Marketing Mastery with Bridget Romo

Welcome back to Proof It’s Possible! In this episode, we’re diving into the fast-paced, ever-evolving world of marketing—from social media strategies to the real challenges entrepreneurs face behind the scenes. We sit down with marketing strategist Bridget Romo to unpack what it really takes for small businesses to stand out in today’s crowded market. Bridget shares her inspiring journey into the marketing world and why understanding your ideal client is the first step to success. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your message, this conversation is full of powerful insights and actionable tips. Tune in to discover:

• How Bridget Romo went from curious creative to marketing expert—and why her passion for helping small businesses fuels her work.
• The power of niching down and why trying to speak to everyone means connecting with no one.
• Why social media isn’t just a nice-to-have—and how to use it to actually grow your business.
• The top mistakes small businesses make when marketing themselves (and how to avoid them).
• What it really takes to create a cohesive marketing strategy that aligns with your vision and your audience.
• Honest reflections on the challenges of entrepreneurship—and how clarity and connection can make all the difference.

What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now? We’d love to hear! DM us on Instagram @dayle_sheehan_designs & @jamiedfrancis! See you next time!

This episode is sponsored by our Ultimate Girls Trip! Be sure to go to www.proofitspossible.com for more info

Connect with Bridget:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

For More Information:
• Proof It's Possible Website
• The Ultimate Girls Trip Instagram

Dayle:
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website
• Interior Design

Jamie:
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website

Transcript

Jamie (00:00)
Hi everyone, welcome back to Proof It's Possible. I'm so excited, because today we have my friend Bridget Romo. Her and I met, well, okay. Her and I met, ⁓ I don't know, four or five years ago in Scottsdale, Arizona, one of my favorite places, and we have been business friends ever since. So Bridget, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do?

Dayle Sheehan (00:08)
My friend too.

Bridget Romo (00:27)
Hi guys, thank you so much for having me. I wish I could hug you in person. It's been too long since I've seen you, but thank you for having me. I do marketing leadership, a very fancy way for saying I come in and I help look at all of the different pieces of your business that are being marketed and we create strategies and plans and execute them to get a great ROI and make sure your customers know what you do. Short story. ⁓

Jamie (00:32)
now.

Dayle Sheehan (00:51)
Amazing.

So what got you into this business? Like have you always done marketing or what led you here to being the expert and doing such a good job of it?

Bridget Romo (01:01)
Well, thank you. I started marketing like 10 years ago. I was one of those that loved social media when it first came out. I was always creating content. And at the time I was heavily involved in the fitness industry and I was working with a fitness team and I started setting up photo shoots and helping models build like portfolios. That was my first business. And ⁓ I had this model one day ask me, she's like, hey, can you run your social media? Cause I really like how you present yourself.

like all the branding and things that you do for yourself. And I said, well, I don't do social media. do like photo shoot stuff. She's like, I'll pay you. And I was like, the entrepreneur in me is like, well, how much? So she was my first client and I learned so much like how to write beyond for on behalf of a personality, like how to shoot videos, how to keep coming up with content ideas. And then she referred me and then another person referred me and it became my Sunday night, weeknight hustle. I was working two jobs at the time, two corporate jobs at the time. And

Dayle Sheehan (01:39)
Yeah.

Bridget Romo (02:01)
I quit one to work at this one that promised me so much money, all these things, and ended up getting laid off, even though my friend owned the company, was your business's business, no hard feelings there, but it really kind of reinforced a feeling that I've already always had, that your own security is the security that you make. so I cried for a moment, went online, made business cards, and the next business day, as soon as they got in there, I went and looked up every,

free networking event that I could find. And I just hit the ground running, going to everything and just building my business the first year. I will tell you it was very awful and very hard, cried and wondered if I should go work at McDonald's, if I should get a job at Starbucks. And the company that laid me off called me three times asking me to come back. And I always said no. I was like, I was committed to making this work. And after about a year, nine months to a year, I started just landing clients and then grew from there. I...

I was asked if I ever had, I only asked one time if I had a degree in marketing and I have a degree from the University of YouTube because I just started learning and searching and everything I didn't know I figured out because somebody wasn't gatekeeping. So that's kind how I got into owning and running my own business.

Dayle Sheehan (03:18)
So in the marketing world, I mean, I love, I like social media, but I don't like making content all the time. So, and I feel like a lot of our listeners are in the same boat that like, we don't know if we're making the right content. We don't know how to make content. don't, one day reels are in one day, you know, all that stuff is social media still super important or is it something that's, you know, just part of a bigger marketing plan.

