Ep. 74: Taking an Entrepreneurial Leap to Cocoa Spaces

In today’s episode, we hear about the small business journey of Porshia Mitchell, who saw a need for a flexible event space and brought her vision to life. From engineer to entrepreneur, Porshia has created a community space that continues to support small businesses and event attendees alike. In today’s marketing tip, we learn about how AI searches are different than the way you’re used to searching.

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast.

I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business podcast is brought

to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing. We’re going

to talk about marketing. We’re also here to celebrate

entrepreneurs. We have marketing news and advice

that business owners can use to keep moving forward.

Today, we’re talking to Porshia Mitchell, the

owner and operator of Cocoa Spaces. But first,

we’ve got another small business marketing tip

to talk about. In today’s marketing tip, you

may have noticed new sources for traffic in your

analytics recently. And that’s traffic from AI

search. And if you haven’t seen it or you’re

paying attention to it, you should. Because the

way people search and how businesses are found

is changing. And it frequently changes, but it’s

continuing to change in a big way with AI now.

And so if your marketing strategy doesn’t keep

pace, you may as well be invisible to those people.

Yes. Plenty are still searching for you using

Google and other search engines, but even Google

is showing you search results generated by AI.

Traditional search was like playing find the

matching words. You type marketing agency in

Kansas City, and Google matched results with

those exact words. AI search plays a smarter

game. It doesn’t just look for matches. It understands

what you mean. It’s powered by natural language

processing and machine learning, which means…

It can interpret questions the way that humans

do, and so it understands the difference. That’s

why you can now ask full -blown questions, even

conversational ones, and get meaningful answers

instantly, and then revise those questions and

say, no, no, what I mean is, or can you tell

me more about X? It’s not magic. It’s just really

smart software. AI search is a lot like the best

intern you’ve ever had. It’s fast. It’s smart.

It’s always learning. It doesn’t just scan for

words. It interprets intent. Using semantic search,

so it looks for meaning, not just words, it looks

at language models and understands sentence structure

and your phrasing that you use. And then it looks

at behavioral data, where it learns what users

typically mean based on their past behavior,

based on questions you have asked it in the past.

Now, put it like this. It’s not just about what’s

said. It’s about what’s meant. And if you want

to know what AI searches know about your company,

give it a shot. If you like what you find and…

Especially if you don’t, let’s talk. We’ll have

some strategies you can work on right now. And

that is today’s marketing tip. Welcome back to

the featured interview section of our podcast.

I’m here with Porshia Mitchell. She’s the owner

and operator of Cocoa Spaces. Porshia, welcome

to the show. Thank you for having me. We’re excited

you’re here because we’re talking about Cocoa

Spaces and Event Space. Give me the origin story

of Cocoa Spaces. How did this start? Well, Cocoaa

Spaces just kind of came from a time during COVID,

right, where we all were in the house. We were

just, you know, pretty lonely. We didn’t get

to spend a lot of time with people. And I was

just sitting around like, what do I really want

to do with my life, right? Just that. You’re

sitting alone at home thinking about what you

want to do with your life. That sets the stage

perfectly. What is it that… I haven’t done

yet that I want to do because, you know, it was

in uncertain times. Right. We didn’t really know

what was going to happen, what was going on.

So it was just kind of like, OK, what can I what

do I want to do? And so that’s kind of where

it was birthed from. And I’ve always just been

a person that naturally like planned things,

planned events. And I thought, why don’t I have

my own space to do this? And, yeah, I just started

doing research from there. I didn’t really have,

like, anybody to look to for it. But, yeah, I

did a lot of research online and I was able to

figure out what I needed to do. And we were all

kind of starting to go back outside. And, you

know, they were like, oh, you can have this many

people in a room, this many people in a room.

I don’t necessarily like large events, right?

Because Cocoaa Spaces is a micro event space.

