Event Summaries
Documenting progress, one event at a time.
Event Summaries
Documenting progress, one event at a time.
Event Summaries
Documenting progress, one event at a time.
Entrepreneur Workshop: Marketing That Actually Moves the Needle
A two-hour, high-energy marketing workshop was facilitated by Kate and Becky from Wild Acres Marketing & Design for CORE entrepreneurs. The session was designed to move past marketing buzzwords and help founders build straightforward, practical plans ready for immediate execution.
Key Discussion Points:
The Marketing Iceberg: We explored why the visible "execution layer" (ads, flyers, social posts) only works if the submerged "strategic core" (goals, messaging, brand identity) is firmly established first. The overarching principle: you can't fix the top if the bottom is broken.
Mapping the Customer Journey: We broke down the simple path of how people buy into three stages: Find, Trust, and Try. Entrepreneurs completed an interactive exercise to map their specific marketing channels, ensuring they meet customers at the discovery (Find), evaluation (Trust), and conversion (Try) stages.
Crafting Your Value Proposition: Participants received live coaching to distill their messaging into a clear, one-sentence format. We used the value formula—"I help [WHO] achieve [WHAT] so they can [BENEFIT]"—so a stranger can instantly understand why their business matters.
Next Steps:
Execute Your Next Move: Every attendee left the workshop with one concrete, actionable move to implement immediately in the week ahead.
Leverage the Mini-Grant: A $1,000 Network Kansas technical assistance grant was introduced during the session. Entrepreneurs can apply this resource to fund dedicated, one-on-one marketing support to help execute their new strategies.
Lawrence Public Library
18
Entrepreneur Work Session
As a group in a roundtable format, understand each entrepreneur's specific pain points, discuss possible solutions, and document next steps so the entrepreneur and CORE understand how to make meaningful progress.
Key Discussion Points:
The Power of the Hot Seat: Six of our driven entrepreneurs stepped up in a structured 10-minute round-robin format, sharing their current business roadblocks and tapping into the collective genius of the group to brainstorm real-time solutions.
Taming the Inventory Beast: A major theme of the night was the headache of multi-platform inventory management. We discussed the real struggles of trying to sync e-commerce sites (like Wix) with POS systems (like Square) and third-party vendor platforms without losing your mind.
Leveling Up Brand Identity: We dove into the creative process, discussing what it takes to successfully rebrand, pivot product lines, and work effectively with hired designers to capture your vision.
Mastering B2B Marketing: We tackled the unique challenges of B2B lead generation, the search for affordable advertising that actually converts, and how to start implementing AI to fix inefficient business processes.
Next Steps:
Take Action on Tech: Entrepreneurs facing integration roadblocks are tasked with scheduling immediate follow-up calls with tech support (e.g., Square) to untangle their multi-platform setups.
Keep Pushing Creative Boundaries: Those in the rebranding phase need to finalize their upcoming meetings with their designers to lock in their new brand assets. Keep the momentum going!
Prepare for the B2B Workshop: CORE is actively planning a dedicated B2B marketing workshop based on tonight's feedback—keep an eye out for those details.
Lawrence Public Library
13
Entrepreneur Workshop: Marketing That Actually Moves the Needle
A two-hour, high-energy marketing workshop was facilitated by Kate and Becky from Wild Acres Marketing & Design for CORE entrepreneurs. The session was designed to move past marketing buzzwords and help founders build straightforward, practical plans ready for immediate execution.
Key Discussion Points:
The Marketing Iceberg: We explored why the visible "execution layer" (ads, flyers, social posts) only works if the submerged "strategic core" (goals, messaging, brand identity) is firmly established first. The overarching principle: you can't fix the top if the bottom is broken.
Mapping the Customer Journey: We broke down the simple path of how people buy into three stages: Find, Trust, and Try. Entrepreneurs completed an interactive exercise to map their specific marketing channels, ensuring they meet customers at the discovery (Find), evaluation (Trust), and conversion (Try) stages.
Crafting Your Value Proposition: Participants received live coaching to distill their messaging into a clear, one-sentence format. We used the value formula—"I help [WHO] achieve [WHAT] so they can [BENEFIT]"—so a stranger can instantly understand why their business matters.
Next Steps:
Execute Your Next Move: Every attendee left the workshop with one concrete, actionable move to implement immediately in the week ahead.
Leverage the Mini-Grant: A $1,000 Network Kansas technical assistance grant was introduced during the session. Entrepreneurs can apply this resource to fund dedicated, one-on-one marketing support to help execute their new strategies.
Lawrence Public Library
18
Entrepreneur Work Session
As a group in a roundtable format, understand each entrepreneur's specific pain points, discuss possible solutions, and document next steps so the entrepreneur and CORE understand how to make meaningful progress.
Key Discussion Points:
The Power of the Hot Seat: Six of our driven entrepreneurs stepped up in a structured 10-minute round-robin format, sharing their current business roadblocks and tapping into the collective genius of the group to brainstorm real-time solutions.
Taming the Inventory Beast: A major theme of the night was the headache of multi-platform inventory management. We discussed the real struggles of trying to sync e-commerce sites (like Wix) with POS systems (like Square) and third-party vendor platforms without losing your mind.
Leveling Up Brand Identity: We dove into the creative process, discussing what it takes to successfully rebrand, pivot product lines, and work effectively with hired designers to capture your vision.
Mastering B2B Marketing: We tackled the unique challenges of B2B lead generation, the search for affordable advertising that actually converts, and how to start implementing AI to fix inefficient business processes.
Next Steps:
Take Action on Tech: Entrepreneurs facing integration roadblocks are tasked with scheduling immediate follow-up calls with tech support (e.g., Square) to untangle their multi-platform setups.
Keep Pushing Creative Boundaries: Those in the rebranding phase need to finalize their upcoming meetings with their designers to lock in their new brand assets. Keep the momentum going!
Prepare for the B2B Workshop: CORE is actively planning a dedicated B2B marketing workshop based on tonight's feedback—keep an eye out for those details.
Lawrence Public Library
13