Category Archives for "Podcast"

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):
This episode could be a tough one. This could be the episode that banishes a business mindset that's been holding you back for a long time.

(00:17):
Before we get stuck into today's episode, I really just wanted to congratulate some incredible entrepreneurs who have stepped up and joined my 12 month elevate program. The program that elevates you to market leader position. That number one choice in your niche. I'm really excited to see what is in store for them over the next 12 months. But there's one thing that is guaranteed. I've got a few businesses at varying levels in terms of their current monthly turnover. However, what's guaranteed for all of them is that they will all be pushing through to that next income level to make sure that they all growing because that's what happens when you really focus in and focus in on that market leading positioning you generate more noise in your industry, generate more noise in your market, attracting more and more people to you. So the only symptom that you can experience is year on year growth.

(01:17):
I think I've mentioned this a few times. In our adventure travel company, we've grown 700% in the last four years, which is supposedly unheard of, but it does happen and I'm really excited to see what happens with these businesses who have stepped into elevate to see how much they can grow and scale their businesses and really position themselves as that number one option. So if you are sitting on the fence and you are wondering is elevate right for me, then your best bet is to just jump on a call. So do you make sure you book a call with me that's bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. The link is in the show notes so you can go and grab it over there. But yes, you know, don't stop sitting in wondering, get on the phone, give me a call and we can discuss how we can help you in your business and really get you positioned as that number one choice and get you growing and scaling to where you want to be.

(02:18):
Hello and welcome to this podcast episode. This is Jen Hall. Your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. And I'm really excited about today's episode because it's a high level conversation, which I think needs to be hard around a business mindset that I feel is holding people back from really stepping into their full potential and their full grief possibilities. It's coming up time and time again in networking when I'm networking is also coming up in some of the clarity calls that I take for people who are looking to apply to come on one of my programs. And it's just something I'm seeing that happens a lot and I think that it's almost like this weird silent epidemic that doesn't really get talked about. And that's what I want to really dive into today. And that's around this kind of small business mindset.

(03:15):
And it was really interesting. So I had a message come through from somebody because I'm looking to get a new kitchen and I think I've talked about many episodes, obviously with lockdown it hasn't materialized as yet, but I'm hoping that change that story soon enough. We're looking to get a kitchen and we were looking at to get a couple of quotes and we had the one quote and the next quote that we wanted because of everything that's been going on has been a lot slower coming forth. But we wanted to be smart and we wanted to make sure that we had two different quotes now. One was from a more local supplier and one quote was from a household brand and we were looking at the strategy of making sure we were making the right decision on where we're spending our money.

(04:12):
And something that's really key to remember for both yourself and to others is that it doesn't matter whether you will local or not. It's about what you are offering and how that is of benefit to the people you're offering it to. Because when I went back to this to this small local company and I sat around the fact that we loved what they've done so far and the process and everything else, but we just need to be smart about where we're spending our money as I've been buying on about for the last two months around, this is where people are at. People want to make sure they're spending, particularly when it comes to large sums of money, you know, we're talking over 10 grand you know, to make sure that they're spending it wisely. And so I wanted to play it safe and just how to have these two comparisons.

(05:08):
Anyway, they come back and they say, no problem. I understand where you're coming from. But I'm also sure that you understand that it's important to shop local and do you know what? It annoyed me. I absolutely love this company and what they stand for and what they do. And we are absolutely earning on the case of actually buying from them anyway, but not because they're local and not because they're a small business. We're going with them because of the quality that they supply and we're going with them because of the customer service and the level of the bespoke nature of actually designing the kitchen that we want because of the unusual nature of our cottage. It's extremely old and we have a few quirks going on that we need to work around that of bulk standard kitchen and kitchen fitter wouldn't be able to navigate as well as this company.

(06:07):
Anyhow, it really, really got to me. And you have to kind of calm me down a bit because I was like, how dare you try and guilt trip me into buying from you. And you know, I absolutely agree that we know we need to support each other as business owners, but we really need to move away from this. You must buy from me attitude because I'm a small business. It doesn't wash with me. It doesn't wash with a lot of other people. You know, making people feel guilty about using places like Amazon or other market leaders isn't going to work. All it's going to do is going to push people away from wanting to buy from you. Instead of begging and playing the guilt trip card we actually need to start stepping up into really owning a niche, really owning what we bring to the table and owning the unique selling points, the concrete unique selling, selling points that we have regardless of our so-called size.

(07:08):
Because it's just not why people buy. You know? And this is what keeps so many businesses playing small because they hear this word "I'm a small business" and you know, I don't class myself as a small business, we certainly don't harvest small business turnover in terms of size and manpower. Yeah, maybe you could say we're smaller than some other businesses out there, but it's not about size. And I think this whole thing around being small and that label of small will absolutely keep your growth at a certain level. And it was certainly stunted if you continue to stay in play. That small business card continuously and not just that, but also seeing yourself as small fry. You know, I've seen it happen a lot when I speak to people. And you know, well, the way they show up in networking spaces comes from you know, from a place of please, you must buy from me instead of this place of you need to buy from me because you are going to get an incredible transformation.

(08:19):
And you're showing up with that energy and that confidence to know that you're not afraid to eat alone if you have to because you know that what you have is incredible and it's going to change somebody's life and that the size of your business or you know, the industry that you're in or whatever it is that you seem to have hang ups around does not matter. It doesn't even come into play. You are coming from a place of pure energetic confidence that you can, you know, deliver the goods no matter the size and actually finding the benefits in your business. Not because you're small, not because you're boutique, not because you know, you, you, you, you offer a bespoke service every time unless it is relevant to do so. And there's always the exception to the rule, like I mentioned before around the kitchen.
(09:16):

And she, yes, one of the reasons is because I've got trust that these guys know what they're doing because they've dealt with the quirks of odd shaped houses before. And so that's why, you know, they're making a bespoke, it's not a one size fits all approach to fitting a standardized kitchen that's going to make a botch job of what they're doing. And so actually the bespoke nature of what they're offering is unique compared to what, you know, what is out there normally off the shelf. And so yes, for them that is something that they should play on. That is something that they should niche into that they should probably talk about more in their marketing. But it really does depend on the industry. If you're talking about the coaching industry and particularly in the one to one coaching industry, you know, most services are bespoke.

(10:06):
You know, most services are one-to-one lad and you'll get bespoke information that's not special. And so it's understanding again that not, I think I say this every episode, it doesn't matter if it works. One business, it has to work for your in your industry and your business. You have to look at the overall landscape. And that's something that we're really looking at inside of my program at the moment. And I've potentially got another client on board, which, you know, is in the same arena as somebody else who's on my program. But to me it really doesn't matter because if you really dig in to what makes you unique and really look at that individual unique belief that your organization has, you know, we can all coexist in the same space and actually attract different corners of the market for varying reasons. And the thing is, if you start trying to attract the entirety of the market that's available to you, you will end up attracting nobody because there is no differentiating factor.

(11:16):
And so you'll end up with, with no one. So it's important to really dig into what makes you unique, what makes you a benefit to your market so that you can dominate a corner of it until you really understand what you bring to the table and that you were able to articulate that. Like I said with that confidence to say, this is why you should buy from me. This is why we are better for somebody like you with your specific problems, with your specific goals, with your specific aims that you have. We are the perfect fit for you. We fit you like a glove. That's what people want to hear. They want to have that trust to know that you are a specialist in helping someone exactly like them and I think that a lack of confidence really comes down to the facts that you haven't honed in on that unique specific genius that you have and you haven't really honed in on the context on which you can fully fledge in, where you can really own and say, I help this person who has this specific problem achieve this specific goal.

(12:30):
Because when you have that much clarity and you have that much context behind what you do, that when you express that you get nods from all around the room, whether they are your ideal client or not, they completely understand the need for your business, the fact that people need to buy from you. Then you have this inner strength and this inner confidence to know that you can scale, you can grow to the level in which you want to because some people don't want to be huge conglomerates. You know, that's not everybody's dream and that's fine, but what you don't want to be doing is not growing but through fear, through feeling small, through not feeling like you know, you can compete with the big fish because that just puts you in a weaker position and you won't find that.

(13:31):
You won't just stunt your growth. You know, you really will come across as somebody who is unconfident in what they do, who is unconfident in actually helping anyone at a higher level. And so if you're looking to sell anything for a decent amount of money, you will struggle because it will show through in every fiber of your being. And so my plea to you today is to really step out of doing that. Really find the thing that you can completely immerse yourself in so that you're able to articulate with position, with confidence, with gumph to say, I know who I am and what I do and who I help and what with. When you start to take your business seriously, when you start to take yourself seriously and you start putting boundaries in place because the other thing that happens is when you come from this weak position where you aren't fully confident to see yourself as a big fish, as somebody who makes a serious difference to people's lives and businesses.

(14:46):
When you come from that weak position, you are easy prey for people to take advantage for other business owners. When you're networking to start asking for unwarranted skill swaps where there's an equal exchange of services where you are offered exposure as payment versus actually getting paid in full for what you are monetarily worth. And you will find yourself bending those rules because you aren't coming from a place of strength. You are coming from a place of weakness. And so you start saying yes to those so-called opportunities, which 99% of the time and up draining you more than they do serve you more than you actually get anything back in return. And you just feel undercut, bitter and resentful. And that's never going to work. Boundaries are so important. And part of those boundaries is knowing what you bring to the table, knowing your value and knowing your worth and knowing what you're willing to do and what you're not willing to do.

(16:00):
When you start respecting yourself and respecting your business and really understanding the true value of what you offer, you will find that those boundaries are a lot easier to put in place and are a lot easier to stick to because what's the compromise? And if you continue down that route, you will find that it will stunt your growth and you will plateau at the level you're at and you won't move forward. It's time to take a stand to fully understand, to niche down, not just for the sake of your marketing, but niching down for the sake of knowing how valuable you are. Because when you get really clear on the impact that you have for somebody specifically because the impacts that you have for everybody is diluted when you really break it down to the perfect individual that you serve and knowing how that impacts them, how important that result is to them, how important that getting that problem fixed is for them and the impact that has on the rest of their life.

(17:07):
You suddenly realize how powerful your business is and how important what you do is and why you shouldn't be compromising on price, why you shouldn't be seeing yourself as this small business. You know, you are somebody or a business that makes a big difference and that you have a big impact. So don't niche just for the sake of your marketing. Yes, it's important, but niche for the sake of your confidence. It is so important because until you start to specialize, you will always lack the power and the confidence behind what you do. So I'm hoping this episode has kind of changed your small business mindset to actually step into realizing how powerful your business really is. And the fact is all that needs to happen is your ability to articulate that value. Because once you have the language, once you have the words to say it, that will automatically fill you with so much confidence to show up with different energy, new energy and really stand your ground with those boundaries as a market leader.

(18:27):
And you have to start adopting this mindset. Now knowing that your market leading market leading means nothing in terms of size. There are many markets, small businesses in terms of size that are market leading. Size doesn't make a difference. So stop seeing yourself as small. Start seeing yourself as a market leader. Start finding the language and the words and the productization of what makes you an obvious choice out of everyone else for your perfect ideal client. And you will soon find that you start stepping into that new energy to start showing up for those who truly need you. Because the longer you stay in the position that you're in, where you are showing up from this place of weakness, you are letting people down. And I know this is really harsh, but you are letting those who need you down. They need you to be confident.

(19:26):
They need you to step into your potential and your power to know that you are making an impact. You know, if you're not confident in that, they can't be. And that means that if they're not confident in you, they can't access the very thing you've been put here to do. And that's a crying shame. So no more, no more with a small business mindset, stepping into a market leading mindset, a high value mindsets, understanding who you are and what you bring to the table. Step into that and you will find that so much will change for you and your business. Anyway, if you would like some help in articulating what makes you a wanted, must have to articulate the power behind your business and what you bring to the table. If you want help finding that language to package you up, to be able to articulate this to your market, then make sure that you book a call with me.

(20:34):
The link is in the show notes, but the very quick link to shout out is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. Make sure you book a call with me because this is something that we can absolutely work on together to give you the language to give you the confidence to really step into that high value mindset. And to start converting more clients with ease and to start being the obvious choice in your field. I absolutely love to help you with that. So do you make sure you have a call with me and I will see you all in the next episode.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format

(00:00):
Has the pandemic put a damper on your productivity? Well in this episode I'm going to revamp your calendar to create more space
(00:18):
Hello and welcome to this very different style to the Expert Unrivalled Podcast. Today we're talking all around how to create more space and get more done, which I think is definitely relevant at the moment. If you're anything like me, you know, your diary is jam packed full at the moment with things to do, kids to feed, kids, to teach dogs, to walk, work to be done, client work to be fulfilled and making times for sales, making times for content creation, all of the life and all of the business things all rolled into one gone are the days of the wonderful luxury of childcare school and a schedule that allows that free time where you can just concentrate. So let's become even more difficult. So on today's episode I really want to dig in to how you can start to create more space and get more done when your diary is full.
(01:18):
My name is Jen Hall and I'm your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. This is also a time where I want to do a little bit of a public service announcement now as you've heard Andy and I have promised that he'd be on the podcast. I'm so sorry guys. He will come on, I promise. In the next couple of weeks we'll record one together and we'll definitely get it out to you. But as Andy is joining my elevate program and the elevate program has been filling up really nicely recently with a ton of amazing entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the next level, two of which I'm actually going to talk about on this podcast that's related to what we're, the topic we're talking about. However the price for that will be going up in June. So if you've been sitting on the fence and you've been thinking about my elevate program, which is my 12 month one to one mastermind hybrid where we basically take you from where you are at now and we get really, really clear on the articulation of why you are unrivalled, why you are the best in your niche and why people should be buying from you right now to getting your business model right to looking at your products and making them as delicious and delectable as possible to your audience, to looking at your sales campaigns and your marketing campaigns so that you're writing content and sales copy that really hit the market and actually make a difference where we share the inside workings of the strategies and campaigns that we use that generate over 300K at a time.
(02:56):
All of these juicy things happen inside of elevate, whereas really about raising your position in the market and getting you to make even more money if you've been sitting on the fence about joining that. Then a) make sure that you book a call as soon as possible, like straight away. Do it now, the link is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast because the prices in June aren't going up. So if you want secure it at the price point that it is right now, then I suggest you get in as soon as possible and the calls are not, you know, you must join on the call. The calls are there to discuss joining. So you absolutely have zero pressure of signing up on the call. You can go out and have a think about it, but at least you know that you've spoken to me and that you've got all the information at hand to make a decision on whether you want to actually go ahead.
(03:45):
And you know, obviously like I said before, the price goes up because Andy brings so much to the table. He's known for his world class customer journeys for client generation and client retention and he's got huge Facebook ad skills. You know, he's known for taking a relatively low budget of Facebook outspend and creating hundreds of thousands of pounds from each Facebook ads campaign. So he brings a lot to the table as well as his amazing attitude. He's there. It's almost like our mindset specialist when anyone's having a wobble. He is absolutely got your back. So he, he brings a ton and that's just a couple of things. He brings a ton of value so the, the price is going up. So if you want to secure it at the price point that it's currently at and get all that extra value thrown in, then make sure that you jump on a call with me as soon as possible.
(04:39):
Like I said, the link is in the show notes, but that link is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. I'm looking forward to speaking to you then. So today then I really want to talk about this whole busy-ness thing because I'm hearing it a lot at the moment and I'm even saying it myself. And the fact is for a lot of people in various different boats, we are struggling to kind of keep up with our normal work pace. However, do you know what something really interesting that I found is that I've been working way more productively and effectively with very little time. And this is one of those weird phenomenon where we kind of expand to the amount of time that we've been given. It actually has a formal name, it's called Parkinson's law. And it really does. We fill our time, we have time available and therefore we fill it with all the things.
(05:36):
Now what's also really interesting is that this week my clients and amazing friends Malaine Lea, she has recorded this incredible Facebook live. You should go and check it out where she basically you know, she's always one of these people I've followed her for many years before we started properly working together. And she's one of these people that just drops this incredible truth bombs, which really stick in my mind and I end up sharing. She's like a life mentor to me. To me, I follow her because she just has these incredible moments of clarity and epifany moments that she shares with others. That really gets the heart of what's going on. And she did this live around, you know, really catching people out on their BS around excuse making and you know, all constantly saying they're busy, busy, busy, too busy, too busy for that and the excuses that people make up.
(06:33):
And it's true because at the end of the day, we all have 24 hours in the day and it's what we choose to spend that time on is, you know, deciphers the results of what we want to create. And so that's really, really important to remember is that yes, you know, essentially we're all busy doing something because we're all generally doing whether that is choosing to spend time, you know, binge watching Netflix you know, you could be busy watching Netflix or you can be busy working on your business, busy spending time with your children, busy eating dinner, whatever it is. You know, we're human beings and we fill all time. And so we have to be really clear first and foremost around what do we need to make time for? And that comes with prioritization. But actually even before prioritization, we really need to look at what we want our life to look like because we need to make sure that, you know, we're not filling it up with things that don't create the world and the reality that we want to live in.
(07:44):
So that's really, really important to get clear on first because otherwise you're prioritizing activities and filling your time with things that are not getting you up the right mountain. We need to make sure that the things that we do support that goal, which is where the prioritization comes in, but you need to understand what the goal looks like. So really understanding this. And another one of my clients Cora Darlington, she specifically works with those busy, busy, busy, busy but out business owners who need to really look at their life and start creating the life that they can sustain. And she massively believes in the you can have it all belief and you know, she really helps you dig into that. And something that she really works on is getting really clear on what that goal looks like and what the goal looks like for you and your needs and wants.
(08:46):
Because a lot of the time we'd end up living to others' expectations of what we should be doing and what we should be spending our time on. And it doesn't come down to anyone else, but you and what you find important, what you value, what really sets you on fire? Something that she said to me when we were working together recently was that so many people start creating the, the diaries and like adding in, you know, yoga time or retreat time. But actually that's not the thing that sets them on fire. And actually having a, you know, a four hour period where they're solidly focusing and creating in their business is what sets them on fire. And actually for them, that's their self care. That's the creation time. That's what fills them up. And so it's about understanding what fills you up versus what everyone else says you should be doing because we know we can get sucked into this.
(09:45):
You should be making time for yourself and running yourself this hot bath. Do you know what I've come to look at recently? I hate baths. I really, really do. And less until I get a bath that's like a swimming pool. I hate them. I hate the way the half my body is freezing. I hate the way it's actually really uncomfortable to try and find a particular position to get in. And then actually getting out of feeling like I should now have a shower because it's been so hot. Then I kind of sweaty and it's, Oh, it's just, I just realized that I'm doing the hot bath thing because that's what I meant to do when I'm feeling stressed or needing some time out. And actually it's not what I like to do, but I did it because it's the thing. And so it's about getting clear on all of those things around what do you actually want to fill your time with?
(10:30):
What lights you, what fills you up and what don't you want to be doing? What can you delegate? And the thing is, it's become more and more difficult in recent times to do that with this whole lockdown and the covid, it's really turned my world in particular upside down because I'm now doing things that I don't particularly enjoy doing, but have to be done that I would normally delegate. Cleaning is one of them. You know, I really don't enjoy cleaning. I've had to kind of change my mindset on it. To be fair. I enjoy cleaning more than I do seeing the mess. So that's one of the motivations that I've had to kind of look at and change perspective on recently around finding the different motivations to do things that I wouldn't normally do or I don't normally do or don't want to do.
(11:19):
So yeah, you know, there are compromises right now, but you know, we also need to look forward to when this is over and the kind of life that you want to create. And now is actually a great time to take stock of all the things that perhaps you don't like doing and what you're looking forward to delegating once things go back to the new normal. And so yeah, get clear on your goal, what you want your life to be, to look like and understand that obviously right now there will have to be compromises and things isn't, things aren't a hundred percent peachy right now, but we still have an opportunity to actually realize a few things. And that is that you know, you can be way more productive when you really time block and look at putting those parameters in place around how long you actually have to have that concentrated time where you can focus on things.
(12:11):
You will find that you actually get more done and so, one of my big tips beyond finding out what your goal is and prioritizing is time blocking and ensuring that you focus during set periods. I always find two hours. Some people seem to golden 90 minutes, I find a good two hours because it turned normally takes me about half an hour to kind of really get into the rhythm and the flow of things. But if you can try and find a two hours to really sit down on a particular task to get it done, then that really is so momentous and you will feel so productive because you've like, whether that is literally clearing your inbox, whether it is batch creating content, whether that is two hours with your child, whether that is two hours of blasting the cleaning, but actually just putting it into your diary and your calendar to say during this time this is what I will be doing.
(13:06):
Deadlines are key to getting things done, which is why actually having less time means you're more productive because it means it doesn't overspill onto things. And I think that's something, a silver lining that we can really take from this time, this period of time where time is busier. We've got a lot more to fit into a very short space of time. We can really take this and use this as an opportunity. So become seriously productive and that when we do start getting some of that time back when kids go back to school. However else that your life looks and obviously like I said, people are in so many different boats and people don't have kids, so I'm, you know, my time is strapped at the minute because I'm trying to deal with homeschooling and quality time with my, you know, with, with Allie and you know, quality time with Andy and making sure my personal life is exist whilst also running, you know, the busiest two months of the year so far during this period with work.
(14:04):
So it is more difficult for some people. Some people may have more time and if that's you and if that's someone who you actually don't, which I don't think you really be listening to this episode to be honest, because this is about your diet being full. But how should you be listening to this and just finding it interesting. And do you or somebody that has more time be aware of that because this is for, for where a lot of us who are busy right now, we're going to move into a space where we suddenly feel like, Oh fuck this relief of thank goodness I've got all of this time back. And the danger of that is that you're then going to overspill into the time and things are going to start taking longer. Remember the Parkinson's law, the longer you give yourself to do something, you will fill it and you will do that and you will procrastinate and you will find things to do.
(14:48):
Deadlines are key to ensuring things that you need to do get done. So put those deadlines in. Put the time blocks in, whether you've got time, where you don't have time, whatever it is, put those parameters in place and really hold yourself accountable to that because you're going to find you make way more progress and you're far more productive doing so. Now going back to the prioritization again, what is going to make your boat go faster? A lot of people are busy doing the wrong things. And something that, just to refer back to what Malaine was talking about in her life, is that people aren't honest with themselves. People aren't honest with themselves around what they actually want. And some of the time people say, Oh, I'm too busy to do something because they actually don't want to do it and they don't want the outcome either.
(15:36):
You know? And I think we all need to be a bit honest, more honest with ourselves and let ourselves off the hook. Because if it's not what you want to do, why are you doing it? You know? At the end of the day I think there is something to be said for if the outcome and the goal is something you want and the thing that you need to do isn't necessarily your favorite task, but you know you need to do it together, then there are sacrifices to be made. Not everything is jolly and happy all of the time. Sometimes you do need to make sacrifices for different, you know, present time, enjoyment for the longterm gain. So you have to kind of weigh up, you know, do you want this goal? If you don't want the goal and why are you doing the thing? Why are you kind of procrastinating?
(16:18):
You're making excuses on thing that you don't really want to do to not get the goal that you don't really want. Be honest about what you want. Be honest about the life that you want to lead to. Be honest about your goals, move towards the things that set you on fire. You know, really think about the things that like you, what? What kind of life do you want to live? What kind of business do you want to create? And really get clear on that because unless you feel motivated by that, you're not going to be willing to do the things that you don't necessarily want to do. But there are things as well that, like I said, delegation. That is one way you're going to create loads of space. If you're still holding onto your bookkeeping for God's sake, get rid of it to someone else.
(16:59):
Get someone to do your accounts, you know, to keep that up to date. You know, a lot of people have accountants, but they're still manually entering in invoices and keeping their QuickBooks up to date or their zero account up to date. Don't do that stuff. If it doesn't fill you up. If you really love doing accounts, then fine. You carry on. Again, this isn't about what I believe you should be doing. This is about what you want to do. And there are plenty of people out there who are willing to take that stuff off your hands. So as you're looking at your workload, actually look at it and go, are there things here that I don't enjoy doing, that don't need to be done by me, that I can get rid of, which will immediately release a ton of time. So there's a really obvious one, but do it like don't just listen because I'm probably not, I won't be the last, and I haven't been the first entrepreneur to say this, you know, to say to you, you need to delegate.
(17:51):
And everyone goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, seriously do it because you know, especially right now, if you can't, if you can delegate something like bookkeeping, which can be delegated right now, this isn't something like, for instance, my cleaner can't come around my house, but my, my bookkeeper can absolutely do my work for me. So, you know, have to think about those sorts of things that you can start shifting off of your plate right now that you don't need to be doing. The others are more than willing and more than happy to help you out with. So yeah, prioritizing the things that you actually want to do. Stop doing the things that you don't and also looking at the activities, you know, the return on investment in those activities is another really key element here because this last couple of months have been insane, I've had a ton of new clients join on the coaching.
(18:42):
We've had a ton of new customers over in the adventure travel side of things. We have been really, really busy. One of the busiest times you've ever had is during this period of lockdown which has been a huge clash. A bit of a conflict of interest, shall we say with everything else going on. So it has been difficult, but it's meant that I've had to really be strategic about where I spend my time and where I'm getting the most return on investment for spending that time. And it's different for everybody. You know I haven't been able to do as much networking as I would like because at the end of the day I've had to prioritize where, where I need to be and you know, I've had an amazing sales month and so I've been, you know, my mind's been taken away.
(19:30):
My time has been taken away or focusing on that because you know, you make hay while that's the Sunshine's. Right. And so the networking side of things has had to take a back seat a little bit to a certain extent because you know, I can't justify sitting in a room with people that I've vaguely know in, you know, when I've got my daughter sitting there needing quality time with me, I have to be very considered about what I do. But for instance, if I was, you know, if I was a business that was really, really quiet, I had no leads and I was twiddling my thumbs and I would be saying, networking is probably thing that you need to be doing right now because you need to be getting in front of people. Sharing your message and you know, drawing up business.
(20:16):
So networking would be a very fruitful thing for you to do, but you have to look at where you are right now and where you want to be and what is actually going to get you there. Right now I want to be focusing on fulfilling my client's needs. These new clients that have signed up, they want huge transformation. I want to give them a huge transformation. Because not only is it going to change their life, it's also going to, you know, help to propel my business success moving along because the better results my clients get, the better people see. You know, it is to work with me and say that's a focus to me right now. Nurturing my leads is a focus with me right now. And sharing that I spend some quality time with my daughter is important to me. So I'm very clear about what's important, the goal I'm trying to achieve and the things are going to make that boat go faster towards the goal that I want.
(21:11):
So be really clear on these activities because I see a lot of people being busy with things that actually don't make much difference to that business. If you are somebody who is trying to be on every single content platform who doesn't have a team of people to help them repurpose their content and you are going out there and you're spending all of this time trying to be everywhere and nowhere and you're not seeing results, then there's something not quite right and you're filling your time with something that is not bringing a great return on investment. And so that is a time to either a get help to repurpose or be really look at your messaging and understand the things that you're actually putting out there and it good. Are you actually on the right platforms? Are you being strategic in terms of where your ideal client actually is?
(21:58):
Is it getting seen? If it's not, then why are you putting content there? Because you know your reach is really, really important. And it might be that you need to get some help but stop filling your time with things that you think you should be doing but aren't actually bringing in the results and aren't actually being strategic use of time. So be clear on these items and, and really look at that. Now you might be kind of listening to me and going, yes, yes, yes, I get it. I'm getting to prioritize. I know, I know that and I need to be clear on what I'm doing. Absolutely. And then some of you may have had some epiphany moments around that. Great. And the time blocking thing absolutely would start like as of today or as of tomorrow, that will happen. But I am so strapped for time.
(22:40):
One of the biggest things that we've been working on with a lot of my older clients and a lot of my newer clients, it's so odd how this has really happened. And I say it's odd. It's not really considering so many people to feel a bit time strapped right now is looking at their business model because what they're finding is that they've either lost a lot of clients and realized, I don't want to go back to the way I was working because I was pushed to my limits and I had zero time to work on my business. I had zero time to spend any time for myself or with my kids or with my spouse or they are still in that, that phase of, wow, how on earth do you do it? And this is one of the things that one of my new clients said to me, how on earth do you deal with all the clients and actually make time to spend working on your business, doing the content creation, all of those things.
(23:34):
Now, you know, some of the answer to that has already been mentioned. Time blocking, batch creation, really looking at where I'm spending my time. So in terms of content creation, I'm very considered about where I spend my time and what I spend my time doing. And I spend a lot of time, for instance, trafficking people towards one core piece of content. You know, like my podcast, you know, that's my main piece of content I want people to consume. And so I spend a lot of time and effort and energy into creating my podcast, but I don't necessarily spend a ton of time elsewhere. I've got a team of people that help me to repurpose my content, to create blogs and things from my core pieces of content for my podcast. I do have a lot of help with that and that enables me to not have to worry about all of that stuff.
(24:25):
I'm more of an editor than I am the creator asides for my podcast. So be again, being very strategic, being very one inch wide, mile deep in my approach to many areas of my business, not only for niching. You know, we don't mention that word during this episode, but you know, I'm all about the one thing. And by the way, if you haven't read the one thing, then you need to read it. It's amazing. And it really does that whole idea of the one thing really does spread across your entire business and your life. Focusing on one goal, focusing on one area and really putting quality time, energy, your blood, sweat and tears into doing that one thing will pay off far better and spreading yourself too thin across all areas, which is why we need to prioritize and we need to call the things that don't necessarily work for us or do better at them.
(25:19):
Get better at this one thing rather than making these excuses about I don't have time for it. Make the time to do something well rather than doing a ton of things that actually don't get you anywhere. But to give the part two to this answer, linking it back to the business model, which is what we were originally talking about here is that, how do you find time to work on your business? Well, I have very strong boundaries about when I work with clients, I ensure that I only take sales calls on one particular day. I've created a business model that serves in terms of my elevate program that gives a high level of support to my clients, but during specific time parameters. So if you've got your calendar free to all and sundry to book in at any time that they like, that's convenient to them, then you are causing yourself a big problem because you are always at the mercy of others.
(26:21):
One of the biggest things that changed the way I work and created more time for me to do what I want with my time versus what other people would like to do with my time, is to use a very simple system with my Google calendar and a an app called Calendly, which is my core booking system where people can choose at a time that's convenient to them, but more importantly and very critically convenient for me. So they can book in during certain periods of time. So it's, they still have an element of choice, but it's during times that suit me and my business. So it's really key. So I have whole days where I don't speak to a client where I can focus either on having a day off or I can focus in on working on my business, content creation, whatever I want to do.
(27:12):
In fact, I have whole weeks blocked out where I don't speak to clients at all and again, I'm very strategic about that and I've left that time for me to choose what I want to do with that time. So stop making your calendar available to everyone else to mess with. And it's fine to give people choices but give them the choices that are convenient for you. You have to prioritize yourself and where you want to work before you can serve anyone else because if you don't work in that way, you will end up, you will end up burnt out, you will end up resentful and you will end up a busy fool because when other people are in charge of your calendar, you know you've got someone booking in a call for an hour and then you've got like half an hour gap where what are you going to do in that time?
(28:03):
By the time you've wound down from the call for 15 minutes and then you've grabbed a drink, you're back onto the next call. So if you were planning to do content creation during that half an hour, I can tell you for sure that ain't going to happen. And then you've got another gap and then you've got another call and then maybe you've got 45 minutes and then you're doing something else. It doesn't work and it doesn't create productivity. It's really key to have large chunks of time to do the things that you want to do. So limit the time that people have control over your diary. If you do that, you will find that you will create so much more space in your business for you to be able to be more strategic. Because at the end of the day, if you are a business owner, you should have either done this or be working towards it, which is letting go of doing the do and actually moving more into a space of working on the business and marketing it and getting the sales in and working on your branding.
(29:04):
And you're delegating, you know, a lot of the due to other people. And if you're not delegating all of the due, at least you are absolutely time blocking out so that you're not spending all of your time doing the due and that you've left space for the really important things. Otherwise you've just created very underpaid an on fulfilling job. And I say underpaid because if you are feeling that you are not having time to be able to spend on your business and getting the sales coming in and if you are feeling that you are being pulled to go limits from pillar to post, and that's how you're feeling, that energetically it means you are not receiving the kind of pay that you want to be receiving for putting all of that energy and time and effort in. So yeah, take control of your calendar, take control of your time, decide what to do with it.
(30:00):
Forget the pressures of what everyone else thinks you should be doing and focus in on what you need to be doing right now that's going to get you towards the goal you want to achieve. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do that at sacrifice of everything else. You know, with kids and dogs and spouses and whatever else it is you have going on and other family members. But it does mean that you are filling it with the things that are important to you, that you value. And that is key to running a successful business. And if you would like to catch up with either of my clients Cora Darlington or Malaine Lea who are both amazing, I don't think I actually mentioned what Malaine does by the way. Just as an kind of a shout out. Malaine is fantastic. Malaine helps purpose driven entrepreneurs who are not currently running a business that truly lights them up.
(30:51):
She helps them pivot to a more mission driven purpose filled business that they feel truly aligned with and actually helps them to amplify their wealth. You know, her clients go from earning a certain amount of money which is okay to earning the kind of wealth that they truly deserve and in a business that they really liked some up. She's amazing, she's brilliant and I just absolutely recommend that you follow her regardless because she comes out with some serious golden nuggets and Cora Darlington. If you're somebody who is burnt out, really pull from pellets of posts and you've listened to this episode because you are like, I need help with this very specific thing. And I really am finding that I don't have time for myself, my kids and my clients and doing all the things that I need to do and I'm feeling like I have zero zilch time and you can't sustain it for much longer.
(31:48):
Cora Darlington is the person that you needed to see because she really is a life architect. She really looks at your calendar, how they're spending your time, all of the things I've been talking about on this episode. I'm sure that we'll actually get her on the podcast as well at some point to talk more about what she does, but she's definitely someone that you need to talk to. If you're someone in that burnout boat, then make sure you speak to her. Pop. both of Malaines and Coras links into the comments and if you've been listening to this and you realize that actually you've not been doing the things that you know you need to be doing to get your business to where it needs to go and the actually you need to start creating a business model that suits the kind of business that you want to run.
(32:32):
And the life that you want to need and that you need to be doing activities are actually going to make a difference and you'd like my help with that to create that business model, to create that content that will actually make a difference rather than just being busy creating and doing and not actually receiving anything in return. And you actually wants to have a much more fruitful marketing plan than I am the one you need to be calling on. I'll pop the booking link for the call in the show notes for those who are just listening and wants to quickly type it in, it's bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. And I would really love to hear from you, speak to you and see how I can help you start building a business that's not only market leading and the number one choice in your market, but also suits the kind of lifestyle that you want to have. And I'll see you guys in the next episode.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

Jen (00:00):
How do you become known when your market seems disinterested in what you have to offer? We're going to dive in to the perfect case study in this episode.
Jen (00:21):
Welcome to this amazing episode where I welcome a guest onto the podcast to talk about something that I find really, really interesting. And I know you are too. This is Jen Hall, your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. And today I'm really excited to introduce the amazing Julie Dennis. Now, Julie Dennis is someone who has pivoted in the last few years from working with individuals to help them through menopause, to actually working with organizations to help them retain that female talent and help educate their teams and their staff on menopause and how to support their employees through that. And also empowering those female employees with being able to manage their symptoms. And she's had an incredible journey because when she first pivoted to this as we'll find out during the the interview, the market didn't really want to know it wasn't really a hot topic.
Jen (01:26):
It wasn't really supposedly high on their priority list. And the thing is that even though this is what she was confronted with, she had this tenacity that she kept going. And what I love about Julie is that she educated her audience. She educated them on why they should be paying attention to what she's talking about and really educated them on a hidden problem that really wasn't the forefront of their minds, but by the time she was done she was and she's become so successful in what she does, they now do want to know. It's now become a really hot topic for businesses to be focusing on to ensure that they're supporting their employees, that they were taking their talent and that they're being seen as a company who really cares about their employees. And so she's done a fantastic job and she has played a key role in really bringing that topic to service.
Jen (02:25):
She's been fully booked for so long. And to her success has just snowballed. When she first started, it was all about the proactive outreach. Nowadays she's finding time to try and fit her clients in. And you know, like I said, she's, she's fully booked and she keeps getting referral after referral as the person to work with in her field. She is a true market leader, has really dominated her corner of the market. And I'm really excited for you to hear Julie's story to really understand what she's gone through and find those golden nuggets. So if you're experiencing a similar thing where you are trying to really make a Mark in your industry that your audience aren't really listening, then listen to this episode because it's going to give you the hope that you need to show you that sometimes it's a case of perseverance and dedication and really raising awareness of the problem and why they should be paying attention to that problem.
Jen (03:29):
Now just before I dive into that, just to let you know, there are just a few more spaces left on the strategy sessions. I'm looking to close these very, very soon. So the strategy sessions, you might ask, what are they say if you're new to the podcast, these are might evolve and elevate strategy sessions where it walks you through how I've made over 350,000 K in just the last few weeks. I talk about the strategies, the campaigns and the process that I've taken my businesses through and my clients businesses through to really help them reach that market leading success. So if you want to have a nose at the types of campaigns that we've been using, what's really been effective for us, then please do make sure you book into those sessions cause they're not going to be around for much longer until if and when I decided to run them again.
Jen (04:21):
So you make sure you get booked on the link is in the show notes and if you'd like to just fast track to talk to me about how to work with me to become that market leader, then again the link to book a call is in the show notes. I'm looking forward to seeing you on either one of those. And as always, if you're enjoying the podcast pretty, please leave a review because we love a review and it also means that you get a lovely little shout out as well on the next podcast episode. So there we go. Now. So without further ado, I am going to let the interview roll. Enjoy. So welcome. Julie. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode.
Julie (04:59):
Delighted to be here, Jen
Jen (05:01):
Fab Really, really excited. And the reason I'm really excited is because I, I'm really interested about your journey. Before I kind of launch into the questions around the shift that you made and sort of where you've moved into in the success story that's come off the back of that. I'd really like to ask you why you do what you do. Like what's the passion behind helping these organizations with menopause support?
Julie (05:30):
Do you know what? I don't think it's necessarily a passion with me. It just feels like it's the right thing to do. You know, you hear people talking a lot in business about, you know, this is my passion. I'm really passionate about helping people. I'm really passionate about changing the world and I just feel that I'm doing the right thing, not just for the people that I'm working with, but for me as well. It just feels like I'm in the right place. So it's not so much a passion, it's just somewhere I've ended up where I thought I would never be, you know, asked me from five years ago, probably six years ago would you be selling menopause to organizations across the UK? I'd have been like, what? And I think, you know, I'm not really a woo person, but life has eventually by the age of 50, well I'm going to be 50 in June. Anyway, I finally, finally found a place where I'm comfortable with work
Jen (06:20):
Fab. And do you think then it's more of an importance thing rather than a passion?
Julie (06:26):
Yeah, it's important too to me to educate people around menopause and just to make it a topic that it's okay to talk about. And it's important for organizations to recognize it as part of her whole health and wellbeing and a and inclusion piece.
Jen (06:42):
Fab. Exactly. And I'm totally with you on that. And I think, you know, like you said, that word passion can sometimes come across as very woowoo. But I think you know, it's important that what you do is incredibly important. And kind of, I'm going to segue now into kind of asking you a few more questions because before you started working with organizations you made a shift from actually working with individuals. How long ago was that now?
Julie (07:10):
So that would be probably about two and a half, three years ago. Probably about two. Yeah, this is my third year of working with organizations. So prior to that I was working with individuals. I mean my background actually is in a, is in the mining industry, so fairly unusual career path from mining to menopause. And I was major dumped it back in 2013 which actually I was totally okay with, you know, I wasn't doing a job that I hated. I wasn't doing a job that I absolutely loved. I was just doing a job. So when, when they made me redundant and I got a nice payoff, which was helpful at the time, it just gave me the opportunity to sit back and relax and think to know what do I want to do, what do I want to do differently?
Julie (07:54):
And I realized I didn't want to be an employee any longer, but I wasn't sure what I could set my own business up doing. So I thought about what I enjoy doing and at that time what I love doing was running. So I qualified as a personal trainer with a view to teaching people how to run and enjoy running. By the time I've got my personal qualifications, motivators and training qualifications, I changed my mind and decided that actually I wanted to work specifically with women like me. I trained with a lot of 20 somethings who didn't have a clue what it was like to try and exercise in the body of a 40 something. And I realized that that was somewhere that I could really make a difference. Quickly started to realize that the women I was working with and their full tears or they wanted to be fit and thin, like we all do. What they really wanted to be able to do was get rid of menopause symptoms. So I pivoted my business fairly quickly right from the start and I've gone through a number of chain changes. So first of all it was, you know, about running. Then it was about personal training. Then it was about menopause coaching for four individuals. And then about years 3 ago I pivoted to working with organizations
Jen (09:00):
And just, you know, very briefly just because I think this will help a few people out there who are perhaps not enjoying what they're doing and looking to make a pivot. That critical pivot between working with individuals and then working with organizations and corporates. What made you want to make that change?
Julie (09:19):
It was, it was a pure chance. I was at a networking, I used to do an awful lot of networking locally. Which was really useful for my business, especially at the start. And I met a woman there who was she was actually, she actually worked for utility warehouse, which is kind of a franchise organization, but that was her part time role. She also worked for the local police force and they were looking for someone to come in and talk to them about menopause. And she said to me, I know you worked with individuals but do you do talks as well? So I said yes even though I hadn't done beforehand, you know, that kind of thing. Say yes, work out how to do it later. Cause it was kind of exciting the thought of doing something new. And I went along and I spoke to the local police.
Julie (09:59):
We had about, there was about 80 people in the room and I remember standing there watching them all file in and just kind of this excitement building as the room filled up. And I realized that actually I could have so much, much more of an impact in front of a group of people within an organization than I could by working with one person at a time. Cause when you're working with one person at a time the change can be slower cause it's just you and them, you know, so you have some quick early wins. But sustaining that longterm change is a lot harder. Whereas when you're working with an organization and you have the support of all the people within the organization and the people in the organization who are trying to change or manage symptoms or support those with symptoms are all working together. Things happen a lot quicker and they happen on a lot bigger scale
Jen (10:46):
Fab. But obviously I know that menopause at work is a big issue, particularly with organizations not really understanding fully at times how the menopause impacts women. And so I love what you do because I think it kind of hits everything from all angles. It helps the individual, but it also helps the individual from the other angle of helping the organization to support them and have more understanding around the issues as well.
Julie (11:11):
Yeah. And you know, it's not just about the individual, it's about the business too. And I'm very clear about that. When I speak to organizations, you know, it was, it wasn't an easy sell to begin with. After my first initial flush of success. It did go quiet. It did go quiet for a couple of couple of months cause it wasn't an easy sell because places was like, you know, why would we want to talk about menopause? You know, nobody wants to talk about it. There's the stigma attached to it. It's got nothing to do with work anyway. And it's not relevant to the business. But actually what I found was useful to us to look at the journey with mental health in organizations. So, you know, 10 years ago we wouldn't have dreamed talking about anxiety or depression openly at work.
Julie (11:50):
But nowadays it's unusual for an organization not have a mental health policy in place to have mental health first aiders and for it to be something that they just talk about. A menopause is following hot on the heels of that. Really. So once I made that connection between the mental health journey that organizations had taken and the menopause journey that they could take, they were much more open to it. So one of the questions that I'd ask when I was consulting was, what have you done around mental health? And we'd look at that platform and those initiatives and use that as a springboard for bringing menopause conversations into the organization. Because it's the same around the stigma, the lack of understanding, the fear of saying the wrong thing of doing the wrong thing,some people just simply not wanting to talk about it. And that's okay too. And I think, you know, that's something that we need to, or that we often forget with conversations like these people are so much about, you know, we need to talk about this stuff. We need to be open about it. And yet for some people that is the right thing to do. But for others, they don't want to share. They don't want to talk about their personal experiences around menopause. And we should respect that too. Whether that's a personal request from then or whether it's, you know, it's a cultural issue.
Jen (12:57):
Absolutely. And I'm loving the way you're taking the conversation on this because this is going to be my next question really. And you partially answered that in terms of, you know, when you, when you first went out there, you didn't particularly get, like you say, the, the welcomed with open arms approach and you've had to kind of worm your way in. And I think a lot of people you know, who particularly have a passion or feel like there's an importance to something, feeling like they're on this kind of ivory tower where they're preaching to everybody but nobody's listening. And so I really love the way you talked about using a different angle, which is being talked about. Can you tell us a bit more about that? So you obviously went through on the mental health springboard. What kind of messaging were you using off the back of that to then take the shift over to the menopause angle?
Julie (13:46):
Well, so it's about the benefits to the individual. And essentially, you know, when you've got a happy, happy workforce it's good for the bottom line too. So it's talking to organizations, not just about the benefits for the individual, but for the benefits for the business. You know, when people are feeling well, when they're able to bring their whole selves to work, when they're able to talk about any issue that they want to comfortably in the office, when their line managers are trained to understand and look out for signs and symptoms and to recognize that reasonable adjustments can be put in place quite quickly without disrupting other team members. When you make organizations understand that it's really good for the people, it's really good for the company to, you know, people are working harder, they're more engaged, they see more opportunities.
Julie (14:33):
You've got the competitive edge, you're improving gender parity. You know, one of the bigger gap, bigger gaps in the, in the gender pay gap is around women in their forties and fifties. You know, the gap starts to really get much bigger than that. So there's all those business angles to look at as well as the benefits to the individual. Some of the companies that I work for have now won awards on the back of the menopause work that they've done. You know, which is great for PR too. And we wanna we want to work for companies that are doing good things for their people.
Jen (15:06):
Fab. And I really like the way you're finding these different angles that both benefits the individual but also benefits to the organizations as well. And actually looking at, you know, how they can do that. And so your strategies and approaches, am I right in saying that a lot of the time they were personal outreach?
Julie (15:23):
Well, in order to find organizations yet person outreach. So I would look on LinkedIn. There's a lot of people, just go in and just privately message all the HR people or all the diversity inclusion leads on LinkedIn and ask them, you know, ask them for a conversation. But what I found worked better for me was looking at what people were posting, you know, targeting an industry or a list of organizations and looking at what people within that organization were posting about and then connecting them on the back of that, you know, I've seen you posted about this topic. It really interested me because would you be interested in having a conversation? Would you be interested in receiving my monthly newsletter about menopause at work? Would you be interested in reading my white paper? Would you mind filling in my recent survey? And just connecting with people on a personal individual basis that was relevant to them at that time as opposed to sending out, you know, a number of blanket requests.
Jen (16:23):
Brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing that because I think a lot of people, you know, wonder how this kind of magic happens, how you kind of seal the deal and get those conversations going. And I'm assuming, you know, when you're out there and you're looking at what other people are posting, you're also obviously, I'm assuming sort of commenting on the angle. So like you say if there's commenting or posting about something to do with gender parity is making that link back, I'm assuming to what you're doing and how you're helping.
Julie (16:50):
Sometimes sometimes I would comment or sometimes I would just take it offline immediately. Cause that was just a, I'm quite direct person. That's just how I work. So I thought I, you know, I could spend weeks and months commenting on other people's posts and building relationships or actually I can just message them directly and comment to them privately about what they've written. And I've got some really good responses with that. And, you know, you're talking about the magic that happens. And actually it's mostly it's about hard work and consistency and commitment. You know, it's not very often that you'll send out a couple of requests and get responses back the same day and you know, you're often often selling it can take a while to build these things and you can get ignored for a long time too. And you've just gotta let it go. You know, people will get in touch with you when they're ready. I have clients now who I first started talking to probably 18 months ago offline, but it taken them that long to come around to the T the fact that they need to talk about menopause, find the budget for it, found that, find the buy in locally. So just, you've got to be patient as well, I think.
Jen (17:52):
Brilliant. And what have you been doing during that time of waiting? I'm assuming you're sort of keeping them warm and staying top of minds and sort of sharing messages with them in some way, shape or form, whether that's through content or, or just keeping in touch.
Julie (18:06):
Yeah. So keeping in touch, a phone call occasionally just to say hi, how are you? What's going on? Like I mentioned, I've got my monthly newsletter pause for thought. So, and that's a really easy win, you know, in terms of getting micro-commitments from people before you can actually sell to them. If you can, if you just say something like, you know, quick question, would you be interested in receiving my monthly newsletter, which includes a, B, and C and we'll help, we'll help, we'll help you to do, you know, X, Y, and Z. Then that's a really quick win that they'll say yes to. And then you're in their inbox once a month, whether they're reading those emails or not. It doesn't matter if you're in their inbox, you're there seeing Julie Dennis menopause every month. So when menopause comes up in their organization, finally it'd be like Julie Dennis. So that's the first name that comes into their head when they think about it.
Jen (18:53):
Amazing. Pleased that you mentioned around your newsletter, because I see this a lot, and this is a big mistake a lot of people make is just saying, join my newsletter. But you've made it very clear about what they will achieve by signing up to something like that because yeah, because other than the answer will a hundred percent be no if you don't actually show them some kind of transformation or benefit to them for doing so. And the other thing I want to pull up as well is you mentioned about your white paper. Now this is something that not every, some people have heard of it. If you're working in the corporate world, you probably most likely would have heard of it, but for a lot of people, can you just explain what the white paper is and what your white paper specifically helps with?
Julie (19:37):
Yeah, so white paper sounds really impressive, obviously. Super impressive. Sounds impressive in my mind it's just a long article essentially. Proving a point, you know, so the point that I was craving was that menopause matters at work. So you know, you've got your introduction piece about what menopause is including some case studies about some work that I'd done with other organizations, including some tips about, you know, what companies can do quickly to get the conversation started. And they're obviously have your light little sales pitch at the end. So it's just, it's just a long article. It's nothing to be frightened of. You just have to get on with it. It's kind of like doing your homework. I think that something like a white paper, you know, when you used to put it off and put it off and put it off, be watching songs of praise on a Sunday night rather than, you know, writing about pride and prejudice or whatever you were supposed to be doing. And I've done two white papers now. So the first one I did was over two years ago. And when I looked back at it recently, I was like, Oh God, you know, my thinking has changed so much since then, but it doesn't matter. You know, you just have to do it and get out there. So when I rewrote it in March this year, I just blocked out a whole day in my diary and that was the only thing on my to do list for that day. Right. The white paper. And that's what I did.
Jen (20:49):
Amazing. And how effective has that been in helping to get that message out there around the importance of having, you know, a support around menopause?
Julie (20:58):
Really effective, you know it's got nice big font. It's got some pictures in it is easy to read. It's easy for people to pick out the bits that are relevant for them. And again it's another easy micro-commitment from a potential lead. Would you like to see a copy of my white paper? I think it would benefit you because and somebody will say yes to that. And again, they might not read it the first time or even the second time that you sent it to them, but eventually they'll, they're just getting that connection in their head. If they want to know about menopause at some point, Julie Dennis is the person they'll speak to about that. So it's making sure that whatever your niche is, your name is connected with, that every time your kind of hot lead is thinking about it.
Jen (21:40):
Brilliant. And so for somebody out there who is looking to bring something that they believe is really important and should absolutely be supported either by an organization or even as an individual and getting that message out there to help raise the awareness on that issue and actually make sales off the back of that awareness, what would your advice be to them?
Julie (22:05):
I think it's what I said earlier, really it's about consistency and commitment. You've just got to keep at it. You know, when I first started doing that, that first three months when I started selling to organizations, I posted on LinkedIn every single day, every single week day. You know, sometimes it was a short post, sometimes it was a longer one, sometimes it was just a quote, but I was visible all the time. You know, going back to that thing again about when people think about your niche, they need to think about your name. You know, especially if you're in a really busy niche. But if you're in a new niche like me, it's even more important that they think about you first of all because you know there's going to be other people coming up about you. So be absolutely consistent with your visibility.
Julie (22:47):
Don't get upset when people ignore you. They will. And if your post don't get any likes or comments, don't take that as a sign that they're no good or that nobody's reading them. Because what I quite often find as well when I'm out and about is people say, Oh, you know, I read that comment you wrote. I thought that was really good. I've noticed you've been really visible lately and they haven't, but they haven't actually bother commenting or liking. But they just, you know, cause we all do it, don't we? We look at stuff I think, or maybe I'll come back to it later, maybe I won't, you don't, but it doesn't mean it hasn't registered just because you're not getting the comments and likes
Jen (23:20):
A great, great advice that, you know, an a particularly on the, on the fact of I'm so one of these people who read something, Oh that's really interesting. And then I have to, on the odd occasion I catch herself like go back and like it Jen, I just like, I'm, I'm off. I'm like, yeah, brilliant, great. Next thing. So, yeah, absolutely. And I think you're totally right. It's staying, it's staying top of mind. I think visibility is, is really important. And you've talked about like keeping in touch.
Julie (23:48):
And I know you talk about this as well, but it's being really specific in your messaging don't get distracted by other stuff that's going on, you know, stay in your own lane, be aware of your competitors, but don't be reading everything that they post because you don't want to be talking in their words. You want to be talking in your words with your own spin on your particular topic. So always stay in your own lane.
Jen (24:09):
Amazing. And what do you feel is different about you and what you provide versus your competitors say?
Julie (24:19):
Mine's a very personal service, my brand is really me, you know, I'm selling me as well as menopause. So the companies that buy from me buy from me because they like me. So I'm not, you know, I don't have a large training company. I'm a single person consultancy. So what they get is a customized solutions. You know, I'm not selling a one size fits all where I do consultative selling. I listened to what was going on within an organization and then I sell them what they need. So, you know, I've got a number of different packages in mind and suites and services that I offer, but I made sure that I listened to what the company need before I made that offer.
Jen (25:04):
Brilliant. And what do you think it is about you that attracts organizations to want to work with you?
Julie (25:10):
I'm pretty relaxed. I think. I I don't take it too seriously. You know, I think we're especially, you know, going back to that word passion that we talked about right at the beginning, you know, you can, when you are very passionate, when you really care about something, you can really take your topic very seriously. But actually companies want a bit of lightheartedness to a bit of, you know, if you introduce a bit of humor, don't be afraid of trying to make your client laugh. I do it all the time.
Jen (25:41):
And I think as well, you know, knowing you on a personal level as well, you're also quite direct and I'm saying that as, as, as, as a positive as someone else who is equally as direct. I absolutely love that attitude and I think that can go down really well.
Julie (25:57):
I think it does. And you know, the one place that I am super, super direct actually is where it comes to fees and pricing. So, you know, and I think that's something that we can tie ourselves in knots about. But when I am talking to organizations on the phone and we reached the end of the conversation and it's getting towards the fees and sometimes they'll say, well you know, do you want me to put, just put a proposal together and you know, map out what you think this will cost. And actually what I try to do is have that conversation on the phone there and then to try and get a ballpark figure of what their budget is, talk about what the kind of money that I have in mind so they don't then have to come off the phone and get really axed him worrying, you know, get my knickers in a twist about how much I'm going to charge. Cause I've already been open about it and direct about it. Knowing how much money they've got, a know how much I'm going to work for.
Jen (26:43):
Absolutely.
Jen (26:44):
And sort of like you said, being direct about finding out what that budget is first and foremost. So many people get so scared about asking that question but it's just so important.
Julie (26:52):
Yeah. And sometimes they don't know and that's okay. In which case, you know, you just pitch where you think it's right and there is no right for you by the way. You've just got to go with the one that you're comfortable with. And I would add as well that in the early days, you know, my fees kind of what would around quite a bit depending on how robust I was feeling.
Jen (27:08):
But I think the good thing as well as you know about that kind of, you know, with the organizations and the personal outreach is that actually that could be quite forgiving if your prices are very public, you've got to stick to your guns, otherwise you will just look weak in the eyes of the public. But you know, you've got a bit more leeway when you're dealing with organizations on that level. And I'm trying to find that sweet spot and also not just the sweet spot for them, but finding the right one for you because I'm sure you've taken on contracts in the past where you just thought, why on earth would I do it for that cost?
Julie (27:42):
Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Of course it does. It happens in the early days. And you know, I look back on it now and I think, well, you know, it's still, it was experience. It's you know, it's a testimonial that I got from that session. I still help people. So take the positives out from, from everything that you do and try not to beat yourself up too much if if you've gone in a lower figure than you really wanted to.
Jen (28:02):
Absolutely. I mean I've done it myself, you know, when I've created a new new product or something and it's the first time I've sold it. And then after I thought, what are you doing Jen? But like you say it's weirdly, sometimes those ones tend to be the most successful. So you've got to throw your all into it anyway and you know, you do find that these ones will always turn out, turn out for the bathroom,
Julie (28:23):
Do you need that? And then you get referrals from that, from that sale. So, you know, there are wins from every sale. It's not just about what's gonna say is all about the money, but it's not just about the money.
Jen (28:35):
And also cause obviously moving on to, you know, the, the success story, we've talked a lot about you pushing into that industry. And making sure your messaging is correct and sticking with it, being consistent, you know, keeping people warm. That consistency hugely paid off for you, didn't it? Cause you said about, you know, referrals you ended up getting like wait-lists didn't you for the amount of people that refer
Julie (28:54):
Really fortunate position. Now in my third year, the about 90% of the businesses comes from inbound leads by which I mean I'm not having to go out and search for business any longer. It's coming, it's coming to me. And that's down to that, you know, that consistency of messaging. It's down to delivering as well as I possibly can for each and every one of my clients. And it's about asking my clients as well. Is there anyone else that you know in your industry that you think I could help? So yeah, the majority of my work now comes through referral.
Jen (29:26):
That's amazing. And I just kind of want to point out for everyone listening that there are so many different ways to become known, but you are proof that becoming well known for being worth knowing has really, really worked. And you know, you are a market leading with this. And I think it's fantastic. And I, you know, a lot of people think market leaders or they're famous, you know, you say their name and you know them. It's not about that. It's about dominating your corner of the market, your corner of the market. You are your corner that you have become well known. Your name is bandied about between different organizations.
Julie (30:00):
Yeah. That's really interesting what you say about the fame piece. You know, because I've never been interviewed on tele. I've done a couple of local radios. I've had, you know, been quoted a couple of times in the newspaper, but I'm not, you know if you look at kind of the, the, the famous people in the menopause space, if you like, my name won't be among them. But if you look at the people who were actually doing the work, that's where my name is and that's where I'm happy with it.
Jen (30:23):
Absolutely. Exactly that. And that's the thing, you're the one that's getting paid to do it. Yeah.
Julie (30:30):
Okay. I'm not on the tele cause I'm at work. Yeah. World menopause day is the 18th of October and every year, you know, there's this Scrabble for people to get loads of publicity. And like when I'm always working, it's like, it's like following the money.
Jen (30:46):
That's the thing, isn't it? It isn't about the fame. It's about being famous for the right thing and actually making those sales because that's what a market leader is. It's somebody who was actually, you know, lapping up a good proportion of their market. And that's what you're doing. And I absolutely love what you do. And I'm so, so just so proud and amazed at and inspired by the journey that you've taken. Honestly, it's so great to see a success story. And what I love about you is that, like you say, you are consistent and you're quite hard, no hard nose with it, and you've kept going. Even even when people were saying no, you've kept it up and it's really paid off. And so many people falter at that first hurdle when they keep hearing the nose or they keep hearing, they're not right now, wouldn't, you know, it's not on top of mind, you really stuck with it. You've educated, you've shown them that actually it is important and you've been really inventive with the different ways that you've done that with your white paper, with your messaging. And you know, getting, like you say, getting them onto your list so you can start educating them to your way of thinking. And that's just paid off in, you know, in leaps and bounds.
Julie (31:55):
Oh, thank you. Yeah, ultimately I really enjoy what I do, you know, like as I said, you know, I'm 50 and I've finally, finally found the thing that I'm good at and that I enjoy.
Jen (32:07):
Brilliant. And you know, that's, that's a huge win. I think so many people. And it's great also, you know, on that note that you know you're honest about the pivots you've made. And I think a lot of people do pivot a lot in their, in their, when they first start out doing something, but you find your groove eventually, you know, it's just about trial and error in that sense. And you know, you, you, you eventually find your place and I'm just really pleased that you've, you've found yours and you're doing such amazing work for these organizations.
Julie (32:32):
So thank you, Jen.
Jen (32:34):
No, thank you. And thank you so much for joining us, Julie. If we do have any oranizations or anyone interested in finding more about what you do work, where can people find you?
Julie (32:40):
Okay, so come and find me on LinkedIn. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. I love it when I get a message, when people want to connect with me, by the way, as opposed to just a connection request or otherwise, have a look at my website, which is Juliedennis.net.
Jen (32:57):
Fab. Thank you so much for joining me, Julie.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):
All people able to make big decisions right now in this uncertain market. Well, let's find out in this episode
(00:15):
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Experts Unrivalled Podcast. I'm your host Jen Hall, your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. And there's been so much going on at the minute with our businesses and our clients businesses. It's all a really, really exciting time. Whilst we are still, as I'm recording this, in the midst of lockdown, there is a small glimmer of hope that things are starting to lift. And you know, we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're not getting too excited because you know that I'm not one to, you know, jump the gun because we just don't know what the future holds. But I am still getting a little bit excited about some of the rumors that I'm hearing around starting to lift and sort of human contact looking like it might appear at some point in the next 10 years, which would be fantastic, but we have just switched over.
(01:11):
It's the 1st of May as I'm recording this. And yesterday was the last day of our campaign. And we've just tipped over the 330,000 pound Mark, which I am so, so chuffed with. We absolutely smashed our monetary goal. You know, I was positive in this market that we would do well. Now this particular income has come through the adventure travel business that we run. And it's really interesting because obviously hospitality and the travel businesses, two of the biggest impacted industries and yet we've just brought in a huge amount of money in, in a matter of weeks. Which is, which is incredible and I'm really chuffed about, but I'm going to be honest with you, you know, whilst we were still confident that our audience would buy because the majority of this income has come through a warm audience. Obviously the cause of the, the market leading name we have, we do have some cold traffic come through because our third party credibility, which I think I spoke about in the last episode or the one before last should I say, cause the last episode was the amazing Jessica Lorimer which if you haven't checked out she talks about positioning yourself as a number one to corporates, which is just fantastic.
(02:27):
So go and check that episode out. But the wonderful that was talking about third party credibility, which is where your audience does the sharing for you, which is the kind of the tipping point for becoming that market leading name. Because you know, your audience is sharing for you. And everyone who knew me wouldn't say, who do I go to for this? Your name is the shouted from the rooftops. So you know, we have had some cold traffic. They've been very quickly warmed up because people do, if you get a third party recommendation, then you're going to trust it because they've been there, done, they've been through your processes and they've enjoyed it. And so therefore that's, that's good enough. But going back to my original points, I was slightly concerned at the end of the day, we're in a recession right now.
(03:11):
It hasn't necessarily been officially nonsense as far as I'm aware. But it's a dead set that we are. And you know, and obviously like I said, we were in one of the two most impacted industries during this crisis. So obviously there was a, a wavering of all we going to make as much money as we normally do. You know, I'm human being and as confident as I am and our brand name and what we deliver. You know, there's, there's, there is that small element of uncertainty that was sitting within me, but I've come out of the other side of this having hit a huge monetary goal and exceeded expectations to really kind of share that news. I know I keep sharing it and I've already talked about this and you're like, yes, Jen, we've had it before, but I just want to really reiterate, people are still buying even in an uncertain market, people are still buying the things that matter to them and they're, and the more importantly thay're buying from the people who were showing up and the buying from the people and the businesses who have a name that they can trust because they've built that third party credibility.
(04:16):
They're a market eating name and they know who they're buying from and they know that they're going to get a great service. People do not want to gamble with their money. And I've spoken on the other side of the aid with the market leader league and if you haven't heard that name before, by the way, that's my new brand name that I'm gradually introducing into the business. The podcast name won't change as far as I'm aware. Everything stays the same. But I am initiating a new brand, the market leader league, which by the way, okay, here you go. Here's some really exciting news, which I don't know whether I've told you about or not, but we're introducing Andy Moore into the market leader league business, which is my, for those of you who are wondering what earth this is all about.
(04:57):
This is basically my business, my baby, my coaching consultancy business where I help entrepreneurs to get to market either level. Now Andy Moore is my partner in success over in the adventure travel business. And it's also for my fiance just for transparency. But we work so well together over that. He's amazing. You know, we've worked like such a great team and we thought, you know what, with the wealth of knowledge that we both have, why not join forces again over into this business. And he's really excited. I'm really excited and he brings so much new knowledge to the table. In terms of like he's obsessed with tech, like he has a real passion for it and his favorite phrases. What would the best in the world look like? So look out for that episode because the next time we record and Andy Moore will be joining me on the podcast so you can hear all about his side of the story on becoming a market leading business.
(05:53):
So yeah, I'm really excited about this joining of forces. I think it's going to be incredible for the business, it's gonna be incredible for our clients that over the last couple of weeks I've spoken to around 25 business owners and you know, they've had to make big decisions, some of these business owners. So just so you know, the reason why I've spoken to so many people is because I've been running these evolve and elevate strategy sessions, which are going off a storm guys, if you, I'm not going to be running them from it forever, I don't think. So at the moment it's one of those things that I'm running them until I get bored of running them until I want to change it up. So, you know, get in there now before they disappear. And they're helping business owners right now in this current climate to really understand the processes of getting that market leader name.
(06:47):
And I also share some of the incredible strategies and campaigns that have brought in a ton of money in both our businesses and with our client's businesses. So make sure you become the link is in the show notes to get yourself booked on. It is a group call, is it a maximum of five people and you guys get time at the end to ask questions. So do come and join those. But off the back of that, I've been inviting certain individuals who I think would be great on the program, my elevate program, which is a 12 month program once one master, one hybrid that takes you from you one ounce market leader level. And I've invited a few of those business owners to join the program and some incredible business owners have made some great decisions to invest into their business right now to help them achieve exactly what I just described, which is fantastic.
(07:40):
However, they've also been concerned quite rightly about investing in an uncertain market. And the thing is everybody's feeling this way right now. Everybody is worried, scared. Like I said, I was even concerned that we were going to bring in the kind of money that I wanted to bring in during the campaign that we've just run. I was, you know, we're human beings and in an uncertain market, things can feel, you know, concerning, and especially the types of people that I invite on to elevate tend to be the business owners who have been in the game a little while. And therefore that means that they've usually already invested sometimes a lot of money into something already. And do you know what it's awful to say, but nine times out of 10, they've invested and unfortunately it's not worked out. They've been missold, they haven't been told all the information.
(08:41):
And you know, they, it wasn't the right thing for their business at that time. And it's, it's a shame and that means that they've been burned and so they're scared about reinvesting. Now, you know, this is prevalent at the moment that is happening all the time, particularly in the coaching industry. But it's happening all over the place. People do not want to gamble. I know I've talked about this before in other specific episodes where I talk about the current crisis we're in. The people do not want to gamble. They are scared, skeptical. They want to make sure. So the things like high ticket webinars where people are sending people from a cold ad into a high ticket webinar hoping that that's enough to warm people up. It's not, people need warming up way more. You know, they need conversation. If you want them to part with money, they need to feel the trust.
(09:35):
They need to know they're going to get the, you know, the goods from you and the results from me because you know, if you are looking to get that high ticket money, but in particular they do, they need that extra special personal connection. They're not just going to be spending their money Willy nilly with somebody. They just seen that time has been and gone and we're not in that market anymore. We need to make sure we're putting the time and the effort into our prospects, into those people who want to invest but are scared to when they need reassurance. So that's one of the biggest things I need to talk to you guys about today is that your people need you to reassure them, particularly if you haven't yet got that market-leading name. If you're working towards the market leading name, they're going to need that reassurance more than ever.
(10:25):
And the only way you're going to do that is by stopping being lazy. Stop relying on automation. Stop relying on dull content. Stop relying on you know, a quick win posts that will hopefully get you a ton of sales. It ain't going to happen guys. You need to put more effort into having conversations, building relationships on the ground upwards. Yes, it sounds like work, but do you know what's more work? That is a lot of wasted time and efforts on systems and campaigns and strategies and structures that don't work for your business right now because they are not implemented effectively to warm up your audience effectively so that by the time they get on the call, they're already warm. But you know, that call is ever more important, particularly for high ticket, you know, so some, for some products you don't need a call.
(11:15):
It really depends on the type of business that you're running. But for those people whose normal process involves a call, that call is more important than ever. People really want to be reassured, you know, and some of the things that I've helped, those people who I've invited into elevate to help make that good decision for them to make them feel like, yes, this is, this is the right thing for me and I'm ready to jump is helping to show them with case studies, giving them names of previous clients where they can go and check me out and make sure, because again, they've kind of done their due diligence in the past by looking at testimonials, by looking at the surface level view of what you're offering and the fact that you might have a flashy website or you might have this or you might have that, but people really need to know at the core level that you're the right person and the only way they're going to get that is through third party credibility.
(12:07):
I know, I keep saying this guy's so, so important and so give them that third party credibility if people aren't at the point where they're willingly sharing on behalf of you, you know, get the make that happen. You know, I recently got in touch with a few of my clients and said, look, I'm going to give your names out. I hope you don't mind, these people want to approach you and ask you what it's like to work with me, get their permission and then set it up. Get pit gap people to talk to each other and start that ball rolling where people can share that third party credibility and reassure your future prospects that you're sure thing. So, you know, and if you are not in the high ticket business, yes, it won't necessarily be as much of a gamble, but they still want to make sure that they're making the right decisions.
(12:55):
So more than ever, social proof isn't so necessary. So looking at things like you know, making sure your testimonials are out there, making sure that they're thorough, making sure that they demonstrate the transformation that your product delivers, you know, and make sure that you are demonstrating that with content assets that you actually taking those testimonials and you're promoting out there so that people start to build that trust over time. Because this kind of one hit wonder, see would buy isn't going to work. They needed to see you numerous times and to build that trust and credibility and that relationship with you to know that you're not a flash in the pan, that you're not someone who is all about the surface level and not about the integrity. They need to know all of this before they're ready to buy. So for instance, when I talked about this high ticket webinar thing, which is something I spoke to one of you know, the potential people that that's going to jump into elevate is that, you know, they've invested into this thing where it's like this one advert that goes straight into the webinar and then straight into buy from me or jump on a call, which is pretty much the same thing cause you don't want to be flowering up your calls as nice one-to-one coaching when actually it's about selling them into something.
(14:16):
I'm all about the transparency when it comes to, you know, getting people on calls, otherwise it just feels really icky. But that's what you're expecting them to do. And there's just not enough trust built. So I'm not saying you can't use strategies like that, but you need to think deeper. What else do I need to do before they see that art? You know, how can I get them to warm up to me before they go into the webinar, before they get the call? Because people, if you're being transparent about it and you're being transparent about it being a sales call more to the point and they know it's a sale. If they're not ready to invest and not because they're not ready to part with their money, but they're not ready to part with their money for you because they don't know that you're the right person or not.
(14:58):
They need to make sure. So give them all of that before they get on the call. Do as much as you possibly can. I know that even once they're on the call, they may still want extra reassurance, particularly at the time it is now. People are not gambling, so give them all of the paraphernalia, all of the things that they need, the social proof and walking them through. Spending that extra bit of time with them to really help them know that they're making the right decision. That's going to be the thing that pays off. So my big advice of the day is to stop with the quick win mentality and start marketing for the longer game because that is what will help your business to thrive. This is why people are making great decisions to invest into their business, into joining elevate, and you put making that big investment because they've got the reassurance both on the possibility for their business to thrive, the possibility that they themselves can make that happen and that the program that they're joining is going to be the thing that gets them there and why it's different and why it's going to work versus the other things that they have previously invested in and didn't work.
(16:18):
They need to know all of that and now they do. You know, people are jumping at the opportunity, but you have to understand that, you know, you can't expect people to jump at your service from the, from the word go. They need more understanding. They need more reassurance and more education than that. So it's think about marketing for the longer game and just stopped with the while. I'm just going to put this out and hope, hopefully I'll get people jumping at it because that ain't going to work. It's all about your positioning, what you put out there and how you are helping people. You know it on an individual basis because yes, you can't have conversations with everyone who follows you and case in point because not everybody reaches out to you or there are a lot of stalkers out there. So you need to be thinking on two levels.
(17:10):
Those people who do reach out to you, make sure you really have those quality conversations with them because that's how people start sharing. That's how they start sharing their great experience they've had with you. Whether they have bought from you or not, whether you've had a conversation and gone, do you know what, with all integrity, you're not the right fit. You're not right for this. So you know, this is where I suggest you go. This is where I suggest you start and then come back later. Or you know, I'm not qualified for that. Whatever it is, and you can send people away. But people, when people have a good experience like that, that builds trust and they will share their experience will start the ball rolling on that third party credibility. And for those people who are not reaching out, he was stalking you from the sidelines who are not engaging and just reading and watching what are they reading and watching?
(18:03):
That's really key because you can't control when people see what you're doing, but you can control what they see. So how strategic are you being and what you're putting out there? Because if you're just creating content for the sake of creating content, that's never going to hit well because it means that you're putting out content that's perhaps mediocre. And so if people for the first time kind of see that or they start to see a stint of your content, it's really gone down. Healers got boring, it's not interesting to them and it, and it's kind of left them with a bit of, well I'm kind of wasting my time here feeling. Then they, they're off, they're off somewhere else, they're off to find the, you know, the next best thing. But so you need to be really clear about, am I putting time and effort into creating quality content versus the quantity of it to make sure that what they're seeing at every stage is spot on and hitting the Mark.
(19:05):
So if you're not creating good content right now, you are potentially damaging your credibility. You know, and I don't want to be a Debbie downer and be like, well, you know what, I'm just trying. I'm practicing. Yes, I'm all for trying and practicing. But you know, you don't have to publish everything that you try and practice on is. It's the other thing. And yes, there is a case for testing content and testing stuff, but you're going to have to learn, so test and learn, don't test and keep, continue to pull it doing the things that aren't working. You have to change something up and if it's not working over a long period of time, then it's time that you've got some help to do that. It's time that you invest into your business because otherwise nothing's ever going to change. On the other end, you know, an engagement, like I said, it really engagement's great, but it doesn't bring the money and the real thing that you want to be testing is not how many clicks you get isn't how many people like it isn't how people will comment on it.
(20:04):
It's around how many people are reading that and then reach out to you personally and go, Oh wow, that really hit the spot and then buy from you because you've set that conversation up. That's where you really want to be headed. It's in the bottom line. Who is buying from you? Why are they buying from you and are they buying from me because of that content? If so, then yes, that's the content that you need to put more of out there. I know so many supposedly successful people out there who focus on the engagement and I know so many people out there who don't focus on the engagement and focus on the quality and they're making more money behind the, you know, this Facebook famous thing is really, really grating on me because this is what has caused this epidemic of people being burned where people are investing because they're seeing the posse and the people the following that they've created.
(21:09):
Engage great all day buying it all. Is that business owner seeing the return on investment on the other side of the coin in monetary value. If not, then that ain't a business that isn't a successful business. That's a business that focuses solely on self gratification and that's never going to work. You need to be focused on making the money. It is a business. So what kind of content are you creating that helps people make great decisions for themselves? Where they feel confident in buying from you. That's boosting your credibility, that's challenging their thought processes, that's making them think differently and that's educating them on a new way of thinking and a new way of working. Educating them on you, making sure that they understand that you're the one who work with your, the GoTo. You're the expert in your field. I'm not saying, you know, engagement lights aren't great.
(22:07):
They are. We all have that, right? We all love it and it's, and it's great. It boost your reach. You can potentially reach more people. All of these things absolutely, but also become worth knowing. Don't just become well known, become well known for being worth knowing. That's the key to everything. When it becomes, when it comes to becoming a market leader, when it comes to really creating a business that is truly successful in the longterm, that's where your focus needs to be. Not on popularity, not on likes, not on engagement. It needs to be who was the person to work with? Who do I trust? Because you can be really popular and still no one will buy from you. You need to be popular for the right reasons. That's my key message on this point. Become well known for being worth knowing. So making a big decision in this market is harder and I'm not going to flower that up.
(23:09):
It can be a difficult decision. However, if you're doing everything you can on your side to position yourself as the one to work with that you know with full integrity that you are the ones that work with and you believe in your methods and you know that if people were to just take that chance with you, that they would see incredible results. If you've got all of that mindset and you are articulating that to your markets and you are proving it to them, showing them and demonstrating that you are that person and there was absolutely no reason why your business will not be successful right now, we've gone and proved that point with making all of that money in that short space of time in a recession. So have a good think about how you're positioning yourself to your market. Are you doing everything within your power to reassure people that you're the right person or the right business to do business with?
(24:10):
Going back to my previous point about you know, helping people to take that chance on you. You want to remove the chance part of that sentence. You want to make it a sure thing. So what are you doing to make your opportunity a sure thing where they know that they're going to get the results that they need, the support level that they need and the transformation that they want. That needs to be key. Remove the chance element and reassure them. Give them that sureness in the uncertain market and you will see that it reaps rewards. So there we go. That's this episode. I really, really hope you enjoyed it. And if you're someone who would like the extra reassurance because you're thinking that you really want to focus on positioning yourself as that credible experts where you can build that market leading name in your industry.
(25:06):
I know that you are the go to expert for your niche. If that's you and you want to have a chat about how you can join elevate. And by the way, you do need to start thinking about it soon if you don't want to start paying the high prices because Andy is joining us, we're looking at raising the prices in the program because he brings so much more to the table into that program. There's so much more support now. He's on board even though there was loads of support before, there's even more now. And you know, he brings skills such as like Facebook ads and and looking at your world class customer journey. There's so much more aboard. So the price will be going up because of that. So if you are somebody who is on the fence who was thinking, Oh gosh, I just don't know whether it's the right decision, why not jump on a call with me to discuss, to see if it's the right thing for you so that I can either provide reassurance or tell you that it's not the right thing for you and you can actually rest, rest and bad's going, okay, fine.
(26:02):
At least I've explored that option and it's not or it is and you can make it make a decision. I spend a lot of time with people on my calls to make sure that they are making a good decision for them. They've got all the cards on the table to know whether they are going to get the return on investment that they make. So if you'd like to have a discussion with me, do make sure that you book a call with me. The call is in the show notes, so do you just have there. Otherwise you can type in bit.ly/claritycallpodcast and jump on a call with me to discuss how you can start working in elevate to really make that happen. But I'm all about the reassureness. You can go speak to my clients, you can check me out, you can do what you need to do. I'm free for stalking guys. So anything that you need to to help you make that great decision for you. It's all out there. It's on the table. So do jump on call with me, have a discussion. If you need to go away and think about it, then that is also fine as well because I, again, I'm all about reassurance and giving you space to make good decisions when it comes to making big decisions for your business. And I will see you in the next episode.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

Jen (00:09):
It's Jen Hall here, your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. And today is slightly different. We have a very special guest on the show. And it is Jessica Lorimer and she specializes in helping entrepreneurs sell to corporates. And she's been my sales coach now for a very long time. She has recently or not so recently. It feels recent to me, but it's definitely not. She pivoted to being really specific in what she wanted to help with. And in this episode she talks to us more about, you know, why she made that pivot to working more where she's, you know, made to help people. How she goes about that, but more so she talks to us about how to position yourself as the number one choice for corporate selling. So if you're someone who is looking to sell to corporates in the future, then definitely go and check her out.

Jen (01:08):
But make sure that you listen up in this episode because she gives so much gold as to how you can do that. And if you're somebody who already sells to corporates, then again, this will seriously help to ramp up your sales. She's fantastic. She's brilliant. And I can't wait for you to hear the interview that we had. Now a couple of things, dementia, the first thing about the interview, I sound like I'm talking into a toilet bowl. I have since found some amazing new software called TriCast, which has now enabled me to stop this ever happening again. I have to apologize. She sounds like a dream. I sound like I've stopped down a toilet, so I apologize. Nothing I can do such a great episode. It's worth so much. I was like, there's nowhere I could waste it. It still needs to go live.

Jen (01:58):
It still needs to get out there. And so in a moment I'm going to a lawn chair and just, you're just going to have to deal with my awful sounding echoey voice. I do apologize. The, the good thing is she's doing most of the talking during this episode, so, you know, you only have to listen to me for a few things. And just to let you know what's going on in the world of Jen right now. I've just been running some amazing elevate and evolve the strategy sessions for some incredible entrepreneurs to really help them look at different strategies and the way that they are selling right now in this Covid-19 pandemic. But also on that, I mean, we've just celebrated an amazing results. And I said, we've just celebrated, we're still raking in the money.

Jen (02:46):
We launched a campaign a few weeks ago and so far that campaign has brought in just over 220,000 pounds, which is just incredible. And I'm not sharing that to brag. I'm sharing to kind of spread the hope that people are still buying right now. People are absolutely still thinking about the after math of what's going on. And you know, they're looking forward to when this ends and they're also investing into things that are really gonna help them right now in this pandemic. So not just afterwards, but also now. So please don't be put off thinking that you know, the world has come to an end. You know, yes we are in a recession right now, but the proof is in the numbers. People are still buying. We're still selling. And what I'm doing on these sessions is helping you with your mindset around this and showing me some of the strategies that we've used that generate this kind of money on, on a regular basis.

Jen (03:41):
But also more to the point, the reason we make the kind of money that we make and the fact that that rise is year on year. As we kind of move through our business career, either reason that that happens is because we have put our name out there. We are a market leader in our field and that's why we end up making so much money. You couldn't put any strategy in place. You could have any special marketing campaign and yes, you will make money, you will make money. But the fact is, until you position yourself perfectly as a market leader in your industry, the one to go to, then you know you're never going to make the kind of money that you want to make. If you want to start dominating your market and lapping up the market share, you need to start positioning yourself as that, as that go to expert in your field because that will amplify any amount of money that you could ever make off of a strategy or a campaign both go hand in hand.

Jen (04:44):
And so that's the kind of the point I wanted to make before we launch into today's episode. And also to let you guys know that I had decided they all sold out. The ones that I created sold out really smart. They sold out. So they're selling out like hotcakes. And I'm realizing it's because people really want to learn how to do this stuff. And in this session it's an, it's an hour and a half of your time where you can come in and sit with just five other entrepreneurs to really find out how you can start positioning yourself as that number one choice in the market. The only remit is, is that there are 20 pounds, 20 pounds to get this amazing information and also the fact that you need to have been in business for more than a year and have been serving clients. So we need to make sure that you've got some sort of validated product in order to kind of take that up a notch.

Jen (05:31):
So do make sure that you click the link in the show notes so that you can become to one of those sessions. I don't know how long going to be running them for the guys. So if you are interested on jumping on one of these sessions, please do make sure that you do it quickly. Because you know, this won't listen, probably won't be something that lasts forever and we will see, I literally don't know. This is a very new thing that I'm doing and I'm trialing it out and like I said so far, I've had to reopen so many sessions cause each one keeps letting out each time. So be quick. And jump on this. If it's something that you want to learn, do you want to learn how to position yourself as that market leader and you want to hear about the kind of strategies and campaigns that we're using right now at the moment to generate huge amounts of money.

Jen (06:17):
Then do let me know, do you make sure that you book in using the link in the show notes? Anywho I also wanted to give someone a shout out. I did promise that it would be a shout out. Now I'm going to make a massive guess as to who left this. Because I love Google. Oh, sorry. Itunes, it reviews because it generally gives people a really quirky nickname. Normally that sometimes that we've given ourselves, you know, sometimes way back. And my sister reminded me of the time when I tried to get my first edit email address and it was something like Jen's 11 angels@topmail.com. And she said, I remember when you got that you were so angry. And the reason I'm so annoyed is because every email address I kept putting it in, kept getting denied.

Jen (07:02):
Like, Oh, it's taken, it's taken. So I put something really random in because I thought it was broken and then it stark. And so I was stopped with this really odd name that meant absolutely nothing evil. All 11 angels must be so meaningful. No, it's just some random words that I chopped in. Anyway, we've got this review from fierce gem or ass now I reckon, I reckon this is the amazing journalists Stowe, and I apologies if it's not Joe Misto. So you have to bring forth your true identity. If it's not by, I'm going to put money on the fact that this is Jeremy [inaudible] that wrote this lovely review. Go and check Joma out. She's amazing. She really helps with both organizations and individuals to put themselves out there for fearless self promotion, which is why I assume it is devastated because her nickname is fierce drama ass.

Jen (07:51):
She said this is a fantastic podcast. Jen always delivers huge amounts of value and you can implement that you can implement immediately. Being a market leader is so important for ambitious people with big visions. Jen you are awesome. Thank you so much. But even me, such a lovely review and so like I said I did a promised shoutouts and that's my first shout out. How amazing I think. I think it's my first shout out anyway and if you would like your own shout-outs and you'd like to make my day, you'd like to help this podcast really get into the ranks to get this. The messages I'm getting on here. If you're finding useful, let's get them out to more people. Let's help more people and by making my day with a lovely review and sharing all the goodness you are going to absolutely help, help the world spread the message.

Jen (08:36):
And you will also get an amazing shout out like she did anything. Right? Okay, I'm going to let the interview run because this is going to be really juicy. It's going to be super fantastic and I cannot wait for you to hear the gold that Jessica Lorimer has to share. You know, she's a seven figure sales coach. She knows what she's talking about and not even the fact that she's a seven figure coach. That's, that's amazing in itself, but more to the point, she is what I call a true leader. She leads with grace. She knows exactly what to say at every moment and time, and she's not a pushy sales coach. By that I mean she teaches sales without the sneeze. Everything just feels so effortless. It's like, you know, doing a deal with your friend except they're giving you loads of money. It's just beautiful to watch the way she does things. She's got boundaries. She is the queen in her niche and I absolutely adore her and I can't wait to share these words with you. So without further ado, I'm going to let the interview roll. Hello and welcome to this amazing episode of the Expert Unrivalled Podcast. I am so, so privileged to have my own personal sales coach on with us today. Jessica Lorimer.

Jessica (09:52):
I'm excited or that you have prefaced this with, it's going to be amazing. And I'm like, Oh my God.

Jen (09:57):
I always do. I always preface it with you because I know it always is going to be awesome. Jess tends to be my

Jen (10:06):
Fast pass it on, which is great cause she always sets everything like the bar really, really high. But everything else that happens. So yeah, I'm really excited to have her aboard today. It's going to be Epic. I'm really excited for, for two different reasons. One, because I know you're going to offer a ton of goals on this podcast episode, but also because I say recently that you kind of really niche down, but it feels recent, but it probably isn't. How long have you now been selling to corporates? Kind of exclusively.

Jessica (10:36):
So since June, 2019 is when we started the podcast, we won. At that point, we were only selling the event, which we'd never done before. So we'd never done a convecting corporates about it and I'd never publicly sold to entrepreneurs how sales corporates. So it's been from June, 2019. So what we now have eight months, which is a bit scary

Jen (11:03):
Is honestly, cause they do kind of what any feels like yesterday. But I guess this is what happens when you really start to embed a niche is that you've been so consistent with it over that period of time and you've gone really, really big with that message that, you know, that's all I kind of know you for now. But prior to that you know, you still are. My sales coach for me is as an entrepreneur I've seen that you've really been encouraging people to add a corporate revenue stream onto their business. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and why?

Jessica (11:40):
I mean, this has the potential to get ranty.

Jen (11:44):
Okay, well have a good runs.

Jessica (11:45):
Well, here's the thing. So you're for what, six years? I've been in business now in the online space and I was really fortunate, I built a really successful business really quickly in this space. And I would say that I'm one of the lucky few, you know, I'm, I'm somebody who came into the space relatively early, you know, bear in mind, I started my business in 2015 so there were different things going on. People had only just heard of Facebook groups then, right? So it was actually quite easy. And I remember some unfortunate person once likened the 2015 online sales market to being shot in a barrel like fishing. Oh wow.

Jessica (12:29):
But that's how it kind of was. You know, back in the day you could go into Facebook group and you could say something like in somebody else's Facebook group, he could be like, Oh, I've got this free optin on how to get your first ever client comment yes below and I'll private message it to you. And you get like these lists with thousands and thousands of comments. And I remember actually doing it the first time ever for myself and I had all these comments. I didn't have an automation set up and I had to manually add like 400 people. I wanted to kill myself. Like I was just, I was done with online marketing and you know, over the last few years what we've seen is that it's begun to get really saturated. And the majority of reason I kind of encourage people to add a corporate revenue stream is because what we're seeing is the market is saturated, but the market is also saturated with people who are not that good at what they claim to be good at.

Jessica (13:27):
And so that's causing a real problem for people who are genuinely qualified. Like you, like other clients that I have who have genuine skills, genuine qualifications, have really worked hard to hone the results that they can get their clients. And then they come into this online space. I'm honestly, it's like cockfighting and I mean by that chickens as opposed to... but it becomes really awful because you end up seeing these c primi qualify people who are great when they do having to lower their prices or they're hanging around in all these Facebook groups feeling really inadequate because people who are not as qualified as them or better at marketing, they're worse at delivery but the best at marketing. And that just really starts to get my goat. And I'm seeing the clients that I was working with in my mastermind and privately and we were adding corporate revenue streams to that business and it was taking off so much quicker and they were enjoying it more. And so I was like, no, it's great. Why don't we go all in on this? Why don't we show people, especially qualified people that actually they're really all companies out there who will pay you what you're genuinely worth and he will find you your expertise and not make you do some kind of weird song and dance about it for free online until they're convinced enough buy anything.

Jen (14:52):
Absolutely. And it's really interesting. It's sort of pick up on a few things that you kind of said that, especially around how things used to be. And this is why I love how you are and what you do so much because you genuinely move with the times because we were still seeing the same techniques that used to work being taught now and it's just not happening. So we're still seeing that same go into Facebook groups and posted these things and often put your opt in here and do the asada stuff. And you know, and actually I just want to kind of also say here that I'm not saying that doesn't work for every industry because there's always the exception to the rule, but on the whole, that kind of tactic isn't working anymore. And so what I love about what you teach is that you are genuinely looking at how you can adapt this, the sales skills that you teach others to help them get the results that they need. And I'm guessing part of this whole, I say pivot because you've just spoken about, you've got to, you've got an extensive you know, years of experience sending to corporates, but recently really niching down into it is part of that showing the action, having that added revenue stream that can get you a high cash injection into your business is obviously going to help you really sail through any kind of financial storms that you might be seeing as well.

Jessica (16:14):
100%. I mean, the thing about the online space, actually it's one of the reasons that I really admire what you teach around niching. When, when it was 2014, 2015, you didn't really have to have a niche. You could just look up and be like, Oh, I help women feel empowered. And that was it. And that was cool, right? And apparently then you are qualified to do whatever you're doing. And it's always interesting because there are people that I see who were really qualified in 2014, 2015 they were really good at things and they either went one of two ways, they're the kind of went like me and we bucked the trend together and we were like, right, what can we do? Let's sell that, let's sell it hard. Let's make a business that's profitable. Or they went the other way and they were told where your skills aren't relevant, you know. So I had a couple of really good business friends who did really interesting things like business continuity planning or you know, we're really into the leadership realm way before all of this stuff came out. And yet they were told by coaches, well, it's not really relevant because you're going to have to dumb it down for the base.

Jessica (17:28):
These are the people that you now see here were like, Oh my God, leadership, business continuity planning. And I'm like, Oh my God, you guys are crap. Okay. But that's why it's so important that people want trends and that they actually move with them. But you move where you're qualified to go. You don't just move the sake of, Oh well, you know, it looks like health coaching's on the outs. I'm going to go and be a business coach instead. Like there's no point in doing that. But you have to actually start looking at how can I safeguard my business against some of the things are happening. You know, and in The UK at the moment, we're in a very politically charged time. Thanks for that Brexit really appreciate actually it does mean that people should be looking at whether businesses are going and actually safeguarding the future of them and adding a corporate revenue stream. It will help that. It means that, you know, there are all these larger cash injections, but also that you have the opportunity to make your business what you want it to be. I think there's this very big common myth that running online business means laptop lifestyles by the beach, you know, doing all this stuff and I was feel really sorry for those people. I'm like, why the hell are you on holiday and working? But it's not enjoyable. You know?

Jen (18:45):
I don't get the sense that they, that's a 100% right Jess. And I think that's the thing is, you know, it is, I mean I'm not anti that kind of a marketing, but I am very much in the same way wave like did you, when I'm on holiday I don't, I really don't want to be working. It stuff has to be done. Absolutely. I will make time. But yeah, it's absolutely fun. If I'm away having a break then I win, then I want a break. And I think you've really inspired a healthier way of working with, you know, with me. You know, every, all your clients from, obviously you've been in a few of your masterminds, mine's as well. And I've really seen that in person, you know, one of your modules. But then I think it's like a program's evolved with to do with balance right? And I know this, obviously this comes from your own personal story around making sure you're having that kind of good work life balance. I know this is the story you've told many times before, but just very briefly, why is that so important to you?

Jessica (19:44):
So I, I came out of my corporate job. I always say to people I would've stayed in my corporate job forever. I loved it. I love what I did. I was one of those very rare people who perhaps didn't always like the environment that I was in, but I loved selling stuff and I loved getting paid really well and I loved being able to hang out with interesting clients. And in 2014 I was diagnosed with MH, which is myalgic and it's a chronic auto immune disease. Basically what it means is that you get whole host of ugly little symptoms like chronic fatigue and chronic pain. And I would be bedridden so weeks a time and I was just so couldn't move, totally lethargic. It was like your body kind of shuts down and goes into hibernation mode. And it was really quite serious.

Jessica (20:32):
And my doctor said to me, well, you know, it's either you accept that you're going to be wheelchair bound by the time you're 35 or you have to really start looking after your lifestyle and you have to stop working as hard. You have to get rid of the job and actually do something that you can manage with the kind of limited physical capability that you have. And I mean obviously setting up a business is not the least stressful thing. So said that guys, I remember going into work and I said this to my boss and he was like, well we don't have the capacity for you to go part time. Like you're not a parent. And, and so it's, it's not something that we really offer. Flexible working was not a thing. And so he said, well, you know, you kind of got three months and then that's it. And so I used that to build my business. I like to be really fortunate. I've not had an attack since. Like I left my middle all by starting my business and I've not had an attack where I've been so severely ill in years.

Jen (21:33):
That's amazing. I would receive anybody that was to do with the kind of boundaries you set yourself with things like when I'm taking holiday, I'm taking holiday.

Jessica (21:40):
Yeah, 100% I mean people think that you know they're getting downtime. They're like, Oh but it's okay cause I'm just going to hold them and do a little Instagram story. I'm going to do whatever that the cool thing is now and the reality is that you're not then actually resting. You're not stepping away from your audience and that's bought on two levels. It's bad for your own energy because you can never step away from work so you can never get clear-headed. You can never get creative. But also it's really bad for your audience because it creates this really old codependent effect where you all setting a really bad example for them. Everybody's entitled to a private life. Everyone's entitled to rest. Everyone's entitled to have a holiday without feeling guilty. And what we're actually seeing is people like promoting, you can have the life and the business you want, but they're working like 18 hours a day and never switched off. They never go on holiday. And every single little thing they do in that life is a content marketing scheme. You know, it just doesn't work.

Jen (22:41):
Yeah. And I thought so. And even like when you're posting an Instagram story, I'm sorry, you then looking at who's like to use again, you're going back engaging on the comments and it's needs a never ending story. And I think the that you need to, you need to, we need to pull right in a little bit and put these boundaries in place. What you've done is brilliant and it's Testament to, they make the healthy had sense. Bringing it back to corporates again so for those people, cause obviously you're quite right, you know we talked on this podcast around being feed in a feeling and being qualified to do, to do what you do. But for those looking to add a corporate revenue stream, what are corporates looking for? Can you Chuck some ideas? At us in terms of people listening, thinking it can. So how can I ask that in constraints my business. Can you give me examples of how that works?

Jessica (23:30):
Yeah, totally. I think the first thing to say there is that if you're sort of person who are questioning, am I qualified? It's quite likely that you are the people who are not self aware enough to question whether I'm a qualified or the people who should not be going out most likely and selling that thing. So the kind of first fear overcome. I guess the second thing is corporates looking for anything and actually more things in all honesty than the online spaces. You know, they're looking to run wellbeing initiatives. Lots of corporate companies are focusing on wellbeing, mental health, making sure the employees are happy and safe and well because that increases productivity. So I always say to people, you know, when you're selling to corporates, you've got to remember the corporates are focused on three things. They're focused on productivity. Can they make their staff more productive or their processes more productive that focused on profitability?

Jessica (24:22):
Can they help their companies make more money in some way, shape or form? And then they're focused on reputation. Can they build a better brand reputation or can they overcome an obstacle that they faced? So if you are running a service that has a transmission related to any of those, whether it's wellbeing, whether it's finance rated, marketing strategy, sales strategy, business development, mental health awareness, you know, one of my clients, she sells medical training to organizations. Another one is looking at fertility and impotency within organizations and supporting people who are going through that. Within organizations, you can sell anything you want to a corporate as long as you're able to tie it back to whether it's going to make them more productive, more profitable, or give them a better reputation in the market.

Jen (25:11):
Amazing. And obviously I'm putting words into your mouth here. We are niching in, in each of these elements where you're tying it back to, it's about going really deep into something specific that helps one of those outcomes.

Jessica (25:23):
100%. I mean the people who do not do well when they're selling to corporate, are the people who refuse to niche. You know, I always say to people when you're selling to a corporate, you need to niche down in terms of your discipline. So in terms of what you are actually going to provide. So I would provide sales skills. You might go in and provide, you know, personal branding skills for example. But you also need to niche down in terms of the industry that you want to work with. You know, whether it's financial services, professional services, consultancy, you know, there are lots and lots of different types of businesses out there. And it's really important that people do niche. Because then you get to know the specialist topics that organizations are talking about. You get to identify trends, you get to know who's who. You're able to make recommendations and referrals based on the insights that you're actually seeing.

Jessica (26:13):
And you're having much more interesting conversations. You know, niching is one of these things that I think people talk about and they think that they've done because they've got one-liner statement. But actually they don't always commit to it. And, and you know, we all know that if you're not really massively committed to your niche, it's never going to pay off for you. And that's particularly prevalent when you're selling to corporates because they won't be specialists in that area. They don't just want any old random person off the street. They want the person that understands their industry, their problems and the way to solve them.

Jen (26:48):
Absolutely. I will say think from, from feeling qualified perspective. As soon as you choose that niche, whether it's the corporates or not, you are able to really dive into that specific area, which instantly makes you feel 100% more prepared to have those interesting and deeper level conversations with your clients.

Jessica (27:07):
That's the thing. I mean, this is what you, you teach is helping people become that market leader. Well, you don't get to be the market leader unless you are the person who is confident enough and competent enough with your niche. Unless you're able to understand what the trends are, predict them, you know, share insights, be provoking the, the conversations and elevating the conversations that are happening around your specialism. And that's what you help people to do. So. Well, you know, I think a lot of people assume that a niche is, Oh well I've picked the topic that I like this week and off I go. Yup. And that's not it. You know, there's a certain degree of being aware of what is going to need, make your niche most profitable, but also the time and the energy that goes into actually understanding how you can position yourself as that thought leader within that space. And how you can do that really quickly if you commit to it. If you understand where you're actually going,

Jen (28:08):
Absolutely, it's all about the commitment to it. And you'll say, right, if you don't do that, then you know, you might be initially in your head, but to everyone else, you're still that generalist and that just, that just doesn't work.

Jen (29:12):
I remember one of the biggest things that really sticks out for me, probably because of what I do, what the tiny goes to tender. You've already lost the race. And so and so in terms of that, and by the way, that's just one golden nugget out of the hundreds that was, it's a little bit of that event. So if you're looking corporates, you have to be that just as a, as a, as a side note. But in terms of positioning them, positioning yourself as that number one choice and getting

Jen (29:42):
In there beyond everybody else. What a corporates looking for in terms of that, what kind of things can people do?

Jessica (29:49):
It's so interesting and I think in all honesty it's very similar to how the online marketing space works. Think about it this way, before you decide on a coach, you already know who you want to coach with. You've seen that content, you've seen examples of what they do. Perhaps you've even seen examples of some of the results that they've gotten. And so actually when you get that sales call, it's a question of all the finances, right? And is the time right? It's not really a question of sell me your services or it shouldn't be. You know, and if you are having those conversations where it's like, well, justify to me why I should work with you, then you're not having sales conversations. You're not positioning yourself well enough.

Jessica (30:26):
Early on when you come to sell to corporates, it's very, very seminar. By the time a job is advertised or a contract is advertised or tender is placed, but you've already lost because somebody else has already had the conversations with a stakeholder that said, what are the problems you're currently experiencing? What's going on in your team right now? What could we be helping you with? And together they've come up with an idea and in an ideal world or in the world that we're in really 90% of the time, that person who has had that conversation who is already niche down, who's already done the business development, who's already seeded the idea that there are issues and that they can help solve them is going to win that tender because they are the person who's controlled that conversation. They've staffed a bit, they've controlled it and they've seen it end to end.

Jessica (31:17):
The person who jumps in like 90% of the way through when it gets to tender and they go, Oh well I'm going to put in a bid for that now. Well, you aren't relevant. You don't know the background. You unless you start going backwards and having conversations with stakeholders who by this time have already had those, chances are they don't want to have them again. They don't want to explain all the details again. It's very, very hard to catch up. And this is the thing, it's about being early. It's about taking control of your sales process and ultimately being that being that leader in your space, whether that's proactively where you are going to organizations and saying, Hey look, this is what I do. This is who I am. This is how I can help you. Oh, whether it's reacting, because over time you become the person that corporates are coming to you and saying, well, we've heard that you work with this company.

Jessica (32:08):
And it went really well. How could we do that? You know? And that's very, very similar to the online space. But it's like, again, it's, it's the work that you do. If people don't do the messaging and the positioning work, you're never going to get leads coming to you. You know? And you have to choose how you want to do it. You either do it proactively or reactively and in some cases at the beginning, there's this attitude that people have whether like, well, I want people to come to me and say, Oh, you must, I must work with you at the beginning. A lot of it is proactive. It's you having to go out there and do the work. And if you're not willing to do that, then unfortunately it's going to be very hard for you. You know, you have to be doing the activities that position you as that leader.

Jen (32:47):
100% I like that. You should just take the next question out of my mouth, which was do you believe that, you know, we should be being more proactive and I think that you are right. And I think that really transfers across the board. And that's something that, you know, because I'm massively into my marketing, I like, you know, we truly believe that the more you put into your marketing, the easier the sale will be. On the other hand, something that you really taught me from the word when we started working together was to be more proactive for the sales start the conversations. And you know, that's something that you're continually teaching me as well. And it's something I think we all need to get better at doing because we can all be very British at times, you know, wherever you go from [inaudible] British or too sad or whatever it is to do that. And I think that what you teach people to do is brilliant because it really pushes you outside your compensation to get more proactive and really put yourself out there and start asking for their sales. So can you tell us a bit about whether you are allowed to or however you want to position it. How does a bit about your most successful clients and why they are so successful?

Jessica (34:00):
So I think it's really interesting. Max is snoring by the way. If everyone who's not aware, I have a traveler that likes to sit underneath the microphone and snort.

Jen (34:16):
Oh, I was going to put that in the intro. You know, just to warm people. Just by the way, just as a random side note here, there was a time where I was listening to Jess webinar, I'm like thought she broken wins. I seriously just thought that happened. I was like, wow, she really doesn't care. She's just does it. And so I realized that she was her dog snoring. Like anyone thinking that Jess is just like wow, like, and then she's so open.

Jessica (34:43):
I think it's really interesting. Lots of people have been very successful saying school press. And I think there were probably for me three highlights, I would say. One of them is a lady called Julie Dennis. I talk about Julie all the time, so her is must be permanently burning. But Julie came to me in 2018 January, 2018 and she openly said, she was like, Jess, I hate my business and I love Julie. There are many things I love about her. One is hello for alcohol and the other inappropriate levels of alcoves. I preface that. But the other is the fact that she is incredibly direct and she had a couple of years building a Facebook group which had over a thousand members.

Jessica (35:41):
She was regularly talking to individuals about menopause coaching and she built a business that just wasn't, it wasn't sustaining her, it wasn't fulfilling her at all because ultimately as with anything, there was always a tendency to my own. But particularly with health and wellbeing issues, you know, you've got all people who just want to vent about their issue but not necessarily change it. And so in January, 2018 we worked together for six weeks and we tend to business round. She trusted me implicitly luckily and we got rid of her Facebook group and we focused her services to selling to corporates and within eight weeks she'd signed her first corporate client. I mean we're now 2020 and she's fully booked out until the end of this quarter. She has chaired and facilitated panel discussions or medicals, the house of nods, you know, she was talking about the menopause and training companies how to become better at communicating around the menopause when it wasn't a hot topic and that's the thing.

Jessica (36:41):
Julie made it a hot topic. She was out that she was doing the business settlement, she was starting the conversation, she was writing the articles, she was getting featured and so all these people who then started later on getting on the bandwagon would exactly that. They weren't the original and so now gets lots and lots of referrals and steady business because she is known for being the lead in that space. She made it a hot button topic and she is able then to run a really successful business off the back of that. Also, Julie took like seven holidays last year. So you know, when we talk about flexible businesses, she was off, she went to Vegas, she did skiing. She was, yeah, she's just come back again. Like she's somebody who really for me epitomizes work life balance, who's added that corporate revenue stream to her business has made it a primary revenue stream and has become the leader in her space. And I think that's so impressive. Andy is another one from my mastermind. Andy is adorable. He's, he's just one of the nice like mental planet. I mean, it must be something about the name Andy because your other half is Andy.

Jessica (37:49):
Andy is possibly like the sunniest personality at night. And he came to the mastermind last year. He was he just set up his own consultancy business. He works with talent development professionals to increase employee engagement and talent retention. And development and just some really, really interesting things. And he really stepped up last year to create community around his, his corporate sales strategy and he created a conference called the talent development think tank conference. It was supposed to be held in October, 2019 and due to the wildfires in Sonoma County and California, it had to be postponed. The hotel was evacuated and I have never seen anyone react so calmly to the news.

Jessica (38:43):
We'll just have to hold it another time. No worries. And like he's really, really positive about it and he has the holding really successful. Then it's January with over 120 talent development professionals from all around the globe. He came to see some incredible speakers and he just had his most successful month in business ever multi-six figure sales month, which was pretty huge. We all were very excited about that. And that is that off the back of the events off of the back of the work that he was putting into business development in Q4 of 2019 and off the back of the stuff that's coming from the back of the event is ridiculous. Andy actually emailed me this morning and he's going to be very busy on me for the rest. I was just like, okay, well make sure you put in some downtime because you're going to need to just relax a little bit.

Jessica (39:37):
So that's very exciting. And then you know, and I will put it out here, Andy has a background in corporate. Julie did not, she had never sold to corporates before. Andy had the in previous roles. And then finally we have Becky Stratford who came to the conveying corporates event in November. She's now part of my CC program, which is very exciting. And she, I mean the C-suites put in to perspective, you guys opened on the 6th of January. So that's when people got access to the materials and things and she's done more business development in that like month than she'd done ever before. She has been connecting with and having conversations with some of the world's leading charities and not for profits around technology, change her businesses all around change technology, helping a nonprofit organizations implement new software initiatives and technology change within the business. And she's already submitting huge proposals.

Jessica (40:39):
You know, she's showing up everyday, she's doing the work and it's really, really taking off. So I think, you know, there are so many people I could mention, but those are the three I think that give a really good flavor of ideas. How quickly or slowly you can go, whether you really need to know anything about corporates or selling to them beforehand. And I mean really it's about the niche. If you look all of them, the reason they're so successful is because what they do is so specific and they do it with such specific organizations that it's so much easier for them to become the referral in their space for them to become the thought leader. I mean, Andy has two podcasts. Becky is, you know, really dominating this, not for profit space. Julius is so focused on making menopause this mainstream conversation. And without those niches it would be so hard to go out there and really rock rock their own platforms

Jen (41:36):
A hundred percent and I think this whole thing, this is a specializing is all about the foundation and positioning and it's what a lot of people miss when they think positioning of the things seem to pop into their heads first. The credibility building pieces and actually it's it's, it's the bedrock of what you do that positions you first and foremost the integrity behind what you do positions you and you know if we look at the, you know the examples you've just given there, that has been a really got you said, a really strong strain through the three of them plus the fact that they're being proactive plus the fact that once you're being proactive, what are the other things are wanting to add is that people are then going to then going to look at your profiles, check you out, you need to have positioned yourself in terms of the content you're putting out there, the articles that you're writing, the things that you're doing and what you're putting out there in terms of visibility. Is very important because people are savvy and corporates are savvy and they're not just going to go with any person that just pops into their inbox. They want to do that groundwork and say you need to make sure that you prepares, you know, what you look like on the outside just as much as you have done on the inside. I think

Jessica (42:46):
Mostly the, I think people underestimate what a lot of work is. I mean people said to me at the end of last year, Oh my goodness, it must have been so easy for you to turn your business around and sell something else cause you already had this audience. And I laughed when people used to that to me cause I'd be like, well it's really funny because once I decided on this new niche fund built up this audience of what, 20,000 people who all knew me for something completely different. And so when we released the first ever app, state of Sally's corporates, the podcast, I didn't promote it. I didn't do anything with my audience. I wanted to see what we could get organically. And we had 124 lessons in our first month. There was onuses table and they think of my other podcast and I was like, Oh my God, we've got all these thousands of lessons and then here we are with 124 and it was just a little, it was terrifying.

Jessica (43:37):
Absolutely terrifying because I was going to have to rebuild right from the beginning, you know? And that is what you have to do and people really worry about that. So that's why people make the big mistake. They go into the PR activities, they jumped straight into, Oh my God, I'm going to market the crap out of it for I really know what I did. Yeah, I didn't. I sat back and I was like, right, okay, what do I want to be known for? What? What am I actually selling here? Who do I really want to work with? And what through all of the foundational pieces that we often skip past, because we think we're too good for them, we think we're too big for them or whatever. And I worked through the things that you talk about with your clients. What is your UMB, you know, what is it that you really want to be known for?

Jessica (44:20):
And so, you know, skip forward a few months to the corporates event. We'd sold out I think 73 tickets, which was really cool. And we had a number of virtual attendees was awesome. And we're now in March, no February, sorry, I'm skipping for what I had at months. And the sellings corporates arm of my business has done generated about 150,000 pounds worth of revenue in eight months is pretty huge. But I credit that entirely to doing that foundational work and actually working to understand what it was about that niche, about, you know, who those ideal clients were and that those foundational pieces that men, it was able to take off so quickly and I could become the market leader.

Jen (45:11):
And I think the fact that you've been saying niche as well, cause you know, talk about, talk to us about the conversion rates. You know, the small amount of listens that you had, can you make something crazy, you know, in the first launch?

Jessica (45:25):
Yeah. So we, we were getting literally between 124 and 215 lessons per episode. So, and yet the conversion rate if there's two people actually purchasing tickets or sending to corporates was ridiculous. And in the end it worked out that 23,000 pounds worth of the tickets that had been bought from people who attended the corporates event had come from listeners to the podcast and something that had less than 500 listens a month. We generated a bit 23,000 pounds, you know, and that's huge. You know, so when people say to me, Oh, well, you know, Oh, I've gone into this new business area and it doesn't work well perhaps you need to look at the foundational pieces again, perhaps checks. You need to go back and look at what is my need, how am I establishing myself as the market leader? And not necessarily thinking, how can I go and do all the sexy marketing activities without knowing? Because if you don't know, you're never going to be able to convince anybody else that you do.

Jen (46:25):
On that bombshell. I love how this just ended that on that amazing line. Just want to say on a season's been a brilliant app. Say thank you so much for coming on here and let me drill you with all your goals. It's been incredible. So there's going to be a lot for people, I know one of my listeners recently said they had to stop at the side of the road and grab a notepad and pen. I think this is going to be happiness. Will, they'd be crushes later. The shot, somebody stopping, grabbing the night pass out. It's being amazing. Before we end, say, how do people find you? And I think you have a special gift for those, those people who are looking to sell to corporates. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Jessica (47:06):
Yeah, we do. So if you want to sell corporates, then you can go and check out my podcast called Selling to Corporate on Apple. It's on iTunes, it's on Stitcher. It's on all the major what sets out there including Spotify, which I didn't realize until recently when I said my name and it just popped up. So you can check that out there and if you are interested in selling to corporates, you can also download, I'll give Jen the link to the top five business development questions that I teach my private clients so that they can ask better questions to corporations and actually sign more business.

Jen (47:43):
Amazing. And I'll make sure all of those links are in the show notes as well. You said to go in there and grab that. Thank you so much for coming on Jess. It's been an absolute pleasure yet again. Let's see what else I can rape you in for. It's a pleasure. I want to say thank you so much and we'll chat again soon. I'm sure.

Jessica (48:02):
I really, really appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. And again, like for people who are listening, do bear in mind like you might not be interested in sell corporates and I'm totally cool about that. But if you all listening to this podcast and you're thinking that you might want to be working on your UMB or that you might want to position yourself as the market leader, this is my opportunity to really pimp Jen out. If you are thinking about working about, about working with her and you're not currently, you absolutely should be because one of my goals for this year is to get power prices up at the end of Q.

Jen (48:39):
They just very quickly as well around the UNB magic bullet, which is your concrete USP. That is all the corporates love, right? They love formula.

Jessica (48:50):
They do. You know, everybody wants something tangible. I think whether you want to be successful in the online marketing space or you want to be successful selling to corporates, if you don't have a concrete USP, that is something that somebody can genuinely understand immediately and simply and that gives them that clear transformation. You're not going to be able to sell anything. So before we embark on marketing journeys and Facebook ads and take videos and whatever sexy stuff is out there at the moment, you must be making sure that you have those foundational pieces. Otherwise you won't be able to sell premium offers to anyone regardless of the money that you made.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):
Today's episode is all about raising your street prad so that you can reach market leader level

(00:15):
Hello it is Jen Hall here, your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. This is the third episode in the market leadership series and I am on a high today. I'm not quite sure what it is. It's not like the weather's particularly great, but maybe it's because it's Friday. And you know, I'm feeling good, I'm feeling good and I hope that you guys are as well and that you're staying safe during this lockdown and you know, you and your family or, during this time you know, it is through this period of time. It's one of these things isn't it? We have these ups and downs. That's kind of the big theme. Whilst I did a post the other day on on Facebook because, you know, there's been a lot of judgment and bits and pieces kept flying around, haven't what people are doing, what people are not doing, how people are behaving and gold for bridge or how enjoying yourself during this time.

(01:06):
God forbid that you would feel okay and be enjoying yourself in any way, shape or form. And on the other hand, we get the, the preachers, they were like, well, everything's fine. I don't know what the problem is, but the fact is we're all in a different boat. We've all got different situations. Going on, you know, the, you know, there are people, if you're a key worker or you have key worker skills or you may have volunteered, life is very different from for you. And thank you so much for doing what you do and putting yourself out there. I know some of my business friends have actually even signed up to go and work in, you know, supermarkets and things to help provide food. You know, that's NHS, thank you so much.

(01:45):
But also, you know, let's not forget those people as well who are really giving up their time to, you know, make sure the majority of people stay safe. There are people with kids at home, people who are trying to work with kids, people tried to homeschool kids at different ages, people with pets and want to go in and out the door every five seconds. I don't really want anyone's got one of those, but I've certainly got one of those. And you know, there are so many different things that are happening right now in people's homes with within this lockdown. And but the big thing throughout all of this while, so everyone's in a different situation, in a different boat and we all need to be appreciative of, you know, the little things that we have right now.

(02:28):
It's also the case that everybody is experiencing ups and downs. You know, no matter your situation, everybody has updates and everybody has their down days during this time. So you know, hold on through those down days and stay strong because they will be up days, you know, they do exist. They might seem few and far between sometimes, but there definitely are the up days. So they are giving massive hogs to everyone who, who is on a down day and also giving hugs to everybody who is on an up day because why not? Let's, let's, let's keep that treatment equal. It'd be, he might want it for various different reasons. My goodness, I'm really looking forward to seeing people again. Anyway, today's episode is all about building credibility as a market leader and I'm really excited to kind of share some bits and pieces with you today.

(03:21):
Some things you may have heard, some things you may have not heard and all the chefs and different perspectives on things as well. Which I'm excited to share with you. Something dimension that I have happening at the moment. I'm running these evolve and elevate strategy sessions. Today I've sold out of two of them within, around, I think it must've been within 24 hours. So I've actually opened up a third slot. I'm considering continuing to do them. So if you're lucky enough, I'm going to think in the, in the show notes for you to use and Bitcoin if you'd like to come on them. We've just celebrated, well, we're still celebrating. We're not just celebrated. We're still celebrating a launch that we put in place. I designed this and put it in place around about 12 days ago now, 12, 13 days ago, and we're on around 120 K not sharing this to, to, to be miss braggy sharing it because I want to show you that just because we are in a recession now, it might not be an officially announced, but we are in a recession.

(04:22):
And just because we're being told that people aren't buying and people are only buying things that are, you know, for, for survival is just not true. Because this will all end eventually. So I just wanted to kind of share that with you to kind of give you guys hope that, you know, if you are experiencing a bit of a downer at the moment in business that it doesn't have to be that way and that you can evolve, you can adapt and you can elevate yourself so that you are making the, making the monies. And so I'm running these strategy sessions to walk you through you know, you know, kind of like the, the process of how we've built our market leading business. To kind of show you some of the, the ways in which we've generated, you know, amazing results such as seven figures within eight months.

(05:06):
You know, and I wanted to kind of share the knowledge. So yeah, these sessions are available at the minute. I don't know whether they will be bought by the time you click. So if you're interested then make sure that you go and check the link out. If there are no there is no availability, then please do pop me an email at Jen@jen-hall.com to let me know that you're interested. And then, you know, I may well open up another session. But yeah, they are selling like hotcakes at the minute. It's only 20 pounds, 20 pounds to come and see and adhere about. Some of the things and strategies that we've put in place that have created the success that we have. So if you want to come and join, come and click the link or you also still have two spaces available in my elevate mastermind.

(05:51):
So if you're interested in becoming a part of that, then do make sure that you click the link to the call with me and we can have a chance one-on-one to look at, you know, how I can help you become the number one choice in your markets and become that market leader and elevate your position. So yeah, do you make sure that given you a ton of things that you can be doing right now? So say to make sure you're either on a call with me to talk about jumping into my elevate mastermind. If you're already sold on what I do and how I work, then do you make sure you just jump straight on a call with me? Otherwise, if you fancy a little taste of what I'm about, then come and join one of my sessions.

(06:32):
All the links are in the show notes. So then first off, I've got a few kind of truth bombs to lead with today. And the first one is, is that only the market decides who the market leaders are. You can say you're the market leader until you are blue in the face and it wouldn't make you one. Size of business also means absolutely nothing when it comes to becoming a market leader. And I've said this before that I just want to remind you that some of the smallest companies are killing it in their space at the minute and making a huge amount of profit helps by the fact that their overheads are low because they're small. Becoming a market leader is more than just profit. It's a symptom of becoming a market leader. You become a market leader by dominating your market and you dominate a market by becoming the number one choice in their eyes.

(07:25):
So how you position yourself and build credibility is what will get you to that market leading position. It's so important. So there are kind of two areas which I want to talk about today. And the first one is positioning your business as a market leader. And the second is building third party credibility as a market leader. And I talk about both of those points and the ways in which you can do both of those. First of all, starting with positioning your business as a market leader. So first off, being specific and who you help and what you help with is massively going to build credibility. And the reason why that does is because you become a specialist. The more specialized you are it is easier it is to dominate a space because you become kind of like an exclusive expert just for those types of people.

(08:17):
And when you become that exclusive expert, people build so much trust with you because they're just like, wow, you are the specialist in helping someone just like me with my specific problem and or my specific goal that I want to achieve. And so therefore why would I go anywhere else? So by micro-niching and being really specific, it massively helps to build that credibility and trust with your audience you're trying to dominate. Once you've dominated that small corner, you will then start to build a third party credibility, which I'll talk about in a moment. But you will start to pull in a larger proportion of your market. But you've got to drill down first and foremost. The next thing I want to talk about is becoming the expert. Now obviously we've talked about being a specialist, which by the way automatically positions you as an expert because the more you specialize, the more expert you become in reality, not just in terms of what you're saying, but you know, there are ways to actually position yourself as an expert.

(09:21):
And one of the big things that people somatically think about is PR and press. You know, to really put yourself out there and get visible fire this method. Now this will give you the visibility and it will raise your credibility to an existing audience. But to a warmer audience, it doesn't matter if you're Facebook famous or you're famous because you've been in the guardian or whatever it is that you kind of be put yourself out there and you've got these different things. It doesn't necessarily mean people are going to buy from you. That's not credibility. I put out a post, which was slightly controversial a little while ago about the Boris credibility. Now, you know, and I was speaking to my sister about it last night. I don't want to get into any political debates. I'm even like tentative about discussing it on here, you know, politically I saw that my political opinion or anything like this, this is just generally the way his kind of credibility has kind of come and gone or gone and come.

(10:21):
Who knows? But let me explain. You know, when we first heard about Boris, he was this, you know, fun guy that kind of appeared on, have I got news for you that happened to be an MP and everyone loved him. He thought it was hilarious and he was funny and he was very popular before he actually got into any kind of serious power. But that popularity didn't mean that we would have chosen him as our leader. You never know, but I severely doubt that if we'd have had a choice as a nation, that we would have trusted him enough to really put him in that position. We didn't really have that choice. That was kind of taken away from us. It was just almost like, okay, are here I am and I'm going to taking over. It's like, okay, wow, okay, well let's all pray and hold onto our butts.
11:07):
And it was very considerably concerning time when he came into power, but you know, just because you're popular and just because somebody who's out there in the media or you have that press attention, it really doesn't mean that you're going to make sales off the back of it. So, you know, I'm not saying don't use PR and press because it does get your name out there. And if you're clever about it, you can actually absolutely find leads from having that press cover coverage. But you know, it's not always easy because press have their own agenda, you know, they, they want to take it in the angle that they want to take it with. And it's not about you. It's about the papers, about the medium, whatever their audience that they're speaking to, they're not here to help your business.

(11:55):
So you do have to recognize that. So here are some other better ways I find of positioning your business as a market leader. Because I just one more point about press and PR angle is also some of the next can be very tenuous. And so therefore trying to kind of shoehorn a link back through to your business can also sometimes be hard. So not saying it's not worth it because on the odd occasion it does. And actually, you know, having that kind of PR period, like I said to a warm audience is, Oh wow, look, so and so was in the paper, you know, well, maybe I should listen up. But they've already, they've already kind of got to know you and they're already in your arena because of what you do versus, Oh look, there's a really cool person that in the press.

(12:42):
So here's some other ways. Here's some other ways that I find a far more quality when it comes to positioning your business as a market leader. And firstly is guesting in other people's spaces. They like guest speaking, guest appearing, whether that's writing a blog, appearing to speak you know, even perhaps appearing in somebody's book, you've written a chapter or a quote or you've been created by the industry, that is one of the best ways in order to position your business as a market leader. So you know, that can look like appearing on other people's podcasts. Like I said, appeairing in other people's books, speaking of the people's memberships, speaking within other people's networks, or finding a platform of some sort during that network in order to position yourself you know, going to speaking at events. Another fantastic way of positioning yourself as a market leader is writing a book.

(13:35):
It still is. You know, people can sometimes is a bit of a thing going around in a minute of, you know, we know everyone's writing a book, but that's just not true. Not everyone will bother to write a book. It's just not the case. It's a big undertaking. It's a huge commitment and it's something that you need to be consistent with if you don't want to be taking 10 years about it. By the way, I've recorded a podcast episode. If you haven't listened to it around writing a book in two weekends, which is absolutely true. So please go listen to that if you're thinking about writing it back. But you know, people are still like, wow, you've written a book that's incredible. You must know if you've written an entire book on the subject, you must have a lot of outset. So it positions your business as the experts and obviously if you can get the accolades of the bestseller and all of that kind of thing, then you again, it positions you as, wow, you're a best selling author.

(14:31):
That's incredible. You must know what you're talking about is the general consensus when you hear that. But you can also appear at other, other people's books as well. So if writing a book is something on the list to do, but you know, you've got, you don't, it's not the right time to perhaps tackle it. Then another way is also to, you know, be interviewed for someone else's book, giving your opinion on something, writing a chapter, all of those kinds of things. There's another great way to position yourself becoming a speaker, as I mentioned, that's also something that really positions you as somebody who really knows what they're talking about. And whilst I'm talking about all of these different things. It was interesting. I was talking to a another business friend a couple of days ago and he was telling me that he's literally after being in business for so many years, he's really only come across his thing and that's the thing.

(15:24):
Let's use the duplicated wording. But you have to know what your thing, what your specialism is. You've got to know who it is you help specifically micro-niche and what you help them with in order to make any of those appearances worthwhile. Because just by being visible and just by putting yourself out there just by talking and speaking and appearing, it doesn't mean that people will buy from you. It only will work if you are specialized. If you are very clear about what you are, the leader of that has to be super clear. So making sure you understand what your thing is, what your micro-niche is, is absolutely essential to making sure that all of this kind of works. I get that. The position you as a market, as a market leader, because I know a lot of people who are speakers, but are they making any money?

(16:18):
No. Are they even getting paid speaking gigs? No. You know, they're going out on the speaking and they're getting a lot of attention and they're getting, you know, wow, look at this person. They're going to all these different places, but what they're talking about isn't leading to any sales because perhaps there's a couple of reasons for this. Perhaps it's because they're talking on different topics each time and actually they're not becoming known for anything specific and therefore you can't be a leader in everything. You've got to pick something in order to become the leader. The other reason is potentially because they're not speaking in the right places, they haven't really nailed who were aware they need to be speaking and perhaps they don't have a great back end because you know, the real money for from being a speaker is on the back end. It's not from the speaking gate.

(17:00):
People won't be paid speaker, you know? That's great. If you get, you get paid to go speak, fantastic, great. But it really isn't where the most money is because you know, there's always a ceiling on being able to do these things. But having backend systems and backend products that you can then send people onto, now that's where the growth is and that's where you're going to be able to pick up the majority of, of your market. So just be very aware of all of those things. The next thing is FAQ content as I like to call it. Now this means writing content on the questions and quandaries because I like to cast those as two separate things that the wonderings of people that perhaps people are too scared to ask. Now you want to be writing FAQ on the things.

(17:48):
Obviously frequently questions kind of gives it away. You want to be writing content on those frequently asked questions like, Oh, verbalize. Absolutely. you know, in some businesses, particularly in our adventure travel business, we have something called a knowledge center that has worked really well. The binge and by kind of reading through all the content staff and then, and then buying isn't working so well for the kind of coaching consultancy industry as much as it used to, but certainly in our a bunch of travel business it is. And, but I wouldn't like to blanket set that off as, as a particular rule that there isn't, it isn't working because at the end of the day there are ebbs and flows in the market is changing constantly. But still having content that that directly speaks to those frequently asked questions positions you as an expert because I'm like, okay, when I asked that question, Oh, you seem to know what you're talking about, you know, kind of thing.

(18:42):
But even better than that is answering the questions that people too scared to ask. And even better, even better than that is actually answering the questions that your competitors are too scared to answer. Now that is where the gold lies. Now I'm just going to say that again, answering the questions that your competitors are too scared to answer. Now, these are the questions that are perhaps a little bit controversial. And it kind of leads me nicely onto my next point about cutting through the noise because to cut through the noise and be seen as a market leader, you need to be confident in what you have to say first off, but you also need to share the opinions that will divide, you know, these answering questions that even your competitors too scared to answer means that the answer is going to be a little bit techy that it's going to make to go, Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely.

(19:43):
This makes so much sense and brilliant. Yes, I totally believe in this opinion or what you've said here and other people will perhaps be turned off by it or not. Perhaps they will be turned off by it if you really hit the nail on the head, so you've got to be comfortable with doing that. I, when I say you've got to be comfortable with it, no one's really uncomfortable about being disliked by half the population. No one is ever comfortable with that, but the fact is you're just going to have to get over it and do it, deal with it. If you want to cut through the noise, it's so important. Now it's obviously important that you're being thoughtful about this because I've seen this kind of go wrong so many times where people are being controversial for the sake of being controversial. That never works.

(20:26):
You've got to really believe in what you have to say. You have to be willing to defend your corner and your side of the coin so that you know you are confident cause you will find that there are trolls. Inevitably when you're a thought leader, when you're a market leader, inevitably you will be, will come up, you know, come across trolls who will just be like, well I don't think that and I think you'll this that. Unfortunately those people exist in the world and you cannot hide from it. That will happen. And so many people all along just going to delete the posts. No, don't. If you've been thought about it and you genuinely believe in what you held saying and the information that you are giving, then stand your ground and you know, write a thoughtful response back, respectfully disagree and hold your corner.

(21:09):
That is the best way that you're going to position. No market leaders sort of runs back into the corner and goes, well I didn't mean it now offers. If you didn't mean it and you didn't think it through and it's actually an opinion that you after seeing someone else's, you've actually turned around and gone. Actually, I probably should've researched that a little bit more than a little bit more thinking around the different sides of the coin here before I started shouting what I think because your opinions do have to be well rounded. You could hear everybody else's thoughts on the matter and hear the different sides of the coin and then, you know, still sit on the side. Doesn't mean used to have to sit on a fence because you need to be well rounded. It just means that you kind of thought it through in your mind and come to a decision and go on.

(21:53):
Yeah, I've heard all of the different things on this and there are different perspectives. However, in this case I think this and you know sometimes there is no black and white really, there's always a gray area and you know, a lot of the time people end up disagreeing perhaps because you've been a little broad with the messaging, you know when you drill it down, because like I said, let me give you another example. You know there's a lot of people preaching at the name and about people are knocked down and that's fine. All very well for people who are in your shoes. But if they're not in your shoes, you're not really able to kind of preach about what someone else is going through and telling them how they should feel and what they should do if you're not in their situation, which is why it becomes ever so important to micro-niching be specific on the person and be specific about who the message is for.

(22:39):
Because when you, you know, when you start, are you putting up the can of worms and blanket saying, this applies to everybody. It's just not true. So be very specific in everything that you do and you know, think about who the message is for, what the piece is, who the content is for, and what the purpose is. How is it going to help them? You know, don't be controversial for the sake of it, but do absolutely state your opinions. I give the information based upon your own well-rounded opinions and beliefs and ways of doing things. And, and you will find that you absolutely ended up dividing, but you will start to attract the right kind of people to you who will become diehard loyal fans. It really, really helps. And if you can tenue to sit on the fence as it were and blurt out bland words, they'll just blend into nothingness.

(23:38):
So it's really important for you to really grab people's attention with the things that people care about, both on a positive and a negative. In order to get the attention that you need to position yourself as a credible leader or a leader, the leader in your field, the more you do that, the people like being given the hard and fast line because they look up to people like that. They want somebody to tell them what to do. It makes them feel comfortable because they're like, okay, I agree with you and this sounds like the best way to be. What do I do? Tell me, give me some instructions on what to do, particularly in times of uncertainty. That's more true than ever. So really stick with that hard line and don't wave. I don't sit on the fence. Don't be blind.

(24:28):
Do it. Now the next thing that I want to talk to you about, there's so many things that you could talk about that would position your business as a market leader. And I've probably missed out, you know, a hundred. So I'm just giving you kind of like the some of the common ones, some of the things that you can tackle. And you know, there'll be plenty, plenty more episodes and plenty more opportunity to talk about positioning and you know, yourself and building that credibility. But the kind of, the last thing that I want to talk about that really builds credibility is having what I call the unique magic bullet, which is a productized USP. Check out the first long episodes that I have on the podcast. If you want to find out a bit more about that. And probably the last episode if you want to just caught this.

(25:09):
And the last episode that I talked about being coming a category of one business that talks about this unique magic bullet within that and having signature systems is intellectual property. Now, the unique magic bullet, just very quickly for those who are like, I still don't know what you're talking about. It's basically a mechanism within your system that makes your system work. So when people come across you, you could say, well, you know, the reason why you haven't been able to do this is because you've been missing this. And that would be your unique magic bullet. And it's productized. It's given a name. It's not your signature system. A signature system is separate to your productise to USP, the productise USP, the unique magic, but it is within that signature system. And that's what is the key to what makes that signature system work.

(26:02):
So an example of that I always use the example of the Mac iOS, a Mac operating system within the Mac computer is what makes that work so well, which, which is what brings the speed and capability that those computers computers have. So the signature system in this case would be the Mac book. And the unique magic bullet would be the Mac operating system. Marisa peer RTT, the rapid transformational therapy. That's her unique magic bullet. That's what makes her transformation so powerful because of that, you know, that bringing in of different therapies and blended together, that's the unique magic bullet that she's productized. So that breaks the rules slightly. It is a system as such. But just know that you know, your client, your customer journey isn't necessarily your unique magic bullet. There's gotta be some science behind what you're talking about, but all of those things are signature systems are unique magic, but they massively position you as as an expert.

(27:04):
It's intellectual property and in order to create intellectual property, you have to know what you're talking about. And particularly on the side of the unique magic bullet, if you have a new unique solution that's groundbreaking and pioneering that you bring to the table, well that's going to position you big time as a market leader because it's like, wow, they really come to the table with something that's really making waves in the industry. This is really going to change things up. It's going to help send me people, it's going to impact so many people. It's going to impact their competitors because it's something that they've not been thinking about that the gap was there within that market. And you know, you've swooped in with this brand new solution that no one else is offering right now and that will position you as somebody to listen to of the leader in your field when you have that.

(27:56):
So that again, you know, this unique magic bullet that I keep bringing up time and time again, it helps them so many levels. It helps with your credibility, helps make waves in your industry. It helps to cut through the noise. It helps to position you as that expert to position you as that market leader. And it helps to convert clients. You know, all of these people who know, I'm not sure who to go to. Now you are the number one choice because you have this amazing new solution that they can't get anywhere else. They have to come to you if they want to utilize that unique magic bullet that you've created. So it works on so many different levels. It's just key. It's just amazing. Everyone needs a unique magic. But again, if you guys need help with creating that, then I'm the one to come see.

(28:41):
So do you make sure that you book a call in with me If you want to work with me, if you want to talk about working with me and discuss the possibility of me helping you to create that unique magic, but in raising your profile and raising and innovating new to market leader level, then do make sure you make that call. So I'm going to move on now to building third party credibility as a market leader. Now the best way to explain what I mean by this is what are people saying when you're not in the room? Now we've all had that phrase and this is something that is the both of these things are needed. You need to be able to go out there and be confident and say, Hey, I'm the leader and this is why, and this is what, you know, what I bring to the table in order for your market to kind of listen up and go, Oh, okay, this is something different.

(29:25):
This is something new. This is something that I need to pay attention to because this is going to help me. That's how you're going to be able to get their attention on your side. You have control of that by what you put in front of them, by the content that you put in front of them. But the second one isn't so easy to get. And when I say it's not so easy, one of the best episodes to listen to in order to help strengthen this third party credibility would actually be the episode. Why market leaders go back to basics. And I'm going to talk about a couple of things from that episode just now. But in order to get that third party credibility where people are sharing their experiences that they've had with you is about, you know, an amazing customer experience.

(30:11):
So making sure that you're getting them incredible results, giving that great client experiences because you know, both on a, on a smooth round, but also perhaps when things go wrong, sometimes it's your time to shine, to really turn that experience around and make it the best possible experience. When we've had this recently with the impact, if the travel on our adventure travel business, it's been our time to shine where we've had to, you know, turn all of this around and you know, you've been, you know, you've been very apologetic buyer and given them a great experience. Like they've been really understanding and obviously it's out of everyone's control, but really, you know, making sure that they looked after and they're given the best possible experience. Wasn't something that they were really expecting as much. And it's, you know, to us it's kind of like second nature.

(31:02):
We're, we're big on our customer service, but after receiving some emails from some of my suppliers and people that I pay money to, wow, did we do a great job in comparison? You know, some of the messages that I've received from, you know, some of the suppliers that I use and that I pay money to, it's kind of been, you know, the message has been, look, you know, we've got your money. We need to keep it. There's not really anything you can do about it because we need to pay our suppliers and so on and so forth. It's a very selfish message, you know pretty much I need to save my butt. So sorry, but you know, this is the deal. And whilst, you know, businesses have to look after themselves and make sure that they are you know, keep ticking along, it's not left a great taste.

(31:50):
You know, when this is all over, you know what, I continue to use them properly, not, so you have to be really careful about the messages that you deliver to your customers and how you treat them through the good and the bad. You know, you need to make sure that you turn these situations around for, you know, for your customers. Overdelivering you know, I always like, obviously one of the key things to running a very successful business and a market leading business is having a great offer. Now, obviously, you know, you want to make sure that you're offering the angle that you're positioning your products and your services is a good one, that people are like, wow, sounds amazing. However, going that extra mile for people and dropping in these surprise and delight treats within your business will, you know, will massively impact people if they're not expecting it.

(32:42):
So we kind of keep a few things back that we know we don't necessarily advertise on the front end, but things that they weren't expecting or were just like, Oh wow, this is incredible. This is amazing. Thank you so much. It really helps to leave a really positive impact on your customers where they feel like you're really going that extra mile for them. Just recently my coach blesser, she has very strong boundaries. I just want to say this, my coach has very strong boundaries normally. And I say normally I asked her if she had some time this Monday had calendar was blocked out and I would, you know, I always respect people's time. I said, look, I'm being super cheeky. I, you know, I knew time on Monday. If you don't, it's cool because I know that you don't normally sort of give calls on that day.

(33:28):
And she was like, Jen, what? Absolutely, I'll make time for this and for you. And it was a surprise. I know not all, which you might not always be able to do it. You know, she has those days blocked off for a very good reason because she's got things on, she's booked things in. But that particular day she went the extra mile and she changed things, you know, or met or fitted me in as it were. And it's not something that I'll expect and going forward, I think this is a, is a one off experience, but she just went that extra mile. She just over delivered for me, which made me feel really special as I'll thank you so much. Really appreciate your time. So just, just doing little things for your customers just go that extra mile makes a big difference. But just being there for your clients every step of the way, you know, I've see so many businesses are focused on sales.

(34:15):
Just don't get it in, you know, get the money in and then, you know, and people sort of Teeter off because they're not looked after. They're not kept in touch with. And they kind of feel like it's a very one sided conversation. They're doing, you know, all the work and you're not, and it's a very simple thing. It's just making sure that you're in touch with people. You know, for instance, in my mastermind I checked, you know, I see you guys are a bit quiet. What's going on? You know, it's a two way street in ensuring, you know, just because they're quiet, I'm not like, yay, I'm can sit in the corner and do nothing. You know, if they're quiet, why you're quiet, what's going on for you? How can I help? How can I support? And it just provides a platform for the conversation to open and for people to feel like, Oh, she actually really cares.

(34:59):
She genuinely wants to help and support. And she's not here just to take my money and run. All of these are simple things that you would think that are just obvious. I'm not always done consistently. And so it's really important to focus and be a client customer centric business. That is what gets you that third party credibility. That is what gets you you know, people sharing and talking about you in a positive way when you're not in the room. Obviously you can take things like case studies from P from the incredible results that you've gotten for your clients. And you can use that for the positioning side of it. So you can actually take a great customer experience and then put that on the front end that you can then you utilize another little trick as well, is making your services shareable.

(35:50):
So you want to be thinking about what kind of business are you? Are you quiet your business where people will openly talk about the topic? Because if, I think I've mentioned this on the last episode, so I'll just use the example again so we can stay congruent. However, if you're, if you're a got expert at helping people with irritable bowel syndrome, it's not necessarily something people shout about on the, on the internet or social media or you know, wherever. So you might want to be thinking about the share-ability in terms of a more underground experience of do you know somebody who has been through your experience who could use my help? You know, it would be great if you could, you know, refer me onto them. You could perhaps provide an incentive to do so. You know, if they get them in, you could go and give them a rough referral fee or you could give them some extra support if they, if they decide to take your services.

(36:41):
There are different ways that you can do it, but don't ever underestimate the power of your current customer base. If you treated them well, get them to refer, refer you on because they will gladly talk about them. They're amazing experience with you. And if you are a more aspirational business where people you know will gladly talk about, you know, what you do publicly, then another great tool is to give them things that they can then share. So gifts and we use things like at the personalized planet over in our ever track business that is always shared. People get that like wow, as a planner it's got my name on it, this is incredible. And they take a selfie with it or they just take a picture of the planner, a shout out on social media, just like just got my planner and they're excited about it and they're excited to share and you know, it goes to a wider audience.

(37:32):
And particularly for our ever trackers, they genuinely, you'll find that people sit in friendship groups or you kind of do the same thing. And so there will be other people who are into tracking within their friendship groups and then they're sharing things like that. It's hitting the right kinds of people as well. So there are different ways to create share-ability. Depending on the type of business you are, there isn't a one size fits all when it comes to that kind of thing. Again, community communities in some aspects. You know, we want a lot of aspects will absolutely help with share-ability and, and you know, get come and come and come over here, come in this corner of the world cause this is amazing. This is what's being done. You get people to inviting people over on it on a softer rather than a harder but more of a more a softer introduction.

(38:19):
Communities can be a great way to do that. Not for every business. Nothing is ever the same for any single business. There is no one size fits all prescriptive method that will ever help your business if you're not exactly the exact at that prescription is for. So you do have to understand that different businesses have different ways of working and things that what better for others, but there's that little later view to things that you can absolutely be following and using within your business to help position you as that market leader. And when you get it, like I said, when you get a great result for a customer, share that results, use it. You know, if you got a great result, share that result. If it's relevant, obviously you know, something that we don't, I don't really want to do is go to our community of avid trackers and be like, ha ha ha, look how much money I've made from you.

(39:13):
It doesn't really give the right tone, does it? That's not what they want to hear. They want to hear about how are we going to support them during that trip and all of the money that they've given for my audience. If you guys who are listening to my, you know, a business podcast, they want to hear about the money. So think about the results that you get for your particular audience. And those are the results that you want to be sharing and they want to be, you know, that wants to be appropriate. So yeah, so have thought with that. A lot of, I see a lot of business people whose result is not to make money for that or help other people make money sharing monetary results, bragging about it like it's in like it's a great case study. Be able, don't care about the money if that's not what you're helping them with.

(39:59):
They want you to help them with the health of their mindset or you know, that their adventure that they're about to go on a trip. They don't want to hear about the monetary result. That doesn't really mean anything to them. And it can sometimes be inappropriate and not relevant where it is relevant, share away, be clear about that results. And I think that's key is when you're clear about the result that you get for people, everything becomes so much easier because you're like, okay, this is where I focus my visibility and my time and showing people how I help people just like them to get this result. And you want, that's the kind of case studies that you really want to be sharing and talking about the most because that's what your audience will care about. That, that is what will help convert those people within your market into clients.

(40:47):
And remember, we're not serving markets, we're serving individuals within a market. You know, you need to be thinking about it at a granular level. When you do that, the messaging and the angling and the offering will be so much clearer. So there we go. And that brings my credibility episode to a close. Like I said, there's so much more to talk about, but there'll be, I'd be blathering on for days. And so just a reminder of a couple of things that you can be joining right now. One is the strategy sessions, the evolve and elevate strategy sessions that you can jump onto. I can't guarantee that there will be spaces guys because they are selling like hotcakes at the minute. But like I said, if they, if you go on there and you can't find a space, then just email me, Janet, Jan hyphen [inaudible] dot com and I will absolutely, you know, consider reopening.

(41:37):
If I get enough enough of you guys reaching out to me, I'll, we'll consider reopening another session. And obviously I still have a couple of spaces left in my elevate mastermind. You know, I'm very particular about who T who I take into my masterminds, but if you are somebody who is ambitious, has a lot of skin in the game, wants to go to market, leader level is at 100% committed to getting there and ready to go. And you just need someone to guide you through for accountability, but mainly through strategies that are going to help you make the most waves in your industry and help to elevate your position and to help you build infrastructure within your business so that it can cope with the growth that will come with market leadership. Then I am your gal and the mastermind is where you need to be.

(42:24):
And I say the mastermind, it's my elevate mastermind and it's one-to-one hybrid. You know, the mastermind element is an inbuilt community, which is the cherry on the cake. You get my one to one attention. This is not a group program disaster. It's not like you go in and I spoon Fiji the same process of everyone else. You have the opportunity to have one to one time with me each month and every quarter plus a group call every month as well. So there's a ton of support in there. Plus the opportunity to upload documents into the G drive for me to give you feedback on copy to make tweaks and changes to make it even better. And then obviously you've got the community where you can ask questions to both them and me to get kind of like answers to questions that you have in between each call with me that you booked in.

(43:10):
So there is, there's so much to be hard for the right person. Like I said, I'm a bit picky, so that's thing for you to do is to jump on a call with me and let's have a chat. Let's have a discuss and we'll make sure it's the right decision for you and whether you are right for the program you know, to get you the best results you possibly can. I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not a people snob. It's more about all you, the at the right stage. And you know, if you've got everything in place right now for me to get you the best results and we won't know that until we chat. So jump on a call, let's discuss and let's see if you are right for that elevate mastermind. Excited to speak to you guys. So all the links are in the show notes.

(43:51):
If you want the link verbally for the booking a call with me, then the link is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast, all one word, all lower case at, or just click the link in the show notes. Next thing I want to give you is a request. Please be enjoying these episodes and you this episode and you loved hearing the information that's on here. Then please do leave me a review as well. I'd be much less grateful if you would do that for me. It would be lovely. Reason being is because it massively helps with the rankings, helps get this more out there and it my day, and it means that I can give you a massive shout out as well. If you do sounds your shout out on the podcast, then leave me a review and you could be podcast famous. Any who, great to speak to you guys and have a fantastic week. We can note it will be weak because this will be recording it on a Friday. This will be launched on a Wednesday, so I hope you guys have had a fantastic week, happy hump day and enjoy the rest of it. And I'm looking forward to speaking with you, either one of my strategy sessions or onto a call to chat. Speak to you guys soon.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):
In this episode I'm going to be showing you exactly how to get true unrivalled status

(00:15):
Welcome to the second episode in the build a market leading business series. This is a special featured series. I know we talk a lot about market leadership on this podcast, but I really wanted to give you guys a set of podcast episodes that's really going to show you exactly how you can become the market leader and dominate your market. I'm Jen hall, your business positioning coach and market leadership expert and today is all about becoming a category of one business, which means that you become completely unrivalled, completely incomparable to anyone else and that you are also not only both of those things but you are also the chosen one, the one that's picked as first choice in your market to work with and that's what we're going to be talking about on this episode. Now before I kick off, I just want to let you guys know that I actually have two spots open in my 12 month elevate program for two business owners who want to create a category of one business and dominate their market.

(01:26):
So if you're interested in applying for one of those two spots, then please do get clicking on the link in the show notes to book a call with me to discuss these causes. Zero pressure and designed for you to be able to ask all the questions that you need to to make a great decision for you and your business. But now is the time to become a category of one business. You know, before this whole pandemic thing hit, you know, people were savvy enough as it was, you know, but unfortunately people got burnt because the people were spending money with people and things not really knowing the consequences gambled. And unfortunately a lot of the time lost and they got burnt because they invested in the wrong things or the wrong people. And so they were savvy beforehand and now all of this has happened.

(02:16):
People are going to come out of this after a time of reflection and really getting to grips with what they want. People are coming out of this way more mindful than they have ever been. And do you know what? That's fantastic news. It's great. I'm so pleased that we are going to become better buyers, that we are going to be more thoughtful about our choices because you know what? I am tired of speaking to people who have, you know, come to me for help but yet have spent thousands and thousands of pounds into the wrong things because they've either been advised to do so wrongly or the other person just hasn't delivered. And I'm really pleased that this is going to really turn a tide of people being far more thoughtful doing their due diligence. Now I also speak to people who have done due diligence and yes, still been treated like crap, however unfortunately is just one of those things.

(03:15):
But at the end of the day it's, it's a good thing that this time of reflection has happened and that people are going to be a lot more thoughtful about what they spend their money on. Now, it's really important to note here that their economy is still there, money is still there, the flow of it has just slowed down. I think I might have mentioned this on the last episode or the episode before, but I want to keep reminding people the money is still in the economy. It's just the flow that has slowed down. So it's important to recognize that and to think about, you know, if my market is now more savvy, if they are going to be more thoughtful than they are going to want to spend their money with the best of the best. And is that you? And if you know that you are the best of the best at what you do, unfortunately if you're not seeing the rewards of that in your bank account and if you are not seeing the significance and positioning in your market to reflect that, then unfortunately your market doesn't believe you and they will continue to not believe you unless something changes.

(04:17):
That's what this episode is all about. And this is what my program elevate is all about. It's all about becoming that category of one business. And if we're not aiming for that, if we're not taking action on becoming that incomparable, unrivalled number one choice in the market, then unfortunately you're always going to be second best and you will always going to be behind the curve behind the line. And unless you are getting clients easily, unless you are able to mop up a large proportion of the market, you're always going to have a very lack luster experience of actually getting clients. And you know, having a business that grows and is worth more than it is now. So if you are interested in applying for elevate, please make sure that you book your call to discuss everything that you'd like to discuss.

(05:07):
There is a sales page for it. It's Jen-hall.com/elevate that you can go to and have a look. But I am more than happy to discuss through it's zero pressure at the end of the day. I don't want people in there who don't want to be there. So it's really important for me to make sure that we're, you know, you are a good fit for the program and that it's something that you actually want to do and that you're excited because if you're not excited about being in there, then it probably isn't the right investment for you. So if you'd like to book that call, please make sure you do that using the show notes. The link is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast and we can jump on a call and have that chat to see whether you are a good fit.

(05:49):
So, I am going to dive in to the content of this episode. Show you the three things that you should be focusing on to become a category of one business. So becoming a category of one business actually makes your competition entirely obsolete. Because if you're incomparable, people cannot then sort of say, okay, well I will go between this person, this person, because there is no comparison between you. There is an obvious differentiation and a reason behind why someone would always choose you. Now, people always get a bit funny about this because the word competition can bring up a lot of issues should we say. It can make us feel like we're stepping on other people's toes. It can make us feel a bit icky because it's like, well, hang on a minute. You know, you're, you're, you're taking away from the pot.

(06:54):
But at the end of the day, part of the process of becoming a category of one business is actually finding your corner of the market. But it's not about dominating everybody. It's about finding that corner and then dominating that corner, finding your people. And when you find your people and when you find the thing that matches with them and you find that alignment and that compelling reason as to why those specific people would buy from you, that's where this kind of match happens, where you become automatically magnetic to these people. And that is how you end up dominating a market. So, some of the benefits of becoming a category of one business is first of all, if you're incomparable, you're absolutely able to charge more. Because you know when you get an Apple and an Apple together and you look at the price comparison, then you're going to be comparing it against another Apple.

(07:57):
But when you have something entirely different, so let's use the example of say an Apple innocent fruit smoothie that's now become incomparable to the Apple and therefore you're willing to pay more for it because it's been processed in a certain way. Perhaps there's been vitamins added and other such lovely things to it that you actually makes it worth more in your eyes than just the Apple itself. So you can absolutely charge far more when you are not in that Apple for our Apple arena, when you really pull yourself apart, you are able to really charge not necessarily whatever you like because at the end of the day, everything has a value and that we have to be very aware of that value. But at the end of the day, if you have something that is better than your average, then you're absolutely able to do say. The next thing is, is that you become an obvious choice.

(08:52):
Like I mentioned earlier on, that you know people will come across you and there will be no point looking anywhere else for the right people. You will become that number one choice because it's like, well, you're actually offering me everything that I need on my plate. Why would I want to go anywhere else? Because no one else is offering what you're offering. You are a new solution for them and therefore you will be the number one choice. You're also able to find that root through the noise to dominate your market. When you look at apps, exactly how you're going to really kind of funnel down and dominate that corner, you're going to find a clear route through from everything else that's going on out there. All the sheep-preneurs that are out there saying the same things. By becoming a category of one, you're really able to find chin a message that cuts right through that noise and really hanes in on the right people.

(09:48):
You're also positioned as a true expert throughout that honing period. When you're looking at really cutting through that noise, you will be positioned as a true expert unlike anyone else out there. And people kind of will share what you have to offer because it's clear, it's easily shared and different enough that people want to share what they found. So I'm going to talk you through the three clear things that you need to be focusing on to become a category of one, which really shows those benefits that I've just talked about often and how that really makes sense to actually achieving those benefits. So how do you actually go about creating a category of one business and becoming unrivalled? Well, the first thing as I've sort of touched upon is niching down, finding the subcategory of your market so you can micro-niche. So the key here is really getting specific on what it is that you do and positioning it and angling it in such a way that it's fresh and new and it's not like whatever else is out there.

(10:51):
Like I said before about the sheep-preneurs, everyone else is out there saying very similar things in your industry because they see what apparently is working and they want to copy and so therefore it just dumbs down the message that you're trying to put out there and you just become this blended inversion with everybody else. It's very important to really fine tune it and really disrupt the markets by coming up with something new, fresh and innovative that is very specific. And the more specific you can get, the more innovative you can be and the clearer you can be and the more it's going to really hit the Mark for the particular type of person that you're after within that wider market. So get really clear on that sub category. What is your subcategory? You know, I'm a business coach and I've been a business coach for a long time now, but I can't just be a business coach and I'm talking about very extreme example here.

(11:53):
But something that I've really nailed down to is becoming the business coach to get to for becoming a market leader. That there isn't that many people. In fact, there's hardly anyone around using that terminology at the minute. I guess for a couple of reasons. First of all, because not many people run a market leading business like I do. I guess it's not unusual, but the perspective is there's, there's not that many out people that have that accolade. But also that's, you know, it's my own message that I've decided to take on board and go, okay, that's who my people want to become. They want to become a market leader. That's a subcategory that I have picked because at the end of the day, there are lots of businesses out there. Do they want to become market leaders?

(12:45):
Do they all want to grow their business? It becomes seriously significant in the marketplace. No, no. Everybody does. And so my message is for only a certain type of person who wants to build an empire business, who wants to continue to grow and who wants to be bigger than they are at this present time. So that speaking to a very specific type of person within the wider market that I could potentially serve. So what are you going to do in order to meet your message and your, the way you describe what you do for people really hit that subcategory. So get specific in your messaging. Get specific in your terminology. Any way you can do that is by looking at who are your people, who are the people that you are best placed to serve and not even just best placed to serve,

(13:38):
Who are you excited about serving? You know, what's, what's the subcategory that really sets your heart and fire that you're like, no, these are my people. That's one of the best ways that you're going to find that subcategory as well as looking at your expertise, your background, your experience, all of those things can really help to dig out who it is that your best place to serve. The second thing that I really love you to think about is your concrete USP. So once you found that kind of corner of the market that is especially for you though, you can describe them so that it's a new and fresh message, that it's reaching the right people. We then need to think about, okay, so why would these people choose you? They might know that you offer them, but what are you offering them that's going to make them want to choose you over other people that are perhaps on the list.

(14:39):
You can create that category of one messaging. But we really wants to sort of add weight to your side in order to position you as that number one choice that irrefutable option that makes them go no, no, your the one for me that there's no point even looking anywhere else anymore. In order to do that we need to look at your concrete USP now to find your concrete USP, you need to have a look at that person and think what is the most kind of critical problem right now. And I've kind of talked about the problem a lot over the last sort of few episodes, so I don't really want to beat that drum too much in this episode because you can go back and look at that and if that's, I think in our last episode we talked a lot about the problem, but it's about looking at the problem and just to remind you or you or build a bridge or you shoot the shark and finding out which of those problems that they're suffering from and get really specific on it and then creating something entirely, an entirely unique solution for them.

(15:49):
I'm going to demonstrate this point with a few examples of some of the market leading companies are out there. So let's start with Uber for instance. They had that Uber app that was fresh out the gate. It was something really new. The convenience of being able to just order a cab without having to stand in a noisy nightclub and try and shout down the phone to the taxi company that you'd like to be picked up. Finding someone that's secure, that's licensed, that's safe solved a lot of problems by creating that new solution. I call these things the unique magic bullet. And that was Uber's unique magic bullet that was that Uber app. It solved so many issues for the client base that they are able to dominate the market and not even they went from dominating a corner to really expanding across the board, which is just incredible.

(16:51):
And that's how it will start for you. You find your corner, you find your people, and then the rest of the market starts to cotton on, they start to step up and they start to listen up to what you're offering. That's how the snowball effect happens. You start reaching the wider market. Once you've dominated that corner, it really starts to prick the ears up of, of, of what the people as well. Now the next company, I'll use an example is Netflix. Their unique magic, but it is the Netflix original films or series. Now, these are amazes isn't a great example because I absolutely adore the Netflix originals. They really have, you know, put so much budget into creating these films and series and they are phenomenal. They really are. And you can't get them anywhere else.

(17:41):
And that's what's key about your concrete USP or unique magic bullet is that it becomes your own. No one else can own it apart from you. And that's why people will go to you. That's why you become the irrefutable choice because you create something that they really want and the only place they're going to get it is from you. And so that's what we want to do on a create demand for something so that they have to buy from you because they cannot get that anywhere else. Another company, Amazon, their unique magic bullet, prime delivery, being a member of prime, not even just prime,delivery, prime in itself, you know, it's more well known for that delivery because obviously it offers things like you've got prime video and things like that. But do you know what the kind of film side of things hasn't taken off as much as the delivery side.

(18:31):
And I think to be fair, that's a key lesson here to kind of stick to what you're known for. They're known for, you know, efficient delivery next day delivery, which is great, all under one roof. So that's why they've become known for. Things kind of like the cherry on the cake that the reason why you want to buy prime is because you want that convenience. And that was a problem for the Mark. You know, our market, which was great for online delivery, but we wanted online delivery like now, you know, we didn't want to be waiting ages for it, which is why we ended up going out into the high street and part of the death of the high streets to deal with Amazon because they've solved that problem. If we don't even have to leave our homes. And yet we can have something relatively quickly, not as instantly is going into a shop and picking it off the shelf, but near as damn it.

(19:22):
Yhey've done incredible job with that. I use Amazon all of the time, you know, in particularly at a time like now it's, inadvertently solved an even bigger problem for people not being able to shop for clothes. They can't literally can't go out. And whilst the delivery times are much longer at the moment, they're still supplying and they're still delivering even at a time like this, which is just amazing and it's still providing business. People who maybe weren't even Amazon members before that group of people are now kind of almost forced to buy from them again, widening the market because there's a problem that they're solving. Someone else, Apple, another big one. Their unique magic bullet, the Mac operating system that makes their computers work very, very fast. That's another example of something that you can't really get anywhere else.

(20:13):
They've named it, they've made it and it's a very specific piece of technology to them. That's an unique magic bullet to Apple. The fact that they've got this Mac iOS system. Now, again, there are many other reasons as to why people buy from Apple as well. You know, their design, the way everything looks so everything works together. But what's great about it is that it does work. You know, that was one of the reasons I changed from a PC over to an Apple Mark was because I just needed something to work quickly and that didn't take 10 years to load up every time I lifted the little on my laptop. So that's why I bought my Apple Mac was for this Mac operating system. Another example is our company Ever Track the adventure travel company, our unique magic bullet it is all around helping people achieve the goals and not actually just booking them onto a tripping and sending them off, but actually making sure that they were able to achieve their goal once they were there by doing everything we care prior to the trip.

(21:09):
And so we created the chip trip panel, the personalized trip planners, which are actively shared. It's every got everything in there that you would need in order to prepare yourself to get to the top of the mountain. So it's, it's key to think about what is your specific ideal client's problem and perhaps one that isn't being solved right now for us, for the adventure travel company that wasn't being solved. There was lots of companies out there providing trips to people, but no one was really offering the preparation beforehand that was needed in order for them to be able to achieve the goal. And it's also needed for the wider market now as well because, you know, this massively helped the people, the avid trackers who are constantly out there. But we're also getting a lot of customers now and we're reaching a wider market of people who want to get these things ago who perhaps aren't in the right position right now to, to, to, to do it, but they want to book it and they want to work towards it.

(22:07):
They want to get fit or they want to get healthier and they want to go fot it and these trip planners are becoming invaluable. So this is solving a problem that a lot of people who weren't average trackers to actually get involved. So have a think about who is it you're specifically trying to serve right now? Who are your people and what problem can you solve that they have that isn't currently being solved by other people? And when I say isn't currently being so far, the people, I also want to add on to that, that they may already be having it solved inadvertently by someone else. But it brings me onto my next point as to are they, have they productized it? Are they actively putting that solution out there? Because I guarantee you these companies who I've just mentioned, Uber, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and have a track, they weren't necessarily the first people with the idea.

(23:09):
There are no new ideas. It's likely that these ideas have floated around many a people person's mind, many businesses mind. But it's never acted upon or it's not acted upon enough. What's really important is that once you get an idea like this is that you are able to productise it so that it's easily shared. One of the benefits of becoming a category of one business is that people kind of get to know you for something. And so it's important that that's really clear and crisp and that they really understand the thing that you are known for. And in order to do that, particularly as a service based business, you know, we have to productise it. You know, you can't see a Mac operating system, but it's productise cause it has a name. We have to be able to turn or services that are invisible into something tangible.

(24:06):
And we can do that by giving it a name, by simplifying the concept so that people really understand what it is that it does. Because the Mac operating system is very, very complicated and I'm sure I didn't really know how it works. All I know is that it gives me the benefit that I'm after and that's what we need to really do with the way we work with people, finding our unique way that solves a problem that's not being served currently and productizing it and really leading the way because in order to really lead and in order to get known for these things, you want to be the first and you have to own it and you've got to lead with it. So many people have great ideas, but they just sit on them and in order to become a category of one business, you've got to get out there with your thing.

(25:00):
You can't sit on it. You can't hide behind closed doors thinking, yes, this is a fantastic idea and only telling you know, a myriad of a few people in your circle. You have got to really lead with it. Get out there in the market, talk about it, invest in the idea, get it trademarks, all of these different things in order to make sure that you are the first and that people know about it because otherwise you're just going to blend in the background and you're never going to be a leader or even the leader. If you want to be aiming to be the leader, you need to really hone in on that thing that makes you exclusive, that makes you the number one choice that pulls you apart from everybody else out there who may have had the idea at one point in time but never did a thing about it and you don't want to be that person who didn't do a thing about it.

(25:58):
You want to be the person who created and not even just found a great idea because great ideas, they don't fall out the sky and into your lap. You have to really innovate them. You have to create them. There was a lot of thought process that goes behind it. Good ideas have strategy behind them and they didn't just fall out of the sky. You know, it might feel like it when the, when the, when the idea finally pops and goes, right. Okay, here we go. This is the tongue, the tangibleness of it. But that's not really in real life how good ideas are created. They are created by being strategic, but being thoughtful about what you're doing. And that's how great business ideas are born through creative, innovative process. So don't sit on it guys. That's the third thing.

(26:49):
Be the first, own it and lead with it. That's the third thing that you need to do in order to become a category of one. Because you can have the great message, you can really hone in on finding these people. You can have the clarity and you can give the clarity and articulate with precision why you are the best choice. You can productise something and even trademark it and go, yep, this is my idea. But unless you're talking about it, unless you're leading with it, unless you're really take an action to get out there and serve and generate more and more clients into your business, then you are never going to become that market leader and you're never going to become that category of one business. You need to take action on what it is that you've honed in on. Now, just the reminder that the elevate program, these are some of the key things that we focus on inside of that program is really looking at how to niche down, how to find your subcategory and really dominate that corner of the market in order to eventually expand looking and innovating and creating that unique magic bullet, that productized USP that makes you the the reason why people would come to you in order to buy from you, why they wouldn't go anywhere else because you are the perfect match for them, you know, and also the accountability within there to lend lead with it.

