Dr. Lori A. Manns With Quality Media Consultant Group

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor. Here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Dr Lori Manns with Quality Media Consulting Group. Welcome, Lori.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:00:44] Hi, Lee, thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] I am so excited to get caught up with you. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Quality Media Consultant Group? How you serving folks?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:00:55] Yes, well, we are a business consultancy firm specializing in media marketing and sales strategies for optimal business growth. We help entrepreneurs and small business owners to get more dream clients, gain brand visibility and grow their income, impact and influence in record time.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:12] So how did this get started?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:01:15] Yeah, well, you know, I have been an entrepreneur for the past 14 years. And I started out, I like to say, as an accidental entrepreneur, because I got downsized from my corporate job in 2009 and just figured out that I did not want to work for corporate America anymore and just took my skills and talents and capabilities and started a marketing and media agency. And I started out doing media buying, which we still have that vertical in our business to this day. So we still do media buying and planning for our corporate clients and small business clients, and we also do marketing communications for them. And just as a way of getting myself out there in the public and becoming a expert in my industry and presenting myself as a subject matter expert, I started to do video and blogs, and that’s how I kind of got into consulting and coaching entrepreneurs and micro business owners, and I just took off from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:20] So is that your kind of sweet spot? Is the micro business owner and the entrepreneur?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:02:26] Yes, yes. As far as the coaching and consulting goes, yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:32] Now, as a rule, do you find that entrepreneurs attend enough events?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:02:39] Well, you know what I, I think prior to Covid and the pandemic, I think it was just the norm to attend events, right? Because we were just out there and we did a lot in the community. I know I did a lot, and just living in a metropolitan area like Atlanta, there’s always a business event to attend. But I have run across those entrepreneurs, uh, who just do not get out there, and they wonder why they don’t have enough leads coming in and they think everything is going to come from social media. So I really I really feel like it’s important to get out there in the community and, um, let your face be known, let your brand be known and make sure that people know who you are. And I just don’t really feel like now, post pandemic, that people are attending events, whether virtually or in person, as much as they should, to get their brand and business out there in a bigger way.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:49] Now, I know lately especially, we’ve been, uh, bombarded with the opportunities to, uh, broadcast live from events. And we work with a lot of the big business associations here in Atlanta, uh, to broadcast live at these events. How do you recommend an entrepreneur choose which is the appropriate event to attend? Because like you said earlier, there’s just so many of them popping up nowadays.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:04:16] Yeah, you’re right about that. Lee, I think there are a couple things that will help you determine what types of events or, um, which events are going to be good for you and or your business. And so I think the first thing you have to look at is. Are the speakers people that you need to learn from and do. They have expertise in the areas where you need to grow in? And if that is the case, you absolutely want to look at attending those types of events. And then you also want to look at the target audience like who’s going to be there? And based upon the type of audience that that event is going to garner, is it going to be an opportunity for you to network and for you to meet some people who may be in your target audience? And when you think about who’s going to be in the room or who’s going to be in the audience. Uh, sometimes. Who’s in the audience is just as important as who’s on the stage. So you never know if you’re able to connect with somebody in the audience who could be a new. Client, or who could be a new referral partner, or who could just be somebody who you need to know for one reason or another. So I think it’s very important to look at the speaker lineup, the topics that are going to be discussed, as well as who’s going to be in the audience. And then just looking at, you know, who’s presenting the event. And, um, based on all of these things, you know, are the presenters and organizers of the event, are they credible? You know, do they have a good reputation for putting on good events? And these are some of the things that will help you to decide. Is this an event for me and one that can benefit me and my company as to where we are right now?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:26] Now, do you recommend that an entrepreneur who’s serious about growing their business look at events like they do with their content, like with their content, they should be creating an editorial calendar of how you’re going to distribute and create content throughout the year. Should you be doing the same thing with regarding events in terms of, you know, like if I’m a business coach and I specialize in serving dentists, shouldn’t I be attending events that are for business coaches to learn? But also, shouldn’t I be attending events for dentists where there’s a bunch of dentists in the room so I can get there and meet them and be maybe the only business coach that’s there?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:07:05] Absolutely. Because not only do you want to attend events where you know it’s pertinent to your industry, but it’s got to be also pertinent to where you are trying to go, like what your goals are in your business. So, you know, it may be a situation where, you know, during the first quarter of the year, there is an industry event that you need to attend to, and they have the same event every year around the same time. And then maybe you want to attend an event that is more business oriented and it’s more, uh, wide scale. You know, it’s not a niche down event. Like if you’re a dentist, you want to attend the dentist conference. But maybe this event is for people who want to get into online courses or speaking or writing a book or things of that nature. So, you know, we’re all going to have multiple goals. So you definitely want to target the types of events that are not only going to be niche specific, but are also going to be business related and, you know, give you some intelligence and overall wisdom and knowledge about what’s happening in the world of business. Because, see, your competitors may be more well rounded than you are. And if that is the case, I promise you they are attending events not only that are specific to their industry, but they are expanding their horizons and attending events where they can get into other audiences and perhaps grow their clientele with different specialties and things of that nature. So you’re absolutely right. You may end up attending an event per quarter or per month, and it needs to be different types of events. Some need to be specific to your industry, and some need to be specific to whatever your goals are for that particular month or quarter.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:04] Now, is there a strategy when you attend an event, or is this something you just kind of go, oh, today’s the day that event, I just show up there and just kind of wander around.