Bridget Romo (03:45)
Yeah, it's definitely still more, it's still important. would say even for me, think about how you spend your time on your phone. When you open it up, are you going to Google and browsing websites or are you going to like your Instagrams and your Facebooks and your TikToks? Like all of us automatically go to social media. I think just to check on what's going on, see who's doing what, who's on vacation, who's working hard, all that, you know, what jewelry do I want to buy today? So I think we're social media still super relative and super important.

Yes, we should still be creating content.

Dayle Sheehan (04:17)
Amazing. ⁓ Do you like, how does it look to work with somebody like you? Like I, this is the thing, like I feel like there's a lot of businesses that let sales and like marketing go to the wayside. what, and like asking for our listeners, but also asking for myself, what does it even look like to hire somebody in this role when you're a small business? And obviously it is more in a consultant situation.

Bridget Romo (04:31)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (04:45)
I'm assuming is it in person? it online? Like what are the how does it look? What is the process look with you?

Bridget Romo (04:52)
Yeah, perfect. Thanks. That's a great question, ⁓ Dale. So as a marketing, I'd like to say marketing leadership and but a combination of consulting, right? Because in order to lead, I have to understand where you're at and what you need. So I tend to work with businesses at a revenue of five million and above because they're usually at a point where they've maybe the founder has worn all the hats. He's in the marketing. He's done the sales. He's done the operations. And now he needs to start delegating some of those roles off.

So it can look like a couple of different ways, but usually it starts with a consult, consultation. Let's see where you're at. Where do you need the most help? Do you have systems in place? Do we need to build out some systems? ⁓ Do you have a strategy that just needs to be executed? Cause nothing's worse than having a full fledged, here's your marketing strategy and then you're like, you're left to go do it. So I will come in, assess everything that's going on. If you need a strategy, we build that out. I like to work backwards. Like, are you trying to sell more product? Are you trying to get...

more visibility, where are you and what is your challenge right now? And then once we solve that, ⁓ there's a couple different ways. either, if you have a marketing team in place, I will lead them and help everybody make sure they have a clear role and clear understanding of what their projects are. If there is no ⁓ people there to execute, I help you build out your team or we use a combination of my team to make sure that everything is properly executed.

So it could be a little bit heavy in the front if we're just evaluating doing all the work ahead of time. And then you can also just keep me on as a retainer where we just make sure we're measuring everything, we're tracking all the progress and making sure all the deadlines and the milestones are being met. So does that answer your question?

Dayle Sheehan (06:33)
Yes, it totally does.

Jamie (06:34)
So for anybody who's listening and they're like, okay, I haven't met the five million threshold and I'm a small business and they have all of their Yabbat stories kind of brewing in the back of their head like, oh, it'd be so nice to hire somebody like this Yabbat.

You know, can't afford to have a big team like that. I don't have the energy for it. I can't train somebody. I can't do all of the things. What are some of the ways in which you can immediately stop those Yabba stories and add like value today?

Bridget Romo (07:04)
Sure, well I think there's a couple things. I think sometimes we put marketing on such a big pedestal and it really doesn't have to be super expensive. think depending on where you're at, there's always a D, do it yourself. But we're all in limited time budgets, right? We don't have that. ⁓ When I was still small and couldn't afford the whole execution thing of hiring somebody else to do all my work, ⁓ I would hire people who just come out of college. I would go on Fiverr.

I would find different ways to get some stuff off my plate for as little as possible. And I would use a lot of international BAs or international people. And you can't frown on that because they're more than happy to work for American companies, right? They're delighted to have work at their, usually above their normal pick rate. So that was the first thing I did. ⁓ But if you're still not even at that level, the first thing I would tell you to do is,

go check all of your platforms. Like is everything cohesive across it? Cause one of the biggest things I see coming into companies is that somebody's only updating Facebook, Instagram's been left to the wayside. Maybe somebody uploaded one or two videos on TikTok and the website hasn't been updated since 1999. So step one is make sure.

Jamie (08:22)
Well, and I will

say, I will say that from personal experience, if I tried to book a service, let's just say like I'm trying to get, you know, a pedicure or manicure and I go and I try to look up, like I drove by a place and I looked them up and they only have a Facebook. I'm like, Ooh, I don't, you need to have a website. I feel like you need to have a website. And then if I go onto your website and it doesn't match your Facebook or vice versa, I'm always like, but is this legitimate business or like.

Bridget Romo (08:41)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (08:41)
Mm-hmm.

Bridget Romo (08:49)
Did I get the right company?

