Welcome to another exciting episode of Entrepreneurs Enigma! In this episode, our host Seth sits down with the talented entrepreneur, Kasey Jones. Kasey shares her inspiring journey of how she found her passion for helping startup founders accelerate growth. With her background in B2B sales and marketing, she has been able to revamp sales and marketing messaging for numerous startups. Kasey also opens up about battling imposter syndrome and how she overcame it. Join us as we dive into Kasey’s story and gain valuable insights into entrepreneurship, overcoming challenges, and helping others succeed. Let’s get started on this enlightening conversation with Kasey Jones on Entrepreneurs Enigma!

Key Moments

[00:06:11] Kasey learns from Impostor Syndrome, starts their own business.

[00:07:45] Kasey – entrepreneur, consultant, skill in finding ways to improve businesses.

[00:11:34] Kasey dislikes Microsoft Teams and prefers using their own Mac.

[00:15:17] The text discusses the author’s appreciation for a small moment of beauty in a loading animation on the Twitter app.

Find Kasey Online

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abetterjones/

https://twitter.com/abetterjones

If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please give us a review on the podcast directory of your choice. We’re on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show.

**GoodPods: https://gmwd.us/goodpods iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser**

**Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee**

Follow Seth Online:

Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me

Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein

Seth On Mastodon: https://s3th.me/pch

Seth’s Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com

Transcript (Provided by CastMagic.io)

Seth [00:00:00]:

Entrepreneurs Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs. How we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneurs Enigma podcast. I am, as always, Seth, your host. Today I have Casey Jones, who I know through Jay Klaus’s Accelerator creative science lab. I also know her through this, the Internet in Interwebs, because she’s prolific on video. We were just talking in the pre show about how video makes it so everything’s a lot more personal and all that stuff. So let me bring Casey in. She before getting there, she helps accelerate growth for startup founders, and she helps them do them in a few different ways. She revamps sales and marketing messaging, and she does a lot more than that. We’ll bring her in and we’ll have her talk about that. So hey, Casey, how’s it going?

Kasey [00:01:15]:

It’s going well. How are you?

Seth [00:01:17]:

Not too bad. So we were just talking about also the weather. I always ask about the weather. How’s the weather in Portland? You said it was really nice.

Kasey [00:01:23]:

Portland is fabulous. It is gorgeous.

Seth [00:01:25]:

It’s actually not that bad here. It’s like in the mid 80s here today. Humid here.

Kasey [00:01:30]:

Yeah, see, it’s shocking. Even though we get lots of rain in the winter, we do not get humidity. It’s not like the east coast. My hair is sopping wet right now because I just got out of the shower because it’s 3 hours earlier for me. But I grew up on the East Coast, and let me tell you, there were a lot of really awkward years for me with my very big curly hair.

Seth [00:01:51]:

Your big hair moments. Yeah.

Kasey [00:01:53]:

And Portland, I have fabulous hair, which makes life much easier.

Seth [00:01:59]:

Exactly. That’s awesome. So, Casey, tell me a little bit about you. How did this whole growth, helping startups get found and growth and figuring out how to scale and coaching, how did this all get started?

Kasey [00:02:13]:

Well, how it got started, I started my career in B, two B sales. And I started my career in B. Two B sales. Not because I was like, OOH, I want to be a salesperson. It was like I went to a very nerdy intellectual college.

Seth [00:02:25]:

A lot of us of our generation, we went and got basic degree, thinking, oh, we’ll figure this out later. Let’s have fun.

Kasey [00:02:32]:

Oh, 100%. And I graduated college, like, literally having no clue even what a person could do for a living, let alone what I wanted to do. And I love my parents, but my parents were very hands off, and so they gave me zero guidance. So I was like, I don’t know. So I think I saw an ad like, can you talk to people? And I was like, I could do that. So I got into sales.

Seth [00:02:54]:

At least it was B to B sales. So you got hung up on a little bit less?

Kasey [00:02:58]:

Yes, I got into B to B sales. I started, I don’t know, doing all kinds of things and then ultimately made the transition to tech. And while I was there, I made the transition into marketing. I had been running an SDR team.

Seth [00:03:16]:

Moved up pretty fast.

Kasey [00:03:17]:

I did move up pretty fast.

Seth [00:03:20]:

So you were good at talking to people?

Kasey [00:03:21]:

I was good at talking to people. Very good at building relationships. And I think growing up as like a theater nerd made me really good at scripts and giving my pitches. And I was never intimidated by that. And so I made the transition to marketing and did really well there as well. Had zero guidance, like no real training, and just figured it out.

Seth [00:03:46]:

A lot of us are like that.

Kasey [00:03:48]:

Yeah, a lot of us are like that. Sales just is like that now. There are books and things like that. And apparently you can go to college for sales, but that was not the case.

Seth [00:03:59]:

Why? 18 years ago, you really couldn’t go to school for digital marketing back when we were in college either.

Kasey [00:04:07]:

No, I’m 41 when young people are like, oh, did you learn this in school? I was like, no, anything that I would have learned, first of all, definitely didn’t teach that, but anything I would have learned, yeah, you can learn the principles, the context and the tools and all the rest has changed drastically.

Seth [00:04:30]:

It changes every five minutes.

Kasey [00:04:31]:

Every five minutes. And that’s why you really do have to be thirsty for knowledge. And I think also like a born experimenter. And I think I just was that way. And so I wound up working at a bunch of different startups, wound up head of marketing for a really early stage startup.

Seth [00:04:52]:

It was exciting and nerve wracking.

Kasey [00:04:54]:

Really exciting. And then I got invited and it’s a long story that I won’t get into. I got invited to lead a series of go to market strategy workshops in Beirut, Lebanon.

Seth [00:05:08]:

Oh, that’s exotic.

Kasey [00:05:09]:

It was really cool for the first ever partnership between the UN and a startup accelerator.

Seth [00:05:15]:

Oh, wow.

Kasey [00:05:16]:

It was really cool. So it was all social impact startups. And my flight over there, I was like, peak imposter syndrome. I was like, what the hell? Am I ever going to be asleep? How can I help these people? I don’t know what I’m doing out loud.

Seth [00:05:31]:

Yeah.

Kasey [00:05:32]:

And I got incredible feedback about how I was able to help them. And actually, I think it was maybe a year ago, I got a LinkedIn message from one of the startups that was like, hey. And we did not keep in touch. And it was like, what, five or six years earlier that I’d worked with them. And he sent me a message. And he was like, hey, I just want to let you know we just got acquired. And a lot of what helped us be successful was what you taught us. It was really cool.

Seth [00:06:05]:

That note. Every time you have imposter syndrome, you look at that note and say, wait, maybe I know what I’m talking about.

Kasey [00:06:11]:

And here’s what I’ve learned. What I’ve learned about impostor syndrome is I feel it every time I’m in the process of leveling up. It’s when I’m doing something that is uncomfortable that I’m not sure about. And now I view it as a really good sign. But so I left Beirut, and my first day back in the office, the founders of the startup I was working for were like, well, we’ve run out of and so honestly, I think I was like on a high of that experience from Lebanon. And now I had this opportunity. Okay, so I started my own business. And truly, the first call that I took, I had to reach out to a woman that we were partnering with on something. And I reached out to her and I was like, hey, just so you know, this is what’s going on. And she’s like, well, what are you going to do? And I was like, I’m not sure. I was like, I’m kind of thinking about going out on my own. Good for you. And she goes, oh, okay, well, we need marketing help, so I’ll be your first client. That was my first call.

Seth [00:07:14]:

Oh, my good. That is awesome because you actually have a good relationship and they like you. Yeah.

Kasey [00:07:21]:

And so it’s just evolved since then. And what I’ve realized is that because I have this hybrid experience of B, two B sales and then like demand gen, I often understand revenue better than a lot of other marketers, and I’m more interested in supporting sales teams and I know sales well.

Seth [00:07:42]:

You kind of moved up in that until you cut your teeth.

