Welcome to "The Hummingbird Effect," a podcast dedicated to uncovering the subtle yet powerful ways that small innovations can transform your business. Hosted by Wendy Coulter, CEO of Hummingbird Creative Group, this show delves into the stories and strategies behind successful brand building.
For over 25 years, Wendy has helped CEOs and business leaders redefine their brands through innovation and compelling narratives. In this podcast, she shares the insights and lessons learned from her extensive experience, exploring how a strong brand orientation can significantly increase the value of your business.
Each episode features engaging conversations with industry leaders, business advisors, and innovators who have harnessed the power of branding to make a substantial impact. Discover how focusing on core values, mission, and vision can drive your brand beyond mere marketing tactics, fostering a culture that resonates with your audience and enhances your business's reputation.
Inspired by the concept of the Hummingbird Effect—where small, adaptive changes lead to remarkable outcomes—this podcast aims to help you understand and implement the incremental innovations that can elevate your brand and business.
Join Wendy Coulter on "The Hummingbird Effect" and learn how to evolve your brand, attract more customers, and ultimately enhance the value of your business through strategic branding.
[00:00:00] Hi, I'm
Wendy: Wendy Coulter, and I help CEOs and marketing leaders unlock the hidden power of their brands.
For years, business leaders have focused on marketing tactics, but what truly matters is building a strong brand. I. Think of it like the Hummingbird Effect. Small innovations and branding can lead to surprisingly big results in unexpected areas like increased valuation, stronger culture, and a marketing message that resonates.
Today I have with me Hannah Jernigan. She's my marketing strategist at Hummingbird Creative [00:01:00] Group. How are you doing today, Hannah? I'm doing good. Happy to be here. Excited to talk to Ruby and to you. Awesome. Well, tell me what's bringing you joy this morning?
Hanna: Yeah, um, I think all the holiday spirit I spent last night driving around looking at Christmas lights, so I'm really inspired and we decorated our house. So it's just a beautiful time and. It's just joyful. Everything around
Ruby Garcia: it is a joyful time of year.
And, um, for the listeners, joy is my word of the year, but it's been my word of the year for like probably five or eight years going now. Um, I, I just think this time of the year is amazing. It's a, a great time to look forward and look back and just take stock of everything and, and how wonderful life is.
Um, and. And just the wonderful people around us. So, um, today we have um, Ruby Garcia on with us. And fun story, a joyful story. Ruby and I [00:02:00] met locally here in the triangle area of North Carolina 'cause she's based here too. And we met on a photo shoot, um, not too long ago. Um. And it was such a neat day that day.
A local photographer, Chanel majors brought together a group of women on a Sunday. Pretty much an all day photo shoot. And we got to have fun. We got our hair done and our makeup done, and did some branding, photography, and it was just a wonderful, wonderful time. So I had the great time of meeting Ruby and then catching up with her afterwards.
And so Ruby, welcome to the show. How are you this morning?
I'm doing wonderful. And I remember that day so well because I had just had a dream, and I think I even shared this with you. I had just had a dream, maybe a few nights be before where there was a hummingbird and I was following this hummingbird. And so when I met you I was like, oh, this is so crazy because.[00:03:00]
Hummingbird Right, is like your brand. And I thought this must be like a, a divine connection here set up. And so it's great to be with you here, Wendy and Hannah.
Yeah, that was such a fun day. So, Ruby, I'm gonna toss the same question over to you. What's bringing you joy this morning?
Um, I. I just finished a semester of grad school,
Yay. Yay. It's
homework. Yes, I literally, yesterday just finished submitting my last project and usually I'm in school on Mondays from like 10 to three and there's no class today and I get to be here with you. So I am feeling very expansive with time and freedom and just able to breathe a little.
So that's what's bringing me joy today.
Well, that's fabulous. Well, I am going to ask you to please introduce yourself and talk about your world. Um, you have an amazing story, but I [00:04:00] think, um, so much is changing in your world. So I want you to have the best opportunity to explain what all it is that you're doing in your world today. Ruby.
Thanks so much. So I'm a leadership coach, primarily working with Latinas and women of color, helping them to build their confidence, expand their visibility. As well as their influence. And I've been in this the per personal development, professional development space for about the last 10 years. Um, prior to that, I worked in leadership, sales, leadership roles in traditional corporate America.
And, um, you know, I've, I've just really enjoyed my work. My brand has evolved. I think that's one of the, you know, one of the things that I think about when it comes to personal branding is when I first really intentionally started working on my brand over a decade ago. It was. It showed up in one way. At that time, I was in the corporate space, and so it was more about the work I was doing that then now it looks very different.
Um, and it's even still in the [00:05:00] middle of a transition, as you said. Like, I have a lot going on. I'm, I'm studying, I'm, um, getting my master's in from UNC Chapel Hill in masters of Educational Innovation, technology and Entrepreneurship. And I'm really interested in the AI space. And so now I'm looking at like, how do I integrate?
AI into leadership. How do I, um, help women Latinas, women of color, you know, really upskill in this area because AI is gonna be essential for leadership. Um, you know, in 2024 and beyond.
Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. AI is something that is kind of finding its way into all of our worlds and helping us be more innovative and use our own brains to think about more creative things, I think. And so I'm a big, I'm a big fan of all of what AI is bringing to the table. So great that you're focused on that. So I'm, I wanna kind of get into some [00:06:00] questions about, um, the Hummingbird effect and kind of how you're seeing that play out. So, can you share a specific instance where seemingly small change in your marketing or brand strategy led to a significant or positive outcome or results for your business?
Well, Wendy, you know that I love LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of my favorite tools. It's my favorite platform. It's where I spend more time than pretty much anywhere else. And I would say the one, and this was really hard, I, I had to choose between the two. But the one thing that I think really shifted for me was live video on LinkedIn.
And I will say that showing up on LinkedIn was never really an issue for me. I was a regular writer and contributor on LinkedIn, but moving to video and especially livestream, video seemed a lot scarier and I just got stuck. Like, I don't wanna do [00:07:00] this. Um, because showing up on video like. I at heart, I feel like I'm a writer, and the reason why I love writing is because you can articulate yourself.
You can edit yourself. You can say things exactly the way that you want to say them. That doesn't always come through when you are on a live stream, and that was really scary to me, not to mention. Just being a little self-conscious about, you know, how I was gonna show up, how I was gonna look, what were the expressions that I was going to make up, you know, um, on my face.
And so I just was dealing with a lot of insecurities, but this was probably the biggest shift for me in terms of, um, not just showing up, but really facing some of those fears that I had and then actually expanding my business because of it.
That is. Awesome. Well, so describe kind of the initial situation when you were kind of considering doing this and what made you kind of implement what I'm gonna call an innovation? Because I think like you, [00:08:00] many, many people are intimidated by being on video, especially live video, and how you have to plan for that, or do you have to plan for that or do you just go with it and hope for the best?
So talk about kind of the situation you were in that made you go okay. I'm gonna jump in and I'm gonna do this, um, and how you implemented that innovation.
Well, one of the reasons that I love LinkedIn, for example, is that it's a platform that makes, you know, you can, you can use your voice like it democratizes accessibility in using your voice. And I, I wanted to leverage this platform, um, in particular just because you know someone so much, my audience is on LinkedIn.
And, um, I didn't wanna wait to necessarily be invited to speak. It was, I wanted to create my own platform. I wanted create my own table, right? I wanted to build my own community. And so I thought this was a great way to do it. But again, I was really scared. I. [00:09:00] Because I just didn't know how it would turn out.
I thought I'm probably gonna be, I'm gonna use the words that my kids use. I'm probably gonna be so cringey at first. Right? And, um, it just really terrified me. What if I don't say the right thing? What if someone asked me something and I don't know how to respond? But again, I really believe that our fears are our limits.
And, you know, I'm of the mindset of a, a growth mindset and always wanting to push past those. Push past those limits because I know that there's something else for me there. And so I, um, I was working with a coach in full transparency. Say I was working with a coach because I needed that extra support and encouragement and it was the one thing I was committed to.
I was committed to this breakthrough. And showing up. And so I scheduled my first live stream. Um, I did prepare, not everyone does, I, I do prepare transcripts or at least an outline. So, because I'm, besides being an introvert, I'm also a [00:10:00] DHD, so I can very rapidly run off the, the, the train tracks. And so I, I prepare and, um, it was scary, but I did it.
And when I re-watched the video, which is. Almost always the scarier part, right, is rewatching yourself back. I realized that I wasn't that bad at it, and yes, there was improvements that I could make, but I did some things really well, and it was a muscle that I just kept practicing. So probably for about at least three months straight, I showed up weekly on LinkedIn doing live streams.
Um, it kind of settled down when I went, when I, when the semester started and I had to pull back just because my classes took up so much room. But showing up on LinkedIn provided so many different opportunities. It helped me improve my communication skills. It helped me build my confidence. It helped me reach out to new people.
It helped me to demonstrate my, expertise, um, to position myself as a thought leader. So there's so many benefits. I knew clients, new speaking [00:11:00] opportunities. Like it was just, it, it, it, it brought me the fastest results than anything else I've done on LinkedIn over the last decade.
That's awesome. So tell me about like the implementation of that. Like what kind of planning did you need to do in order to implement Well.
Yeah. You know, in terms of, I think one place that most people get stuck is the technology, and it's actually not too difficult. You do need a third party provider, so you need like a restream or stream yard, for example, to be able to, um, to, to do live streams on LinkedIn. So that was all the technology that was needed.
And then it was just about preparing through, like for me, I would come up with a topic, have a transcript ready, create an invitation, invite people in my community to participate, and then it was just about doing it. So there's not really any fancy equipment. There's no secret sauce. It's just about [00:12:00] showing up and doing the thing and then inviting your community to interact with you.
And that was the fun part. Like I loved seeing who would show up and see what questions they had and seeing connections being made between the community so that that was something that was unexpected that I really learned to love. It really, um, strengthened community for me.
So in terms of, um, getting the word out to that community, how do you. How do you, um, let [00:13:00] people know, um, have you like campaigned this and called it something, um, put a brand to it on LinkedIn or how do you, how do you go about that?
Ruby Garcia: So I actually didn't put a brand to it. Um. So I used to do it. And I will say that this is kind of again, like it's evolved as I have. So when I first started showing up on LinkedIn, do, I did interviews with other folks, right? And I would just do a lot of interviewing of them and, and that was great and that I called that the Latine connection 'cause it was focused on the la the Latino community.
And then, um, I kind of pivoted because I wanted to showcase some of my thought leadership and, and put out, you know. Things that were important to me and talk about things that I had a specific perspective on based on my experiences as a coach, specifically for Latina women as a, um, a hypnotherapist. My experiences in corporate, my experiences [00:14:00] as a, as a small business owner and entrepreneur.
So I, I, that was a big shift, right? Because I kind of feel like speaking to other people was a little bit of a. You know, it was a little bit of a crutch. The focus wasn't on me necessarily. It was much easier to have the focus on someone else, but to have myself under, like to be in the spotlight was a little more uncomfortable.
And that's even for me as someone who helps and supports others, is like I had to face again, I had to face this, this fear, this limit that I had. And so, um, you know, that, that was part of my evolution and. It really, um, like I said, it really opened up so many doors for me and I really increased my confidence and I started teaching other people how to do it as well, and that that was even more gratifying.
That's great as a coach. Have you seen some of your, the people that you've worked with [00:15:00] on that have success as well?
Absolutely. So earlier this year in August, I actually held a one week visibility challenge for the Latina community. And so every single day we showed up on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, I gave them a, well, actually, we showed up on, I sent an invitation on LinkedIn, and then it was through a Zoom call, a private Zoom call.
And every day I would teach LinkedIn strategies. And one of the things that I wanna say about LinkedIn is, this is my, um, I guess this is my thought leadership, is it's not just about the platform. LinkedIn is a metaphor for how we show up in life. And so I'm always encouraging women and Latinas and underrepresented communities, like how much space do we wanna take up?
What does it look like to take up space? We get to practice that on LinkedIn, right? Um, and so every day during this one week challenge, I'd show up for about an hour and a half teach. It was like no geek, no gatekeeping to teach everything I know about LinkedIn and how to [00:16:00] do it step by step. And then, and the amazing part was.
Yes, there was, I was giving step-by-step instructions, but the, the most amazing part of it was just the community that was built during that process. And I wasn't actually planning on, um, necessarily like having anything after that. But as a result of that week, I could see how many people wanted to continue this journey.
And so then I actually opened up a lat Latino LinkedIn incubator. Um, and so for the last four months. I've been meeting with a group of women every other Friday and we've been going diving deeper into these strategies, talking about things like imposter syndrome, about like the bigger why of what we're doing, how to tell your origin story, and so that's just been absolutely amazing.
So that's, that's one of your hummingbird effects, right? Like you've built this community, that's not what you went into it for. You are thinking some speaking. [00:17:00] Gigs. You were thinking some coaching gigs, but you've actually built this amazing community. Um, talk, talk about that. I mean, talk about the measurement of the, the speaking and coaching, but then talk about that hummingbird effect with this bigger community and how you see that playing out down the road.
Yeah, well, I would just say in terms of, um, you know, I ended up getting more client calls, leads. More people reaching out, especially during her Hispanic heritage month asking for me to speak at their events. Actually turn, had to turn away events this year just because I didn't have capacity for it.
Um, which, you know, you're kind of sad about in one way, but it also makes you feel good that people want to hear you speak. But again, community has really been a, a, one of the like biggest outcomes. Out of this, um, I think over the five days, and this was my first, like my first launch ever of doing something like this.
[00:18:00] And I think there were over a hundred women that showed up during the five days. Every day there was more than 30 women showing up, um, to the event. So that was, which was pretty good. And that was all the way through the week because usually on, I was told by my coach, like on the fourth and fifth day, you're gonna see it dip.
Drastically. And that's okay. You know, I was, I was kind of worn ahead of it, but it stayed consistent. And what I loved about it was that it wasn't just that I built a community for us, but there was a group of job seekers who ended up creating a community with them themselves to support each other that they still, it's, this was back in August and they're still meeting to this day.
And, um, so many great connections and relations people have emailed me and been like, we met in person and sent me a picture of them meeting. Because they met through the visibility challenge, and so it's definitely strengthened community and I, I don't know that you can put like a number or, or, or price tag on that.
[00:19:00] [00:20:00] [00:21:00] sometimes it's really hard to measure results on any of the social. Platforms, like you're working on it and you're putting content out. You're seeing maybe some engagement numbers, but they're not necessarily, when you're just posting, they're not necessarily getting you where you wanna go.
Ruby Garcia: What do you think about this strategy that Ruby's done here?
Hanna: I love it. I always encourage. All of our clients to be more active. I really love LinkedIn personally. There's other platforms that you can, you can be on, but I love hearing your story of it being successful because it is scary and it's hard.
It's [00:22:00] hard to plan for because it is off the cuff, but it's also, you have to be a part of the conversation that's important to you. So I really love hearing that you dove into it and you had your hummingbird effect of you were doing this for yourself and your brand to get it. Larger, but you ended up creating something that you probably weren't imagining and you got new skills.
Have you seen any change in your personal brand that you've kind of shifted into or leaned into more, or maybe you started doing something completely different that you never thought you'd be doing because of this community you've built?
Ruby Garcia: I don't know if I've seen something completely different. I, I will say that one of the things that maybe I held back on previously that I realized was really important was. I mean, I always believe that you have to give value back, of course, right? It wasn't just about me showing up and trying to push my own personal brand or my [00:23:00] business.
I really wanted to be able to give value to others. And I think sometimes we resist that because I. We wanna keep it to ourselves until we get hired, but I found that the more that you give away, the more it comes back to you. Um, so I am, you know, especially like with the visibility challenge, I mean, like I said, I was like, no, gatekeeping.
Here's everything you need to know. I'm gonna walk you step by step and show you exactly how I did this. And so I think that. You know, um, coming from a spirit of generosity, like generosity, begets generosity, and the more that we can provide value to others it it does come back to us.
I think
Hanna: that's great to. Embrace and not hold back. It obviously increased your community a whole lot more than anybody else in your space, and you're able to get those clients and create those groups within each other, so that's awesome
Ruby Garcia: Yeah, and I, and I think the [00:24:00] other thing is, is there's a real distinction between audience and community because anyone can have a big audience, right? And that's I, for an audience, I think it's more just about. Consuming, but with a, with a community, it's reciprocal, right? There's a win-win. There's a back and forth engagement.
There's people telling you what they want, um, people feeling connected to you. So I think that it's not, you know, you have to be careful because even though, yes, my numbers did go up in terms of like views or. The number of people I was connected to or the number of people that subscribed to my newsletter, I never look at the numbers by themselves because unless they're actually producing a result of some sort, then it's superficial.
So I really try to look at it much deeper in terms of like, what, what's being cultivated here? [00:25:00] And, and at the, at the end of the day, it's all about the relationships.
Hanna: I think it's super, I. Important that you've noticed the difference between the audiences and the communities, and it really makes you stand out because you're not just doing this to do this. You're not just doing this to get your brand off, you're doing. This to make a difference and to make an impact and to help people.
So do you have any advice for anyone to take that step, to make those connections and to notice their communities rather than their audiences or, or their customers, rather than just the people that step into their stores or visit their websites?
Ruby Garcia: I think one of the biggest things that you can do is tell your own story. And what I mean by that is not just your organization or company story, but your story of why you're doing the thing that you're doing. And, um, in telling your story, it's also being vulnerable about the ups and downs that have come in your story.
And I found that [00:26:00] in that vulnerability is where. Real connection is made. And when people feel a connection to you, you know you're building that know, like trust factor and they wanna do business with you or they wanna refer you to others. And so I, my, what I would encourage other entrepreneurs or small business owners to do is to tell their stories.
Like, why is it that you're doing what you do? You could do so many different things. Why is this the thing that you spend? 40 plus hours a week doing
Hanna: Do you think it's helped you? Niche down, who's reaching out to you? Like do you feel like your community you've built is exactly the target audience that you were going for?
Ruby Garcia: absolutely 110%.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Hanna: Wendy, I don't know if you could talk more on that and just why target markets are important and the whole point of the Hummingbird effect is getting the right people to notice
Ruby Garcia: you.
Yeah, well I [00:27:00] think, um, you know, we talk about target market all the time with our branding clients, Ruby. Um, and many people can't quite get that nailed down. Now I do think, you know, you knew you wanted to go into that Latina area, but I'm sure you had some people not in that area who have engaged with you on LinkedIn and that broadens your.
Your reach. Right. Um, but I do think it's really neat the way you're looking at it as community versus target market. And the community is becoming and and is your target market. So I think, I think that's pretty amazing. The other thing that I think this really speaks to too, Hannah, that we talk about all the time is I'm all the time asking questions to clients like, well, you know, what does your target market like to do?
Do they go on social media? Do you know what platforms they own? They're on, what do they read? Where do they hang out? Well, Ruby's got 'em hanging out [00:28:00] in her live streams, and so she's, she's attracting those people instead of wondering where they are and trying to find them. And so I think that's a really great way to look at kind of a, an inbound, you know?
Mm-hmm. You, you've got people coming to you now who are interested in what you have to say, and they've become, you know, a, a. Captive audience per se. And not just an, not just an audience though, right? They're very, um, they're interacting with you, which is even better 'cause they get to know you and know how you work.
And that way they can identify whether you're someone they wanna be working with or not. And so I think you're doing so many great things with target market, um, without necessarily. Having thought about it that way, but just figuring out you wanted to create community. I think there's a lot of larger companies who can't figure out how to create community as easily as you've [00:29:00] been able to do it on LinkedIn.
So I think there's some lessons here. Um, and I think what I wanna ask you about is what you feel like you have learned that you're going to take forward. From here and how you're going to change the way you're doing the next thing as the result of what you've learned from your LinkedIn live streams.
Yeah. Can I say one little follow up to that, Wendy is, I think part of it with some of these businesses that struggle with building their community is I, I do tend to wonder if it's because they're looking at it only from a profit standpoint or a like, um. Only looking at it in terms of your ideal customer profile, rather than looking at it from more of a, a place of, I guess, empathy.
Right? When you think design thinking and you think about empathy and putting yourself in, in, in the, in your customer shoes and talking with your [00:30:00] customers, because I can say that I know my audience inside and out pretty much, right? I mean, everyone, there's nuances, right? But like, I, I really know. What they dream about, the struggles, the barriers, the pain points, like who they aspire to be.
And I think that's why it's worked so well. Um, and in, in terms of, you know, what I think I've learned about this is I think the biggest thing is just leaning into the discomfort of doing something new is, you know, getting out of my comfort zone, getting out of my own way. Taking uncomfortable action because it was really uncomfortable initially.
And sometimes I still get the jitters, but I show up anyways and I just remind myself that this is, you know, that the best thing I can do for those that I wanna impact is model, model it. And that's taking up space, [00:31:00] that's showing up that's using your voice. And um, so I think that's the biggest thing is just.
Leaning in and facing your fears head on, and then those fears they dissipate.
So that seems like a wonderful piece of advice for anyone, um, trying to build their business, whether they're a salesperson for a corporation or whether they're an individual trying to get their business started or even. Trying to figure out the next way to go to market as technology is changing. Um, talk about innovation.
You know, you, you said you're, you're focused on ai. Let's just have a quick conversation about innovation and how you see innovation coming to play for your future.
Oh, wow. I, you know, I have so many ideas. This is so big, right? I mean, there's like possible apps, there's, you know. Like Metaverses, [00:32:00] where I'm thinking like people can actually practice their public speaking skills and get feedback virtually. Um, I, I think there are so many opportunities. I don't know where I'm gonna narrow in my focus because right now I'm just trying to, you know, learn, um, as much as I can.
And it is a new space for me. I'm not, you know, previous to this. Season in my life, I would say that I was a non-techie. I don't know how to work more than two remotes in my house. Um, you know, like if I can't, I have to ask my kids like, Hey, how do I get onto regular cable or whatever. So it's, it's all new.
But I think ai, like I said, it's gonna be an essential skill. Um, it for any leader. And so I think it's important for women, for underrepresented represented communities to be involved and to engage, um, with it because there's, there's just so much going on. It's growing, developing, changing every day, and so we [00:33:00] need diverse perspectives, helping to shape it.
Um, I think I'm excited to see how it plays out in marketing. It's helped me with my own marketing. And being able to, you know, brainstorm or generate ideas faster or, you know, proofread things that I write to make sure that it's sounding the way that I want it to sound. That it sounds like me. Um, but even with ai, you know, one of the skills that's still most essential, that's not going to change his communication skills, which is also why I live video, because when you're practicing video, you're practicing your communication.
And we need that more than ever with ai.
We can agree with that, can't we? Yeah, Hannah. Yeah. Communication is key to everything, and it sounds like you have found the perfect communication. Tool for you, Ruby. So, um, thank you so much for sharing that. Um, is there anything else you'd like to talk about here as we, [00:34:00] go towards the end of the podcast
Wendy: today?
Ruby Garcia: I would just say, I know a lot of people talk about LinkedIn, they talk about optimizing their profile, but to really get the most out of LinkedIn, it's really about leveraging the different tools, leveraging things like, um, LinkedIn, video. I didn't even touch on newsletters. I love newsletters too. They're another way that I've grown my community and.
You know, I have over half my subscribers. I'm not even first degree connections, which means that I'm getting a lot like expanding my reach. Um, and, you know, these people's willingly subscribe to my newsletter. And so that means that, you know, I get to make more impact by sharing information that way. So what I would say is, you know, leverage all the tools because I can tell you that your competitors are not doing that, right.
Um, LinkedIn it has, in terms of their. Um, demographics in their base. You're talking about people that are, you know, four out of five are decision makers. There's double the buying power. [00:35:00] So it is a great place to, you know, meet other people, build those relationships, and find new opportunities.
Hanna: Thank you so much for sharing those statistics
Ruby Garcia: too.
Hanna: Hannah, any more thoughts? I don't, this was really wonderful to hear. I'm, I'm so glad to have this conversation. About your videos and just how really, what really stood out to me was how much you weren't going into this to really achieve anything, but to prove something to yourself.
And what came out of it was something much larger and much more useful to your business and your brand, and you didn't do this money driven tactic. You really went in with an, I think, an open mind to what would happen. And it was, it had a really great outcome for you.
Ruby Garcia: Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you Ruby. Thanks so much for your insights and sharing your stories this morning.
We really appreciate you coming on and talking about the Hummingbird [00:36:00] Effect. Would you like to share your contact information with listeners?
Well, of course you can find me on LinkedIn. It's probably the number one place that you can find me, and you can also check out my website@rubygarcia.com.
Awesome. Thank you so much for giving us your time and your insights this morning. We really appreciate it, Ruby, and I wanna thank all the listeners to this episode and go out and find your hummingbird effect now. Thank you.