Episode 45: The Power of Clarity: How Jackie Benjamin Built a Referral-Worthy Social Media Agency

In this episode Jennifer Kok sits down with Jackie Benjamin, the founder of We Assist Marketing, to talk about how she built a thriving social media agency by choosing a lane, staying consistent, and leading with heart. Jackie opens up about the unexpected moment that inspired her to start a business, how she shifted from “doing everything for everyone” to becoming an industry expert in outbound social media for home service business.

If you've ever struggled to niche down or questioned whether consistency in marketing is worth it, this episode will give you clarity, inspiration, and a few "aha" moments.

What You'll Learn:

• What outbound social media management is—and how it can grow local service businesses
• Why marketing during your busy season is the key to staying booked in the slow season
• How niching down didn’t hurt Jackie’s revenue (and actually boosted her profit)

Meet Our Guest: 

Jackie is the founder and CEO of WeAssist Marketing, a social media management agency that helps HVAC and plumbing businesses attract more customers through outbound organic social media and Meta Ads.

With a background in consulting and a passion for empowering women, she built WeAssist Marketing to create flexible, meaningful jobs for women, while helping home service companies grow their reach and build stronger online relationships through strategic, done-for-you outbound social media.

• Schedule a meeting on my website
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow us on Facebook and Instagram
• Email me directly at jackie.benjamin@weassistbusiness.com

Meet your Host: 

Jennifer Kok has been a business owner for over 25 years and now is a business coach. She turned her first business into a franchise and successfully sold it 20 years later.  She was passionate about building a business and a family at the same time.

I help Women Entrepreneurs who are in year 2+ who are building businesses and families to grow with Clarity, Confidence, and Consistent Profits.  The reality is you’ve built a Business You’re Proud Of -But It’s Time for it to work for you.

The Earn More Stress Less 9-Pillar Blueprint helps women entrepreneurs with families create profitable, sustainable businesses that finally pay them back — in money, time, and peace of mind.

Join me for a Free Online Workshop:
3 Steps to Boost Profitability: Strategic Shifts to Help Small Business Owners Make More Money.   If you want more profits follow this link to register. 

https://nextwavebusinesscoaching.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nextwavewithjen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextwavewithjen/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferowenskok
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2M9uX6S

You’ve Built a Business You’re Proud Of -But It’s Time for It to Work for You. You’re still wearing all the hats, working long hours, and not paying yourself what you deserve. You know there’s more possible. More profit, more clarity, and more freedom to enjoy the life you’re building.  The Earn More Stress Less 9-Pillar Blueprint helps women entrepreneurs with families create profitable businesses that finally pay them back. 

Transcript

Jennifer Kok (00:01.294)

Hi, Jackie. Welcome to the show today.

Jackie Benjamin (00:04.448)

Hey Jennifer, thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here. I'm so glad that you asked me.

Jennifer Kok (00:08.75)

Well, it's such a, you I was like the full circle story. You and I met about three or four years ago. We were in a group coaching program that was helping us build our businesses. And I loved how you and I just connected and I love what you're doing. And so I'm so glad to have you here today. So tell us what you do. You know, the name of your business is called We Assist Marketing Agency, correct? And tell us a little bit about what you do.

Jackie Benjamin (00:23.396)

Yeah, thanks. I'm excited.

Jackie Benjamin (00:30.064)

Mm hmm. Yep, we assist marketing. Yep, that's correct. Yep. Yeah, so we do outbound social media management. So a little bit different than your traditional social media managers and that we are doing all the traditional things. So we're creating content for people and posting it and scheduling it. We're answering comments and DMS, but we're also taking it a step further for businesses that want to elevate their relationship building online. So we.

are going out on behalf of our clients and liking, following, engaging with comment of other businesses that might be good collaboration partners or referral partners or bring them into jobs, contracts, that type of thing. So we primarily work in the home services space. So those relationships are very important. Everything's local. Everybody's our local businesses. So building those relationships with other local businesses are important. And this is just another avenue to do that.

