Rebecca (Reb) Risty is the Founder and CEO of REBL Marketing, a B2B content marketing agency. The company helps clients turn viewers into customers by writing and producing amazing video content that makes brands stand out from the competition. Based out of San Diego, Reb helps her clients update their branding, create clear and concise messaging, and transform their digital presence through video marketing.
In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran interviews Reb Risty, the Founder and CEO of REBL Marketing, about best practices for creating and optimizing video content. They also talk about Reb’s entrepreneurial journey, the importance of video marketing, and tips for repurposing content.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- Reb Risty’s entrepreneurial background and the lessons learned from running a franchise
- How Reb became an entrepreneur — and how her earlier side hustles prepared her to run REBL Marketing
- Reb talks about diversifying her services to video content and the importance of video marketing
- How to find topics for video content
- Tips for creating consistent, evergreen content
- Reb’s advice for repurposing content, marketing with YouTube shorts and LinkedIn videos, and working with professionals
- The peers Reb acknowledges for their support
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
- REBL Marketing
- Reb Risty on LinkedIn
- Reb Risty’s email: [email protected]
- Reb Risty’s phone number: 858-848-7325
- Cutco
Sponsor: Rise25
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Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:14
Welcome to the revolution, the Smart Business Revolution Podcast where we ask today’s most successful entrepreneurs to share the tools and strategies they use to build relationships and connections to grow their revenue. Now, your host for the revolution, John Corcoran.
John Corcoran 0:41
All right, welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I am the host of this show. And if you are new if you never listen to this podcast before, hopefully, that’s not the case. But if you are new, go check out our archives got lots of great episodes with CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs of all kinds of different companies. You’ve heard me say that spill before, so go check them out. I’m also the Co-founder of Rise25, where we help connect b2b business owners to their ideal prospects. And my guest here today is Reb Risty. Reb and I met at a conference a couple of months ago, she’s known as the marketing REBL. It’s a content marketing strategy agency that helps b2b professional services businesses to tell their story by writing and producing amazing video content for their marketing channels. She is based out of San Diego and we’re going to talk about some of the trends in video marketing today. So if you are curious about YouTube, TikTok Instagram Stories, Facebook, moving video, whatever they call it, any of those sorts of things. We’re going to be talking about that. But chances are, you’re going to watch some video, you’re going to watch it today, you’re going to watch it online. And if that’s the case, if you have a business, especially in the b2b Professional Services, you should be producing something because it’s a wonderful way of introducing prospects and referral partners to what you do.
Of course, before we get into that, this episode’s brought to you by my company, Rise25, where we help b2b businesses get clients, referrals, and strategic partnerships with done-for-you podcasts and content marketing. And if you want to learn more about that, go to our website, rise25.com and you can learn all about it. All right, Reb, such a pleasure to have you here today. And let’s start with your entrepreneurial story. I love hearing about whether people were entrepreneurial as a kid. I know you did some lemonade stands, you had all these great little side. hustles you sold Cutco knives, Cutco knives. For those who don’t know, this is like some of the best entrepreneurs cut their teeth. No pun intended using Cutco knives, as a great sales program. So you did that and you had all kinds of little side hustles as a kid in high school in college.
Reb Risty 2:39
Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s so funny. You know, now we call it yet the hustle and your entrepreneur back then it was just, I did whatever I could for milk money, you know, it kind of like I want to make money. So I can go by and do the things I want to do. But yeah, we did the classic lemonade stand in the front yard and then Cutco knives, which anybody that’s gone through their training program, it is a really good training program. And I’m interested to see how they do it now. But that was back in the day, when you actually had to go door to door like I was having my mom called her friend, let me come over and do my presentation. But yeah, so started kind of out in that life. And then, of course, traditional college got a job, but always had kind of like a side hustle on the side. I had a online e-commerce business where I put together gift baskets for realtors and sell them. I, my husband and I actually invested in a small franchise pizza shop, which actually went under so I could tell you all the things that you should not do in business.
John Corcoran 3:46
So how long did that last? And what are some of the big lessons from that experience?
Reb Risty 3:51
Yeah, definitely. You know, how they say don’t work with your friends and family. And it’s not that your friends and family are bad. I think we overlook things. Like you trust your friends to be telling you the truth. And our manager basically, you know, Reb, this blind and we just weren’t paying attention. And, you know, I think the biggest lesson I learned from that was that no one’s gonna take care of your business better than you will. So when you’re starting out a small business, whether it’s a franchise or with a group of people, you have to be involved and we were trying to be like the outside silent investors and it didn’t work but I never learned to appreciate working hard in the restaurant business. I appreciate people who work in that business for sure. It
John Corcoran 4:36
is a hard business Yeah, I waited tables and did delivery and cashier at the register and barbecued ribs restaurant in high school and college. And it’s tough. It’s a tough, tough industry. You know, it’s funny how it’s glamorized now to the Food Network and everything like it’s like working in a restaurant glamorous, but it’s no and you did the longest. Sorry you did poorly. Polynesian dancing also your all kinds of little, like different side hustles
Reb Risty 5:05
Yeah, good. That was actually one of my best and funnest next level. But yeah, I started dancing when I first moved to San Diego because I didn’t know anybody, it was just a way to meet other people. And then I, you know, it was pretty good. I was also on dance team in college and just really enjoyed dancing and ended up going on the professional side, performing like, three, five times a week on the weekend costume, doing all that, and then started my own halau with for my really good friend and ran that for, gosh, almost 17 years, just again, on the side, while I have a full time job, you know, 95 and then doing shows on the weekends and making costumes, but I loved it. That was such a cultural amazing thing. And I still stay in touch with a lot of the women I used to dance with. And actually, even some of the kids that I used to train now have their own groups. And it’s really amazing to just see that the whole culture and a whole group of people are moving along.
John Corcoran 6:14
And now for you come to the catalyst that pushed you into entrepreneurship was you had a good friend who started an outsourced accounting firm, and just kind of asked for your help with a couple of different marketing tasks. Is that right?
Reb Risty 6:27
Yeah, so I had been working at a big engineering firm running marketing. And they launched a new product and then went heavy into r&d. And I was bored. And so she had just recently started her source finance and accounting firm. And she was just asking me, Oh, could you look at this newsletter or write a brochure for me, and, you know, I was like, You should pay me for this. And she’s like, you’re right, and you should start your own agency. But it took me a little while I didn’t do it right away. But I slowly kind of started doing more and more stuff for her and then started doing some other clients on the side. And finally, in 2017, I decided to go full time, and take REBL full time. And I just, I’ve been so fortunate, it’s been really great. I’ve done well, and I can’t complain.
John Corcoran 7:18
Around this time, one of the other catalysts for you going out full time was your dad, who had recently retired, was diagnosed with cancer, and the only he died a couple of months later.
Reb Risty 7:30
Yeah, yeah, you know, that, I would definitely say what’s kind of the kick in the butt, it would have been easy for me to just kind of keep doing stuff off the side and get, you know, a company job, the pay well, but he was only a year and a half into his retirement. And he had waited so long. Sorry, to retire, you know, and he didn’t really get to enjoy it. He thought a year and a half into his retirement, he was sick. And three months later, he was gone. And so it just made me realize you think you have all this time, but you don’t you really don’t. And I’m not a spring chicken. And, you know, I was in my early 40s When I started REBL, and I’m like, You know what? It’s now or never. You just don’t have the time. But it means also the time is precious, and to enjoy what you want to do with it.
John Corcoran 8:23
Right? Right. It’s also a, you know, a challenge, though. I mean, do you feel like, you know, you’d had all these different side hustles that you weren’t doing full time. But do you feel like that prepared you? By the time you went full time with this? Or do you feel like, Man, I wish I’d done this sooner or the learning curves? A lot steeper than I thought it was going to be? What was that experience? Like when you went full time with it?
Reb Risty 8:54
Yeah, that’s a great question. I absolutely wish I would have done it sooner. Because I wish I had more time. You know, if I just had the energy from my 20s But yeah, I do wish I would have started sooner, honestly. But I think having all those experiences and running the side hustles and doing different businesses definitely prepared me to run it agency, which is the agency life you know, you’re you’ve got different clients and different products and services, and they’re all doing different things. And so being able to really understand and being able to think quickly on the feet and do different things. Definitely. I was prepared by doing that with all the different kind of side hustles while I had full time jobs, I definitely think the benefit of being you know, in the corporate world is that structure, do you do learn about processes and procedures and you know, tools and things like that, that you might not get access to as a small business. So there’s advantages to both, you know, and being a consultant and then working with other firms that also work with consultants. It’s not easy doing the small business consultative, you know, b2b services work because you are having to wear a lot of different hats. And not everybody can do it. But I was fortunate, I think, you know, at the end of the day, it really is your experiences that make you who you are. And I am happy that I started REBL when I did. And I think there was a lot of things that led up to it. And yeah, I say, I wish you would have started earlier, but maybe it wouldn’t have been as successful because they wouldn’t have learned the things I had by the time I started REBL.
John Corcoran 10:34
And how long did you do newsletters? And I imagine websites and kind of everything under the sun, I imagine, right? That’s the way most of us start out right? Before you kind of realize that I need to kind of narrow down my range of services. Yeah,
Reb Risty 10:52
you know, we still have clients that we’re doing it for.
John Corcoran 10:57
But it never goes away.