Human-Centered Marketing With Victory

Human-Centered Marketing!

✨Hello, I’m Fran, Your NLP & Business Coach. I’m exploring a wide range of business ideas and money-making paths, with practical takeaways you can apply.

In this episode, I'm interviewing Victory Harbin.

Victory is a marketing strategist for service-based businesses and healthcare practices who champions strategy-first, human-centered marketing that drives better patients, clients, and lives.

Outside the agency, Victory enjoys time on the water with friends, listening to audiobooks, road trips, and time with a very large family.

You can connect to Victory in the following ways⬇️
https://audaciouslyagency.com
https://audaciouslyagency.com/cohort2026
https://www.instagram.com/victoryjoy
https://www.threads.com/@victoryjoy
https://www.tiktok.com/@victory.joy
https://www.youtube.com/@victoryharbin

Victory's book recommendation 👇
https://ditchingimpostersyndrome.com

Find me @ https://melancholymentor.com

As a coach, I listen without judgment, understanding that others views may differ from my own.

#nlpcoach #nlpcoaching #creativity #inspiration #transformation #marketingbusiness

Transcript

Opening On Creative Potential

Fran 0:10

Exploring fixed building tightening ideas or takeaway. This night a creative potential together. Hello and welcome to Melancholy Coaching Podcast, a show that highlights different business owners and ideas. I'm Fran, your NLP and business coach, and I'm pleased to introduce a motivational guest. Victory is a marketing strategist for service-based businesses and healthcare practices, seeking strategy-first, human-centered marketing that leads to better patients, clients, and lives. When not a digital marketing agency, Victory is often on the water with friends, listening to an audiobook, taking a road trip, or spending time with a very large family. Victory, welcome to the show.

Victory 1:03

Thank you so much for having me.

Human-Centred Marketing In The AI Age

Fran 1:05

Oh, thank you for being here. I I love the bit about spending time with your family. However, I've got a couple of questions for you and we'll have a chat around that if that's okay with you, because I'm I'm very interested in your your marketing agency. So what I'd like to ask you first is how does your approach to marketing differ from tradition traditional methods?

Victory 1:30

So I think that traditional or regular marketing agencies in 2026 look drastically different than they looked even five years ago. And I certainly don't think that AI is a bad thing, but I do think that when we over-automate everything to the point that our touch and our personality and our voice is no longer in our messaging, then we lose the connection with our audience. Like people don't hear it anymore because they know it's automated.

Fran 2:39

They know it's you know and it's a certain approach that may work for some. So there's absolutely no judgment applied to any of this.

Victory 2:46

Absolutely no judgment.

Fran 2:47

Yeah, it's just more about what differentiates your your agency. So it's basically what you're saying, it's it's the human element, isn't it? It's the hu human touch in it, and it's kind of more direct. So we all need systems to a certain extent, but possibly less systems involved so that there's a human touch throughout the journey.

Victory 3:10

No, I wouldn't say less systems, because there's definitely a systematic way to create human-centered marketing. It just requires really defining who you are, what your voice is, who your audience is, and really being in touch with like what their pain points are and being willing to show up human to human, right? Yeah, like I still use AI, you know, it's not a bad word in our agency, but the whole process isn't done by AI. Yeah, there's still human involvement, and ultimately the content is not just gonna be like AI generated slop. It's gonna be, you know, you, the business owner, showing up and talking to other people on the other side of the screen.

Fran 4:16

Yeah, and even even mentioning that clarity and that, even business owners, myself included, it's not always easy to have that clarity, is it, over who you're speaking to, exactly what you're doing, um, especially when people are multi-passionate and they sort of throw in everything in there and they they will need help with marketing.

Victory 4:37

Yeah. So I always say it is so much harder to be clear and concise than it is to talk for five minutes. You know, like if somebody asks you what to do and it takes you five minutes to answer it, like that is way easier to do, but so much less effective. But taking the time to clarify your message to a point that it's concise and someone can quickly understand and connect with what it is that you do takes effort and intentionality and on the front end, you know, like you're not gonna do it right there in front of that person. You need to have that answer prepared well before that opportunity arises.

Brand First Thinking About Trends

Fran 5:29

It's one of those things that seems really easy, doesn't it? But it's actually not. It's not that easy to do. I know it's not that easy to do because I tend to vary my answer depending on the context and who I'm speaking to, you know. So even though even I need that clarity a lot of the time. The next thing that I'm really curious to ask you is it's we're staying with marketing. So it's how do you stay current with marketing trends and ensure that your clients don't get left behind? And we've mentioned AI, you know, but what kind of other things would help you stay current?

Victory 6:05

So I have really different opinions on this than a lot of people in my industry. Like, I'm not a trend trend chaser. When a trend closely matches a brand and its voice and its goals, sure, we'll jump on a trend. But I'm always brand first, it has to make sense for the brand and the brand's goals. It can't just be like if if I'm gonna get on TikTok and dance, yeah, there's gonna be like a very, very good reason for it.

Fran 6:48

Like, I haven't found one yet, so it's it's not so much about making a brand fit into current trends so that you stay ahead. It's it's if it's aligned, if something's just happens to be aligned, then it would be good to use within the messaging.

Victory 7:07

Right.

Fran 7:07

Yeah.

Victory 7:08

Yeah. So it's more about does the trend fit with your brand versus does your brand fit with the trend?

Fran 7:16

That was that would still mean that as a as an agency, it's still something that potentially you need to be ahead of, isn't it? So that you can foresee what would be a good fit for a brand.

Capturing Ideas Without Getting Lost

Victory 7:26

Yeah, yeah. So we have we have we do have a team. We have a team of about 10 people, and we subscribe to so many different resources to kind of like try to stay ahead of that. And we watch trends, we pay attention to trending audios, we we're you know, social media consumers ourselves, so you know, when you're passionate about something, it's easy to just keep up with it because Yeah, because the the intention for what you're viewing or what you're on social media for is very direct, isn't it?

Fran 8:15

So, you know, hence the you've got the passion there, but the reason why you're viewing all of those things would be very, very intentional rather than just getting lost in what I sometimes refer to as doom scrolling, which I love I love doing scroll.

Victory 8:29

Yeah, I just I sell Doom Scroll, but I have like a Notion lover. So if anybody uses Notion, you're my people. And I have a shortcut on the home screen of my page of my home of my phone that allows me to save links. So if I find a post that while I'm doom scrolling, that I think, oh, that would be a good idea for such and such client, or even for our own marketing, that would be a good idea for us, or I like how they did that, or oh, we need to pay attention to this. This could start catching on.

Fran 9:17

Then I just quickly throw it into that shortcut on my phone, and then you know, when I'm not doom scrolling, I'll go back and look at it from that's where the passion comes into it, so that you can catch all of those things, you know, to move your clients forward as well.

Victory 9:32

Yeah, but that's a system right there, you know, just of course having things set up in a way that work for you and the way that your life works.

Fran 9:43

So what I'm also curious to know is just it's a very general question, so take it how you will, but what's next for you?

Victory 9:53

So we are I'm really excited because I just posted about this on Threads, but we are actually about to launch a course, and this is something I've wanted to do for probably five years now. And we are actually launching our final founding cohort on April 16th, and I think this is coming out just before then. So if anybody's interested in a free cohort, you know, centered around finding clarity in your marketing and your messaging and all of that, they can check out my website. Now we're doing purely done-for-you services, and I'm really passionate about mentoring people and empowering people and helping them find things that work for them. And I'm also a solid believer that in the beginning you do not need to be investing $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 with agencies. Like DIY is the way to go until you have proof of concept and some cash flow.

Perfectionism And The Readiness Decision

Fran 11:17

That's interesting because that's the thing that would hold a lot of people back from starting.

Victory 11:21

Yeah. Yeah, because people get so perfectionistic. Yeah. Like, which, if you've ever read the book, oh gosh, it's by Clara.

Fran 11:38

Anyways. I haven't. Is it is it about perfectionism?

Victory 11:42

It's about imposter syndrome. I understand. Yeah. She gives the four P's of imposter syndrome, and perfectionism is one of them. So when we feel like we aren't up to par, we become very perfectionistic and we use it as a tool to procrastinate. Yeah.

Fran 12:07

And um potentially that's the thing that can hold you right there, isn't it? Because perfectionism is you're if you're always in pursuit of it, you're never gonna be ready.

Victory 12:16

Yeah. I read a quote yesterday that said being ready is a decision, not a feeling. I like that. And I was like, that's true. Because I started my first business when I was 23. Frankly, I didn't even know what risk I was taking. You know, and I just went for it. I quit my job, I started a business. Three years later, I sold it, I started another business. Eight years later, here we are, I have a team. It's just it was a decision. It was not like, okay, I have everything together because trust me, I do not have everything together. I just happen to really love marketing and really love the people I work with and be really good at Googling stuff sometimes.

Fran 13:15

Oh, all that research as well, isn't it though?

Victory 13:18

Yeah, yeah.

Fran 13:20

Thank you. Right, so thank you also for sharing some of your insights there. It's I realize that it's a really, really big subject, marketing, like a really big subject. So this is just a little delve into you and and what it is that you do and what you offer. So for those of you interested in Victory and her work, you've got a website, haven't you? And it's I believe it's audaciouslyagency.com.

Victory 13:46

Correct, yes. As to where people can find you. The name of my agency is Audaciously. I mean, you can find us at audaciouslyagency.com. And then you can also follow me on Instagram or TikTok. My handle is victoryjoy. And I post fairly regularly and I try to and you mentioned threads as well, so you're also active on threads. Yeah, I'm a l I'm I'm beginning on threads. Yeah. But I like threads. I like threads.

Fran 14:24

Yeah, I do. I quite like it because it's it's a combination it's more of a conversational space, isn't it, a lot of the time. Which is what I like. And you can get that connection with people.

Victory 14:33

Yeah, that's where we connected.

Fran 14:36

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, I like threads a lot. You know, and sometimes I put out things and like they don't land at all, or you know, that's fine because I'm I'm having a lot of conversations on other people's posts and things like that, and I really enjoy it.

Victory 14:50

Yeah.

Fran 14:51

So again, if anybody's interested in if they're listening to this after your cohort comes out, then potentially they can still connect with you to see what whether you're gonna run another one and what's coming next, and just follow any news that you've got there, can't they?

Victory 15:07

Yeah, so after the founding cohort, we will be selling a recorded version of this course. Good idea. We will be running cohorts, you know, in the coming year. So there's definitely still opportunities. It's called the Marketing Clarity Lab. And who would you start who would you say that it's more aimed at?

Fran 15:36

Or is it anybody interested in marketing in general? Would you say that there's some specificity in there about who's who it's best for?

Victory 15:44

Yeah, so the marketing clarity lab is really for two different kinds of people. Either A, you're at the you're a baby business, right? Yeah. Hello. You're just getting started, you're figuring it out, or you are maybe a little further along in business, but your marketing still feels like it never evolved with your business.

Fran 16:10

That's interesting. Yeah.

Victory 16:12

You know, you can have a more evolved business, but your marketing hasn't evolved with it. And so really anybody who's kind of in the foundational steps of their marketing would find value for the marketing. Thank you.

Where To Connect And Closing

Fran 16:28

And as you've mentioned, we connected online, so we don't actually know each other in person. We're in completely different places, aren't we? So thank you very much. And also for the patients, I I don't always have the best pronunciation, and I really do try. I think I've got a slight impediment in there that which has come to light during during podcasting, actually. I've realized because you don't know, do you? Like I very rarely listen to my own self. And when I've listened to it back, I'm like, so anybody listening, and you know, thank you for your patience and and to you as well, Victory. If you're interested in more content like this, be sure to visit www.melancolymentor.com. That's me. Follow for the latest updates. And until next time, please do connect with Victory and stay curious, keep igniting your creative potential. Thank you very much for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you for listening. I'd love for you to subscribe and visit www.melancolymentor.com for the latest updates. Till next time, stay curious and keep igniting your creative potential.