Wanda Toro Turini

Have you ever noticed the gigantic amount of brochures that everybody gets in conferences? Do people really need those? What if there was a more eco-friendly way to share this material? Well, my guest found one fantastic solution, but has a little bit of trouble getting the word out.

Today I’m SO EXCITED to be coaching the brilliant Wanda Toro Turini, inventor of ecoFiles and Founder of Ketchwords. In this episode of The Frame of Mind Coaching™ Podcast, Wanda talks about how she came up with the idea of ecoFiles and Ketchwords, the struggles of launching a platform (specifically designed for in-person conferences) right before a global pandemic, and how the situation became a blessing in disguise for this marketing tool and its users. And with this, we also discuss a list of key strategies to quickly spread your ideas. Join me on this episode to know more!

Resources:
https://www.canadianspeakers.org/
https://nsaspeaker.org/
https://interviewconnections.com/
https://www.radioguestlist.com/
https://hollywoodbranded.com/

Are you struggling with something right now? Share your story! If there's a challenge you'd like to discuss here on the podcast or privately, please reach out to me at:

kim@frameofmindcoaching.com

Episode Transcript

Kim Ades: [00:00:00]
Hello, hello. My name is Kim Ades and I am the President and Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching, and you have just joined the Frame of Mind Coaching Podcast, where what we do is we invite leaders from all over the world to come onto the podcast and get coached live and in person.

Today my guest is Wanda Toro Turini, and she is the inventor of ecoFiles and the founder of a concept, a platform, an idea called ketchwords.com

Wanda, welcome.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:00:36]
Yay! Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here. Thank you.

Kim Ades: [00:00:40]
So, first of all, where are you in the world?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:00:42]
I am currently in New Jersey.

Kim Ades: [00:00:44]
Okay.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:00:45]
And actually planning a move next month to Massachusetts. Yep.

Kim Ades: [00:00:50] Wow. Okay.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:00:51]
In the US, of course.

Kim Ades: [00:00:54]
We know. Okay, good. Okay. So tell us a little bit about what is Ketchwords. Like, explain to us what you do and why it's such an amazing idea.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:01:04]
Sure, sure, sure. So what we do is help service-minded experts who love to share their message, whether it's through video, appearances, speaking in person, physical, digital stages, podcast, interviews like this, we help them actually connect to their anonymous fans in their audience, right?

And what we do is we use this... We do this by using our proprietary texting platform, and we wrap some killer strategy around it so that every single... Well, currently video appearance, but every appearance that you have, you can actually connect with all of those people that, you know, maybe a little bit intrigued by what you said and may say, "Oh, I really need to follow up", but they never do. Right?

Kim Ades: [00:01:53]
Okay. So what's the magic here? Is it the platform or the strategy? That's what I want to know.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:01:57]
It's actually the one-two punch of a combination of the two. So what's interesting, if I may kind of explain why I even created...

Kim Ades: [00:02:06]
Please!

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:02:07]
So I've been an entrepreneur for over 15 years. I used to... I have a doctorate in pharmacy. I used to be a pharmaceutical marketing and sales executive. And I had way too many innovative ideas for that space. I mean, they really supported me for a very long time. But I just knew I had to break out and execute some of these ideas and solutions that I had in mind. So, in that process, I've actually launched a lot of different types of software and consulting services and such.

So the platform that Ketchwords is on is actually called ecoFiles. 'Cause I was at... In this major medical conference, like over 50,000 attendees, I had my small exhibit booth and at the end of the conference, there was literally, kim, a human claimable mountain of marketing materials, you know, paper that was being thrown out at the end of the conference.

And I recall as a marketer for a big company, I was spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on printing these things. But now as an entrepreneur, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what's... It's a waste!" And, and when we attend those conferences, it's also just not convenient for us to carry around all that paper, right?

Kim Ades: [00:03:21]
Hundred percent.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:03:22]
So that moment... It's totally inconvenient. So that moment, which was in 2007, Kim... Aging myself, but in 2007, I said, this problem has to be solved. And so I called it ecoFiles that day because I wanted it to be an eco-friendly way of distributing  materials, right? It took us two years to evaluate different platforms we looked at, do we develop an app? Do we scan QR codes? Whatever. But we decided on texting because texting is ubiquitous.

That in particular was an international conference. We wanted it to be accessible to everyone around the globe, you didn't have to download an app, be like yada, yada, yada, right? But back in 2009, when I finally got this up and running as ecoFiles, I was approaching companies about being eco-friendly and they said, "wow, this is great! But only teenagers text. Adults really don't text". And...

Kim Ades: [00:04:20]
That was then.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:04:21]
That was then, right? But it was really crushing. I spent a lot of our profits on this dream because I envisioned completely changing how we distributed information. I mean, now if you had an update on a brochure, you can actually proactively... You knew who requested it. You could proactively send it to them. You could create relationships as a result. And it was much more convenient for the user as well.

So I tabled that and I continued trudging along in my consulting firm, I was doing regulatory consulting for pharma, and then I had to speak in front of audiences. And so, literally fast forward, almost like five years it's after I invented ecoFiles, I'm there in front of conservative, pharmaceutical executive offices... Executives. And I had to pay $10,000 for the opportunity to speak in front of them.

So I said, "wow. As a small guy, you know, I really need to make sure I bump up the ROI for this". And I said, "well, why don't you use ecoFiles? I mean, it wasn't created for that". And fast forward. I used it. So using the technology alone, I was able to capture 25% of my audience. I mean, twenty-five percent of my audience was texting for my slides.

Kim Ades: [00:05:39]
Hmm.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:05:39]
Right?

Kim Ades: [00:05:39]
Okay.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:05:40]
And then, with strategy... Marketing strategy, I started tweaking like, what can I offer, how do I present it? How do I visually present it and verbally present it? And I ultimately got to having 76% of my audience consistently texting my Ketchword. Now it wasn't a Ketchword back then, right? But ecoFiles didn't make sense now because a speaker isn't looking to be eco-friendly.

So it's an interesting kind of journey of how it was created for one thing. And I still believe to this day that it's a huge option, you know, to be an eco-friendly way of distributing paper brochures. Once we start getting in front of people again, right? But I found greater power in actually augmenting any of my speaking engagements. And it got to the point where as a small business owner, I only had to present at two major conferences in order to capture 76% of an audience of 300 people.

I mean, I was actually overwhelmed with leads and I grew my business and... I don't want to take... I have a whole story, I mean...

Kim Ades: [00:06:49]
Sure, okay. So I got it, but here's the thing you and I should probably talk after.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:06:53]
Yes!

Kim Ades: [00:06:54]
That's a whole other story. So I'm always in front of audiences and I'm always wondering how do I really connect with more people in the audience when so many of them sit silently? And I often find out after the fact, like people remember things that I've said literally five years later, they say, "I remember that story about..." It just happened to me yesterday, actually. "I remember the story you told me about... whatever it was". I'm like, wow. Like, I don't even remember saying that story, but okay.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:07:21]
Yeah! You're impacting people and they are truly anonymous. Like when I came up with that term "Yes, these anonymous fans".

Kim Ades: [00:07:28]
Yeah.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:07:28]
It is true. It's not making it up.

Kim Ades: [00:07:30]
Yeah. Very interesting. Very interesting. And just so everybody knows it's Ketchwords K E T C H words.com

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:07:38]
Yes. Yes. And I have a resource to share with a Ketchword later on when it's appropriate.

Kim Ades: [00:07:42]
Okay. We'll get there. Okay. So, but what is your greatest challenge right now? How can I help you from a coaching standpoint?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:07:48]
Yeah. Yeah. So I really appreciate it. So my challenge right now is really trying to get the message out to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. So I think there's... It's interesting because I have this great energy around really feeling that everybody that shows up should have a ketchword. Right? And it's not just because I invented it.

I invented it for like, you know, for our value, but I truly believe in that. So I have this great passion. And also technology changes very, very quickly, right? So there is a little bit of a race to make sure that we're out there.

I invented this platform, there's no other platform that delivers information with a text and email and an attachment, so that's very unique to us. We are now available for global audiences, so we put in a lot of effort. I put in a lot of personal effort to do that. And so I want to get the message out very quickly and I believe a lot in creating a community around this.

I look at, at Russell Brunson as a model, right? How he had a software, but then he put... With ClickFunnels and then he puts together this community to ensure that people are optimizing it. And that's why I didn't make Ketchwords, actually a do-it-yourself software as a service program, because I saw the value, the difference between 25% and 76%, right?

And, to me, I want to impact, I want to change the world, right? So my challenge is... What can I do to spread the word as quickly as possible? And what are some of the things I can do to really spread like wildfire? So that everybody has a ketchword.

Kim Ades: [00:09:35]
So, what comes up for me is three strategies. Ready?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:09:40]
Yes.

Kim Ades: [00:09:41]
Number one is I know myself, I'm a member of many groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:09:48]
Mhmm.

Kim Ades: [00:09:49]
One of the groups I am a member of is literally called The Secret Society of Speakers. I don't think I was supposed to tell you that, right?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:09:59]
Shhh

Kim Ades: [00:09:59]
But I'm really trying to say, is there a lots and lots of speaking groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, et cetera, who would be very, very interested in this information because their primary goal, over and above presenting and doing an amazing job, is really connecting with the audience. So this is very valuable information. So that's thought number one.

Along with that idea. So part A, part B is connect with organizations like CAPS: Canadian Association of Professional Speakers and the National Association of... N A S P... Speaking Professionals, NASP.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:10:40]
Mhmm.

Kim Ades: [00:10:41]
Okay. In the US. Okay. So, and those organizations where they're looking for information, they're looking for tools. This is... Speaks right to their needs and right to their interests. So that's, you know, reach speakers directly. So that's strategy number one.

Strategy number two is that I really, really recommend that you get connected to all the podcasts of the world. And there are two resources for you.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:11:09]
Okay.

Kim Ades: [00:11:09]
Maybe more. There are lots of resources. But Interview Connections is amazing. They hook you up with speaking engage podcasts, but also radioguestlist.com. I don't know if you know all of these resources.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:11:24]
I'm actually a client of Interview Connections, so...

Kim Ades: [00:11:28]
Amazing.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:11:28]
Fantastic. Okay.

Kim Ades: [00:11:29]
They're awesome. Fantastic. And radio...

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:11:31]
What was the second? Radio...?

Kim Ades: [00:11:32]
radioguestlist.com

So they literally just send out like, "Hey, this person's looking for a guest, et cetera." But you can also just have a listing on this website where people find you and send you a request for "will you be on my podcast?" kind of concept. So that's number two.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:11:47]
Sweet.

Kim Ades: [00:11:48]
Okay. So that's... So one, two. Number three is I really think that this would benefit from the right influencers, talking to the right audiences that aren't necessarily easily found through groups.

So if you had someone like Brendon...

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:12]
Burchard?

Kim Ades: [00:12:13]
Yes! Someone like that, right?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:15]
U-hu.

Kim Ades: [00:12:16]
So find the right influencers. A great way to find influencers is through a company called Hollywood Branded. The person who runs that is Stacy Jones.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:32]
Okay.

Kim Ades: [00:12:33]
And she just finds the right person or people for the right products.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:38]
Okay. And it's people that are actually open to that? Because sometimes...

Kim Ades: [00:12:44]
A hundred percent.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:45]
...you approach people and they're like, "yeah, we don't do that joint venture. We don't..."

Kim Ades: [00:12:48]
You see, the thing is if you approach people, it doesn't work. But if she approaches people, she knows who to approach for what. So you need, like an agent for this.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:58]
Yeah.

Kim Ades: [00:12:59]
That's what they do.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:12:59]
Hollywood Branded it's called?

Kim Ades: [00:13:01]
hollywoodbranded.com

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:13:02]
Dot com. And Stacy Jones.

Kim Ades: [00:13:04]
Stacy Jones. Tell her I sent you. Kim Ades. Okay?

And then the last but not least thing is I really believe in targeted ads or targeted messaging. And so, you know, you can create an ad or whatever it is and run it on Facebook specifically for speakers, coaches, and trainers.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:13:28]
Mmhmm.

Kim Ades: [00:13:30]
You know, do you have... Is this your challenge? And I'd be like, "yeah, that's my challenge". Do you want to capture more of your audience? Do you want to do a better job of lead generating? Do you want more, you know, do you want to build up your list? Whatever it is that your angle is, I think that you can speak directly to your market through targeted advertising.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:13:50]
Mmhmm. Mhmm.

Kim Ades: [00:13:51]
So it feels like you you've heard some of these before.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:13:54]
Yes, yes. And you know what, to be transparent, we launched in March because... You can imagine, right? And the messaging was very focused on speakers and the physical speaking experience. So you can imagine what happened in March when it was like, "We're not speaking". Right?

And I borrowed a lot of money. We use a lot of our personal, you know, investments to do this whole big Facebook ad launch and all that stuff. And COVID hit, right? It was a mixed blessing because we realized that it was not only physical, in person speakers that could benefit from Ketchwords, right? So our messaging actually improved significantly as a result, but then still the financial strain was with us and is still with us, right?

So, I appreciate, you know, kind of just trying to look at all of the options that I can do right now...

Kim Ades: [00:14:59]
I'll throw another one at you.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:15:01]
Oh, sure.

Kim Ades: [00:15:02]
So by the way, like, I mean, for me personally, as a speaker who last year spent most of the year on the road, obviously I'm not doing that anymore, I'm doing all virtual presentations. And you know, earlier this year I had a presentation with 800 people on... Whatever... The Zoom, the platform, whatever the platform... 800 people.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:15:22]
Yeah.

Kim Ades: [00:15:24]
And 95% of that... More 98% of them were invisible, silent.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:15:31]
Right.

Kim Ades: [00:15:32]
Whatever the word is.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:15:34]
Those anonymous fans. But now what's interesting is even if you set up your Zoom app for registration, right? So people provide you their email address for registration.

Kim Ades: [00:15:43]
Yeah.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:15:43]
That doesn't necessarily mean that they're raising their hand to say, "yes, I'm interested in connecting further". Right?

Kim Ades: [00:15:49]
Right.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:15:49]
So that's the value of integrating a Ketchword because it's literally a digital way for somebody to raise their hand and say...

Kim Ades: [00:15:57]
So... Had I had this way back then that would've been amazing, right?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:16:01]
Yeah, yeah.

Kim Ades: [00:16:01]
So what I'm saying is that there are a whole bunch of speakers who are called to speak in settings where they have no contact names, email addresses, or anything where they would love this stuff.

The last concept that I want to share with you is the power of content in terms of SEO material.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:16:24]
Mhmm.

Kim Ades: [00:16:24]
So, people are doing searches. The search might be, how do I increase my lead capture when I speak? Right? So you need to create content. If you're not the content creator, there are lots of people who can create content for you, and you can find them on Fiverr or there's a website called hireawriter.com

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:16:45]
I like that.

Kim Ades: [00:16:47]
Yeah. So... And so this just drive traffic from people who are literally searching for what you have to offer.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:16:55]
Mhmm. Fantastic. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate the... Just the infusion of hope, right? I'm a typically very positive person and it's just amazing how the weight of the pivot and all of that stuff, just kind of... You know, I think I'm finally in this point of like snapping out of it and recognizing like, okay, this is, remember what you loved before, why you invested so much of yourself, your personal investment...

Kim Ades: [00:17:29]
Yeah, yeah.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:17:30]
...and such in this. And so, I appreciate those thoughts, the organizations...

Kim Ades: [00:17:38]
One more thing at you. One more thing at you. If you find someone in an organization like the Secret Society of Speakers, who you say, "Hey, you know, here's the idea you want to test it out for me", that person will become a massive promoter for you.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:17:57]
Mhmm.

Kim Ades: [00:17:58]
Right? So like, for me, for instance, there's... I'm a huge introducer. I just introduced you to Stacy Jones. If you didn't know interview connections, I would have introduced you there. I'm a huge introducer. I don't get paid for it. I just do it because I'm happy to introduce people to resources.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:18:18]
Right.

Kim Ades: [00:18:18]
So, you know, someone like me, that person who connects people together is a good person to, I don't even want to say partner with, but develop a great relationship with where you say "here, Kim. You know, use it, test it out. You know, no strings attached", but if I love it, I'm like, "guys, you need to use this. Like, this is a game changer".

And so you need those people who are willing to talk about you in that capacity. And that's not, you know, an arrangement per se. It's more of a psychic arrangement.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:18:52]
Yeah.

Kim Ades: [00:18:53]
You're just good for each other.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:18:56]
Right, right, right. I love it. Oh!

Kim Ades: [00:19:00]
I hope that helped. I hope that helped.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:19:02]
Yes! Oh my goodness. So many ideas now I'm like, do you hear the paper, guys?

Kim Ades: [00:19:09]
I do, I hear the paper Wanda. I hope that was useful for you.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:19:13]
That was fantastic.

Kim Ades: [00:19:13]
And for those of you who are listening, I hope that was useful for you too. Do you have a Ketchword for us, Wanda?

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:19:20]
Absolutely! Absolutely. And I want to hear that on every podcast next year, right? Every podcast. So what's your Ketchword? So actually what we did is we put together a fantastic guide on how to transform every one of your talks into a lead generating machine. So I've tried to package some of the core strategies that we teach and you can access that by texting LEADS to 411321, if you're in the US. That's a US short code. But if you are international, you can text LEADS to +1 909-741-1321.

If you're watching the video, you could see me point to it right here. We actually do these for all of our clients. We create these backgrounds and when they're in this situation, but if you text LEADS, L E A D S to 411321 or +1 909-741-1321, then you'll get this amazing guide and you'll have an opportunity to test out the technology, but also to hopefully get some really valuable information that'll start boosting and transforming what you do every day in your appearances.

Kim Ades: [00:20:23]
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:20:25]
Yay!

Kim Ades: [00:20:26]
For those of you who are listening, if you have a challenge that you want to share on the podcast, please reach out.

My email address is Kim@frameofmindcoaching.com

If you have a challenge that you don't want to talk about on the podcast, but you do want to talk about with me, please reach out.

My email address is Kim@frameofmindcoaching.com

Wanda, thank you for being my guest on this podcast.

Wanda Toro Turini: [00:20:50]
My pleasure. Guys, sign up! This was amazing.

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