The Localist with Carrie Rollwagen

Growing a Business Without Losing What Makes It Special | Golden Age Wine

Growing a Business Without Losing What Makes It Special | Golden Age Wine In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Brandon Loper and Trent Stewart, co-owners of Golden Age Wine in Birmingham. Last time Brandon and Trent were on the podcast, it was during the pandemic. A lot has changed since then. They still have their original Mountain Brook location, but they also have Golden Age Wine Garden downtown, a national wine club and their own importing company called Vins de Lieu. Brandon and Trent talk about why they chose to scale through importing instead of opening more locations, how they think about pop-ups with local chefs, what makes Birmingham's small business community so supportive, why they hire for hospitality first and wine knowledge second, and how they keep both shops feeling personal even as the business grows. If you own a small business and you have ever wondered what it looks like to grow without losing what makes you special, this conversation is full of honest answers. Watch the Full Episode on YouTube [https://youtu.be/sfs6iLvVtS0] ____________________________________________________________________________________ Mentioned in This Episode * Golden Age Wine website [https://www.goldenagewine.com] * Golden Age Wine Club signup [https://www.goldenagewine.com/pages/wine-club] * Brandon and Trent's first Localist episode (2021) [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/lobbying-lawmakers-and-drinking-in-the-streets-with-golden-age-wine/] * Paramount (Brian) [https://www.paramountbham.com] * Bandit Patisserie [https://www.banditpatisserie.com] * Chez Fonfon [https://www.fonfonbham.com] * Salud [https://www.saludbham.com/] * David Baker Architects [https://www.dbarchitect.com] * June Coffee [https://www.junecoffee.com] * Erin Merhar (pizza pop-up [http://instagram.com/erinmerhar]) * Harper Snell (Golden Age photography and marketing) [https://www.instagram.com/harpersalillas] * Rob Culpepper (photographer) [https://robculpepper.com/] _______________________________________________________________________________ Thanks to Our Sponsor, Infomedia The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online. Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact [https://infomedia.com/contact] ________________________________________________________________________________ Join Us at Localist Lab Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee. See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events [https://infomedia.com/events] ________________________________________________________________________________ Subscribe to Carrie's Newsletter Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter: https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9 [https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9]

Is Your Website Losing You Customers without Your Knowing It? | Pam Darden of Infomedia

Your website traffic might be down. But that doesn't mean your business is. In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Pam Darden, VP of Accounts and Revenue at Infomedia, to answer real audience questions about small business websites in the age of AI. Pam has worked with small business clients for over 10 years. She knows what actually works, and what is quietly costing you customers. They cover why you still need a website even if traffic has dropped, how AI is pulling information about your business from places you never thought to check, what to put on your site so AI includes you in the conversation, how to track sales when analytics no longer tell the full story, and whether vibe coding is ever a good idea for a small business. If you have a website and are not sure if it is working, this episode will show you exactly where to look. 🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube [https://youtu.be/L07YGmuT8I4] Mentioned in This Episode * Infomedia [https://infomedia.com] * Infomedia contact page [https://infomedia.com/contact] * Pam's SEO for the AI Era talk at Localist Lab [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/seo-for-the-ai-era-how-small-businesses-get-found-now-pam-darden-infomedia/] * Laine White influencer marketing episode of The Localist [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/local-influencer-marketing-small-business-guide-laine-white/] * Hattie O'Hara episode of The Localist [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand/] * Google Business Profile [https://business.google.com] * HubSpot (CRM example) [https://www.hubspot.com] * Salesforce (CRM example) [https://www.salesforce.com] * Tempo Websites [https://tempowebsites.com/] Thanks to Our Sponsor, Infomedia The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web strategy company that helps small businesses get big results online. Contact Infomedia [https://tempowebsites.com/] Join Us at Localist Lab Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee. See upcoming events and register [https://infomedia.com/events] Subscribe to Carrie's Newsletter Get more small business insights, resources, and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter [https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9]

