Marketing the Unmarketable: Nicki Zevola Benvenuti on Boring Industries

Jordan:0:00
Welcome back to the High Tech Assistance Podcast. Everyone, please welcome the winner now.

Wow, yeah, I heard myself on your screen, that's bad. Let me close out some tabs. Don't really have too much open though.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:0:18
I have a million open, maybe it's me.

Jordan:0:27
Testing, testing, hello, hello. Any better though? And it works, okay, cool. All right. Welcome back to the [High Ticket AI Systems] Podcast. Everyone, please welcome the winner and only Nikki Zavola Benvenuti. Close enough, thank you so much. Nikki, you're freaking awesome. Okay, for those of us that do not know the name or the brand just yet, can you please explain to us like what you do and who it's for to very high level.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:0:30
That works.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:0:45
There you go, yes.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:0:58
Sure, sure, so my new brand that I'm starting is called Ultra Visible. So it'll be on YouTube and everything starting next week in April. But basically, I market a lot of hard to market businesses. So our clients tend to be a lot of businesses in STEM, owing to my background in the sciences. So we have a lot of science, tech, engineering, math companies. that we work for. We don't necessarily, I joke that our clients aren't necessarily the ones who make the helmets for the NFL, but we do have a client actually right now who makes the rivets that go into the helmets of those in the NFL. So it's sort of one of those, we're very good at marketing, not only like your B2B, or excuse me, your B2C, like beauty businesses, but then we're also able to market. some of the more obscure hard to market businesses. so, I'm launching that brand next week and I'll talk a lot about marketing hard to market businesses, but then I'm also the CEO and founder of AEK Solutions. And we have a digital marketing business. I'm also an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. And I write books on digital marketing.

Jordan:2:18
That's super interesting. Why make that pivot from current agency to the marketing for hard to market businesses?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:2:19
Thanks.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:2:27
You know, it's funny, I met with a very great established marketing group and who does branding and they were kind of like, well, yeah, you get results. You help people grow, it doesn't every marketing agency. And when we delved into what I really do, they talked a lot about like, of illuminating businesses that aren't usually seen, helping people be seen. online. A lot of these businesses, you know, are in traditionally, you know, boring industries, but, you know, they're fascinating to market. They're really the types of things where, you know, I always joke that, you know, years ago when I was a pit, there was a conference and it was for like, you know, fans of the U-tree, like, wait, you know, Y-E-W, like every year, like in the biological sciences department, they would have like, the 200 world experts on the U-tree just come and like look at posters and talk about the U-tree and, you know, and, you know, it was pretty cool. But that's what we can do online for any of these companies that are hard to market. We can find the people who are looking for your electronic component by SKU number. We can find people who are very interested in the effect of tariffs on, you know, metal parts, you know, or know, other things, know, with, you know, webinars and, you know, download the white papers and, you know, and we can make it exciting.

Jordan:4:00
Yeah, was going to ask how do you market hard to market businesses? But I think you brought up two examples, webinars and white paper, PDFs. guess going back to the, they put the ribbons inside the NFL helmets. Like how would you market for that specific company?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:4:17
Sure, sure. So, in general, there's not a single prescribed formula, but there's a toolbox that we can pull from of things that we can do to market these hard to market businesses. So the first step is that we do a complimentary audit for any business. And we look at everything from your SEO and your AEO to your social media. to your keyword rankings, to the UI UX experience, experiential design, like the flows. We really try to understand the goals and objectives and also just like where you are. And then we do a competitive assessment also. So we look and we see, compare to your competitors, are they doing webinars, calculators, white papers, newsletters, are they on Substack? We do a comprehensive analysis and all of this is complimentary.

And then from there, we formulate a strategy. And that strategy can conclude anything from all of the things I mentioned before, like webinars, white papers. Some of them have to go very heavy on videos, explainer videos, before and afters. Others, you need a catalog, and it has to be completely searchable. So it really depends.

Jordan:5:40
No, for sure. I feel like from my experience, when you actually sit down and conduct a full report or a full audit, I think it does two things. One is it showcases your expertise. I was like, Hey, I've done this before. I like hear our findings here, how we can improve, you know, the company X, Y, Second thing is you're not really selling anything. You're more so just stating facts, right? And I think you build trust a lot more when you state facts, opposed to selling something to your potential client, you know,

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:5:51
Mm-hmm.

Jordan:6:10
And yeah, that's just from my experience, audits, know, custom reports have worked wonders for our company internally. How do you go for it? Yeah, go, go, go for it.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:6:10
Absolutely.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:6:19
Absolutely.

I was just going to add that, you know, I always say that, like, you know, people, you know, don't care what you know until they know that you care. And so absolutely like, you know, when we're doing these reports, like, you know, meeting with the people, building that sort of, you know, like dialogue, you know, making sure that, you know, we understand, like, you know, we're not just, you know, giving you the report, but we but we also like really care that you're going to get results and that we're also going to get you like the fastest, know, most succinct path there, yes.

Jordan:6:54
I feel like.

Jordan:7:00
You have to care about getting your clients results. You're not going to be in business for long. Generally. if you, you, know, you can do all the auditing, you can do all of the customer reports, you can strategize the game plan. But if you don't execute the freaking game plan and actually look at the results, like no offense, it's just not worth it. You know? So yes. In addition to, to working with hard to market companies, like, cause obviously this is like really, really niche.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:7:04
Yes, genuinely.

Jordan:7:29
How would you manage to find these potential clients?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:7:34
So, you know, interestingly enough, you know, early on I was in an MD PhD program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Carnegie Mellon and I took a leave of absence. You know, I won a business competition and then, you know, when I won the business competition through Katz School of Business over at Pitt, you know, they invited me to apply for Alpha Lab, which was a local business incubator. I raised a lot of money.

I mean, my company at the time was called Futurederm. We had one of the top three skincare blogs in the world at our peak. It was pretty cool. But we had advertisers like Neutrogena and Avino. And then they made intros to, after we got some results for them, then they made intros to Johnson & Johnson and pharma companies. You do a good job for pharma companies. They introduce you to private equity. Private equity was very interested in getting us involved in the Vistage Network, where it's a network of over 30,000.

CEOs, know globally who have businesses with two million to two billion in revenue. So, you know, I have small children. So I travel once a month and I speak to these groups of CEOs. But what's interesting is, you know, I think it's like the Warren Buffett thing where he always talks about how, you know, he didn't make money investing in Amazon. He made money investing in the, you know, like the plastic wrap that goes into the boxes that Amazon ships with. And a lot of these people that I meet through Vistage You know, have made very successful businesses, you know, with the things that you wouldn't necessarily expect, you know, some of these, you know, components, so to speak. And so we've had to learn how to market these types of products, and I think we've become very good at it.

Jordan:9:12
That's super cool. I've spoken with a couple of the agency owners that have made amazing referral partnerships with private equity firms. And I feel like that is like the golden goose egg. Like if you can partner with a private equity firm, they just give you deals and you just execute. That is fan-bring-ing-tastic. But obviously, you have to be competent though. Like, you you were in the PhD program. have your masters or do you have your PhD?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:9:29
Yes.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:9:36
No, no, no, when you leave, when you leave early, no, no, I, because then that people would have to call me like, you know, masters of all of Benvenuti. And like now they can just call me Mrs. whatever.

Jordan:9:39
Hahaha!

Jordan:9:47
Sure, for sure. But nevertheless, you still have to prove your competency, you know?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:9:52
Yeah, mean, you know, look like, you know, a doctorate is like, you know, the highest honor. You know, I always say that someday, you know, after I sell my business, I'm probably going to go back and try to, you know, get it. You know, at this point, it might end up being in like finance or, you know, AI or something. But I mean, but like, you know, but I would love to have one someday. right now my plate is overly full. yes.

Jordan:10:13
No, for sure. And I think if you think about it, I think people want to pursue getting a PhD because of the outcome a PhD can get for you. Like if you are financially driven, like me and the person I was dating who was obtaining her PhD, she just did it because like she knew she would have a really high paying career with a PhD. But you found success, obviously, without a PhD. And I think that's why you pursued business because you would rather have the financial success and putting yourself through tons of schooling? Or correct me if I'm wrong, but am I kind of accurate there?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:10:48
You know, if I had my life to do over again, I probably would have just finished. I think, you know, like I left in 2012 and, um, you know, I only really had like two or three years left, but it's funny when you're in the moment, you know, two or three years, you know, you know, and those days are so long. mean, like some of those rotations started at like 5 a.m. and you're not like home to like 8 or 9 p.m. You know, so it just felt, you know, so insurmountable at the time, especially because I was passionate about business at the time.

Jordan:10:52
Really?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:11:18
But if I had it to do over again, probably would have finished. But then again, some of these opportunities that were available because I was blogging, because I was an early adopter of Google Ads, because I was willing to take those risks in that like.

OG period, you know, of like, you know, 2012 to 2015. So, you know, maybe, you know, the business wouldn't have taken off as much. So, you know, so I guess it's a double edged sword and you know, you can always go what if so. Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan:11:49
You brought up taking risk. Not too many people in this world actually are risk takers. Where do feel like that comes from for you specifically?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:12:00
you know, I think that most I like to think that most things, you know, can be learned. Like, you know, there's like a Carol Dweck book. and she talks about how most, you know, like, you know, like you have to have an adapting mindset, you know, and you have to, you know, and most things aren't fixed. but with entrepreneurship and risk taking, I will say like, there's actually like the entrepreneurial test that I like to do with, entrepreneurs that I mentor and, you know, if you take like, you know, a bag and you're like, well, you pay me a thousand dollars for this bag. People who aren't entrepreneurs are like, no, you're crazy. Well, what label is it? Or like, that's not worth a thousand dollars. But people who are entrepreneurs will be like, well, what's in the bag? Because there could be like a million dollars in this bag, you know? There could be, you know, like the deed to a house in this bag. So, so I think when it comes to Entrepreneurship and risk taking, I think to some extent like you are born with that, but then I think taking calculated risks and succeeding and you know can reinforce that you know over time too.

Jordan:13:08
That was a great analogy. I've never heard any, and you came up with that on the fly. That was super freaking cool.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:13:10
Thanks.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:13:15
I actually heard that somewhere else a long time ago, but I use it all the time because it works. There's been people through AlphaLab or whatever that I've mentored and they've succeeded with the bag test and they've done really well. so, yeah, I think it's fairly accurate.

Jordan:13:33
It makes sense though. Exactly. on the topic of like customer retention and customer satisfaction, I assume at your level of scale, you have help with this. You have like client success managers or directors, et cetera. Can you walk us through, I guess like how they conduct client relationships, how they conduct like reporting or just ensuring that the client is actually happy, satisfied. So the business is still profitable and obviously maintaining that account.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:13:45
We have a lot of people here in Georgia.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:14:03
Sure, sure, yeah, absolutely. So in the beginning, know, people typically come to us with specific goals. Most of the time, those goals are either, you know, to increase leads, to increase traffic, or to increase engagement. Sometimes, you know, some mix of the three. But then we tie those goals to very precise KPIs or key performance indicators. We measure those internally at our agency every week.

And then we have internal meetings where we make adjustments to the strategy or tactics that will need to be deployed in order to move those forward. And then we report them to the client monthly. And so that's how we work with that, yeah.

Jordan:14:40
I am really happy that you take notes live. I have thought about doing that, but I just, I guess, lack the courage to actually do it. But I can see that it helps you freaking tremendously, like articulate yourself and remember what the question was. I have to, thank you, have to start doing that. By the way, quick.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:14:56
I think Joan Gideon once said, like, she has to write to see what she's thinking. I don't know if necessarily to that point, but it does help. And particularly in situations like this where, you know, it's being recorded, I think that writing it down just, you know, make sure that I'm expressing what I want to express. And it's not just like words that are a jumble.

Jordan:15:16
For sure, for sure. I probably lean on the mumbo jumbo side of words, but that's okay. No, thank you. But the way you articulate yourself about, you know, creating, I guess, long lasting clients makes total sense. think weekly reporting, KPI recording is a must, right? In addition, I would love to add that proactive leadership. So if for whatever reason we're not meeting the client's expected goals,

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:15:19
Oh no. You're right.

Jordan:15:41
The client success manager needs to reach out before the client reaches out to us. And I think I love to explain it this way, but we have the same problem, same client. Okay. The client success manager lets the client approach them about the problem. Not good. Clients really upset. What the hell is going on? Fix this. Okay. On the flip side, same client, same problem.

The client success manager reaches out proactively to the client to say, Hey, I noticed XYZ problem. Here are the, you know, three steps we're going to do or three strategies we're going to take to improve the, the, the problem here to improve efficiency, to get to your goal, et cetera. Now that client is like, thank you. I understand that it's a problem. It sucks, but I'm glad you're on top of it. And you're letting me know. be like, again, same client, same problem, but because we approached the client took that proactive leadership stance.

They're not as mad and they, think they trust you more because in the back of their mind, they're thinking this company has their stuff together. I like this company. They're proactive about it. They care about it. You know?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:16:47
absolutely. Absolutely. think that, you know, trust is everything. And I think that in business, absolutely being proactive, but coming to the client with a solution and or solutions that they can choose from, you know, from the problem, but definitely not sweeping things down under the rug. Yes.

Jordan:17:07
For sure, for sure. Talk to us about some of the strategies you use on behalf of your clients. I know you mentioned webinars and white papers and explainer videos. Can you give us an example of how you or your client would conduct a webinar, like the length, the structure, the flow, et cetera, et cetera, if you don't mind, of course.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:17:27
Sure, know webinars, we do a lot of webinars now. Right now there's, I don't want to call it a glitch, but like sort of a benefit with the LinkedIn algorithm to hosting webinars right on LinkedIn. It seems that whenever you put ads to promote a LinkedIn webinar on LinkedIn, you get lower rates and higher engagement through the platform. And so that's what we try to do. You know, we have very dedicated lists that we'll prepare. you know, based on client customers demographics and make sure that we're buying and targeting the right lists. We also have a lot of ad strategies that we utilize. So for instance, right now, Meta has a lot of AI tools that they want you to use to create ads. If you use said tools, they will actually give you lower cost per click and higher engagement.

So we deploy all of the latest techniques and tools for things like that. And then with the webinar subjects themselves, we really hone in on what our client is talking about with their customers. So right now in 2026, there's a lot of talk about tariffs, what's going to happen, which ones are going to be repealed, which ones are going to still exist, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a lot of that.

Jordan:18:47
Okay, for sure. It's funny how you bring up, you know, keeping meta. Let's just stick with meta. I'm not familiar with LinkedIn ads, never touched it. I'm on LinkedIn. Yes. Probably not going to run LinkedIn ads, but meta very familiar with it. just, it's interesting because when I did run ads for myself and on behalf of clients, the fricking filters or like the enhancements that you could use are like, or you know, like I wasn't a big fan of them. But I think what you're saying is, is if we use these filters, that we can get a lower CPC, like increase our click-through rate, et cetera. Is that what you're saying? Or are you referring to the organic side of things and creating content within the platform, not on like Facebook ads manager or business manager?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:19:34
Well, regardless of the quality of said filters or enhancements or tools that Meta is providing, I always encourage digital marketers to remember that these are humans deploying algorithms to try to determine what other humans will find to be entertaining and valuable. And so if other humans are taking the time to design these filters, enhancements, and tools, of course, they're going to rig their own algorithms to give you better results when you utilize. know, set filters, enhancements and tools. The other thing that I've found is whenever like you remember that it's not just people, but also people who have to make money in the business. Listening a lot of times to their quarterly investor calls can really give you clues as to what is going to get the benefit and the algorithm next. So for instance, you know, a couple of years ago, Metta said that they wanted to replace your phone and they're like, you know, no more Apple phone. Like, you know, what we're going to iPhone, what we're going to do is like have everyone use call messenger. Terrible idea. But man, we got people such low rates on Metta call ads. It was unbelievable because they made that announcement. We figured, you know, within the next few weeks to month, this is going to be deployed. So we went ahead and did a lot of call ads and it was very successful. So I think just taking sort of the algorithmic tech side of it, remembering the human side or even, you know, the profit center side and getting your thinking accordingly. I think that works very well.

Jordan:21:10
Yeah. It almost sounds like insider knowledge. If you listen to the investor meetings every quarter question, do you have a dedicated support person for Metta or for Metta ads? Cause I know once you expand like a certain amount of money, they give you a dedicated person that like, yeah. Do you have that? You have one of those? That's super badass. They always give you tips, pointers, like tricks, ideas. That's like what to do.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:21:14
Exactly.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:21:29
yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, we do.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:21:40
I'm not sure how much I should reveal, but yes.

Jordan:21:40
Yes.

Yeah, because it's super secretive. That's the thing. Once you reach that level, and by the way, you have to spend a lot of money in an agency account to acquire that person. And I just know.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:21:53
We, top clients spend 30 to 40,000 a month consistently on Meta. they, so they, I, they'll take a call. Yeah. They'll take my call. Yeah. At this point. But, but you know, it was, but you know, I've also been doing this for 14 years. So if they didn't take my call by now, I should probably be doing something else.

