Jen Kelly on Finding $20M Stuck in a B2B Sales Pipeline

Ryan:0:01
Welcome back to the [High Ticket AI Systems] podcast where we talk about all things client acquisition, scaling, marketing sales, AI, and everything else in between. Everyone, please welcome the one and only Jennifer Kelly, founder and CEO of New Market, New Initiatives Marketing. Jen, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you here.

Jen Kelly:0:22
Thanks for having me.

Ryan:0:24
More than welcome. Jen, for the people at home who may not already know, please give them some background on exactly who you are and and what your company, new initiatives marketing, really does at its core.

Jen Kelly:0:36
Sure, yeah, new initiatives marketing. I started the company back in two thousand nine and we have of course evolved as the business landscape has changed. we've we are a B2B marketing company and we're focused on helping companies in electrical power, oil and gas, industrial manufacturing and consulting engineering. So really serious B2B if you think about it that way. And we typically work with established firms.

Ryan:1:04
Yeah.

Jen Kelly:1:07
that don't yet have marketing support.

Ryan:1:10
Okay. What was it that made you decide that was the market, that was the the niche you really saw this working best with?

Jen Kelly:1:19
well yeah prior to two thousand nine I used to be a corporate marketer. I used to be at Siemens, I used to be at Motorola, so I had come from sort of the technology and larger larger company area. And with B2B it was it was an area I was very interested in and so when I started my own firm, I mean it was a little bit different. When you start your own company, at least my my experience was I mean you're you're really going to get your first, second, third customer.

Ryan:1:32
Yeah.

Jen Kelly:1:48
I mean you're really trying to see if you can actually make it. And then after you get going, you can decide to niche based on what you see the market need, where you see you know your team and your your areas of expertise doing the best work. And and for our team it was B2B and it was in those areas that that I mentioned. a couple of reasons for that. typically in those areas if if we stick to say the products as opposed to the consulting engineering which is more services, there is some fantastic products being invented that solve, you know, real problems that folks are having within electrical power, within industrial, within manufacturing. However, the the main problem those companies seem to have is they'll invent and create something but kind of forget to tell people about it, right? So so they're they're missing the marketing. They've got this this this great solution with these real problems and that's an area we found we could come in and

Ryan:2:40
Yeah.

Ryan:2:46
Mm.

Ryan:2:49
Yeah. And it's a great place to be because, you know, people don't get into that business to to be marketing gurus. And usually it's somebody who, like you said, is is passionate about those inventions and who who really has that valuable product. But because they've been so dedicated, they haven't had any other time to to set up these marketing initiatives. And that's the gap, which it sounds like you can essentially plug straight into. but I know you don't have a classic sort of agency philosophy. There there's a different way you approach things, whereas more in leveraging what the funnel that already exists. Can you talk the audience through kind of your unique mechanism and in how you would actually best help? Let let's use that exact example, somebody who has the product, who has exactly that, but just doesn't have the people who know. Or maybe they do, but they're just not, you know, connecting with them properly.

Jen Kelly:3:47
Yeah, I mean it typically what happens so we're we're coming in and working with established companies. So established means you you've been in the market for a certain amount of time. it doesn't have to be seventy five years, but I mean our qualifying i I guess metric is i is someone paying money for your product or service, right? we're not in the prototype stage, we're not thinking about it, we're not you know, we're not startups, we have exact you know, real presence in the market. the problem the but the company would would be in is there they have a new product to launch or they're going into a new region and they're they're starting to figure out like no either nobody knows us in this new region or this new product coming in it doesn't exactly ride on the coattails of the other one so but like I mean we can only talk about speeds and feeds so much we can only discount so much like how are we gonna how are we gonna make a splash out there? the other problem can be that the the established company is really sick and tired of being the best kept secret, right? Maybe a competitor is getting all the news or all the fanfare. And and and so the thing is that that company obviously is producing sales. It's just not producing them at the level that that they want to or they see a whole new market where their product would solve problems that that market does have. And so we'll come in and we'll we'll look at what's going on already. Obviously they're established and they got to a place where they've got to By you know, doing many, many things right, right? We're just here to to help them go further. one of the the most common things we see is when the their leads come in, the first touch is great and then they're almost forgotten about. And and this happens a lot in companies where the desire for new leads always coming in i is really, really important, and I I don't disagree with that, but not at the expense of the leads that you already have for getting To nurture them or you know them falling through the cracks, particularly in the areas that we work in, which is it's not an emotional sale. It takes you know months, weeks or months to make the sale, and there's several people involved in in you know signing off on it. So it's a it's a slower burn and it and it requires that follow-up that is often you know forgotten about or falling through the cracks.

