Career Growth Advice from Nedra Rezinas, Marketing Strategist and Coach | Career Tips for Women Entrepreneurs

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 136
Featuring Nedra Rezinas

Episode Title: #136 Nedra Rezinas Marketer, Entrepreneur and Coach Talks About Finding Your Niche

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Nedra Rezinas


Mary Killelea: Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the 2B Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and tech. 2B Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you. Encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

What if the boldest move you could make in business wasn't about being louder, but about being truer to who you really are? For some, marketing means big energy, and non-stop visibility. But today's guest, her success came from embracing quiet confidence, building a business on empathy, and helping others do the same. I'm thrilled to welcome Nedra Rezinas, a marketing strategist, course creator, speaker, and coach who has helped hundreds of service-based entrepreneurs get clearer, get visible, and grow without selling their soul out to the hustle culture that we live in. Nedra's career started in web design long before social media ruled the world. And over time, she's built a powerful brand that supports introverts and highly sensitive leaders who want to market with authenticity and purpose. Nedra, it's great to have you here.

Nedra Rezinas: Thanks, Mary. It's good to be here.

Mary Killelea: Oh my gosh. Okay, for the listeners that clearly don't know us individually, we go back a ways, you know, like when our kids were little and we were like scrappy and starting off and trying to make it work. So, it's so fun to feature you today because I've seen you blossom and grow into just this beautiful successful woman and I find you inspiring. So, thanks for coming on.

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, thanks so much, Mary. I really appreciate that.

Mary Killelea: Okay, so let's talk about what first sparked your love for web design and kind of how you got into the digital marketing space?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah. Well, it all started with graduating from college with a communications degree going, "Okay, now what?" and then you know friends be like why don't you just do some temp work for a while just to kind of try out different offices and see what it's like which is actually was really good advice this was a course a long time ago I don't know how successful this would be for other folks but you know I ended up having some temporary work at which was called Freightliner back in the day now Chrysler and I was just thrown into the IT department and then one day I was doing some work and they're like do you went to learn how to convert these files to HTML and I was just like that sounds like something worthwhile and then before I know it I got trained on the job and how to build websites and I was working with the internal web designers and it kind of just took off from there and it was you know this was a time where web design was a brand new career path and it was a lot of unknowns was exciting there's a lot of opportunities so that that's kind of where it evolved from

Mary Killelea: I love it because I think the key thing there is you said yes, you know, I think you were willing to try something new and even if you didn't know it and they were willing to train on the job, which I think right now, honestly, we're kind of back into that with AI.

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, exactly. It feels a lot. It feels it feels very familiar. I was trying to explain that to some students. I was teaching a marketing class and how it's all it's like history repeating itself, you know.

Mary Killelea: So let's talk about running the agency and becoming a marketing strategist and kind of how you've centered in on your target audience and how that's how that's evolved. And I know that's a huge question I'm asking you. So, we might chunk this out into a couple different questions, but I think it's fascinating because you know, I love your evolution story and I want to get to how I think it's aligned as you've discovered yourself.

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah. You know, it was I ran a web design company for like 16 years and you know, it was right before right around before the pandemic. I saw a need for people to have help with their marketing beyond their websites. Like I'd have these meetings with people and have these like strategy sessions and we'd talk about the website then be like, "Okay, now what? What should I do?" And I'd be like, "That's what you need to figure out." Like, "No, I need help." And we'd talk about email marketing and social media and all the things. And I realized more and more that they didn't have the comprehensive path to even know the website once it was built. I think around 2019 to 2020, I was starting to kind of emerge into more of a marketing strategist and like a coach to help people realize what they, you know, go beyond the website. And, so I started doing more and more of that consulting. And then what I realized, in the last like a few years after that, I was like, well, let's take a look at and see who my clientele are. Oh, yeah. These are like more introverted, empathy driven, more sensitive people. And hey, I guess what I am, too. I think during the pandemic, I kind of had a really interesting time where I took a harder look at myself and what are my strengths? How can I help myself? Where can I set boundaries? I kind of did some personal development and realized that all the people in my community are very similar to me and they're attracted to that because I create a safe space. If I understand where they're I can meet them where they're at. I understand what they're going through. It just evolved over time and it was kind of an aha moment one day when I was just connecting the dots. I was like, "Oh yeah, most of my clients are like me."

