Marketing In Action with Kimberly Weitkamp

 

 

Listen to the podcast here:

 

Highlights:

01:38 Recession Leads to a Great Transition
06:35 Copywriting Defined
12:23 How Can I Help You?
20:09 Loving the Travels
26:03 The Funny Thing About Anything Foreign
30:26 Set Client Expectations
35:33 The Value of Customer Service
39:15 Finding the Right People to Serve

 

Resources:

Kimberly’s Free E-Course

 

Relive why you started your biz. Join @myexpectation and @k_weitkamp as they discuss effective marketing approaches and strategies. #marketing #copywriting #travel #expectations #customerservice #brand #entrepreneurship Click To Tweet

Quotes:

“Copywriting can make or break a business.” –Art Costello

“I strongly believe that marketing should start with,’ how can I help you?’” –Kimberly Weitkamp

“You need to let people know what’s going on because when you leave them in the dark, when you don’t let them know what’s going to happen next, it’s just a way for people to worry more.” –Kimberly Weitkamp

“When you learn how to manage expectations, one of the things that it does is it relieves stress and anxiety.” –Art Costello

“I set those expectations, and then I meet or exceed those expectations. Because to me, that’s just good business practice.” –Kimberly Weitkamp

“Without customers, we’re poor nobody. We’re just out in this desert of nothingness and people seem to forget it.” –Art Costello

“Marketing- it should be a reflection of your business, of your brand. And it should have customer service built into it. Because … a lot of businesses and a lot of entrepreneurs are all about helping people. That’s why they got started.” –Kimberly Weitkamp

 

Meet Kimberly Weitkamp

Kimberly Weitkamp is a Marketing and Copywriting expert. On the side, she also co-hosts the Chatting with Copywriters Podcast. Kimberly loves to travel which greatly helped her along the customer service line that became the foundation for her services and methods. She grew up in a household where she was able to set her own expectations and follow through with it with her family’s support. And as a passionate marketing strategist, she shares this value with her clients so that they may be able to put their vision to life and see tangible evidence of their success. 

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Transcription:

 

Art Costello: Welcome to the Shower Epiphanies Podcast. Today, Kimberly Weitkamp, our guests, she is a successful marketing strategist, conversion copywriter, and shares her experiences that co host of Chatting with Copywriters Podcast. Working with her clients, she noticed many struggled to create and understand the big picture of their business and marketing approach. She’d develop the Concierge Conversion Methods to help business owners and entrepreneurs draw the right people with the right message at the right time. She combines the principles of great customer service and easy learning which helps companies regularly sell out their programs through increased brand awareness campaigns and lead nurturing sequences. She’s helped several entrepreneurs and business owners around the globe create longtime customer relationships with the right audience. It is my pleasure, I met Kimberly at the new media summit in San Diego. She’s dynamite, I really like her. She’s got this vibrant smile that you guys can’t see. But anyway, Kimberly, can you tell us your story, how it started all for you?

Kimberly Weitkamp: Well. All right. I wanted to say thank you so much for having me on your podcast and it was really great to meet you in person as well. You bring such a great energy to the event and I’m really very happy to be sharing my story with your audience. So my story starts, I think with where a lot of millennials stories start. I just entered university and a month later the stock market crashed and we entered the greatest recession since the great depression. So my opportunities for getting hired after college were non-existent. So I was like, okay, fine. I’ll start traveling the world, I’ll move to Spain, I’ll be an English teacher because I knew I could get a job there. And from there, I kind of got into travel writing and from travel writing thought into the marketing world. And I just loved every single aspect of realizing that my words could help people find the solutions they were looking for. I could help connect companies with the right people that were already looking for the solutions that they wanted. And from there, you know, I dived head first into the marketing and copywriting world and didn’t really look back, and use my experience with customer service, with, you know, breaking down complex concepts into easy to understand language, to help people connect with a wide audience and explain exactly what it is they do and how it is they help their customers. So that’s my brief story in a nutshell, if you will.

Art Costello: Well, it’s really powerful because, well, the first thing that comes to my mind is graduating from college and then taking off. So many people are stuck after they get out of college and they don’t know where to go. I actually coach millennials and anybody going in transitions out of college or out of jobs. And I know the difficulty that it takes, and the amount of work it takes to move past the fear because there’s always that fear that, well, if I do this and ain’t going to work, if I do that isn’t going to work. How do you overcome that?

Kimberly Weitkamp: So how did I overcome the fear of, Oh no, it won’t work. I made a huge investment in my future. Basically, I was living in New Zealand at the time, but living is a misnomer. I was there on a special visa that lets you work and live in the country for a year. However, I hadn’t found a job yet. I was running out of savings and I didn’t have a permanent place to live. I was traveling the country on a hop on hop off bus and I had been doing this training for copywriting and they had an option about, you know, essentially a three year training program, a big steaks but huge investments, and I kind of, left it up to fate. I was like, okay, you know what? I really want to do this. I know I need to take the time to really get to know this world. I know all of the benefits that it’ll bring. So I’m going to go to sleep cause of the huge time difference. And if I wake up before the deadline, which was midnight in America, but it was like, I don’t know, 10:00 AM back in New Zealand the next day, I’m going to join. And I’m going to say, okay, put your fears aside, you’re making an investment and you’re going to make this work. And I woke up and the car was still open and that’s what I did. So, you know, it was kind of a thing where I also knew that the idea of working in an office nine to five made me want to run in the opposite direction. And I’d also never held a nine to five job. My entire work history is varied and I was one of those people, if I came back to the States, I wouldn’t be able to account for the last four years because I had worked in other countries. So I was like, well, I can give you references, but will you be willing to call Spain and New Zealand to check on them? So I was like, all right, you know what? Self employed is the way to go. Entrepreneurs, the way to go. And yeah, that’s made a huge leap, basically. And I was like, all right, I’m going to deal with the fear once they come.

Art Costello: Would you say that you listen to your gut instincts?

Kimberly Weitkamp: I would say, yes, basically, I didn’t really know what copywriting was before I got introduced to it. And then as I learned more and more about it, I was like, I love this, I love everything about this. This is awesome. I can’t wait to get started. Where do I learn more? I want to learn more. So you know, I just kind of followed that, followed the idea that I’d finally found something I really loved. I found the idea of how I could really use my abilities on a wider range. And yeah, I would say definitely followed the gut instinct.

Art Costello: Well I always believe that if you follow your gut will never lie to you, you know, because it is the one thing that you can trust. What I find really interesting is that copywriting is almost an art form, and I kind of always have had the mindset that copywriting can’t really be learned. It’s almost like an inbred skill that people have. Good copywriters are extremely in demand. I mean, they are. And can you explain to the audience, because a lot of my audience may not realize what a copywriter does, but can you briefly in the next two hours tell us what a copywriter does.

Kimberly Weitkamp: So I ran into this challenge a lot when I first got started because basically all of my clients are online, and my grandmother didn’t understand what I did and she’s afraid of the computer, she has when she uses it. But basically anything having to do with it confuses her. She doesn’t like it, you know, anytime she has to reset her password for her emails, she freaks out. So my really simple explanation for copywriting was basically, you know, how when you get something in a store online and you say, okay, I want to know about future deals, right? And you get those messages in your inbox about updates, about a company, and you know, new things that they’re offering. And hey, we saw you liked this top. We think this top goes really well with this jacket. That’s the basic version of copywriting. Somebody writes those emails. But essentially what I do is I help companies take their values, their mission, and how they’re going to help people. And I help them put it into words so that they can then send it out to the people they can best help, right? Because any product, or service, or entrepreneurial endeavor you’re talking about those people, they started it for a reason. They saw, Oh, you know what? I really wish this existed, right? The guy who made the band-aid, his wife got injured, right? And he wrapped something up and then realized, Oh, this needs to exist, right? So I help people translate their drive and how they help into words that people they’re trying to connect with can understand.

Art Costello: Copywriting can make or break a business. I mean, I believe that because I’ve been around this thing for seven or eight years now and after writing my book, I know that good copywriters can really, are worth every penny that they make.

“Copywriting can make or break a business.” –Art Costello Click To Tweet

Kimberly Weitkamp: So glad you feel that way.

Art Costello: Well, they are. I mean, and it’s such a creative skill. I mean, to craft words about somebody else’s business. I mean, and that’s really the dilemma. The people who create the material, the content necessarily are not the best copywriters for something because they don’t have that stand away, and can look at something, and then crafted into what somebody else might want and that takes a lot of intuitiveness. Do you feel that you’re very intuitive?

Kimberly Weitkamp: I think I can really kind of just get to know exactly what someone is trying to say pretty quickly. I’ve developed a couple of different consultation type sessions where, that’s what I do, right? In an hour I get to know, I’m like, okay, what is it exactly? Who are you helping? What are you doing? And I keep asking the right questions because it’s all about reframing and rephrasing, and you’re right that a lot of people are too close to their business to be able to explain what they’re doing to the people they want to help, right? This is why they got into it. This is exactly why they decided to create what they created, but they’re so close. There’s that popular phrase, right? You’ll forget more than I could ever learn in 20 years or something about a particular topic. And that’s the type of people I work with, right? They know so much about it and they’re so eager to share their message, but they’re a little too close to be able to take that step back, and be like, okay, where are the people I’m talking to? What do they need to know first? What do they need to know second? So I would say, yeah, I’m, I don’t know about deeply, deeply into it, but I definitely can figure out the right questions to ask to get people to dive deep into the deeper meanings of what they do.

Art Costello: Oh, intuitiveness has a lot of variations to it. I mean–

Kimberly Weitkamp: Definitely.

Art Costello: Some people are intuitively, spiritually gifted, and other people are, as you are copywriting, and there’s a lot of different ways to be intuitive. When you were a kid, did you ever think you were going to do this?

Kimberly Weitkamp: Not at all.

Art Costello: What do you want to be?

Kimberly Weitkamp: I wanted to be an astronaut.

Art Costello: Really?

Kimberly Weitkamp: I want it to be an astronaut and I, and you know, I was that nerdy child who was looking up the requirements for joining the space program at eight years old and trying to, you know, map out exactly what I needed to do to get there. And then my dreams were dashed at the age of 10 because you need to have really great eyesight to join the space program and I got my first pair of glasses. When I got my first pair of glasses, I was already beyond what they require to join, which is really unfortunate. But because of that initial drive of wanting to be an astronaut, I have a very, pioneering spirit. I very much wanted to explore, find new things, you know, dive into how things work and that really does drive what I do in my business.

Art Costello: Well I think that that’s the creativeness coming out in you that, you know, really fits into the whole thing. Can you tell us about your program and how it works?

Kimberly Weitkamp: Sure. So basically, I offer just kind of a process essentially. I’ve created a process for helping people map out their strategies. And map out exactly what they’re needing to create. I noticed that a lot of my clients would come to me and they’d say, okay, we want a case study, for example, and for your audience. A case study is basically, it’s a two page document that you hand out of a success story, right? Somebody who used your product or service and this were their results. And it’s a really great way of explaining to other people how something works because they can say, look, your, I don’t know, you’re a hotel owner with 50 rooms. “This person was a hotel owner with 50 rooms and this is the change. This is the transformation, they saw when they used this.” And I said: “Okay, great. You want a case study? How are you going to use it?” They would ask: “What do you mean?” Because for a lot of times when I’m approached to what a marketing project of any kind, a lot of my clients would say: “We heard these work well, we want one.” But they wouldn’t know how that tied in to their customer’s journey. You know? What was the customer experience? Where were they on the path before they were going to see that piece? So basically what I did was I kind of crafted a way for companies to not only realize where their customers were within what we call the stage of awareness. Do they know they have a problem? Are they looking for solutions? Are they looking for a product, to do the solution, that kind of thing. So not only does it help them map out their customer journey, it also helps them map out their entire marketing strategy for a year because it’s all about, I strongly believe that marketing should start with, how can I help you? Because that is why everyone who’s created the products, they see a need in the market and that’s why they create something. But people don’t necessarily know about what you do. So I always approach it with, how can I help you? That’s the first question you should ask whenever creating any type of marketing material. And that basically says, okay, if you’re asking how can I help you? Well then what questions are they asking? Who are you talking to? And you use that basis to map out exactly what you’re going to be creating for the next 12 months. And I help people do that in strategy sessions, of course I can help them also do the full writing for their year long needs. But in general, the way people have interacted with companies, it’s completely changed with being able to pick up your phone and say: “Hey Google, I have a question, can you answer it for me?” And when companies are able to understand that that’s what people are doing first, that’s the first point of contact. They need to be part of the inspiration, they need to be answering and helping their audience before leading them down that path. And that’s kind of how I craft marketing strategies is, how can I help you? And you is the particular audience member they’re trying to reach, and help is by answering the questions that they’re asking.

“I strongly believe that marketing should start with,’ how can I help you?’” –Kimberly Weitkamp Click To Tweet

Art Costello: Makes total sense. I mean, it really does until you, for me, those are the questions I asked, but then trying to craft it into words that they do exactly that is really the challenge for me.

Kimberly Weitkamp: It’s a challenge for a lot of people. I mean, that’s where I come in. I can help them just create the strategy, or I can help them, you know, create the content as well.

Art Costello: You know, I want to, I want to shift back to your younger days.

Kimberly Weitkamp: My younger, younger days. All right.

Art Costello: Which is funny. Coming from this old guy to this young lady. When you were young, who is the big influencer in your life?

Kimberly Weitkamp: I would say most likely the biggest influence in my life because my mom, I’ve always been really close with my parents, my mother especially. And you know, she really instilled in me from a very young age that if I wanted to do something, I could do it. You know, I count myself very, very lucky among my peers that my parents were never the ones saying: “You have to do this. You need to go to school for this. You need to go do this.” You know, I made the decision to move abroad basically, you know, not only was I moving out, but I was moving to a foreign country where I knew nobody and they’re like, great, give us a call once a week. We want to hear what you’re up to. So definitely she was my inspiration. She was kind of the drive behind, you know, having such a pioneering spirit, and also she was a social worker. So I would hear, you know, at the dinner table all these people she was helping during the day and I didn’t necessarily want to take that approach, but I always wanted to find some way I could, kind of, have that type of impact.

Art Costello: One of the thoughts that I just had was, would you say that you set your own expectations and your parents just guided you?

Kimberly Weitkamp: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Art Costello: Ooh, I got goosebumps. It’s just so great to hear somebody whose parents encourage them to live to their own expectations, their own dreams, their own desires. I break things down into wants, needs, and desires. I think we have wants and we want to do, we have desires that we wish to do, and then we have needs to take care of ourselves and those around us that we love. So to hear you say that because I hear the opposite so much. My parents wanted me to be a doctor, I went in, I did it, and I’m unhappy, and I have spent $350,000, and I’m not kidding, $350,000 becoming a doctor and then not not be happy, or even $60,000 becoming a, you know, a nurse, or whatever, and whatever the trade and being unhappy. And I believe when you live to your expectations, your core expectations that you have in yourself, that your life just unfolds like a beautiful flower. It just, it really does. For me, I never had anyone to set expectations for me because of my childhood, and I had to figure out everything on my own. And through the grace of God and having many conversations with him, I learned how to expect and that’s how expectation therapy was born. So, you know, I’m always in tears just thinking how blessed you are, and how blessed we are to have you with us and influencing us, and all of those things.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Thank you.

Art Costello: You said that you’ve traveled to many countries and then you left by yourself. That in itself is something that most young women don’t do. I know too that I have met through a new media summit that have done that. Where did you go? I know you went to Spain.

Kimberly Weitkamp: So my first foray into traveling, it was not by myself, but it was the first non family trip I ever took. And basically anything that could go wrong went wrong. The airline lost my luggage. I almost missed my flights. I never got my luggage back. I was in a country that, then came into conflict while I was there. We had to be evacuated. Our entire trip had to be restructured. And by the time I left, half the people on the trip had gone home early. But then I still love travel. That was my first and non family trip. So I think from that, I kinda got it into my head, I was like, you know, I loved seeing a different place. I loved meeting different people. I was in a place that had a very wide variety of people from a lot of different backgrounds, and I wanted to see more. I was like, I love this, I love everything about this. And I wanted to see more. So I did a study abroad in Spain and I came home, and I was like, I want to go again, but I don’t know where I want to go. So I eventually picked a program that took me to China, and when I left I knew how to say hello, which is Nǐ hǎo, if anyone is interested. And that was it, that was the extent of my Chinese. And I flew out to your country and I lived there for five months, and I took a bunch of language lessons, and the reason I went was so I could travel. I literally, none of the credits that I got in China counted towards my degree, but by the time I left, I was able to have a conversation with a random stranger on the train for three hours in Mandarin. And that’s something that, kind of, just fueled my love of adventure, and my love of exploring new places. So I’ve been to 20 plus countries, Spain, you know, France, Germany, UK, Ireland, China, Israel, New Zealand, you know, but the list is a little long and I can never manage to name them all. But I’ve been to quite a few places.

Art Costello: China is difficult to visit, and it really, I mean because you really, I don’t want to say you are in jeopardy, but it’s, if you do the wrong thing, you can end up in big trouble.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Yeah, it was very interesting because I went as a student, so a lot of the documentation side was taken care of by my university, and my university had an exchange program actually, it was a direct exchange, so people from the university would come to ours and we would go there. But absolutely, you had to follow the rules. But in general, I’m a rule follower, especially in foreign countries, but it’s a very different type of experience because while it was very different from what I was used to, I was also even more of the same where I was. So the city I actually lived in is pretty much the most non Chinese city you could ever visit. It was actually a city founded by German colonists in the 1900, and then Germany lost World War I and the colony was given to Japan, and then Japan lost World War II and the colony was given back to China, but it was also one of the first 14 cities to get forward in investment in the 1980’s. So the entire history of the city is from foreigners. But I was still a rarity, I would randomly, you know, get bombarded by people wanting to take my photo, or not even asking and just turning around and seeing a ton of cameras flashing in my face because your audience can’t see me. But I have, I’m very pale. I have blue eyes and I have curly blonde hair, which is pretty much everything that you don’t see.

Art Costello: She’s beautiful folks. She is absolutely beautiful.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Thank you. And at times I was traveling with other Americans who were also pale, and a woman who was over six feet tall, and a woman who was a redhead, so we drew a lot of attention. But you know, it’s one of those things where there was a lot to see that can be upsetting, but there was also a lot to see that just opens your eyes to different cultures and different people. And you know, it a different background.

Art Costello: Perspective, one of the things I talk about is perception. Our perception forges our perspective. And if you go into a foreign country and you’re looking for things to dislike, you’re gonna find them. But if you go into a country, I mean, it really doesn’t matter about a country. If your vision of the world is from the perspective, or perception and perspective of negative, you’re going to see the negative and you’re going to focus on it. But if you go in with open-mindedness, the want to see the beautiful, it will come out all over the place. But it was funny about your story, because I had a friend that went to China. I live in Austin, Texas, he’s a typical Texan, cowboy boots, jeans, cowboy hat buckle, you know, he’s a rodeo cowboy, all the whole thing. And I mean, he’s got authentic buckles that are from events that he’s won at the rodeo.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Oh wow.

Art Costello: They literally wanted to buy every piece of clothing that he had. They wanted his boots, they wanted his jeans, they wanted his belt and his belt buckle, his shirts, his hats, they wanted everything. What do you think causes them to, I mean, I know that they live in a different culture, but he said that, you know, when they found out he was from Texas, it was like, Oh my God, I’m a rockstar, you know, he said that, he could have sold his boots for any price that he would have stated. And I always thought it was just strange that people were wanting people’s clothing, you know, so desperately.

Kimberly Weitkamp: So basically, it’s a status symbol for them. You know, the funniest thing I remember is there’s tons of pop up markets in China and everything is up for negotiation. Even if you’re in a store with the price tag, everything is up for negotiation, and you would see these pop up markets everywhere in the, you know, night markets that kind of a thing. And I had a couple of German friends who were in the program with me, and we were passing by, and we saw t-shirts that had like pictures of cars on them with text, and the text was in German. And I asked them what it was, and they said that, you know, they took a moment to read it and they’re like, well it’s a poorly printed because for them, you know, they use characters instead of letters. So it’s like a picture to them, but it’s a poorly printed annual report about production numbers at a particular factory for our car. And these are the things that people were wearing because it’s such a status symbol to have something from the West. And it was the same type of thing, you would see all these misspelled shirts that people would be proudly wear because it looks like it was English, and it’s a status symbol because it shows that, you know, they were able to meet somebody that was different, or they were able to own something that wasn’t from their own culture. And it’s the same type of thing why there are 1,000,001 fast food joints everywhere. You know, the Pizza Hut in the city I lived in, it was a fine dining experience with the maître d’ . You walked in and you had this maître d’ who sat you and gave you a menu and people like dressed up to go and buy pizza. And I was like, this is so bizarre. you know? And I was that person who was like, let’s go eat Chinese food. Let’s go eat, you know, a street food. And people were like, well, but there’s a pizza and there’s a major deal. We have to go see what this is about. Okay, fine.

Art Costello: I just can’t imagine Pizza Hut with the maître d’, but you know, the cultural differences are what I enjoy because, one of the things when I was in Vietnam, in the Marines, the group of Marines that I was with were the first Marines to go, what we called R&R, which was rest and recuperation. And we had a choice of going to Singapore, Koala Lumpur, Thailand, Tokyo, and one other, there was five, oh, Hawaii, we could fly back to Hawaii. The guys that were married went to Hawaii because they could fly their wives to meet them there for the week. I chose to go to Bangkok, but when I went to Bangkok, one of the guys in our unit, him and I went together, we are the only two. But he went because his sister was at the university there. So when I went to Bangkok, I got to see Bangkok through the eyes of a student because we didn’t go through all the tourist things that the armed forces set up for the guys, you know? And when we went back on the plane, a lot of the guys were talking about all this stuff that they did. And we started talking about the different things that we did cause we went further in country and saw some of the temples and all that stuff. And I loved the cultures, the different cultures. It just invigorates me. And because I’m such a people person and always had been, and I cherish people, I was able to connect, and that sister spoke fluent in Thai so it really helped. But they were always interested in us. But you know, when you go and you see, as a serviceman you see a different side of the culture versus going in as a servicemen and seeing what the military wants you to see and stay in the one little area. It just changes your whole perspective and broaden your horizons, relating to that, I know that customer service is huge with you.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Yes.

Art Costello: It all actually works in synergy because I believe that your openness to different cultures and everything, it gives you an awareness about perspective and perceptions, and caring for people. Can you expound upon how you help your clients, how you’re caring, and your service serves them, and serves you.

