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Merrill Loechner Recording

Speaker 1

Welcome to Winning on Wednesday. I’m Juan Vides. I’m the co founder of winning on Wednesdays today’s guest we have Merrill Loechner. Merrill Loechner I fell in love with podcasting several years ago. You could blame the Pittsburgh Penguins for that corporate storyteller. For years, she quickly realized the power and reach of a well made podcast. Merrill has been working in marketing and business development for over three decades. After getting her degree in communications. She worked with lawyers, scientists and engineers across the world, from small technology startups to multinational corporation. She’s now an independent marketing consultant and Podcast Producer, helping growing small companies find their voice and tell their stories. They published authors issues the age of nine, she loves to coach her clients on the power of storytelling, and differentiate themselves in a crowded and glamorous market. No one loves a sales pitch. But everybody loves a good story. Welcome, Merrill. Welcome to the winning on Wednesday. How are you today?

Speaker 2

I am very well, one. Thank you for that wonderful intro.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Well, you wrote you wrote to yourself, so I could I mess up. But I had to tell you, I practice that over and over like 10 times. So what did you justice Anyway, welcome, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself. I like to always start from the beginning where it all started. And it starts off with your parents tell us what your parents did for a living because, you know, we, we always tie this into the business community. So we want to see what your parents did for a living. So we want to know what your background is. And just tell us from the very beginning until seven,

Speaker 2

No, not a problem. My dad was an electrician, general contractor and a salesperson. So he’s one of the people who always told me buy cheap buy twice. And so know the value of work and know the value of your own work. And my mom was director of marketing for Nikon. So I grew up in a house full of high end camera equipment. So my first job as a teenager, was as a professional photographer. And that’s pretty much how I paid my way through college.

Speaker 1

Wow, that’s what I have to say about that story. It’s just wow, that’s pretty awesome. Tell us, when you were seven, what did you want to be when you wanted to grow up?

Speaker 2

Oh, that was various things. I’ve always been a science junkie, I’ve always loved science documentaries. I blew up the backyard picnic table twice with chemistry sets, destroyed the stove the same way. I was the only one in kindergarten, who’s new Mohs Scale of Hardness because I was in a geology phase at that point. And I also kind of wanted to be a witch. But then I realized that modern witchcraft is called chemistry. And so I started to learn more about chemistry. So I’ve always been an unapologetic science junkie.

Speaker 1

So it was the truth that marrow you were trying to make gold, right? You’re trying to be an alchemist. That’s what you’re trying to be right.

Speaker 2

Then I discovered the power of baking and that turned chemistry into dessert. And that that was the ultimate superpower right there.

Speaker 1

Well, that’s pure gold right there. Anyway, in tell us what you go to school for.

Speaker 2

I actually went to school for documentary filmmaking in communications, because like I said, I loved science. So I wanted to be one of those documentary filmmakers on Nova, you know, chasing the tornadoes in a truck and following Jacques Cousteau around. And my final semester, senior year of college, I got an internship with the documentary filmmaking unit of the United Nations. And I created a documentary for CNN on Bolivian children, victims of the debt crisis. And by the time my time there was done, I decided I never ever ever wanted to do that again. Wow. So now I ended up with a college degree that I didn’t know what to do with. So I graduated and looked at mom and said, Hmm, she’s, she’s storytelling. She’s working with scientists, I can do that. And so that’s how I got into corporate marketing in the STEM field.

Speaker 1

Wow. That’s, that’s incredible. And it’s so tell us something about I mean, I know you talk about science and you were though some of your hobbies. What are other interests that you have while you were growing up?

Speaker 2

Oh, while I was growing up, it was primarily science. I’m an inveterate reader. Like I said, I taught myself how to read when I was two and a half. So by the time I started kindergarten, I was bringing in my favorite books like murder at the vicarage by Agatha Christie. And in second grade, I had a teacher who everyone else was learning basic reading skills, and she taught me speed reading. So yeah, now I can read your average Stephen King novel in about two hours. Of course, the problem with this is it wasn’t until the first day of college that they discovered I was dyslexic. So that probably would have been a lot easier if they caught that oh, a decade earlier.

Speaker 1

Wow, that’s something truly amazing that I didn’t know Maryland thank you for sharing for that. That’s Wow, that could you are able to have all this to even even at an early age, you know that you’re able to read and you had all these adversities. That’s truly amazing. I always say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And you got to make your weakness, your strength and, and there’s a lot of famous people. You know, I believe Jay Leno is one of those that they are successful people that you can, it’s just the only difference is that our brains are wired differently. That’s all

Speaker 2

Oh, absolutely. Well, I taught myself how to read pictographic Lee so I read but the shape of the word not by the individual letters. So yeah, I can read read a novel very quickly asked me to spell anything that’s going to be a bit of a challenge.

Speaker 1

Well, thank God for Grammarly and others all the stuff that is out there to do yes, because I understand your center because of me, I was important in this country, you know, and in English was a sanctuary language for me. So even to this day, even writing for me, I still have some a little bit of anxiety because, you know, you always want to make it right and proper grammar and you know, and all that stuff. So I you still have that. That’s so wow, that’s, that’s truly amazing. Now, thank you again for sharing that. And I always say people that, you know, I always say this. That’s your superpower, you have your superpower, which is speed reading. That’s amazing. I wish I had that superpower. Let me ask you a question. What was your last nine to five job?

Speaker 2

I was director of marketing for a large law firm up in Connecticut.

Speaker 1

Oh, wow. And what made you decide to go on your own like what made you decide to leap from the your regular nine to five to just go out on your own? And well,

Speaker 2

I actually decided before I started that first job I was working with again, I worked with a lot of large scientific and technology companies. And one of the last ones I had worked with just got up bought, bought out by a large mega national, that one wanted everyone to move. And everyone in my company said no. And so that’s when I decided, Okay, I’ve been thinking about starting my own agency for years, this is a perfect time to start. And about two days after I left that job, I got a call from a headhunter, saying my uncle owns this law firm. And they’re b2b, and they’ve never really had marketing before can can you come in and start a marketing department for them, which I’ve done several times, I’ve built marketing departments from scratch for several small companies. And so I went with this law firm, naively thinking that lawyers thought of themselves as businessmen and suddenly realized that no, we’re not a business. We’re so learning the way that lawyers do business and teaching the way that people should do business. It was a very good two years. And when I finally started my own agency, I now work with a lot of lawyers, because I know what they’re looking for, and I know how to work with them.

Speaker 2

I actually decided before I started that first job I was working with again, I worked with a lot of large scientific and technology companies. And one of the last ones I had worked with just got up bought, bought out by a large mega national, that one wanted everyone to move. And everyone in my company said no. And so that’s when I decided, Okay, I’ve been thinking about starting my own agency for years, this is a perfect time to start. And about two days after I left that job, I got a call from a headhunter, saying my uncle owns this law firm. And they’re b2b, and they’ve never really had marketing before can can you come in and start a marketing department for them, which I’ve done several times, I’ve built marketing departments from scratch for several small companies. And so I went with this law firm, naively thinking that lawyers thought of themselves as businessmen and suddenly realized that no, we’re not a business. We’re so learning the way that lawyers do business and teaching the way that people should do business. It was a very good two years. And when I finally started my own agency, I now work with a lot of lawyers, because I know what they’re looking for, and I know how to work with them.

Speaker 1

Were you scared and nervous when you went on your own?

Speaker 2

Not really, because at that point, I was ready, I had done a lot of preliminary work, I had done a lot of freelance work over my time. So at this point was it’s just simply taking what I already knew. And just taking that step to launch it myself.

Speaker 1

Wow. Now, this is the part of our meeting that I like to say, you know, I like to call the golden nugget, what piece of information you’d like to share to help out others in that you do to better themselves or better their business, any valuable information. anything positive, anything good that we can say, Oh, wow, you know, I always say you want to share this, this audio so that you can have your friends and we play it back and hear it. So this is the important thing. So what piece of information could leave us we could find the golden piece of nugget? Well,

Speaker 2

you actually said it in the intro. No one wants to hear your sales pitch. Everyone wants to hear your story. So if you go in sounding like I have something, give me money, people are just gonna turn you off. It’s that automatically. It’s the reason people skip over commercials. So if you introduce yourself and start trying to do a sales pitch, people just gonna turn you turn off. But however, if you tell a story about what you do, if you tell a success story about one of your clients, if you show the joy of who are you, what are you doing, and why are you doing it? I’m going to listen to it. Even if I’m not going to be one of your clients. I’ll probably be so impressed that when I meet someone who can be a potential client, I’ll remember you and I’ll refer you if you just stand there and try to give them your sales pitch. I’m not only good Don’t get turned off. I’m not going to remember you 15 minutes after you walk away.

Speaker 1

Well, thank you. And I always say people do business with me like, and they trust. So this is one way to show value to people. Absolutely.

Speaker 2

Exactly. If you immediately start a conversation with a sales pitch, no one will trust you.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it’s your two quick turn off. I agree with you. 100%. So tell us about a typical day for Merrill, in your, in your, in your company in your world? What does it look like a typical day for you? How does it look like?

Speaker 2

Well, as you know, solopreneurs, don’t have typical days. We have the greatest plans all the time, but things pop up. I could be working on one project, and suddenly you get a new client. So I have, I have something different to put on the to do list. So my to do list is pretty much written in pencil and it’s constantly changing. And with some clients, I help them with marketing plans. I tell them, a marketing plan is never written in stone. It’s written in Etch A Sketch. It’s try this doesn’t work. Great. Double down, try this. Does it work? No. Well, was it because it was a bad idea? Or is it a good idea done badly? It’s that constant exploration? Try again, it’s a science. It’s the I have a hypothesis. Let’s test this. Does it work? No. Okay, that gives me an answer. Let’s try something different.

Speaker 1

And you’re very methodical. By the way did you set your goals when you first started your business did you set

Speaker 2

I had basic goals. But again, they were flexible. Because when I first started, I had a very different idea of what I wanted to do. Within three months, I realized I had a modify a bit, three months after that I went, hey, wow, this is much more successful than I thought. And what I’m doing here, no one seems to care about. Let me pivot. So it’s the ability to set general goals but being able to pivot a lot. And so during the pandemic, I was actually busier than I was pre pandemic, because I did all the pivoting early before the world’s changed.

Speaker 1

Wow. And speaking of pivoting deep, did you belong to any organizations? Or did you leave in the organizations? Or do you? Are you still in any organizations that has helped your business?

Speaker 2

Oh, many of them are a lot of networking, one of the things I do is just talking to other small business owners, even if they have nothing to do with I do, it’s constantly learning. How do you do this? How does that work and sharing the knowledge I’ve learned? When I first started Smith Douglas, the first thing I did was went to my local chapter of score, and said, Okay, I want to start an agency. I know all the things about marketing, what’s a p&l? How do I start an LLC? Do I have to pay taxes, everything I needed to know about the business side of running a business. And that’s something I’m still learning. And that’s one thing I love about networking and talking to other small business owners is, they may be doing things that could help my business that I never even thought of.

Speaker 1

And speaking on network, and we could talk about winning on Wednesday. I know, you are my co host. And we started what three years ago, something like just about Yeah, three years ago, right after the pandemic, I remember that. We used to meet at the at a pizza store. And I know you weren’t part of that.

Speaker 2

No, I wasn’t I your brother actually introduced me to wow.

Speaker 1

Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. Thanks. Well, Mauricio Vida says my brother, so

Speaker 2

here’s my web designer, and I met him in another networking group. And he came up to me and said, I’ve seen your website. And I cringe because I designed my own website. And I knew it was awful. But I was going to get around to fixing it someday. And he just smiled and said, Give me your password. Your website hurts my soul. I’m giving you a new one. Wow. And he’s my he’s been my web guy ever since. Excellent, excellent.