Kasey [00:07:45]:

Yeah. And it’s really helped me as an entrepreneur. It’s helped me in the consulting work that I do. And also when I was at that startup, I realized we were a team of eleven. And so I wound up mapping out all of the customer onboarding. I did a lot more of the strategic stuff that was kind of marketing related. Not really. And so a lot of what I wind up doing with startups now and small businesses is I have a knack of I can go into any business. Give me an hour or two asking a lot of questions and I can find low hanging fruit of ways that they’re leaving money on the table and how to fix it.

Seth [00:08:28]:

That’s cool.

Kasey [00:08:30]:

So the one thing I will say that has also shifted for me in the last couple of months is I’ve joined a partnership with someone who he refers to himself as a sourcer. He’d be a good guest for your podcast, by the way. He sources capital. He sources people. So, like, job candidates, he does recruiting stuff, and then he also is like a kind of a growth strategist, like I am. And so we’re teaming up on when a startup is like, yeah, we want to grow, but we need help, we need stuff, we need money, we need people we can help. Startups need all the stuff, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun.

Seth [00:09:08]:

Oh, that’s great. It’s nice to have a team, even though you can be a solo practitioner, still have team members. I mean, that’s what we do at Goldstein Media. It’s me, but I have a team of people that I can pull in when I need them. I need help with this website. Hey, Olivia, can you do this? Brian, can you do that? Like, Sean, can you help me with the SEO? That kind of stuff I can scale up, which is like, the way to go, in my opinion.

Kasey [00:09:29]:

That’s the way to go.

Seth [00:09:30]:

And it’s the way sometimes it’s not always the opportunity that you need to do no.

Kasey [00:09:35]:

And I think it’s being able to kind of partner with people. It definitely helps know deliver more value to clients, but it’s also more fun.

Seth [00:09:44]:

It is variety.

Kasey [00:09:46]:

It’s awesome to be able to learn from someone else or see how their brain works or have them take something that you could do. I bet you’d be like, okay at SEO, but it’s like, have someone else who just kills it, know what you’re.

Seth [00:09:59]:

Good at, and hire a partner for the rest. We’re going to take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Kasey [00:10:05]:

Yes. And I think that’s the biggest thing. I think early in my business, I tried to do too many things and I tried to do too many things that I knew I could make money off of, but I wasn’t good at.

Seth [00:10:16]:

Exactly.

Kasey [00:10:16]:

And I didn’t enjoy, and it was like, slipped the life out of me doing them.

Seth [00:10:21]:

So you worked in house, and you worked as an entrepreneur. What’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur versus being in house?

Kasey [00:10:29]:

You’re in charge of your own destiny.

Seth [00:10:31]:

Yeah.

Kasey [00:10:32]:

And I think I am a very opinionated person.

Seth [00:10:36]:

Really?

Kasey [00:10:37]:

Oh, shocker. Oh, my God. And it’s really hard for me to work in an environment where you see leadership doing things where you’re like, that is a dumb move. That is not good. That is do not agree, and you can’t do anything about it.

Seth [00:10:55]:

Yeah. Bite your tongue. Yeah.

Kasey [00:10:57]:

Turns out I’m not good at biting my tongue.

Seth [00:10:59]:

Neither am I. Lasted a year and a half in corporate, and I was like, no, not for me. Yeah.

Kasey [00:11:05]:

No. And I got suckered in, and I did a year, a stint of being an employee, and it was not good. It was really not good again.

Seth [00:11:16]:

So that’s good.

Kasey [00:11:17]:

Yeah, it feels really good to be back at full time entrepreneurship. It was nice to have a little bit of a break and it was fun to work on teams again. Yeah, but teams, not Microsoft teams. Teams.

Seth [00:11:31]:

No, nothing’s good about Microsoft teams.

Kasey [00:11:34]:

Nothing is good about Microsoft teams, let’s be clear about that. And I did have to use that and it was like such a disaster. They also gave me like, an IBM laptop and I tried to use it for about two days and I was like, Nope. And I just did it all on my Mac. And my boss was just, just don’t let the CEO see you on your Mac. And I was like, I’m not doing.

Seth [00:11:56]:

Because you’re either a Mac person or you’re a person. Like, I’m all PC and I go to a Mac and I’m like, Why is the control key not the control key?

Kasey [00:12:04]:

Oh, I know.

