CONNECTION STORIES

Throughout this month I've shared (and maybe lectured?) you about how and why you should be prioritizing your connections and your relationship marketing.

Thought it was time you heard from other voices - specifically, the voices of successful small business owners that I admire, respect, and am lucky enough to count as my friends and collaborators.

Sometimes it's easy to discount all this relationship building as too hard and as things no one else needs to bother with - but if you know these women, you know they've built powerhouse businesses. And as they're sharing here, they've done it through relationship marketing.

Check out their stories below.

Shannon Mattern

Shannon Mattern shares her story of how she stumbled into relationship marketing - and how looking back, every milestone she's hit in her business has been a result of relationships and connections, while every time she's stalled out it's been because she tried to rely on only traffic marketing.

Shannon Mattern is the founder of Anchor High and the Web Designer Academy. She can be found at Shannon Mattern.

Amelia Hruby

Amelia shares her story of how starting small lead to the biggest visibility breakthrough of her career - a breakthrough that didn't come from building a huge audience, but from investing in relationships.

Amelia Hruby, PhD is a feminist author, educator, podcaster, and the executive producer at Softer Sounds. She can be found at Amelia Hruby.

Michelle Martello

Michelle shares the story of how a recent organic collaboration designed to help her audience through a confusing time - the proliferation of AI in design - led to brand new opportunities with new and previous clients. =