EPS 54 - Ladies, We Need to Understand Media Strategy with Mary Ann Pruitt

Erin Austin: Hello, ladies. Welcome to the Hourly to Exit podcast. I am super excited for our guest today, Mary Ann Pruitt. Welcome to the podcast.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Thanks for having me. I'm super excited about our conversation.

Erin Austin: Yeah, this is gonna be a really interesting one, a topic that we have not covered before, which is regarding, you know, paid marketing, media buying, and uh, and so really happy to get into that.

I will say like sometimes people come on and I know a little bit about what they do in this case I do, I know nothing about what you do, so you're really gonna have to hold my hand and the audience's hand as we walk through these, these topics. But, Before we dive in, would you introduce yourself to the audience?

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Absolutely. My name is Maryanne Pruitt. I am a woman, a woman owned business and have owned multiple businesses, um, and still do, and primarily I got into media. Uh, at a very young age and I started to, to develop and fall in love with media. I actually ended up getting my undergrad in marketing and economics and the two together just made me fall more and more in love with data and media and how do we pay, how do we use the paid, paid media tools in our marketing?

So that's what we do. We come alongside brands, um, and agencies and help them with developing the strategies that they need, um, in the B2B space and in the B2C

Erin Austin: space. That's fantastic. Yeah. As I was watching to Mary and before we got on, is that this is really new to most of us, and I for one, have never, uh, paid, done paid media buying.

And so we're hoping, we'll one, start with a one-on-one talk about how it fits with the types of businesses that we run, that expertise based business. And um, and then she has a very interesting, uh, kind of. Uh, point of view regarding generational marketing as well. But Mary, I'm gonna let you start with kind of media buying one-on-one, so, absolutely.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: So it, it, especially in today's world. So I started in media as a teenager actually, so I started in seven and when I was 17 years old, I fell into it accidentally, absolutely fell in love with it. Um, and then got into the media buying and the strategy. And I can't tell you in the 25 plus years of my career, How much it has evolved and changed.

It has significantly changed. When I started my career, newspaper was the hot thing, radio, tv, but in the traditional formats and then, and it was before the.com, it was before all these things, uh, started to take place. And then once the worldwide web. Came up and it start, you know, it was www. This is incredible.

This is online. How do we monetize this? How do we make this, you know, people are consuming it. How? Of course, everybody then has to find a way to monetize it. But media has become so specialized. Um, it is no longer, you will get tons of people to call you and ask you to advertise. If you own a business, I promise you, you've been called multiple times of, put your ad here or put your ad here, make sure you're in this listing or this listing.

Or make sure you're targeting this audience and it can become overwhelming. It can become confusing. It can become all these different things that frankly, that then you throw up your hands and go, I don't even know what's right. I don't know what, where to go. I don't know what to do. I'm frustrated. I don't even want to place anything at this point.

So we've built this model to help, um, small, small businesses small too large. We work with some of the largest brands to the down to the very smallest, to small. I have a very soft spot in my heart for a small business, and we like to come alongside and help you build those strategies. So, Media 1 0 1 is in today's world, every tactic still has a strength.

We just have to tap into it. When it comes to B2B specifically, we have so many options when it comes to programmatic targeting. Programmatic targeting. When I started in media, We did demographic where you would say, my target audience is an adult between the age of 18 and 54 years old. Well, 18 and 54 years old adults.

That's a wide range of people and what their media consumptions are gonna be. So, but it was easier to just put a radio or a TV buy together, or print buy together, because I knew that at least if I threw a wide net, I would be able to find it. Right now, in today's world, it might be I need to target.

Senior level partner attorneys at this much level of billing that then, um, have this many employees that, um, maybe are struggling with their HR services. That's a different mindset and a different sh different thought process of how we're looking at our audience. So now in media, we need to develop this process of an audience first approach of who is our audience, get to know them even better.

And develop that process down. So let's put as many layers in of the most more we know about it. And then programmatic, and I'll get into that in a second cuz I'm sure you're, you're like, I got questions. I got questions. Yes. So, but with programmatic targeting, that's an automated system with that. So there's a lot of things that we can do in media now today that we didn't have options for 25 years ago.

Erin Austin: Oh yeah, I'll, I mean, I'm sure you'll talk about this, but I remember the first time, I don't remember when it was anymore, when I was on some like, like, uh, Macy's or something and looking at shoes or something, and then I went to a completely different unrelated website maybe. And then suddenly the shoes that I was looking at showed up.

