for things that even we want to do at Shorr Solutions of, because you always provide really actionable items. So we have okay, so we have Google my business. And what other tips and tricks can you provide for us today?
00:15:54:24 – 00:18:17:14
Kaitlyn Study
So as far as when the search engine optimization comes into the picture, one thing that I would definitely recommend that we had our our providers do on a monthly basis was we had them write one blog and then I would go in and optimize that blog. And all that means is that I would put keyword strategically throughout. If you don’t have a a marketing department or a marketing person, I would highly recommend looking at someone that you’re comfortable with or asking for a recommendation of a company that you can hire to help you with your search engine optimization.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not rocket science, but it takes a lot of work and you have to know what you’re doing or else it’s not going to work. But one thing that I would highly suggest is that you put out content that’s updated and fresh content at least once a month. So ideal situation would be once a week, but sometimes that’s not feasible and you have to do whatever you’re comfortable with and what your capacity is.
So I would say at least once a month, hire someone to help you with that in the person needs to be familiar with your practice area, what your goals are. And you should also be tracking this too. So Google Analytics should be set up. That’s another free program by Google. And you should also set up a Google search console.
So the difference between Google Analytics and Google Search console is I described them as cousins. They’re similar, but also very different. So Google Analytics is on your website and that shows the backend of where everyone’s coming from, how long they’re looking at the website, what pages they’re looking at, the areas they’re coming from, what pages they’re exiting at, the total page count that they’re looking at.
And then Google Search Console that actually shows you what key phrases people are typing into Google in order to find you. And that is completely crucial because you need to know, are people finding me for something that I want to be found for? And also, what are people clicking on in order to come to me and what are people just looking at me for and not clicking?
So then you can craft your content based around what people are just looking at me for and not clicking, because that’s an area of opportunity for you.
00:18:17:20 – 00:20:11:22
Mara shorr
And that’s, you know, in our industry. I think that people assume, for example, that they might need to use a more technical term. So for example, breast augmentation or rhinoplasty, when in reality what you need to look at is that and in some markets your patient base might be Googling rhinoplasty, but in other markets they might be Googling nose job, for instance.
And that’s where what we need to look at is how can you craft that copy based on the verbiage that people are using? So is it like is it breast augmentation or is it boob job? What what is it that they’re talking about here? So that’s where you always want to look at what what information is out there.
Our team, even yesterday Kaitlyn had and during one of our all team meetings and we have an all team meeting once a week, if not more, sometimes during crazy periods. We have all team meetings twice a week, but we have one a month where we know what the meeting is going to be longer and we’re going to take a deep, deep dive.
And yesterday we looked at the analytics and we pulled up on a screen share everyone in our team works from home around the country and so everybody works remote normally. But we did a screen share yesterday and looked at Google Analytics together because it was really important for all team members to understand really where the popularity of our website is and is not.
So I think there comes a point that maybe it’s not even a conversation to have with just marketing, although marketing marketing contact should be leading that conversation. But I think everybody can find some of that data helpful because that could understand if you don’t have traffic coming to an injectable page, for instance, that would explain why your injector might not be as busy. So we need to look at all of those different facets.
00:20:12:09 – 00:20:34:22
Kaitlyn Study
I completely agree. And I think that you should look at analytics at least once a month. So if you have a marketing agency that you partner with or if you have an in-house marketing person, sit down with them and ask them to walk through how last month was so that you can compare because the goal is to keep growing. And if you’re not, then that’s a clear sign that maybe something needs to change.
00:20:36:02 – 00:22:22:13
Mara shorr
I agree. I absolutely agree. And that’s why there’s so many different facets to the data that you’re able to look at. There’s so many different ways you can look at the data. So but it’s all about keeping an eye on the data. So we also recommend because we’ve had clients that say, Oh, I can go and get a website or, you know, for $1,000 and then I’ll just handle the rest myself.
