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Show Notes:

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About Sarah Santacroce

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Sarah is an internationally recognized LinkedIn Specialist & Online Presence Mentor who has personally coached, mentored and guided over 1,900 entrepreneurs. She helps them position themselves as experts on LinkedIn, shows them how to find & express their unique voice & stand out as thought leaders. As a result they find their tribe, get the recognition they deserve & a steady flow of clients – with ease & not sleaze.

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In addition to her LinkedIn expertise, Sarah is known for helping fellow entrepreneurs market their business authentically & anxiety-free, sell their services & make a difference. She’s also the host of the ‘Gentle Business Revolution’ podcast where she has conversations that aim to disrupt the current marketing paradigm and bring more empathy and kindness to the business world. 

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Sarah’s upbringing and life’s experiences inspired a yearning to create a global movement that encourages people to bring more empathy and kindness to the business world, live a more meaningful life and take care of our mother earth and each other. Her Gentle Marketing Revolution Program is an integral part of the The Gentle Business Revolution movement.

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When she’s not working she loves adventure & traveling (ask her about her alter ego in Sicily), yoga & nature walks or hanging out with her family.

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Interview

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In 2006, bootstrap her own business and realized she could do it for other small businesses. She started out social media strategy only.

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In 2010, in Switzlerland, pivot to social media (not strategy) for small businesses. She saw the biggest opportunity with LinkedIn.

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A few years later she realized she could leverage her being an introvert and help others.

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In 2016, another big pivot moment questioning if she should be doing just LinkedIn. What to do the rest of her career?

She dug deeper, beyond her 8 years of focusing on LI, she found out her ‘why’ and the new direction with ‘The Gentle Business Revolution’.

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A play on the ying and yang of feminine and masculine – gentle being the feminine and revolution being more masculine.

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Tell me more about The Gentle Business Revolution

What she figured out, for the Past 10 years, felt all the time questioning what she’s doing in business, this is not for me, kept thinking she was wearing a mask and was someone she wasn’t.

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She really felt like doing wanted to bring more empathy and kindness to the business world. That’s what she realized was her mission.

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She grew up in a hippy community. Those values of community, fairness, empathy – that was very close to her upbringing and to her key values.

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All this time she realized she was trying to be someone else. Her mission is to give a different view on how to market your business and break this current marketing paradigm where you feel like you need to fit into a certain mold and do what everyone else is doing.

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The millennial's came to LinkedIn and questioned why LinkedIn is such a boring and sterile network. This isn’t fun. Let’s move things a bit. Happened between 2016-2017. It’s more authentic now. There was a movement with Millennial's and they are all about authentic marketing.

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People who struggle the most, our generation, who has grown up with this online marketing thing and been in business for 10-15 years, we’re looking at Marie Forleo’s and Ally Brown’s and big names – grew up thinking we had to be like them. Those are the people that Sarah refers to as an example of who you don’t need to try to be the next ‘Marie Forleo’.

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As entrepreneurs we need to constantly adapt with the changes. We can do whatever we want to do with our own businesses. Encourages others to do the same.

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We have this opportunity to create our own life. It’s more difficult in a corporate environment.

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Sarah realized early on that she didn’t fit in a corporate environment. She felt like she was hitting a ceiling too soon and like she could do her boss’s job.

 

How are you injecting kindness and fun into your business?

With The Gentle Business Revolution, she started wondering 'where can I have an impact? Where can I contribute to adding more gentleness in the online world?' She looked at the 7 P’s of marketing to model it after.

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Took the model of the 7 p’s of marketing and how she could use it today. All of a sudden a mandala appeared and instead of 7 p’s in a circle, she saw where all the Ps were rearranged and a lot of the focus was not on the outside of ideal customer, signage and physical evidence, what matters today for entrepreneurs what we feel, our story, who you are – first figure out who you are in order to tell those stories.

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The first 2 p’s turned into the Passion that turned into your why (your why – if it’s just to make money, that makes it difficult to run a business unless there’s a story or your passion then people will shop around and look for the cheapest.

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Bringing your values into your marketing. Working with clients that are just like you and have clients that have the same values as you.

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The 2nd P is the personal power. It’s important that we go into our own personality and we do all kinds of personality test with human design, what matters to me? Then communicating that so you are attracting the ideal client.

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Once that’s done you go into the P of people. Now that I know my story and who I am now let me find the people who are like me. You can then communicate your authentic self.

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The traditional marketing is looking at target audience. What matters in her potion is empathy – and finding out about your ideal clients feelings – that matters so much more than where they live, how much money they make and other demographic information. What matters is their feelings and their emotions.

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Jerry Maguire where Rene Z says “you had me at hello” – and she thinks of that now when she’s talking with ideal clients. When she goes into her ‘spiel’ people are like we already want to work with you. They buy into you, your values and your story.

 

Sarah’s ideal clients for her program – those who feel like there needs to be a better way to market self. A more gentler way that makes you feel less anxious. Anxiety is a big piece of marketing today and reason she has this program. They get stuck because they realize they can’t be like this person and compare self with others.

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“Someone who is ‘stuck’ and is too scared to get started. Or someone who’s been in marketing for awhile and feel like they’ve been wearing a mask forever. Running a business but do you feel good about it? No. That’s why wanted to change.

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We don’t change anything unless the pain change of not changing it is bigger than the fear of facing that new direction.“

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The new name - The Gentle Business Revolution" takes away some of the anxiety.

 

It’s a Group program – not teaching a system – can’t teach a system on how to be authentic.

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It’s a self-discovery of your passion your own values your own life. Then, together addressing the feeling of being alone. It’s the community that learns together how to bring more of you and your authenticity to your marketing.

 

Other programs or services you offer?

As main business, LinkedIn and how clients to be positioned as experts on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a platform for people, not leads. Her clients do best when they nurture relationships and not collecting leads. You can have as many leads as you  want but if you don’t have time to nurture and build relationships they will not turn into clients. Takes a serving approach instead of a sales approach.

 

How are you connecting the dots between marketing and sales?

Serving. If we serve on sales calls you’re focused on people not just making a sales. Her clients are in business for the long term. It’s not just a thing they are doing for the next year. It’s now that you need to invest in the relationships. It also support The Gentle Business Revolution.

 

What’s one thing that one thing your customers may not know about you but you wish they did?

There’s the introvert thing she mentioned. And writing The Gentle Business Revolution book.

It’s about bringing the human connection back to marketing.

 

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Where to connect with Sarah online:

The Gentle Business Revolution

LinkedIn

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