I'm like, what just happened here? And uh, and the ability to kind of just. Follow us around and target us. It's like, it's kind of scary, but I guess it has.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: It has. It's what? It's um, it, it's scary. And so what I tell businesses all the time, it, you know, as an individual, eh, but as a business, let's take advantage of it, right?

And let's actually build this so that we can use it properly to bring in more clients and to bring in more leads. So if you are a business that has ever used P P C or has ever used social media, Then programmatic targeting is the next LE level that you need to start looking at for your paid side or even on your, or programmatic is a paid portion that then you can take on top of what you're doing social and what you're doing in P P C, uh, social media used to be a targeting tool.

It's not anymore. So how do you take that in the same process and target Facebook? You cannot target the way you used to be able to. Right? You can build some lookalike audiences, but that's it. You cannot target to the level that you used to be able to. Now we go over here and we use programmatic, which, so let me explain Programmatic.

Programmatic is the automated system when that you bid on an impression. When I first started in media, I would have to call a rep, even for a website. I'd call a rep and say, gimme a rate card, gimme this, gimme that, what everything I need to have, and then I would build a plan around it that way. Now programmatic literally allows us to go in and bid the bi bid the impression, keep it at that level, make the sure the ad is played there.

That's with streaming television, that's with, um, display. That's with. Print, it's all the above. Now, outdoor, we do programmatic and outdoor, uh, and out of home. So there's a lot of different ways now where I'm going, actually I'm targeting that lawyer. Mm-hmm. That is a partner that needs, you know, HR services, that has this many employees that has this much revenue.

Now I'm going to target them and I'm gonna buy that impression for that individual as opposed to shotgun approach for everything.

Erin Austin: What is an impression for like outdoor? Like how does that,

Mary-Ann Pruitt: um, So with outdoor, you're buying, it's just, it's a view, right? You're looking at it that way. Mm-hmm. Same thing when it comes to streaming television, it's the same thing.

It's an impression. So an impression is that some, that your target audience saw it. Mm-hmm. Now you were just talking about retargeting you that, right. That is the, you know, I went into Macy's, I'm looking for shoes, and then Oh my word. Even the next couple of days, those shoes are following me. Right.

That's quite interesting. Right. That's called, that's retargeting. So that's one piece and one element of digital as a whole. But another piece is also cross device. Now we can, in the programmatic space, Households have how many devices in them? They have their television now, which is a device. Mm-hmm. But they also have their computers and more and more people are working from home and they have their tablets and they have their phones.

And now we are in a generational, this is where we get into generational, a generational media consumption of a multi device taking place. At the same time, I'm on my phone while I'm streaming a movie. It's true. I'm on my tablet while I am, whatever. Mm-hmm. Right? I, I'm on my tablet while I'm camping. Or I'm on, right?

And so it's all these different things. So how do I, the impression part of it is really important. Outdoor, that's one impression. Or out of home, if they travel a lot, if is it out of home in the airport, their phone is being pinged to certain locations. So there are things that we can all see where, where are the impressions of these individuals, where are they?

And then we place the media based on that. But finding and knowing what your audience is first, and in the B2B space, I find actually there's so much more opportunity. Cuz typically you know your audience better than any, than anybody. Mm-hmm. B2c. It's more of a broad, broad, broad net at times, not always.

Mm-hmm. And if you're doing your strategy right, it's not. But if you're looking at, in that sense, you can say, oh, I have multiple target audiences. And b2b, you can have multiple, but you know them a little bit better. Right.

Erin Austin: Well, tell us about, cause I know people are curious about how Facebook used to be able to, you know, get down to, you know, the number of pimples you had on your face.

Yes. Like, what, what changed? We can't do that anymore.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: So Facebook and social platforms really to get ahead of any legislation or to get ahead of anything of various things that were coming down the pike. They actually adjusted with privacy settings early and they stopped allowing targeting to take place.

So they no longer they have the data still. It's not that they don't have the data, it's that now you are not able to target with that data. There is, does that mean that it's done? No, it still has its strengths. It's a compliment to anything that you're doing. However, if you've paid and used social in the past of various things, programmatic now is this complimentary thing that goes next because of the fact that programmatic is now how we target.

Not social. So programmatic is now how we put those extra layers of targeting. And Facebook and programmatic can go hand to hand cuz I can take a lookalike audience, I can take various things from my social and make sure that they're in there, put into programmatic, but I can add extra layers of what that looks like.