We have clients that have have asked about that or they say, Oh, I can go on and they’ll name a site that they can do a free or like a $999 a month website. And the design is one component that it’s, you know, for the sake of today’s conversation, not necessarily touching on design, but what happens after that is that you want to make sure you’re giving everybody directions to come to your beautiful house so you can have this beautiful website.
But if you’re not driving track of traffic to it, it doesn’t matter. And honestly, we know that your practice is focused on so many other things and there’s so much that goes into marketing that being an SEO expert isn’t something that we even recommend for people that have an in-house marketing position. We say at that, if nothing else, contract out SEO because you really want your marketing person focusing on all the other things and not necessarily SEO.
And you really need a company that is an expert with SEO. I’d love to talk for a second about reviews. We know that in our industry it is a constant problem as far as negative reviews and patients leaving negative reviews. But can you talk about some tips and tricks you’ve seen along the way and that you might give to your clients about how to obtain more positive reviews?
And what is the power of having this positive reviews?
00:22:24:02 – 00:23:45:17
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, so the power is that 87% of people that see an online review find that it is as accurate or they view it as valuable as getting a personal recommendation. So if you are not paying attention to your online reviews and you are marketing locally with which a lot of practices do, that is a huge area of opportunity that you are missing out on.
So I always tell people as well, when you have a positive or a negative review on Google, Facebook actually just changed your recommendation. So it’s do you recommend yes or no? So there’s no star rating on Facebook anymore, but people can still leave a negative, like they don’t recommend the business on Facebook and then leave a comment with that.
So whether you’re on Google or whether you’re on Facebook, you should always respond no matter what and you should always respond differently so that it doesn’t seem like a robot replying. But especially with negative reviews, it’s really important that you respond to that. You tell them that you understand where they’re coming from, that you put items into place in order to prevent X from happening again, and that you’d be happy to have them call or to resolve any issues through contacting us in X way.
00:23:46:08 – 00:24:28:14
Mara shorr
We always recommend to our clients they really, really, really need to make sure to keep up of compliance because especially in our space, you’re not able to acknowledge that a reviewer was or was not a patient. So you have to say in our office, this is the policy. Thank you for bringing us to our attention. If you would like to discuss it, please do feel free to call this person at this phone number.
We welcome the opportunity to resolve it. But you can’t say that’s not true. When you were here, that never happened. And you’re remembering that wrong. You’re not even a patient here. So you need to be really, really careful. We always tell our practices they need to be very, very careful about that.
00:24:29:01 – 00:26:45:12
Kaitlyn Study
So you should have a strategy for that. And if your EMR system has an automatic email notification or automatic email, when someone checks out of the practice, that’s a great way to integrate it into the system you’re already using. And what I would suggest is getting your link for a Google review and putting that right into the email or a lot of practice management softwares also have a text message integrated as well texting capability.
So if they if the patient has turned that on, you can set up automated reminders or automated emails or text to go out and then you can just have that link in the text or in the email, and then they simply click on it, leave a review, and then they’re done. But one thing that you have to know is that not everyone who had a positive experience will leave your review.
People who have a negative experience are seven times more likely to leave a negative review than someone with a positive experience. So my strategy is start asking for reviews now. And if you’re not asking for reviews now, start tomorrow. Because the one thing that you don’t want to happen is that you have one or two positive reviews and all of a sudden you get a one star and you’re like, Oh my gosh, how do I resolve this?
How do I get this away? How do I delete it? And the answer to that is you can flag something on Google, but it’s up to Google whether or not it stays. So a lot of times there isn’t a resolution as to deleting something, but you can respond. You can make sure that you don’t violate any of the HIPAA practices that need to be in place, but I would say have a strategy going in and see if your EMR integrates with that because a lot of systems do.
If they don’t, you’ll need to integrate with a compliant company that does review marketing. So I’m not sure, like we set up automations for our clients in MailChimp, and I don’t know if that has HIPAA compliance capabilities, but I’ve heard of a Birdeye. I that’s one that I know you can send up text messages from, but there are a ton out there. You just have to find what works best for you.