Kimberly Weitkamp: And serves me, absolutely. So to get into the customer service side, you know, growing up did not actually have one of those starter jobs. My first job was at a bowling alley, and so I didn’t do being a waitress, or being, you know, a customer service rep at a retail store until I moved to New Zealand. And then I became a bartender and a waitress. And it was such an eye opening experience for me because I was basically just mimicking what I had seen in restaurants in the US, and I had so many of my customers, of my guests say at the end of the meal, you know, this was some of the best customer service we’ve ever had at a restaurant. And I was like blown away by that because what did I do? You know, I gave him a smile, I ask how they where, I check in once or twice if they seemed involved, I would leave them be. It seemed pretty much a no brainer to me. But when you’re in a culture that doesn’t really tip, it’s a completely different experience for a lot of these people. So for me, I always felt that, you know, if you’re going to work with somebody, if you’re gonna work closely with somebody, you need to be in touch, you need to take care of them, and you need to let them know what’s going on just so that they’re aware of, you know, kind of the process of your project. So whenever I start working with a client, I immediately send them a message saying: “Okay, here’s how our communications going to work. Here’s how often you’re going to hear from me. Here’s how you can give me your materials. Here’s how you can get in touch with me. Here’s what you can expect from me. And here’s the link to schedule your first call.”

Art Costello: You did, you did it, I gotta stop you, and you did it. Expect, you set the expectations for your clients.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Yes.

Art Costello: That is so important. But people fail to do that, so often.

Kimberly Weitkamp: They do. And it’s also a breakdown in a lot of marketing campaigns you’ll see cause people, they shy away. They’re like, Oh we just want to give them value. We don’t want to ask somebody to do something next. And I’m like, but the people who like what you have to say, want to know what the next step is. And if you don’t let them know what that next step is, you’re disappointing the people that you’re serving. So you know, if you are, for example, you know when people talk with me, I’ll tell them: “Okay, the timeline for your project is six weeks, but don’t worry, I’m not going to disappear for six weeks. And then you’re going to wonder and worry for the next six weeks whether or not you’re going to get your project. You know, I’m gonna keep in touch with you. The message is going to be short. I understand you’re busy, you understand I’m busy, but I’m going to take the time to sit down and write for 5 to 10 minutes and update on what I’ve done this week. And you know what? I’ll be what, I’ll be tackling the next time.” So I just feel, it’s a part of business. It’s a part of, you know, building relationships of any kind. You need to let people know what’s going on because when you leave them in the dark, when you don’t let them know what’s gonna happen next, it’s just a way for people to worry more. It’s just a way to bring more stress. And frankly, I feel there’s enough stress and negativity in the world and I don’t need to add to it.

“You need to let people know what's going on because when you leave them in the dark, when you don't let them know what's going to happen next, it's just a way for people to worry more.” –Kimberly Weitkamp Click To Tweet

Art Costello: Yeah. And you know, I always say that when you learn how to manage expectations, one of the things that it does is it relieves stress and anxiety. I mean–

“When you learn how to manage expectations, one of the things that it does is it relieves stress and anxiety.” –Art Costello Click To Tweet

Kimberly Weitkamp: It does, it does.

Art Costello: And not only in business, but in your personal life. You know, if you set those expectations all along and you’re consistent in it in a relationship, you will have a great relationship. And it’s just so important, I’m so thrilled with this.

Kimberly Weitkamp: It is so important. And you know, when I first started out, I thought, Oh, if I tell them this is the way things are going to be, it’s going to turn people away, right? They’re not going to like it. But then I had too many people who would, you know, send me a message five minutes after we were supposed to meet, “Sorry, had another meeting, let’s reschedule.” And for me it was just so frustrating because I could be helping other clients and instead I had set this up, I set my time aside and they hadn’t. So when I talk to other people, they’re like: “Oh, well you have to let them know.” And then I realized it should be a part of everything. So it’s in the contract, it’s in the proposal, it’s in the followup, and you know, it’s something that I set those expectations, and then I meet or exceed those expectations because to me that’s just good business practice.

“I set those expectations, and then I meet or exceed those expectations. Because to me, that's just good business practice.” –Kimberly Weitkamp Click To Tweet

Art Costello: You know, when we were talking, I’ve thought about something, you know, you said as a waitress in New Zealand and bartender, there’s a young lady here in Austin, her name’s Jill Raff, and I did an interview with her and she’s all about customer service, that’s what her whole thing is. And she learned it from her parents who owned, I think it was number 146 McDonald’s restaurant. So they had the 146 McDonald’s restaurant in the world, and she worked in the restaurant and that’s where she learned about customer service and the value of it, and about taking care of it because in the early days with McDonald’s, that was the thing. I mean, customer service is what drove that business. And it’s really interesting to see what customer service can do for your business, you know, because without customers were nobody, I mean, we’re just out in this desert of nothingness, you know, and people seem to forget it, you know, as Austin changes because we’re having a huge influx of people from all over the world that are moving to Austin because of the job market. And I see when I go into some of the restaurants, Texas is always been a friendly state and people always reach out and have their hands open to you to help you and all that. And I’ve watched it change over the last 15 years, you know, to where it’s not as important anymore. So, you know, customer service is everything really. I mean, I don’t want to say everything cause it’s really not everything but it is a huge portion.

“Without customers, we're poor nobody. We're just out in this desert of nothingness and people seem to forget it.” –Art Costello Click To Tweet

Kimberly Weitkamp: It is. It’s the cornerstone, and that’s kind of why the customer service is built into the way I create marketing. Because it is, it’s all about that relationship that you’re building with the people you’re trying to help. And it’s so important to just, you know, when somebody walks away from working with you to have a smile on their face because it’s going to help you build your business, build up referrals, all of those great things. But you know, it’s how to run a great business is to have customer service at the very heart. I definitely agree.

Art Costello: Is that part of your last buyers? Segment of your program?

Kimberly Weitkamp: Oh no. Well it kind of, the last buyer segment is more about how, just because you’ve not been in touch doesn’t mean they don’t want to hear from you. And it’s a whole dive into how you can make sure to keep those connections alive.

Art Costello: That’s interesting. How can people get ahold of you? Can you tell us about that? And really, we’re gonna wrap up here pretty quick, but I wanted to give you at least five minutes to any parting shots you want everybody to know, and then where we can get ahold of you, where the audience can get ahold of you, and all the pertinent information.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Thank you. So if people want to, you know, say thank you for listening to the podcast, I’ve set up a special page. It’s travelindustrycopy.com/podcast, and there I have a free e-course for people who are wanting to improve conversions on their website. It’s a five day email course and it’s got the concierge conversion method, which is essentially my process built into it. And at the end there’s a special offer as well for, you know, if people are wanting to work closer with me, they can schedule a call and you can find me on social media, @k_weitkamp on Twitter, and I’m Kimberly Weitkamp on LinkedIn, and travelindustrycopy.com on Facebook. So I would love to, you know, have people reach out, connect with me. I like learning about new things that I haven’t heard about before and figuring out how I can help people, it is my happy place. And you know, final words of wisdom basically is that marketing, it should be a reflection of your business, your brand, and it should have customer service built into it because I’m all about helping people, and I think a lot of businesses, and a lot of entrepreneurs are all about helping people. It’s why they got started. And I want to help connect them with the right people that they can serve.

“Marketing- it should be a reflection of your business, of your brand. And it should have customer service built into it. Because … a lot of businesses and a lot of entrepreneurs are all about helping people. That's why they got started.”… Click To Tweet

Art Costello: Kimberly, thank you for being on the show and I’m going to encourage my audience to reach out and learn as much from Kimberly that you can, she’s fantastic. You know, and we’ve all heard why, I mean, she’s laid it out and really have a beautiful manner about why you should work with her. And I’m gonna ask you to reach out to her and start a relationship with her because she’s super.

Kimberly Weitkamp: Thank you so much Art for having me on. It’s been a blast.

Art Costello: Yeah, folks, you know where you can get a hold of me expectationtherapy.com, and on all social media. And with that being said, we’re going to turn it out to Heather White and let her take us to the end of this. Again, Kim, thank you, appreciate you.

 

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