So Facebook, they had to change, they had to adjust because of various things in in dc. Various things, legislation wise. Um, they made those adjustments, they changed things and for their, for their survivability, frankly. Um, but it still has its strength. Don't get me wrong. I still think that they, they have their strength and there's things that go with it, um, that work.

Just don't use it as a targeting tool. If you're, if you know you're building some lookalike audiences, that's fine. But a targeting tool where it's, you've got so many different layers to target, that's where you've gotta move away from social, um, and not, I wouldn't say move away from social, I would say add the complimentary targeting tool to the side.

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin: Yeah. I mean, we're used to hearing, uh, you know, that regarding social media that we need to. Pick a lane and you know, where are your people? Just hang out there. Don't try to do all the things. But when you're developing a media strategy, I imagine it's more, more holistic. Like how do you work with people to kind of understand where they need to be?

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Well, the first thing is, is that we do start with an audience first approach, right? So what, who is your audience? Then we go and see. So for us, we're, we're called what's a direct seat on A D S P, which is a demand side platform. That's where the bidding process goes. Um, you will have tons of people call you and tell you that, oh, we can offer streaming video.

We can offer you these different things. You wanna make sure that they're a direct seat when you find a partnership. Not a vendor but a partner. Like that's a big, big thing in any type of business that you're, that you when you operate. In that sense, if TV radio stations are coming to you for the programmatic side, question that a little bit cuz I call that a diluted impression and a diluted cpm.

There's too many layers in between. Okay. So. Um, they're good at the tactics. I don't, I genuinely believe that radio and TV is not dead. But you wanna have those tactics done correctly, and programmatic is not where their strengths are, but find a partner in programmatic. So with that, you need to go to the audience first approach, you know your audience.

Okay, let's look at the audience there. Then from there, I'm going to take that audience approach. I'm going to see where are my best data sets available? Where am I gonna see, where can I find these impressions and build a media plan based around that. In some sense, a portion of it may go to social. Some of it may go to traditional radio, depending radio and tv, depending on where your, um, Who your target audience is and what age and various consumption habits that take place there.

A lot of it's gonna go in the programmatic space because of where you can go, especially if you're in b2b. So you've gotta be looking at the LinkedIns. You've got, LinkedIn is more of your social. Mm-hmm. Sometimes Facebook, right, with b2b. But programmatic is now that second layer that you need to start looking at of, okay, here's my audience.

This is, I know my audience. This is where we need to go. Okay. What impressions can I go get? And you'd be surprised at how much. Um, you actually don't have to spend. Yeah, there's, because of various things that you're, you're looking at, you can't over target to, and that the, their impressions won't be there, but for the most part, they're gonna be there.

So you're, you just have to start in that audience first approach, um, and then back up and say, okay, this is where they are. And you look at it and you find it, find it. So audience first approach, and then find that great partner that can work with you on it. Programmatic is expensive if you try to do it yourself.

If you find a partner that already has the minimums, already has the volume, already has the team, cuz it does take an expertise, an expertise team to do it, then you definitely just wanna find a partner in that. And a partner is not a vendor that is selling you something else. Right.

Erin Austin: So, so you know, like go into your example of the senior lawyer who needs Yes.

HR consulting, like, you know where to find them other than on LinkedIn, like

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's based off of what their habits are. So here's the thing. In b2b we forget that our target audience is the human being and that they have personal experiences and they have personal habits.

Mm-hmm. And guess what? They're not that unique to the, your target audience as a whole. Their personal habits are very interesting to go after. Why wouldn't you go after the impressions when they're watching TV at home with their family? You would. Why? Because maybe they're actually not making a business decision right there, and they're not thinking about work.

But I'm gonna try to get that impression to them now to make that decision. Mm-hmm. So them as a human being and as a person, that's who I'm trying to reach because they are the decision maker. They are the ones I'm trying to get the, the information and get them to buy my product or my service. Right?

Mm-hmm. When you know who that decision maker is, don't shy away from targeting them. You wanna go after it. This is more than LinkedIn. This is more than Facebook. That individual, we can chart, well, you in programmatic, you can target by job title, you can target by, um, employer sector. Like what are, what do they do where, what, what is their level within that company?

