522: From Not Profitable Launch To Best Launch Ever With Hannah Cole – Client Interview Series Ep #2

On today’s Client Interview Series episode, I’m chatting with Hannah Cole, founder of Sunlight Tax, a business that offers tax education. Hannah shares with me her journey of transitioning from a traditional tax practice to an online business, her experiences with organic marketing and live launches, and her eventual move into paid advertising. Throughout our discussion, we highlight the importance of truly understanding your audience, nurturing relationships, and maintaining authenticity in your marketing efforts. 

Join us as we dive into Hannah’s marketing journey and discover how she achieved rapid audience growth through strategic advertising. Don’t miss this one! 

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Hannah Cole:

Oh my God. I was shocked, Emily, when we started working together. Like even without necessarily making a return on the initial investment and having a learning curve just the growth in my audience was shocking. Yeah. Like, I couldn’t believe how quick it was with ads and I was like, wow. It took me six years to build my list and six months to double it.

Emily Hirsh:

You were listening to the Not For Lazy Marketers Podcast, episode number 522 you.

Hello everybody. Welcome to the Not for Lazy Marketers Podcast. I have an amazing special guest today, an incredible entrepreneur, and just an incredible human and client of ours. Hannah Cole. Welcome Hannah.

Hannah Cole:

Hi, Emily. Thanks for having me.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah, I am so excited. Cool. Well, I wanted to start with just like you giving an intro of your business and what you do. I know you have a really cool kind of story of how you got into what you’re doing and recently retired the old part of your business and came all the way online. So I’d love for you to share a little bit of that.

Hannah Cole:

Sure. so my business is Sunlight Tax. I do tax education for primarily like creative entrepreneurs, caring entrepreneurs, soul-centered people, people who sort of are driven by their mission first and money second. And I came to this work because I’m an artist. I’m a like a real live actual working artist and have been for like 18 years. Hmm. and I just had such terrible, terrible experiences interacting with accountants and financial advisors. I felt bullied and belittled and misunderstood and eventually I just was like, okay, <laugh>. I know the business that needs to exist in the world. And I went back to school for accounting and I got my enrolled agent’s license, which is a basically a tax license from the I r s and started Sunlight Tax. So I’ve just served basically my own community of beloved Creative weirdos <laugh>.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And that is one thing about you is you just from the beginning, like you know your people and I think that is a huge asset to your business and some great work you’ve done is like, you really know your people inside and out emotionally and on a really deep level.

Hannah Cole:

I think that’s so important. Yeah. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

So important. Yeah. Okay. Well, I would love to talk about your marketing journey a little bit. Like before running ads, what was, how’d you get your first sales? Like what did you struggle with? What did that journey of launching your business and then getting those first initial sales look like for you?

Hannah Cole:

Sure. I have done the whole thing, the organic bootstrap way. I started in 2016 and basically until I started working with you, I was doing it all organically and that, and I started with you, what, six months ago?

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

So, yeah, that’s a pretty long time <laugh>. I definitely experienced this thing and I think about where my sales kind of are going, doubling and then doubling and then doubling and then not doubling and then not doubling again. And I was like, wait a minute. I thought this was always gonna double every year. And yeah, <laugh> I like, and then I came to like, listen to your podcast and I was like, oh, okay. This is like a thing that happens to Right.

Emily Hirsh:

You’ve hit kind of that ceiling. Yeah,

Hannah Cole:

For sure. Definitely.

Emily Hirsh:

What were you doing organically? I think it’s helpful for people to know what that experience was before ads, cuz you, you proved your offer pretty well, I’d say better than a lot of people who come into ads. Like you had pretty solid messaging, offer positioning and an offer sales so how were you getting that traffic beforehand? Sure.