00:26:45:23 – 00:28:34:11
Mara shorr
There are, there are so many out there. I mean we’ve, we have clients that use Birdeye, we have clients that use Podium, we have clients that have used Solution Reach. We have clients, you know, as much as possible. Look at one of the points or yeah one of the points that I love that you brought up, Kaitlyn was looking at what are the capabilities within your own EMR because so often what we see is our clients will come to us and they’ll say, How do I get more positive reviews?
How do I send out text message reminders? How do I I mean, pick one of the the conversations and the questions? how do I start my email marketing campaign? Because we do still have clients either that are new practices or maybe they’re existing practices that have never gotten around to an email marketing campaign. And one of the first things that we always say is look at what it is that your existing EMR does.
I always recommend and I’ve said this on other podcast episodes with other guests as well, the one of the first things I recommend is hop on the phone with your EMR system and ask them to do a full updated tour with you of the software that you’re currently utilizing. Because what we have found is that a lot of our practices missed the updates that the systems will send out about, Oh, we fix this bug we implemented this new system, this new capability.
And so we don’t want you as a practice or you as a business owner to start going out and buying all of these additional pieces of software when in reality you might already be paying for it. So I think I saw it’s a great example. Kaitlyn, you gave of first and foremost look, look at your EMR and then look at where else you need to keep an eye out.
But the strategy is one thing and then the software to utilize and really implement that strategy is another.
00:28:35:07 – 00:31:01:17
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, I completely agree. And the the last thing that I would recommend as far as local marketing is your social media strategy. So five years, seven years ago, everyone thought that they needed to be on every single social media platform, like, let’s say a dermatologist on Twitter or someone on like a platform. Some people are taking advantage of Tik Tok.
But what I would say is that start with one or two and Facebook is primarily the biggest one. Start with that. If you are a very visual practice, meaning like aesthetics, Instagram would probably be really great. Just make sure, of course that you get people’s consent. If you’re doing before and after photos. Make sure everything’s good to go as far as that.
I would also probably recommend and an attorney would be better at this, but just making sure that you get written consent as well in order to post people’s photos. But you can do that on Instagram. Instagram is my personal favorite account as far as social media goes, because it’s so visual and you almost don’t need to have any text to go along with it because people understand things just from looking at an image and they can relate to it.
They can want to be that, They can want to visit that place. They could want to eat that just from not even reading the caption. So really think about what you’re posting and what story you want to tell online, because online is so inundated with different ideas, different tips, everything. So what’s going to set your practice apart from the other one down the road or the other one in the next city over that people are considering?
And one thing to do is make sure that you post behind the scenes photos, behind the scenes images or behind the scenes content is really, really trending as well as video content. So even if you’re even if let’s say you’re a plastic surgeon and you answer frequently asked questions like, oh, what is the downtime for X service or what is what can I expect on my initial consultation?
Or how long does X procedure take? Well, can I go back to work after? any questions to even if you can do like a Facebook Live or an Instagram live answering some of those questions, that’s amazing content that you can then repurpose over and over again because most of the time the answer is always the same for those.
00:31:02:12 – 00:32:45:18
Mara shorr
You know, So we have consents for that. So if anybody is listening and you want to reach out, I’m happy to provide a photo consent that’s been blessed by our legal colleagues. So we are more than happy to provide that. So send an email to info@shorrsolutions.com just requesting that. More than happy to provide that for you.
But it’s so incredibly important what you just said Kaitlyn, is that it’s that behind the scenes look and constant fresh content right because if you don’t ever update then you’re not going to be top of mind. But also it’s those frequently asked questions and even within Shorr Solutions, we’ve started really focusing on how we can repurpose content.
Kaitlyn I know you guys offer a content repurposing package through South Street as well, and I really encourage you to look at as a practice, as a business, how can you repurpose a you take a video and is that video then uploaded to social? So look at is it uploaded to Instagram? Is it uploaded to Facebook? Is it uploaded to YouTube?
