Today we’d like to introduce you to Randi Skinner.
Hi Randi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
One of my go to favorite content writers, shout out to Adam Fout, once wrote my bio to include that I am like what would happen if Martha Stewart got melded with MacGyver (and a couple Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders got thrown in for good measure). I gotta be honest, I feel like this description still applies. Beyond that — I am a connector of people, builder of relationships and the marketer to talk to when you need to get things done!
I bring innovative, scalable, data-driven success in the consumer, B2B, and non-profit sectors. As a Fractional CMO (chief marketing officer) I go beyond just running a campaign. I am the accountability center and guide for all marketing activities. A fractional CMO is someone you hire as a consultant or contractor to handle your marketing without having to pay a CMO’s salary. You get the best of both worlds. Essentially, you bring them on, and they take care of all your marketing needs at a fraction of the cost of a full-time CMO.
As a third-generation entrepreneur, I knew that it was ultimately in the vision to launch my own business but I was unsure of how to get there or really what I wanted to do. In the early days of my career, I focused on business development, sales, and project management. After years of living and working in downtown Dallas my now-husband, Aaron, and I were looking to plant our roots. Denton was the place we both loved and missed since having graduated from The University of North Texas. It was in Denton that I started to hone in my skills and passion for marketing. Marketing allowed me to take my experience as a business development and project management expert and apply that in a way that I didn’t even realize was possible. What I learned about marketing is that each strategy is like a problem that we get to solve but what makes it even better is the ability to track results. The ability to know what is and isn’t working is both fulfilling and well, to me just straight fun.
It was in 2019 that I stepped out on my own and launched RS Consulting. I started RS Consulting because I wanted to help small business owners who had limited budgets or who just didn’t know how to get started. Since then, my business has evolved into focusing on strategy work and Fractional CMO solutions.
The vision for my business, as we move through 2022, is focused on working with women business owners (WBOs). I want to be a part of impacting the WBO business world for the greater good:
- Less than 5% of women-owned businesses are over 1 million in revenue
- Only 15% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women
- It is estimated to take 136 years for the wage gap to close
I want to bring my experience as a Fractional CMO to the table and help women business owners create marketing strategies, with a vision-first approach, in order to help shift these statistics and the WBO business arena as a whole.
One of the key aspects of the strategy work we do for our clients is to ensure we are focusing on the vision of the organization— before we ever step into the goals, marketing campaigns, or KPIs. If we don’t know the vision how can we put together the right marketing strategy? Think about this, there is a vast difference in the marketing strategy we would develop for a business owner looking to create a legacy vs. the one looking to sell their company in the next 5 years. That’s why we developed the Vision Value Model to help ensure businesses are taking a vision-first approach when it comes to their marketing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The challenges I’ve encountered over the course of my career certainly helped prepare me for various aspects of launching my own business but I think there’s so many elements that honestly you can’t prepare for. We all learned that with COVID alone. But we can move through the challenges, learn from them, and when in doubt call that business bestie that can help you get your head right (shout out to one of my mentors and my business bestie, Heather Steele over at Blue Steele Solutions).
A few lessons for me include: saying no, value-based pricing, and imposter syndrome.
Learning how to focus on my ideal client and say no to those that just aren’t the right fit was (and sometimes is) so hard! I want to help everyone get those marketing wins but we just can’t be everything to everyone y’all. We have to find our niche in order to find that groove to thrive. The clients that aren’t the right fit and don’t align with my vision take up just as much time as those clients that are ideal, oftentimes more. Plus, they are usually not as much fun because they don’t match my vibe. So, taking time to really define my ideal client has helped me stay focused and alleviated a huge growing pain that happened in the first year or so of my business.
Next up would be pricing. Pricing in a way that takes into consideration the actual value of what I am delivering is crucial in my marketing consulting work. Here’s the truth, so many of my fellow entrepreneurs are not charging enough for the time they put in. I have learned, from trial and error, the importance of pricing my services correctly so I can ensure I am providing the best solutions possible. I ask for what I am worth and the value that I add — you should too! This is one of the areas I find myself mentoring fellow business owners through often.
Finally, I would say one of the biggest hurdles as a business owner for me has been imposter syndrome. If you are a business owner you have more than likely encountered this at one point in your career. Most of the business owners I work with have this come up at the top of their list of struggles along the way.
According to the Harvard Business Review, “Imposter syndrome is basically the idea of doubting your abilities or feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. Many question whether they’re deserving of accolades.” I get this!