Hannah Cole:

Yeah. I I have definitely a multi-part organic strategy. I started by giving tons of workshops and like doing a lot of speaking so I’m teaching all the time. That is probably my main source of organic leads. I did also recently start a podcast, but that actually coincides more with ads than my original organic work. Yeah, yeah. And I did learn how to do a successful launch, so I was live launching all the time. Yeah. And I definitely burnt out on that and I set up an evergreen funnel and I kind of also bought into that idea that I could <laugh> do everything on evergreen and never have to live launch again. And that was another rude surprise.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Yeah. We all wish that. Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

Yeah. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

What was kind of challenging for you at that stage when you were in the organic, I’m assuming time, you, you were doing pretty much everything, right? You didn’t have a team in any capacity supporting your marketing and your organic

Hannah Cole:

Well, I had a team supporting, you know, a tax preparation practice and like a fairly large membership. But I’ve had a huge pricing journey and journey as an employer and eventually like through attrition I lost a lot of my employees. I ended up pairing down my business quite dramatically. And so I don’t, I don’t have as many bells. I have a much more streamlined business today than I had when I was, you know, at my height of income. Yeah. Yeah. So, I forgot your question.

Emily Hirsh:

Just reflecting back on the phase where it was you, especially the online side, organically doing those launches, getting those sales, like what was the most challenging part?

Hannah Cole:

Well, I did all the marketing, I wrote all the copy, I wrote all the webinars, did all the education, I did all the sort of interfacing with clients. Yeah. I’ve always felt like I know my clients really well cuz I essentially built my business from a position of being one of them. And so I never trusted anybody else to kind of, I would always hire people who were artists so that they really got it. But I, I just, I found it very hard to let that stuff go.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. So you were doing everything and that was kind of limiting and also burnt you out.

Hannah Cole:

Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And as you know, live launching is really exhausting. Right. I have a short season because I, yeah. My education and my stuff is so focused on taxes. I actually teach about investing in personal finance, which is very year round and evergreen, but I was putting an emphasis on the tax, so I was also cramming like my worst year. I crammed seven live launches into a six month period. 

 

Emily Hirsh:

And you were doing it all yourself.

Hannah Cole:

Yes. And I don’t recommend that.

Emily Hirsh:

<Laugh>. Yeah. So going back to that time, like if you, you know, are looking at yourself in that experience, would you change anything?

Hannah Cole:

Support was very helpful. I definitely would’ve hired a VA faster. Just like taking more of the admin off my plate would’ve helped me grow. Yeah. but I will say, and I didn’t know this until like, I tend to maybe over research and I sat and listened to marketing podcasts for a long time before I pulled the trigger on Facebook ads. Yeah. but I did, I mean, oh my God, I was shocked Emily, when we started working together. Like even without necessarily making a return on the initial investment and having a learning curve, just the growth in my audience was shocking. Yeah. Like, I couldn’t believe how quick it was with ads and I was like, wow. I, it took me six years to build my list to hear Yeah. And six months to double it.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And that’s the thing with paid ads and, and you had that foundation that I talk about that’s so important is like you knew your messaging, your offer, your offer position, and so we were able to just quickly amplify that Yeah. And, and get the results quickly of, of actual leads on your list. For sure.

Hannah Cole:

For sure.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And then I’m curious on like the marketing itself. What did you learn, like biggest mistakes that you maybe made in your business as you refind your messaging, as you refind your offer positioning and, and what you, you know, would share that you learned throughout that process?

Hannah Cole:

Sure. I feel like because I did do it all myself, I learned pretty well with each launch that I did. So, one thing that I just would advise really for anybody is I think people tend to put a lot of pressure on the first thing they do. And to me, I definitely have a business that is as strong as it is because I rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

And just like tweaking every time something that’s basically working and making it a little better has been a strategy that’s helped like crazy. Yeah. But with ads, like with marketing, learning how to talk to a cold audience is really different. Like that, that was a huge learning curve for me. 

 

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And I, and I remember the refinement from your first launch that we did was around like the targeting and getting more specific in the messaging for that cold traffic was probably one of the biggest lessons we learned to then go on to the next lunch.