And then you take it from YouTube, you take the coding and you put that on your website. So now it’s on your website, you can then in and when you’re sending out email marketing for the link that goes from your email marketing to your website with that video as well. So you now have implemented it in your e-newsletter driving traffic to your website and we look at all the different aspects and all the different facets, the ways that you can repurpose content. Shorr Solutions utilizes this strategy.
And we always encourage our practices and our clients to implement that strategy as well because we want to make life easier.
00:32:47:02 – 00:33:55:19
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, repurposing content is and so many people, especially when it comes to social media. So you definitely don’t want to just click from Instagram to Facebook, especially if you’re using a ton of hashtags. What you want to do is you can use the same content, you’ll just want to repurpose it in that. As an example, Instagram only has one link and that link is in your bio.
So most likely in the caption you’ll say Click the link in our bio and visit x page to learn more about this product or service. While you wouldn’t necessarily want to just push that over to Facebook because Facebook, you can add a link to every single post. So you can use the image and you can use part of the caption, but then you’ll want to repurpose that over on Facebook saying, Hey, click this link right here.
And that’s exactly what we do. And I love the idea of posting that video like you just mentioned to YouTube and then taking that and embedding it on your website because that’s something that you could add on an epic use page. And maybe if someone doesn’t want to read it, they can get to know you and feel comfortable with you as the provider answering questions, and that shows them that you care at the same time.
00:33:56:08 – 00:34:32:23
Mara shorr
I agree. I would love to. As we start wrapping up the the conversation, right, there are three questions that I ask every guest on every episode of the podcast. And I know you and I gave you a heads up about what those questions were, but in any order that you prefer, I want to ask you three questions. What is one piece of knowledge that you learned along the way that you would love to pass on to our listeners?
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently and either personally or professionally? What are you most proud of?
00:34:34:01 – 00:35:18:17
Kaitlyn Study
If I could do it all over again, one thing that I would do differently is listen to my gut more. I feel like all of us have an amazing gut instinct and gut feeling, and we know when we’re like, Oh, maybe we should do not like, No, it’ll be okay. No, you should just do that. You should just do that.
Just do it right away. If you’re not feeling comfortable with something, just push pause. Rethink it for a minute. So I think that would be one thing if I could if I could do everything all over. And even right now, like some situations, it’s so hard to listen to your gut and follow your instinct because it’s hard to tell someone no or it’s hard to scratch something you’ve been working on and move in another direction. So I think that’s what I would do differently.
00:35:19:04 – 00:35:28:14
Mara shorr
What would you pass along? What sort of in really like knowledge or this lesson learned that you have acquired along the way that you would like to pass along and share?
00:35:30:22 – 00:38:06:23
Kaitlyn Study
One thing that I think a lot of people aren’t taking advantage of is how many people you can reach on social media and you can do that with a lot of different ways. So especially on Instagram and if anyone’s on LinkedIn personally and even with your business, you can add hashtags on LinkedIn and those are more prevalently being used as well.
But doing Instagram lives, doing Facebook lives, testing video, using hashtags, commenting back, following other people. Social media is all about interaction. It’s about being social online. And I feel like a lot of people forget that because it takes so much time to do. So, If you’re going to put together a social strategy, make sure that you you do it right by using hashtags, by adding behind the scenes content, by integrating videos.
And that’s what I would say as far as my lesson learn, because I’ve seen a lot of businesses who they just try to do it, or maybe they say, Well, I’m just going to have my intern do it. But the problem… interns are great. I love them. But the problem is you’re having this person come in with probably a little direction on where you want them to take it and some people succeed, but a lot of times people just don’t know the best practices and best ways to do things.
And as far as best practices, there are a couple of websites that I would recommend. Number one, socialmediaexaminer.com for anyone who wants to learn about social media marketing, they are an industry leader. For search engine optimization. If you want to know the general knowledge, because I do think that each business owner, if you outsource marketing, should know generally what you’re paying for so you can have an educated conversation.
So moz.com, they’re an industry leader in the SEO industry and then if any of your team wants to get certified. Google Analytics has an academy that I highly, highly recommend that’s going to. That’s basically the spine and the backbone of your website in your marketing because your website is now at the forefront of everything that you do.
So make sure you have someone get certified in that. Google AdWords also has and these certifications are free. By the way, Google AdWords also has a certification that’s free, and I would highly recommend you go through that. YouTube has a Creator’s Academy, Pinterest, all of these amazing sites you can go through and get certified for free. And then the last question.
00:38:07:01 – 00:38:42:12
Mara shorr
Actually, I have one more question for you. In addition to that, the final, final question. But, you know, as we’re talking about social, you are so knowledgeable when it comes to social. And one of the things that I just wanted to talk about for a split second is you have just recently launched. Well, come out from behind the scenes when it comes to your new venture, which is Becoming a Local.
So can you talk a little bit about Becoming a Local? And I would love for people to to check that out as well. But can you talk a little bit about your new venture?
00:38:43:14 – 00:40:30:05
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, so I’m really excited about it. It’s it’s five years in the making, a little over five years. But when I first started the company, I realized that no one really knew about me. And I really fell in love with downtown Orlando, specifically the four in Park area. That’s where my office was before we went fully remote at the end of last year.
So I created these Instagram accounts to just to kind of promote the to spread the cheer around the different areas in Orlando. And I have an account that I’ve managed and builds up to right now we’re at 32.7 thousand followers and if anyone wants to follow it, it’s called around downtown Orlando. I also have around Winter Park that has, I think like 27,000, around Thornton Park has 15,000.
I have around Tampa that has 28,000 followers and then around Sarasota that has, I think, 10,000 followers. So this has taken me five years to build them up to that. But it’s been all about posting great content, being consistent, using really amazing hashtags and now are offering advertising for local businesses or even not even local businesses, just companies who want to hyper target those areas.
So we’re reaching like 50,000 people on a weekly basis, which is incredible. And it’s just crazy how it’s kind of taken on a life of its own. So that’s our next venture and we’re putting out all of this amazing content about interviewing businesses and we’re talking about nonprofits that people can support. So it’s been pretty amazing so far.
And I’m I’m really excited about this new venture. It’s not actually new, but it’s like…
00:40:30:06 – 00:40:31:08
Mara Shorr
five years in the making right?
00:40:31:09 – 00:40:57:23
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah, a project in the making. So I’m really excited about it. We don’t have a website yet that I wanted to kind of test content to see how well it would work. And so far it’s been doing amazing. So eventually I’ll create a website and put more information on there.
But if you want any more information about that, you can reach out hello@becomingalocal.com.
00:40:58:17 – 00:41:22:00
Mara shorr
I love that. And one of the things that it proves is that it’s not just that you’re telling people how to do it, you’re doing it yourself. You’re utilizing your own strategies to make it work. And it’s not a matter of just teaching people, but you’re implementing them and you’re trying out the different tools and tactics yourself. With that all that you’ve done. I want to come back to what will be the final question. What is it that you’re most proud of?
00:41:23:23 – 00:42:21:09
Kaitlyn Study
I think that I’m most proud of the items that I’ve created and that kind of is like the umbrella of everything. I mean, the ultimate goal is to bring clients success. And so I’m proud of the brand that we’ve created. I’m proud this new brand that kind of stemmed out of a side hustle of my original side hustle.
And I’m this I think I’m just proud of the overall picture actually doing because a lot of a lot of times you’re like, Oh, I have this goal, but it seems too far away. But actually implementing and moving forward with something that you think about is amazing. And so I would tell everyone if they’re thinking about starting something and you think it’s too far, I’ll break it down into bite sized pieces because I think it just takes determination and grit and a lot of hard work, but I think anyone can do it.
00:42:21:15 – 00:43:13:20
Mara shorr
I agree. It’s just a matter of coming up with that plan and getting started and whether that is implementing a plan or a campaign within your current business of I now want to launch virtual consults. I want to launch a podcast, I want to receive local press, or if that is starting something completely new, I want to start in Med Spa for the very first time or at a medical spa that is physician owned and operated or not.
