When you hear people talk about the foundations of a truly successful business, it’s not often that “people” is a recurring theme. The founding story of Beth’s Video Marketing company is inspiring. Read on!
So many business owners want to talk about managing expenses, increasing profit margins, productivity, all of which are important. But when you sit and listen to Beth Ryan talk about what it takes to be successful in business, what keeps coming back up is people and networking. Helping people, connecting with people, serving people, and using her skills of marketing and video. Yes, Beth is fearless. She’s a tremendous example of a woman without a nest egg that jumped into entrepreneurship and has never looked back, but the absolute foundation of her success as a small business owner is people-connecting with others, building relationships, and finding ways to promote others and also grow her own business at the same time.
Meet Beth Ryan
Local to Omaha Nebraska, Beth offers video creation marketing services for businesses. Around home, she gets to work with a wide variety of businesses but nationally and even internationally she specializes in helping entrepreneurs create their online course video content. In layman’s terms, Beth is a video editor who loves marketing (talk about a cool combination of talents)!
In Omaha, Beth also heads up the Omaha Women’s Network. Beth actually founded OWN in 2019 because she wanted to give ladies more ways to network and still work around their work and home responsibilities.
Journey into Business
After high school, Beth was in a performing arts group and had the amazing opportunity to travel around the world to places like:
- Japan
- Russia
- Gibraltar
- England
In college, she majored in broadcasting because it felt like the perfect blend of storytelling, connecting with people, and performance. She was planning on being a news reporter, but by the time graduation rolled around she had interned in 3 different news stations and realized, eh, broadcasting just wasn’t for her. Beth NEVER planned to be a business owner, but her intuition just told her that the typical news industry job wasn’t right for her.
After college, Beth kept doing some freelance work for some of the local news stations. One day while working on a freelance project, the woman she was interviewing asked Beth if she made videos for people on her own. Beth said yes, and as they say, “the rest is history.” Her business started to blossom locally and then one day she got her “big break” with a music video that she had made for her sister who was a collegiate dance teacher. This video ended up getting the attention of a big internet marketer out in California and her business really expanded nationally and even internationally from there.
How do you uniquely help people?
What’s funny is that when Beth tells people that she’s a videographer, everyone assumes that she does weddings and that is most definitely not the case. She actually worked for a wedding videographer in college, and realized pretty quickly that her passion was NOT wrapped up in weddings. .
Especially when she first started out in business, specializing in videography and marketing was very unique.
Marketing through video is a very different way of thinking than the cinematic approach that a lot of other videographers have.
Some of her clients had previously paid for video work from other companies only to be disappointed because it didn’t convert. It looked cool, but it didn’t connect them to their clients. However, Beth’s approach of using video combined with marketing techniques was the solution they didn’t even know they needed and it benefitted their bottom line/dollar.
Beth has always enjoyed networking with people and connecting with people, but after a while, she realized that there wasn’t really anything in her city specifically geared towards helping women connect.
As women, we know that women have to work harder to have time to network. We are expected at home. Traditionally, we have the primary responsibility of the household in addition to any work responsibilities. That means we don’t have the luxury of spending hours at the golf course or poker club networking with other working moms. Instead, we get to harness our superpowers and find new ways to network. Covid has actually helped with this as we all realize now that it can be done virtually – while bringing home the bacon and frying it in the pan!
So, Beth created what she wished existed and started the Omaha Women’s Network in November 2019.
Why should businesses use video to tell their stories:
Beth shared more about the on the importance of using video for your business on this podcast.
As Beth put’s it, today’s businesses HAVE to use video. 5 years ago she would have told you that video builds brand awareness or that it gets more attention on social media. This is still true, but now, you HAVE to use video. Video is now part of your business. This is now part of how you are going to communicate with your customers and potential customers. You won’t stand out from your competition if you don’t embrace it!
Also, statistically, if you have a video on your landing page, people will stay on your website longer. Video is really the way for you to get found by new people and reinforce the relationship with the people who are already your followers. Video is how we connect now.
You’ve likely seen some of Beth’s work if you follow people like Amy Porterfield and Kate Northrop. Business executives who have embraced and propelled their own businesses with the power of video marketing!
What skills and personal attributes have made these businesses so successful?
Beth grew up in a family of small business owners! Although she never pictured herself running her own business, she got to witness how hard it is and how many hours it takes to run your own business. On the flip side, she also got to witness how rewarding it is, and how phenomenal it is to be a part of the community and to connect with and help people in that way.
Beth believes that it’s especially important for women who want to start a business to have the strong foundational belief that they can do it.
In our conversation, she reiterated several times:
“If you believe that you can do it, then you can. Not that there’s not a ton of work, but it is possible if you believe that you can.”
Beth also shared that,
“My parents taught me to work for what you want. Everyone on social media makes owning a business look really sexy. And it is really cool, don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of freedom that someone working another job doesn’t have. But on the other side of that is an incredible amount of work. Everything on your shoulders. It’s a lot.”
The other huge thing that has helped her is networking and relationships. “The more you help other people then that help is coming back to us. I’ve always valued connecting and relationships and using that to help the business grow.” Beth carries that same mentality over to social media. Unlike a metrics-only focused approach, Beth has always looked at social media as a way of networking and building relationships with the core goal to connect with people and help each other grow organically.
She also added
“all these rules and preconceptions about needing so many followers or being from a certain family. Just forget that and think about the people.”
What advice would you give to a woman 5-7 years behind you?
For women, it really depends on where you are at in your life. When Beth started out, she didn’t have much responsibility. If her business failed, it would be sad, but she would just have to go out and get another job. It’s a different conversation for a woman with small children and yet another conversation entirely for a woman who is a little more established and has more of a cushion and support.
Regardless of where you find yourself, Beth’s number one recommendation would be to have a savings account. Preferably have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up, if not more. Beth was working as a waitress and quit the second she could (which in hindsight, she would NOT recommend, lol). It takes a while to get an average of your profit and to know how much money you will realistically have coming in every month. Owning a business can take a big emotional toll. Having a financial cushion helps you to jump into this but still feel safe about it.
Both Beth and I truly want to encourage any woman who wants to start a business to try it! Beth shared
“I always think about the opportunities that I have that my mom didn’t have and definitely my grandmother didn’t have. It’s never been cheaper or easier to grow. I didn’t spend any money on marketing until year 3.”
What sales advice would you give- especially to someone who is having trouble selling?
“My biggest sales months were when I collaborated with other people. So my number 1 advice is to build relationships with other business owners and pitch a collaboration that will benefit you both.”
Need more help with selling? Download this “Slay Every Sales Call Guide”
Beth has proven with her track record that having a people and networking-focused approach will pay off in the end. While it may be tempting to get focused on the numbers and metrics, don’t. Think about the people you are helping, the people you are promoting, the people that your skills can serve. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other business owners in your area or industry with collaborations that will serve all of you. And by golly, use your phone to start creating videos and promoting your business!
If you are local to Omaha connect with Beth via the Omaha Women’s Network.
And if you need to learn to make better videos (hello, don’t we all) get Beth’s course created specifically with entrepreneurs in mind Smart Phone Video Course.
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