Hannah Cole:

Absolutely. And I mean, just to dig into that a little bit, Emily, like I really do know my audience super well and I feel kind of intimate with them. In fact, I speak in a really intimate way. I mean, I will talk about abusive relationships and how it makes you feel financially insecure and stuff that’s very tender. And so my audience tends to be quite loyal and strong and they trust me and I am like, have really strong ethics that I make very clear. And so sales work a certain way with an audience that trusts you like that. Right. Go out to the random internet and you’re like, Hey, I’m this amazing ethical person who really cares about your safety mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and they’re like, I don’t know you. Yeah. <laugh>. Like, it just you know, I mean you have to learn in business not to take things personally, but like Yeah. That was like, oh, but I’m, but I’m promising I’m really good at this. Yeah. Like you have to you, that’s not enough. Yeah. You have to learn how to be trustworthy quickly.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And nurture them and, and prove yourself through that nurturing. Which, which that’s also something I would say watching you, you do really well is you have very intentional content. You have your podcast and you consistently connect with your audience and you really just care like that comes through in what you do so much, how much you care about your audience, whether that’s coming up with content that’s gonna serve them a webinar topic that you know, is relevant right now because of something that’s happening in the tax season or a new policy. I remember when we did that and, and I think that’s really the key is coming from that place of serving mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and deep caring and having that come into your marketing, which I think you have done that so well and, and the numbers speak for themselves and how that works, but is really an important piece.

Hannah Cole:

Thanks. I mean it feels, honestly, it’s kind of the only way I ever wanna work. And yeah, I was worried about ads cuz I thought it would threaten that and so, you know, I really care a lot about my brand voice and I don’t want people messing with it. <Laugh>. Yeah. So yeah, it was tender. It’s probably why it took me so long to actually take the leap.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay, let’s talk about ads. We jumped into it a little bit. You say that you grew your list really fast, I think it would be really valuable for someone to hear from the perspective of who is in the place you were the six years before you got support and is like on the fence of should I get support however that looks. I know you joined my program before you joined the agency, so you kind of dipped your toe in and ran your own ads for a little while and just kind of sharing like what advice you’d give somebody in that place and what your experience was once you did kind of come in and, and start using ads and, and being, you know, like the fear that came up maybe and, and the good and the bad and kind of all all of that. Let’s share because I think it’s valuable for people to hear that from an inside perspective.

Hannah Cole:

Yeah. Well I think I mean I don’t want people to over research. I think that can be, it can keep you in inaction, but doing enough research, doing some research and actually, like, I really enjoyed your program, Emily. Yeah. and I found it very valuable to understand how it works on the backend. Yeah. And it was important for me. I frankly would not have had the trust to hand over ads to your company or any company if I hadn’t attempted to do it myself first. And so to me that was an important and necessary step. Of course what anybody who tries to do it themself is gonna learn really quickly is how hard it is. Yeah. And how intention it takes

Emily Hirsh:

<Laugh>. Yeah. And now

Hannah Cole:

It’s a completely different world from the one you’re used to.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

So I think that like, you know, give yourself some time and understand it’s gonna be a little tricky. And you always say this like, marketing always works. Yeah. I’m not gonna, I’m gonna paraphrase, but like, you have to stick with it. You have to learn from your mistakes. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I remember when you came on into Elite, cuz I onboarded you at that time because I was doing the calls and you had, you were running your ads with like, those two campaigns with maybe a couple of audiences and a couple of versions of copy and creative and Yeah. I think we were like, there’s so much potential here, like, so much more testing and things that we could be doing and it was exciting to get in there

Hannah Cole:

For sure. Well, and I often, I have to say like I really am happy that I learned good information about the interface and choosing audiences and like what the components are and that if I needed to run them on my own again, I, I could basically do it, but but then it’s also, and and it helps you ask better questions of an ads team and like, you know, I, it’s made me know, like I went and did an analysis of my buyers over the past season Yeah. And I came back to the ads team and I was like, Hey, I just learned that my audience is really a little more, bit more like this than like this. And that was helpful I think for your team. 