What is their revenue? What's their annual income? When's the last time they bought a car? Like, there are things like all the above, like think about how you actually can get. Nitty nitty gritty on this and programmatic. Now, you may not wanna go too nitty gritty because of the fact that it may not work for you budget wise, but at the same time, know that audience, know four or five steps about them.

Mm-hmm. And then put that plan together in that manner. So I'm

Erin Austin: getting from the way you said that you may not wanna go that nitty gritty. Yeah. That it gets more expensive the more nitty it can, most

Mary-Ann Pruitt: expensive account you, it can, um, you'd be surprised actually what happens is if I have 85 different layers on a target audience, I may run out of how many impressions I'm gonna be able to get.

Mm-hmm. So I'm not gonna be, I may be, I may be paying a. Thousand dollars for one impression, that's not necessarily worth it. Um, that's a really high, like you don't wanna do that, but if you, if you can narrow it down where you have a few enough layers in it, where my budget can be spent. I'm able, cuz you're gonna have a hard time spending your budget cuz you're chasing one impression.

You know, if you put too many layers on it, you're, you have fewer and fewer impressions. But if I'm looking at multiple layers of who, who is my target audience? And then I go after that and I look at those impressions and I see, but on our end we will tell you how many we have forecasting tools, how many impressions will be available within those layering tactics.

And that's why it's also important to find a partner cuz we'll go in there and say, you know what? If this is way too many, we need to cut it back to here. Let's cut it back to here to make it so that you actually can reach your target audience a little bit better. Um, but that's where that partner and that expertise comes in because you wanna have a partner that can explain it to you in that manner to say, okay, great.

This is everything that you've told us about it. We're gonna narrow it right here and in the sweet spot. Do you agree with that? And this is how many impressions we think we can get based off of that.

Erin Austin: Got it. Okay. So it sounds like, um, similar to like a niche when we're deciding what our a hundred percent, but you're taking that and translating into Yes.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Actually you can find actually, if you are a very niched company. Mm-hmm. You need to be looking at programmatic media. You absolutely should be. Mm-hmm. If, and B2B primarily is niche, and that's the way it is. I always say niches make riches. Right? And there's a reason why, right? And, but at the same time, you have got to, you can be targeting you if you are niched, you know your audience, right?

And you should absolutely, wholeheartedly be using programmatic to reach your target audience.

Erin Austin: Now, should they be thinking about that reach, assuming it's, you know, out there. You know, uh, that. Just to get them into their universe and become aware of them, or are they actually trying to

Mary-Ann Pruitt: sell? It's a process.

So it's a little bit of both. Um, if you've not done it at all, you know, it's a multi-process strategy of we're going to, um, Develop the, let's start of introduction. It's brand top of funnel. Mm-hmm. Then we're gonna go middle of funnel with a little bit more information, a little bit more for them to want to do, and then you are gonna go in each media tactic that you have in their social varies programmatic, there's top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel.

And so you're gonna wanna follow the funnel, the funnel model in that and in programmatic that it can be both. We can use it for specific and targeting with messaging, but with branding as well.

Erin Austin: And do you work with people on. The what the funnel looks like. How Yep. Absolutely it is At every level.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Okay.

Yep. Absolutely. And how do we, that's because

Erin Austin: you're a full service agency. That's the function. Full service. So

Mary-Ann Pruitt: we are, yeah, we are a full service media agency. Okay. So we help with the strategy cuz this is often the piece that people miss. Mm-hmm. And forget. They think about what their creative's gonna be far before they think about what their strategy is gonna be.

Um, and their tactics are gonna be, and the strategy and the tactics, I would argue, are just as important, if not more, because I can make the best ad in the world and spend a ton of money on an amazing ad that touch one person that was my target. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But if I build my strategy and my target correctly, and I build my plan correctly, We're gonna be golden.

You're gonna have the great things there. Mm-hmm. So,

Erin Austin: yeah. And I imagine very important, you make a better ad if you know

Mary-Ann Pruitt: a hundred percent. When, when we as marketers or as businesses start to think through, and any business is a, is a marketer, we all are selling to someone. Any type of businesses, even a nonprofit, we are all selling to someone.

And when any business takes a step back and thinks audience first for messaging and for tactics and for strategy, that's where we, that's where we start to succeed. We have to think about who our audience is first and then go after it.

Erin Austin: All right? So where is the minimum for, like, at what level did we get started in this?

