40. Scaling Your Business Beyond Media with Denise Bedell
EPISODE 40
Denise Bedell shares her journey pivoting from media to entrepreneurship as the founder of Content Innovo, helping businesses share their content and tell stories worldwide.
Catch the Conversation
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Denise Bedell, shares her journey pivoting from media to entrepreneurship as the founder of Content Innovo, helping businesses share their content and tell stories worldwide.
Denise is an EPPY-nominated journalist and editor, who has been telling the stories of global companies and public institutions for 20+ years. She is a regular speaker at industry events and a global consultant on content marketing strategy and intentional content development. She was previously the executive editor of Global Finance magazine and is the author of Successful Exit Strategies For The Insurance Industry—a seminal guide for insurers and reinsurers.You can find out more about Content Innovo on their website.
You can also connect with Denise on LinkedIn.
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0:00
Welcome to Figure Eight
1:03
From Journalism to Entrepreneurship
4:45
Filling the Innovation Ecosystem Gap
11:50
Evolution of Leadership Role
16:33
Building an Inclusive Culture
22:20
Operationalizing Go-to-Market Strategy
25:40
Scaling with Purpose and Flexibility
31:52
Episode Wrap-up and Resources
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Julie: 0:04
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you're in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur and a growth and leadership coach who co-founded, grew and exited an eight-figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things, and that led to my book Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going.
Julie: 1:03
Hello and welcome to this episode of Figure 8. Today, I'm joined by Denise Bedell. Denise is an EPPY-nominated journalist and editor who has been telling the stories of global companies and public institutions for over 20 years. She's a regular speaker at industry events and her business Content Innovo is helping businesses share their content and tell stories around the world, and I'm so keen to talk to her today and hear about her journey and how we got here. So welcome, Denise.
Denise: 1:36
Thanks for having me, Julie. I'm really excited to speak today.
Julie: 1:39
Thanks, so much Tell me what it was like making a pivot out of sort of media and journalism into entrepreneurship. Well, it was quite a big one to start with, right.
Denise: 1:54
Yeah, absolutely so. So luckily, I had actually run a business before, a very small business, a bakery window in a cafe. So I had some background in running a business. But going from being, you know, a journalist and talking about companies to having my own company was a huge pivot for me.
Denise: 2:24
You know, when you go into the entrepreneurial experience you don't necessarily have that full skill set. You know, like I had never done sales really aside from at the bakery, which is a very different thing than service sales. I had never, you know, handled a large scale operation. I had never, you know, there are so many different hats that you have to wear as an entrepreneur and I really just kind of had to learn on the job, you know, which I think most entrepreneurs really do. Luckily, I was able to kind of take advantage of some of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Canada, which is wonderful, it's so supportive. That's how you and I met, of course, going through the Beyond Boundaries program, and you were one of our mentors, which we absolutely appreciated, and definitely experiences like that going through having those resources, going through accelerators and things like that were very critical to helping me understand the kind of bigger picture of making that leap and moving from you know, writing to running a company.
Julie: 3:24
Yeah, because it is a big leap right and I think that you know when you look at so I'm kind of fascinated because not only did you take advantage of you know programming and opportunities that were available to you as a startup entrepreneur, but you also saw a market opportunity in helping other women startup entrepreneurs with the things they were struggling with.
Denise: 3:48
Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, when we started Content Innovo, we were really focused on the enterprise space. So my background had been working with large companies, telling their stories, you know, writing about corporate finance and corporate. You know the life cycle of a corporate. So that was where my network was. So when I started, when I launched, I was really focused on the enterprise space.
Denise: 4:15
But going through some of the accelerators in here in Ontario and then building that network, I recognized that there was something, there was an opportunity there, that there was a gap that needed to be filled and that, you know, we had an opportunity to fill it.
Denise: 4:33
So we decided, you know, a few years ago, to talking to entrepreneurs, talking to everyone in our network about what the challenges were, you know, coming through the innovation ecosystem, and where that gap was and how we could help fill it.
Denise: 4:55
And what we really saw was that there was a challenge for accelerators themselves, for their clients and for their mentors, because every company came into it at a different stage. They had different, different, different setup. They they may have understood their go to market strategy. They may not have. They might have come from a business background, they may have had no background in sales, marketing or content strategy, and so when mentors were working with clients, every client was different and every client was at a different phase in their evolution. So we saw an opportunity to really kind of level that playing field and create a very structured approach to building go-to-market strategy and having all of those companies come to their, to their mentorship and advisory process with that level playing field, with all those assets and all those, all those pieces in place in order to more effectively work with their mentors and move through the program.
Julie: 5:55
Right and that's so interesting because obviously I mean selling to like a large multinational and and how customized and, quite frankly, expensive a program and very bespoke right. It's a bespoke kind of a thing compared to entrepreneurs who need. You have to find a way to sort of package it up and systemize it so that it can be affordable for a startup yeah, no, absolutely.
Denise: 6:25
Um.
Denise: 6:25
So what we did is we just created a very structured, streamlined approach.
Denise: 6:30
So we would, you know, have each of the entrepreneurs, each of the companies, fill out a questionnaire which would tell us about what they had, their understanding of their market, their understanding of their audiences and so on. By making it a questionnaire, it allowed us to streamline it and keep that budget very low, which you know, as you said, and as we all know, is very critical for this market landscape. And then we could, you know, work with our strategists to create a very, you know, structured package where we would take all that information and they would come out with, you know, audience personas and a competitive market landscape analysis and, you know, understanding their value prop, understanding their points of difference, understanding their content strategy, having a channel plan in place and really having that short editorial calendar so that they were ready to go when they were ready to start sales, that they were ready to go when they were ready to start sales, when they were ready to start marketing. They had all those pieces in place and they could use that as a jumping off point.
Julie: 7:33
Very, very helpful. I mean, I can't you know, getting organized on all of those different fronts is is a big task.
Denise: 7:42
Yeah, no, absolutely yeah. And and a lot of them did you know they might've had some pieces in place, like they might've had a description of their audiences but not really understood. You know, if you have this bigger picture, this acts not just for your marketing, but you can also use it as the foundation for your ICP, for your ideal customer profile, and so it helps with sales. It also gives you that single approach to sales and marketing so that your messaging is the same, so that you're approaching the market and building your brand and your brand equity in a consistent way, which is really critical as well to market growth.
Julie: 8:19
Yep, and so what are the kinds of varieties of companies that you've helped with this program?
Denise: 8:26
Yeah, so we've actually run about 60 different country companies through our program now which has been great through various accelerators and we've worked with all kinds of companies. You know our sweet spot is is really around B2B tech, professional services, financial services. In the tech space we focus on FinTech, health tech, sustainable tech and ed tech and that's been kind of really well aligned with the accelerators that we've worked with On the on the tech side. You know it's often they're often specialized, you know. So it might be a fintech accelerator, it might be all different kinds of tech, but their basic needs are somewhat the same. And then, when you look at the other entrepreneurial ecosystems, you know women entrepreneurs and you know LGBTQ plus entrepreneurs, for example. It's much broader. So so we've ended up working with direct to consumer companies, you know, with B2B, b2c, a lot of digital companies, but also some bricks and mortar. You know we've worked with clothing brands, we've worked with food companies, just all different kinds of companies.
Julie: 9:41
It really goes with the, as you were saying that all I could think of was you know they tell you to niche down, but when you niche down it lets you scale up, and that's kind of what I see here is like you can actually serve a lot of people, but you have to, you have to bring it in to really like put the value prop out there in the beginning.
Denise: 10:01
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, and that's, I think, one of the key things that we try to focus on is that, although you may have a number of different audiences or different markets, your value prop is where you start, you know.
Denise: 10:14
So if your value prop is well-defined, then that tells you how to reach those different markets. And it may be that you have to break down your audiences in two or three different types, but you don't need to have 12 different audiences. You can look at who is the decision maker, what are their characteristics, what are their drivers, and often it's quite consistent across different audiences, and so you can use that to build those bigger personas. And then it helps not only in reducing the resources that you have to spend on marketing to those different audiences, but it also helps you when it comes to sales. It helps your sales team to you know to think higher level and understand, you know, those needs and pain points, rather than saying, okay, here's our product, let me tell you about it. This is why you should buy it, you know, you know, taking that more product first approach, it really helps you to to go from that needs first approach, which is resonates so much more with with your audiences.
Julie: 11:13
Yeah, and I mean, let's face it for everybody like finding your. You know, the little crack in the armor of people. Get in is harder and harder. Right, it's noisier and noisier out there in the world.
Denise: 11:26
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, you definitely have to be more strategic and more intentional in terms of your approach.
Julie: 11:32
So when you think of, I mean what you imagined when you started Content De Novo and what you're doing today. Obviously, we all pivot our businesses along the way. That's part of you know, finding the fit and finding the market. But what did you imagine and you know, compared to where you're at now?
Denise: 11:50
Yeah, it's been quite a journey. We're definitely not, you know, focused on, you know, the markets or the spaces that I expected to when I first launched. We've had great traction in the enterprise space, but we have seen a contraction in that space. You know, when we started, companies didn't really have a content marketing team and so they were looking a lot externally for that kind of support. But now a lot of the big enterprises are really building those teams and they have specialized needs, you know, in terms of, you know, specific writers, you know, or niche content creators, which is definitely still, you know, kind of one of our key value props. But they're not looking for someone to come in and really run the program for them and build, you know, as much as they used to.
Denise: 12:43
So, as we've seen a contraction in that space, we've really really grown on the innovation ecosystem space also, with agencies who are supporting SMBs or larger clients, you know, and other markets that make sense as well, and so with our kind of innovation ecosystem program, we've been able to roll that out to other markets. So we're looking at trade agencies, for example, who are supporting their companies to move to global markets. We're looking at the investor ecosystem because they have a portfolio of companies that all need to have those key pieces in place, and we're looking at agencies so like marketing agencies, pr, research and development firms and so on that just don't have the kind of content, marketing and marketing support that their clients are asking for. So we can come in and partner with them and provide that as well.
Julie: 13:40
And so what's it like for you as the kind of leader, as the leader of all these sort of pillars that you're working on developing, because they're different from each other?
Denise: 13:52
They are indeed. Yeah, and you know, we've really split our organization into two pieces. So we have the enterprise, but we also have the SMB. And that was that was challenging for me, and it's still challenging for me, because we have different. We have different marketing and sales needs. You know we have different operational needs.
Denise: 14:12
One of my key jobs is making sure that we have that network that can help, you know, on a project by project basis or a program by program basis. So so I spend a lot more of my time making sure that we have the supports that we need for those two different audiences. You know, the way that I manage my team is different for those two different groups. Our sales process is completely different. Our pricing is very different, you know. So definitely, it's been challenging for me to figure to, to figure that out, but we we've tried to take a really strategic and intentional approach to that evolution and we try to just document everything. You know we're very process oriented, so so we we definitely will, you know, create a roadmap and then document the different pieces and then implement rollout on a, you know, on a kind of considered basis and, you know, start with a kind of our key core team and then roll out to, you know, to our larger team and to our network and just be really intentional about that, because otherwise it's just chaos.
Julie: 15:23
Yeah, and what's it been like for you in terms of, like, the evolution of your role? Because obviously when we all start businesses, we kind of do everything and then you know today you're obviously trying to umbrella over a bunch of different things that are happening what has that evolution been like for you?
Denise: 15:42
Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned that, actually, because I recently went through a leadership training program that really helped me with exactly that identifying the kind of the things that I needed to focus on that I wanted to focus on and working towards passing on some of those responsibilities that in the past I might have taken on and making sure that we have the infrastructure in some of those responsibilities that in the past I might have taken on, and making sure that we have the infrastructure in place for those responsibilities to move to the appropriate people. But then also, you know, creating an environment that allowed people to grow in the ways that they wanted to. And whereas a few years ago, you know, although I tried to, I always tried to create, you know, the environment that I wanted and make sure that it was a good environment for people to feel supported in, it's been much more intentional in the last couple of years.
Julie: 16:36
And that's good, because I see a lot in the work I do with with scaling up entrepreneurs, that you know we don't start businesses because we think we're going to have 50 people reporting to us. We started because we see a need, have an idea, those kinds of things, and you know it's a journey to figure out how to and and a journey to figure out how to not be the roadblock, how to manage a team and manage it really well and how to level yourself up. So I think it's great that you know you've used programs and people to help you with that.
Denise: 17:11
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Julie: 17:13
You also get to that place where you need the sounding boards outside of your own table. Your own boardroom table is no longer your sounding board boardroom table is no longer your sounding board.
Denise: 17:28
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, and luckily, I've had some great mentors and, you know, great network to fall back on and to reach out to. You know, I mean, I am constantly amazed by how wonderful the entrepreneurial ecosystem is in Ontario, in Southern Ontario and even more locally. It's just, you know, if you need those resources, they are there for you. You know, and so much is available free of charge or at low cost. You know, and as soon as you're part of that network, everyone is always happy, you know, to talk or to. You know, to help, to provide you with other resources to connect you. You know, and it's just really amazing.
Julie: 18:07
I'm really I feel really lucky to be a part of this ecosystem, well, and I mean, let's talk about building networks, right, I mean you had the opportunity to enter into a startup ecosystem that has really helped you build yourself, your business, your team, all the different pieces. But I think that you know building networks and the different pieces. But I think that you know building networks and finding the right people to put around you is such a key and important part to being able to achieve the things that you set out on your goals.
Denise: 18:33
Yeah, no, absolutely, I 100% agree, and I don't know that all entrepreneurs kind of are aware of what's available and necessarily understand the importance of that, and I think that that's really, really critical you know to be successful and to understand how to go from one step to the next, because it is a process and you know, sometimes it's a process like this and sometimes it's a process like this, and you really need to have that network in place in order to understand, understand those steps and to be able to kind of bridge the gaps. And you have to have, as you said, those people around you that can really help you to, to to follow that path, whatever, whatever it might take.
Julie: 19:20
Yeah, because I think you know, as an entrepreneur, you're pretty much in a constant like growth mindset, learning place. You know whether your business is struggling a little bit, whether it's growing, whether it's going constant, there's always something that you're learning as the leader of it. If you're ever not learning, you're like waiting for it, you know you're sitting there um, because it is a hard curve to get on.
Denise: 19:44
Yeah, absolutely, and and it you know you're sitting there because it is a hard curve to get on? Yeah, absolutely. And it brings to mind risk tolerance for me. You know, as an entrepreneur, you have to have a higher level of risk tolerance than the average person, I would say. And despite no matter what your risk tolerance is, there's always going to be moments where it's tested. And that brings us back to you know, the network and supports and, you know, having that structure and infrastructure around you to work through those moments, because they are coming, no matter who you are or what your company is. You're going to hit those moments.
Julie: 20:25
Well, would you have said. Like when you started this business, what would you have said? Your risk tolerance was. Has that changed it?
Denise: 20:32
has absolutely changed. So when I started, it was just me, you know, and I had hopes that it would grow, but I didn't really have a vision of how I would go from just me to having a team. So definitely making that first step to bring in a head of sales, that was a huge, huge jump in my risk tolerance. And as a leader especially as a woman leader I think that we take on a big sense of responsibility for our teams and we have to find that balance as well, because we have to understand our risk tolerance, we have to understand how we manage our own kind of sense of responsibility and our own kind of empathy within our business to not just lead well but also to lead our companies well, because that's not always the same and I think that's a big part of, you know, understanding our risk tolerance as a female entrepreneur, as well as finding that balance.
Julie: 21:40
Yeah, and tell me how you differentiate between sort of leading well and leading your company well.
Denise: 21:45
So I would say, leading well is leading your team well, or, for me, it's being a good leader. It's, you know, creating the environment that allows your team to flourish and allows you to flourish, that aligns your needs with your team's needs, aligns your team's needs with your company's needs, and then leading the company well. It's not necessarily the same thing, you know, because the needs of the company are often different I don't want to say often are sometimes different than the needs of your team, and you have to be able to balance that. You know, you have to be the person who can say okay, this, you're, this person is just not working. I'm going to do my best to, to try and help them to, you know, to succeed. But if they can't succeed, you know I have to do something about that. And as a leader leader of a company I have to be able to do that. And and sometimes that, uh, that role is quite different than the role of being just purely a good leader.
Julie: 22:53
Yeah, and of you know, bringing your own team, because one of the hard things too in that sort of scale up process is that those early people can't always make it all the way with you. Right Some of the people you relied upon the most in the early days, which is always incredibly difficult.
Denise: 23:10
Absolutely.
Julie: 23:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and just thinking, yeah, how do you want to send that back out into the world and what can you do for them? Right, because that is hard. The team, yeah, and how do you think you went about as you grew like, building a culture that people wanted to be a part of and it was something that I thought about.
Denise: 23:31
You know a lot, and I always wanted to have an inclusive culture. I always wanted to have a diverse culture. I always wanted to, you know, lead in a way that people would want to you know, stay with me long term. Long-term, you know, I I wanted to have a company culture that encouraged people to to uh to grow and flourish, um, because I I've always believed that, you know, that is the best way to success. You know that your team is critical Uh, and if you support them uh and and help them to to um to grow, then it helps you and it helps your company. So so I've always kind of had that in mind and tried to lead from that perspective.
Denise: 24:22
But we also went through a very intentional process last year where we we implemented an inclusivity and accessibility program. We revamped a lot of our processes. We revamped our sales processes, we revamped a lot of our documentation. You know our terms, you know with clients, you know we we tried to to look at all of our operations, you know, across the board and build inclusivity and accessibility into everything that we did, and and we brought together a team, you know, that included people that you know had accessibility needs. We included you know that included people that you know had accessibility needs. We included, you know people from different backgrounds in order to ensure that how we were moving forward was really going to align with that idea that I've always had around corporate culture and just make it documented and make it intrinsic, you know, make it a you know.
Julie: 25:22
And was it that you felt like it was something you were sort of espousing but not fully doing in the way? Or was it that the company had gotten larger and you needed a way to more formally kind of entrench it Like? What was it that kind of prompted you to decide upon taking that action last year?
Denise: 25:41
I would say it was twofold. Number one I wanted to to set up a company. I mean, my goal is to bring in a major investor or to sell the company, you know, in a few years. So I wanted to make sure that the company was already set up, with that in place, you know, and that that was part of the building blocks of the company, so that it could continue, you know, once someone else comes in and might have a different kind of, you know, background or so on. So that was one piece of it, and the other, I would say, is just, you know, the team was getting larger and I wanted to make sure that not only actually, I would say there are three things.
Denise: 26:31
So the team was getting larger, I wanted to make sure that everyone was aligned, that we were only bringing in people that were aligned with that corporate culture, that we were thinking intentionally about our corporate culture and bringing in people that were aligned with that. And then also, I wanted to make sure that, externally, with clients, that we were setting the standards, that we were setting the backdrop in order to have engagements that were, you know, successful and aligned with our corporate culture.
Julie: 27:02
Well, and it kind of feels like it's this place you know you talked about earlier just how our leadership needs to evolve and change as the company grows and there's this place where culture has to pass from being the founder or the CEO's responsibility to spilling into the organization where it lives, breathes and, you know, is constantly upheld. Yes, absolutely yeah. You can't, you know, force it down, kind of thing, and not that you're trying to, but but it does. There's this noticeable kind of shift, I think.
Denise: 27:40
Yeah, yeah. And and the other thing is that you know we're seeing in the world that there's pushback. I mean I don't want to not address that, you know.
Julie: 27:50
No, and for what you really believe in, exactly yeah. And so what do you? Also? The other thing that comes to my mind about it is just this idea of so, if you do want to bring in the big investor or exit the company or step away from your CEO role at some point I mean, the most sellable companies are where you're expendable Not that you are but, you know what I mean.
Julie: 28:12
Right, you have to be able to be replaceable in order for you to eventually, at the right time, take your leave, and so is that something that you think about.
Denise: 28:24
Absolutely yeah, and that's really why we've been so process driven and why documentation and creating a structure, than foundation that's that's clearly demarcated, is so important to me. Because for that very reason, you know, because my job as the CEO is to create, you know, a team and a structure and a and a company that can live on its own, that doesn't require just being or someone else in order to continue its life.
Julie: 29:02
mean it makes a lot of sense, but it's in practice sometimes very difficult to do. Yes, letting go can be hard. Yeah, yeah no, absolutely. Good, and what's next? What's next for Denise? What's next for Content Innovo?
Denise: 29:21
Yeah, so we're actually still evolving, of course, and our work in the innovation ecosystem is really informing our next evolution within the SMB space and the smaller company space and even the you know medium-sized company space for operationalization of go-to-market strategy and operationalization of the sales, marketing and operations, and we've really seen that coming from that. You know, getting that strategy in place, companies are really struggling with that next step. You know, getting that strategy in place. Companies are really struggling with that next step. You know they. You know they have the strategy. You know they need a roadmap, they need to know where they're at and they need to know how to get to where they need to go. And they don't just need that roadmap, they need someone to put it in place.
Denise: 30:12
You know we talked about the innovation ecosystem and mentors and so on, and that learning is wonderful. All the education and all the help and all the guidance that companies receive is great, but often they just don't have the resources, they don't have the time and they don't need that knowledge. An entrepreneur, a leader, a CEO doesn't need to know how to set up a CRM and make sure that it's. You know, giving you the metrics that you want and that it's reflecting what they need is someone to set it up, someone to teach their people how to do it right, and then you know that dashboard, so they know what they need to know in order to make those big decisions.
Julie: 30:55
And who to call when it all breaks.
Denise: 30:57
Exactly, yes, yeah, yeah. So so we're we're focused on kind of building that next phase. So we've started rolling out an audit for sales, for marketing and for content marketing, to understand what companies have, what they need, and then to build them a roadmap. And then we're also bringing together fractional teams, not just a CMO or a CSO or a COO, but also the next level down, those implementers, you know, in order to kind of come in say, okay, we've done this audit, we've looked at what you have and what you need, we've built that roadmap. Now, whichever piece of that you need us to put together, we can do it because we have that expertise. So, really, to help them from that first step to the next step of getting it all in place and implementing it, to training, and then here we are and we can help with, you know, the rollout as well.
Julie: 31:57
So you know, I really love, though, this feeling of like you are formalizing a structure and a process and, at the same time, remaining nimble and following what the market is demanding and needs, because I think that often people think those things are exclusive of each other. Right, yeah, yeah, and I think that often people think those things are exclusive of each other Right, yeah, yeah.
Denise: 32:20
And I think actually coming from the enterprise space has helped us to be quite nimble Because, as you said, it's often very bespoke and the needs are so different. You know from company to company and you know even business unit to business unit within an organization. So it gave us that mindset. And then we work on a network model, so we just bring in the resources as we need them, which gives us really that kind of flexibility as well to adjust to the needs of individual companies.
Julie: 32:51
So good. Well, I can't wait to see where your journey takes you next and how content to Novo grows and how your hand helps lead it into the future. Thank you so much for joining me today and thank you for talking to you again soon Absolutely.
Denise: 33:09
Thanks for having me Take care.
Julie: 33:11
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