Emily Hirsh:

That collaboration.

 

Hannah Cole:

Yeah. I think that active engagement is definitely important cuz you wanna be beating your last ads.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Totally. Did you have any fear around the investment around investing in ad spend and then hiring the agency?

Hannah Cole:

Yeah, I definitely did. <Laugh>. Yeah. I had less fear on the do it yourself program. Right. Because it was just a lower jump and I felt more in control. Yeah. But yeah, I mean it was a real investment. Yeah. and I did feel fearful and it was also scary. I think the expectation setting was very important. Mm-Hmm. Like this, let this 90 days to like really make sure that it’s gonna work and knowing that I ran one launch and it didn’t go quite the way I wanted it to. Yeah. We retooled and the next one was dramatically better.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Yeah. Let’s talk about that a little bit. Do you wanna share that launch that the first one we did and then the second one and, and anything you wanna share on results or the experience and lessons I think would be really valuable?

Hannah Cole:

Sure. So the first one was in November and I think, I mean I, there were some things that were really cool about it that instantly showed me the power of ads. One of them was just like my audience building so dramatically fast, I have never had a webinar that was that full before. Yeah. And so I had to up my Zoom account so I could accommodate <laugh> all the people in the webinar <laugh>. So that was exciting just like seeing those numbers like ticking up and tick up and I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Sitting on a rocket. Yeah. <laugh>. But then also the buyer behavior was different and I had to analyze it afterwards and, and I was like, like one of my learning curves was like, oh, I have to separate all my data now I have to  track my warm sales.

And then track my cold sales cuz these are not groups that behave the same. Right. my sales and that were a little disappointing if I’m honest. Like, I did not particularly break even and I felt scared, but I felt really happy that you had set expectations. Well going into that. Yeah. So it made me feel a little more comfortable upping the budget for the next launch that came in January and it made it very clear to me, like, okay, I really wanna dial in the audience. Like let’s get that super, super locked down. And analyze who did buy and what they were like. Yeah. So I was definitely looking at the data. Definitely definitely trying to learn from how the launch went.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And I think that’s so key. Like, I want to share that the first one didn’t go how we wanted and wasn’t profitable because that’s where a huge portion of people throw in the towel and they’re like, okay, well I made this investment, I’m freaking out. I didn’t make my money back. And instead I remember getting on a call with you and you’re like, okay, I trust you, like I trust you. We’re gonna, we did that call on your audiences. Like we found the holes and we worked on what we were gonna change for the next launch. We did list building in between and I think that’s the, the biggest thing is not the first time around being like, okay, it didn’t work. Like I’m gonna shut everything off and then, then what are, you know, then I see people do nothing for like three to six months before they go try again. And Yeah. And that’s just such a setback for a business. Obviously you need to be strategic and intentional with your decisions, but we had a really good plan and we knew okay, you know, it was cold traffic, let’s do this, let’s list build, let’s really hone in the targeting, which I remember that was probably one of the biggest changes we made for you is, is getting really specific on that targeting and then also the messaging. And then if you wanna share anything about the January launch.

Hannah Cole:

Sure. Well, I mean, and I did work on my end too. Like I, as much as I want to pay money so that I don’t, the work gets off my plate. Yeah. I’m not gonna totally let go <laugh>. Like I was like, I was in there and I was like, I still want this to be my best launch. Yeah. January is traditionally my biggest launch of the year, which was definitely true. Yeah. and I definitely revised my own webinar Yeah. To make it as strong as I could and I had to learn some stuff about cold traffic Yeah. And change up my webinar. And frankly, I’ve launched  three times since then and I every time have made it. Dialed it in a little more. Like I’m not, I don’t like to just sit on Yeah. The past results.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And, and I mean I do the same, like you’re, every time you do a webinar, you learn, you get more experience presenting it and then you come up with a new idea or a new angle or something that you can do to freshen it up. So Absolutely. Like that’s the thing too is the collaboration you have with our team is part of the, the magic because, the messaging collaboration has to come a lot of times from the founder of like, Hey, this is what I’m seeing or this is what I’m feeling, or this doesn’t feel right for my people. And that’s where I remember on your strategy call us talking about your original webinar felt really templated and we wanted, and I audited it and we wanted to first change that like right away because you had used another format that you had pieces in that felt out of alignment. And I think that is so important. Like yeah. That anytime you’re delivering content, a webinar, your emails, your copy, if it feels like it’s not what you would say or it’s templated or just something feels off leaning into that and figuring out what that is because likely you’re correct.

Hannah Cole:

That’s so true. And Emily, that audit, you gave me like a 20 or 30 minute loom video audit of my webinar and I found that so valuable. I like, I just wanna say how big of a deal that was to me. I watched it maybe four times and I took notes and kept going back to areas and yeah. Because I actually have worked on that webinar so much that I didn’t see it anymore and yeah, so it

Emily Hirsh:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like you said, then you continue to refine it. And we’re still refining, like you’re launching a new funnel. It’s constant refinement and improvement, which is one of our core values and constantly striving to be better than yesterday. So you embody that yourself as well with your audience and your content and your ideas, while also I’ll say you maintain a really good focus. Like, I remember us having a conversation when you’re like, I really wanna do this funnel, but I think that the better option is to be focusing on my upcoming launch. And I think you were like, that would be the adult decision, so let’s go that route. So you also stay focused, like you don’t just launch a bunch of new funnels and get distracted, but you bring in fresh wrapping paper and fresh things for your audience.

Hannah Cole:

Well  I mean for anybody who listens, who’s listening, who might be making the mistake or thinking I’m, you know, perfect or something <laugh>, I, I assure you I got, I came to that maturity because I got burned. Yeah. Or I burned myself <laugh>.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

Yeah, yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. I remember that conversation. Is there anything you wanna share just on the January launch? So we talked about targeting updates, you changed your webinar I think we, I think we did some messaging updates anything else you wanna share or results you wanna share from that?

Hannah Cole:

Yeah, well I mean it was awesome. The launch went so well and I got a huge return on my investment from ads. And also another thing that I want people, there’s like two things I want people to factor in when they run ads that are not totally obvious is one, you build your audience and that’s valuable, of course it has to be the right audience, but if it’s the right audience, that in and of itself is valuable even if they don’t buy right away. And so I started learning, like one of the things that was so cool about the January launch is I had had two months of nurturing those people I brought in from ads in November and because we tagged them, I could see when those people bought in January and I was like, oh that wasn’t a waste of money. <Laugh>. Yes. Like you don’t get to see that until you stick with it and come back around. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

And that is so important because most people and only there’s maybe like 5% of people that might buy Right. You know, find you and then make the decision to buy. It’s like a certain personality type that’s like, yes, that’s what I need. Go make the decision but if you even look at yourself, you are not that type of person. Like, you wouldn’t have found me in the next day bought you took months to decide and months to make that decision. And so I think so often people forget that and I always talk about like no matter what, if you build the right audience from content, social media and then a list, you’re gonna always be fine because then you just focus on serving those people and your business will always be okay no matter what economy shift, no matter what pivot happens, like you focus on serving those people and you build that audience and the those leads and you will create no matter what.

And so I think that’s a huge, just a huge lesson that you, in November you had that experience, you trusted me, you trusted us, and you kept going. Because she lost money. Like I, and I wanna say that on here, like that is a common first experience when you run ads and you have the cold traffic and it’s the get back up and refine it from there. That creates the success after. And, then ya seeing people who came in November buy in January is exactly what should be happening because they just needed some more time.

Hannah Cole:

Totally. And I don’t wanna gloss over how awful it feels to lose money <laugh> on, especially because when you’re losing money on a thing you’re not so sure about. Right. And it feels like a good cost and it’s scary. Like yeah, it hurt and I felt scared. 

Emily Hirsh:

What kept you in it?

Hannah Cole:

Well, to be honest, you know, like you have such a great podcast, anybody listening right now knows that. And I really felt that trust, like I could sort of hear your ethics, I have a very similar, I mean I think you can tell Emily I have an extremely similar sort of work ethic Yeah. And like the sense of Yeah. Keep at Itness. And I just identify with that and I was like, okay, I think I think she’s gonna do me.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah,

Hannah Cole:

It felt, it felt good. I’d heard that message enough before it happened to me that I could remind myself of that when I was in that sort of yuck feeling of like this didn’t <laugh> this didn’t work. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And, and then I think yeah, you trusted and we had a plan too. We had a specific, we weren’t just like, well, we’ll try again and we’ll hope it works. Yeah. We had a plan of like, this is what needs to change and here’s the actions we’re both taking Totally. And, and the work we’re gonna put in. And you absolutely did put in a ton of work yourself too with the webinar and the way that you show up on your launches. That’s why they’re so exhausting <laugh> because you are fully there for your people and, and you give so much and so much energy to them. And I do think that helps your conversion tremendously.

Hannah Cole:

I appreciate that. Again, I don’t see it anymore cuz it’s just what I do, but I Yeah, it’s nice to hear. Thank you. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

And I think it’s important to highlight, like, like you said, you know, it’s not that you hired an agency and then just sat back and, and it worked and everything was great. Like that’s not the expectation I also want people to have is it’s a collaboration when you hire any team and you know, you’re, you’re the c e o of your business and you know, things that teams can’t know and it’s, it’s taking work for sure off your plate so you can put it in more strategic areas, but you’re still very involved and collaborative with our team and you record the videos, we ask you to record and and show up. So I think that’s a huge contributor to the success too.

Hannah Cole:

Totally. And I feel like I’m so happy when I’m teaching or like outlining a podcast and recording a podcast episode and those feel like my magic zone and I feel happy to know what you’re doing over in your magic zone Yeah. And to be like, here’s some information that will be helpful for you. Yeah. Over there <laugh>. Yeah. Well I’m spending the time nurturing my audience over here, which feels really Yeah. Like the most valuable work I can do.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Put you in a much more strategic place in your business than tactical.

Hannah Cole:

Absolutely. And I mean, how much do I stress over list building? It’s been such, I mean, Instagram feels like really hard these days Yeah. In terms of just organic growth and yeah. So just the ads, it was, it shocked me just how quickly Yeah. My list has grown. Yeah. Now I’m just like nurturing the hell out of it. <Laugh> I’m trying, trying to water the garden, so. Yes.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Cause your business is seasonal so it’s unique in that way to you, you have these periods where it’s like it’s gotta do really well because you have that off season. Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

I mean honestly I would totally pick your brain for advice on that right now cuz I’m in this, like, I, you had a recent podcast about summer getting slow for many businesses. Mine is especially slow. Cause honestly, think about yourself. Do you wanna think about your taxes in July? Right.

Emily Hirsh:

Right.

Hannah Cole:

But keeping my list nurtured in the summer is especially hard and my list tends to drop and unsubscribe and be more difficult. And I always get nervous in the summer. Right. So money’s not coming in, but it’s going out. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. I think, I think yeah, we can talk, we can talk about that for a second. I think nur you know, nurturing your list is the best thing. And I think it’s like for your business, especially with it being like, tax season is such a prime time, it probably is natural to do a little like to tone down the communication and the nurturing a little bit in the summer, but still stay consistent somewhat and then it’s just thinking like, what does your audience, what would they like to hear in the summer? There’s, you know, maybe it’s something they could be doing now to prepare themselves for the end of the year or something. Just things that they would think about in the summer. And I think it’s also normal that it’s a little bit less over the summer to where you don’t wanna push people. Like, Hey, pay attention to your taxes. Pay attention to this because they will unsubscribe. And that’s where the custom strategy and business comes into play because if you followed someone’s advice that was like, do this every single week of every month, like it wouldn’t be relevant for your audience to do that. You have to ebb and flow with the seasons. Yeah.

Hannah Cole:

I love that message that you have so often, Emily. I think it’s a good one. Like the sort of anti template thing. It’s, I think, you know, I have tended to learn from this person and then this person and then kind of flowed through different coaches and things. Yeah. And you get really enthralled with them and you think like, oh they did this, I’ll do that. Yep. And then you like, it’s hard to remember like Yeah. But it was custom when they did it. Yep. Cause they invented it, but now it’s a template and you have to adjust it to your crew or it’s not gonna work.

Emily Hirsh:

A hundred percent. Yes. So important And that’s one thing we did with your webinar when you came in cuz you had used a template and Yeah, a hundred percent because it also has to come from you and be in alignment with you. And every business owner has a secret power of something they do differently. Something that they stand out. Like if you put them in a room, it’s like, oh, that’s Hannah. Yeah. She’s a really hard worker and she has this message and she comes off as she cares so much and she’s ethical. Like that we have to bring into your marketing because that’s what makes you different.

Hannah Cole:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. One, okay, my last question is just if you wanna share anything related to the agency, like anything unexpected or positive that you felt working with us and, and somebody who is listening and is like, well, I’ve been on the fence for six months and researching and deciding what I should do. And anything you wanna share related to that?

Hannah Cole:

Sure. not having to do the creative myself. Oh my God, it’s the best <laugh>. I love it. I mean, I could noodle on creative all the time. I mean, I, I had some skills, but like I could just noodle endlessly and I just, I remember when y’all started running the ads, I was like, oh, I didn’t think of that. Oh, that looks great. <Laugh> like, yeah. It’s like, it’s so nice to have the creative like, come back to you and you just review it. I, I never, I almost never have comments on the creative. Yeah. I’m very concerned about my voice in writing, so I do write edits there. But yeah, the creative I always look at and I’m like, perfect. <Laugh>. Yeah. <Laugh>. I look so good. Yeah. Yeah. And I’ve definitely had people message me who have been running ads for the first time too and be like, I just got an ad of yours, it looks so good. So

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. That’s awesome

Hannah Cole:

That’s really, that’s been really fun to see. Yeah.

Emily Hirsh:

That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for jumping on and, and sharing and sharing your experience and your story. I think it’s so valuable for other entrepreneurs. If someone wants to come check your business out, where should they go?

Hannah Cole:

Sure. You can go to sunlight tax.com and get a free visual guide to your tax deductions or join my new podcast funnel. Maybe we’ll talk about that someday on <laugh>. Emily. Hear Emily. Yeah. but yeah, you can find all, all the sort of empathetic tax and financial guidance you wanna get started. Right. It’s unlike tax.

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. And I highly recommend it. Hannah is amazing at what she does and brings so much knowledge and empathy into a world that lacks that, like you said at the beginning for sure. So thank you Hannah.

Hannah Cole:

Thanks so much, Emily. Take care.

Emily Hirsh:

If you’re listening to this series and you think to yourself, man, I wish I had a team supporting my business the way that these entrepreneurs have, then Hirsch marketing can support you. We have multiple ways that we can support businesses. We now have a done with you offer that is a much more accessible price than our done for you offer. And regardless which offer you choose and which pathway you choose to work with us, you get a team supporting you. It’s not just one person. It’s support with your marketing strategy. It’s support with your ad strategy, it’s support with your funnel, your copy, your creative, your tech, your messaging, your content, your organic, all of it. Because the only way to do marketing is to approach it from a holistic viewpoint, addressing every component and creating a custom strategy that works for your business. You’re going to see some key takeaways from these interviews and what led to their success and the way that we approach marketing gets results every single time.

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