In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, today’s episode #514 of the Marketing Mentor Podcast is in gratitude for my very first client, Ilo Orleans.
Ilo and I met in the late 80s and as you may have heard when I interviewed him on Episode #512 for my “Where are they now series,” he was an actor on his way to actually making a living from acting, which we know is rare.
He and I lost touch but we both kept growing our businesses, of course!
Ilo went from acting to directing and producing for the likes of Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Yahoo, Dell, Logitech, Stanford University, Stanford Medicine, The New York Times and many more.
Through those experiences, one of the skills he honed is that of interviewing.
So after Episode 512, he offered to reverse the roles and interview me for my podcast.
I liked that idea so voila, a conversation where he asks questions I’ve either never been asked before or questions that give me a chance to share things I have been thinking about but haven’t had a chance to articulate.
So listen here (and below) and learn…
And if you like what you hear, we’d love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.
Read the complete transcript here
Ilo Orleans:
Hello, I'm Ilo Orleans and I'm here today interviewing Ilise Benun. She is a renowned author and co-founder of Marketing Mentor, as well as a national speaker. Ilise's books include The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing, Stop Pushing Me Around, Designing Websites For Every Audience and Self-Promotion Online. Her latest book, The Creative Professional's Guide to Money, How to Think About It, How to Talk About It, and How to Manage It is available now. And Ilise is a co-author of PR For Dummies.
Hello, Ilise. Nice to speak with you today.
Ilise Benun:
Hello, Ilo. I'm so glad you are here on my show interviewing me. I don't think anyone has ever done that before.
Ilo Orleans:
It's really an honor and a hoot. I don't know if anybody says hoot anymore, but we've known each other a long time, right?
Ilise Benun:
Indeed, we have. But we were out of touch for a really long time, too.
Ilo Orleans:
We were. And some of this might feel a little repetitive for your audience if they've heard your interview of me, but I think it's worth us at least kicking it off with in reverse how we met and how we ended up working together.
Ilise Benun:
Yes. So my side of the story is that you were my very first client and I had been fired from a job where I think we both worked for that same company. I had forgotten that part actually. But I was fired and decided I was never working for anyone again. And you were in my circle of creative professionals, which at the time in New York was mostly dancers, actors, singers, artists, more, I mean, yes, people trying to make a living at their art, but it's evolved a lot since then. And you were an actor and somehow you either, I think you must have asked me to help you promote yourself or what we really did-
Ilo Orleans:
That's what I remember.
Ilise Benun:
Yeah. I don't remember offering until you asked, and I've since then developed this... One of my ideas is about listening to the market and you, I say, are the very first person I listened to when I was listening to the market. "Oh, this guy needs this, I can do that." And we spent a lot of time gluing headshots onto resumes or resumes onto headshots and spitting out labels for all of the regional theaters. I know all the regional theaters now.
Ilo Orleans:
And you really helped me clarify by organizing a database for those regional theaters and agents and casting directors. And I was so impressed by your skill set and I needed that kind of support and guidance. So after some of the work with me and that kickoff, how soon did that ad... Well, it wasn't really an ad, it was like a blurb or a write-up in New York Magazine came around. Did you work with other people before then, or how did that come around?
Ilise Benun:
Yes, I think I must have been working with other people beforehand, but the way I started was as a professional organizer and I was involved at the ground level of the New York chapter of an association called the National Association of Professional Organizers. And one of the women attending the meetings was a writer for New York Magazine and she was working on an article and somehow she decided that what I did was different enough from all the other organizers that she included me in this article in 1988. It was Labor Day weekend, I remember. And that really exploded my business.
People just started calling. My phone number was in there and people started calling me. And so I went from doing organizing to helping people more and more with self-promotion and marketing. But you referred to my skill set, truthfully, at that point it was more common sense than anything else and chutzpah. Common sense and chutzpah, that's what I had.
Ilo Orleans:
Well, that's what it takes. And just because I have this blurb in front of me and it's really short and it's just kind of charming in a lot of ways. Without dating ourselves, but you already said it came out in '88, but do you have it in front of you? Do you want to give it a quick read?
Ilise Benun:
Yes, absolutely. So it says, "Since 1985, Ilise Benun," and then it gives my address and phone number in Hoboken, "has specialized in helping actors, artists, writers, photographers, musicians and other performers and small businesses promote their talents and skills and handle their organizing and paperwork chores. She works out marketing and promotion strategies, sends mailings, gets in touch with agencies and production companies. She keeps personal databases for her clients in her computer. She's like a business manager who doesn't take a percentage. 'Just terrific,' said one client." I have no idea who that is. It might've been you.
Ilo Orleans:
Sounds like me.
Ilise Benun:
"She charges $20 to $25 an hour depending on the project. There's a four-hour minimum." See, already I had good boundaries.
Ilo Orleans:
Good for you. That's what it takes. And I love this, "She's like a business manager who doesn't take a percentage." Just terrific.
Ilise Benun:
Maybe I should have taken a percentage, actually.
Ilo Orleans:
I don't know. It seems like you did pretty well. We're talking since 1985, '95, 2005, 2015, oh my goodness, we've known each other a long time. So what happened next?
Ilise Benun:
It was very gradual and an evolution, and it was this combination of me listening to the market, but also more and more seeing that the clutter that I was helping people with was more an obstacle to marketing and self-promotion and putting themselves out there than anything else. That was the purpose of the clutter.
And so, again, really with common sense, I just saw that if we could get rid of the clutter or get underneath the clutter as it were, because there were literal piles of papers that I was helping people sort through. And then there was always something that had to do with marketing and self-promotion at the bottom of the pile. And then when we got to that thing, I would say, "Let's send the information that this person is asking for, even though it was only, it was six months ago that they asked for it. It's not too late. Let's send it to them."
Or there was also flyers for events that they could have attended or trade shows they could have exhibited at, or art fairs they could have had a booth at. And it just seemed super clear to me that that was the real need. And so I just started to evolve my business and talk about it basically. That's what it meant. It was just talking about what I do.
And I remember actually, I don't know if you remember my French boyfriend, Tony, but I remember we were at a dinner one night and another French woman there, her name was Ariane. I was in the middle of trying to decide, well, what should my company be called? And she suggested Creative Marketing and Management because that seemed to be what I was doing, and I loved that. So for the first several years of my business, it was CMM, Creative Marketing and Management. I had a logo and everything.
Ilo Orleans:
I remember that, CMM. That's really visceral. When things come back to you, like I remember CMM. I remember Tony. So you kind answered these two questions, but because I interview and you interview and we'll get to how the podcasts came about, but I'm going to give you a second opportunity to answer the questions that you just answered if you want to.
My questions for you were about to be, where did you discover the biggest need and how did you become the solution? And you kind of answered that like, well, through the clutter, you discovered that people's biggest needs were...
Ilise Benun:
Yeah, it was just getting out there. There was something about putting themselves out there. I still find that with so many creative people, they just are so self-conscious and perfectionistic. And so I'm like the catalyst that just says, "Just do it. It's good enough. Don't spend any more time on this." Get out of your own way, basically.
Ilo Orleans:
So that's a kind of a coaching aspect that came into it as well as the physical lift, whether you were keeping databases or helping people to mail things or organizing their marketing, it's about marketing, it's about coaching people.
Ilise Benun:
The coaching actually didn't start until several years later, at least 10 years later. For the first 10 or 15 years, I was actually doing the work for them or with them. And I do remember, I'll give a shout-out to Laurie Barham who was a graphic designer in upstate New York, and she had organized or helped me organize or gotten me in touch with some organization near her where I could teach because I was doing some teaching and often for very little money I would travel somewhere and for almost nothing to promote myself, would teach a class on self-promotion. And she had organized that. And I remember the next day we were sitting in her kitchen having breakfast, and somehow she said, "Well, I can't afford to have you do it for me, but maybe you could teach me how to do it." I was like, "Good idea. Let's try it."
Ilo Orleans:
Nice. Again, listening to the market.
Ilise Benun:
Exactly. All of my best ideas have come from other people. That's the reality. I just know better than to keep my ears open and not say, "Oh, what do they know?"
Ilo Orleans:
Well, you know a little more than that. Keep your ears open. Not say what do they know? But also to capitalize it, to thrive on it, to make it grow. That's a really great quality.
Ilise Benun:
I always assume that if one person needs something, there's got to be more like them. And that's part of this other idea I've developed as part of my framework, which is about cloning your favorite clients. And I learned this, actually, from watching other people and not being satisfied with, "Oh, here's someone who wants me. Here's someone who wants my help." It's not like, "Oh my God, I'm so lucky." It's, "If this person needs help, there got to be others like them, so let me go find them."
Ilo Orleans:
That's absolutely true. I teach a class and I often have students who are most of them afraid to raise their, but you have one student who asks a question and you just think, "If you don't know, half this class doesn't know." So I think that's really a great philosophy.
So we're talking 30, 35 years, so it's a little hard for me to kind of get back and look at your timeline, but you know it well. When did you know that you were really having meaningful impact? When did you find that, "Wow, this is really helping people"?
Ilise Benun:
It's interesting. I think it was very late, number one, because mostly part of when you're just starting to do something and you don't have a lot of confidence and there's insecurity and doubts, I mostly have memories of assuming that they don't really need me, like not believing the clients when they said they needed me.
And part of it, I think, and I'm sure other people will be able to relate to this, was not wanting to be a disappointment, not wanting to do the wrong thing or make a mistake. And so it was just easier to say, "Oh, they don't really need my help" than to say "I'm going to try to help them. And if I don't do as well as they want me to, then I'm in trouble." I didn't want to get myself in that position.
I found myself almost self-sabotaging for a while at the beginning saying, "Oh, they don't really need me." That was a refrain in my head and it took me a while to get over that. And so the idea of having an impact, I mean, yes, let me try to say this the best way possible. I know I have an impact. People tell me that a lot, especially these days. But I don't know, I like to say compliments are information more than praise. I treat them as information. So, again, if you're happy with something I did, then I'm going to try to do that for other people too because that's information about what works as opposed to I'm really wonderful. Does that make sense?
Ilo Orleans:
Absolutely. And I don't necessarily look at meaningful impact as getting praise for it, but I know what you mean because, and you said it, this is early on, self-doubt we all have. What I so am so impressed about you is you're like a sponge absorbing all of your clients' insecurities in a certain way. I think, I don't know. It's what it sounded like, because we all have these doubts, especially people who don't want to market for themselves.
And yet, from my point of view, you seem like a pillar of strength. Someone, "Oh, don't worry about it. Oh, you can do it. Oh, I'll get the bottom of the pile and then let's send this out." And so, I guess it's hard for us to look at... I think sometimes, Ilise, about legacy because I don't have children and as much as I... Sorry, I'm not going to make this about me, but as much as I think about my nephews and nieces, I realize that my legacy is in the interns that I've had or the assistants that I've trained or the actors I've directed or the department heads or directors of photography. And I think maybe I shouldn't ask you about when did you know you had thought you had meaningful impact, and maybe this is a little bit of a leap, but what do you think, and maybe this should be for the end of the interview, but what do you think would be your legacy in terms of the people that you've affected, helped, supported?
Ilise Benun:
What I love about the work at this point is witnessing partnering with people as closely as I possibly can. And it's obviously easier to do in one-on-one coaching and mentoring. But I also find with the groups that I run, I am able to get to know people well enough to partner with them and try to figure out what makes the most sense for them and guide them. I always like to say, you lead, I guide because I don't know where you need to go, but if you have a sense of where you need to go and you don't know how to get there, I can guide you based on my experience.
Ilo Orleans:
Fascinating. That's fascinating. It's interesting that what we can see of ourselves, of what we've done and what we can't, but I love the idea of you always... That term listening to the market, is that something that you kind of coined or is that... Where did that term come from, listening to the market?
Ilise Benun:
Well, I can't really claim having coined it, but it's something that I talk about a lot and I have no idea where it came from. So I may have just absorbed an idea and translated it because really what I do.
And I don't know if you remember this actually, Ilo, but my degree is in Spanish and I had a minor in French, which I don't really think is on my diploma, so I can't really call it that, but I studied Spanish and French throughout my school years starting in seventh grade, and I never actually used my languages. That's a whole other story, but I do feel like I am translating. And so, I'm translating, for example, what you do for your market, helping you translate what you do for your market. I'm translating what my market is telling me into language that more people can understand.
I'm constantly trying to simplify things because I think a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding just comes from overwhelm and complication. In fact, in the AI course that I teach, someone asked me last week why I hadn't brought to the table already how to customize a GPT. And I was like, "Whoa," that is just too advanced for the people I'm teaching. That was my impression. It is for me, too. I feel like you don't really need that. I'm just trying to constantly distill down to exactly what you need, no more, no less, and in the exact moment that you need it.
In fact, that's kind of the theme of the Simplest Marketing Program for 2025, which is not let me tell you everything I know so you can absorb it. It's let me be a resource throughout the year so that when you have a need, you can come to me and say, "Here's the problem," and I can give you one little nugget. And that is the solution that you need right then and there, and that's all you need. But for some reason people think they need more, more, more. And I really don't.
Ilo Orleans:
I love that. I agree with you. I think there's something not just simple but elegant and the law of attraction works that way, and I find you to be very, not just super-
Ilise Benun:
Attractive.
Ilo Orleans:
... super attractive, super intelligent, but super grounding and that to be able to say, "Gosh, what do I need right now?" And we talked about that. You helped me 30 years ago kick off my career, 35 years ago, and we're talking about me coming back around because what I need now is completely different. But the idea of working with you again and getting a couple nuggets to just start again on some things would be really profound. I love that. And I think we're going to do that in 2025, right?
Ilise Benun:
Yeah, I'm in.
Ilo Orleans:
Good. Me too. So if some of these questions aren't the right questions, you just kind of answer what you want to.
Ilise Benun:
I'll translate them.
Ilo Orleans:
Translate them into what... I love all the pundits and all the politics these days, they ask them one question and then they answer something completely different. "Well, what I really want to say is..." But people tend to do that.
And what's lovely for me about this actually, is when I interview people, I do a lot of not putting words in their mouths, but saying include the question in the answer or helping them find their period. And this is just such an organic conversation, and I feel like that's true of your career. It seems like it's had a very authentic, genuine, organic unfolding. And I know that in 45 minutes or however long we speak for, we are not going to achieve necessarily the timeline. But anything that you want to insert here of this happened first and this happened next? Because I don't know necessarily, but I was going to ask, what aspect of marketing or coaching or authoring books on this subject that you're an expert on, of what aspect are you most passionate about? Is it helping people? Is it seeing them succeed? Is it doing your podcast? What are you most passionate about these days or at any point?
Ilise Benun:
All right. Well, I don't actually accept the premise of your question only because the word passion doesn't ring true for me. I like to be very neutral, and so not to get too excited or too bummed about anything.
Ilo Orleans:
Okay. Where can I put in there?
Ilise Benun:
Yeah, I would say... In fact, Yuval Noah Harari, one of my favorite thinkers and authors has recently, he's on a book tour right now for his book Nexus, and he's been saying here and there, Americans are too excited. Excited is not a positive thing. And I totally agree with him. I've said that for years. Please don't get too excited because things do not turn out well when you get too excited. Then you're too attached and you have all these expectations. I want not the bar to be low, but the energy level to start low so it can build.
So, with that said, I will absolutely answer your question. It's just the word passionate that I resist a little bit.
Ilo Orleans:
A hundred percent. What aspect of marketing or coaching people or authoring books on a subject is most meaningful to you?
Ilise Benun:
So there are a couple elements. I hinted at one before, which is about the relationship aspect, the intimacy, the psychological, almost therapeutic sometimes level that I work on with people, which obviously, I'm not a therapist, but I was in therapy long enough that I know how to do that, and that's how I learned how to listen. So I love listening.
And so, partnering with my clients for as long as it's useful, that I can still be bringing good ideas and an objective perspective and having their best interests in mind and guiding people to more and more success for themselves and more authenticity for themselves, that's authentic to me.
And then the other piece of it, let's see if I can hold onto this idea, is I am a content machine, I like to say. I love creating content. I've developed these ideas over the years, and there is no dearth of evolving and deepening and finding other metaphors and expanding the ideas and then adjusting them as things change, which is happening right now, but it's constantly happening. So that's the creativity for me is continuing to work with the ideas.
And it's so funny because one of the things that really bugs me, I have to say, is I've got this Simplest Marketing Plan and it's rooted in a foundation of three main marketing tools, which I think I shared with you the last time we talked because you were already doing some of them anyway. And so, I just put the spotlight on them. But what bugs me is that often people say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I already know the three tools. Give me something new, give me something different." I'm like, "No, you don't understand. It goes so deep." And the more we understand how networking and content marketing support each other and then how targeted outreach fits into that. And I don't know, I'm just constantly expanding every single year and simplifying. And so, when someone says, "Oh yeah, I've already heard that," that bugs me.
Ilo Orleans:
I get it. Because the level of depth around those three tenants can, as you said, evolve, continue to evolve. And it's almost as if you're drilling down on those topics and as a client, one can just continue to expand in those areas.
Ilise Benun:
Exactly.
Ilo Orleans:
I appreciate that. Maybe it's a little late in this conversation, but just because it's been a minute, I'd be curious if you can, I don't know if you can thumbnail it necessarily 35 years, but what's the timeline? Because I was kind of curious, when did Marketing Mentors start? When did you write your books? Forgive me, I didn't look at when these were published, but it seems like you've written quite a few. And then when did you add your pod mix, excuse me, when did you add your podcast to the mix?
Ilise Benun:
All right, so I would say a lot of things changed right around the year 2000. So from '85 or '88, I actually think it was '88, I don't know where that '85, 1985 in the magazine came from. But anyway, for the first, let's say 15 years, I was doing Creative Marketing and Management, and I was publishing a newsletter called The Art of Self-Promotion. And then the internet happened somewhere in there. And so, I created a website.
I, for some reason imagined I needed to find a web designer who knew how to take a newsletter and put it on the web. I did not, obviously, but that's what I imagined. And so then my newsletter went up on the web, and that was my very first website. And so, this is all around the year 2000. 9/11 was part of this, and there was another boyfriend, and then he was gone. And I guess that was when this client said, "Oh, why don't you teach me?" And so then I had this idea of mentoring, "Oh, I could become a marketing mentor." And I remember trying to come up with names with the boyfriend for the business, and Marketing Madam was one of his ideas. Was like, "No, I don't think so."
Ilo Orleans:
I don't think so. The alliteration, but I think we got there with Marketing Mentors.
Ilise Benun:
Exactly.
Ilo Orleans:
Kept the alliteration.
Ilise Benun:
And during the '90s also, I was studying writing, creative writing at The Writer's Studio in New York with Philip Schultz, who is a poet. And he was awesome. And I learned everything about writing from him and critiquing and giving feedback and listening also.
And so, after studying writing for several years, this was not a conscious thought, but it occurred to me that I could write a book. I had been writing articles for How Magazine and other publications at my own newsletter. And so, there's also a story about speaking at one of these How Design conferences and waffling up, waddling up to the president of the company and saying, "Hey, I have some book ideas." And he'd be like, "Oh, that's a great idea. Here, I'll put you in touch with the acquisitions editor." And that's how the first book came to light, that was Self-Promotion Online. It was so funny.
Ilo Orleans:
Sounds like some networking, yes?
Ilise Benun:
Exactly. I have to practice what I preach. And I remember the way that book publisher worked, it was how books, and they were all design-related books. And even though I had ideas, I can't remember what my ideas were, but they had ideas about what books they knew their market wanted. They were listening to the market, and they had that data. And the woman said, her name was Lynn, she said, "Can you write a book called Self-Promotion Online?" I was like, "Sure." How hard could that be?
Ilo Orleans:
Good for you.
Ilise Benun:
I knew nothing about online at that point. So I learned very quickly. And so, that was kind of the beginning. That was the first book. That was in the early 2000s.
And then for the next decade, I wrote a book every year almost. And that was just the mode I was in, and I kept pitching book ideas and being invited to participate in books. And some did well, some did horribly, but it was just this turned into part of my content marketing.
And with the book, I think this was the third book, I can't remember, the Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing, which I co-authored with Peleg Top. And it was his idea to have a podcast to market the book. And I was like, "No, we don't need to have a podcast." But he was like, "No, we got to do this." So we did.
And the very first, I don't know, 12 or 15 episodes, if anyone goes back and listens to them, they're essentially us being interviewed by Colleen Wainwright, who was a friend of ours and a designer, I think. And each chapter had an episode, and that's how the podcast came to be.
And then he went off on his own and is doing something else now. But I just kept the podcast going, and this might be the episode number 515 or something like that. So that's been going on for a long time. I think, I don't know, does that answer the question?
Ilo Orleans:
Oh, I love it. And as we're talking, respectfully, I'm also on your website, which I'll give you a chance to do the elevator pitch, but I also see here that you're host of another podcast, How Design Live. What is How Design Live?
Ilise Benun:
Well, that doesn't exist anymore, but I was for a while hosting that podcast as well.
Ilo Orleans:
Well, you can edit that right out.
Ilise Benun:
No, no, it's fine. We can say it existed and it doesn't exist anymore.
Ilo Orleans:
Well, it was 2008, so it lasted for a good long time. And it's interesting, you're so prolific in terms of as a speaker, as an author, as an inspiration. It's just phenomenal to circle back with you after decades and to see your success. Since you do these podcasts and you're an interviewer yourself, if you were going to interview yourself, what question would you most want to answer or talk about?
Ilise Benun:
I don't really know, but I guess if I had to come up with something, I would... Because I kind of feel like, ask me whatever you want, I'll answer.
Ilo Orleans:
What I often say to my interviewees as we kind of round the bend towards the end is, is there anything that you'd like to share that I haven't asked you, that if we stop recording are you're going to slap yourself in the forehead, "I cannot believe I forgot to promote this. I really wanted to talk..." And we'll still talk about your website and I'll hear your elevator pitch. But is there anything that's kind of like, "Oh, I thought we were going to talk about this, or we didn't get to that"?
Ilise Benun:
Not really. But there was one thing that came to my mind as we were talking, which someone said to me today, which I kind of like, which is that I provide optimistic tough love, which I think is true because when I work with people, I'm not nice. I'm not rude, but I'm not trying to tell them what they want to hear. I'm telling you the truth. If I think you are thinking about something in a way that's not going to help you, I will tell you, I will correct you, I will interrupt you. But I'm always optimistic about what's possible because we don't know. You don't know, I don't know. But if we don't try, then it's not going to be possible. And I am just optimistic from that point of view. But I also, I don't think I'm kind of goody two-shoes, like trying not to hurt people's feelings.
Ilo Orleans:
That's right. And you said that's your French minor.
Ilise Benun:
That's right.
Ilo Orleans:
Your Spanish major is your optimism and the French minor is, I don't really-
Ilise Benun:
Tough love.
Ilo Orleans:
Tough love. That's well said, tough love. So what's next? Do you have ideas? Do you have any thoughts about where you want to go or even if we don't want to get too excited about it, no passion about it, are there books that you... You're on the speaker tours, or do you want to build, you said cloning clients. Are there specific types of industries that you want to work with, or is it more just you want to keep going with what you're doing or any plans?
Ilise Benun:
I'm all in on AI, and we're really just at the beginning here. We're at the end of 2024, and I am immersing myself in people talking about the future of AI and watching what happens and who is and isn't paying attention. And to me, the reality is that it's going to change everything. And when we listen to this five years from now, we'll be like, "oh, look how cute they were. They thought this."
Ilo Orleans:
Well, look how cute we were. We were gluing pictures to resumes and sending it out in the mail with stamp.
Ilise Benun:
Exactly, exactly. I have no idea. I don't think AI will replace me, but certainly there are things it will be able to do for more people. And I'm creating my own GPT or Artificial Ilise, I think we're going to call it.
Ilo Orleans:
I love that. It's a great name for it.
Ilise Benun:
So I think we're going to use it to spread the word more. And I will continue to work with my favorite clients because I think there are ways that my mind works when I'm working with someone. I'll try to articulate this thought I had the other day actually, because whenever I do something, I'm thinking, could AI do this? Could AI do this? And sometimes the answer is yes, but sometimes the answer is no because I feel like when I'm listening to someone and I have their whole history in my head for however long we've worked together, and I remember things that they may not even remember and I'm connecting the dots. That's my job when I'm listening, is I'm connecting the dots. I'm seeing how things are related. And out of that comes questions that I don't think the AI would be able to come up with based on what I know. And I think that's a lot where my value is, is in the questions that I ask and the connections that I make.
So, in my future, I will drink a lot of rosé and I will do a lot of yoga, and I will live somewhere very warm like I do right now in Savannah. And I will spend my afternoons working with my favorite clients and just helping them grow whatever the thing is that they're growing and who knows what it will be by then.
Ilo Orleans:
I love that answer. I love that. And over the years, Ilise, I've interviewed the world's leading brain surgeons and Nobel Prize winning scientists and tech leaders and CEOs of Macy's and Google, and lots of major executives, and everyone's kind of switched over to talking about AI. And one of the things that I keep hearing from people I interview about AI is it's not here to replace us; it's here to enhance us and help us.
So I think for someone who provides tough love, AI isn't going to do that. And in terms of being inspirational or being able to connect the dots, I think that there's things that AI is going to be able to help, but you're really, really smart to have your finger on the pulse of that and to be able to fold it into your system and into your work. And I think it's very on time. Just so impressed by you over and over again, and I'm just thrilled to have been given the opportunity to interview you and to have been interviewed by you last week.
Would you like to share your elevator pitch or could you tell us your website address, even though some of the people here listening are going to have it because they're longtime listeners, but I'm going to share this with a lot of people so they don't have it. What's your website address and if you'd be so kind, your elevator pitch?
Ilise Benun:
Sure. So my website is marketing-mentor.com. And my elevator pitch, what I say when someone says, "What do you do," which is basically my definition of the elevator pitch, is I teach creative professionals how to get better clients with bigger budgets. That's what I do.
Ilo Orleans:
I need you. I need you now. We said we'll start... Is there anything that... I've thoroughly enjoyed chatting with you and I hope that you're satisfied as well.
Ilise Benun:
Absolutely.
Ilo Orleans:
Okay. If there's anything that you wanted to share, we can. Otherwise, I'm happy to wrap it up.
Ilise Benun:
No, I think we've done a good job here, Ilo. Thank you so much for even offering to interview me. No one has ever offered. I've been on other people's podcasts, but it's a pleasure to be interviewed by you for mine.
Ilo Orleans:
Thank you. Thank you for the honor and the opportunity to do it. I don't have one of my own, so I am thrilled now to have been on yours twice on either side of the microphone.
Ilise Benun:
Exactly.
Ilo Orleans:
Yes. Thank you.
Ilise Benun:
All right. Thank you.
There was a bit of a mutual admiration society vibe there, but all in good fun. I hope you enjoyed it and learned a little something.
Now if you want my help finding clients – check out my new 1:1 AI Client Finding Coaching Calls – there’s a link on my homepage.
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