Ep 131: From Execution to Strategy: Reinventing Your Brand Message Without Starting Over | Guest Expert: Katie Lantukh

Download Katie's Messaging Pivot Playbook.

Ready to evolve your business but worried about confusing your audience? Katie Lantukh from Murphy Marketing joins Sarah to tackle one of the most challenging aspects of business growth: pivoting your messaging when your services or focus changes.

"People are very flexible with how they log you in their system," Katie shares, offering reassurance to entrepreneurs feeling stuck in their previous positioning. Drawing from her own experience transitioning from serving mom course creators to IT and cybersecurity clients, Katie provides practical guidance for communicating shifts in your business focus without alienating your audience.

The conversation dives deep into testing strategies before fully committing to new messaging. Sarah reveals her method of gradually creating content on LinkedIn to gauge interest, while Katie recommends updating your headline and creating a consistent "super signature" for your posts. Both approaches allow you to explore new territories without the risk of a complete rebrand.

For entrepreneurs juggling multiple passions or service offerings, Katie suggests finding the overlapping qualities in your audience—the center of the Venn diagram—to create messaging that resonates across different segments. This might involve crafting an "offer staircase" that serves clients at various stages of their journey while maintaining a cohesive brand story.

Whether you're transitioning from done-for-you services to strategy, switching industries, or simply refining your focus, this episode provides actionable steps to evolve your messaging alongside your business. Katie's parting advice? "Start small. You don't have to delete everything if you want to experiment with something new." Download Katie's free Messaging Pivot Playbook through the link in our show notes and take your first step toward messaging that truly reflects where your business is heading.

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Chapters

• 1:34 Introduction to Tiny Marketing
• 2:03 Katie's Approach to Non-Anxiety Marketing
• 6:17 Pivoting Your Business Messaging
• 8:33 Transitioning Execution to Strategy
• 13:20 Testing New Messaging on LinkedIn
• 15:40 Marketing with Multiple Services

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:47

Welcome to Tiny Marketing. This is Sarah Noelle Block, and this is a podcast that helps B2B service businesses do more with less. Learn lean, actionable, organic marketing strategies you can implement today. No fluff, just powerful growth tactics that work. Ready to scale smarter? Hit that subscribe button and start growing your business with tiny marketing growing your business with tiny marketing.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Hello, hello. I am Sarah Noelle Block and you are watching episode 131 of the tiny marketing show. Today, I have my friend, katie here to talk to you about how to pivot your messaging. When what you were doing is not what you're doing anymore, so think you transition to a new niche or maybe the service that you were doing originally, you're over it and you want to do something else, or you're an entrepreneur that's passionate about a lot of things, so you need to make your messaging work, even though you're one person with multi passions. So Katie is here today to talk about how to reinvigorate your messaging, test it out and make it work when you have. You're no longer the girl or the boy that you were before. You're someone new and you need your messaging to show that too. So please enjoy our first episode back after the Tiny Marketing Club series and stay tuned for Katie, because she's freaking awesome. Hello, can you introduce yourself to the audience?

Speaker 3: 2:26

Sure, my name is Katie Lantuk, I live in the Atlanta area and I'm the founder of Murphy Marketing. We are a messaging studio where we help business leaders and even marketers craft clear, compelling messaging that really attracts the right people without causing fear and anxiety.

Speaker 2: 2:49

I like that little add-on that you have, so let's just dig into that piece a little bit. Are you seeing a lot of fear and anxiety around messaging with your clients?

Speaker 3: 3:01

Yes, I think it started when I was working a lot with mom brands and they were online course creators selling to parents, and I noticed that it was very easy to take the message to an extreme and it was effective. Like everyone wanted to keep their baby safe and everyone wanted to feed their baby, and it was very like life or death and I, just as a mother myself, I was very like triggered and I, yeah, like don't we all want to take care? Like who wants the alternative? And so that's when I started really thinking about, okay, why are these so anxiety inducing? Why are these messages like literally making my stomach hurt? And I found that it was really.

Speaker 3: 3:57

There were a lot of factors, but I think the most obvious that I was able to pull out most consistently was the element of, like, the long-term outcomes, and so when I work with clients now, I try to focus on the shorter term wins and stakes. So we're not at the end of life and death, because most things we're selling are not actually the end of the world if they don't buy from us. Let's be real, yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Okay, that I almost fell off my walking path makes sense. Okay, when you said that, I thought you meant that, like the entrepreneurs that you're working with, were feeling anxiety around their own messaging, but really what it is is they're creating anxiety with their messaging, like okay yes, let's chill, no one's dying over this Right.

