
MarketPulse: Pros & Pioneers
Your STORY becomes your WHY.
Marketpulse is, at heart, about sharing marketing advice and support to those who are either trying to 'DIY' what they're doing, or to help those who are looking for support, to find the right partners, and ask the right questions as they outsource.
As we recorded and released season 1 (ending April 2025), we realised, that we're each of us, the product of our journey, story and vision. That's what connects us to our 'why'.
As we launch Season 2, we're going to dive deeper into the amazing stories of our guests, to find out exactly what makes them tick - from working with Hollywood producers, to go-Karting with Lewis Hamilton, and from prison to running a £10m business, we've seen it all on our show!
If you want to hear the incredible stories of our guests, and advice on finding your own, then tune in, give us a subscribe, and please leave feedback if you enjoy the show!
Contact us at:
Email: Paul@javelincontent.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-banks007/
Website: www.javelincontent.com
MarketPulse: Pros & Pioneers
Master Storytelling, Community & Video in 2025 | Dorien Morin Van Dam
Enjoying the Show? Share Your Experience!
Storytelling isn’t just a marketing trend—it’s the foundation of brand success. This week, we welcome Dorien Morin-van Dam, a social media strategist, content creator, and international keynote speaker with over 14 years of experience. As a Certified Agile Marketer, Dorien helps businesses craft powerful organic strategies that convert.
In this episode, Dorien reveals why storytelling is the most effective way to build trust and engage audiences in 2025. She shares how video is revolutionising business leadership, the secrets behind agile marketing, and why documenting your journey can fuel your brand’s growth.
We also discuss her unexpected path to social media success, the game-changing impact of networking and conferences, and the practical strategies that any business owner can apply today to stand out in a crowded space.
If you’re looking to transform your content, amplify your brand, and leverage the power of video and storytelling, you don’t want to miss this episode.
📢 Subscribe to MarketPulse: Pros & Pioneers for more expert insights:
https://www.youtube.com/@marketpulsepodcast?sub_confirmation=1
Show Links:
Podcast Directory: https://marketpulse.javelincontent.com/share
More on Dorien Morin-van Dam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moreinmedia/
Dorien’s Website: https://www.moreinmedia.com/
Strategy Talks Podcast: https://www.moreinmedia.com/strategytalks
Charity Partner – ADHD Liberty
ADHD Liberty is the first charity screening for ADHD in UK police stations, fighting to stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline. They campaign for mandatory ADHD screening in schools from age five and throughout the criminal justice system.
Support their work here:
http://www.ADHDLiberty.org
http://www.SarahTempleton.org.uk
http://www.HeadstuffADHDTherapy.com
Powered by Javelin Content: www.javelincontent.com
Find Paul on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paul-banks007
Thanks for listening!!
You can catch us on all major podcast directories - New episode every Wednesday at 3pm UK time. Give us a subscribe to make sure you don't miss out!
We're also on YouTube!
If you want to feature as a guest, and you're either a business owner who does most of their own marketing, or you're a marketer with a passion for sharing your knowledge, current trends and adding value, reach out to me directly.
This show is brought to you by Javelin Content Management - Getting ideas out of your head, into video, and out to your socials.
Use our unique "Record & Repurpose" service to generate over 200 pieces of eye catching content from 30 minutes of your long form video content.
Good afternoon and welcome back to MarketPulse Pros and Pioneers. Season two has kicked off with an absolute blast. We've had some fantastic people on the show and this week is no exception ladies and gentlemen who are watching along, you watching the show for a long time. I've, I've already been on this lady's podcast and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience so much so that I had to bring her back and invite her on to ours please, if you haven't met her before, welcome Dorien Morin Van Dam onto our show I've been, I've been practicing out to see and name, I'm sorry. Like I need to get that right. It makes me so anxious when I get people with a name that doesn't, it, it sounds very different to how it's spelt. Well, lovely to have you on the show, Dorien,
Dorien:Thanks for having
Paul:how are you?