So just a little bit extra on the social media side.

Jennifer Kok (01:31.726)

Okay, so that's what the outbound is all about. Because I was curious about that. And you're right, most social media managers that I've talked with, they do all the great content and create it, know, do it for us and we'll respond to DMs. But I didn't, I like this extra layer that you're adding where you are being proactive and trying to find more, you know, what I call strategic referral partners for your clients.

Jackie Benjamin (01:33.732)

Yes.

Jackie Benjamin (01:54.67)

Yeah, definitely. It's definitely a different strategy. what we've seen is that it works better and builds the relationships faster than just your traditional social media. So which there's nothing wrong with traditional social media. It just depends on what you want to get out of your social media presence. So it definitely we've seen it. We've done both. And now we only do the outbound social media because we have seen such a difference for our clients.

Jennifer Kok (02:13.859)

Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (02:24.322)

That is awesome. So are you focusing on a certain platform, or are you all the platforms, or where's your kind of wheelhouse there?

Jackie Benjamin (02:30.991)

So because we're home services, we do traditionally focus on Facebook and Instagram. That's where most people are looking for home services. So that's really where we have the biggest presence for our clients. We're getting into some TikTok and YouTube shorts as well. We'll be coming, so we'll be talking, you'll be hearing more about that from our business in the coming six months to a year. But really a lot of it right now is Instagram and Facebook. And a lot of it depends on

content that we can get from our clients and of course, you where their customers are.

Jennifer Kok (03:03.808)

Okay, so home services, you're working with the trades, is that?

Jackie Benjamin (03:07.875)

Yes, working with the trades so primarily HVAC plumbers, electricians, home remodelers, roofers, those types of people that those types of businesses that really need to have that local presence on social media, but do not have time for it.

Jennifer Kok (03:24.704)

No, and do you ever get pushed back there? Because I've actually talked to a few in that industry who say, I'm so busy, why do I need to market? Do you ever hear that in your world?

Jackie Benjamin (03:32.804)

Yes, all the time, especially now it's summer for the HVAC world. Like this is their busy season. So right now that's, this is their time where they're saying we get so many referrals. We have so many jobs right now that we can't take anymore. We don't need to market, but what's going to happen is then if we're not marketing now throughout the summer, when the fall comes and it's their shoulder season where they're not as busy, then that's when they're going to need the marketing. It's going to be too late if they start in October. So.

Jennifer Kok (03:59.779)

Right.

Jackie Benjamin (04:02.247)

That's what I try to explain that it's a year long process, even though their business is very seasonal and painters same, except they have a different season. So any of the home services are like that, but it's important to market throughout the whole year because you want to keep your business flowing, even though you might have spikes, you want to keep the times where there's not spiking consistent. So yes, I do hear that quite a lot.

Jennifer Kok (04:26.924)

And I think that's really important for all businesses because it can be really easy when you are thriving and you're in a season where clients are just coming to you and you have a wait list to pull back on networking, pull back on relationship building, pull back on the marketing. But you're right, marketing is a consistent tool and we all know consistency compounds and.

It's just that's a good reminder for all of us not to step off the gas because I hear that sometimes if they're feeling little pinched financially. Well, I'm going to step back on my marketing budget because I can just go do a little bit that myself. And the reality is you really can't and not to pull off the marketing, not to take your foot off the gas when it comes to marketing.

Jackie Benjamin (04:52.515)

Yeah.

Jackie Benjamin (05:09.133)

Yes. And I think the difference is they could do that themselves, but you still have to, they still have to do all of the other things for their business. So they, maybe they could do it for themselves, but the reality is they don't, they still don't have time. So then it doesn't happen. Right. Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (05:23.308)

Right. And it gets forgotten. Yeah. I mean, I've spent lots of time creating B-rolls thinking I'm going to create reels and then it's not a clock at night. And I'm like, shoot, I forgot to create that reel and it never happened. So no, I'm all about outsourcing and let others do what they're really good at. And cause that's just not what I want to spend my time on. So take us through how did you get started in a social media management business?