Jamie (08:51)
Are they giving much time and attention to it? I don't know, your marketing is really a reflection of your business in general. So if you don't have the time to get all of your platforms cohesive, then it just maybe perhaps sends the wrong message. Or maybe your branding is your old branding and you've changed and you've pivoted your focus and all of the things and now you're not attracting the right client. So I will say that is like a tip. Everyone that's listening.

Bridget Romo (08:58)
percent.

Correct.

Jamie (09:18)
Take your phone out right now, go onto your website. Is your logo updated? Does it match your Facebook? Does it match your Instagram? Does it match your TikTok? Is your bio the same? Like all of the things that she's saying, make sure that it looks the same on each one of them. That's an amazing tip. Thank you.

Dayle Sheehan (09:33)
Yeah. I actually have one more question about that. Do you, would you recommend, so I'm a struggling, busy business owner. I am a one woman show. Do you think that I should be not having TikTok because I don't have time to manage it properly. I don't have time to make TikTok specific content as part of my marketing strategy, or should I just put whatever I put on Instagram on all the platforms and then

Bridget Romo (09:33)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dayle Sheehan (10:02)
from that like what

Bridget Romo (10:05)
Sure. Here's kind of my rule around that. ⁓ I look at where do I or where do the clients spend the most time? Which apps? I have TikTok, but I hardly ever open TikTok. And part of that is like, I just don't need another doom scroll place to go. So if you're not already super versed on TikTok, it's like learning a new app. There's so many things now that go into TikTok. It's really evolved over the last few years. So if you're not already super savvy with it, I would say,

Dayle Sheehan (10:06)
What do think?

Jamie (10:23)
Uh-huh.

Bridget Romo (10:35)
maybe ditch it for now until you have help with the content creation side of things. If you're all the way in on Instagram and that's where you spend most of your time scrolling, watching people's stories, you kind of already have a good understanding of how the app works. So you're gonna be able to be the most efficient there. ⁓ Sometimes when we're starting new things, I thought I would try and start editing videos for myself and downloaded Adobe Premiere after one Saturday or day of so many efforts and I can't do this and I think I got the wrong computer. I was just like,

This is why I hire this stuff out instead of trying to learn something new. So I would say focus on where you're already comfortable and then until you can have some support to start building content into these other apps or ⁓ have somebody else helping you with content creation, just stick where you're comfortable because that's where you can be the most consistent.

Dayle Sheehan (11:07)
you

Jamie (11:24)
Do you think it's true ⁓ that, like I've heard quite a bit, that Facebook is for like the boomers and then Instagram is for like the middle-agers, like our age, and then TikToks for like the younger, teenager-y, really 20s, yeah, Snapchat. Would you say that that...

Bridget Romo (11:39)
And Snapchat.

Dayle Sheehan (11:42)
Yes.

Jamie (11:44)
from your experience that has been true that like marketing is most successful for things that are the target audience is like younger adults and teenagers is better on TikTok and you know all the different age categories.

Bridget Romo (11:55)
Yeah, I think so too. that whenever I'm looking at a company's ⁓ ideal client or whatever their audience is, we take that. I take that into consideration. I'm like, where are your people hanging out? If we're selling cool Nike shoes or cool sneakers, we're not going to be on LinkedIn and Facebook, right? We're going to be like, how do we make really super cool content for Snapchat and TikTok? So that definitely plays a role into when you're looking at who your ideal audience is in that age range, which as a business owner or selling any sort of thing you should have.

your ideal avatar already planned out, out and know exactly who you're talking to. But that definitely plays a role into where you should spend your time creating content. Because I see that, you know, my son, he's 15, he mostly spends his time on Snapchat. And it's a lot more than just Snapchat. Now they have AI tools built in there. They have their own versions of Instagram and stories and all those things. So everybody's kind of congregated to their app that came out in their era.

Dayle Sheehan (12:55)
For sure. I have a question of, yeah.

Jamie (12:55)
Absolutely. I feel so, I feel

so handcuffed, like willingly handcuffed to Instagram that I'm like, I don't, I've tried to scroll TikTok like, because people are like, it's a great search engine. And if you're looking up, you know, beautiful places to visit, you should go on TikTok. And I tried it I'm like, no, I am, I am married to Instagram. Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (13:02)
Same.

Me too.

Bridget Romo (13:13)
Yeah, it feels a little overwhelming, right? Yeah, yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (13:13)
Mm-hmm.

It

does. Oh, it completely does. And then like to throw another wrench in it, there's LinkedIn. There's, you know, like there, there's even more like business type ones that I imagine certain businesses, LinkedIn makes a ton of sense for, but other businesses, doesn't make any sense for. I, uh, I actually had a theory when I was single that I thought LinkedIn was just a dating site. Cause there'd be people that would like message me when I, and they'd be absolutely nothing to do with wanting an interior designer.

