She Managed $6B Across 220 Countries - Then Knocked on Old Bosses' Doors

Sean Weisbrot: Is hustle really the secret to success, or is that just a myth? Alexandra Gonzalez, the founder and CEO of savvy marketers, thinks that there's a better way. In this conversation, we explore how planning playbooks and anticipating client needs can actually outperform brute force hustle, especially in today's AI driven world. If you're tired of burnout and want to scale a strategy. This one's for you. Let's talk about replacing hustle with intention, with planning and growing your business through networking your butt off. There's so much more to cover in this episode than what I've described here. Let's get to it. Now. How can companies prepare themselves for the need to be flexible on a moment's notice?

Alexandra Gonzalez: First of all, I think that. Companies need to be agile and they need to be more agile than ever before. We're in an era of constant change that we have seen for the last decade or so, and now change is going to be even faster, right? Thanks to generative ai. Therefore, when we think about speed, when we think about. Being prepared for something that could be urgent, something that could be important. We have to think in the now, in the moment, but I would say for companies to always be thinking ahead of what's potentially there that they need to take advantage and be thinking ahead of time. As a business, I can tell you for my business. You work with clients addressing their needs. You're working on key activations or plans or research. It doesn't matter. But when you have something that comes in a moment's notice, you need to be. Preemptive and successfully in tapping into that, uh, rapidly. And that means do I have all the tools? What if that's what I would say. Think about what if in terms of possibilities, what if the client needs this, uh, today? What if the client needs three different versions of it? What if the client needs this in other languages? So you are already thinking ahead. And being proactive rather than reactive. That for companies, regardless of the services that you're offering, will help you be at the top of your game so you can be a better service for your clients. At least that's how we do it. And I think the advantage of my business at Savvy Marketers is I worked in the corporate world 18 years before I started my company 14 years ago, so I knew exactly how clients would think. How do you run a business? How do you run a global business? How do you manage teams? Understanding the complexities and policies and. Internally, and I took that into consideration to be able to offer the solutions thinking the way that I used to think because I was on the other side of the coin. So I would say for your audience, for your viewers, if you're running a business, think about. The what ifs. What are those three things, possible things that could come at the last minute or that could come urgently in a moments of time, and how do you potentially drive value and a proper response that is a successful response for your customer?

Sean Weisbrot: I think one of the larger issues is that. A lot of people may not even realize the need to think about what if. I think a lot of people, especially that are new to business may be just reacting all day long and they, they may be thinking about what they need to do to get their product done, but they might be ignoring the marketing or they might be ignoring aspects of their sales, or they might be nor ignoring aspects of customer service or feedback or product, uh, preparation, things like that. So how can they even get to the point where they're capable of thinking of what if.

Alexandra Gonzalez: Question and it's actually called planning. So what do I mean by that? I could be launching a business or I just started a business or I just into a new. What is it that my venture or my new business is going to be? What am I changing within the business? And with that, once you have articulated that, then you plan accordingly. And that means what is vital for my business first, maybe when I'm launching my business. The first thing is having a brand name, a logo, a website, a Shopify page. It could be anything, but that first thing has to come from. That entrepreneur, that owner, what is it that I'm trying to do? What makes it unique or different? And then really bringing at the forefront the first thing that is gonna help me execute my brand. Once I've done that, then it's really where the real planning begins, meaning do I have what I need from a product standpoint? Do I have the design? Do I have all the offerings? Do, do I know where I'm sourcing it from? Do do I have someone identified that would help me develop the website or have I identified a website company? That could make it very easy for me if I were to create this on my own. So that takes planning. So putting those things on a page, articulating that is what comes next. You know, the what, the who, the why, the when, and the how. So that doesn't mean that you're going to be going into, okay, now sales, now marketing, now communication. You first need to be very clear why your company is all about your business, your venture, what you're trying to offer, and then put the planning in place. That's Business 1 0 1, right? So anyone that comes from a business background knows this. If you're not coming from a business background, you really want to put. On a piece of paper, what is it that you're trying to do? What makes your business different? What type of services or products are you trying to sell or represent? And then what is it that you need? Because for some people, maybe they do the business from their own home. They do a virtually remotely. Maybe instead of having. Employees, they do things, uh, on their own and they do it with freelancers. But having that clarity of what you want to do has to come from something that you outline on a piece of paper. So once you have defined that, then you can go into what's important, what's vital. So if I'm offering services and it's a, say, freelance design services, or I'm going to be providing consulting services, you need to have a website where people will know where you are, right? So. Having that presence articulating what you want. To appear on that website from a content standpoint is vital. Then updating your LinkedIn page, then it's really bringing that to people that may not know you or that people that know you, so they can help spread the word. Then in the meantime, you may say, okay. I'm thinking of not hiring people, but I want to have some freelancers just in case. So maybe you're going to put some things on Indeed. Maybe you're going to go to freelance.com. Maybe you go to upward.com. So what you're gonna be doing is you're going to be searching online, different programs, different companies that could help you, support you in your services. That's part of planning, and then you go into the rest, right? So planning is vital. It's the most important thing to get your business right up and running.

Sean Weisbrot: What is a playbook that you are willing to share that helps you to bring your clients success that younger startups may not have access to if they can't afford to work with an agency?

Alexandra Gonzalez: Well, we have different playbooks, right? And it depends by industry. It depends by type of business. So we work with startups. We also work with many Fortune Fi 500 companies, or Fortune 50, fortune 100 companies. But I. The playbook will depend first on understanding the brand or what the business is about, understanding their target audience or their customer, or what we call a marketing consumer, right? At a human level, why are we trying to target and why? Why this consumer, why is this relevant for me? For example? Think about that playbook in terms of what the brand is and what the brand is not providing those guidelines. I could be thinking about a new shampoo, but if I'm going to launch a new shampoo, my target audience cannot include bald men. I. Because they don't have hair, right? So those vital things that are Mick for as an no brainer within the business are important. That will be part of that Playboy in terms of what the brand is and what is not. Who's my target audience? What markets or services I am providing, right? Am I located in the United States? Am I located to provide support or services at a nationwide level? Or at a state level, or at a civil level, or at a county level, or am I providing services regionally or globally? All of that would be on the playbook. Then very importantly is how do we bring those services to life? And that's where your capabilities come into place, meaning that pitch deck that is gonna help you show yourself in the eyes of others, right? That's very important because that pitch deck is gonna be like five to 10 slides, maybe a potential video that shows who, who you are, what makes you better than others that are out there, what your services offer, any certifications, and then really bringing some testimonials, some references, especially if you're starting from scratch and you don't have like clients really bringing people that will batch. For you, right? So that's going to be important as well. So that's kind of the playbook. And then if you're a very established business, it's a little bit different because now you're going into very specific examples on how you go to market. How do you drive success, best practices from different parts of the world that you bring front and center as part of that playbook. And if you are in a different industry, that could be a highly regulated industry, meaning pharma, food and beverages, sexual health, um, or, you know, other human health or pet care, uh, or animal health, per se. There's other regulations that you need to take into consideration that are, that will be part of the playbook, but those five things are going to be vital. Understanding what your brand is and is not. What are you offering that nobody else is offering? Where are you based on established? Where are you going to provide products or services? Who's your target audience? And then who are those people? Or those organizations that can back you up either with certifications, people that know you, that could provide references.

Sean Weisbrot: You've chosen to work with a lot of Fortune 500 companies in larger. Did you feel able to serve them because of your experience working in corporate, or did you? Build your own network a as after with this company? Like how, how did you even get those clients? How did you get in front of them? How did you get them to care about you and, and listen to your pitch, and what was your pitch to them?

