“Lauren, why aren't you on Twitter? You are missing the boat, it's amazing!” That is the question my friend Mitch Jackson asked his daughter's in-home ACT & SAT tutor Lauren Gaggioli. Lauren took action, became obsessed with digital entrepreneurship after finding the podcasts of the likes of Pat Flynn talking about developing passive income and Michael Hyatt on how to build your online platform.
She drove 7,000 miles a year and worked every day between 3 and 10 pm and never saw her husband. Even if she loved tutoring students and saw great results such as with Mitch's daughter A.J. she decided that this had to stop and she decided to move her business online. First, she developed a course teaching students how to prepare for the ACT & SAT tests. However, she had not primed the pump and found only crickets after launching her online course. If you build it, customers will not necessarily come was the hard lesson.
Then Lauren realized she had to build an audience and trust first and hence her first podcast, The College Admissions Checklist was born. This podcast served as a dual affinity builder by attracting both parents and college counsellors which helped her grow her clientele. Parents, usually moms, wanting to help their kids listened and wanted more of Lauren's help and then she could refer them to her online training. College counselors she developed relationships with by interviewing them on the podcast and in return they often refer business to Lauren as they learn that she knows her stuff.
She found it curious how the big companies in the test prep space had not gotten a handle on good content marketing to build trust and the podcasts they had tried, they had abandoned. This way, Lauren could fill a void in the marketplace and it was more important to get it going rather than making it perfect.
After podcasting for a while, she began networking more and more with other podcasters and famous Walt Disney World Radio show how Lou Mongello has become sort of a mentor for Lauren. Eventually, she was invited to the prestigious Social Media Marketing World to speak on a podcasting panel chaired by Lou Mongello and I personally had the pleasure of attending live when Lauren ruled the show flanked by Chris Ducker and Pat Flynn.
By moving her training to an online course, she freed up her brainspace to focus on digital entrepreneurship. Now she actually has found a new outlet for her thoughts in this arena as she has launched “The Unsexy Side Podcast” where she shares the behind the scenes perspectives of what entrepreneurial life is really like and it is not always a walk the park. This authenticity is key to the organic and successful growth of the brand of Lauren Gaggioli and I can now attest she is a great public speaker too as my social media marketing class at Chapman University stayed engaged for the full hour and were inspired by her genuine enthusiasm and I am too excited to stay connected and follow her next moves on and offline!
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