Bridget Romo (13:32)
Yeah.

Really?

Dayle Sheehan (13:46)
website designer and I'm like, what is happening here? This is, doesn't feel right. They are. You're right. You're right. Probably.

Bridget Romo (13:46)
No.

Jamie (13:49)
I think all of the social media platforms are borderline dating website.

Bridget Romo (13:49)
lesson.

Yes, you have a pretty,

I'm sure you had a really pretty profile picture. So you're like, Ooh, I need an interior designer or do I? ⁓

Dayle Sheehan (14:00)
Exactly. Exactly. What

back to the question about for the person listening that says, I honestly don't know who I'm selling to. How do you find your how do you dial in on somebody's ideal client when they feel like they're they don't have a niche whatsoever. They're basically like, I want to sell this to anybody to anyone that will buy it.

Bridget Romo (14:11)
Mmm.

Jamie (14:23)
you

Bridget Romo (14:23)
A realtor.

Realtor's are like...

Dayle Sheehan (14:25)
Yeah, exactly. Like I just want

customers. I don't know who it is and I don't really care. I just need buyers. ⁓ Is it super important to know exactly who and how do you figure out?

Bridget Romo (14:31)
Yeah.

Yeah, can we use realtors as an example? Is that okay? No disrespect to realtors. used to do tons of networking ⁓ in person. I travel quite a bit, so it's a little bit harder for me to commit to meetings now. But when I was heavy on that, which is a great way to build your business, by the way, you get to hear how people present their business, their elevator pitches or their...

Dayle Sheehan (14:38)
Sure. Yeah, that's the radio.

Jamie (14:39)
Yes, please.

Bridget Romo (14:57)
of life story books, depending on how skilled they are at speaking. So you would be hearing all these different people. We've had those experiences in the rooms, right? You hear somebody, some of them you remember, some by the time they're done, you're like, what did they do and what was their name like? So it's very important that you dial in on who it is that you serve and how it helps. And actually our mutual friends, Chris Harder and Laurie Harder, I was listening to their podcast and they were talking about this very thing when you're networking, like how you have to have it dialed in.

Jamie (15:11)
Mm-hmm.

Bridget Romo (15:25)
so that people can actually remember. You don't want to speak some like jargon that only your industry understands. But realtors would always say, I just need a body, or I just anybody anywhere in Houston. Well, Houston is like two hours. I live in Houston, Texas from top to bottom with no traffic. So you're not going to live in the North of Houston and go show a $200,000 house in Sugarland, which is super far away. So I would always tell realtors like, Hey, are you like, let's dial this in.

Where do you actually want to serve your community? Because we all know you're already putting a shit ton of miles on your car. ⁓ So where do you actually want to serve? And then what is your personality? Are you like 30 and just fresh out of corporate America? Are you 60 and you've been doing this for a long time and kind of matching personality with who they're going to attract? So that was kind of one of the things that we would look at. It's just like, OK, if you're bilingual, we can serve a different community than

Jamie (16:16)
No.

Dayle Sheehan (16:17)
Mm-hmm.

Bridget Romo (16:24)
this person down Betty over here. So instead of saying that I can, I just need a body, just be like, I help people who are moving from California. Like I'm an expert on all things for people coming in from California. I am an expert on moving you from an air, you know, an apartment into your first starter homes are like, Oh, I only work with families. only work with veterans. I work with the 16th of ever. I help you sell your estates. So there's always a way you can niche down. And that doesn't mean you're not going to help somebody who's outside of your niche.

Jamie (16:43)
Bye.

Bridget Romo (16:53)
And I think that's what a lot of people get afraid of is like, hey, if I'm outside of this niche now, Betty's not gonna call me or Joe blow down the road is not gonna call me. So don't be afraid to niche and think you're gonna rule out anybody who's outside of that.

Jamie (17:07)
That is such a good tip because I feel like entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter your industry, but when you first start out, you're like, I literally need two feet in a heartbeat. I need someone saying, yes, I need a buyer. I don't care what they look like. I don't care where they live. I don't care what they do. Like you, you literally are just like ready to receive a yes or like I want to buy or whatever it is that you're selling. And you are, you almost come across as like desperate.

Bridget Romo (17:15)
Yes.

Yeah. We've all been there. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jamie (17:35)
You're

Dayle Sheehan (17:35)
for sure.