Jackie Benjamin (05:34.541)

Yeah.

Jackie Benjamin (05:42.776)

Yeah, exactly.

Jackie Benjamin (05:49.101)

Yeah, so I was not ever going to be an entrepreneur. So that wasn't, that was not something that was in the cards for me. So I had a long career of consulting, IT consulting, software building. And I was working for a consulting company and prior to starting this business. And I had a couple of personal things that my parents had died both within a short time of each other in 2018. And then I got sick at the end of the year. took some time off.

Jennifer Kok (05:54.413)

Ha

Jackie Benjamin (06:16.626)

And as I was getting ready to go back to work, I woke up out of a sound sleep with two thoughts, start a business and help women. And then my third thought was no way. I went back to work. I went back to work, talked to my boss, the CEO at the time about what was on my heart. And I a lot of conversations with him and a lot of investigating just realized what I really wanted to do was start this business and see if I can provide jobs for women.

Jennifer Kok (06:26.727)

Right, like come on.

Jackie Benjamin (06:45.358)

in order to change their lives. And so then before I knew it, I was launching this business. So originally we had offered all kinds of services. So it wasn't just social media. It wasn't even just marketing. When I launched the business, we were doing everything for everybody. And then what happened is I started weeding out things. We're not going to do this. We're not going to do that. So that's kind of how I started getting into a couple of different services. And we ended up with

really a large amount of clients who were doing admin work with us and a large amount of clients who were doing digital marketing with us. So in that week, was kind of, my business was kind of split down the middle. So yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (07:26.25)

Okay, so let's back up a quick second. You're sleeping, you have this thought. Start a business and help women. Where did the help women come from? Was that?

Jackie Benjamin (07:34.987)

Yeah.

It's just, yeah, something I think that's, it's interesting you asked me that because my boss at the time asked me the same question and we kind of explored that a little bit. And what I realized is that for the large part of my adult life and even before that, the things that I was doing with my, with my spare time, my spare money, my, things that I was donating to in some way contributing to with time or money were towards helping women and toward in some way, or form.

So what that really came down to is how can I combine what that passion was with a business and make a difference in that way. So that's really where that came from. it just had been a lifelong, I want to say almost, need to be a part of something that was helping women advance in some way.

Jennifer Kok (08:32.428)

You know, that's what I love about small business owners is you will meet so many different small business owners and they all have a different story of why they chose to start. But usually somewhere in that story, it has nothing to do with them. It is always about.

who the product or service is helping, or how they can give back, or the community. And I just love that spirit. And I feel like that's part of our DNA as entrepreneurs. Not everybody thinks like that, but for some reason, for us, we do think that way. And your business becomes a tool. And I love how that was incorporated in you from day one. That's really, really cool and really impactful.

Jackie Benjamin (09:06.702)

you

Jackie Benjamin (09:12.791)

Yeah, thanks. And I agree with you. I think it's just something that is in your DNA. You might start doing something. You don't even realize why you're doing it until you sit down and reflect a little bit and understand why you want to either start the business or contribute some of your time or your money, why that thing is important to you. But until you sit down and explore it a little bit, I think you do these things subconsciously.

and get started that way. So it is fascinating.

Jennifer Kok (09:42.047)

It is, it really is. Okay, so back to fast forward, you're doing everything for everybody and you said you kind of had almost two businesses under one roof. So part of it was more like virtual assistant, admin support, and then the other was marketing support. Was that, that probably was hard to not only communicate who you are and what you do, but it probably was pulling you in a couple different directions. Where did you go from there? Like what were you noticing having these two kind of umbrellas of one business?

Jackie Benjamin (09:49.582)

Mm-hmm.

Jackie Benjamin (10:10.114)

Yeah, so that's exactly what I noticed. It was so hard to describe what we did. I would tell people, and people would look at me with a confused look. I don't really understand of who am I referring you to? So what really happened was COVID. So when COVID happened, we had been in business for six months. We kind of had to split down the middle of the services we were offering.