Dorien:love talking, so this is gonna be great.
Paul:And that's a Dutch name, right?
Dorien:Yes it is. I was born and raised in the Netherlands, and then I immigrated to the US when I was 18.
Paul:Wow, that must have been some upheaval, some'cause I would imagine an 18-year-old you've, you've got all your friends there and you are kind of settled in place.
Dorien:I, I, it was an adventure. I was supposed to go for a year and, you know, the age old story, meeting somebody falling in love and staying,
Paul:Oh,
Dorien:I've been
Paul:yep.
Dorien:country for years, so yeah, it's been a, it's been a long time. So I've spent more time in the US than I. Grew up in the Netherlands and spent time there, but I am 100% Dutch, so that always will stick with will that, you know, that sticks with you no matter what.
Paul:Fascinating. And so. Season two for this show has focused much more around people's stories and how they got where they are. Because the more I've recorded this podcast, the more I've realized that nobody got here on purpose. Very, very few people I spoke to saw in advance any of their journey that they've been on, and I love that almost serendipity and faith led journey that people have been on because that's what makes us unique and that's what gives us our, our unique selling points. So walk me through where that, where that journey to America went then Dorien because that's an opportunity to reinvent yourself right At, at 18-year-old, you could be whatever you want.
Dorien:Yeah, except I didn't really, I, I only had one goal is to just be happy, which is a silly goal, but growing up in a very strict Dutch reformed household with the role model of becoming a mom. And so when I met somebody and fell in love. That really was what I was gonna do. But because we were so young and so poor, waited to have children, we had that luxury. And so I worked for seven years as a nanny before we even had our first child ended up. have four children. They're all young adults now. Youngest of 20, oldest is 28. Lovely family, but. At age 40, I walked my youngest into kindergarten, and it was one of those days that everybody, you know, the moms are crying. They're standing there. And I literally walked out of there with the biggest smile on my face because I, that was my fourth one going to school. I had been nannying for 20 something years, nannying and, and parenting, and this was the first time in, I think 22 years that I had a day without a child. Like a weekday. And I had from seven 30 to two 30 and I was like, what am I gonna do
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:time? And this was 2010. So think about what was happening. Facebook was up and coming. Twitter was up and coming. Nobody locally where I lived was doing social media. They were talking about it. Businesses weren't doing it. Nobody had time for it. Nobody knew what it was. And so I was contemplating going to school. Here I am at 40, you know, going to get an education that I never had. And then we started, kind of did the math. My husband and I like, if I go to school for four years, by the time I'm done, our first child is almost ready to go to college himself. How much earning power do I have? We kind of did some of that math and then I was like, well, what can I do? And I didn't, couldn't and didn't want to go work for somebody and have to go into an office. So my husband had been. has his own business, been working for himself remotely for at least 10 years at that point, remote already. This was 2010. So he is like, well, what if you do social media and, you know, start working locally, but maybe you can do some re remote work like me? So it took an online course and I am a very different learner than he is. So within three weeks of taking the course, I literally. Got a room at a local university, put up a sign and said, I'm teaching social media to people. I got a bunch of business owners to come. I'm teaching what I'm learning three weeks before I'm teaching that to them. And my husband's looking at me going, what are you doing? I'm like, well, I'm learning now. I'm implementing. This is how I learn. By doing so I'm gonna get everybody together. I had to be at the university. So we had good wifi and I started teaching. I created a network called Hands-on Networking in the area. What I was in. Connecting business owners and saying, when we meet in person, now we can connect online, we can boost each other's online presence. This was 2010 started working with local businesses, and that's really how I got started. I think. I didn't know what I didn't know, so that's the biggest thing that I had an advantage for. I didn't know how to behave in business. I've never been in business, never
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:business. I've been, remember a nanny stay at home mom and I didn't know. That you know how to dress or how to act. I just. Was me. And I think that worked to my advantage for sure. There were no expectations that I had to live up to.
