Daily Inspiration: Meet Michael Rosenzweig

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Rosenzweig

Michael, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My personal and entrepreneurial journeys have had many bumps and side quests along the way, but I’ve been able to pull valuable lessons from all of my experiences. While I studied marketing in college, it took me a few years to actually put that education to use in my career.

After graduating, my first role was as a technical recruiter, essentially making 100+ cold calls per day. While I knew that ultimately wasn’t my passion, learning a sales script and seeing folks with the tenacity to “make the deal” had a huge impact on me. My time in NYC was short-lived and I ended up moving as far west as I could and spent a year as an algebra teacher in Hawaii. Do I sometimes feel bad those students – absolutely! Classroom teaching was never for me, but I would not give up that experience.

I moved to Colorado and found a job at a local nonprofit where I wore many hats, including managing our social media, planning events, and building community around a common cause. I eventually became the Marketing Director at this organization and essentially ran it as an agency, balancing the needs of our fundraising, program development, internal communication, and more.

At this point, I had the opportunity to join a digital marketing agency. As a marketing professional, I felt it was a rite of passage and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. This is where I dove into SEO, website design, and a deeper understanding of the sales process. The most impactful lesson I learned from my time at this agency was the ability to ask engaging and deep questions to get to the core of what my clients genuinely needed. I would not be able to do what I’m doing now without these experiences.

I started The Marketing Handyman in January of 2020, right before the COVID pandemic. There is never a good time to have a pandemic, however for a digital marketing and website design agency, having a huge swath of people looking to start their own side hustles and be their own bosses worked out nicely for me.

These last few years have been so rewarding, working with people across various industries. I can pull from experiences from my sales roles and build confidence while educating and inspiring my clients to be their own marketing experts. My ideal client is more of a state of mind than a specific industry. For people who are trying to manage their business all on their own, I can play the role of marketing agency/website designer while also helping them as a business coach, crafting marketing plans that fit within their lifestyle. This is by far and away the most gratifying “job” I’ve ever had!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Certainly not – if you’re not hitting bumps, I don’t think you’re done with your business journey. Actually, I am currently in one of the biggest struggles of my business to date.

I have been fortunate thus far to have most of my clients come to me through referrals and the occasional social media shout-out. While these clients are great, referrals are not always sustainable. I am actively working on getting my message in front of more of my ideal clientele, which starts with defining my ideal clientele. Since the folks I work best with are not industry-specific, that is a bit of a challenging task.

For now, I am working on the things that are in my control. I fall more on the creative side of things, so systems and processes don’t come naturally to me – which is why I’m focused on building those systems while I have some extra time. I want to scale, grow, and provide an abundance of marketing value to more small business owners, and I know I need to find extra time in the day to achieve that task – so I’m looking into ways to streamline the projects I work on.

In addition, I’ve recognized that a one-person team can often feel a bit lonely. I have solid relationships with my clients, but they cannot fulfill every need I have. When I was spending time with colleagues every day that person-to-person connection was easy to find, now it’s a bit more of a challenge, so I am looking for more networking opportunities as well as trying to find ways to build community virtually.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My business is a hybrid of a digital marketing agency and website design firm combined with a business and marketing coaching service. I cannot pull the teacher and camp counselor out of me (nor would I want to)! Most folks reach out to me because they have issues with their website, either they don’t have one, it’s quite old, or they have one they like but no one is finding it.

As a marketing generalist, I look at all avenues of finding and nurturing new clients, so when I first start working with someone, we look at all of their current and potential marketing opportunities from SEO and email marketing to networking and referral networks. I try to find a solution that gets them to their goals while fitting in with their lifestyle.

What differentiates me from the competition is my approach to ongoing support. For some clients who just want to have a person who handles their marketing needs and website updates, I’m happy to fill that role. For others who want to learn how to market themselves, I help them set up the systems and show them the tools needed to reach out to their audience, then leave them with a marketing plan to enact on their own. I’m a firm believer that as a small business owner, YOU are the best marketer of your business. You have the best understanding of your audience’s pain points and what they value.

My proudest moments are when a client comes back to me and has found a new customer from doing one of the marketing tactics we’ve talked about. When someone says “that email got me 2 new clients” or “this client said they found me from that blog post we did” – it’s like my child has graduated!

How do you think about happiness?
There’s lots of things that make me happy – my daughter explaining something she learned to me, enjoying live music in beautiful places like Red Rocks, sharing a delicious meal and deep conversation with my wife, seeing my favorite soccer team win (Tottenham Hotspur in case you were wondering).

These all make me happy because they are shared experiences that involve love, laughter, and connection. In my professional world, seeing my clients grow and embody their potential as business owners leaves me feeling inspired and ultimately so proud of what we have been able to accomplish together.

Pricing:

• Marketing Power Hour – $179
• Website Design & Marketing Plan – $2500 – $5000

Contact Info:

• Website: https://themarketinghandyman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarketinghandyman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themarketinghandyman/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrosenzweig/