Laughing 2 Success Client Highlight

Mel Austin is an actor, comedian, and owner of Squeaky Clean Comedy, inc, also known as Laughing 2 Success. Mel is a self-described clean comedian and motivational speaker for church events, corporate training, and anti-bullying seminars for school-age children. “We are taking the benefits of laughter and making it available to everyone by being clean,” Mel explained.

Mel is a United States Marine Corps Veteran who, as a high school student, liked to motivate students in pep rallies and eventually motivate soldiers in the Marine Corps. Mel continued to increase his skills through Toastmasters and speaking engagements. A friend eventually got Mel into acting and he branched out into comedy. “So it is here, now 29 years later. It all comes full circle, and I'm literally combining all of them: motivation, comedy, and inspiration. All in one and bringing that in many different venues,” Mel said.

Challenges

One of the challenges Mel experienced, like most performers, is taking gigs and engagements as they came without an established strategy or marketing plan. “I didn't have a focus, to be honest with you. I didn't have the formula to stay consistent. I was just taking clients as they came.” The other challenge was the website, Laughing2success.com, and that it was structured or as optimized for clients to find and connect with the business.

I'm Just so grateful to the SBDC because I was able to have these conversations and really put some process in place so I can cover those other things as well. It’s definitely made a huge difference.

Solutions

Working with Sean Snider at the University of La Verne SBDC, Mel was able to get a lot of valuable advice to create a marketing plan. Mel learned to think about all of his services and consolidate his message and he offered them to clients and organizations. “We reverse-engineered the experience clients were getting so I could have a more focused approach to presenting myself out there,” Mel explained.

Results

With help and advice from Sean Snider, Laughing2success.com has reported a 60% - 80% increase in traffic and client activity. “Sean was able to show me the backend with keywords and the SEO process and how that works,” Mel explained. He was able to focus on the marketing message and now has the confidence to take what he has learned to start scaling his business. “I'm reaching out to all the utility companies in the United States because one of my clients is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power-they showed me how to transfer what I'm doing with them (LADWP) and take that to a larger scale,“ Mel continued.