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:so I kind of carved my own way. And especially since social media was new, I was the first social media manager in the local area. So
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:a lot of referrals. And one of the ways I got started is that I kind of raised my hand on LinkedIn and said, Hey, anybody need any help? And there was a local charity that was doing a golf. A golf tournament and they were making
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:a year in fundraising. And I said, well, I can help. And they go, well, we can't pay you. And I said, well, if you give me a title, I will do it for free. So they made me
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:director for three years for their tournament and we, the third year raised$75,000 and we. Can attribute that to social media and the spread of social media and sponsorship and being able to tag people and be able to get the word out. So that was really my start by, you know, working with that charity and then getting known locally. So that was, that was really the golden age of social media. The, the really, the start that,
Paul:From the outset. Mm-hmm.
Dorien:you call it.
Paul:Yep. Yep. I, I, my, my son struggles to believe that I, I predate the internet. I, I must seem incredibly old to him. But I remember, I remember going into college and things just to download things to bring home on floppy disks because I didn't have internet at home is, it's, it's unbelievable the differences that we've seen and such a relatively short period of time. But why, why social media? Then, I guess what, what attracted you to social media?
Dorien:Well, the funniest part was I wasn't attracted to social media. I actually didn't have a Facebook presence until my husband said, check out social media. So
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Dorien:went on Twitter, I went on Facebook and I started checking it out. I am, I like in-person meetings, so it
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Dorien:to be the thing that I could go into without a lot of training.
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:I do like communicating know, raising kids and raising teenagers. You have to be over communicative to make sure you get the point across. And so I'd also, in all those years a stay-at-home mom, I have been on all kinds of committees. I had learned to navigate a difficult situations empathy. I was on the P-T-O-P-T-A, I was on I was an elder at my church. There were a lot of. Decisions that were made. A lot of I was on, a lot of projects I was involved with. That helped set me up for what social media ended up doing. You know, first it's online networking. It's building community, which I had done immediately. I, I moved to an area in 2000. We lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That's where we moved to when we had two young children. I was pregnant with my third now. My husband's not from South Carolina. My family's in Europe. I moved there five months pregnant, and my biggest goal was in the next four months to get to know somebody well enough that I could stash my two kids with them while I went into labor so my husband could be with me. That literally was my goal, so I networked. The heck outta myself to meet other moms. I was part of the moms club. I ended up being the president of the
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:club, but I made real connections everywhere and that understanding of how people work and that people needed to be part of community has really helped me in social media. You know, I think. we now are in 2025, there is that debate that comes back, you know, every year about do we need skills or do we, do you need hard skills or soft skills? Do we need to have somebody who understands the algorithm of TikTok or do we need somebody who understands? The algorithm of people, right? Do we
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:somebody that has empathy or do we want to, to know the data behind everything? And, and the truth is we need both and we need'em to work
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:But starting out, you know, 15 years ago, it really was about understanding psychology and people and communication. And, you know, data came a lot later to, you know, be successful. So a lot of younger people who can probably do great growing a TikTok account or you know, any kind of social media account, they might not understand customer service piece of social media.
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:that's where, that's where I've really found, that's why I went into organic social instead of ads.
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:love that part. The customer service,
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:Retention piece.
Paul:Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I, it's something that, that's always been core to my principles as well is that kind of, I always said to my wife many years ago, before I even left retail we know, we, we, we'd get handymen out to do jobs around the house or we'd, we'd phone them up and we'd ask them to do something, even just come out and do a court, and probably four out of five just wouldn't even bother to turn up for the court. And I always said. Making money out of people is really, really easy. And she said, well, what? What do you mean Paul? How can that, how can that be? I said, well, it's very simple, right? All you've gotta do is tell someone what you're gonna do. Tell someone how much it'll be. Tell'em when you'll be there and tell them how you'll do it. And then do those four things. That's it. And if you can do those four things, you will win hearts and minds, because the vast majority of people can't.
Dorien:So, yeah.
