Entrepreneurs - What's Your Why?

What’s Your Why? Let's Talk.

I’m getting ready to change the trajectory of our lives. 🚀 Forever.

You may have decided to read this blog for several reasons. Perhaps you know me from one of my online brands. Or you met me on social media, and we clicked. Perhaps I spoke to your organization about social media marketing, and you want to know more. A friend or colleague made a referral as they followed me and told you about my work.

However you got here, I’m glad that you are! 

The most important thing I can share is my why, which centers around small business owners and entrepreneurs. For you to realize my commitment level, I want to be transparent. After 12 years of "doing" digital marketing for companies, I saw a significant disparity in the marketplace. I reimagined my digital marketing focus to teach business owners what they need to know to survive and thrive in the digital marketplace. 

At a Crossroads

Over the years, I dove into how small businesses could use social media to promote themselves and grow their business. I created a space for small businesses that couldn’t afford expensive consultants or didn’t have the technical knowledge to benefit from what larger businesses were using to make huge wealth.

I became a designated expert for a digital marketing software company and taught small business owners the power of social media and email marketing to help them prosper and scale.

I saw a massive disconnect between small businesses and technology, and it only worsens as digital platforms become more robust and complex.

I saw the panic on many faces.

Who You Learn From Matters

The biggest benefit of following and engaging with me is a relationship with a real person who has been through every aspect of business development using Internet tools. The trenches of doing business in a digital economy are real and slippery. Be sure your guide knows the path. 

Since 1998, I have been living and breathing the internet as a corporate warrior. I look backward and see my story as surreal. In the early 2000s, I helped build the Internet by being hired by a well-funded Internet Service Provider start-up, which, at the time, was a private company that went public during my tenure.

No one at that time had academic knowledge of internet-building block technology except the military and a handful of disrupters like the company I was working for. I helped transition the internet from dial-up service to dedicated internet-wired "backbones" in over 360 cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico. I was in the middle of the internet start-up explosion. It was an exciting time!

From cabled services, I went on to fiber. Then on to wireless. Then, on to IoT for a medical device company. All of it required intricate knowledge of internet technology and applications. In 2006, we began seeing cloud services and an even bigger explosion of applications for business use. 

The Big Disconnect

At that time, I decided to leave the corporate world with the intense travel and crazy long hours and focus on my family, who needed me to be present. In 2013, I opened a consulting business that morphed into a digital marketing agency.

I had the opportunity to partner with small business incubators and companies invested in helping small businesses thrive. FYI - a big part of those would be banks wanting to encourage business loans. They saw the need for digital literacy, and no one was teaching it to business owners. My seminars and webinars were always packed. I was on to something. 

Working with the Small Business Administration training in a business incubator called SCORE, I learned that 1 in 5 small businesses failed in the first year, and half weren’t around in year 5. That was a completely unacceptable statistic to me. I began my journey to answer what was causing this and how to stop it.

Those small business owners were real people, and I got to know them. These are people like you and me with a dream of successful business ownership—many dream of having ownership and agency of their own time and unlimited earning potential.

Your Business "Why"

My first mentor told me, "Suzette, success is all about giving to grow." It has always been part of who I am, and it is now that I have realized it, keeping those words close to me. 

One of my influencers in the coaching business is Gary Vanerchuk, and I listened to his book on Audible while on my morning walk. He said early on in the book, “If money is all you care about, you’re dead inside.”  I laughed and said to myself – “you get me, Gary!” The whole time I listened to his book, I nodded.

Like Gary V., my why has never been about money. It’s always been about the people. So, to be clear, you will never hear me talk about money first; if that is your “why,” then we aren’t going to have synergy.

I'm Living My Why - You Should Too!

So today, I am living my passion, loving and nurturing my partner and family and being available to them – 100% of the time – and in doing so, I am working my face off to bring you the most important, influential, and meaningful ways to plan, sustain and grow your business in a digital world.

Next Steps

Begin your journey of business ownership with a starting point. My mini-course, 4 Ways to Know if Your Business is Ready to Launch, is an excellent ground zero.

The mini-course and webinar will reinforce business ownership concepts and give you resources to complete these first steps. Then, we move on to the digital marketplace. 

Be sure you are registered for the LAUNCH monthly newsletter, which is full of marketing nuggets we lovingly 😍 call #MarketingNuggs. Yes, that's our hashtag when sharing short snips of valuable and very tasty content.

It's a fantastic world, business ownership. I'm excited to be on the journey with you and can't wait to meet you there. 

New business owners can check out my mini-course here:

4 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOUR BUSINESS IS READY TO LAUNCH MINI-COURSE

 Suzette Cotto, Author - LAUNCH with Innovate 🚀