Speaker 1

And then, you know, my brother and I, we work together. We have separate companies. But I have to tell you, this is the best probably the best thing I did, because my brother and I were 14 years apart. And we basically, I he wanted to work for my company. And I said to him, you know, if you screw up my clients, I’m gonna kill you. Better. Yeah, I just started your own company. And I gave him the resources and all the tools and everything. You took the ball and ran it. And I’m very proud of him. He’s just taken, he’s started he has his own clientele. And what’s the beauty of it is that we share clients too, because he specialized in social media, and I do SEO and other stuff. So it’s really nice that we can communicate, you can collaborate and like you just said that you work together. And it’s nice when you do that when you find people in networking, and that’s what the networking is all about is how are people supposed to know what you do? How people are supposed to recommend you. You have to I always say a closed mouth doesn’t get fed to you. And you consistently you have to be there. And I have to say of all the people Merrill you have been the most consistent people, person? And wow, I really, you haven’t, you’ve been there all the time. And I’m like, wow. And that shows a great value. You know, I’m going to be honest that that’s what blew me away about you. And when I had the opportunity to do a podcast interview, it was a no brainer. So let’s just deal with because it’s a way for me to say thank you for all these years that you have supported me. And wow, I just want to say thank you so much. For for that you have done. And you know, and we speak in a while to tell us another story. Do you have any success stories about Wow, that impacted your business that you’d like to share with? Well,

Speaker 2

one thing people need to realize when they’re networking is they’re just not networking with the people. In that particular networking meeting. I recently got a client, from somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew someone in Wow. So somebody in well was at another networking meeting, and someone went up to him like, do you know anyone who does podcasts and be like, oh, yeah, I know. And it turns out that the person was asking heard from another person in a different networking group who had heard from someone else in a different networking groups. So that was four degrees of separation. So one of the things I always tell people who are networking is, it’s great if you have your 32nd pitch and whatnot, I’m not going to remember that. Give me something concrete to remember you about. I call it a carrier pitch that I can carry to other networking groups. So if someone says, Hey, do you know anyone who does this, I’m gonna remember you. And especially if you’re doing something relatively common, if you’re a financial adviser, if you’re a real estate agent, I’ve met a couple of 100 of you. What can you tell me about yourself? That’s going to make me remember you. So when someone asks, Hey, Merrill, do you know a real estate agent? I’m gonna go, Yeah, I know, someone you should talk to.

Speaker 1

Know. And I always say, you could be in a room with 100, financial advisors, you’re gonna do business with one because you’re gonna do the business with the one that you like, and trust.

Speaker 2

And always do one on ones, even if it’s someone you would never think would be useful, because you’re not networking, only to find potential clients. You’re also networking to find potential collaborators. One of our financial advisors said, Oh, Merrill, I’d love to do a one on one. And my first thing is, oh, God, another financial advisor when they hear another sales pitch, but I’m like, Fine, absolutely. I set up a one on one. And one of the first things he said was, Well, what I am a financial advisor, but I also do voiceover work. Do you ever hire people who do VL? Work? I’m like, oh, oh, absolutely. So we had a very different conversation than I thought we were going to. So absolutely talk to a lot of people, I spoke to someone else who I didn’t think was going to be a real match. But it turned out his wife was looking someone to help with a podcast. So have a one on one. Talk to people, even if you’ve never think in a million years, that they’ll ever be a client for you.

Speaker 1

Wow, that’s, that’s really a wow. And marrow, what is the best way to contact you?

Speaker 2

I am good with email, which is M L L. At Smith Douglas with two s’s dot com. You can also visit my website at Smith Douglas with two s’s dot com.

Speaker 1

And Merrill, I always say this to you, in our meetings, and if you guys come to our meetings, you’ll understand why you’ll get it. You sound like a broken record. Can you say? Well, we’re tight. Because I say that all the time in our question of the week. Can you say one more time so for our listeners, and also for our audio recording? So

Speaker 2

go ahead and literally, email is M L L. At Smith Douglas with two s’s dot com. And that’s also my website.

Speaker 1

All right. Well, thank you so much, Meryl. It’s been wonderful. And really, I really thank you on the bottom of my heart. Thank you for all the help you have done for all these years and to be in support and working with my brother and family. Everybody. Just wanted to say thank you. Thank you. All right. Listen, have a great day. And everybody. Thank you for listening, and we’ll be back next week. Thank you so much. All right. It’s let me hit the stop button.