Paul:it's, it's just be reliable and consistent. I think that's, but yes, that customer service piece is, is huge and I think a lot of people miss that ability to engage in conversa in genuine conversations, not, not money led conversations and just see where the relationship builds to. Um, which brings me on to kind of storytelling, which I know is a huge part of the way you work with your clients and what you are all about on social media. So. Where did you start to see the importance of storytelling in your own business, in your own life? Is, is that how you managed to become successful?
Dorien:Yeah. So, you know, if you read my bio, you see I wear my orange glasses as a nod to my Dutch heritance. That actually kind of happened by accident. The first year I was in business. Somebody sent me a cardboard pair of orange glasses with a little crown on it. The, the Netherlands had at that time, a, a queen
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:Queen day is in April, and so it was Queen Day I was missing the Netherlands. She sent me those glasses and I put'em on, and when I, and I, and I put that picture as my profile picture, this was the start of my business. And I would go into town and go to my hands-on networking meetings and my. Other networking meetings and people would go, oh, you are the girl of the orange glasses. And so that piece of recognition, that's what I was known for initially, not what I did, but by my look. So I very quickly realized that and I started buying orange glasses just. Over the counter, no prescription. And I wore orange glasses for 10 years without a prescription because it helped me
Paul:Uhhuh.
Dorien:recognized sort of as a logo then in
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:orange in my logo and, and all of that stuff. But that's kind of where that starts. But. People like that's when I realized people like a story. People like to something about you so they can remember you. The other story I often tell these are people that I network with, and now that you're part of my network, you'll hear the story too. But I shared every year on May 5th is that my husband and I met at a bus stop and then got married at the bus stop only seven months later. And so it's
Paul:It.
Dorien:my story, but it's also part of. How I am as a person, this defines
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Dorien:good, it is good. I
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:need, we don't need the big budget or the big bells and whistles. Right? And this
Paul:Yep,
Dorien:a metaphor for, for marketing. What you need is. What comes after, right? I wasn't worried about the big wedding. We had a very small wedding at the bus stop with 40 of our friends and a bunch of people who got off the bus. But it's not about the wedding, it's about the marriage. What do you do afterwards? Right? So
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:about getting this flashy ad up or this. This, this one campaign. It's about how you conduct yourself online at all times and how you, how you tell that story of your, of your, your mission, your vision if you're, you know, a sustainable company what you stand for things that you're willing to do and not do as a business owner, right? Your morals,
Paul:Yeah. Yeah.
Dorien:that's all part of your story and telling that is really, really powerful because not everybody. Is your audience. You know, I love,
Paul:Mm.
Dorien:beginning of when I started doing social media, you
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:didn't know what questions to ask. So I would say, you know, who's your audience? And people say, oh, everybody. And I'm like, oh, we, we can work with that. No, you can't work with that. Who is your audience? Who is your ideal
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:Who do you wanna target? Who pays you the most or who pays you the most often? Or who comes back every year? Like those are your most profitable ones who has
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:you the longest. So those are the people we need to target. And. That storytelling to them to, to get them in. But you, you have to show a little bit of yourself. You have to human, be human right, and have those human feelings. And, and that's kind of where that storytelling started when I realized that people recognized me. In person from something they had seen online. The same thing happened the first time I went to a big conference. I didn't know anybody flew from South Carolina to San Diego. I'm in this huge place with like 3000 people and this girl comes running to me and goes, oh my gosh, Dorien I did not know who she was, but she knew me from Twitter'cause I was wearing my orange glasses. So that connection, connection
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:world and the. The in-person world is really important, and I think that if you and I were to meet Paul in real life, we'd feel the same way because this
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:connection that we're making. And I think that is something that storytelling, that piece is missing from a lot of people's marketing, and that's what I want to give to
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:right? Grab their story and, and share it with the world.