Mary Killelea: And I think that's so beautiful for you to recognize it. And I think, you know, as an entrepreneur, you know, you run your business, I've run mine over the years, you have to kind of see where there's opportunities to build your business. You know, when there was web design, you know, you can add SEO or social media. And for you, it's been coaching and really, you know, they drill this over and over and over to us marketers is understanding your niche. What I love is that you've taken almost a version of yourself and attracted them to you and you're flourishing through that.

Nedra Rezinas: Thanks. It definitely feels like I've it feels a lot more comfortable and it's nice to be able to be more me. I think that was something I think I even talked about with you. Like when I ran my web design business, I was definitely not myself. I was trying to be what everybody wanted me to be. Especially when I was marketing to lawyers. I was putting up a great facade and a huge mask and it was pretty exhausting. I'll tell you it was Yeah, it was not fun.

Mary Killelea: I can relate to that because when I was in corporate I felt exhausted because I did feel like I was putting up a front from what they expected or you know there was so that's so interesting to me. How do you guide your clients to show up confidently and ethically, especially when they feel overwhelmed by the hustle culture of marketing?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah. I think the first thing we talk about is that you don't have to do it all. And a lot of people think that they do. And even when I teach a lot, it comes up and I'm like, you know, there's this myth that you have to do all the things in marketing. That's just completely false because first off it is this where the overwhelm starts and that not every not all your you know going back to your target audience they're not all going to be on all the places that's not that's not realistic and you're you know I work with lots of small smaller solopreneurs and that's just not realistic to do either. So, it's always going back to like who you want to serve, where are they at, and then start from there. And that helps take the overwhelm down quite a few notches, and then then give them permission to not have to do video. Give them permission to not show up on Instagram if they don't want to. That is something I almost feel like being a marketer is blasphemous. It's like, "Oh, I say that." And it feels very controversial, but I think when I, you know, when I talk about that with my clients, they just feel a sense of relief like, "Oh, she's not like the rest of them." Like, they're going to shove it down my throat because I feel like there's definitely, and not to bash or be mean, but I think there's definitely a number of industry folks that just like to do it all. You have to do it right. And it's just that it's not going to work for everybody. So.

Mary Killelea: No and I think that's so true. And I think that that's your differentiation. When everyone's turning right and chasing the shiny object, you're, you know, serving your audience with relief and a path forward. You're known or I like I guess in some of the things I've heard you say over and over is better than perfect. Why is that so important to your coaching philosophy and how does it shift or help your client's mindset?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, I was even just talking about that yesterday how sometimes it's just, you know, getting like even just starting to like send like one email newsletter, you know, you can and I see this so much in myself and my clients, like you can get into that perfectionist mode and have it be just has to be just right. And that'll just stop you in your tracks and prevent things from happening. And so it's like doing you know it's okay to I didn't I think I remember a coach saying this it's okay to have B work for a while and you know you get to a A is over time B work is fine just to get it out there because if you don't even get it out there nobody's going to know you know and with mistakes and all and I think everyone's so afraid of being called out or you know worst case you know like you're unwritten or you're like you're dismissed or something if you get it wrong And I think you're just you're just being human. You're just trying things out. And just to give people permission just to just to try it out and be themselves and be okay with bework is huge because I think there's this huge amount of pressure. Especially if you read all the more like the gurus and you know the top leaders like they're always just like you have you know just do it like this, do it like that. And I'm like do you really need to? I don't think so. Let's reframe those.

Mary Killelea: I love that. You've been successful for many years. How 's your secret, I guess, to resilience?

Nedra Rezinas: I think one of the one of the questions I always ask my clients is like what w gets you up in the morning and I have to ask myself that same question. And it's, you know, it's to help people to make the world a little nicer than, you know, every day than it was the day before. And I think that's that's it like you know one of my purposes is to help people and that's that's my mantra and so if I'm doing that I'm doing something right and that can take different forms and yeah and I think just also now that I've had like multiple businesses I understand that I think I finally understand maybe and it's a lifelong process that failure can be a form of a lesson and it doesn't have to be like this horrible like negative feeling or you just you just you learn from it and I don't think a lot of us were raised that way or even like our society thinks like that but just even seeing like oh this happened it was an experiment and reframing it again I think is so helpful.

Mary Killelea: When you were a little girl did you think you would be a business owner and be working for yourself? I thought I would either be like a nature scientist and record like, you know, nature like, you know, record go out in the wilderness and record animals or be like Stephen Spielberg in film movies.

