Vicky Wu, CEO, Vicky Wu Marketing
Vicky Wu speaks to The Industry Leaders about her work and what she's learned on her entrepreneurial journey.
What's Your Story?
I’m Vicky Wu, owner and Chief Marketing Strategist of Vicky Wu Marketing. While we are located in Texas, we serve entrepreneurs and small businesses from around the US and the globe.
One of the biggest struggles that we see facing entrepreneurs and businesses that are at the brink of the growth that they really want is that they’ve added many different marketing strategies over time that don’t really work well together.
Sometimes it’s because they’ve Googled a question and received 50 million answers and tried to figure out which ones work best.
Other times it’s because they’ve purchased different programs or hired multiple coaches along the way, and each one goes about things differently.
What we know from experience – having worked with multi-million and billion-dollar organizations – is that to have that real growth, you need to integrate a cohesive marketing strategy allowing the different pieces to work together and develop a synergy among efforts. This is where we excel; our deep experience allows us to help you develop marketing campaigns that both work for your needs now, and are able to grow and scale with the business as it moves towards 7-figures and beyond –without confusing BS along the way.
You can travel back in time to Day 1 of your business or career - what advice would you give to younger-you, knowing what you know now?
Something I learned during my career has greatly impacted my business (and my life).
At one point I had just gone through a divorce, with my oldest child already in college and youngest entering 8th grade. After my eldest graduated I would likely be an empty-nester shortly after.
I was itching to explore the world, so I set a vision to develop skills that would be portable anywhere I could go in the world before five years was up.
It was my personal Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (see Jim Collins) and not the first time I'd had one, although the others had been for work. What I've learned through multiple BHAGs was that you are always able to accomplish more than you realize.
And what I learned through this personal BHAG, which was a bit vague, is that sometimes the goal or vision doesn’t have to be so specific – short-term goals may need to be SMART but long-term vision does not. My advice would be to set a vision that feels a little big, but that is unrestricted enough to allow opportunities you may not be aware of yet, with a deadline several years out.
Then enjoy how quickly an amazing vision comes to fruition.
What one book or podcast changed your life?
Jim Collins' Good to Great is still one of my favorite books for entrepreneurs. It has stood the test of time and is one I have gifted to several entrepreneurs over the years.