Speaker 3: 4:54

But I think there's also that layer of the brand themselves trying to market. They're anxious, they need these sales and so they also go to the extreme of like well, we have to hit them, and I think I just want to find a different way. Like we none of us have to be anxious in this scenario. We can treat our audience well, we can feel good about what we're putting out there and we can just solve problems like we don't have to Like. Like what's the word? Like shake?

Speaker 2: 5:30

up this, like I get exactly where you're going with this, like we don't have to lean so much into the pain of the problem within the mathajane, where, yeah, a lot of people focus so much on what could go wrong if you don't solve this problem, rather than what could go right.

Speaker 3: 5:51

Right, right, right, and I think marketers are afraid to. It feels soft or it feels risky to not go hard in the paint, but I think buyers are. I guess it depends on the audience, but pretty much across the board I think people are just kind of worn out, like everything feels so like heightened, that I don't think we all have to be so crazy.

Speaker 2: 6:20

Yeah, that's valid, but, like, let's talking about anxiety, the focus of today is when you're switching gears in your business and you need to change your messaging, and I really want to lean into that. So a lot of the people that I'm talking to pretty regularly are like okay, I was doing this, like I was a service provider, but now I'm at a point where I need to be more scalable and I'm switching to coaching, for example. So what can you do with your messaging when you have an established personal slash business brand and you want to switch gears without blowing up everything and starting over?

Speaker 3: 7:10

Yes, without blowing up everything and starting over. Yes, I think that people will be surprised at how flexible people are in kind of reorganizing where you are in their brain. Like, for example, last year I really promoted myself to the IT and cybersecurity space because I decided that that was my ideal client and so I built a fresh new website, I updated all my LinkedIn stuff and that is what I pitched. Every single networking opportunity that I had. And like the iteration before that was for mom course creators Like that's a huge shift to an outsider To me.

Speaker 3: 7:56

I'm like what in the world? Like what are you doing? But also like the new people that that attracted it didn't matter, like they didn't know me as that before, just like they didn't know. The iteration even before that was focused on social media, able to have like iterations in my business and it it just serves to grow my audience and help me like experiment more with who I actually want to work with, who I really can make an impact for, and then I've already changed it again. Like we're, I've broadened back out and I'm trying to be more general in, you know, complex industries or b2B professional services and people are very flexible with how they log you in their system.

Speaker 2: 8:57

Yeah, so you're saying that the people that you're attracting that are new to your world? They didn't know you anyway, so it doesn't really matter if your messaging changed? What about the people that are already in your world, your existing network? How can you adjust your messaging so it doesn't come across like you're flip-flopping Sure?

Speaker 3: 10:21

I think For me, what didn't change was how I treat my customers, what I do to serve them. The products and services were largely the same. Maybe I changed a little bit of how I was talking about them, but there were some very clear things that remained consistent, and so I didn't change everything. But even if I did, you could always change your business name, for example, like if usually in the ops space, because you have to be incredibly organized as a teacher, and the way that they've done it is they've really just leaned into their past experience.

Speaker 2: 11:17

I was a teacher. I had to deal with X, y and Z, and that's why I'm so good at doing this for you.

Speaker 3: 11:23

Exactly, as long as you can connect the dots for people and you don't leave that up to them to like assume, and then I think you can. You can weave whatever like future that you want for your business.

Speaker 2: 11:39

Yeah, yeah, so okay, let's. Let's use a scenario for it. We have a consultant who is providing. She's doing the execution and she's booked out, can't handle any more execution. She doesn't even want to do execution anymore, so now she's going to just be a strategy person and she has existing clients that are already in the execution space. How do we adjust her messaging to be able to, when she's known as the execution girl, to be the brains behind the execution but not the actual doer?

Speaker 3: 12:27

Yeah. Does she want to transition her current execution clients to strategy only? Yes, okay, why not? Yeah, in this hypothetical scenario?

Speaker 3: 12:40

Yes, so I would do a few things, because you have two audiences you have the audience of the people that you're currently working with and you have the audience of new people.

Speaker 3: 12:51

So for all of them, I would develop a new message where you're saying, like this is who I help, this is how I help them, and that's going to be a key new piece of the message. And then you know these are the outcomes that you can expect when working with me, which those will probably be the same. You may add that they're going to have more confidence by learning to do it themselves, or learn how to hire, or whatever. There may be some add-ons to those outcomes, but largely in this scenario, the only thing that's changing in the messaging is how she's serving these people, and possibly there may be more or newer distinctions within who she's serving, like maybe they already have a team or maybe they have, you know details, um, and I think that whether she's messaging to the audience of new people where she can take them through, like, hey, this is who I do, who I work with, this is how.