Mary Killelea: So, you're into coaching obviously, but you've also done some digital courses and one of them is the LinkedIn masterclass and marketing fundamental courses. What are some of the Okay, let's take this question in a couple directions. What do you love about teaching and then how do you pick the topics that you teach?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, I think teaching is a way to connect with people and help them achieve their goals and just like opening up the possibility they never thought of before. And how I Oh, that's a good question. How do I pick what to teach? I just kind of just put my ear to the ground and see what people are interested in and ask a lot of questions. I've done a lot of polling on LinkedIn and surveys and I think that's gotten me more savvy about what people want to learn and yeah, I've definitely ran some webinars and things where I didn't have many people or zero show up and you know, it's again, it's just like, okay, that wasn't the right subject matter. I have to try something different.

Mary Killelea: Do you like teaching in person better than online or online better than in person?

Nedra Rezinas: I really do prefer it in person. Luckily that's becoming more common these days. But there, you know, there's definitely some value online. Especially when you have people from different parts of the world or country that you can't be physically there and that can be really valuable.

Mary Killelea: What do you say to encourage an audience of introverts to put themselves out and to engage, you know, either in person or online?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, I remember I wrote a whole blog post on this. I think it's like again playing to your strengths. Don't put yourself in situations that you feel like are going to kind of squelch you or make you feel like you're not going to work. So like for example, let's say you wanted to show up for this one networking event. I think one tactic could be you could try to help out and volunteer and have a role. So then you're it has more meaning and purpose and then you can show up earlier and get to know people and kind of warm up to the to the place and then and then you have like when you're meeting people it's like oh yeah I'm helping out I'm doing this and it it gives you kind of a sense of purpose. I think it really helps tremendously. So that's one tactic and then also being very picky about where you go and show up. Don't waste your time and I have like a one to two meeting rule whereas after two meetings if it's not working out stop going and try something different. I've definitely have attended a lot of different meetings and can say that you know you have to be really choosy and see where the leadership's and see what the point is and if you and then worst case scenario if you can't find one make your own group that's like you know and then you can pick and choose who's in it.

Mary Killelea: That is such great advice. Tactics. Yeah, I really like those. I like the volunteer one. How do you help clients move from consuming endless strategies to take real purposeful action in their marketing?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, I actually have been coaching some folks on that recently and I think it's good to take a pause, be like, all right, you signed up for all these different classes and courses and you know, you're following these people. What are you really getting from it? Is it just a distraction? I mean, you have to really look at yourself honestly and it can be very very uncomfortable and I've been there, too. And then think about it again, what are your strengths? What, you know, how do you like to learn? And what you know, put yourself in a situation where all right, what is your end goal for your business? Like what are you trying to accomplish? And how can you maybe ease into that with some little baby steps to help? I think one of the things that I teach people is, especially if you're going to be on social media, you have to put a timer and watch yourself and have like specific actions and then get the hell out. Like don't spend time there. Like that sucks, right? That's the rabbit hole. Like I have this analogy where I've told people like, you know, it's like hopping on social media without guidance is like having a big old bag of chips nearby that you like, I'm just going to eat a few and then you eat half the bag and feel horrible. I think that you can feel that way like you just hang out with social media for no purpose and just kind of scroll for a while and just are like, "Oh, why did I do that?" You know, kind of a similar feeling.

Mary Killelea: Oh my gosh. Yes. We were talking just the other day and after we talked, I went and got a timer. So, yeah. No, I am guilty of that. You also taught a class about detaching or putting social media down. kind of talk to me about that class and how?

Nedra Rezinas: I'm actually just finishing that beta testing and then I'm hoping to launch in the fall. So yeah. Again, it's like how a marketing person can put this together. So it's a it's a class focused on reducing your phone usage and your social media and a lot of it is helping you just be like why are you know is this part of it is like are you a little bit addicted you know like you have to kind of look at yourself and we all have some version of addiction to this because it's really meant to suck us in like they purposely built these apps and you know the way we interact with it our brains are just like I want more of that it's like it hits the dopamine levels it hits all the things and so you know kind of starting question start questioning why are you on it? What your habits are watching your habits and then what can you replace some of this with other healthier things they even have like a whole section about analog like having more analog things in your life and that actually influenced me to go buy a record player and that's like a whole new thing. It's very exciting to have music playing on a record player in our house. It feels different than listening to Spotify on a speaker. Then just creating new, yeah, creating new habits and not necessarily completely unplugging because that's not realistic, but how can you know maybe can you have like little breaks where you put your phone away for two hours, maybe you have a weekend without your phone that might involve camping or similar way to kind of prevent here's, you know, if you can get away from a Wi-Fi signal, that can help a lot, but and also building community around that and helping other people to create situations where you're not all on phones and you're detaching a bit and I think people are very hungry for that and building community and we're we're at a tipping point where we're we got to do something. This is not a healthy way to live.