Jordan:22:15
Okay, cool. Talk to me about your hiring process. Obviously, have to great talent, right? In order for the business to go from, you know, one to 10 in like a broad sense here. But like, do you have a process of hiring? Do you outsource that to recruit an agency? What does that look like for you in the company?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:22:20
We're going to

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:22:36
you know, right now, I put other individuals in charge of hiring within my organization, other than myself, but I always do the final interview before, you know, onboarding. Typically, you know, the hires for us typically evolve when we'll start someone either as a part-time employee or a contractor, depending on the position and our needs at the time.

And then, you know, within a certain amount of time, depending on, you know, what work we have available and the work that's been produced by the individual and the propensity for more work, then we make them full-time employees after a certain period of time. But yeah, I'm actually not the best at hiring myself, but I do have other individuals at my company who have experience with that and I let them lead.

Jordan:23:28
No, you're all good. I'm really curious now. How large is the company from a headcount perspective?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:23:33
It's about 30 if you include all of the part-time employees and contractors now, yes.

Jordan:23:38
Okay, cool. Badass, badass. Do you guys have other sales reps within the company? Like, do you only generate leads through your speaking engagements with these private equity firms?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:23:49
We just hired a firm out of London. So actually if you talk to me again in 30 days, can tell you if they have You know, I can tell you if they're doing a great job or not but we'll work with them for With other clients and they've done this sensational work. So so I am confident that you know, this is a good decision But for a lot of years I did sales myself with Jeffrey Gidamer system And I'm happy to be stepping away from that directly.

Jordan:24:21
The company you hired in London, other than like a sales agency, obviously they take our sales calls, cool. You essentially generate leads through speaking engagements, they hop at a call with a London company, and then that's how that would work. What was the name that you mentioned earlier, the philosophy or program you were referring to?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:24:25
Mm-hmm, yes, yes.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:24:41
Jeffrey Gidamers. So Jeffrey Gidamers has some incredible books. I think he has like the little black book of contacts, little red book of sales, little green book. I have all of them. They're like right over there. But they were phenomenal. And one of the best things that Jeffrey Gidamers books have taught me is the like the point system. So, you know, as a mom and as a business owner, you know, I have like a 30 point daily system. And so basically, like, you know, Even on my worst days, I'm trying to hit as many of these 30 points as possible. when I first started the system, it was primarily sales. But now it includes everything from internal management meetings to interviewing a graphic designer for their final interview to closing a sale, making a sales presentation, et cetera, et cetera.

Jordan:25:34
Gotcha. I'm not familiar with a 30 point system. Can you explain at a high level, of course, what that might be?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:25:43
This might be like we're like, I don't want people to like turn off the focus. I could be like this girl's like a super nerd. But basically like, know, if I send an email that is like poignant, that's like a point, you know, if I am in a 15 minute meeting, that's a point. If I'm in like, you know, a 30 minute meeting, that's two points. You know, if I write a blog post for, and you have our own. you know, channel, cause I like to do that myself, even though I probably shouldn't at this point. Like that's a point, you know, if I make a video, that's a point. This podcast will be four points because it took an hour. Super embarrassing. can't believe I've even been talking about this.

Jordan:26:20
No, you're totally good. You're totally good. Thank you for, for opening up about that. Basically it's like pro productive tasks or productive activities to generate some revenue within the company. But now that you're in a position of leadership, it's about like, it's not always about like revenue driving tasks, but making sure my team is being effective, making sure my team is taking the necessary, don't know, steps to become successful or help our clients become successful. Right.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:26:47
Absolutely. Yeah, having lived through like two pregnancies, two C-section recoveries, my mom got cancer and died, but my dad got cancer, he lives with us. You know, I think that like, you know, like, it's sort of like been a point of peace where like, you know, you don't have, instead of me having days that where it's like this and then like this and then like, you know, I sort of, all of my days are kind of like, you know, of course you have some, you know, but like, but there's sort of like a baseline to just consistently hold myself accountable even on days when.

It feels like the world's blowing up and, I can still make enough time to get a certain number of tasks done to keep like my business and household moving forward. It's what works for me. The consistency and the stability is what works for me, but it doesn't work for everyone. It also is really nerdy. So I don't know if I should be talking about it. There you go.