Speaker 3: 13:49

I work with them, hello I do not this context, yeah, and and and. Then the audience of the um, uh, existing people, you just retrain them. You say, hey, we're transitioning, or hey, in order to serve more people like you, I have to make this shift, and if you do that, it could be in a one-on-one call if she doesn't have, you know, a million clients, um, or maybe it's an email campaign, maybe it's all of the above, but I think as long as you can be clear and communicative, people are going to understand Like they, too, want to scale their business.

Speaker 2: 14:33

Yeah. So what we would do first is change the how in the messaging. This is how we get you from point A to point B, A to point B and I really like I want to dig in on the piece about who you're serving could be shifted a little bit, because if you were doing execution before, then you likely were working with a company that didn't have a team, or they were relying on a team of contractors, and they were and you were their main person. So you might have to shift. Where in the spectrum of a client lifestyle life cycle would they be? They might be a couple steps ahead just needing your brain instead of the doing Exactly, Exactly yeah, let's talk a little bit about that how you need to align your ideal customer with your messaging. So what would you do? You have any scenarios where you helped a client go from you know they were this, now they're this, and any shifts that they had to make?

Speaker 3: 15:53

Yes, that is a very common puzzle that we solve.

Speaker 3: 16:00

We had kind of a really interesting anti-marketing example where it was I mean kind of the scenario that you're describing.

Speaker 3: 16:08

She was a bookkeeper that was just booked solid, like she could not do anything other than serve the massive amount of clients that she had on her book and she wanted to have a life and take a vacation and really kind of filter to filter her, her lower paying clients, to maybe a new service provider. And so what? We when I've heard that, find another client, you know, yeah, just transition them to someone else. So, um, what we did was we literally like wrote her messaging as if it's for the new people that she wanted to serve, like her ideal customer, not the current customers, the ideal customers and we sent an email and a series of them and we were basically like, hey forward, this is who we serve, this is how we can be helpful, this is the new pricing structure and how that's going to work. And it works. They were like, okay, now I know where I belong and I know what to do next, and they, you know, she now can take a vacation. It's great.

Speaker 2: 17:18

Yeah, so clarity, just being clear in your communication this is what's happening and you could even monetize the crossing of the rainbow bridge of these like having a referral, like a referral relationship with someone who could take those clients on, or even having a team of people underneath you that you would filter them and you're only working with the highest end of your clients, exactly.

Speaker 3: 17:52

These are some other options for it, yeah, or transition them from one-one to a group experience like you described. Like there's lots of ways.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Yeah, that is a really good example. So if you have a low ticket offer that maybe at the beginning of your business was your high ticket offer, but you know you evolve and grow and change, right, you could transition that to a group implementation day where people are doing it together. I like that idea. Okay, I'm going through your questions so I make sure that I hit on all of our points. Oh, yes, let's talk about ways to use LinkedIn to test your new messaging. Yes, and I do this too, so I want to hear how you do it and then I'll explain how I do it.

Speaker 3: 18:46

Oh, okay, I like this. Um, so I update my headline because that is what is seen most everywhere, like whether they're on your profile or you're in the comments of somewhere. That is a key place. I also change out on most of my posts. I'll write and recommend this for my clients, but write like a boilerplate PS at the end. That's like I'm Katie Lantuk.

Speaker 2: 19:12

I do blah blah blah, the super signature.

Speaker 3: 19:15

Yes, there we go, that's the word for it, so I'll update that. And then the other thing I'm thinking about is the content that I'm actually writing, and so I want these topics and these case studies and the client results and all of these pieces to then filter up to my new messaging so that when they see my content, they see my comments and my headline and my PS. Like it all ties together with the new messaging. So that is how I do it.

Speaker 2: 19:45

How do you do it, sarah? I like it. I'm a tester, so I use LinkedIn for beta testing. Before I marry my new messaging and make it part of my profile, I will do a series of posts around that topic to see how it resonates with people and use that as the idea. And then I'll go one step deeper and if these posts are resonating, then maybe I'll do a live stream or a webinar or a training, something that will create kind of a wait list of people who'd be interested in the offer surrounding that messaging and I'm just like kind of like moving them through and through. And then if I start seeing like this is resonating with people, then I'll go all in on it. Interesting.

Speaker 3: 20:36

Okay, I like that.

Speaker 2: 20:38

A little drip testing. I'll call it yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:42

I love it. I you're the most organized marketing person. Oh, thank you. Like had the privilege of following because it it makes so much sense Like it's such an art to be like taken on this journey, like I know, I know how this works, but it doesn't feel like you're working me Like, it just feels like you're guiding me along and I want I want to listen to the podcast. I want to listen to the live what do you call it? Masterclass, the? I want to read the emails, like I do all the things, cause I'm like tell me what I need, sarah Noel Block. Like this is amazing.

Speaker 2: 21:20

Thank you, and I'm not working you. I really am just giving you the things you need. Consensual Erroring that trainee risk Called it consensual sales. You need to agree first before I'm going to try and sell.