Mary Killelea: Completely agree and I completely agree with the trend or desire for more community- based interactions. I'm witnessing that, you know, I mean there's just a real hunger for connections. Even the younger kids are saying it's so hard to meet people on these dating apps and so now they're you know you see all these popups at coffee shops now doing the running dating clubs. You are really good at being involved in the local market and have won you know awards within the Portland market. There's a new one that I saw you talking about and it was quiet networking.

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah.

Mary Killelea: Tell me more about this community and what's behind it and kind of how you see it helping people.

Nedra Rezinas: Right. So, I started up a women's networking group I think in 2016 after being frustrated about all the other ones I was trying to attend and just not finding my people. And so, again, like my husband challenged me. He's like, "Why don't you create your own?" And I'm like, "Oh, I guess that's an option." So, I just went to a meetup and then invited women and created this monthly in-person meetup. But it's definitely different, like I think what's important is that networking is going to follow a simpler path but yet different just having more structured networking which involves you know there's no more smoothing no more just going to open room and trying to find people. It's all like everything's everything's kind of laid out and there's usually a topic of the of the meeting where we'll do some deep dives and have the opportunity to meet and get together with smaller groups of women to talk through those questions and actually learn from each other and learn about resources and then that's a whole series of questions and you know meeting kind of grouping for like 10 minutes each and then having some reflection time and again resource sharing because I find And we could Google all day and try to use AI to find answers. But when it comes down, but I find best my best answers and solutions are from other people that are dealing with similar stuff and I feel like that that's been a bit broken and I want to bring that back and I think I think the time is now and I've seen a lot of people very interested in being part of this community.

Mary Killelea: I love it. Let's talk about personal branding. That's kind of something I focus on and certainly cover with the women that I interview on this podcast. Tell me how personal branding has benefited you if you're intentional with it and any tips that you have for women who may not like to be in the limelight but understand the value of having clarity in your messaging and you know because I think it's so much more than just being the loudest one in the room.

Nedra Rezinas: I mean love your I think it's important to again always know why you're posting on something like LinkedIn or you know why are you posting on social media and having that be the focus of like trying to I mean sometimes it's just to share information and be educational and that's great but you want to make sure it it ties in with your purpose and your values and your business or maybe the business you're representing. And it's also important to have really good imagery. And you know, I know some people are like, "Oh, that means I have to get my photos taken." And luckily, I think I'm seeing lately when I see women in photography, like women in photos for just even on LinkedIn, I'm seeing something a little bit more casual, like more realistic. And it's so refreshing because I had some photos taken about four years ago and it's definitely like wow you know I have my hair done I have my makeup done. It was like a whole thing. In fact I have a funny story I got to tell you Mary. I don't think I've told you this. So I went and got this done and this was like right in the middle of a pandemic when we were just not going out. I was not going out much and so to have my hair and makeup done and go to all these places to get my photo taken I was exhausted. So, I come home and I just want to see my family. Of course, I have my hair and makeup done and I come in. My daughter, she looks at me and she starts crying and I'm like, "What's the matter?" She's like, "You look like Maleficent. You don't look like my mom." You know, she's pretty young at this age. And I'm like, "Oh." And I'm just so tired. I'm just like, "Okay." And then I go say hi to my husband and he just makes a face like, "What is He's just like, "What's wrong?" like he's like he's like you look so weird and so I'm like all right I get the message so I immediately go wash all that makeup off my face and then proceed to pass out on the couch after all that emotional like ups and downs and just my family and it was an it was a big day and you know basically why I'm saying that is like I don't think luckily I'm seeing with photography and women I'm seeing that you don't have to go that full level I'm seeing a lot more relaxed and more like natural look so It's nice to see and I love my photos, don't get me wrong, but you know, I think you don't have to go that far and have really amazing imagery to show who you are and show show what you really look like. And whether that be in nature, you know, it's really important to have that be part of your background, whatever, you know, whatever feels good to you. And then just have some really good stock photography or other photos, even good nature photos. like that's something I really got into and I noticed like well if I'm going to speak to people like me I want to see more nature and so that's something that I've been playing with in my own branding and I think people notice it and they're they've commented on it and that's that's nice too. So I think you just have to figure out what works for you and don't get so caught up it has to be so professional or so amazing that's not I don't think that's the trend right now.

Mary Killelea: No, I think that's good advice. And one thing that I heard there was that you were emotionally drained and needed to recharge. And that's a real thing. I know my daughter, she has told me, "Mom, hey, I just need some time to recharge." And for someone who doesn't maybe understand or relate, it's good for her to be able to articulate that to me. So, how do you encourage people to advocate for themselves so that they do set the boundaries and can recharge?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, especially if you're really more introverted that that's something you want to make sure that's like pat into your day and you know and give yourself space and let people know around you that I just need to I just need to sit for a moment by myself whatever that looks like, you know, and you're let them know that I'll come back to you and I'll be there for you. I just need this for me.

Mary Killelea: Yeah. No, I love it when she articulates it because it helps me understand her instead of me going into I don't know. Yeah. Mode or whatever mode I currently am in at the moment. So, I'm starting to better understand that. What does being bolder mean to you?

Nedra Rezinas: Oh, yeah. And I know that's the name of your podcast. I think it's being willing to step up even if you're afraid and know that you can take small actions to take take it to the next level and that you there's there usually some you know you can there's there's usually a lot more community out there and people supporting you than you realize and so there's I think there's a lot of opportunity in that and I just it makes me think of like women working together and helping each other. I don't know. It's kind of the thoughts I have when I think about your podcast and just what's behind it. Like there's, you know, because one thing I've learned is you shouldn't try to do everything by yourself. It's really exhausting and most successful people have not achieved it that way.

Mary Killelea: I love it. If someone's listening today feels stuck or scared to be seen or unsure of how to market themselves authentically, what's one bold step that you would encourage them to take?

Nedra Rezinas: I would have them ask their clients, you know, some good questions like, "What brought me to you? What made you decide to work with you? Like what, you know, why did you hire me?" Get some real answers from people that you really respect and there's usually some really good gems in that like how they liked how you wrote your newsletter or they said, "Oh yeah, so and so said you're amazing so I trusted them." like there's usually going to be some really interesting insights and I think that will help you get closer to more authenticity than trying to do amazing blog posts or do amazing social media posts like you know and then also I think authenticity is like being true to people. So having really focusing on your relationships more and really connecting to people on a human level is a big part of it too.

Mary Killelea: Have you had mentors over the years?

Nedra Rezinas: Oh, well, I sure have mentors.

Mary Killelea: I mean, versus coaches or have you had coaches, too? I mean, how have you intentionally sought out growth for yourself?

Nedra Rezinas: Yeah, I've had a combination, you know. Definitely a yeah I've had and you know a lot of times I've found women in my life you know that are older than me and I like you know want to spend time with them so I find ways to hang out with them or you know respectfully ask them for advice and but you know it's been a combination of like business coaches and people that have kind of intersected my life and sometimes they're in their my life short for a short amount of time and sometimes they're there for a long time. So, yeah, it just depends. But, yeah, I think it's important to find people that you can relate with and respect their time and just be really thoughtful about asking questions. And I think sometimes what happens is there's a natural like relationship that can happen between someone older, someone younger. And even with like you know I teach a lot at different universities and it's wonderful to mentor students and be there for them and sometimes it's not like a full-on you know year-long relationship or like that or you know maybe it's just a few sessions but a few hours but it can be really impactful and I think reverse can happen too when you're looking for someone and even if you can just have a little bit of time with that person it can be that's all you need. You know.

Mary Killelea: It has been so fun to go down this memory lane with you. How can people learn more about you and connect with you?

Nedra Rezinas: My website's a good one. And then I'm on LinkedIn a lot.

Mary Killelea: All right. I'll make sure that both of those links are in the show notes. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Some great insights today.

Nedra Rezinas: Thanks, Mary. It was fun.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today. It was really fun chatting with my guest. If you liked our show, please like it and share it with your friends. If you want to learn what we're up to, please go check out our website at 2bbolder.com. That's the number 2 little bbolder.com.