Alexandra Gonzalez: Well, that's a very good question and actually, uh, a much broader question in se in the, in, in the sense of the fact that, you know, I. As a marketer did my bachelor's degree in marketing with a minor in advertising and communication. Then I did an MBA at Harvard. Then I went back to my home country, to Puerto Rico, and I started working in the ad agency world. Then from ad agency, I went to the banking industry in marketing, always marketing, but I worked in service, meaning money. Then I went to the food industry, worked with about 4,000 different brands within the food industry, including giants like Tyson, Campbell's, pepper Farm, just to name a few. And there I built a lot of relationships, but I was the head of marketing, so I was working. Closely with understanding the brands and, and driving growth. And then I went to Johnson and Johnson consumer, where I spent 12 years of my life. So at j and j Consumer, I worked with brands like Tylenol, Neutrogena, Johnson's Baby, Aveeno, Listerine, many, many brands across the world. And you can imagine I was head of global, but before being head of Global, I was head of Latin America. I managed also markets and that helped me build thousands of thousands of people within my own network. Then after that, I went to e-commerce. So in E-commerce I went to private equity startup and. I leveraged my network to help me identify agencies, work with the right talent of people, and then I expanded that successfully. And after that I launched Savvy Marketers. So I knocked on the door of people that I knew I. That had worked either for me, had worked with me or, or I had worked for, so I knocked on their doors and then they helped me connect with people in their companies or with members of their team. Then people moved to other companies, so then I. The networking, the connections continue. So keeping those relationships alive, not making them transactional, but making them, you know, personal was a big thing for me because they knew what I would deliver, especially those people that knew me. I had a reputation that when something was not possible, Alex would make it happen. That was the reputation that I had earned at companies like Johnson and Johnson. After managing over $6 billion businesses, over 220 countries. But other than that, you have new people that don't know you, right, that don't know your business. So knocking on their doors, doing introductions, that's vital. So part of the networking is also getting certifications. So I have three things that are important for many corporations in corporate America, meaning I'm a woman owned business, I'm a minority. And I bring stability for working with large clients. Meaning if you work with large clients, you are financially stable. And if you work with small clients, you know how to manage both, because they're very different, right? From a processes standpoint, from a decision making standpoint, from a budget standpoint. So I focus on bringing those certifications. So if your viewers or listeners are in another country. And they may be woman owned or they may be veteran. Leverage those. Go to sam.gov. Go to sba.gov. If you're an American or a US business, try to get those certifications because believe it or not, that gives you credibility. You can get certifications within your own state. I'm located in New Jersey, so I have. All of the highest certifications as operating in the state of New Jersey. And then I have certifications as a minority business owned business from W-B-N-C-W-O-S-B, or N-M-S-T-C. And then I have global ones like we connect that are very important. So when you're knocking on doors on companies, it's always good. But if you are, let's say, um, LGBTQ plus. You can get registrations and certifications as an L gb, LGBTQ plus business. If you're veteran owned, you can get certifications as veteran owned, right? So there are different things that you could leverage within. Um, launch your own business and then it helps open the door for opportunities. Why? Because then you can go to the government, you can go at a state level and ask them to connect you with contacts. So that's a way to go. Another way to go is going through LinkedIn, so you go to your current friends. Current, uh, list of friends that are your contacts and they may know people, maybe they're not working in the same business as you, but they may know people that could then pass your information. Right? You put visit my website when you have that LinkedIn page so people get to know you, you put at least one to three posts per week. On a particular subject so they could get to know you. And then you're going to put your pitch deck. Your pitch deck should be no more than five to seven slides. And the first thing that your pitch deck needs to have is your story. Why you, why this, why that's very important. And then you're going to bring that with. What makes your, you know, a, a summary of what you know, a one or two liners, or what makes your business what it is? What services do you provide? Who are you providing them for and what you can do for them? You keep it simple. Why? Because people don't have time. People are constantly