Micro events and capacity is like people.

or less. or fewer. Yes. And so sometimes

when you have things, you don’t necessarily need

a huge crowd. And I thought there was definitely

a gap in those type of spaces that are available

here in Kansas City. venues you go to are large

spaces sometimes you just want to have a gathering

you don’t necessarily need a lot of people but

you want to have the same kind of amenities that

a larger venue does have yeah yeah and so you’re

you’re you’re coming up with you decide I don’t

have a real estate background or anything I don’t

have a an event planning background I’m just

going to go for this and and yeah so I have I

actually had a friend who had a store and um

She kind of gave me some pointers on look at

commercial real estate and all these things.

And so I just was kind of looking around to see

what I could do. And I stumbled upon the space

that is now Cocoaa Spaces, which is actually next

to my old dentist’s office that I went to growing

up. Oh, okay. And so I was like, oh, this place

is for lease. Let me see who’s the realtor for

it. I went in there. It was very ugly. Yeah.

But I had a vision, and me and my dad basically

renovated the whole place. Well, and what a nice

family project to have. Definitely. That’s fun.

Yeah. Unless you get in there and one thing leads

to another, leads to another kind of repair work.

I’m just picturing every episode of Property

Brothers ever where, oh, here’s something we

didn’t know about. Yeah, everything just kind

of. fell in line you know i you know prayed about

it and everything just kind of happened in the

way that it should naturally um i really love

the ceiling nothing else in there was the same

um as it is now so um the owner of the building

gifted me the floor um so he redid the floor

for me My dad, basically, him and his friend,

they redid everything. They built the kitchen.

He built me, like, a movable mobile bar in there.

I had everything planned out as far as, like,

furniture and stuff because I have, like, a little

living room in there. So, yeah, I basically mapped

it out on, like, this D software because I am

an engineer by day. And so… I showed it to

the owner of the building because he was kind

of nervous about leasing it to me. I’ve never

been a business owner before. And so when I showed

him how serious I was, you know, he was like,

okay. All right. I got a good feeling about this

one. All right. Interesting. And what part of

town is this in? This is in Brookside East. So

we are off of like rd and Rock Hill Road. Not

a bad spot for an event space. Let’s, let’s,

so. fewer than people for capacity. You know,

as someone who has planned a lot of events in

my day, I really appreciate the resources that

I found on your website that would tell an event

planner, you know, here’s the space and here’s

capacity and, you know, go through the rules.

It gives you a real sense of here’s what this

place feels like before you ever go. So appreciated,

you know, by someone who does that kind of thing.

Give us a sense of the different kinds of events

that you’ve had there. What is this? really kind

of have has been used for yeah so we do you know

your regular events birthdays baby showers and

things like that but we also have a church we

use it on sundays um we’ve had product launches

we’ve had people do um networking events. We

have companies that are a little bit smaller,

do like trainings, workshops. People do content

shoots, photo shoots. It’s a little bit of everything.

So we kind of, you know, I market the space as

just, you know, it’s for your creative and intimate

events. So people get really creative with the

ideas of things that they want to do there. And

it sounds like it’s just a very flexible space

to do whatever you need to do as long as you’ve

got fewer than people to do it, which covers

a whole lot of ground. I want to ask about a

pitch competition you did because you took third

place. Congratulations on that. Thank you. A

pitch competition with Porterhouse KC. For entrepreneurs

who don’t know, tell us about the organization

and kind of the pitch competition that you were

part of. Yeah, so the Porterhouse KC is a nonprofit

organization. They basically help small businesses

in the Kansas City area. I was a part of their

small business development program. So they do

this for about four months. And you basically

just kind of learn how to elevate your business

in different ways. So we kind of step through

like a workbook. You learn how to do better marketing,

finances, reaching new customers. And then we’re

also at the same time developing a pitch. using

those, you know, different things that we’ve

learned and, you know, pitch it to the judges.

So it’s a really good program if you’re, like,

looking to learn more about elevating your business.

And also it allowed me to connect with other

entrepreneurs in the Kansas City area that I’d

never met before and just, you know. make a community

with them as well. So I’ve, I’ve met a lot of,

you know, made a lot of great friends and contacts

through that and gain more business from that.

Yeah. We, we are, we are big supporters of CEO

peer networks. Um, that there, there are so many

good uses for that. Um, what, what did you take

away from that pitch experience? Because the

pitch experience you, that was a planned rehearsed

competition kind of thing. What would you, what’d

you walk away with? Um, that I was able to just

like, There’s more in me than what I thought.

I’m not necessarily big on, you know, talking

in front of large crowds and doing different

things like that. That was my first time doing

a pitch. But what I realized is that. Something

that you are passionate about, something that

you love, something that’s yours, that you made

and created, it’s so easy to talk about. It’s

not hard to do. It’s passion at that point, right?

You’re talking about your baby, more or less.

Right, exactly. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought

it would be. It was definitely just like a great

learning experience. And now I just want to do

more pitch competitions. Well, yeah, you’ve got

it down to science now. Tell me what’s next for

Cocoaa Spaces. Where does it go from here? Yeah,

so right now I’ve just been working with a mentor,

really just trying to like. Elevate more, do

better marketing, working on seeing if maybe

I need to do another location or expand because

there is opportunity to expand in the space that

I’m in. And so, yeah, just trying to like reach

more audiences. I’ve been connecting, doing partnerships

with other businesses. So like bringing in a

decorator and having. more access to things for

my customers, like different table types or decorating

opportunities. Yeah, so just being able to expand

to more people. It sounds outstanding. If I could,

I’d like to take you into the lightning round

now and give you questions that… You couldn’t

possibly know we’re on the way. So help us learn

more about you and what makes you tick and how

your brain works. I’ll start with, you were starting

to get into it a little bit. What part of the

business do you wish you knew more about? Oh,

I wish I knew more about marketing. Oh, I’ve

heard of it. I feel like we could help with that.

I do feel like we have some advice that we can

give. Social media is interesting and the algorithm

and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I wish I

knew more about that. Yeah, and it can be, social

media can be a great place for, especially in

an event company, to reach out, like to help

the people who are there at events. tag the facility

and help help the facility get to be known more

because they’re having a great time and what

space are they at and so you can you can do a

lot of magnification with that yeah um when it

comes to being a business on on social media

though a lot of times that’s very much a pay

-to -play situation where where you really do

need to advertise and target an audience to be

able to be seen exactly that’s a that’s a real

challenge between that and then like profit and

loss talk, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I wish

I knew more about it. It happens. Let’s see,

I want to ask a question about, you know, this

is… you own the business that you are, you

are definitely an entrepreneur here. Um, but

when you’re not in, in that entrepreneur hat,

uh, you are an engineer. You mentioned like,

what, what kinds of things do you engineer? So

I have my degree in electrical engineering, but

I do project engineering. Basically I’m like

a project manager for engineering projects. And

so I just oversee the projects, making sure they

meet different deadlines, whatever issues are

going on, whether that involves reaching out

to suppliers and getting new parts and all that

kind of stuff. What’s easier, being an engineer

for a living or being an entrepreneur? Well,

I would say as a small business owner, because

you wear all the hats, you’re like you’re the

owner. I’m the marketing team. I am the finance

person. I’m HR. I’m everything. So, I mean, it’s

a little bit harder, but I think I enjoy it more

because it is my business. You know, it’s something

that I created because I love it. Yeah. Well,

you know, you’ve certainly got the project management

side of things down. It seems like that would

help your business quite a bit. Yeah. I noticed

you had some photography on the website and on

your Instagram feed by another superstar, Sean

Lee House, Sean Lee Photography. I’m looking

at a sticker that’s on your jacket right now

that’s the support small businesses. You’re wearing

that kind of thing very proudly. You also support

local women -owned businesses with events like

your Valentine’s pop -up. Do you intentionally

seek out small businesses to support in the community?