Ultimately, the way I have found to move through each of these challenges has been similar:
- Find a community and get a mentor – just ask and show up.
- Plan and map things out – create a game plan for each quarter and let that include who your ideal client is, update your rates and map out how you’re going to do that self-care needed to ensure the imposter syndrome is in check.
- Celebrate milestones and wins – even the small ones! Celebrating wins has been a key part of finding that internal validation. Make time for those celebrations!
As you know, we’re big fans of RS Consulting. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
RS Consulting creates marketing strategies for business owners by taking a vision-first approach. Going beyond just a strategy or a campaign manager we come in and function as your Fractional CMO (chief marketing officer) to actually help with the implementation and ongoing management as needed.
We focus on 3 key areas of marketing:
- Strategy | We put together a marketing strategy that builds business value based upon the vision of the business. We have developed the Vision Value Model to help businesses create the right marketing strategy based upon their unique vision while going beyond the widgets and focusing on the internal and external data unique to their company. If someone is needing to increase revenue, reignite inbound sales or looking to create an exit strategy we are ready to be your marketing guru.
- Branding | We are all about creating a recognizable brand that listens to your target audience and keeps the vision of your organization in mind. For example — if your vision is to sell your business then creating a marketing strategy built around the founder being the face of the brand doesn’t make sense. We work to ensure the marketing strategy aligns and is cohesive for that unique vision. Figuring out your vibe and defining who you are as a business is, well…let’s just face it—it’s challenging. It’s easy to get hung up on the visuals and forget about who you are as a brand and the customers you’re targeting. Your brand is so much more than just the logo and design elements. Whether you need a brand refresh or you’re starting from scratch, we’re ready to help you go from hot mess to industry success.
- Fractional CMO | We are there every step of the way! Our clients bring us in as their Fractional CMO or Marketing Consultant to help facilitate implementation, track results, and level up the business. Your Fractional CMO will learn your organization quickly and add value while creating sustainable and cohesive marketing processes along the way.
How We Work?
First, we ensure there is a marketing strategy in place that builds value based upon the organization’s vision. Implementation then occurs utilizing the company’s current resources, collaborating with top leadership, current marketing agency, and/or handpicking and managing an outsourced team. Areas of success include:
- Strategy Development
- Exit Planning Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- Customer Acquisition & Growth
- Sales Funnel Management
- Budget Management
- Website Launch
- Branding
- Project Management
- Campaign Implementation
- Marketing Tech Operations
- Staff Mentorship
- Social Media
- Continuity of Projects or Departments
- KPI & OKR Management & Reporting
From the highlight reel:
Check out a few of our wins below.
- Consumer Brand — Owners wanted to generate new inbound leads. We developed and executed a strategy that led to an increase in leads, 20%+ closing rates and the cost per lead results were 35% less than that of the industry averages.
- Legal Firm — We developed and executed a digitally focused strategy that resulted in an increase in leads within the first year of 44.53% and an increase in conversions of 20.87%.
- Healthcare Company — After 10+ years providing care for patients throughout DFW this healthcare entity wanted to showcase their expansion of service lines and create a new parent company. This expansion project needed to not only create a new parent company but integrate the four core lines of service. We handled the build-out from brand persona to logo design, website launch, and implementing their rebrand rollout campaign.
If you are looking to grow your revenue, create an exit strategy or need to ignite your current strategy I am ready to put my skills to work for you.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Hustle is defined as “push roughly” while commitment is “the state or quality of being dedicated”…
I used to think that my ability to hustle was one of my greatest strengths when it came to success but I have recently learned (through business coaching and mentors — shout out to Sara Jillian Coaching) that it is commitment. The hustle isn’t sustainable! Now commitment, that is where real progress and vision begins. The hustle ignites a restart while commitment ignites momentum.
For me this year has been all about figuring out how to build momentum through committing to my vision and goals so that I don’t have to end up in the hustle mentality. Don’t get me wrong it’s still there and I will access that tool when needed but commitment is how to build an empire. So that’s the quality I am leaning into.
“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.” – Stephen Covey
Pricing:
- Custom proposal available upon request. Tell us more about your project here.
Contact Info:
- Email: randi@ideasthatdontsuck.com
- Website: https://www.ideasthatdontsuck.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ideasthatdontsuck/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideasthatdontsuck
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/randimskinner
- Other: https://www.ideasthatdontsuck.com/social
Image Credits
Illustrative Depictions Photography