Jordan:27:34
You're totally fine. like, there's no one size fits all for like tips and productivity hacks in life. You know, like what works for one person might not work for the next or what does work for this person works exceptionally well. And who cares like what the hell the regimen is, you know, like people wake up at 4am, take a fricking ice bath and hit the gym. I'm not doing that shit. They're crazy. You know I mean? But like, good luck to you, bro. You know what I mean? So, though.

No self-deprecation, you're totally good. Let's see, over your 14 years in business, over your 14 year career with owning an agency, know, looking back, what is one thing you wish you knew when you first got started?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:28:05
Okay, cool.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:28:10
Yes.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:28:20
One thing.

Jordan:28:21
People always have that reaction, one thing man!

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:28:25
Good.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:28:30
Hire, I'll give you them as they come to mind and are passing through the filter here. Hire people who are smarter than you, more talented than you at what it is that you need for them to do. Give them problems, don't give them tasks. Let them own the solution. And then hold them accountable, whether it's like weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, but make sure that you have those meetings and you do not move them. other things. yeah.

Jordan:29:02
I'm sorry, what you said is really, really important. You said give them problems, not task. Yes, and I also feel like it depends on the personality of that hire. Are they an A player? Because if they are, and you give them a problem, they're going to solve it. If they're like a B or a T player, say, I don't know how to solve this problem. Like I'm not that kind of guy that give me tasks. Like tell me what to do. Like why am I thinking for myself here? You know, so to piggyback off what you said,

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:29:25
Thank you.

Jordan:29:30
It's about the quality of the hire that will be able to execute the problem or solve.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:29:36
Yes. Yes, yes. Hiring very quality people to solve problems. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I think that, you know, not that, you know, I haven't always hired quality people and, you know, no shade to anyone, but at the same time, like, I think that just, you know, realizing that, you know, just hiring people who you think, you know, are just, you know, really exceptional at what they do and like you have a sense of like admiration for them. and giving them the problem is really the way to go.

Jordan:30:10
For sure, for sure. think that kind of goes with like, first off, they have to demonstrate that they're the expert in said thing or else like, I'm not gonna hire it. You know what I mean? So definitely have to throw it out there. Did you have anything else that you wanted to add to a knowledge you wish you knew before?

Okay, just kidding. I am curious about the YouTube channel that is going to get launched next week for the new company.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:30:28
they're so-

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:30:38
Yes, yes, it'll be called ultra visible. Yes.

Jordan:30:41
Ultra visible, perfect. Are you going to discuss like SEO strategies or just strategies and strategies in general to become visible online in these hard to market businesses?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:30:52
So I'm starting out where every day is going to have a different theme. So Monday will be metrics Monday. So like people are like, what is, know, CTV, LTV or whether CTV ads, what's LTV? How do you calculate the CAC? Like I'll do all the boring stuff. Tuesday will be like tears Tuesday. One question I get a lot is like, you know, how do I do meta ads for a 5 million business with a 50 million business versus a 500 million a year business? So I'll talk through like tears on Tuesdays.

Wednesday will be what's happening Wednesdays. So basically like every, like what's going on in news. That's basically the videos I do now. Thursday will be how to market X. So like if you have a pen company, this is how we market it. And then Friday will be like more like fun topics, just like, you know, you know, like the branding agency was like, you know, you got to show some personality. So I'm like, fine. you know so it'll just be like you know i don't know i make really good like italian food so like you know i might be like cooking or you know you know i'm with my kids a whole lot so you know like you know here's my daughter and i doing a makeup tutorial you know something like that yeah

Jordan:31:58
That's super cute. By the way, I am part Italian, love Italian food. It's my favorite hands down.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:32:03
It's easy to make once you know all the secrets.

Jordan:32:08
That's the thing, it's knowing the secrets. I still think I lack the knowledge of secrets, but that's okay.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:32:14
Brown sugar, brown sugar in the red sauce. That's the number one.

Jordan:32:17
Red sauce. love that. Good advice. Good advice. I was going to say something on the topic of yes, you did not go to school for marketing, right? How did you even manage to start an agency? Like what happened in your life? Or you're like, yeah, STEM is cool, but I kind of wanted this business thing.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:32:38
I've been told before that I market like a scientist. Actually, when I went to the branding agency, I thought that they were going to come up with like, my brand is, I market like a scientist, but no, actually my brand is my market hard to market businesses. But I think having the scientific background made me sort of look at everything like, and I almost apply like the scientific method with, know, it's sort of like, what's the problem? Well, you know, here's, you know, like, you know, like where you are, here's my hypothesis, you know, like, let's test the hypothesis.

We're constantly doing that and iterating. We're willing to kill our darlings at our agency. you know, we are not married to perfect design. We are not married to a very cute campaign that we spend hours and hours on. If it doesn't perform and it's not meeting the KPIs, like, it's gotta go. So, you know, so I would say that having the scientific background, you know, kind of made me unemotional and removed from that sort of thing. And then naturally I do love design and art and, you know, I...

You know, I was deciding for a period of, know, like my mother was very much against me going to like interior design school, but I was deciding between like interior design school or medical school. mother was like, don't go interior design school. But I didn't end up finishing medical school anyway. But I feel like I can't always tell you how to get to the perfect design, but I can tell you if it's wrong and I can tell you pretty specifically like how maybe not maybe wrong is too harsh, but like, you know, how to get it on brand or how the adjusted accordingly and to really get it so that it feeds into that experience. And when I'm at CMU and they teach service design, that's a lot of what it is too.

Jordan:34:15
Thanks for the context, but I guess like what happened when you were in college to like taking your first client, right? Did you get an internship? And then he said, okay, cool. I have the skills now. Or like, what was that transition like?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:34:27
Well, I just had the skincare blog and it was really popular. then, you know, and, you know, we had advertisers like Neutrogena, Veno, Revlon, Vanity Planet, know, Tatcha. We had the Estee edit with Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner before, like, you know, Kylie had Kylie Cosmetics. You know, we had just like the coolest clients, you know, and then when I got to a point where I was making 10,000 a month, while I was in medical school and then they offered me to apply for the business incubator. was like, that's enough money and it's enough, you know, of an opportunity, you know, to justify taking the leave of absence. And then they let me go for two years on the leave of absence. Does that answer your question or am I missing the mark? I feel like I might be missing the mark.

Jordan:35:16
No, you're good. And I remember you said that earlier. And didn't you win the award?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:35:21
second place. I got second place. somebody else. Yeah, like designing something really cool like an artificial heart or something in first place. So it's like, can't compete with that. So yeah.

Jordan:35:31
Well, second place is not bad, you know?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:35:33
Yeah, no, no, you know, it was $25,000. And at the time, like that was enough for me to like, you know, with what I was making from advertising to, you know, get a product line started and things like that. So, you know, just a small run.

Jordan:35:49
Super cool. cool. Let's see. I know you have the new business launching next week, but anything else that's up and coming for the agency on either side on either agency.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:36:02
There will be a book coming out and it'll be in July of 27 with you know, like a real publisher So that will be in July of 27. It's based on ultra visible and you're helping unseen businesses be seen online and You know basically You know how to market the unmarketable business. So that'll be exciting You and then I do publish an annual guidebook on digital marketing that's updated So that'll be coming out. The goal was April. It might be pushing to May, but I'll be getting that out shortly of this year. Thank you. Thank you. I like rain.

Jordan:36:37
That's super exciting. Actually, I have yet to write a book, but I like reading books. I think knowledge is, know, pretty, pretty important. Where can they find you on like a personal, personal level, even website?

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:36:47
Definitely, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:36:54
You know, let's see. I am on Facebook. know, Facebook's mainly, you know, stuff I don't mind like family seeing. That there's like Instagram, you know, I have more personal stuff. And then LinkedIn is great, you know, for business, you know, and stuff. And then I'm getting a TikTok started, but that'll probably be more like the, like ultra visible stuff, you know, in that brand.

And then, like, I'm on Excel, so yeah.

Jordan:37:27
Okay. So cool. Mickey, thank you so much for the conversation. You are really knowledgeable, definitely the expert in the space. I wish you tons of success for the current agency and the, new one starting here pretty soon. And now I'll have you back on in like six to six to months and see how the new agent is going. for sure.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:37:31
Thank you.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:37:35
Thank you.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:37:40
Yeah.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:37:44
Absolutely. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you.

Jordan:37:48
Absolutely, yes. Audience, we love you. We'll talk to you soon.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti:37:54
thank you. Thank you.