In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Lindsey Morando, Hello Bar’s Director of Marketing. Lindsey shares a pivotal personal story about quitting her restaurant‑chain marketing job, moving to Chicago during the 2008 recession, and learning the importance of aligning decisions with one’s core values. She then offers practical marketing guidance, emphasizing the need to focus on the channels where a business’s ideal client actually spends time rather than trying to be everywhere. Lindsey outlines a productivity framework based on quarterly (90‑day) planning, encouraging entrepreneurs to stick to a focused roadmap and defer side ideas to a future list. Throughout the conversation she stresses self‑awareness as a decision‑making compass, the key to happiness being the pursuit of activities that bring joy, and shares her favorite book, The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, highlighting the lesson of saying yes to what fulfills you. She also cites a favorite quote from John Holt about character being revealed in uncertainty. The episode concludes with Lindsey’s contact information for Hello Bar and its social media handles.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Lindsay Morando with us. She is Hello Bar's Director of Marketing and has 15+ years of marketing and business development experience that spans multiple industries including health and wellness, SaaS, lifestyle, and hospitality. So welcome to the show, Lindsay.
Thanks, Tyler. I'm excited to be here.
Of course. Pumped to have you on. We'll dive into the first one, Lindsay. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, I mean, there's a ton, but when I was thinking, you know, thinking about some of the best stories, I think one of the bigger ones that was monumental for me was about 10 years ago. I had been, I a director of marketing for a restaurant chain for many years and kind of had that quarter-life crisis and decided to quit my job, leave the state of California, move to Chicago with no job and try it out on my own with my savings. And although that was quite the fun adventure, it was also really challenging. It happened to be in 2008 when things had shifted a ton with the economy. And it was also a really humbling experience. I mean, I had so much trouble getting a job. I found myself walking door to door from restaurant chain to restaurant chain, and they had no clue who the restaurant chain was I worked for in California, especially in Chicago, which is a huge hub of restaurants. So I think, you know, I learned so many valuable lessons from taking that chance. But the biggest one for me is I think you get a lot of advice a lot of times in life from everyone, one of which pieces of advice I always get is life is short, you know, take a chance. And I think if I would have known what I know now is that you kind of got to check in with yourself your value system. And one of the things that I'm not very good at is not having consistency and not having steadiness. So for a personality type like mine, to actually go and quit your job and live on your savings and try to find a job in a whole new state, probably not the best decision. So I think that, you know, underlying lesson in that for me is just, you know, when you're making decisions in life, just know yourself, tune into who you are. You can take advice, but make sure you check in with who you are as a person and see if that's gonna be the best advice for you.
And excited for your answer on this next one. What is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, for sure. So, you know, being in marketing and being in business development, I think one of the things we, what occurs currently in this scope of online marketing world is that there is a ton of advice out there. There's people telling you, you have to be on Snapchat or YouTube, or you have to use your email list or X, Y, and Z. So I would say the biggest piece of advice I have is really, you don't have to do anything, right? You just have to focus on what's going to be best for your business. So when you're thinking about marketing, really just think about, you know, where your ideal client is hanging out. And focus on picking a marketing path within that. So if you find that your ideal client's hanging out in your local community, then really focus on marketing in your local community, or if they're on YouTube and you're excited about being on YouTube, then do that. But you don't have to do 15 different marketing channels. Otherwise you're never gonna be successful at any of them. So I would say when you're thinking about marketing and business, you really gotta hone in, focus, and really not spread yourself thin and really pick the best channels for your particular industry and your ideal client.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think a lot of people, especially when they're first starting out, like you're saying, it's like so overwhelming because they're like, I got to do Snapchat, I got to have a book, I got to have an ebook, I got to do Instagram. It's like you got to just master, and you can eventually, like, you know, you can hire a team and you— and I think you can and should eventually maybe have a presence on all that are relevant for you, but you got to master like one at a time. Um, so And then next one is, what's your best piece of like overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Yeah, I mean, I would say the best piece of business advice that I got years ago has to kind of do with productivity. And that is, you know, when you're taking on projects and when you're thinking about the overall scope of your business, create a plan every single quarter and if something does not fit within that plan, kind of create your idea list on the side as things come up and then put that on your future to-do list. So really start with, you know, your plan for the quarter. Every 90 days is a great amount of time to do it for your business and just really try to focus on that plan. And then at the end of the quarter, if you realize, hey, that wasn't working or that's not gonna work in my business, 90 days is a perfect amount of time to test it. Then you can kind of go to your future to-do list and future idea list and pop those ideas in. Because what I find happens is a lot of us in the business industry are creative. So we got really excited and we forgot about our plan and we decide to get sidetracked and then we're not able to get anything done. But if we really hone in and focus in on our plan and just really stick to that for the 90 days, test it out, see how things are going, and then we can adjust as we move forward. You'll find a lot more traction versus, you know, entering new ideas constantly and then kind of getting sidetracked. And that's not to say don't have ideas, It's just making sure that, you know, you really have a focused direction and plan to stick with in your business.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
So many pieces of advice. Yeah, but I would say really do you and get to know you and what, you know, your values are, what your goals are, and really stick with that. And I think it goes back to the story I told earlier, is that if I had really honed in on who I was and what my core values are and knew that, I probably wouldn't have made that decision. So I think, you know, you're gonna get a lot of advice in life. And I think what I would've told myself is just, you know, dig deep, listen to your gut, figure out what's best for you and have like, really take the time to evaluate your decisions and think through them before you just jump in.
And so kind of got a little different path, but in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Yeah, that's such a great question. And I think really the key to happiness is figuring out what brings you joy and doing more of that. There's a lot, you know, I'm a big believer in, you know, studying self-help stuff and mindset and all these different things. And you'll find when you study that, that everybody has their morning routine that they do. And some people love meditation and some people love yoga. Some people don't like it. And recently I was listening to Jess Lively, who's someone I really love in the podcast world. And she had said, you know, if it brings you joy to sit there for 5 minutes in the morning and watch an episode of Gilmore Girls, then do it. What you need is you need to bring more joy into your life and find out what brings you that joy. Do more of that. And then you're going to be happy in every area of your life. But if you're so focused on trying to be somebody else or be like somebody else, then you're never going to achieve that true happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So I've read a ton of books, but one of my favorites has been the Shonda Rhimes book. I think it's called The Year of Yes. And I think she really emphasizes this in the book is really digging down deep and figuring out who you are and what brings you joy and happiness and doing more of that. And, you know, for those that know Shonda Rhimes, she's busy writing all of these shows from Grey's Anatomy to How to Get Away with Murder and all these different things. And she has kids and just this, you know, she full scope of life and she kind of, you know, realized what brought her joy and what made her happy and started saying yes to more things. And it just dramatically shifted her life. And so I thought that was just really cool. And I think The biggest lesson was, again, just tapping into yourself, what brings you joy and happiness and doing more of that and doing you. Don't worry about all the people surrounding you, especially in this day and age when we've got a lot of social media and you're watching what people are doing. Just focus in on your life and your joy and happiness.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
So I've always loved this quote since I was in high school. It's from John Holt and it says, the true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when when we don't know what to do. And I've always thought that was just such an amazing piece of advice because I do think when we're in the uncomfortable situations where we don't know how to handle them, that's when our character really shines through. And so I think always remembering that and always staying— it just has always reminded me to stay humble and to really just act in a way that is reflective of yourself.
Yes, I had never heard that quote, but I love it. Thank you for sharing that. Thanks again for hopping on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find and connect with you online?
Yeah, so you can connect with me at hellobar.com, and that is the best place. We also have our social media, our Twitter handle is @thehellowbar, and you can find us on there. We're constantly tweeting. I've got some really awesome blog posts and content we put out each week.
Perfect. Thanks again for jumping on.
Thanks for having me. The podcast you just heard was published with Anchor. Got something you want to say to the creator of this show? Send them a voice message using the Anchor app, free for iOS and Android.