You know, for some of our our clients and they’re looking at a PA, a physician assistant might be the one that that is running the show there too. So I think what we look at is what is your dream and how can you go ahead and get started? So I think that’s such a great such a great tip.
So and I know you’re you’re always happiest when you’re creating. So you always inspire me with that, too.
00:43:14:24 – 00:43:42:15
Kaitlyn Study
Oh thanks! And I wanted to let you know and anyone who’s listening to I also just launched a coaching program. So if anyone’s interested there, maybe you’re thinking, Oh, I don’t know if I’m ready to hire a full on marketing company or my marketing internal team just needs like a little bit direction and best practices. You can also find that on our website too at southstreetmarketing.com under our services.
00:43:42:23 – 00:43:59:06
Mara shorr
So then can you tell everybody how they can find you in all of the places that you want to be found? So it would be all the places on the grand Internet machine. So whether that is website, social handles, etc..
00:43:59:23 – 00:45:24:03
Kaitlyn Study
Yeah. So our main website is southstreetmarketing.com. If you hover over services, it’ll be a dropdown that goes into everything. If you go down to the creative coaching memberships, that’s where you can look into coaching. And I work with all businesses. I do have a background in medical marketing with a dermatologist and then if you’re looking for some freebie tips, some ways to keep in touch, but you’re not sure if you’re ready to get started with anything yet, you can go to the Toolbox tab on our page as well.
And we have videos. We have some free downloadables, we have ebooks, we have some paid items on there. So that’s a good place to start. If you’re thinking, you know, I just want a little bit of… I want to see if I can do this on my own and then maybe hire a coach or maybe hire a marketing company in the future and then you can reach out to us through our contact form or you can email hello@southstreetmarketing.com.
I get all of the emails. If you want to follow us on Instagram is @southstreet_co and if you’re interested in anything with becoming a local and maybe marketing in those key areas that we have a really amazing following. You can reach out at hello@becomingalocal.com or you can follow all of the social accounts and you’ll see me.
00:45:24:03 – 00:45:35:09
Mara shorr
Perfect, and you know, if somebody ends up sending like a carrier pigeon or just skywriting, then they would end up doing that too. So it’s, it sounds like there’s just about every single way to reach you.
00:45:35:09 – 00:45:35:12
Kaitlyn Study
Thank you.
00:45:36:10 – 00:45:48:21
Mara shorr
Thank you so much for being not just a guest on the podcast today, but really just a such a source of inspiration and providing so much advice over the years to me and Shorr Solutions.
00:45:49:06 – 00:45:57:11
Kaitlyn Study
Thank you. Thanks for having me. It’s so fun and I’m excited that you guys started this and to be a part of it too. So I really appreciate it.
00:45:57:20 – 00:46:00:16
Mara shorr
Yes. Have a great rest of your day.
00:46:07:01 – 00:47:49:10
Mara Shorr
Before we go, I’m sponsoring my own podcast because well what a smart business owner wouldn’t. We’ve recently joined forces with Aesthetic Immersion and are proud to bring you the content you’ve been asking for. Download checklists, phone scripts and get bonus pearls for your entire team, including what to do when reopening your practice after COVID and how to grow stronger than ever were before.
Visit theaesthetic.com/webinars. Yes, that’s theaesthetic.com/webinars to learn more, plus use code. SHORR2020 to receive $50 off. Yes, that is code SHORR2020 to receive $50 off because something great is going to come out of this year. So that wraps up today’s episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast.
We hope that you’ve gotten as much out of this episode as we have. And if you have, I’d like for you to like it. rate us and share this episode with your friends, colleagues and the rest of your team. Remember to follow us on social media @Shorr Solutions and send me a message directly. I love hearing from you.
Plus, sign up for our newsletter to be the first to find out about our latest tips on running your practice more efficiently, dealing with the issues like drama and money in your practice, and see our latest videos and blog posts before anybody else. Now’s the time to join at Shorr Solutions.com and click on the newsletter button in the top right hand corner.
We’ll see you next time. And remember, subscribe and leave us a review.