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:09:15] No. Absolutely not. You always want to have a strategy when you attend business events, because you just don’t want to spend money to go to this or that event. You want to have a strategy in place for every event you go to, even if you’re only attending as a attendee and you’re not a speaker, or you’re not a vendor, or you’re not a sponsor, even as an attendee, you want to have a strategy. And I think, uh, one of the basic things that you want to have is just a plan going into the event. What do you want to get out of it? Right? Even if you’re an attendee and you’ve paid, let’s just say you’re $100 to go to the event. Well, in order to make that $100 profitable for you and have a return on investment, you should think about how can I meet someone or make a connection where this $100 is going to be seed money, so to speak? It’s going to be money that I invested in my business and in myself. And somehow some way that’s going to come back to me. And so does that mean you need to meet at least five new connections or ten new connections? Does that mean you need to get your business card? You know, even if you have a digital business card these days, do you need to exchange business cards with at least ten people? Or does that mean you need to find out? You know, who is looking for the type of, uh, service or product that you offer, and perhaps they are in the market for what you do at that point.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:10:55] So you need to have a plan in place about what you want to get from the event, how many connections you want to make with people you know. Are you looking to meet, um, referral partners? Are you looking for new clients? Are you looking for joint venture operational, um, opportunities? You know, just what is it that you really need in your business? Are you looking for staff or, you know, do you need to hire some people? What is it that you want and go in with the idea that you’re going to try to make some connections with people who can help you get what you need? And not only that, who you can also help.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:38] Now when you’re deciding which events to go to, is there some criteria that you have of this is not a good event that I should be investing time in? Are there some red flags for events for entrepreneurs?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:11:52] Yeah. I think some of the red flags would, would be, you know, based upon what your goals are for that particular month or quarter. If you have not allocated the money to attend an event and it is a ticketed event, then if you’ve got to take money from something else that you actually need to pay in your business to attend that event, then that’s a red flag. You have to make sure that you allocate the the money to attend these events to make it work for you. And the other thing is, you have to make sure that what you’re going to learn and what you’re going to gain from that event is something that you’re going to take and apply and execute within your business within the next 3 to 6 months. So how timely is the information that is being discussed, and how timely is it for you and your business? Is it something that you can utilize within the next three months, six months, a year that you can turn around and make that knowledge pay for itself and make the experience worthwhile? And so I just believe that if you have the budget set aside and sometimes we don’t allocate enough money for events, right.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:13:19] And if you can pull money from something else that is not producing the the return on your investment and then invest it in this event and then boom, you go to that event and what happens is you end up meeting two people and that. Turns into a new opportunity or a new clientele. You know, I’ve had that happen to me before myself. You know, I’ve learned about an event. At the last minute. And I said, well, you know what? I’m going to take money from this thing over here that I’ve been doing that is only moderately successful and not really producing what I wanted to produce. And I’m going to use that money and go to this event. And I did that. And what happened was I got a speaking engagement from that event, and I got two clients from that event, and I was so glad that, you know, I was able to take that investment and leverage it into something more.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:22] Now, if you want to get take events to a new level is create your own event and you have an upcoming event.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:14:30] Absolutely. I always say, don’t just sit back and wait for people to invite you to their event. Create your own. And don’t just wait for people to put you on their platform. Create your own stage and shine on your own. And so that’s what I did. I created an event called the Trailblazer Business Summit, and it’s a one day conference where I invite my business colleagues and friends and connections to come out and share. Incredible. Tips, strategies, and actionable information that entrepreneurs can utilize right away in order to make a impact on their bottom line. And it’s so important to me to do that because, you know, right now we have been in an inflation society and everybody wants to learn how to make their money grow and make their money, um, move into something that is just very profitable and prosperous. And so our theme this year is Elevate to dominate. And it’s going to be Saturday, April the 27th. And I’m super ecstatic about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:46] And who is that kind of ideal, um, attendee.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:15:50] Well. It would be great for any small business owner. Whether you are a solo entrepreneur, a micro business owner, or a small business owner already established and doing hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions even because you’re going to get a refresher upon how to scale beyond seven figures. We have some, uh, entrepreneurs there who are going to be talking about scaling to seven figures and beyond. And then we also have some entrepreneurs that are going to be talking about, uh, just how to get to six figures for those people who are not there yet as well. So we’re going to be talking about the gamut. We have a power panel, uh, that’s going to be talking about how to leverage social media and digital technology in business so that you can increase and improve your bottom line. The incredible John Lawson and Maria Angelova and Sonia Krystal Williams are going to be on that panel, and it’s going to be amazing. And I also have Donna Ines from Georgia Tech who’s going to be the keynote. And I have Shaky Webster, who’s going to be the featured speaker. Excuse me. Excuse, excuse me, who’s going to be the featured speaker, Shaky Webster.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:15] Now, um, is this something that is in person? Virtual? Both.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:17:21] Yes, this event is a hybrid event. It is in person. Live here in Atlanta at the Courtyard by Marriott, and it’s also virtual for anyone across the country who wants to join us.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:38] And then if they want to learn more, what’s the website?

Dr Lori Manns: [00:17:44] They need to go to quality media consultants. Com. And once again that’s quality media consultants. Com. On the events page.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:58] Good stuff. Well, Lori, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:18:04] Thank you so much. Got a little bug in my throat there, Lee. Sorry about.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:08] That. Not a problem. I think you got the word out in the message out. And it’s an important, uh, summit again. The Trailblazer Business Summit 2020 for Saturday, April 24th from 10 a.m. on April 27th. April 27th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. eastern at the Courtyard by Marriott Buckhead. Go to Quality Media Consultants. Com to learn more, go to their events page and you will find it. Lori, thank you again.

Dr Lori Manns: [00:18:37] Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:39] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.