Seth [00:12:05]:

Oh, it throws me off so much. I’m sure I could get used to it, but I’m like, Why?

Kasey [00:12:09]:

No? Once you’ve made your decision, it’s really hard to switch. And I’ve been a Mac person for like 20 years.

Seth [00:12:16]:

Yeah, there’s no switch, no going back. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, right? And I mean, they call your old.

Kasey [00:12:20]:

Dog am I the old dog in this scenario?

Seth [00:12:23]:

When it comes to that stuff, you’re stuck on a technology. 20 years on a Mac, you’re stuck. I’m 42, so I’d say I’m 30 years on a PC.

Kasey [00:12:35]:

Oh yeah.

Seth [00:12:35]:

I got a PC when I was ten.

Kasey [00:12:37]:

Oh, yeah.

Seth [00:12:38]:

So it’s like the control keys. I won’t go on a tangent here. I like Mac OS. I like macs. I think they’re very pretty machines. I think they work well. Much better in PCs too, but I hate the keyboard.

Kasey [00:12:52]:

And I totally get that. And I will say if I had to use the IBM but I didn’t have to use Microsoft, there you go. That would have been a different thing. But I had to use the IBM and Microsoft and I was.

Seth [00:13:11]:

Right. So what’s the, what’s the scariest thing? Because you jumped out of entrepreneurship for a year, what’s the scariest thing? What’s keeping you up at night with entrepreneurship? Is there anything?

Kasey [00:13:19]:

Well, the scariest thing is the best thing. It’s that you are in charge of your destiny. It’s up to you. No one is here to save you. No one else is going to guarantee that you get a paycheck all on you. And that is empowering and it’s liberating and it’s freaking awesome. But it’s also really hard.

Seth [00:13:46]:

That’s wild. And so what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Kasey [00:13:52]:

I think the most important thing to carry with you all the time is your sense of self love and your values. Like what really matters to you. And part of that is what we were just talking about, of knowing your strengths. Part of it is also knowing what you actually want to do. Because I think early on in my entrepreneurial journey, I made a lot of decisions that were absolutely smart business decisions, but they weren’t what was right for me.

Seth [00:14:22]:

Yes.

Kasey [00:14:23]:

And I think it’s hard to figure that out and know that and know what is right for you. I had to learn it the hard way, like, multiple times.

Seth [00:14:34]:

It tends to happen.

Kasey [00:14:35]:

Yeah. But I think that’s the thing. It’s like, you’ve got to hold tight to your sense of self because it’s really easy to get knocked about and to lose yourself along the oh, that’s wild.

Seth [00:14:51]:

So where can people find Casey Jones? Online?

Kasey [00:14:54]:

So you can find me on pretty much any social platform. LinkedIn and Twitter are, like, where I kind of hang out most these days. X. I won’t call it that. If you want to look at it on your web browser, you don’t type in X.com. It’s still Twitter.com.

Seth [00:15:15]:

I know. It’s the worst breed branding expert.

Kasey [00:15:17]:

It’s the worst exercise, and it’s so generic. I also will say and I talked about this on Twitter with someone logging into the Twitter app on my phone, when you’re waiting for it to load and you see the little bird and it gets smaller for a second. Then it gets big and then the app opens that is like this one subtle little moment of technology that I think was absolute pure beauty and so wonderful. And it made me happy every time. And I would always think I would open up another app and be like, god, they should really do that with their logo. Like, now it’s next, and now it doesn’t do that at all. Oh, you got rid of doesn’t do that. It just loads. With a normal app, you don’t get this little moment of, I don’t know, something that is totally pointless other than make you smile.

Seth [00:16:14]:

I love that. I love that. And you’re everywhere. Pretty much a better jones.

Kasey [00:16:19]:

A better jones. Yeah.

Seth [00:16:20]:

I like that.

Kasey [00:16:21]:

Thank you.

Seth [00:16:22]:

We’ll have all her links in the show notes. And thank you so much for being on. This has been so much fun. Awesome. And we’ll see everyone next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying entrepreneurs Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network at Marketingpodcasts Network. Goldstein gee hopes you have enjoyed this episode. This podcast is one of the many great shows on the MPN Marketing Podcast Network.