Paul:and a lot of people are kind of. A little bit afraid of telling their story.'cause they, they wanna remain, they wanna be humble and they don't feel as though their story is what's gonna make the sale. And they really struggle. I, I think, you know, most, most business owners probably have to tell their story 500 times before they're anywhere near like a, a starting point for their story. It evolves over time. Right. Like what, what advice would you give to a business that's out there that maybe they're relatively new and trying to find their story, whatever that looks like for them.
Dorien:So one of the things that I recently kind of started adapting and, and help telling people about, it's not about creating content, it's about documenting this, the, the, the. Documenting the journey. So when you're a founder, I'm working with a brand new startup right now, and they're going to their first conference this week, right? So we're in a all team meeting and they're like, yeah, we, we don't necessarily, you know, wanna be in the picture because, you know, we're, we're, we're startup. And I'm like, well, can you. Do pictures of the people who have the, you know, booth next to you. You know, can you tell the story about your travel? You don't necessarily have to show your face, but we're on a plane, or your product is on the plane. Or you know, you can have
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:angles, but sharing the journey. Document what you're doing. Document your meeting. This meeting, let's take a picture. Even if we don't post it now, maybe we post it in a year. Right?
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:the, then we have the way back machine, but document everything because that makes you realize all the stuff that you are doing. So instead of thinking, oh, I gotta create content, no, you're documenting your day, your week, your meetings, your successes, your failures. And I think
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:you start thinking about it like that, that it's a. Piece of history for your company. Then it starts making sense, and then you don't have to think about how to post it on social. Then you put give it to your social person. If you document everything as a business owner, as this, the as a C-Suite team, your social media team can do all kinds of magic with that, but you start documenting that.
Paul:It is funny, I I was literally having this conversation about an hour and a half ago with, with with someone. And the question to me, and I'm, I'm, I'm gonna get your answer first on this, and I, and I know what it is already. I I already have it figured. But what he said to me was I don't wanna be famous, Paul. So I, I really wanna get on video and I, or like I'm happy to do it for the business. But, but do you think I have anything to add? And, and is it gonna add anything to the business if I get on video? And I know you are a big believer in video as well, so, I, I, I really, I'm looking forward to seeing what you see on this, but I.
Dorien:shows your passion. If you are on video, if, I mean you are getting me to talk about everything that I love. If
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:this, you can see that I'm excited about social media. You can see that I'm excited about my business and I'm excited about video. I'm excited about helping small
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:That's why I am on video because I can't convey that. In a written story on LinkedIn, it's my facial expressions is my
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:It's the tone of my voice. It's my rattling off all the great stuff that's happening in my business. When you are a founder, when you're a C-Suite, there's a reason you either got hired or you started the company or you
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:decisions. Share those reasons. Share what's happening. what people wanna know. People, businesses are gonna do business with. if they know the people behind a business, right?
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:B, B2B, it's business to business, but it's really still, as we always say, H to H. It's human to human. There's two people signing on the dotted line
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:a contract, don't forget, and that's, they people have a lot of choices. Right. If I
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:to go find a new tool to livestream, there's probably 10 choices out there. Who am I going to sign with? It's, first of all, I'm gonna go to all my friends and ask them, what are you using? Then I'm gonna go online and look at reviews. Next, I'm gonna go to forums and see what people say, and maybe fourth, I'm gonna try to do a demo and see what the people that work there, how they respond to me, and then I'll make a decision. But ultimately, I do wanna know who's behind. That tool because if something goes wrong, I wanna know who's there. So
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:B2B, you still want to be shown. And then founders have incredible insight. There's always a passion why they started a business. Very rarely do they start, a business goes. They go, oh, I can make tell million. Tell tell$10 million. That's why I'm starting a business. No, they're solving a problem. Most businesses are created'cause they're solving a problem. What problem are you solving and how are you making people's lives better? Talk about that and when you do that
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:That sells it for you. You don't need to do anything else. And if you're listening to this and you're founder, your C-suite and you haven't done video, think about this. Your videos, especially on LinkedIn, are gonna amplify what your team is doing on LinkedIn pages. They're, it's gonna amplify all their hard work on TikTok, on Instagram, everywhere else because now they see you and they can
Paul:Yeah,
Dorien:your content to amplify. Business voice and so yeah, I don't see any reason not to do it. It's not gonna make you famous. It's gonna make you human recognizable. That's it.
Paul:almost word for word. I love it. Almost exact same conversation I had with him. The, the thing I'd caveat all that with as well is, you know, especially for businesses that are in a crowded space, you know, when your, your ideal target audience gets to a point where they're about to make a decision and they've got you versus somebody who offers pretty much what you offer rather than getting to a race to the bottom on services and, and price and, and all those sorts of things. If the person on the other end knows a little bit about you and they believe in you and. What you stand for as a person and as a business, then they'll actually be willing to pay more for that than even just pay the same or less. So instead of then diving into that race to the bottom, stop putting yourself in that, that race to the top and put your hand up. So I, I, yeah, I, I can't recommend that enough. I love that. Thank you very much for sharing that, Dorien Um, coming back to your journey then, like, I love the fact that you bring Agile marketing. Into, into the fold. And that's, that's something I, I don't hear anybody else talking about agile marketing, like it's marketing or it's not marketing. So do you wanna, do you wanna walk us through where that came from and how you, how you work with that?
Dorien:Sure. In 2018, I signed a
Paul:I.
Dorien:contract with a team that was an Agile team, and they are business coaches and they go into businesses, large corporations, and they do facilitation. They teach communication, and I really enjoyed working for them and. About a year and a half in, I got this email from the founder of that company and she kind of like, just kind of like slid it in in an email and she goes, you know, you can use Agile for marketing, right? And my was like, what? so she sends me a link to an agile marketing workshop, and it's the first time in nine years I've been in business since 2000. 20, early 2020, so 10 years in business. First time I was like, sign me up. I don't care how much it costs. It was a two day conference in a workshop in New York City. Now this was March 12th, 2020, so you know what happened. I'm in the city and the city is shutting down. I finish this workshop. I get on the train. I don't have a mask. I like, I don't even have hand sanitizer, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just wanna get home. I live in Vermont, five hour train ride. I get home and the world shut down. That was it. Now I had learned agile marketing. It's all about iterations, right? You, you create something, you get feedback, you create something better. Feedback. The feedback loops, and I'm sitting there at home. And I'm like, how can I implement this as a team of one? Because if you know anything about agility and agile, it's came from the software development
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:and it's used in teams. So they do sprints together, they work together well. Everybody in that workshop. Was part of a corporation, so they were doing agile marketing as a marketing team. Dorien is a team of one. So I kept asking during the workshop, well, how does this apply to me? How does this apply to me? I kept asking and pushing the envelope and there really wasn't an answer. So once I was, we were all shut in. started implementing some of those things and within three months I gained back, and I'm not lying about 15 hours a week. Of time that now was mine because I was doing things, I was meeting with my clients more, but I was doing a lot less work. Let me say that again. I was meeting more, but I was doing less work because instead of working on something for three hours, presenting it to them and then saying, well, I don't like this. I had to start back over. I would say, here are three flyer concepts. A, B, or C, which one do you like? You know, I send them an email. They go A, so I take a and do version A, 1, 2, 3, you know, send them it back an hour later. I just need you to take a quick look. One, two or three, and they'd go three. I'd go, okay, A three. You know, and I, I, I was so much faster and I was doing a much better job of getting my clients what they wanted.
Paul:Yeah.
Dorien:you know, for implementation of working together, right? I started using Google Drive. Now that's. You can work asynchronously with your clients, which I absolutely love. If you're a freelancer entrepreneur, you're listening to this I do a lot of my content. I create it in Google Docs. I upload the images in there. I make it look like, Hey, this is, you know, I'm creating content. This is what a post's gonna look like, but they can go work in there. I have a client who has two small children who nap on sat who nap. the afternoon. So on Saturdays when she's not working in her law firm, she'll go and approve content while they nap. But I'm not working on Saturday, but she can be because we can work together on Monday when I open. My email, there's her comments, now I can get the content done. So that's all part of the agility piece where you can work alongside each other, but get that feedback, more feedback is better. And then at the end of every project, at the end of every month, we do this retrospective of what worked really well. And next time we have a project, what can we do to improve? And then. Another part of agility is when you do have a team, have these daily standups. Well, I started doing daily standups with myself because here's the honest truth. Don't we all have something that we just dread doing? And then push it off? Push it off, push it off. Well, when you say every day, when you answer every day, these three questions, what did I accomplish yesterday? am I planning to do today? And where am I stuck? Three days in a row, you're stuck on, I don't wanna send this email, or you're stuck on, I don't wanna confront my client. You know where your bottleneck is. So that
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:lot of time because I started doing. the frog, right? Do the thing that you don't wanna
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Dorien:thing in the morning after my standup and that freed up my mind, freed up my psyche. I was like, okay, I'm relieved. I feel better. So just doing that daily thing, what did I accomplish yesterday? Pat myself on the back. What am I working on today? Make three big goals and a couple small goals, and where am I stuck? the piece that I'm stuck first, or get somebody to come in to help. That opened up my week. It just got things moving. I wouldn't sit there for three hours scrolling because I was trying to avoid, you know, sending this email or this invoice, or make this phone call. And so adapting that agility in marketing and that mindset. helped me scale because what it allowed me to do is take on more clients, take on bigger clients. And so that was 2020. That was the first year I made six figures, and from there on it went, so it, it really kind of was a big, pivotal moment, but I. Looking back at it, why it worked for me. I think it's a lot of people, a lot of, if you know anybody, Dutch, if you're watching listening, if you know anybody Dutch, you know that we're very pragmatic and it just made sense. This is how I was raised, right? You get feedback all the time. Little kids in the Netherlands. Everybody learns how to tie their shoes when they're in kindergarten. Everybody gets their swimming diploma when they're age six or seven. Everybody does stuff at the same time, but you get this feedback loop, Hey, you're not ready for this, or You're ready for this. And so learning that growing up, it made a lot of sense. We were ready a lot earlier than I think my American. Peers because we would get feedback on stuff. No, you can't do that. Yeah, you can do that. And so we were given more privilege earlier on because we were doing a good job. And so I think my Dutch part of my brain and my being recognized that. was a piece that was missing in my business, and that's why that's worked out really, really well for me. But anybody that's interested, you don't have to be Dutch to implement Agile in your marketing, but it's fantastic. I absolutely love it. And there's, you know, I kind of picked and chose elements because I'm a team of one. It looks very different for me than it looks for other people, but you can still practice agility in your own business even if you're a small team.
Paul:AmazinDorieneen I've, I've, it's, it's rare that I laugh this much during a podcast episode, and we're so aligned on so many things. It's brilliant. We could, we could, as you've said before, the show, we could easily go on for nine or 10 hours together, I think. Definitely. I don't think anybody wants to watch that, but like, you know, we definitely could. So if people have been watching along, listening along and they wanna find out a bit more about yourself or about about the business, and or maybe they need some help or advice, what's the best way for them to contact you? I.
Dorien:I'm on LinkedIn. My handle is more in media. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on that's YouTube. I would say YouTube as well, but just connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message and say, Hey, I listened to the podcast with Paul and wanna connect with you. I love meeting new people. I love my network. That's how you and I met Paul there on
Paul:Yep.
Dorien:so yeah, that's, that's the best place I. If I have to define what I do, I'm a social media strategist and a content marketer. So I help founders and business owners and professionals help them with their social media that they either are stuck or they can't move forward because they're not sure, like you said, have that imposter syndrome. Like are people sure they wanna hear from me? And I basically get what's in your head. I get it out on social media.
Paul:Love it. Thank you very much for your time, dear. Pleasure Having you along as a guest.
Dorien:Thank you so much.