When it becomes realistic to start doing media buys? So

Mary-Ann Pruitt: when you start doing media buys, what I like to say, so who we, what we work with are people that have a thousand dollars up to hundreds of millions of dollars. So we've got wide range, right? Um, and with that, you can absolutely do a media buy. If you're looking at investing a thousand to 2000 a month, there's something there.

There's something there for you to start looking at and start doing again. Find a partner in that to help you with that. Uh, we have a small business program specifically where we have a team that just works with small businesses and we have a way that we can. Provide that to you, that you're getting a lot out of that, but at the same time, find a partner that we're not the only ones that do it.

There's lots of people that do it that can help you with that. But make sure it's a partnership, not somebody who's just there to take your money. Um, make sure that they're actually, ask them for the strategic tactics. Ask them for what does this like, um, in the funnel, ask them for what, as I'm putting a whole media plan together, why these are wanna ask out of a partner.

Right. And

Erin Austin: so I'm wondering, you know, if. You can advise someone like say like, Hey, you're just not ready. Like maybe you aren't niched enough. Like you're just right. Like I imagine it's not the right thing to do if you're like, I'm not making any sales. I don't know quite who my audience is. I'm just kind of a generalist.

Selling, you know, web design services and I, but I've got some money to spend. Like, that would not

Mary-Ann Pruitt: be a, a good, well, no, I, I mean, there are some tactics for you if you are a generalist, let say websites. I'll use that as an example. You know, that it, the person that you're probably gonna go after as a business owner.

Mm-hmm. So maybe. Look at business owners, maybe look at certain levels of revenue. It kind of, the process actually kind of forces you to think about who your ideal client is, to be honest, right? Um, and so think of it that way of, Hey, you know what? I'm a website designer. I just wanna target local restaurants in the area.

So, With ads, that would be something to start with. Um, I have some money that I wanna invest back in the company and I've seen some success with this specific type of business. Um, I've seen success with engineering firms, with building websites. Okay, let's target engineering mm-hmm. Firms. So it, we, you absolutely can do something, even if you are a generalist.

Mm-hmm. Um, you can, and you're gonna be more broad in your targeting. However, that's okay. That's not, you're gonna, you're gonna look at what your budget is a little bit more and see, okay, maybe as, and actually in the process, we can start seeing, okay, this is where the impressions are coming from. We analyze, we start to tell you what the data is telling you, and then maybe you start to land on where the process is of okay.

Actually restaurants are better for me. I'm gonna, I target restaurants, I target engineers. I'll do 'em simultaneously and test it. Yeah, yeah. This is the route I want to go. So even at that, if you are a generalist, pick a sector that you wanna target. Pick a sector that may, if you wanna just go small business owners.

You can do that as well. So there are, there are opportunities and options within that too.

Erin Austin: Yeah. This is great. Yeah. This is, I'm seeing all the similarities between people who, uh, are trying to figure out what their niche is, figure out like what the audience, I mean, yeah. So this

Mary-Ann Pruitt: is, well, and everybody struggles with it, right?

Because entrepreneurs. Our brains don't stop, frankly. So if you're not, which everybody who's listening is an entrepreneur. If you own a business, like we naturally just have something in us that goes, yeah, we wanna own a business. We're less than 1% of the population that actually wants to host. I didn't realize

Erin Austin: that.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Yeah. Someone told me that sat the other day, I haven't double checked it, but I was like, really? Is that real? Mm-hmm. They're like, no, normal people don't wanna do that. And I was like, what do you mean normal people? I think I'm. But if you think of it in that sense, right, that we are a small portion. Even if it's, even if it's more than 1%, we're a small portion of the population that actually is like, yeah, I wanna be an owner and be in charge.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, in that mindset, if you are there, you're entrepreneurial. So our brains are constantly thinking, oh, I can make money over here. I can make money over here. I can make money. So, I mean, we have entrepreneurs have more a, d, D than anybody. Like we are just all over the place. I have my executive team ask me on the regular of, okay, do you want us to concentrate on this week's big idea or last week's big idea?

Cause that's just the way it's gonna be. But that's, I mean, that's reality. That's who we are. And so that's how we have to think through, okay, the focus of it. It's okay that our brains are like, you know what that, let's try that, or let's try that, or let's try that. That's okay. We will find things that start and because that means our company's evolving and growing, we are learning, we are developing.