Jamie (17:36)
just willing to accept anybody who says yes and then it can really get you into hot water because it teaches you really quickly who you don't want and then you're like, why do I keep attracting all these people that I don't want? Well, because you haven't niche down. And I will say even with that really true story, we, the city that I live in, there's like beautiful ski hill 45 minutes away. And I have, I know this lady who exclusively sells up at Big White, which is the ski hill.

And she, her name is everywhere up there. And I'm like, wow, that's such a strange place. Cause it's not a big community. There's not a ton of residences to sell there, but she's a realtor and she has like mastered that market. And I'm like, it's brilliant really, because it is such a small community. Her sign feels like it's on every house that's for sale. So Nishing is.

Bridget Romo (18:19)
Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. And I think

people, if you're looking for somebody to come in and work on your business, you want an expert in that space. So how you saw yourself and how you present yourself is going to be like, somebody will be able to find you way easier if you speak a certain type of language and you drop or you're consistently saying, I help solve this problem or I serve this person. You're going to really those people be able to find you. If you keep saying, I just need

Jamie (18:28)
for sure.

Bridget Romo (18:46)
a person and I'm open to anything, nobody's going to find you. So back to SEO. I mean, it's more like SEO. Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (18:52)
Yeah,

exactly.

Jamie (18:53)
I wish I could

chat with you for 10 more hours because I think you're brilliant and you have amazing tips, but our time has come to a close unless you have anything more to add, Dale.

Bridget Romo (18:56)
I know.

Dayle Sheehan (18:57)
Yes.

I just want, I have one more question. What was your proof it's possible moment in your journey that you were like, okay, I don't have to go work at McDonald's. I can stick with entrepreneurship and like, it's hard, but I'm, I'm going to do it because this thing reminded me.

Bridget Romo (19:13)
No.

Yeah, that's such a good question. And I think as an entrepreneur, we always have to stop and ask that question sometimes. I think, I mean, I probably had a few moments, but I will also say one of the things I've always challenged myself personally is I will say yes and then figure it out. And as I go, right. So I committed to a new apartment that's in six months and it's out of my current price range. If I'm being totally transparent and honest.

But it's kind of like lighting a fire under my booty. I'm like, okay, now I know what I need to do to get there. But as far as like proof it's possible moments, I will just say real quick, I had these young ladies that were visiting with my brother this weekend. And she was working for a small minimum, not close to minimum wage amount. And she's single mom, divorced. And she's like, so you do this all by yourself? Like you're a single mom and you have this nice place in your car and you run your own business? She's like, how did you do that?

I don't stop very often to reflect on how much I've been blessed with and how much I've worked with, because I'm always, an entrepreneur, was looking for the next milestone, like I just said, the next department or the next level. ⁓ But that was a really cool reminder to me to be like, hey, I am doing this and I have done this and I am successful and there's just levels. And it was a really cool reminder and I need to add that to my gratitude to be a little bit ⁓ more conscious of how far I've come.

Jamie (20:44)
But isn't that

so fun that you can be somebody else's proof it's possible? Like they're looking to you to be like, this could be me if I just changed my dreams, if I just did the thing, if I just got courageous. So I love that. And you are, you are proof it's possible. You're amazing.

Bridget Romo (20:48)
Yeah, that was that moment.

Dayle Sheehan (20:54)
Yeah.

Bridget Romo (20:55)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (20:57)
Me too.

Bridget Romo (21:00)
Thank

Dayle Sheehan (21:01)
I can't wait to see your new rooftop beautiful penthouse apartment. Yay.

Bridget Romo (21:03)
Girls, you guys gotta come visit me in Texas. Yes, it's gonna be

Jamie (21:06)
Well,

Bridget Romo (21:06)
fun.

Jamie (21:06)
and I'd like love that you're just, you know, throwing it out to the universe that you're ready for your next level up.

Bridget Romo (21:11)
Yes.

Yep. Yep. It's going to be down the street. I'm going to share a sidewalk with the Ritz-Carlton residences. So you're going to be high vibing.

Dayle Sheehan (21:20)
Amazing.

Jamie (21:20)
Amazing! Yes!

Dayle Sheehan (21:23)
I love

good for you girl. You're yeah you guys if you want more about more want to know more about Bridget where can they find you?

Bridget Romo (21:32)
BridgetterisRomo on Instagram or BridgerRomo, you'll find me. And then that's links to my business and everything else. So just you find Bridget, you'll find the rest of my platforms and business.

Dayle Sheehan (21:44)
Awesome. Thank you for being here.

Jamie (21:45)
Thank you for coming. Bye. ⁓

Bridget Romo (21:46)
Thank you for having me. Appreciate you ladies. Bye.

Dayle Sheehan (21:49)
Yeah.