checking their phones. They're all constantly going through the. Screen. So you need to make it relevant. You need to make it succinct, and you need to make it engaging for them. Why should they respond to you? Think about this. On LinkedIn alone, I get at least 200 emails on LinkedIn a day. And many of them are very generative ai. They haven't even looked at my website. They're offering me services. Maybe IT services, head hunting services. So I could think about new hires for my team or whatever. Half of them I ignore, but there could be one that says the right thing or has the right information that I'm gonna look at. Okay, so it's important to, when you're going on LinkedIn, have a very clear message. Don't make it generic because people hate generic, especially decision makers. Okay? And then if you're buying a database, when you think about going to different companies, buying a database, going on email. Try to request a sample. Be very specific. There's a thousands of companies that sell data out there, but a lot out of that database changes. So maybe you want to. Validate. Some of those go to Rocket Reach just to check, Hey, are those people who they say still those companies? Because maybe buying the data is gonna cost you like 50 or a hundred bucks for a few thousand people is very cheap. But again, you want to make sure that you get the right data and then how are you going to communicate? And get your message out there. Personalize, go and use tools like ActiveCampaign at the campaign has great algorithms where you put those emails and then you send the emails, you send the links with your capabilities and you get your message across. I. So your pitch is something very personal. So you need to make sure that that is part of your story, because then they're gonna get to know you at a human level, not just a company, not just a name, not just a logo, but your story. As an entrepreneur, that's crucial because that's what's gonna see them. And through beyond a logo, beyond a name beyond services, because let's be honest. There's millions of companies I can tell you about what we do. Millions of companies that may offer similar services, but not everything that we do, and that's what makes us unique. Right. We're a one-stop shop. We have our proprietary AI that we've been using since 2017. We have the highest certifications as a, as a small business. But in addition to that, we were named one of the top five most disrupted companies at the forefront of innovation, the United States. So. As you hear me talk, I am saying there could be many companies, hundreds, millions out there that could be providing agency creative services, marketing services, but do they provide what we provide? No. That's what makes us unique. So you can tell a story and then bring it my story. Just to use as reference, I was a marketer, very happy running multi-billion dollar businesses, but. I became pregnant with premature twins and all doctors told me to abort. My two grandmothers have passed away four weeks apart, and I knew that I was having twins. It was a spiritual experience, and I decided if they're okay, I'm gonna fight for them because they're literally, I'm literally all they've got because they're inside of me. And that gave me a sense of resilience, Sean, that inspired me to go on my own and open my own business. Did I think that I was going to be an entrepreneur while I was in the corporate world? No. But having the experience of the corporate world set me up for success because I knew exactly what clients were looking for. I knew what worked and what didn't work on an agency side because I experienced it as a client. So I wanted to make sure that whatever I was creating was really providing tremendous value to our customers, and that's what has helped us succeed and continue to grow. Every year. Now, at the same time, when you think about pitches, think about and look out there. Look at what your competitors are offering. And there is a very famous saying that comes from a very important, and one of my favorite books for the 48 Laws of Power that says, keep your friends close. Your enemy's closer, meaning you need to understand your competitor. What companies, why people out there are offering similar services. How are they positioning themselves? That's gonna help set you up for success rather than failure. So as you think about your pitches, as you think about how do you communicate, how do you go and you bring your message, you connect people on LinkedIn. You buy a database, you start sending them emails through ActiveCampaign to, I try to get that connection, that response, that engagement. You're setting yourself up for success when you look at your competitors. And then one thing that I would say last but not least, be patient. A lot of companies when you're using IT campaign, when you go on LinkedIn, they're receiving hundreds of emails. So make yourself relevant, but also be patient. But because not everyone is going to reply to you immediately, maybe after two weeks, send them a reminder, but don't lose hope. Stay resilient because that's how you're going to be able to drive your business. It takes time, but don't lose hope.

Sean Weisbrot: So you mentioned a number of pieces of software that require your time and your energy to manage. What are some things that you've been working with with AI that companies could be using and thinking about for automating their things without losing that human touch that would bring customers to them?

Alexandra Gonzalez: Very good. Well, there's many there now. Thousands of different generative AI options out there. But I would say if you want to get guidelines on for, for example, from building a website. You can go Google or you can enter in chat GBT to do a deep research if you have an account that you're paying for. So there are different account levels on chat. GBT. Just to give us an example, there's also deep sake there is, uh, co-pilot, there's many, but if you go on chat GBT, maybe you pay $20 a month and that allows you to over 200 GBTs. So maybe you ask SHA GBT to do a deep research to look at different. Website creators out there. That way you can create something very inexpensive for your brand. It will do the research for you. You can get pricing before you make a decision, right? So that's one thing. The other thing is when it comes to. Messaging Think so that you want to put together as part of your story of your pitch deck. If you're going to use generative ai, just as a word of advice, your story is written by you. Generative AI is not a human being. It's not on your brain. Generative AI works through machine learning, meaning it's learning as it goes. It's learning from your prompts. So if I am developing a new company, a new brand, or I'm trying to figure out what I wanna do, you have to put that into writing and then prompt and say, okay, this is what I put together. This is a little bit about me, and now I really want to build a company and this is what I'm thinking. Can you help me polish this? You see, but the thinking came from you. The story came from you, and then you leverage generative AI to help polish it for you to give you inputs. Now, generative AI is going to come back in a second, except when it's the research, it takes longer. It could take 10, 30 minutes. It depends on the type of deep research, if it's one market, if it's globally, if you're looking across different segments, all that. Once you have done that deep research or once you have put together your preliminary story and pitch, then you want to prompt generative AI to help you make it better. Once you prompt generative AI to make it better, then you don't want to take the first thing that it gives you, then challenge it. Remember, generative AI makes a lot of mistakes. I can tell you from market research looking at. Different statistical data, very complicated data that LGBT should be great at. On machine learning, it makes a lot of mistakes, right? So knowing your data is vital. I know my data, so I know when to tell it you're wrong, and then it comes back and say, oh, you're absolutely right. My apologies. You were right. Here's the data. But when it comes to your story, I'm building a narrative. It's your story. Don't have a machine tell the story for you. Take the time, take the the space. I know it's gonna be, uh, time consuming, but work on your story, work on your narrative, and then have genetic AI if you wish so. Polish it for you, and then just don't go with the first one. Then ask for something better after you have read it. Then for a third one, at least at the third time, it's going to be going to get to know you a little bit more. So when it comes to pitches, when it comes to your narrative, you have to come up with your pitch, with your story, with your narrative. Generative AI is gonna help you polish it, but you need to provide guidance and inputs. You can't just say. This, if you're targeting particular clients, maybe you say, okay, now can you help me polish this as if I were going to startup companies. Now, can you help me polish, uh, polish this as if I were going to startups that are focused on education, startups that are focused on consumer packaged goods, startups that are focused on technology, startups that are focusing on HR or IET. Or consumer packaged goods or pharmaceutical companies. So when you tell it to tailor it, that's going to be vital because you want to tailor it and make it personable, and that's where you can leverage AI tools. Now there's thousands of AI tools out there. I of course mentioned some of the most common ones, but. Doing that research is going to be crucial. And don't just use Google. Google has a lot of AI embedded now, but look at Chad, GBT. Look at deep seek, look at co-pilot. I would say the best one of all of them is chat, GBT, and then deep seek, that's for sure because that's where a lot of the resources are coming from and many GBTs come from chat, GBT, many other generative ais. Come from chat, GBT from open ai, but there's new ones coming in every single day. And then word of advice for your audience. Don't put anything confidential on generative ai. Please, it's your information. Don't say, Hey, I earned this amount of money. I'm planning on doing this. I'm planning on charging as generative AI to do a deep research. Hey, what do companies similar to mine that offers similar services to mine? I. Charge. What are those average numbers? What are those estimates? Have it do the work for you in terms of doing the deep research. But don't put any confi, anything confidential. Don't put anything confidential from a client that you're working on. Don't put anything confidential for your business, meaning financials, data, information, because guess what? Once you put it on generative AI and you put it on the internet. Anybody can get it. Okay. And then one thing that I would recommend, I know deep seek is very good, but if you want to keep your data private, make sure that you're not using other sites outside of the United States, okay? Because data is not private in those countries. And then one more thing that I would say, if you're going to use SHA GBT, don't use the free version. Anybody can see whatever you put there, okay? Because it's beta mode go at least with the $20 a month. And then if you're going to use confidential data, meaning things that you want enterprise or your teams, then you're going to get enterprise, um, accounts, meaning that all your. All your information is encrypted and not even open AI or chat, GBT can disclose it. So keep that in mind. Do your due diligence, put your story, work on your narrative, and make sure that you're not putting anything confidential that could put your business at risk.