All of us, even those of us that have been in business for a long time. We're developing and we're growing. We are never staying the same. Every year brings new challenges, and every year it brings new growth and new technology, new tech. Oh, I'm telling you, in the media space, it changes weekly, daily at times of what we can offer, who we can target, how we can do things.

It's crazy how fast it evolves. And so, yes, the new technologies right now with, um, ai, like so. We've used AI for a long time, but I like to say it's, um, human, human driven, ai, right? So we use our AI tools, but as the human beings that are behind it, making sure it's doing what it's supposed to do and making sure that it works, um, and making sure that we're in the right direction.

But AI is right. Chat. G p t is the big thing right now. Everybody's talking about it. Everybody's all about it. Well, what does that mean for your business? And I like to, I do like to equate this. I remember the internet being new. I remember all of that. I think that the internet was developed in the fifties and the sixties by government and used mm-hmm.

And we just didn't know about it until the nineties. It just wasn't our thing. Right. We just didn't know anything. AI's been around for a very long time. Mm-hmm. Now, Chachi PT is just allowing us to use it as, as consumers. So it's a, it's an evolution process of our brains of being able to figure it out, but also like what opportunities and tools we have.

This is exciting. So yeah, as entrepreneurs, our brains are all over the place all the time. Yeah. It's just the way it's, yeah.

Erin Austin: And I think and, and I think it's making. The work that you do more accessible to more of us. I mean, absolutely. You wouldn't even think about talking to, you know, a marketing agency or Well, and think about what the

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Yeah, exactly.

Think about what the pandemic did. It actually allowed and pushed into normalcy. Mm-hmm. That we can, we do interviews like this all the time that we talk via, via all the time. We're redoing that before the pandemic. Absolutely. But the pandemic forced all of us to do it. That's an evolution change overnight.

That's a change. That's a cultural change where for the most part, I'd have to go in person to meet with people. Now I can meet with just as many people because somebody might want me to come in person, but then I can do 10 meetings while I'm meeting that person in person on online as well, so I can do so many other things.

Right. So it's it, yes. Evolution of what business is taking place now. It's just, it's significant, but it's so exciting too. It's something for us to all be along for the ride on. Yeah.

Erin Austin: That is wonderful. This would be great. There's more, I, I was, it made more sense to me, frankly, than I thought it would. I thought it was completely foreign to me, but I'm like, oh, I see all these parallels to what we are already talking about in terms of defining our markets, determining our niches, kinda, yep.

And getting our message out. So thank you for that. Absolutely. So. As you know, this is the Hourly to Exit podcast where we talk about, you know, growing our businesses from kind of unscalable hourly model to one that we can hopefully sell someday. And you are, you know, is very meta in that, you know, female founders of expertise-based businesses, which you are.

Yep. So do you have plans to sell your business someday? So what

Mary-Ann Pruitt: it's, I am a big believer that know your exit strategy. Mm-hmm. So what that looks like for you. So is it selling? Um, Or is it taking it to the next generation, which is a pass on. Mm-hmm. So all of us, I think, have to, are. Priority as owners of our company is to build the value of our company.

Mm-hmm. Right. And to build that up whichever way it is. Mm-hmm. Whether that's an internal sell, whether that's a, uh, generational pass down. Whether that is a sell for me, I have many more years. I come from a family that works until we die, but, but it's how we define it. Right. That as female entrepreneurs, I am such a big believer in that at times, I.

We are scared to define it what we want. We think it's selfish. We, we are nurturers naturally and we want to think of others first. But really truly, when we think for a second step back and think about what we want first, it actually benefits everyone else around us. Absolutely. So when we think, okay, what do I want in my business?

How do I want my business to operate? How do I want my business to serve me? And my family. How do I want that? Do I want to stay an owner for years? Okay. Do I wanna sell? So for me, that's how I look at it. And I'm a big believer and think 30 years down the road, think 20 years down the road, think 10 years down the road.

Mm-hmm. And think through what that process is. For me, I, I actually love to, right now I'm in the process. I'm on the other side of acquiring, which is a different thing. Oh wow. That's different. Unique. So that, right. That's a unique challenge as well. Yes. Um, but I love it. But those are the things that you have to look at long-term planning mm-hmm.