Ryan:5:51
Right.

Ryan:6:12
Yeah. And that's it. It's not it's not sexy. It's not fancy. It's not, you know, a shiny object, is it? It's you know, and it it's totally understandable because cause we've been there and it's it's you know, you you want just the new most qualified best leads, but you you forget what's already on your plate. And that goes to the wayside when you focus on naturally, you know, getting more business. But what is typically the the untapped potential that you see like

Jen Kelly:6:16
No, it's not. No. I mean it's not, no, you're right.

Jen Kelly:6:31
Yeah.

Ryan:6:40
How can you give us an example of roughly like how that pipeline looks and w how you would re engage and and really leverage what's already there rather than focusing on the new?

Jen Kelly:6:52
Yeah. Well we'll have to go in and see what w what's happening. and I guess there's two ways to approach this. all of your marketing listeners will probably be like, what software are you using? What CRM? What you know what what tech staff but it really comes from the mindset of how are we as a company going to address the the leads or the prospects that we have in the funnel. so it really has to it really has to either come from the top or come from your your sales VP about how are we addressing this.

Ryan:7:03
Yeah.

Jen Kelly:7:22
and that's probably the most important thing that we're gonna discover when we come in and work with a company. oftentimes what happens is the salespeople are under pressure to bring in the more leads or close the deals that are just about to be closed, so understandably they're not gonna be focusing on, you know, w what have we got there as sort of on the back burner, that of thing. So we're gonna come in and see the lay of the land on that. but in one case what we found was just simply because of the lack of follow up and moving these leads along. there was over twenty million dollars stuck in the pipeline. And y you have to think about that compared to the brand new leads that are coming in today, just finding out about your company, deciding to to speak with you, compared to folks that have, you know, halfway through a proposal, you know, three, four meetings in, they're starting to trust you and starting to really evaluate, yeah, we're gonna become a client. So to ignore those, like I said, it was over twenty million dollars in this pipeline. So that that can be the risk if you're if you're ignoring those l those those prospects.

Ryan:8:31
It's incredible, isn't it? And especially with the the longer sales cycle that naturally a lot of these industries are in. because as you said, it's not an emotional sale, it's it's I'm sure a very logical sale, and there's there's time that comes with that. So when you when you typically look at reengaging those leads, is there a spectrum that you that you see? Obviously, there's there's leads at at the start of the nurture sequence versus in the middle versus toward the end. In that example in in that twenty, I believe it was twenty two million dollars of stuck pipeline, exactly where were most of those leads that that ended up converting when you when you first came in?

Jen Kelly:9:15
Those leads were stuck between So a few a a few meetings in you have to think, okay, so in the in the this account of example, the sales cycle will be anywhere between six to eighteen months. And like you said, I mean it's not sexy, it's not emotional, but it w what it really is is you have to make sure that, you know, these products are gonna work well with the IT system. The the products are gonna get where you know, the finance signs off on it, and everything's going to happen really well. You gotta think too, help and safety matters a lot as well, when We're working in oil and gas, electrical power, you know, real lives could be at stake. So that is another reason for the long sales cycle. It's just the amount of people that have to come in and, you know, say yes and do their due diligence. so in this case it was sort of mid to end of the the funnel, meaning that they had been at least two meetings in and some of them had proposals out to them that just hadn't even followed up one. So we're talking really lucrative.

Ryan:9:57
Mm.

Jen Kelly:10:18
You know, opportunities here. And when you talk about re-engaging, if you think about it's not the kind of thing that we can, you know, just say, you know, buy one, get one free, you know, come on back. Like that. That kind of thing, like that works so well in consumer, right? But the same kind of process does work. You know, a win back, it just took a little bit longer because we couldn't blanket it with the buy one, get one free kind of thing. We just really had to see where are they in the cycle.

Ryan:10:31
hey.

Yeah.

Ryan:10:46
Yeah.

Jen Kelly:10:48
Who's the salesperson assigned? Here's some ways we can you know suggest you re-engage. And in our line of work, we really do have to engage and partner with the salesperson because that's the person that's leading this event all the way through the funnel and has to know a lot about the customer, and of course, doesn't want marketing coming in and messing anything up. So we have to be sure that our messaging and where we're coming in to give the re-engagement really works with how they want to try and close

Ryan:10:55
Hm.

Jen Kelly:11:18
Obrigado.

Ryan:11:20
Yeah, totally, because that's the relationship, right? And and relationships, as we know, are very sensitive and and it's critical to to keep things consistent. But it in in regards to like oftentimes you see sales teams reaching back out to leads and it's a generic, hey, just checking in, hope you've been well. that kind of approach. What and please you don't need to give away all the secret source, but what typically strategically that strategic messaging are there are a couple of examples that kind of reignite their pain, restate the problem, like how exactly are you positioning the majority of the messaging without without it sounding too generic?

Jen Kelly:12:06
without the hey just checking in kind of thing? yes, no, absolutely, absolutely. well a lot of the w the work that we do s it's driven largely by a budget cycle as well because the these products are, you know, it's it's you know I joked about the buy one, get one. It's not the kind of thing that's a hundred dollars, you know, these are several thousand to maybe several hundred thousand or a million dollar sales. so that has a real impact on what the company's budget cycle is and so

Ryan:12:07
Yeah and

Jen Kelly:12:36
Things could be stalled due to a budget cycle. So and that's r why it's really important to investigate what was happening with the lead up until when it's stalled because that'll give you clues on how to instead of just checking in, it's really you know, we can talk about the budget cycle, we can talk about your concerns with, you know, ABC expansion, how did that go? This would be the perfect opportunity to, you know, talk again. And it's the kind of thing too when you're when you're you selling I guess this kind of complex equipment and solutions being you know kind of flippant in your communications it it just does you a disservice because it's like if you're flippant in the communications are you gonna be flippant when you come to install this thing? Like I mean it it it yeah I mean you can be human and warm but there is a certain level of you know sophistication and seriousness that that that really has to come through in the messaging as well.

Ryan:13:32
Right, professionalism and confidence that's going to be transitioned over and expected throughout the whole experience. And in regards to how that process actually looks, when you come in, when the team comes in, can you give the audience some context on on the scale of your operation? Because I can imagine it's quite a volume intense process where there are all of these leads still on the table, but you you're then strategizing how to.

Jen Kelly:13:32
Yeah.

Ryan:13:59
reach out to each one and how to re-engage that pipeline. what does a team look like behind you? How does that process usually look in in the eyes of your operations?

Jen Kelly:14:10
Okay, well it generally our team is it's made up if you can if you can imagine the I guess a similar setup to a construction company. So you have your general contractor and then once they win the deal, they're bringing in electrical plumbing, the whole bit. So that's what New Initiatives Marketing is set up to do. So once we win a client and we go in and work with them on the marketing strategy, we have fractional chief marketing officers that come in and get assigned to certain

Ryan:14:30
Mm.

Jen Kelly:14:40
projects they're responsible for developing the marketing strategy. Once the marketing strategy is developed, one of the things we promise our clients is nothing like I said, everything in that strategy will be something we can help you execute. We're never gonna suggest something and say, you know, good luck, good luck getting that done. We don't do that here. So that's that's one of our promises. And then based on the strategy that's when we'll be pulling in who who is actually going to to execute. Sometimes the fractional CMO stays on

Ryan:15:08
Yeah.

Jen Kelly:15:10
To oversee everything that they've created in the strategy. Other time we have fractional CMOs that are strategy only, they want to be on to the next strategic thing, so we'll bring in a marketing lead to make sure that everything is being implemented. And in the case of say these these leads, we would bring in someone that has that kind of experience, so a mix of copywriting and understanding sales, and then understanding the marketing strategy. And it's really, it's really very important that the sales out. aspect or the sales understanding is there because you can see marketing can go off on its own and you know create these wonderful you know yeah exactly exactly you know and I was just we had a situation where you know there was a suggestion to do some kind of lead follow up within like okay six weeks once a week we'll send out a message and away we go but when you looked at what w what the team was selling it was like an 18 month sales cycle so what are we gonna do like remind

Ryan:15:50
Mm-hmm.

Jen Kelly:16:10
them of us the first six weeks and then like when they're really making a decision they forget about us. So that's what I mean about marketing and sales working together. So marketing really has to understand okay if this is an 18 month sales cycle how many touch points, what kind of cadence, what's really going on during that time and how can we you know keep our company top of mind in order to hopefully win the deal.

Ryan:16:31
Yeah.

Right. And it it really is one force that needs to be, you know, symbiotic together to be able to to operate at the the efficient and aligned level. Because one small deviation in whether it's marketing's trajectory or sales is like that you change the angle of a plane that's taking off by just one degree, but then in as you said, six, twelve, eighteen months, you're in a completely different place and there's discrepancies between what somebody thought they were getting into how the sales team is communicating, and the the consequences can be huge, huge, not only internally, but for the obviously client experience themselves. In in regards to when you're when you're onboarding a new client, obviously that's gonna demand a certain amount of capacity from your team, depending on the size and and the amount of initiatives that you have to take in place. I can imagine there's lots of different variables.

Do you typically have a pool of talent that you're always engaging? Like how often are you reaching out to new talent and and what does that process look like to actually get them in the position to be able to hit the ground running when you have the green light?

Jen Kelly:17:43
Yeah. Well th that's so we do have i if we call them I don't like to call them contractors because contractors could give the example that they're you know just waiting for a another full time job to come along. These are actual other small businesses that we pull into the deal. So for example, if the company needs or if the client needs a website, we're pulling in from our web design companies that we work with, same with designers, that kind of thing. So just think every time I say contractor, think other small business we're pulling in. so we do have

Ryan:17:56
Right. Hmm.

Ryan:18:08
Hm.

Jen Kelly:18:13
six that we have worked with for a long time some of them we've worked with for t over ten years the other the you asked about how we make sure there's new talent always coming in because we as new initiatives of marketing are a client of of those companies so we have to make sure as well that they're always always taking our call they always have room for us you know not working on other other people's you know work and can't handle us so I'm always interviewing always looking for new companies

Ryan:18:39
Mm.

Jen Kelly:18:43
And we typically start with with a call like this, and then if it seems to be a good fit, we'll do a paid test project. So this will be a real project on a real client or on our company so we can really see what it's like to work together. so we'll have real deadlines, like I said, real money, it'll be a real thing, and then from there both of us get to see what it's like to work together. and if that's a a good thing from both sides, then you know we're we're able to confidently put them on a project. project. so that's that's ongoing for me. That's part of my my work that's always ongoing because there's different different clients that come in with different needs, different people. Some people like working on electrical power, some people don't want to touch oil and gas, you know, so we have to accommodate for that. And it's it's just really making sure that we have a good bench of folks to pull from.

Ryan:19:32
Hmm.

Ryan:19:38
Right. A good network, a relationship and and people you can trust. And I think it's so key about actually having a even though it's a relationship, even though you might feel confident in in that company, vet them, trial, like ha have that built into the process because you know how easy it is in today's day and age with AI. Anybody can say, you know, anybody convince you they're brilliant at anything and it It is really so easy for people to try and bridge that gap between where their capabilities really are and where they need them to be to you know receive your business. So trial and error, it's old school, but it's old school because it works, right? Yeah. On AI, I I'm curious because you you obviously started this business roughly 2009. That's 17 years ago. How

Jen Kelly:20:19
It's true, yeah.

Ryan:20:30
How much have you seen the technology advance in, I guess we could go one or two ways with this? Either in the clients you work with, their businesses. I I know that it's obviously bricks and mortar, quite quite a lot of your your industry is angled toward that way. But in your business or in their business, how have you seen that technology come in and influence the market, how how you do things?

Jen Kelly:20:52
Well, it's been huge for sure. I mean in two thousand nine, so i if I could talk about technology but also what has influenced us in our clients has been what's going on in the market as well. So in two thousand nine there was a huge financial crisis and a lot of people were very scared about moving forward in business. A lot of people had lost their jobs, I was laid off, that's how I ended up starting this company. so a lot of uncertainty, and anytime there's uncertainty, people typically don't want to spend money, don't want to take the risk you know on a new new company, new vendor, that kind of thing. So yeah back then it was very much just starting to be I guess marketing or the services or what was possible for for a corporate marketing department was just starting to be a little bit more I guess spread out when I first started in marketing. I mean you could have basically almost everything in-house because I mean you didn't have to worry about the internet you were worried about about okay TV and radio and maybe the odd fax fax promo for those that remember that. But as you know the channels expanded, you just you know you can't have a 500% marketing person. And so I really found that there was the the opportunity to come in and and do more in order to help in-house teams. The next big thing that really happened within technology during that time, it started to creep in About social media. Now I know that came in earlier than 2009, but the fact that businesses were being encouraged to take it seriously. that yes you did need a Facebook page for your your B2B business. Like yes you you as a CEO better get on LinkedIn and share your thoughts. That was quite transformative then and there was a huge amount of resistance from the the type of companies that we work with for sure. And then through through COVID that was another major one for us. We had been virtual since day one. So when I started it was just me and the reason why why I started

Jen Kelly:23:00
Started virtual is I had worked on global teams in these in Siemens and and I was very used to okay, we're we're on like conference call or on email, that's the only way you know I'm working with my colleagues. It was very comfortable for me and I could see how much could actually get done and so that's how I started this company with that kind of I guess virtual first point of view. And we had quite a lot of resistance to that. That there was quite a few clients that never became clients because they said, you're like why why wouldn't you have everybody in the same office? Like what's what's it it's a little bit shady, isn't it? I was like, it's not shady, it's it's You know, that's the way we work. And after COVID, of all the things that COVID did that was negative, that is the one thing that really helped us because no one questions our bus business model now. You know, pulling in different companies to help us with the project, doing the majority of our work online like this, over Zoom calls, over Teams, that kind of thing. yes, I will fly anywhere to meet a client, and we do you know, for those so we work throughout Canada.

In the US, and you know, we do go and meet quarterly face to face. I still think that you know that is a time tested way to really kick off and keep a relationship going. but the whole idea of you know meeting online and doing a lot of serious business over Zoom and perhaps never meeting the whole team in person, that was very, very transformative. and then now we've got AI, and AI is it's in some Ways has helped us, in some ways it's really frustrated us internally. It's moving faster than either you know the social media push or the virtual push did, and our clients are a mix of embracing it. Some have said they're gonna replace us with it, so we've been told you know what, we don't need we're not gonna entertain the idea of having a marketing company help us, we'll get you know a research.

Jen Kelly:25:09
marketing grad they can use AI and and so we have heard yeah I mean that's the kind of thing I mean you can have that but you need the expertise as well so so I guess in short or in long we've seen a lot but nothing has been as fast or as I guess confusing as as the AI the AI

Ryan:25:14
See how that goes. See you soon. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan:25:36
And a lot of those businesses that wouldn't swallow the pill of, you know, the remote workforce and and are not open to that kind of talent now. It's it it it's interesting that AI is is kind of taking a different approach where people feel like that they need they need this thing to be a part of the the growing market and the trajectory that's going to keep them in business. It's a it's a different, it's a completely different animal to, you know, the virtual landscape and it's it's confusing, it's exciting, it's it's moving at a thousand miles an hour. And and yet, you know, so one of the things we still leverage as a business is still the power of relationships, still getting in front of people, still building just genuine trust and and and connection because in today's day and age, it's it's so refreshing to have that when everything is, you know, if it's not a LinkedIn video, everything's probably created by AI. that there's a lot that that is flooding the market and it's it's so important to still keep that human connection and and that brings me Jen obviously client acquisition I mentioned is a big part of what we love to talk about on this show and and our audience is always really curious to understand what's working right now, whether it's you know certain outreach techniques, whether it is AI, whether it's truly there yet. How how have you guys been finding the most success in in bringing on new business, meeting clients and what does that look like?

Jen Kelly:27:06
Mm.

What does that look like? Okay, so if we go back to the old fashioned things, I mean referrals are always wonderful. The bad things about referrals is you can never know when they're coming in, right? But in order to make sure that the referrals can come in or the right people are getting referred, just it's up to to me or to our team to really articulate sort of some of the pain that we can help with. If you hear this, call us. If you hear that, we can help. So really helping people be able to refer us is one thing. the next Is a mix of myself. I'm the the head of business development here, so out at events and conferences. I also host a monthly Founders Lunch, and so that is an in-person lunch. there is six people that are invited to it, different people every month, and we have a have a meal at a restaurant. It's sponsored by New Initiatives Marketing. some people around the table could be Potential clients, others are you know potential collaborators with the key being that the people around the table it's a chance to have 90 minutes of really good conversation, and it really works. the feedback I've had is it really works well because people are like, I can have more than a 20 second conversation with someone, this is great. And the the group that's put together is I I intentionally do it as much as possible, like you would never normally meet these people, come to It's worth the time, and that's been the feedback as well. You know, in this age of AI and social and everything, it's really nice to be able to meet the people, and and then you can take it online and do your thing. So we've got the founders lunch, we've got referrals, we've got me going out to conferences and networking events. we do get some through LinkedIn and through the website, and we are experimenting with some AI outreach. I I'm happy to drop the name. we have done

Ryan:29:03
Well.

Jen Kelly:29:06
I've done several trials with other companies and it's been underwhelming, let's say. But this most recent one is is Bordy, Bordy AI. So and it's been we've been with them about I guess three weeks now. I know it's very early days, but it has been introductions that of course is up to you, right? You gotta take it to the sale, but the introductions have been high quality, and it's been it

Ryan:29:17
Audie. Haven't heard of that one.

Hmm.

Jen Kelly:29:36
It's been in the right area with the right context. So so far the three week experiment is going well.

Ryan:29:43
It's great signs. And I know you mentioned we we've seen this time and time again. And a lot of our client a lot of our guests clients we have has have been through this experience too. Underwhelmingness when it comes to AI. You know, you get promised such a cutting-edge technology, such an approach. I guess w with the experience you've just had, w what do you feel like the previous businesses, experiences, processes didn't have that this one is now displaying more of.

Jen Kelly:30:15
Gideo.

It feels like either the sophistication of the team behind it, it feels like I guess let me That's it feels like everything that so let me just tell you a little bit about how it works. So you you essentially talk to this board boardy. It's a male Australian voice and he's so friendly, so I'll call him a him, right? It's finding out about your business and you just tell it all what you need and then through email introductions and through LinkedIn, he you know suggests you meet with certain people. Once you say yes, it starts the introduction.

Ryan:30:37
Yeah. Sure.

Jen Kelly:31:01
What has been missing with the other ones? The other ones have always at least the ones that have contacted me, it you know it's like a little bit of a bait and switch, and I have to tell you, so probably like many people, you get your inbox filled with people saying, you know, we can do AI outreach for you every single day, that kind of thing. The few that have gotten through and gotten my attention was because that email was written so well and so particular to me and to our company that I thought, okay, guys have got this down and in having a first conversation with any of these companies, you know, compliment them on that. Okay, if you can do that for our prospects, like this is this will be great. And then it it just seems to kind of fall down. And it could fall down in it seems like it's either the real understanding of our business, not taking the time to get the the the copywriting right, and then it just feels like the the the idea being you know what we're just gonna you know email ten thousand people and and and someone in there is gonna is gonna be a a fit for you. And it just I guess the the yeah the the promise just falls down in the execution. And that's what's been so disappointing.

Ryan:32:11
Yeah.

The execution of it. I wonder how much that's linked to obviously AI being such an exciting new space. But the people behind these businesses, what has their background been and and how how much acumen do they really have? How how much awareness about what all of the other pieces around AI that that actually need to be in place for this to genuinely work and and give the results? And yeah.

Jen Kelly:32:40
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean execution is like it is it can be really boring, but it's the thing that gets that strategy into action. It's that thing that makes the sail across the finish line. It you know, it really is, right? And if it's not if it's not running smoothly then you you get this underwhelming experience.

Ryan:32:46
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan:32:59
Exactly. Yeah. And it's it's usually, you know, only combated by experience and trial and error and and being, you know, five, ten years in in that process, realizing okay, all these things need to be put in the perfect balance for this to make sense. But with companies that are now only, you know, a year, two years into the space, it's still a massive learning curve for for them, just as much as it is for for us to be trying to get a hang of AI.

It's yeah, it's a it's an interesting age. And and speaking about obviously the the age we're in and going back to your business, Jen, moving forward, obviously things are you're bringing in AI, there's there's new outreach that's happening. What, if anything, over the next twelve months are you really looking to achieve? Do you have a specific goal in mind? What what excites you the most about moving forward?

Jen Kelly:33:51
it excites and i I guess is a little bit scary too. I mean we we want to keep in business, we wanna keep serving, we see that there's a need in the market so that we serve, how to do it better and more efficiently. the the part I'm hesitant about is it I know I know we have to transform a lot of our services and a lot of the ways that we do things internally and while we're doing okay with it, my my concern is I know how to build the systems.

Get us to where we are today. Do I really just replicate this with AI, or should I be adopting a whole different way to think about how we deliver our our our services to our clients? And what is that whole different way to think about it? and so that's where I'm hesitant. I'm like, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, and and I I'm looking for some help figuring out like how to how to think about it first. And it just goes back to the same thing when we were talking about bleeds. I mean, it doesn't matter what database.

Or CRM you're using, if the idea and the thinking around the company about how much we care about or how urgently we nurture and care about our leads coming through to become a client, then we can put the software around it. So it's the same thing with our processes and our systems and how what we have on offer. How do we best think about it to then have AI help us instead of just dragging what we did in 2024 into this new age, which could be could be the wrong way to think about it. So that's that's my I guess what I'm excited about and hesitant about and yeah, not really sure how to tackle that.

Ryan:35:24
Yeah. Hmm.

Ryan:35:31
Right. It it's kind of the same feeling, right? That excitedness, nervousness, uncertaintiness. It's I think so many people are feeling that right now. And, you know, what while it while we can all be searching for that kind of answer to to imagine how things would look in five years and how we should best position ourselves for that. I I I think it's one of those things where we just have no idea. And we just gotta look at, you know, what's that first step we can make in front with the information we have right now and and attempt to You know, go with the flow because who knows? One year, five year, ten years, it's exciting, it's it's nervous, it's it's nerve-wracking, but gosh, if if you can position yourself appropriately, it's I can imagine there's gonna be so much opportunity. So I I I I really could talk with you for hours on that because there's there's so much that obviously in your business with with the clients you serve. I can imagine how how up to date, how open do you feel like your clients are in regards to the the AI age? How aware are they typically in in this industry you serve in particular?

Jen Kelly:36:39
i very aware, very aware. but but but on their side of things. So if you think you know they they are working on engineering, creating new products in the managed service area, creating new services. So they're they are well comfortable with technology for sure, in their area. H how to how to market with AI, not really you know, it's not it's it's not their lane, but but embracing it to

Ryan:36:41
Yeah.

Ryan:36:45
Hmm.

Ryan:36:54
Yes.

Ryan:36:58
Mm.

Yeah.

Ryan:37:05
No.

Jen Kelly:37:09
Like how do we prototype faster? How do we solve some problems faster? How do we how do we bring it in to you know perhaps help our clients with the the software portion of our product? they are you know very much into it, very much embracing it and and trying to figure it out for their own clients for sure.

Ryan:37:22
Yeah.

Ryan:37:27
Yeah, I think everyone is. And and you gotta be, right? 'Cause if you're not, you're you're you're gonna be left behind. And it again, it it's it's one of those things where we've had so many AI experts come onto this show and and lecture us about obviously the power of AI, but at the end of those conversations we always find that it's always the same message. It's AI is not here to replace us, it's here to enhance what we're good at and to Have that symbiotic relationship. And when you view things that way, that gives me a lot of security. Knowing that, you know, as long as you can partner with this beast that is moving a thousand miles an hour, you're gonna be able to leverage it and then allow it to leverage you. So what whatever area it it falls into, I I see it being that similar, similar kind of story. But Jen, I I really do wish we had more time. Again, I could talk to you for hours on this. Where Where can people find you if they want to learn more about what you do and and and kind of connect with with everything you have going on?

Jen Kelly:38:25
well that's great. Thank you. The company is New Initiatives Marketing. so I think there'll be a link in in your notes. that is our website. And me out on LinkedIn is Jennifer Kelly. There's only probably 500 million of us, but with with that and fractional CMO and New Initiatives Marketing, be happy to connect or answer any questions you have.

Ryan:38:41
Yeah.

Ryan:38:48
Amazing. Jen, thank you so much. Audience, thank you so much for watching. Until next time, take care. All right. And