Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The visibility that actually moves the needle for businesses is visibility in front of individuals that are going to pay money for what you're offering.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome back to Plan Like a Boss. I'm your host, Tanya Lawson, and today I am here with Jessica Davis. Jessica spent 20 years as a corporate strategist before walking away to build something different. Now she helps business owners ditch the algorithm dependency and build real visibility through relationships, community, and trust. She's the author of Decentering Algorithms, and she's here today to share with us why visibility doesn't have to mean social media dependency.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Jessica, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about today's talk. Me too. So let's start by giving us your story. How did you get here?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

My goodness, how did I get here? Um, I started my career in web design and development uh 25 years ago. And I knew the entire time that I was in high school since I saw AOL in the 10th grade that I wanted to be in digital. I was like, that's

From Corporate Strategy To Independence

SPEAKER_00 1:10

what I want to do. I want to be a web designer, I want to design the entire internet. And that's what I did. I started my career in 2001 and moved through the ranks, did all kinds of things, analytics, um search engine optimization, digital marketing, digital strategy, and worked for nonprofits. I worked for corporate, I worked for municipalities, I did the whole thing. And I looked up one day and I said, I really hate this. I don't want to do this. This is, and it really wasn't the job. It was more corporate. I just, it was, it was starting to give me the ick. The company that I was working for had been bought out by um a private equity company. And it was, you know, every other quarter, it was we might get sold, we might not, we might get sold. And I was just done. So I decided in December of 2024 to walk away from oh, a nice paycheck. Uh, but um, I quit my job in an empty cafeteria where James Brown's I feel good was playing over the speakers. So I knew I had made a good decision at that point. I'm like, this is a sign. Um and I kind of just sat with, you know, being out on my own for a few months before I started looking seriously at what I wanted to do. And I said, okay, well, maybe I'll go into digital again. I just, it wasn't pulling me. So, and as I started like putting my shingle out and telling people about what I was doing, I was looking at different ways that small business could find some visibility. And everyone was saying social media, social media, social media. And so I said, okay, I'll get out there. And as I was doing it, I noticed I wasn't getting any visibility. And I'm like, am I shadow banned or am I doing something wrong? And the more research I did into social media, the more I figured out that social media is not here to promote your business. It's here to promote its own business. And I said, Well, then what do I do? And that's when I had a conversation with my mom, who had a small business when I was younger. My grandfather had a small business, my dad, my grandparents on my dad's side had a small business. So I come from entrepreneurship. And I asked her, I'm like, how did y'all do it without the internet, without social media? And she said, we knew people who knew people who knew people. And I was like, I get it. I get it. And that's where I got started.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

I love that. Um, I also come from a long line of entrepreneurs. So I am right there with you. And it sounds like we've been doing this about the same amount of time. Um, so let me ask you this. Well, first of all, it must have been so scary to just leave that job, to go out with nothing. That's something I can't relate to because I've always been an entrepreneur. I didn't have a job to leave in the front. I'm I'm a little weird like that. But you talk about visibility. And yeah, you're right. Everybody tells you social media, social media. I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, I'm on YouTube, and all the places. But what does visibility

What Visibility Really Means

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actually mean for a small business?

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah. So when you think about visibility, you hear it online, it sounds like a buzzword. And oftentimes people equate it to volume. Content, post more, post more often, make sure you're consistent. But visibility really is you, your brand, your products, your services, your messaging in the minds and in the mouths of people who can speak to people that would benefit from what you're offering. So, not just necessarily being out there and getting 50 million views on a post. That's visibility in, you know, just the generic traditional sense. But the visibility that actually moves the needle for businesses is visibility in front of individuals that are going to pay money for what you're offering. And so if you are healthier and you're engaging with people and you, you, you know, you have a coffee chat with someone and they say, Oh, you know what? I know somebody who might be able to assist you, or I know somebody who would be a perfect client for you, or a perfect customer for you, or who would be able to partner with you. That's real visibility that will actually move the needle in your bank account, not just make you feel good because you got a few views.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

