Your Own Voice Should Be the Loudest One in the Room

SAMANTHA
MURPHY

FOUNDER OF 305 HIVE

Seven years, one pandemic, and the lesson I keep relearning.

By Samantha Murphy, Founder & Publisher, 305 Hive® Media

I think some people are simply born entrepreneurs. I started my first business at fourteen.

So when I stepped away from work for eight years to raise my children, I always knew I would come

back. I just did not know as what. Near the end of those eight years, I was offered a job in insurance.

It was a good offer, and I said yes. Then I hung up the phone and felt a sadness settle over me that I

could not talk myself out of. I called them back within minutes and declined.

That feeling was information. If I was going to return to work, it had to be for myself.

Not long after, a mutual friend mentioned that Boo was selling Just Ask Boo, a Miami newsletter I

had been reading and loving for fourteen years. Seven years ago, in the last week of August 2019, I

picked up the phone and called her. Two hours later, I had decided to buy the company.

I rebranded as 305 Hive® Media, and our first newsletter went out on October 1st.

The beginning was wonderful. We kept many of the clients who had been with Boo for years and

added new ones. And then COVID arrived and the world shut down — the advertising world most of

all, because suddenly there was very little left to advertise.

It is a good thing I did not know it would last two years. If I had, I might have thrown in the towel.

Instead, like everyone else, I assumed we were looking at a few weeks. Maybe a few months. So, I

decided to do the only thing that made sense to me at the time: bring people a little entertainment and

relief, and shine a light on local businesses for free. That is how the Local Business Buzz was born.

Readers could enter to win a complimentary spot for a business they loved.

It took a long time for things to come back. But when they did, we were still here with our weekly

newsletter — and the community we had spent two years serving for free was still here too. That

turned out to be the whole foundation. With people craving in-person community as well as our

online community, we grew into a monthly book club, our Women’s History Month tea, and our Wild

About Miami event.

THE LESSON I KEEP RELEARNING

If you asked me for the single biggest lesson of the last seven years, it would not be about marketing

or money. It is this: trust your gut.

When something does not feel right, I pause. Sometimes I cannot even name what is bothering me. I

just wait, and eventually it becomes clear why I should not do the thing.

I learned this first as a mother. When my son was little, he told me about something happening at his

daycare. It sounded so far-fetched that I dismissed it. He mentioned it again. I dismissed it again. The

third time, I finally went to the school — and found out he had been telling me the truth the entire

time. I should have listened to my kid.

I learned it again in business. During COVID, a company approached me about an exclusive

agreement. I had a funny feeling about it, but I could not point to a clear reason to say no, so I said

yes. It became the worst business decision I have made. Soon after I signed that annual agreement,

other businesses in the same category came to me wanting to work together, and I had to turn every

one of them away. Meanwhile, the partner I had locked myself into turned out to be a nightmare to

work with. I understand now exactly what that small voice had been trying to tell me.

It is not always dramatic. When I created a 305 Hive social media account, I was strongly advised by

several marketing experts to keep it as a personal account. People connect with individuals on

Instagram, they told me. I did not listen. Over the following years, one by one, more businesses made

the switch — including some of the people who had advised me.

Yes, we should listen to others. Take the advice, take the seminars, take the input. But your own voice

should be the strongest one in the room.

BUILD IT TO FIT YOUR LIFE

Being an entrepreneur usually means there is no such thing as a nine to five. I work seven days most

weeks. I also happen to be visually impaired, which is a real thing to navigate in a job that depends so

heavily on visuals.

But here is what I have come to appreciate: building your own company means you get to design it

around how you actually work best. My business does not run the way someone else’s version of it

would run, and that is exactly why it works. If you set yours up to fit your life, you will be happier in

it — and you will find that other people are drawn to what you have built precisely because it is

yours.

You also do not have to do it alone. Women carry a lot, between children, partners, households, and

everything else we are quietly holding together. Community is what makes it sustainable. It is why I

built 305 Hive® around the idea of a Hive in the first place, and it is why places like FemCity matter

so much. Having women to bring your ideas to, and to hear theirs in return, changes what is possible.

FOUR MARKETING LESSONS FROM SEVEN YEARS IN

1. Get in the room.

Chambers, networking groups, industry associations, even social groups that have nothing to do

with your work. Nothing beats being together in person. Some of the best relationships in my

business started with a conversation at an event I almost did not attend.

2. Be authentically you, not a polished version of someone else.

It is wonderful to be inspired by other people. Take the best parts of what you admire and make

them your own. But your clients are coming to you for your expertise — not for your impression

of someone you saw online or heard speak at a conference. Show up the way that feels most like

you. Your community is out there, and they are looking for you specifically.

3. Go where your ideal client already is.

Before you spend a dollar, get very clear on who you are trying to reach. What are they reading?

What events are they attending? Whose recommendations do they trust? Then show up in those

places. Marketing is far less about being everywhere than it is about being somewhere on

purpose.

4. Choose frequency over reach.

Next to clear, clean messaging, frequency is the most important thing in marketing. If your

budget is small, invest it in one or two places rather than spreading it across as many as possible.

Thin dollars spread wide mean you never connect fully with any single audience — and that is

how a marketing budget quietly disappears without producing anything.

And one more, which is really the same lesson in a different outfit. There is an enormous amount of

noise out there telling you what you should be doing. Filter through it. Take what genuinely serves

you and leave the rest. And when you truly do not know what to do next, pause. The answer usually

arrives — and it usually comes from inside you.

Samantha Murphy is the Founder and Publisher of 305 Hive® Media, a Miami community media company reaching thousands of local readers each week. Find her at 305hive.com.

CONNECT WITH THE HIVE

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