Building a Third Place through Tea Service | Cierra Lober of Cha House

What if the reason you opened a business had nothing to do with profit? In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Cierra Lober, founder of Cha House, a community hub centered around a tea house in Avondale, Birmingham. Cierra did not set out to open a tea shop. She set out to build a community center, and she chose tea as the method — specifically the traditional Chinese practice of Gong Fu Cha, where small pots of loose-leaf tea are steeped again and again, slowing you down and making you present with the people around you. Cierra talks about why she started Cha House, how five years of pop-up events led her to a brick-and-mortar space next to Beloved Community Church in Avondale, what it felt like to have four strangers volunteer to work for free because they wanted the space to survive, how she manages a seven-day-a-week event calendar, what she has learned about training staff for a community-first business, and what it actually takes to build a real third place in Birmingham. Whether you are running a traditional business, a mission-driven business or just someone who wonders what it would look like to build something around community first, this episode is warm, honest and full of ideas. 🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube [https://youtu.be/wzUBSELAxE8] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Mentioned in This Episode * Cha House Birmingham: https://www.chahousebham.comhttps://www.chahousebham.com [https://www.chahousebham.com] * Cha House event request form: https://www.chahousebham.com/eventshttps://www.chahousebham.com/events [https://www.chahousebham.com/events] * Burdock Book Collective (shares space with Cha House): https://www.instagram.com/burdockbookcollectivehttps://www.instagram.com/burdockbookcollective [https://www.instagram.com/burdockbookcollective] * Being Tea Chicago (Cierra's tea teachers): https://www.beingtea.com [https://www.beingtea.com/] * The Craft Room episode of The Localist: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-the-craft-room-turns-creativity-into-community-blakely-oconnor/https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-the-craft-room-turns-creativity-into-community-blakely-oconnor/ [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-the-craft-room-turns-creativity-into-community-blakely-oconnor/] * Beloved Community Church Avondale (Cha House landlord):http://www.belovedcommunitychurch.org/ [https://www.belovedcommunitybirmingham.org] * Alabama Arise (nonprofit that held private event at Cha House: https://alarise.org/ * Autism Spectrum Society of Birmingham (monthly meetup at Cha House): https://autism-alabama.org/ [https://autism-alabama.org/] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 📢 Thanks to Our Sponsor, Infomedia The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online. Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact [https://infomedia.com/contact] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Join Us at Localist Lab Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee. See upcoming events and register [https://infomedia.com/events]

Why Your Small Business Marketing Isn't Working: And What to Fix First | Laine White

What if the reason your small business marketing isn't working has nothing to do with your budget, your platform or your posting schedule? This episode is a live recording from Localist Lab, our free monthly marketing event for small business owners in Birmingham. Marketing consultant Laine White of Uptick Marketing joined Carrie Rollwagen on stage at Saturn in Avondale to share a simple three-question framework that reveals where most small business marketing goes wrong — and exactly what to fix first. Laine walks through the three questions every piece of marketing needs to answer: Is it clear what you are selling? Is it clear why they need to buy? And is it clear what they need to do next? She works through real examples, a live Q&A with the audience, and some honest talk about Google ads, AI in marketing and what actually moves the needle for small businesses with limited budgets. If you have ever felt like your marketing is not working but you could not figure out why, this episode gives you a framework you can apply to everything — your website, your ads, your social media — starting today. 🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGqoRTSXoBk] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Mentioned in This Episode * Uptick Marketing: https://www.uptickmarketing.com [https://www.uptickmarketing.com] * Infomedia: https://infomedia.com [https://infomedia.com] * Tempo Websites: https://tempowebsites.com [https://tempowebsites.com] * Infomedia Studios: https://infomedia.com/studios [https://infomedia.com/studios] * Nielsen Norman Group (10-second value proposition study): https://www.nngroup.com [https://www.nngroup.com] * StoryBrand by Donald Miller: https://storybrand.com [https://storybrand.com] * Cala Coffee: https://www.calacoffeeco.com [https://www.calacoffeeco.com] * I Clean Cars (Tucker White's mobile detailing business): https://icleancars.com [https://icleancars.com] * Hattie O'Hara (One Week in Birmingham) — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand] * Matt Robinson (Google Ads expert at Uptick — add LinkedIn/link): https://uptickmarketing.com/blog/author/mattrobinson/ [https://uptickmarketing.com/blog/author/mattrobinson/] * Laine's LinkedIn post: Three free things you can do to promote your small business: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laine-white-735aba150_marketing-directors-its-that-time-of-year-activity-7394807835714437120-iH24?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACZJCWQBuZLTu8SfILmK-EEv2IWLz7TCBsU [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laine-white-735aba150_marketing-directors-its-that-time-of-year-activity-7394807835714437120-iH24?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACZJCWQBuZLTu8SfILmK-EEv2IWLz7TCBsU] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 📢 Thanks to Our Sponsor, Infomedia The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online. Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact [https://infomedia.com/contact] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Join Us at Localist Lab Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee. See upcoming events and register [https://infomedia.com/events]

A Practical Guide to Influencer Marketing for Small Businesses | Laine White

Can a small business in Birmingham actually work with a local influencer? And if so, how do you even start? In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Laine White, Marketing Consultant and Innovation Strategist at Uptick Marketing, to answer real audience questions about local influencer marketing. Laine made a semi-viral Instagram post about how small businesses are missing out by not working with local micro influencers, and a massive conversation followed in the comments. Now she is here to break it all down. They cover what makes a business a good fit for influencer marketing, how to reach out without being rude, what follower count matters actually, and what it doesn't, how to think about compensation, the difference between a paid post and an authentic partnership, and how hosting an influencer event can be one of the most cost-effective ways to get started. Plus, an audience Q&A with practical answers to real small-business scenarios. If you have ever seen a local influencer and wondered whether they could help your business, this episode gives you a clear, honest roadmap. 🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube [https://youtu.be/KPIwvBArl6I] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Mentioned in This Episode * Uptick Marketing: https://www.uptickmarketing.com [https://www.uptickmarketing.com] * Infomedia: https://infomedia.com [https://infomedia.com] * Hattie O'Hara (One Week in Birmingham) — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brandhttps://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand] * Bustle Gowns — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/crafting-a-once-in-a-lifetime-experience-with-bustle/ [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/crafting-a-once-in-a-lifetime-experience-with-bustle/] * Ohm Jiu Jitsu — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/ohm-jiu-jitsu/ [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/ohm-jiu-jitsu/] * Cala Coffee: https://www.calacoffeeco.com [https://www.calacoffeeco.com] * Lady Bird Taco — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/the-magic-behind-ladybird-taco/https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/the-magic-behind-ladybird-taco/ [https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/the-magic-behind-ladybird-taco/] * Pink Lantern: https://www.instagram.com/pinklanternbham [https://www.instagram.com/pinklanternbham] * AMA Birmingham: https://amabirmingham.org [https://amabirmingham.org] * Randall Porter: https://www.instagram.com/randallporter/ [https://www.instagram.com/randallporter/] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 💻 Connect with Laine White Laine White is a Marketing Consultant and Innovation Strategist at Uptick Marketing, Infomedia's sister company. She works with local businesses on social media strategy, influencer marketing and brand storytelling. * Uptick Marketing: https://www.uptickmarketing.com [https://www.uptickmarketing.com] * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imlaine_white [https://www.instagram.com/imlaine_white] * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/lainewhite [https://www.linkedin.com/lainewhite] * Email Laine: laine@uptickmarketing.com [laine@uptickmarketing.com] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 📲 Follow Carrie Rollwagen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crollwagen [https://www.instagram.com/crollwagen] Website: https://www.carrierollwagen.com [https://www.carrierollwagen.com/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/crollwagen [https://www.linkedin.com/crollwagen] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@crollwagen [https://www.youtube.com/@crollwagen] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 📢 Thanks to Our Sponsor, Infomedia The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online. Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact [https://infomedia.com/contact] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Join Us at Localist Lab Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee. See upcoming events and register [https://infomedia.com/events] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Subscribe to Carrie's Newsletter Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter [https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9]