I love that. And 100%, it's it goes back to the it's not what you know, it's who you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Right, exactly. So in this busy online space where everybody is let's just everybody still says social media is the way to go. Still to this day, like you just can't lose. Everybody's out there telling you that's what you need to be doing. How do you get out there and start making those connections?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So it it's it, we're going old school here. We're going old school, and this is, I need everybody to hear me when I say this. This is coming from somebody who is a real introvert. I mean, I don't like leaving my home. I don't want to go outside. There are people out there. I don't want to be out there. So I know what I'm getting ready to say is going to sound like absolutely not, but

Networking When You Are Introverted

SPEAKER_00 6:55

it's all about networking. It's all about getting um in front of people, whether that be one-on-one or through networking events, online, offline, all those things, um, getting in front of them so that you can start not just meeting people, but honing the skill. I feel like after COVID, we all lost the peopling skill. We don't know how to people anymore. We know how to click the little like button, we know how to comment, we know how to, you know, share sometimes, sometimes, but we don't really know when you sit down in front of somebody, another human, that interaction, that going back and forth is foreign to a lot of people. So by honing your skill, even if you go out there and you network, you know, maybe once or twice a month, you're honing the skill of being able to connect with another human. And the more humans you connect with, the larger your ecosystem becomes. And you want an ecosystem that gives you the ability to not just be able to call on people, but have people that can call on you. So now you're becoming a connector. You're not just known as the person who has this thing that they're selling, but you know, your connections know they can depend on you if they need somebody for finance, if they need a good dentist, if they need, you know, a good, I don't know, a person that helps with mindset. Whatever the thing is, they know they can come to you. And that increases your level inside of your own ecosystem. So networking really is the key.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

I love that. And you're right. We're so good at being online. And networking is not necessarily just having a conversation in the DMs. And I think that's what a lot of people get wrong. Now, I talk about visibility ecosystems in my world all the time, but it's from that SEO perspective in how to get recommended by AI agents. What you're talking about is something completely different. So let's say one of my listeners that's out there going, I know, I know I need to be networking. I don't even know where to start or how to do this.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Where do they begin?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Say first, start with the people that you know around you. Start start with the closest people you know. Who do you know in your network? I would start with an audit. Look at everybody that you know, and I'm not just talking about friends and family, but old coworkers, old bosses, um, you know, people that you met along the way and see, hey, I let's have coffee. Let's just chit-chat.

Where To Meet People Offline

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Because as you're having a conversation with people, ideas are going to come up, and that's when they're going to say, I've got somebody I want you to meet. Another um option that you have is to go online. Facebook, Facebook has some great groups. Now I'm going to tell you, Facebook groups aren't what they used to be. And there's a lot of people out there that are just in these groups to sell. Those are not the groups that you want. You want to be, you want to find Facebook groups where you can actually connect with other individuals and create partnerships, create collaborations in a way that's more human and less um tit for tat. You know, I'll I'll I'll buy from you, you bow, buy from me. That that doesn't work. You're looking for people who will say your name in rooms you're not in. And then also offline, there are, you can go to your chamber of commerce, just go to a meeting. You don't have to pay to go to a meeting oftentimes. Go to a meeting, start talking to people. There's um a website that's been out there for decades. It's called meetup.com. Go out to meetup.com and see if there are any business groups or mom groups or pet owner groups that you can go to just to start communicating and engaging with people. What's interesting is a lot of times business owners think, oh, it's got I've got to find other business owners. Not necessarily. You know, even if you sell a product or a service that is B2B, just engaging with individuals naturally can lead to opportunities you never even imagined. So looking, what do you like to do? Do you enjoy uh travel? Maybe there's a travel group out there. Do you enjoy baking or wine? I absolutely love wine. You know, do you enjoy coffee? Are there any events locally? Um, Eventbrite is a great place to find both paid and free events that you can attend. And like I said, don't go to the event thinking I'm gonna go find clients. That's not what networking is about. It will not work for you if your sole purpose is to find clients. Your purpose is going to be to find partners, referral partners, affiliate partners, partnerships, collaborators, media contacts. Who can you find that will say your name in rooms you're not in? That's how I would start.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