Speaker 3: 21:37

I am here for it.

Speaker 2: 21:38

Yes, I still need to come up with a better name for consensual salve.

Speaker 3: 21:44

No, it's the best one I've ever heard.

Speaker 2: 21:50

Yes, okay, so I love all of this, and there's one other thing that I really want to go into. And there's one other thing that I really want to go into, and that's we didn't talk about this in the pre-call or in this.

Speaker 3: 22:33

so just work with people who are consultants and also authors. How do you make it work when you do several different things but you're only one person, so you have one personal brand? Yes, sometimes it's. The audience is the same, even though what you're selling them is different. Like I spoke to a woman this morning who has a coaching practice and a consulting practice and you show up differently. She shows up differently in those conversations, but her ideal client in those scenarios are the same, so she's always talking to the same group of people even though her service offering for them is different.

Speaker 3: 23:10

Um, if I were to think of like my past self, or even my current self, like I can do marketing messaging for literally anyone. Like I have pockets of experience in specific places, but because what I do is so like transferable, I could do it for everyone. But that's really confusing for my audience. They're like well, I don't know who to introduce you to, and so for that reason I've chosen a way to narrow it down and for the longest time I said my niche was copywriting. That I was like what I do is the thing that I want to hang my hat on, and then from there I've like kind of experimented with different audiences and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 23:54

Yeah, I'm that unique thing. Yes.

Speaker 3: 23:58

Yes, yes, and even within that, like a marketer, for example, like you have disciplines that you're good at or not not skilled in, and you need to refer those, and so I think, as long as you explain, like, what you do and what your clients can expect from you, that clarity is what helps them, like either buy in or find someone else.

Speaker 2: 24:30

Yeah, I like that. I like thinking about it in terms of that Venn diagram, what lands in the middle. That makes it a lot more doable to be able to. And actually, as you were talking about that, it just made me realize that I am that girl, that client you were talking about, because I am always working with the same client, but some of them are in a position where they need done with me, whereas others need the execution. I'm doing both and it's a matter of like showing them which path makes sense for them.

Speaker 3: 24:59

Right, right, right, and that's where, like sales pages are so helpful. Like you have your overall brand, but then you may have like many messages for each of your services, because those different elements may be different and so you need to like explain that further. May be different, and so you need to like explain that further, but in the context of your brand, they can self-select or even be like, hey, I'm having a hard time deciding.

Speaker 2: 25:26

Like, can you walk me through this? Yeah, and well, that makes me want to go down a whole other path of talking about like offer staircases based off of like you have this person that you work with, like you were talking about cybersecurity, so you might have somebody who is an independent consultant, who happens to be in cybersecurity, works with lots of different companies. That's a whole other thing than a cybersecurity firm. So having an offer staircase that serves each of these clients where they're at, allows you to bring someone in at, you know, stair one, but maybe two years from now they work at a firm and they'll bring you in and you have that stair three offer. That would make sense, right? So that makes it a lot easier too. And, as Mariah Cause says, always market to that top tier client because it trickles down, because everybody who's on stair one wants to be on stair five eventually.

Speaker 3: 26:28

That's right, that's right, that's right, so true.

Speaker 2: 26:32

Excellent. Is there anything else that you want the audience to know before we wrap up? So true, excellent. Is there anything else that you want the audience to know before we wrap up.

Speaker 3: 26:40

Um, I think my best advice is just like start small. You don't have to delete everything if you want to change something or experiment with something new. I would just decide a small place where you can start Maybe that is the LinkedIn header or the call to action or whatever and like see what resonates. Like do the testing that you described and see what works and what resonates.

Speaker 2: 27:10

Yeah, just little changes. It's like doing tiny little beta tests, yes, and see what works. Yes, I like that advice. It's like doing tiny little beta tests, yes, and see what works. Yes, I like that advice. That's right Awesome. Where can people find you online and how can they work with you?

Speaker 3: 27:27

Yes, so I am on LinkedIn. They'll be able to see the spelling of my crazy last name in the description. The link will all be in the show notes. That's right, perfect. And then my website is murphymarketing, and I also made a messaging pivot playbook for you guys Awesome. I'll put the link there too.

Speaker 2: 27:54

Sweet. I didn't even know that. That's a surprise for me also.

Speaker 3: 27:58

Surprise.

Speaker 2: 27:58

Thank you. All right, all of your links will be in the show notes. And take advantage, follow Katie Definitely. Download that playbook and enjoy your fun. Pivot yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:15

You love all things tiny marketing. Head down to the show notes page and sign up for the wait list to join the tiny marketing club, where you get to work one-on-one with me with trainings, feedback and pop-up coaching that will help you scale your marketing as a B2B service business. So I'll see you over in the club.