[Fully Managed] Michelle Stuenkel from Your Media Squad Ep. 160

Introduction

Daniela (D) Hello everyone. Welcome to the Fully Managed Podcast. This is the podcast where we discuss marketing and business tips to help assist you in your business journeys. I’m your host, Daniela, Penji’s Partnership Coordinator, and I’m joined here today with a very special guest, Michelle Stuenkel. Starting off, we know why that was the book.

Michelle Stuenkel (MS) I know, I know. It’s hard. It’s hard. I married into it. I didn’t—I guess I use it, but married into it.

D We should have asked beforehand. But I know, and then I was reading it and I was like, yeah, I’m gonna trump.

MS You’re not the first one, trust me.

D But well, it’s Stuenkel, right?

MS Yes.

D Michelle of Your Media Squad, very excited to have you today. Michelle, how are you doing?

MS I’m good. I’m excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

D No, thank you so much for being here. I’m so excited for this episode to talk to you. We’re going to talk about organic marketing. We’re going to talk about Michelle’s story. We’re going to talk about her agency called Your Media Squad and so many other things. So stick around.

Michelle’s Background and Starting Her Business

D To kind of break the ice a little bit, Michelle, for those watching or listening who don’t know who you are or about your agency and what you do, can you give us a quick intro on yourself and what you’re all about?

MS Yeah, I work with small businesses with their online marketing services. I actually created Your Media Squad as a side hustle years ago—probably five or six years ago—and it was just strictly social media management because I realized there are so many small businesses out there that can’t afford to have a full-time marketing staff, but they also don’t have the time to do it themselves. So they were putting a lot of their marketing tactics at the bottom of their list of things to do.

I just started talking with small business owners and saying, hey, I know you need to be on social media, not necessarily to get a million sales, but just to have a presence so people know who you are. So let me just take that off your list of things to do.

After I started doing that, people asked me if I did other services. So my services have grown to email marketing, blog writing, local SEO—which I love. That’s kind of how I got started.

I moved back down to Florida when I started my side hustle—I was living up in New England in the cold weather—and I moved back down to Florida to be closer with family. I literally moved down here at the end of 2019, right before COVID hit and everything shut down. So it kind of gave me the opportunity to go all in with my business. It’s been full-time since, for the past three and a half years.

D That’s amazing. I think it’s a great story of something that sort of just fell into your lap and then became your primary form of income.

MS It has its ups and downs, just like every business does.

D Yeah, I talked to this guy who was my friend’s friend. He wasn’t on the podcast, but he’s an entrepreneur. He has a small business selling bottled juice. He showed us his process and just told us how hard it is, but that he loves it and wouldn’t change it.

MS Absolutely. I think every entrepreneur would say the same thing. It’s so hard, but—

D You—

MS Wouldn’t change anything.

D Yeah, I think it’s because it’s something that’s yours too. When you’re working for someone else, you don’t have that feeling of “this is mine.”

MS Exactly. Exactly.

Marketing Experience and Career Journey

D So can you tell me, Michelle, about your background and how that helped with running your agency or how that has helped with all of this stuff that you’ve been doing for the past three years?

MS Yeah. I’ve been in marketing for over 20 years now. I got out of college many, many years ago. I got a degree in public relations and it had a lot of marketing included. I just fell into working a lot in event marketing. I worked at a news station in Orlando and I was part of their marketing department where I did a lot of community relations events and online content.

When I left the news station, I moved back up to New England. I’m originally from there, though I spent over 25 years in Florida. For two and a half years, I lived in New England and was the marketing director for an autism company that had three different centers—and I was the entire marketing department. I definitely learned a lot there.

When I decided to come back down to Florida and start my online business, I started with social media management. But my services grew because I kept learning. Honestly, a lot of the stuff I was doing with the autism agency—I wish I knew about it earlier so I could’ve done it better.

When I first went all in full-time, I also did a little work for another marketing agency based in Michigan. They taught me a lot. That’s how I was able to grow my services. Honestly, the best way to learn something new is just to go in and try. You’re going to make mistakes, you may lose a client or they may not like what you’re doing, but you’re learning and growing.

I never knew much about local SEO when I first got into marketing, and now it’s one of my favorite things to do. So yeah, I just learned on my own as time went on.

The Power of Local SEO and Email Marketing

D Oh, classic. And local SEO is still very big with the small business industry, right?

MS Yes. I feel like it’s the biggest hidden secret because everyone is so focused on social media. But local SEO, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar business—that is like a hidden gem.

D So do you work mostly with B2C companies? I’m assuming B2C, right?

MS Yes, business-to-customer. I have a client that’s an autism center and they’re always looking to hire people, so that’s kind of in between. But the majority of my clients are B2C.

D And I’m curious because you said a lot of them are very into the social media thing, which makes sense. Social media is huge right now, and a lot of small businesses thrive on it. But you said you also have other avenues like local SEO and email marketing. Which one do you think is the most effective for small businesses nowadays? I know it changes, but if you had to pick one?

MS A hundred percent email marketing. With social media, you never know—your account could get deactivated just like that. I always say you’re renting space on social media. Since I focus on organic marketing and not paid ads, I see social media as a great place to establish connections and lead people into your emails—whether that’s through a funnel or a newsletter.

The thing with email marketing is you never lose those emails—unless they unsubscribe. With social media, and even your Google Business Profile, you’re renting space that can be taken away. You could lose 100,000 followers in the blink of an eye.

Plus, your return on email marketing is usually better. I forget the exact statistic, but it’s something like you get $34 in return for every $1 you spend. So yes, 100% email marketing.

D I totally get it. And what you said about “renting space” on social media is so true. With the whole TikTok ban situation, a lot of small business owners were freaking out. They built their business there, and suddenly they were at risk of losing it.

MS Absolutely. And when it comes to making a ton of sales on social media—it happens, but it’s not common. If you had that email list and your Instagram got deactivated, you could reach out and say, “Hey, I started a new account—come follow me.” Hopefully you never have to do that, but having that email list is powerful.

D Yeah, totally. It’s funny—I’ve talked to marketers who say email marketing is dead, and others who swear it’s still alive and kicking. I’ve come to the conclusion that it depends on the industry and audience.

MS I agree. I look through my inbox and I’m like, “I’m subscribed to so many emails—I need to get control over this!” But I think it goes back to how you do it. Some people just use email marketing to sell stuff, but I try to use it to build relationships.

If you go to my Instagram, you’ll see I share tips and behind-the-scenes stuff. I drive people to my email list and send out a weekly newsletter. It’s how I connect with people. And when I do promote something, they already know me.

D Yeah, totally. And your audience matters too. Younger people might not be checking email much.

MS Exactly.

Email Overload and Shifting Habits

D But I also think that email marketing can be very high value. I also subscribe to newsletters, and I think I discovered that later in life. And I do enjoy them. I sort of stopped for a while because I had that situation where I was getting 15 emails a day—all newsletters—and I was like, “Okay, I need to chill.”

MS Because you can’t get to your work. You’re like, “Oh, I’ll just read all of this”—and there goes your afternoon.

D Yeah, and then I had my normal emails to get to, and I was like, “Nope, I need to relax a bit.” I think I was also subscribing to the same kind of newsletter. Like, we don’t really do newspapers anymore. And we don’t watch the news on TV—at least, I don’t. Nowadays it’s all streaming. I go straight to a TV show or a movie. I don’t check the news channels.

I remember when I was younger, my parents would watch the Weather Channel or Fox News, NBC, etc. And when I moved out, I didn’t even get cable because I felt like I didn’t need it. So I subscribed to newsletters for news instead.

But eventually I had so many newsletters saying the same things that I was like, “Okay, time to unsubscribe from a few of these.”

MS Yeah, totally. I’m probably subscribed to a bunch too. A lot of times I open up my email and I’m just dilly-dallying. I expect people to do that. With my newsletter, I know it’s not for everyone. Some people might’ve just subscribed to get a freebie and don’t care about what I send each week. But they haven’t unsubscribed, so they just delete it.