I love that. And I had never thought about, like you said, I think about business. I think about finding, you know, going out to score and finding business mentors and business meetups. But

How Referrals Create Real Trust

SPEAKER_02 12:45

the thought about, you know, going to a dog park meetup or a mom group, because even even if those people have nothing to do with what you have or don't know anybody, you can get practice with the talking, with the being more comfortable in a way that is less threatening, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yeah. And you also you never know who you're going to meet. The idea behind reciprocity is real. And so if you're at the dog park and you're talking to all the other mom dog moms and dog dads, and you find, you know, a dentist that specializes in people like me who are terrified of the dentist, then now you've got that person in your ecosystem. You don't know that connection might actually lead you to a new client by simply you saying you're on a discovery call with a client, and the client, you're just kind of, you know, talking back and forth. And the client goes, Yeah, well, I better get off this call. I said I was gonna do some research and find a new dentist. I'm terrified of the dentist. You simply saying, actually, I know somebody if you'd like me to make a, you know, an introduction that could make you look like the most amazing person in the world. And now where they may have been on the fence about whether they wanted to sign with you or not, they're absolutely gonna sign with you. So you never know where your ecosystem and the connections that you've made will take you.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Love that. It's it's like the old-fashioned Rolodex. I picture the turning the business card. I'm I'm dating myself. I am dating myself.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

No, not at all. Actually, I created something called an ecosystem relationship manager, and it is a database that I created inside of a platform called ClickUp. And it is, I I call it

The New Rolodex Relationship Manager

SPEAKER_00 14:50

the new version of the old school Rolodex, because that's exactly what it is. Being able to have all of your contacts in front of you or in your pocket on your cell phone and say, Oh, my, okay, well, I I know somebody. Let me pull their information real quick. And you're just sharing information back and forth, as opposed to, you know, oh, I'll get back to you, or I can't remember what the person's name was. That type of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

That's wonderful. And I I never thought about it that way, but you're right, it's those personal touch points. Those personal touch points, because you tend to buy from people that you know, like, and trust. Right. Um, you know, Google and SEO, all about the no, like, and trust factor, even though SEOs changed a lot, that trust factor is still so important, especially in the world of AI. So that might be the thing that pushes you into that sale. That is wonderful. Now, let's talk about the book. You you've written the book, Decentering Algorithms. What does that actually mean?

SPEAKER_00 15:58

When I started looking at different ways, how small business, because I had done, remember, I had been working with corporate America and people that had these gigantic um budgets.

Decentering Algorithms From Your Marketing

SPEAKER_00 16:11

I knew how to market, how to do digital from a large perspective. But when I went out on my own, I'm like, okay, I'm I'm micro, I'm tiny. I don't have, you know, a hundred thousand dollar budget a month to do ads. How do I do this? And all of the information out there was social media. And I said, Oh, okay, okay, let's do it. And I was posting and posting and posting, and that's all I was doing. And I found that as I started asking other people, that's all anybody was doing. They're like, oh, you need to, you need to post the social media, you need to post to LinkedIn. So I went on AI. I said, well, act as a marketing strategist and give me a marketing, you know, um, a marketing plan. And it gave me social media. And I'm like, there's nothing else that can be done because social media isn't showing my stuff. And what I figured out is, especially with Meta, they're not showing you oftentimes because what you're asking for your followers to do is click off of social media. You want them to stop scrolling and DM you. Stop scrolling and click your link. Stop scrolling and click the link in your bio. But that's counterintuitive to what Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok and all of them want you to do. They want you to continue scrolling forever. Don't ever stop. Because when you stop scrolling, they've stopped making money. They don't care that you also want to make money. They're not here to make money for you. They're here to make money for their shareholders, which completely, you know, understandable, not saying that's a bad thing, just saying I think business owners need to be on the same page and understand that the visibility aspect that you get from social media is not going to be as potent as you'd like it to be, especially on a macro scale. Yes, some people do do very well on social media, but most people don't. And when you question why that is, it's because your requests of your followers is counterintuitive to what the platform wants them to be doing. So when you decenter social media or de-center algorithms, you're essentially taking social media and removing it from the center of your marketing strategy. It's not the only thing you do, it's not the primary thing you do. It is a tactic. I don't say get rid of social media, it's there for a reason, but it should never be the center of what you're doing. You want the center of what you're doing to be something you control. And trust me, you do not control social media.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