And then more of our clients started asking us for digital marketing, specifically social media management, because they hadn't been doing it, but now it was the only way that they could get out to their customers. So that's really when the shift happened for us is that we had been split down the middle, but now we were really leaning towards the one side of digital marketing. We had done some other type, we had done some email marketing and that type of thing too, but social media was really becoming more important.

At this time, we still weren't niche into any kind of industry. So we were still doing the one thing now for everybody. So we were getting closer, right? We were getting closer, but what I realized is that we would be able to help a lot of businesses, especially through this weird uncertain time that we were in that hadn't been paying attention to social media, didn't really understand how to use it for their business, but really realized that they needed to be a part of it.

Jennifer Kok (11:10.062)

Baby steps, baby steps.

Jackie Benjamin (11:32.286)

So once that happened, we leaned into the social media management piece of it. And I'm not going to say never looked back because we kind of dipped into some other digital marketing services along the way, but realized that at the end of the day, this is where we need to be and we need to be experts here.

Jennifer Kok (11:51.727)

Did you find that when you did take that step into we're just going to focus not, mean, digital marketing is big, and you even went a little more narrow, just social media. Did your revenue dip a little bit at the time? Because you were kind of pulling away from maybe some consistent revenue with the virtual assistant services? that's encouraging. Yes.

Jackie Benjamin (12:09.343)

It didn't, which was the weirdest thing, which was the big concern. That's the big fear, right? Is that you're so concerned, worried that your revenue is going to take a hit because you're niching into something that, and it is counterintuitive. It seems like you're going even narrower and narrower into what you're offering. And that of course is going to narrow the pool of clients out there, but it really didn't. So what

And I didn't cut everything off, you today's the day. You we kind of phased our clients out, made sure they had some other solutions before we left them, but we didn't notice any dip. And then what was happening too is because we had a niche into social media management, now I could talk to people about that specifically and people understood what we did. So now I started getting more referrals.

Jennifer Kok (12:41.496)

Right.

Jennifer Kok (13:01.718)

Yes, because I think what you said earlier is people didn't know who to refer to you. And I see that a lot. And I hear that a lot, because it is very hard to be very clear and so specific. we've got to remember, people are hearing from 50 of us out there, right? They're bumping into people all the time, seeing their stuff online. And so unless we're super clear, it is hard to be remembered and hard to know who.

Jackie Benjamin (13:09.751)

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kok (13:25.506)

could refer me. So I think what you said there was so profound. So I love the fact that you decided to lean into social media. Revenue didn't take a hit, because I know that's a fear for a lot of clients. And sometimes it's OK. You might see it dip short term. But it's going to come back around much quicker, 10 times so much quicker. What about profit? Because now all of a sudden, you can really kind of hone in.

Jackie Benjamin (13:26.807)

Mm-hmm.

Jackie Benjamin (13:36.461)

Yeah.

Jackie Benjamin (13:40.855)

Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (13:51.783)

and be an expert and really get your tools and your systems grooving, which is where Profit then starts to take off. Did you notice it also helped with your Profit or was it too soon?

Jackie Benjamin (14:04.045)

Yeah, so was a little too soon then, but what really did help is when we made the next shift into home services. Because now we have a little, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was probably a year when we were doing social media for everybody and anybody. But what happened was we, one of my first social media clients was HVAC Plumbing and Electric Company, and they're still in one of our clients.

Jennifer Kok (14:11.252)

Okay, so take me through that. What made you decide, like how long was it until after you went from social media to home services? Okay.

Jennifer Kok (14:23.938)

Mm-hmm.