But then there are some newsletters I really look forward to. There’s one that talks about Instagram strategy. I know it comes every Tuesday morning, and I check for it. So yeah, you get the best and worst with email marketing.

My own newsletter—I give one quick marketing tip that you can use immediately. Whether it’s about local SEO or something like how Instagram changed its sizing—I try to help people make quick fixes.

Instagram Updates and Frustrations

D I haven’t gotten that update. My Instagram is still showing square, and I’m like, I don’t know why.

MS Same here. People were talking about it, and I’d check my Instagram and go, “I’m still square!” I think it just changed for me last week. And people were also talking about the name placement changing, and I didn’t see that either. I was like, “What are they talking about?”

D I think I still have the old Instagram. And people were complaining that they’re going to remove highlights or already have. I’m stuck in 2022 or something. I even checked my app—it’s updated. I just haven’t gotten the changes.

MS Yeah, they roll it out randomly, I guess. It took me a while too. I saw people talking about it and was like, “I don’t see any difference.”

D Apparently the new layout is really bad. A lot of people hate it. So I’m not exactly eager to get it, but also kind of want to complain with everyone else.

MS One of the people I follow who talks about Instagram always said, “If you’re making graphics, do it at 1080 x 1350 pixels.” That gives you more space and lets you make things bigger. So I’d already started doing that, thankfully.

Now I see people who made graphics in the square format and their feeds don’t look great with the update.

D Yeah, I’ve seen that too. People aren’t happy because their feeds look weird now. Hopefully I stay square for a while. We’ll see.

What Is Organic Marketing?

D Now Michelle, I also wanted to ask you about organic marketing—because that’s kind of your bread and butter. Can you tell us what organic marketing is and how it’s different from ads, cost-per-click, and all of that?

MS Yeah, my view on organic marketing is that it definitely takes longer to get results, but it’s cheaper—it’s free, essentially. Especially for small business owners who don’t have the money to spend on ads.

From my experience, you have to spend a lot on ads to get results. If you’re just starting out and don’t have the budget, organic marketing is your best bet.

With organic marketing, you’re establishing relationships with potential customers. You’re bringing value, education, and it costs less stress and money. The only thing you really need is consistency.

You can’t post today and then disappear for three weeks. If you’re consistent, people start paying attention and might eventually become clients. I feel like organic marketing is the best way for new business owners to get started.

A lot of people will want to run ads and do $5/day—but that’s not going to get you far. You’re better off spending that $5 on a coffee, sitting down, and doing some organic marketing to build relationships.

D Yeah, I feel like organic marketing is a great way to get started. I’ve seen business owners go all in on ad spend, with Google Ads, Meta, etc.—but it’s expensive. And people don’t always talk about that. Ads are costly, and if you’re a solopreneur, that’s hard to sustain.

It’s probably worse to invest a big chunk of your tiny budget and see no success. That hurts more than when a big brand has a failed campaign.

MS Exactly. If you’re just starting out and focused on organic marketing, it’s also a great way to figure out who your audience is. Then, when you have the money to run ads, you’ll do it more wisely. Instead of throwing up a generic ad and seeing what sticks, you’ll already know what works.

Content Creation Tips for Small Business Owners

D I also wanted to ask you—because I think a big hurdle for small business owners, especially compared to bigger companies—is they often don’t have the luxury of hiring a whole team. They have to do a lot of things on their own. So when it comes to organic marketing, especially content creation—whether that’s newsletters, blogs, videos, or social media posts—how can small business owners create content that actually attracts and retains their target audience?

MS I’m a big fan of relationship-based content. Whether it’s a blog post, social media content, or an email—I want people to feel like, “Oh, she’s really cool. I like her.” That connection makes all the difference.

The key is your content can’t be 100% about what you’re selling. I created this Instagram strategy workbook that breaks down how to figure out what to post, and I always talk about having four pillars.

So for example:

• 25% of your content should be about what you’re selling—your product or your email freebie.
• 25% should be educational—teach people something. And I know service providers sometimes worry, “If I teach it, why would they hire me?” But you’re not giving away the whole cake. You’re giving them a tip, a stat, or a quick win. Like that email marketing ROI stat I mentioned earlier—that can spark interest.
• 25% should be behind-the-scenes. People love seeing who you are. For instance, I have a one-year-old Frenchie, and I’m a first-time dog owner. I post about that because it helps people connect with me.
• 25% can just be light and fun—like a motivational quote or a funny meme. It breaks up the sales and value posts.

So your focus should be on building a relationship. Educational content builds trust. Behind-the-scenes content shows your personality. People buy from people before they buy products.

Building Human Connections in a Crowded Market

D Yeah, totally. When you connect with the person, you feel more inclined to buy—especially when it’s a product that’s super oversaturated. I’ve noticed that’s a big thing now with B2C businesses in particular.

Everything feels oversaturated. I don’t know if it’s always been like that, or if it’s just more obvious now.

MS No, it’s not just you. Especially in our industry—marketing is so oversaturated. That’s why letting people connect with YOU first makes such a big difference.

D Yeah, because if you have 400 options for buying a t-shirt, you’re probably going to pick a random one that looks soft or fits right. But if you find someone who advocates for the environment, and you care about that too, then you’ll probably buy from them—even if it’s the same shirt—because it aligns with your values.

MS Exactly. That’s a great example.

D I feel like nowadays, everything’s like a massive menu. There are just so many options and so many voices. It’s overwhelming.

MS Yep. 100% agree.

Closing and Rapid Fire Game

D Well Michelle, that’s a great note to end on. We’re almost out of time, but before I let you go, I do have a little game prepared. It’s a rapid-fire round. I’ve got 20 fun questions, and I want to see how many you can get through in one minute.

My guest yesterday told me one minute wasn’t enough—but we’ll try!

MS Bring it on.

D They’re not business or marketing related—so you don’t have to think too hard.

MS Good! Because if they were, we’d never finish. Especially with my long-winded answers.

D Okay, here we go. Three, two, one, go!
Coffee or tea?

MS Coffee.

D Early bird or night owl?

MS Early bird.

D Favorite social media platform?

MS Instagram.

D Go-to karaoke song?

MS “Something Bad” by Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert.

D Books or podcasts?

MS Both!

D One word that describes you?

MS Oh… shoot. This is hard. Um… energized!

D Dream vacation destination?

MS Australia.

D Most used app on your phone?

MS Probably Instagram.

D Favorite emoji?

MS Oh, emoji—I thought you said “emoji” like the singer! The one-eyed tongue-out smiley face.

D Hidden talent?

MS I drove a ton.

D Yeah, you really do! Okay, we kind of got stuck on the emoji question, so you got through ten—not bad!

MS Dang! That was fun—I wanted to hear them all!

D I know, I got tripped up saying “emoji.” My brain wires things weird sometimes!

Final Words and Contact Info

D Thank you, Michelle, for doing this. It’s been great. Before we finish the episode, I want to give you the chance to plug anything you’d like. If something we talked about resonated with listeners, the floor is yours.

MS Well, thank you for that! You can find me on Instagram at @yourmediasquad. My website is yourmediasquad.com. If you’re a small business owner or just starting off and looking for help—I do consulting, social media management, local SEO, email marketing, and copywriting.

And if there’s something under marketing that I didn’t mention, feel free to reach out. If I don’t do it, I probably know someone who can help.

D Awesome. I’ll add links to your Instagram and website in the description so everyone can find you. Thank you again for being here, Michelle. It’s been great having you.

MS Thank you! It was such a pleasure. I appreciate you having me on.

D Have a great day, everyone.

MS You too!

D Bye!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhibby

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marketing-hack-most-small-businesses-ignore/id1782589467?i=1000710677997

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dd82f404-5099-49da-9261-1621f65ee3ea/episodes/e640fd2b-1c48-4fd1-b968-dc774a02a387/fully-managed-the-marketing-hack-most-small-businesses-ignore