I love that. And you're giving such a different perspective. Um, because the other everyone's like, you don't own social media, you don't own social media. But then they tell you to get your email list and they leave it there. And the email list is important, but you're giving us so many other options. And that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, you the the wonderful thing about email lists, and and I I I promote that too. Definitely get your email list up. But what I noticed was when I heard people say, you need an email list, I said, okay, that's great. That's something else I'm trying to fill. If I can't get a client, what makes you think I can get an email list? Well, then you need to have webinars. Well, if I can't get an email list, what makes you think people are gonna sign up for my webinar? It it's this whole idea that always leads back to you still need people. And social media is not going to be there to get that for you, the way you need it. And so you've got to look elsewhere.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

I love that. Now, you told us earlier you you left corporate to run your own business. Is there are a lot of entrepreneurs and solopreneurs specifically who listen to this podcast? What is something that surprised you about owning your own business that maybe the corporate world didn't prepare you for?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Um, the one thing I would say that I'm most shocked about, and it it really wasn't corporate, it was more the research I had started doing about entrepreneurship and following all the entrepreneurial gurus and everything, is they made it seem like this was going to be a few months in and you were going to make your first 10K month. That is not true. Okay. This thing took, I have been doing this for a year and a half, and I am still, you know, I'm not nowhere near where I want to be yet. It takes time.

The Slow Truth About Business Growth

SPEAKER_00 21:00

It's not something that's just going to pop off for you. And I had to come to that realization because I'm living off of savings accounts here. So, you know, while I was financially prepared to do this, I knew what I was getting myself into. It's a, you get to a point where you're like, okay, feast or famine, I need to figure this thing out quickly because this money is, it was there and it's drying up like ice in a in a furnace. And so just the sheer, if I had known that it would take me this long, I may have done a few things differently. Um, I don't know that I would have quit cold turkey, although I had tried to quit a few times before. And I was like, oh, no, I can't do it. Oh, I know. So, you know, for for somebody like me, I need somebody needed to just push me out the door. Otherwise, I might not have gone. But I would have had a different mindset. Going into it simply because it has, it does. It takes a long time.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

It does. And it takes a lot of work. And every time I see one of those, you know, 10K months, what it just roll my eyes and move on. Because yes, that is possible, but that is not going to happen immediately. It it's like it's like um high school students planning their major in college. I am going to be a pilot and I'm going to make $250,000 a year. Well, that's great, but most pilots don't start out at $250,000 a year. So it's the same thing with entrepreneurship. You have to start out, and there is, you will find no one scrappier than an entrepreneur. Because there's nothing like that mortgage hanging over your head that has to be paid.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Yeah. So let's say someone is sitting at their corporate desk right now and they are they're dying to get out. They want to get out. And they've they've kind of been planning it in their brain.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

What's one piece of advice you would give them? I would say start your ecosystem now.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Start it right now. Because the worst thing in the world, and and what I love about ecosystems is it's not just

Advice For Leaving Corporate

SPEAKER_00 23:25

for business. If you are, you know, you're getting ready to go into your senior year in high school, you're getting ready to go into your freshman year in college, you, you know, are looking for a new job because you just got laid off. Start your ecosystem now. Because if you wait until you need somebody and you need some help, it's going to be too late. And I will say that is one thing I did not do. I did not start my ecosystem. I had, it wasn't even on my radar that I would need a village. You know, when you have a child, when you when you have children, they say that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, your business is your baby. It's going to take a village. You're going to need a whole village to assist you. You're going to need a mentor. You're going to need advisors. You might need consultants. You definitely gonna need a tax person. I mean, you're going to need all of these things. And so I would recommend getting out there and starting to engage with other people that are in business, people that are potential um customers, potential clients, um, peers of yours that are not, I like to call them complimenters. So they're catch up to your mustard, you know. Uh, not saying that ketchup and mustard doesn't, you know, it doesn't belong on hot dogs. I'm not gonna argue that right now. I'm just saying catch up and mustard. They go together, you know? So, you know, finding the catch up to your mustard. If you are a life coach and you you want to start a business as a life coach, who would compliment you the best? Would it be a therapist? So as somebody's working with their therapist, the therapist might say, you know what, I think seeing a life coach or somebody to help you organize your life would be a great idea. Here's someone I know. If you start slow like that and start building out people that you can communicate with and contact and um kind of share ideas and and and have coffee chats and start getting a feel for what this thing is going to look like, shape out to be, what it's gonna feel like, what you're going to need to put in place. That's how you're gonna learn all of that. I love search engines, I love Google, I love researching online, but it is nothing like actually speaking to somebody who's doing it right now, face to face, whether that's virtual or in person, and getting real, a real understanding of what they're going through right in this moment, and how you know they got through this thing or that thing, or how they got started, or when they went and, you know, came across this bump in the road. What did what did they do? All of that information is feedback you will need before you step one foot out there into entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

100%. And entrepreneurs love to talk, they love to share information. Oh, yes. They will talk about it all day long. Now, on this podcast, we are very much about having tangible things that we can take away right now and start implementing today. So, to the people out there listening to this conversation, what is one thing that they can do today to get them going in the right direction?

SPEAKER_00 26:55

The one thing I want them to go out right now and do is take a look at their current ecosystem. Who do you know? Because what you're going to notice is that you have gaps. Look at all of the things that you have going on in your business or want

One Action To Take Today

SPEAKER_00 27:15

to have going on in your business. When you look across it, where do you feel like you are lacking? And lacking is not a negative term. I don't mean that in you can't do it. I mean that in you can't always be wearing all the hats. That's entrepreneurship was never meant to be lonely. That's not that's not how this thing works. Before we got the internet, people back in the day, they had communities around them. My grandfather owned a liquor store in Detroit, Michigan. He knew the bricklayers, he knew the beauticians, he knew, he knew the county commissioners, he knew all of these people. And when he needed something or knew someone who needed something, he was able to call on them. So first take a look at your current ecosystem and say, who do I know? Do you know anybody in politics? You know anybody in the media? Do you know anybody that would make a good mentor? And make a list of those people and then start to look at that list and say, you know what, I don't know anybody who does business finance. I'm not saying go out and get, you know, a financial advisor, anything. I'm saying, do you know anybody that you could possibly just, you know, bounce ideas off of? If not, that's a gap. Put that on this list. And so as you're going through and you're saying, I don't know anybody that knows anything about legal, I don't know anybody that knows anything about AI, add them to this new list. And now you have a hit list or a list of people that you can go out and say, I am in search of, you know, connecting with people that are in these areas so that your ecosystem is more filled out and not just, you know, fragmented with a little bit of information because a little bit of information is dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

You are not wrong there. You are not wrong. So I I love that idea. And I'm gonna do that myself. As you're going through those, I'm thinking through in my head, yes, I have one of those. Oh no, I don't have one of those. I'm I'm gonna sit down and make that list. So, where can listeners find you?

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Well, I named my company Jessica Marie Davis LLC because in the very beginning, I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted to get into. And digital felt good, but I just wasn't sure if that was it. And I'm glad I didn't. So Jessica MarieDavis.com, the traditional spelling for all three.

Where To Find Jessica And The Book

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Um, and then I'm on Instagram, LinkedIn, uh, and threads, the uh the underscore Jessica Marie Davis, or over on LinkedIn, just Jessica Marie Davis.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Yeah, just send those to me and I will put those in the show notes. And your book is available everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

It is available. It is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon or on my website. Um, and then I also have it as an audiobook available on my website.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Love that. All right, perfect. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. It has been such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much. Yeah, and everybody out there, go get the book. I'm gonna get it. I cannot wait to read it. Start implementing this today. And until next time, keep planning like a boss.