Of where you wanna be. And I'm a big believer in that. So for me, I'm not, my goal is not to sell. Mm-hmm. Um, I have a 15, 20 year plan. Mm-hmm. And I'm also, I, I don't think this, this is not for my mindset of it, um, but I do think it's a pass down or where we go, but define it. Right? Define where you wanna be and that's a sell in some way.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But some things too, there's, so, I tell business owners all the time, it's okay if you just want to shut the doors one day. Mm-hmm. That's OK too. Mm-hmm. It's ok. Yeah. So what does that look like? But, but always our job is to build the value of the company. Period and build the value and develop that to that point to whatever your goal is as the

Erin Austin: female owner.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It needs to work

Mary-Ann Pruitt: for you for sure. A hundred percent. And we, we forget that. Mm-hmm. We forget that all the right, and, you know, for me, my employees are my family. They are like, I, I think about all the families that I'm responsible for. Mm-hmm. And so that's what I plan to find, but that's really important to me.

Mm-hmm. If that's not important to you, that's okay too. Mm-hmm. Like it is. Okay. So we just have to think through, you know, for me, no, I don't think I, I sell in 15, 20 years in that plan, but, You know, for somebody else it's, yeah,

Erin Austin: but, but building your business, creating value in your business so that you could, is the same thing that you know helps exactly in the meantime.

So they're not exactly similar paths. Even if you end up,

Mary-Ann Pruitt: you know, you, you should be building the value no matter what, and you should be building it for that. If for some reason you did decide to do it, or for some reason something happens there, but your value, the value of the company is going to benefit you either way.

Right? Um, and it should be serving you. Perfect. Yeah. So, yes, that was my long, long, long answer. No, it was

Erin Austin: perfect. So as we wrap up, just a couple of questions. Yeah. One, as you know, we believe in creating an economy that works for everyone here, and I'd love if you have, if 5 0 1 C three organization or an individual who's doing great work in that area that you like to share with the audience.

Yeah.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: So I, um, I love. Multiple organizations and multiple, I'm a big believer that we as entrepreneurs should be looking at, uh, benefiting nonprofits. Women deliver is one that I really like. I'm a big person and I'm a big believer in making sure that we give back to younger generations as well. And I'm a big believer in.

Building up young girls in entrepreneurship. So one thing too, just that I like to pipe as well, um, like I try, I volunteer to teach a class every once in a while of, uh, young students that entrepreneurship isn't something that they've ever thought or been taught about generationally my generation.

Wasn't really taught that you could work for yourself. We weren't really taught that we could pick our path. Mm-hmm. Right. We were not taught that. And so I like to go in and I like to teach, uh, young people that yes, you can pick your path, especially young women. You are okay if you wanna be that c e o, you can start thinking about that now when you're 12, and that's okay.

You can start thinking about it in that sense. So I'm a big believer in that. I'm a big believer in those so nonprofits and as female entrepreneurs, we need to be giving back to nonprofits on the regular.

Erin Austin: So, yes, for sure. Well, we do, we give away more of our wealth than, uh, the other gender, so

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Yes. Yes, we do.

And we're very gen, we're generous as a, as a gender. We are, we are generous. Um, and I think in statistically we are more generous. Yes. And I think. That is something that is so important, I think, and really focus on where we give. Mm-hmm. I'm, I also huge advocate of think through the process of where you wanna give, who do you wanna give to and what is important to you to give to.

So anyway, but yeah, I have so many nonprofits that we give to, but

Erin Austin: that one, yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. We will have a link to women deliver on in the show notes. Yeah. And so finally, where can people find

Mary-Ann Pruitt: you? Um, absolutely, and please do reach out. So you can go to our website at mosaic.agency/contact.

That will come directly to, uh, my email and if you want us to do a free review, we'll have a conversation. Um, no, nothing charged. I love, I, like I said, I have a soft spot for helping people within this and with. Okay. If I'm not doing media or am I, I am doing a little bit of media, I'm confused. I don't know what to do.

Reach out. Send us an email through that mosaic.agency/contact. Follow me on LinkedIn, Maryanne Pruitt, or on Twitter at Media Maps. So follow me. I, I put out content on the regular articles, blogs. I like to be helpful. Reach out and we're happy to help.

Erin Austin: Fantastic. That's wonderful. Again, all that will be in the show notes.

Thank you again so much, Marianne. This was so helpful. I know it was new for a lot of us, and so you may be getting a few contacts from that.

Mary-Ann Pruitt: Well, thank you, Erin. I appreciate you having me and reach out if you have any questions or you just need some guidance, I'm happy to have a conversation.

Erin Austin: Fantastic.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah.