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June 20, 2017 - Ashley Haugen

How Data Made Her Do It

When it comes to the day-to-day tasks involved with running a startup, Shannon Ware knows the routine. She and partner Melody Jennings Bowers founded the Virtual Collective, an online network of contractors that provides digital services to clients and businesses of all kinds and sizes. Shannon’s role is that of virtual team manager as well as project manager for the company’s clients. “My role is to oversee team productivity and functionality,” she says. “I make sure the right team members are in place and that all projects are moving in the right direction, on time and under budget.” But she says, “I have to be honest, data is not what excites me. I do not love looking at graphs and charts, but I do love knowing who our customer is, what they want, and knowing that we know how to deliver. THAT is exciting to me!”

“I have to be honest, data is not what excites me. I do not love looking at graphs and charts, but I do love knowing who our customer is, what they want, and knowing that we know how to deliver. THAT is exciting to me!”

Since launching Virtual Collection in 2014, Shannon and Melody observed that most of their clients came to them in search of help solving a problem, yet they weren’t quite sure what the problem was. “They want a website without knowing what they want their customers to do on their site. They want blogs without knowing what their customers want to read about. They want a copywriter to match their voice when they haven’t truly defined their messaging,” explains Shannon. And she and Melody were quick to identify the fact that without having these sorts of answers in place, it was highly unlikely that their team — or any team — could help these clients without data to help guide them.

The pair quickly learned that if they brought on clients who admittedly didn’t have all of these things figured out, their ability to actually help those clients was slim. And that was a turning point for the duo. They decided to shift their approach and redirected their potential clients to begin working through the necessary steps of understanding their customers and data first, before doing anything else much less spend another dime on marketing and growth efforts.

“They want a website without knowing what they want their customers to do on their site. They want blogs without knowing what their customers want to read about. They want a copywriter to match their voice when they haven't truly defined their messaging."

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Both Virtual Collective and their clients have seen dramatic results.

“The difference in the outcome of the projects where we insisted on sticking to our own proven processes versus the projects where we allowed the client to dictate workflow has been very eye-opening,” shares Shannon.

Eventually, this eye-opening journey is exactly what led them to create Know Your Data, Know Your Customer, an online self-paced course that teaches small business owners how to collect relevant data for their company. And to ultimately use it to guide decisions for company growth in a much more effective and targeted way. “Melody kept saying, ‘We need to teach people how to collect data!’

After enough rounds of backtracking with clients, I totally agreed. So we mapped out what we thought were the essential pieces of information that each client needed to know before implementing any marketing efforts, and that’s how Virtual Collective was born.”

Thanks to a successful iFundWomen campaign Shannon and Melody were able to raise enough seed money to start building the course.  They are excited to start teaching the ins and outs (and whys) of data collection to other business owners so that they can make more informed decisions.

Three Powerful Data Questions, Answered

To hold you over until the course is launched, we picked Shannon’s brain on the three most important questions about data that women business owners (and men, for that matter) should be asking. Take a look and see if YOU can answer these essential questions about YOUR data? And then make sure you sign up to be the first to find out when the Virtual Collective course is live!

Step 1

What is the most useful datapoint that people overlook when launching into marketing efforts?

I feel like at least 50% of our small business clients miss the mark on who their target customer really is. They all know who they think their customer is and then wonder why they are missing their sales goals. Data doesn’t lie. And more than likely, they have no clue how to figure out who they should be marketing to.

Step 2

Describe a real-world scenario where you used data to help make a strategic decision for your company?

We had been cranking out content for our Virtual Collective blog for over two years before we realized we were creating content for the wrong customer. We stopped, revisited our value proposition and made sure we were offering services that provided solutions for the customer we wanted to serve. This is why we no longer have a blog published on our website! Two years of awesome content (that we spent a LOT of time and money on to create) is sitting on our website, unpublished. If we would have known to go through the simple steps that we teach in Know Your Data, Know Your Customer,  on the front-end we would have made adjustments a lot earlier in the game. But what a great example of a real-world scenario to learn from, right?

Step 3

If you could offer one piece of advice to future clients and/or someone starting a new business regarding the importance of data, what would you say?

The most important thing you can do is build a framework from the beginning. If you have a solid foundation of information about your customers, any stressful decision you need to make becomes less stressful. When you have real data about YOUR customers you can be more confident about making the next move for your business.

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What is your No. 1 goal for this course?

To empower business owners. The entrepreneur/business owner scene can be brutal and is predominately sales-driven. When you are just starting out, low sales volume can feel really defeating. Not enough people teach on the micro-conversions that lead to sales and growth. These are worth celebrating too! I don’t expect everyone to care about data, but I like to think we can all learn something from each other in the process.

Can we get an amen?! If you’re ready to find out how to collect data and use it to grow your business beyond your wildest dreams, sign up to find out when the Virtual Collective course is live, get our newsletters filled with handy tips, and more. Data made us do it, and it’ll make you do it too!

Data Matters! HerDataMethod.com Nashville, TN

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Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: data collection, female entrepreneurs, women business owners

June 6, 2017 - Ashley Haugen

How Data Made Her Do It

Today I am interviewing Melody Jennings Bowers, co-founder of the Virtual Collective and Her Data Method. A former school teacher, Melody is a brilliant, hard-working, data-driven woman, mom of two rockstar teenagers and all-around badass, and she can hustle with the best of them when it comes to making things happen. In fact, she and her co-founder Shannon Ware hustled so hard during the iFundWomen campaign that they met their funding goal and then some, which has since allowed them to begin converting their Her Data Method dreams into reality. Melody took a quick break to share with us what she’s gained through the crowdfunding experience (HINT: It’s not just money …), what her goals are for Her Data Method and so much more.

Meet Melody, Co-Creator of Her Data Method

Melody! How are you?

I’m good! Good!! Just working like crazy to get Her Data Method built and launched.

Excellent! Before we get into Her Data Method, I want readers to get an idea of who you are and the path that led you to this point in your career.

Through the work we were doing with Virtual Collective, we found that our clients often struggled to understand how the health of their website impacted their ability to collect data, and that kept them from being able to effectively market their brand. Which ended up leading to wasted time and wasted ad dollars.

After I learned how to code and I built a couple websites from scratch and understood how everything works from the backend of a site, I realized that there are several basic fundamentals are non-negotiable if you want to have an online presence. I began mapping out a course to start figuring out what and how to teach in a way that would make sense to non-tech people. Once a teacher always a teacher!

"I mapped out a course and started to figure out what and how to teach it in a way that would make sense to non-tech people. Once a teacher always a teacher!"

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How did you and Shannon conceive the Her Data Method idea?

Shannon and I had committed to building an online course about how to collect data and we brought on Andy Derrick to help us figure out the best way to build it. In our first brainstorming session (where I was probably terrifying him with releasing all that was in my head!), I kept giving examples of situations that could have been helped by this course. He asked, “Don’t you think there are other women in business who could benefit from this?” That never crossed our minds. The minute I told Shannon about Andy’s observation, she got excited too. Everything clicked! We did some more research, came up with a name and began developing the course. A couple of weeks later, I received the iFundWomen press release email and everything kind of took on a life of its own.

At what point did you and Shannon say, “We’re doing this.”?

After I saw that press release on the morning of February 9, 2017, I quickly applied and then sent Shannon an email that said, “I just applied for this — could be a great way to launch the HDM idea.” And by 4 p.m. that same day I had been interviewed by the iFundWomen team and we were accepted. The goal was to launch our campaign on the iFundWomen Nashville page which was going live on March 6, and then we would prepare for the Live Crowdfunding Marketplace Event with the Mayor that was scheduled for March 26 at the Entrepreneur Center. I told Shannon “Yay! We just got accepted!” She said, “Yay!” but didn’t look at all the emails in detail until a week later when she emailed me and said, “This looks like a pretty amazing opportunity! What all do we need to do?” HA! Once we started looking into what all was involved with pulling off a crowdfunding campaign, we realized it’s a good thing we didn’t know what was involved or we might not have ever done it! But with the help of the Virtual Collective team, we pulled it off!

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"With the help of the Virtual Collective team,
we pulled it off!"

Describe for me the moment when you achieved full funding.

We were at my house doing our weekly “partner meeting” and going over ways to cross the finish line. She sent an email reminding a client who had mentioned that he was interested in supporting the campaign that we were pretty close to our goal. He responded about five minutes later by saying, “Refresh your page.” He had donated $500! Which took us over our goal! We whooped and hollered, cried some happy, humble tears, sent him thank yous, and then got back to work.

What was the biggest “A-ha!” moment for you throughout the entire iFundWomen campaign experience?

There were so many “a-ha” moments. That whole experience was pivotal for me in realizing that everything we have been working toward with Virtual Collective and now Her Data Method has been time well spent. On a human level, it reminded me how awesome our team is and how valuable all of our community efforts have been. It felt like one big universal nod to go forth and prosper. It was so empowering! As a woman, it underscored the need for women to stop working for free and to not feel weird or uncomfortable about seeking funding.

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Why do you think the focus is so heavily shifting toward empowering women, with Her Data Method and iFundWomen being prime examples of that?

There is strength in numbers. When you find other women who are either ahead of or behind you in their journey, it’s empowering both ways — it’s empowering to be the one who can help another woman in her efforts and encourage her along the way by sharing your experiences or knowledge or whatever. But it’s just as empowering to be on the receiving end of the encouragement and to feel that support. It’s contagious. That spirit is what will continue to move us forward.

Talk to me about equal pay for women, and the disparity between investments made in female startups vs. male startups.

Women are starting to change the entrepreneurial landscape with or without funding; the micro-funding boost just helps makes getting to the next level in the process a little more possible. But you know what? Until the day comes when women are on a level playing field with men in terms of pay, or VC investments, we need pioneering women like Karen Cahn who are willing to bring projects like iFundWomen to life that help all of us push our ideas forward – have you seen all the amazing female founders projects on iFundWomen?  I think women are already changing the world, give them a supportive community, some funds and get the out of the way! Plus it’s just fun to connect with that many other passionate women who are getting shit done with a shoestring budget and an iron will.

So do guys have any role at all in these women-driven businesses and initiatives?

Absolutely! Even though the focus is on women, it’s the community of inclusiveness that gives these initiatives power. Men, women, whatever. The future may be female, but we aren’t going to get there by ourselves. When people believe AND invest in you and your idea, the energy exchanged is powerful, and THAT is why iFundWomen was worth doing. We want to invigorate others in that same way to help them accomplish their goals and make a difference not only in their lives but in the world. It’s a cycle … and it’s life-changing for anyone who is a part of it!

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So what’s the ETA for the launch of Her Data Method?

Well, we just finalized the course outline today, and we begin building in May. You can pre-register now and we’ll let you know when the course is live. Beta testing is scheduled to begin in July, and we are on track to have the course live in August 2017! 

If ever there was a team that could meet — and exceed — their goals, it’s Melody and Shannon and their dedicated, loyal, passionate team. If you’re ready to get on board with Her Data Method and take your business to the next level, sign up to be notified when course registration goes live. Click here, learn more about it, sign up and get ready to rock!

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Data Matters! HerDataMethod.com Nashville, TN

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Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: crowdfunding, data, female entrepreneurs, iFundWomen, Nashville, women business owners

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