What’s your stance there? It seems like you’re

wearing that on your sleeve, exactly. Yeah, so…

With Cocoa Spaces, that is something that I’m

trying to do more of this year. I really am looking

to partner with other local small businesses

to do events, whether they want to utilize us

to do a pop -up or, you know, for their own events.

And so I did the Galentine’s event with women

-owned businesses. They are small businesses

as well. And then with Sean Lee, you know, we’ve

been doing a couple, like, headshot events. So,

yeah, it’s something that I think is important

because it’s. bringing community and my space

is all about community and being able to help

each other so well let’s i mean let’s have us

help you then because uh you have some events

that you’re you’re running you you aren’t just

hosting it in the space but you’re kind of managing

that event what what do you have coming up on

the calendar yeah so um we have another headshots

and happy hour event that’s coming up on may

th and basically it’s beyonce themed because

it’s sean lee’s birth Well, that’s, I can’t think

of anything better. That’s outstanding. It’s

going to be, you know, Beyonce playlist and there’ll

be like some specialty cocktail drinks that will

be named after Beyonce songs. And we’ll play

some networking games, of course. But it’s for

you to gain a headshot, whether it be professional

for your LinkedIn or you want it for your brand,

if you have a business of your own. It’s an opportunity

to get a headshot because sometimes there’s not

a lot of opportunity to get those sometimes.

So it’s just a resource for… on business owners

and professionals to get headshots. And, and

we can, you know, uh, throw it right back with

a link over to the, the Sean Lee, uh, photography

podcast that we did not, not too many episodes

ago now. Uh, I, I know if, if. if she’s doing

the photos, these are going to look, these are

going to look good. So she did some for me a

couple of months ago and they were amazing. So,

you know, I was just like, we need to do. Yeah.

Let’s one more time. Let’s do this again. And,

and you’re, so you’re running the show. Any like,

is this open to anyone or is this? Yeah. So it’s

open to anyone. And, but it is a ticketed event.

It’s $for the headshot. You get a drink with

that as well. And then you get to network. So.

Yeah, it’s $and you can come and get a head

shot. And all the Beyonce you can listen to.

Yeah. Not bad at all. Not bad. Let’s see. This

entrepreneurial journey has been kind of a ride

for you. As you started going on this path of

entrepreneurship, what’s the best business advice

that you’ve gotten? Ooh. Stay consistent. Stay

consistent. you know, the people will come as

they see your passion for what you’re doing.

So just because, you know, you post something

doesn’t get likes or, you know. If you do an

event and people don’t come, just keep being

consistent. People will see, you know, your hard

work, your passion, and people will start to

tap into that. Oh, man, agreed. Agreed %.

The consistency in marketing is really important.

Like if we do one magazine ad one time. maybe

that gets seen, maybe it doesn’t. It’s that repetition

that really works for it. If you’ve got a billboard,

you know, an outdoor ad, that needs to be there.

all the time so that people are seeing it so

that when they’re ready, you have that name recognition

and you’re ready to go. So, yeah, consistency,

%. That’s a great tip. I may just go ahead

and end the lightning round on that tip then

because that’s good wisdom for everyone to have.

Let’s see. Tell people where they can find you

if they want to have an event there, if they

want to check it out and go to the website. Where

do they go? So if you can find us on Instagram

and Facebook at Cocoa Spaces, C -O -C -O -A -S

-P -A -C -E -S. And then our website is www . Cocoaspaces

.com. All right. Porshia Mitchell, owner and operator

of Cocoa Spaces. Thanks for being with us today.

Thank you for having me. Happy to be here. And

that is our show. Thanks to Porshia Mitchell.

And thank you for listening to the Small Business

Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe, leave

us a five -star rating and review. Drop us a

line on the website at eagadv.com if you have

any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping

entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.