Jackie Benjamin (14:33.299)

So we had been working with them for a while and then we had, we kind of started gathering two pods, if you will, we were gathering home services, businesses and nonprofits. So again, I was at the point where my business was almost split in half, where we were working with those two industries and we, and I decided to lean into home services because after working with this one and a bunch of others that came along after that, I realized again, this is a real, place we can.

really help and be impactful for these businesses. A lot of them are family owned, family run, generational businesses that are now entering into a new generation and need to be in this social media space and needed somebody to guide them there. So again, we, found, I found myself in split in two and then leaned into home services, which is when we saw more of the profit increase because now my team can be experts in one area.

as opposed to broad based knowledge in any client that we are signing at the time. Now we really know what we're doing with the HVAC space, for example, what the seasons are, what people need to talk about, what regulations are coming up. So it really helped with that because it helped us do things more efficiently. Because now we were experts in a space.

Jennifer Kok (15:55.791)

You know, I think that's really impactful and something that no matter whether you're doing social media or you're a photographer or whatever your path is, is that people are hiring us to be their experts. You know, they can go on multiple podcasts and, you know, teach themselves all sorts of things on YouTube, but at the end of the day, they don't have time or want the bandwidth to do that. And so they, whatever we're providing, they're hiring us to be their expert. And I think...

Jackie Benjamin (16:08.941)

Thank

Jennifer Kok (16:23.426)

And I know that when we choose a lane, when we choose to niche, not only is it easier to market yourself, but now it's probably easier for your team, and like you said, more efficient, and then you do become more profitable. It just seems to make sense, but for some reason as small business owners, we struggle to do this.

Jackie Benjamin (16:41.81)

Yes, yeah, I agree. because it does seem it's daunting, first of all, it's daunting to pick and to pick a niche. It's how do you do that? You know, so unless you have something that you are very passionate about, have knowledge in or have some clients in, there's it's so broad and in wide. So that so it's a little bit daunting to do that. But then, of course, it is it does feel like you're just narrowing the potential your

total acquirable market, right? So it feels like you are narrowing that down and there will be less revenue to go around when in fact it's just the opposite.

Jennifer Kok (17:12.141)

Right.

Jennifer Kok (17:20.576)

Yeah, and you're proof of that. And I think, too, we don't have to get it right the first time. I don't know any business owner that ever started their business and today are doing the exact same thing they did when they started. We evolve, and like you went through those steps, you went through those steps of who you were going to serve and what you were going to offer, and it's OK. And so I think maybe we need to take the pressure off ourselves a little bit.

and choose something and for you, I love the fact that you had some clients. So that was kind of your guide. And you know, that's what I say to people, look at who you're working with or look at the work you are doing and what lights you up and what could you keep talking about over and over and over because you are going to have to keep talking about it over and over and over.

And I think sometimes too that's what holds entrepreneurs back, because I had a gal say to me, this seems so boring. I just keep talking about the same thing over and over and over. And I said, yeah, for you it might feel that way, but your audience it's not. They're leaning in because they maybe have only heard you say it once, not the hundred times you've said it.

Jackie Benjamin (18:21.964)

Yes, and that's so true. it feels and it does feel like, you know, I think to your point of the iterations of it is that it feels like, and especially if you've come from a corporate background, change is takes a long time, is hard, is a long process. But being a small business owner, that's really not the case. You have the ability to be more flexible than a large company.

and make changes and decisions based on what you're seeing with your numbers or your team or whatever it is, and make those changes relatively quickly and do some iterations and make some decisions. And guess what? If they don't work, you're to make some other decisions. So it is an iterative process. especially with everything changing so fast now anyway with AI and everything going on in the world, it has to be an iterative process.

Jennifer Kok (19:03.02)

Right.

Jackie Benjamin (19:15.624)

you need to evolve and change with what's going on in your specific industry. And I think that's the beauty of being a small business.

Jennifer Kok (19:25.694)

It is well said. really is. So one of your goals when you started your business was to help women. So tell me about your team. Tell me about how you have fulfilled that using your business. Like before you were doing it with your personal funds and you know from your corporate life. So tell me how that's evolved for you and your focus today.

Jackie Benjamin (19:33.441)

Yeah.

Jackie Benjamin (19:45.613)

Yeah, so yeah, so that's a great question. you know, one of my because one of my goals was to help women, I sat down and started thinking about what does that look like? So, you know, there are so many ways to do that. But what I wanted to do was provide jobs for women so that their lives could be changed in some way. So when I started when I brought in my first team member and I've got three team members, 14 members right now.

So when I brought on my first team member, I was looking for somebody who was a woman who was in a situation that needed to change and a job could do that for her. it was just somebody who had a job that was in a really not a good situation. And this was an opportunity for her to get out of that and to do something different. so from there, it just kind of went into looking for women who, hiring women who are in.

areas, Guatemala specifically, who may not have a lot of opportunity because of, you know, economy, culture, but we're very talented and we're able to, you know, come on board and do the things that we're doing with, you know, no, no ramp up time. I mean, they had been doing a lot of these things already, just didn't have the opportunity. two of my team members currently are,

in Guatemala, they're Guatemalan. I've had a couple of other team members that have been with us in the past in the same from Guatemala as well. And it's just, you know, it's, it's a, it's so great to have them bring their perspective to the team because of the experience that they have. They're, like I said, very talented and I'm lucky to have them all on my team. My whole team is

much better at doing the things we do that I am. So I let them do that and try to stay out of their way.

Jennifer Kok (21:40.857)

That's a great CEO quote, you know? It's like, it's good to hire those that know more than we do in a certain area. So, Jackie, I really applaud you in your business. You've been in business for about seven years, and I love your heart behind why you started your business, but also that you took the steps to find your lane, and it's obviously working. And I love how you continue to evolve and add services to, you know,

Jackie Benjamin (21:43.008)

Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (22:08.066)

provide more for your clients. What a great tool you are in their toolbox for these home service businesses. So thank you for sharing that journey, because I know it's not easy.

Jackie Benjamin (22:18.235)

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, thanks for letting me talk about it. It has been a fun, challenging, and exhausting, as every entrepreneur goes through, right, along the way. But yeah, we're just really glad to be in a place where we are able to help these home service businesses grow and change and delve into what it means, what social media looks like for them.

Jennifer Kok (22:42.594)

That's awesome. So what's next for you this coming year? Sounds like TikTok and YouTube are going to be added to your portfolio.

Jackie Benjamin (22:48.573)

Yeah, TikTok and YouTube, I just brought my husband on as the head of research and innovation. So he is working on some cool stuff that I won't get into yet, but he's working on some cool stuff, some automations that will hopefully be rolling out by the end of the year, beginning of next year for the home service businesses. So we're really excited about that.

Jennifer Kok (23:12.29)

Well, I'm going to have to have you back on in a year so that you can share what it's like to work with your husband and share with us these fun innovations and everything that you've got going. Because I have a feeling where you're going to be a year from now is going to be that much better than where you are today.

Jackie Benjamin (23:16.457)

Yeah. Yes.

Jackie Benjamin (23:31.125)

Yeah, would love that. That would be so fun.

Jennifer Kok (23:33.036)

So how can folks get ahold of you if they wanna learn more about your outbound social media management?

Jackie Benjamin (23:38.387)

Yeah, so they can connect with me on LinkedIn. Certainly Jackie Benjamin on LinkedIn. I'm on there a bunch. They can also, if they wanted to schedule some time with me, do that right through our website. So it's weassistbusiness.com is our website. Or they can always just email me directly at Jackie, J-A-C-K-I-E dot Benjamin at weassistbusiness.com.

Jennifer Kok (24:02.198)

Awesome, and I'll make sure I put those links in so people can easily find you. Thank you for sharing your story. I really think it's very impactful, and I know that there's some nuggets out there that listeners can take away to help them grow their business. So thanks again for being here.

Jackie Benjamin (24:04.786)

Great.

Jackie Benjamin (24:15.264)

Yeah, thanks for having me, Jennifer. It's been fun.