(28:17):
You know, it's not just about a one and done process of there. There you have it in the program. There's enough time in there in order for me to support you and for the others in the program to support you through it. Now I've mentioned others just to let you know that the format of the elevate program is that it's one-to-one. First and foremost, you get a lot of my one-to-one time during this program, but we also have the added benefit of an inbuilt mastermind of people who are also on the same journey as you who can help to support you through it as well. So we have a group call every month in addition to your one to ones and then you're also in a Facebook group as well. That way you can kind of share ideas with each other and ask each other's opinions.

(28:59):
So there's all of these different things available. There's a lot more to it than I'm able to articulate on this very short snippet. So do you make sure that you book your call with me to discuss how I can help you specifically because it's not prescriptive, it's a program that has a goal in mind. Absolutely. To become a category of one market leading business. But the way you get there will be different for each business. And so that's really important to understand that and that's why I'm there giving you this critical one-to-one help. You know, this isn't a group program because you know at the end of the day they tend to be quite prescriptive and a, you know, a one size fits all strategy and that's not what is taught inside of elevate. It's a, it's a nurturing program that really helps you to grow for your individual business so that you get the right advice for where you're at and for where you want to go and how you want to grow.

(29:57):
So hopefully that gives you a little flavor. Do you make sure you book a call, the link is in the show notes and I hope that this episode has really helped you to see the three key things that you need to be focusing on in order to really define yourself as a category of one business. To recap, niche down, find a sub category, make sure that you create an innovative pioneering new solution for your market. That unique magic bullet that will make you the compelling reason as to why someone would buy from you. And also grab the attention of other market leaders and other industry leaders within your niche who are also going to be lifting their heads up, not necessarily in competition, but for potentially collaboration opportunities that really positions you as somebody significant. And thirdly, leading with it, you know, really getting yourself out there, becoming known for your speciality for that unrivalled status that you will claim once you really hone in on those, those few things. Right? That's me done for today. Many, many thanks for listening. Any questions, please do pop them to Jen-hall.com. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please do leave us a review because it really tears me up and it helps with the rankings to get this out there to more and more business owners who wants to become market leaders and category of one business owners. Take care, stay safe, and I'll speak to you all again next week.

How To Build A Business That Is Profitable
When building a profitable market leading business you need to ensure that first off it has huge profit potential by creating a profit plan. Otherwise, you’re going to be struggling against the tide and working really hard for very little money.

First question to ask yourself to begin your profit plan is-

What Are You Actually Selling, And Is It Desired?
Desirability is important to your business because if it’s not desired, you’re going to have a hard time dominating your market for market leadership.

A question that I have been asked a lot over the years related to this is -

Can You Create Consumer Demand For A Product/Service?
The answer is - yes you can, however there still has to be an underlying need.

By this I mean - it needs to make sense to people as to why they would buy it.

Businesses that are preaching from their ivory towers on what their market ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ be doing only persists to turn people off.

To ensure your marketing and sales messages actually grab attention and elicit buying action, focus on looking at how your service / product actually solves a current problem or desire that they are experiencing right now.

To do this you have to get clear on a specific individual. The more specific you can get, the easier it’s going to be to identify the problems & priorities your ideal client is experiencing right now.

Think about the fears & worries that they have, this will help you to see how your service will help alleviate them. If you’re more of an aspirational seller (someone who focuses on helping people achieve goals from a place of positivity), then you can think about what goals this individual is seeking to achieve and how your service plays a part in achieving that.

Ultimately you want to have one clear problem and one clear goal that your service can help this particular individual with. Depending on whether you are an aspirational seller or problem focused seller you would lean more heavily on the appropriate one. Do not forget that you need to talk about both for it to make logical and emotional sense to your market.

Step Away From ‘Telling’ Them What They Should Do And Move Towards ‘Showing’ Your Market How It Can Help Them.
If you’re struggling to find an existing problem that feels compelling enough for your ideal client to buy into your service then another route is to talk about the imminent problem they will experience if they don’t take action. This isn’t as powerful as talking about existing issues that they are already experiencing but in certain cases where your entire market is less aware at the moment - some education may be required. Gauge the awareness of your target market and for less aware groups make sure you educate them on the painful problem that is waiting just around the corner if they don’t take action.

Or perhaps you have something that will actually make life so much easier. Henry Ford famously said ‘If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse’. If you have something that is going to improve the way we do things then education on this is essential, especially when it’s brand new. But understand that whilst Henry Ford innovated something radical he was still helping to solve the need to travel place to place in a faster time; there was still a problem and goal that his market were experiencing.

Aspirational sellers use this same strategy when their target market isn’t necessarily experiencing a bleeding neck issue but need awareness around the dangers of solving the issues without using your service.

I would still suggest talking about the impact of inaction and not buying into your service as well as the impact when they do - this will help them to step into making a positive buying decision by seeing all the cards laid out on the table.

Solution focused businesses tailored around existing problems and goals will always be in demand. Your job is to then show them the hidden problem that is the root cause of their existing problem (or the hidden saboteur that is waiting to ambush/delay their goals) and how your service can help alleviate that.

The problem that businesses have when serving a market with a well known problem/goal is that many other businesses are also serving that market and so standing out as a market leader can become more difficult. Stay tuned in the coming episodes where I show you how you can stand out of the saturation and dominate your market.

Scaling For Success
The next thing to focus on when creating a profit plan is scaling. This is a typical buzz phrase of many entrepreneurs - ‘and how are you planning on scaling that?’. Whilst this phrase is now used as an ‘in’ joke mainly by business coaches it is a deadly serious question that is necessary to think about. We need to look at how our business will grow financially and find ways to remove the glass ceiling on the earning potential. If you want to become a market leader - it’s worth bearing in mind how you will cope serving a large proportion of your target market.

Scaling can happen in one of two ways -

Sell more of the same product or

Charge more per product

When it comes to service based businesses scaling is slightly harder than a physical product based business, as there are usually time constraints and capacity issues at play.

However when it comes to scaling there are many ways to peel an orange -

Productise your service into a ‘self consumable’ digital product. This can be done B2C or B2B by creating a product and licensing it out.

One to Many delivery enabling more people to consume at once.

Creating a systemised solution that can then be taught and delivered by other trained experts under your umbrella.

In some cases like in our travel company we have partnered with trusted suppliers to outsource a portion of the service.

Creating a membership or subscription model which can combine points one - three potentially using a community. This is only suited to certain businesses and is not something I recommend for all businesses.

Create high end value propositions and charge more per product. This is perfect for those who want to bring high transformation for clients with big problems or big goals. You will still experience a ceiling on profit (even though large) due to time and capacity so it’s advisable to think about other income streams as well.

Use a combination of the above, adding a new arm to your business as your business grows.

By having a view of the ways in which you can scale you can navigate the scaling of your business and choose ways to grow that suit both the business type, target market and your preferred delivery style.

Priced For ROI
The third thing you need to be thinking about in your profit plan is your pricing. Are you pricing your products fairly?

By this I mean value for both the service AND the consumer.

You need to make sure that the product is appropriately priced so that the consumer feels like they have extraordinary value (a good return on investment) and that you feel like you’re being paid well for your services.

I’m all for high-ticket pricing but in order for that to work you need to focus on solving big problems and/or big goals and offering serious value for money. For some businesses big goals may mean more high-end luxury, but not always; for others it means offering a high-end experience, exclusivity and high transformational results.

For some businesses a low ticket offering is more appropriate because the product genuinely doesn’t warrant a high ticket - in this case you need to look at generating a large audience to sell more of your product.

I always advise businesses at the earlier stages or those that need money fast to sell high-ticket. The reason being is that you can keep your business financially afloat with large cash injections whilst you grow your audience and then shift (if you wanted) to offering a lower ticket offer requiring less of your input. Sometimes high-ticket isn’t always possible depending on your expertise but it’s certainly worth considering.

I’ll be talking more about pricing over the coming weeks on how not to compete on price, but for now the message I want to leave you with is - to ensure you’re not giving away your best for less than it’s worth; you need to make a profit. And that your clients always leave with a great return on investment for them; knowing what that looks like will help you sell your services with ease resulting in more revenue.

When pricing your services ensure you take into account this formula -

RESULT = Transformational result they will get from receiving the service

ROI = The return on investment and positive wider impact of achieving that result.

ENERGY EXPENDED = Support level provided

YOUR LEVEL OF EXPERTISE = Take into account your personal value/collective expertise of the company in what you bring to the table.

Ensuring you have these three key areas covered will ensure you create a great plan for profitability.

Listen to the related podcast episode by clicking here.

If you'd like to discuss how you can create a profitable market leading business then just book a call with Jen Hall here bit.ly/ClarityCallJenHall

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):

It's time to bypass the negativity and create a pandemic proof business.

(00:15):
Hello everyone. This is Jen Hall here, your market leadership expert and business positioning coach. I'm here today on day five of the schools being closed and I'm probably on probably week two of my self personal self isolation. And I don't know about any of you, but I'm only just finding my feet. It's all about creating that kind of new normal, isn't it? And I've certainly at the beginning of this week, particularly with the schools being shot, I found my whole routine being completely out of kilter. I've been working from my home for like I say a couple of weeks now, but it's, it's interesting as soon as your kind of told that you can't go out, everything feels a lot more restricted. And I'm used to it like before before we got our, you know, big time offices here in Wales.

(01:14):
I used to work at home all the time and in a way, little secret here. I actually prefer working from home. I get a lot more done and much less distraction and I can really get my head into stuff. So I've actually been really, really relishing that. But obviously since the schools had been out, don't know about you guys. I found it quite difficult. However we create a a call schedule. And we put boundaries and be really been supporting each other in our households. So huge thanks to my daughter and my other half. We were all doing really well I think in supporting each other and I really hope that you guys are kind of creating your own version of your new normal and you are all coping well and yesterday in particular was a full on day and evening or supporting my clients through this turbulent time and ensuring that we are adapting and we're still staying on top of things because at the end of the day we need to ensure that we keep selling here.

(02:14):
If we want to keep our economy alive, if you want to keep your business afloat, if you want to keep the momentum going as much as possible, then we have to, at the end of the day, the money is still there. The differences is that the flow has slowed down ever so slightly. And so it's really important to recognize that, that it is there. And you'll be experiencing more nos. There still will be a conversion rate somewhere along the line, especially if you're looking to be solution focused. And just a quick reminder about a couple of things. If you want to talk to me about how I can help you through this period to help you come out stronger than you were before, position your business. Is that number one choice? And do you make sure you book a call with me?

(03:06):
The link is in the show notes, but that is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. And you've also got access to a completely free ultimate guide to becoming a market leader, which is more relevant now than ever. People are focusing on, Oh my goodness I need to keep my business afloat. We actually, in order to do that, need to be thinking much bigger. We need to be more ambitious than ever and we need to start implementing some really critical things into our business. And that's what this guide highlights. So make sure that your business is relevant and that it's speaking to your audience at a time when things are happening to them. That's what we need to recognize right now is what's going on for your people, you know, and how is this, this crisis affecting them and how can you adapt and you know, talk to your following and your audience to show them that you have something that's of need to them, that you have a solution for them that's so important.

(04:05):
So you make sure you download that, that guide is in there again in the show notes. So do you make sure you go and grab that from there? It's completely free. And also it's got a ton of amazing information off the back of that as well. Which will help you set your market leading intentions. That's where it needs to be heading. Guys. If you're serious about your business and you're looking to come out the stronger and grow it, moving on from this crisis process during this crisis, then make sure you do download that or book a call with me to discuss how we can sort of make that happen for you. So yeah, it's so important to adapt. And at the minute we're seeing a lot of negativity going round with governmental decisions around what's the self-employed can have. And if you're kind of listening and jaw in our boat in terms of being a limited company and you slip through the cracks, there's a lot of things out there where I'm seeing people getting, I say quite rightly they feel left out.

(05:11):
Absolutely. But what I would like to do instead of this outcry is to just focus on what you can do because the negativity is all very well and we will have to process it and whatever else. And I'm seeing quite a lot of it being used to kind of, you know, rial and rally the troops to be a yes. Yes. You're so right. You know, we're being left behind. You can carry on doing that. You can continue to blow that trumpet and go down that route, but at the same time, if you're going to do that at the end of the day you're distracting yourself from what you really need to be focusing on and that is becoming a solution focused business right now adapting to it. And I was speaking to my very good business friend. She is a mindset and resilience coach. And she's based up in York and she was telling me about a brewery who has adapted perfectly to the current situation where they've stopped making beer.

(06:19):
Although, you know, perhaps I might be considered a, a problem for some, but stopped making beer and they have instead use the same equipment to create hand sanitizer. So yes, it's not what they do on a day to day basis, but they're doing what is necessary to support people at this time. Now, it's not necessarily something that I suggest you need to do is completely change your business entirely. But there are people out there who have to do that. And if you were one of these people where I've had businesses who are purely based on YouTube as their main source of income and it's all about traveling to a particular place and she's lost all of her income overnight, completely. So she's having to look at how she can adapt her business. And what I'm pleased to see is that she's being very solution focused around that and looking at what else she can do to create income when it comes to being a market leader and running a business versus running something that, you know, we hear this all the time, you know, you've gotta be, you know, it's got to be in line with your purpose and it's gotta be aligned with your passion.

(07:31):
And yes, it's great if you can marry those two up. But sometimes it's not the case when you're running a business it's about making money. And if your passionate purpose, it's not making money, they're maybe not saying don't do it, do it as a side thing and focus and knuckle down on a business that will, and I guess who are you, which, which one are you? Are you the kind of business owner who are, who is in it to grow and become truly financially successful at it? Or you, somebody who, who is more inclined to not worry about the money? And I was actually more focused on purpose and passion. I'm going to be quite honest with you now if that issue then this probably isn't the best podcast to be listening to because whilst I'm all for that you know, if as much as you possibly can to merge the two together, if possible.

(08:27):
Running a business for me it's about making money and we got to do what it takes to make it. And whilst all this negativity is going on, it's a big distraction from actually what you could be focusing your time and energy on, which is being solution-focused, adapting and really focusing on how you can really help your current customer base with what they need right now. My coach has been bloody accident, I've got to say. She's got her and her have rallied round to try and find solutions for people with kids, you know, doing readings. So we've got time to go and do bits and pieces. Yeah. She's really thinking about how we are all being affected. So the thing is we could sit here and we can moan about how is unfair and all of these things and you in some instances you are quite right.

(09:17):
Sometimes it is unfair, but life is unfair and you're not going to make any progress sitting there worrying about it, moaning about it. We've got to make the most of that hand that we've been dealt. And so it's time to quit whining, quit moaning, and it's time to actually step into action mode. Now to look at your business from the perspective of how can my business not just survive, but how can it adapt and move forward positively and come out of this crisis stronger than ever. That's where our focus needs to be now, not on what the government has or hasn't done not on well, they're lucky because their business was already online and all of these things we all have to adapt. We've all been impacted in some way, shape or form, some more than others.

(10:11):
I run two businesses. One of them is an online business, great serving by the way, clients who actually don't have an online business. So I have to help them adapt. They are impacted. And on the other side I run a travel business. Okay. That has been hugely impacted, but we're doing everything we can to stay on board and we're still making sales. We are still moving forward and we are utilizing this time. Normally around about this time. We'd have hundreds of customers over in Nepal. We'd meet the managing that scenario. Now we're managing the situation of the fact that they're not there and how we can best support them first and foremost. And then we're making use of the time that we're not rallying around making sure that they're okay on the ground and actually using that time to really dig into all of the stuff that was on the list to do and it's never got done.

(11:10):
I see so many businesses at the moment closing their doors and just being up, well I can't do anything, so therefore I'm, you know, I'm not gonna do anything. Okay. The danger of doing that guys is that your customer base will leave and go somewhere else to somebody who has adapted and they will form new relationships and new loyalty towards those people. If you're lucky and you've built a really strong relationship, some may come back, but you're risking a lot here and you're assuming a lot here. The pub in the road from us had to close. They've turned themselves into a off license and a pop up shop. They are adapting. They are keeping the customer loyalty going. It's more convenient for me to go to them for my essentials. A because actually it's less people than there are in the supermarket.

(12:01):
So from a health perspective, great. And also they're, they're just up the road. They're actually closer. So they're actually serving a new need and a new want. They're adapting and they're doing a brilliant job at it. But I see so many people doing that whole, I don't want to go online thing. Okay. I get it to some extent, but it's up to you. Okay, fine. Don't go alone. Lose your business. You know? And it's as simple as that. If you're not willing to do the things that you need to do to keep your business going, then you only have yourself to blame. And I know I don't want to be miss negative and I am sympathetic and I really am empathetic and you know, I've been here and you know. I've done a whole other episode on, you know, the things that you can do to help you.

(12:45):
And, and I will continue to do so because that's what I'm here for. But who I am not here for those who are not willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears into keeping their business going, I don't have time. I don't have time for that. And that's what you need to do in terms of getting that prevailing mindset is to put the blinkers on away from all of this noise of the complaining, the moaning, the fear, and actually just be more solution focused and look at becoming a stronger business and doing what needs to be done at this time to keep moving and to utilize the spare time that you may have. Keep selling, keep going forward, sell. There are things that you can do, you can get deposits for things in the future. There are parts of your business that might be able to be done online and the other part might have to be done in person.

(13:37):
Why don't you do the bits that can be done online, online with, you know, you've started that service, then they're committed to continuing with it. When this dust settles, then you can continue the rest of it in person. You know there are ways around everything and there are new things that you can do and I've already given you a couple of examples of businesses that have done just that who have adapted, might not necessarily be doing the thing that they, you know that they want to do right now, but they do it for the sake of their business and the more work you put in now, the better it's going to be for when this is all over because you're going to come out so much stronger this, this period of time with all these pressures coming from every angle they create diamonds or it'll crush you, one of the two, which one are you going to be?

(14:23):
You're going to, you're going to be a diamond or are you going to get crushed? We need to start thinking, adapting, innovating, and being strong minded and strong in your heart to continue on regardless of the situation and look out for those distractions, create that new norm, create that new schedule for yourself so that you can ensure that you can get the things done that you need to do. Be strategic. If you're a single parent, like I'm lucky enough to be here with Andy who, you know, we are trying to juggle where we've got about half the time we normally have, but my gosh, doesn't it make you more productive when you have, when you only have half the time, you know, we've obviously got that perk for single parents. Don't be, you know, worried about the fact that you put your kid on a, on a laptop for a little bit or their iPad or on your phone while you get stuff done.

(15:17):
I've had Ellie when she was tiny, you know, at that point there was no distraction. You know, there was only so much baby TV, the phone that would do it. You know, I've run businesses when she was that young and do you know what I did? I got up early and I worked until the night because that's what you've got to do and you've got to decide who are you, someone that's going to be laid down and crumble under all of this mass or you're going to become that diamond. Are you going to do what you can do without burnout? I'd like to add, look after yourself guys. Put in your self care time with your kids. Teach them to meditate so that you can have fun with them and learn to relax with them around so that you can focus when you need to focus, you know, adapt, change, do things differently, think differently.

(16:02):
You know, in the words of Addenbrooke's who is another business coach out there who I massively respect, you know, he said in an a video recently put together online around we're all in this together. He said, I challenge you to think differently when everybody else is losing their heads and that is where you are going to shine. That is where you're going to stand out. You can really use this time to push your business forward. It doesn't have to be devastation. You can absolutely make an impact and continue to move forward. I know so many people who are so excited about this time, they're using the situation is rocket fuel. They're like, brilliant, okay, I have X amount of content ideas. I'm really excited about how I can actually adapt and change my message at this time. There are people that have to pulled back on their content because they're just like, well, you know, everyone else is talking about it.

(16:55):
Well, do you know what? Why? Because it's affecting all of us and we all need to do that, but we need to look at the situation and the relevancy of what is happening for our ideal clients, what's going on for them, how is that impacting them? And that's by looking at that specifically, you can find your unique angle and a way to stand out and to own a way to innovate and create new and amazing USPS that you might not have thought of without this crisis on our hands. So if you are somebody who needs help with that, who needs help, you're totally on board with ignoring all of the negativity. You're totally on board with you know, adapting and moving forward. But you actually, you're just stuck and you're stuck. Perhaps like a rabbit in headlights or maybe even stuck in fog in your head where you're just like, I don't know in my situation how I could help my customer base or how I can move forward to adapt my, adapt my business so that it starts making money again.

(17:58):
If you're stuck in there, let me know. Tell me about it. Book a call using the link in the show notes, you know, let's get on a call and let's talk about how I can help you do that and how I can help you adapt. You've got a few ideas and a few bits and pieces inside of this podcast, but I get it. I get that it's easier said than done. But where there is a, well, there is a way and there is always a way to adapt and change and sometimes it just helps to have that fresh pair of eyes to help you do that. And so if you're serious about continuing on, you know, well after this crisis coming out stronger than ever with, you know, with the, the highest ranking relevancy for your market possible, which is what you want to aim for, you've got to, for the rest of this year and beyond, you've got to be relevant if you're not relevant to what irrelevant, you know, be relevant to the needs of your ideal clients.

(18:52):
Okay? So I'm here for that. If you need help to do that, book a call. So that's all I'm going to say. I know it's been quite a shouty ranty episode. I feel like it's necessary. It's necessary to get the message or ignore all of the crap that's going on. Put your blinkers on, move forward and hold yourself accountable to adapt, innovate, and stay positive and biggest strong business that will prevail. And think about how you can change your business or add to it to make it stronger than ever. Please do make sure that you leave a review. I'm not sure this is the best episode to ask you to do that. Hilarious. If you are enjoying listening to the podcast, I would absolutely love it if you're finding it useful and you know, you're finding it in spotting it, whether it's inspiring or useful, whatever it is, please do leave me a review on iTunes. It really does make a difference to the rankings. It means that this podcast out to way more people that needs that need to hear these messages. So I'd really appreciate it if you could. Just a couple of things I've already mentioned, make sure if you want to book a called blinkers in the show notes and to download the ultimate guide to becoming a market leader, that link is also in the show notes. It's been fab speaking to you and I'm really looking forward to seeing you in the next episode.

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):
Does your marketing need to be perfect and polished to truly make an impact? Well, in this episode we're talking all about marketing aesthetics and the do's and don'ts.

(00:21):
Hello Jen Hall here, your business positioning coach and market leadership experts. And today we're talking all about marketing aesthetics for market leaders. Are we looking for polished and perfect or raw and ready? Now this is debate that's been going on for a very long time and it normally starts a very big divide. So today I want to really talk about it to sort of go into a more granular detail around is there a one side of the coin that we should be sticking to or is there a happy medium and do we need to look at these things for what they are in a case by case basis. Not like, I'm giving away half of the episode here in the introduction, but that's what we're going to be talking about today, which I'm really excited to. As ever, please, make sure you download my free ultimate guide to become a market leader, which is in the show notes.

(01:19):
That link is down there. Just click on that sign up and it will be delivered straight to your inbox for free. And just as a little hint and teaser, there are also a couple of extra goodie emails that come following this guide, which will actually help you to set market leading intentions. So do you make sure that you download that because there's a bunch of value to be had and if you'd like to talk about how I can help you build a market leading business that is future-proof and that make some serious waves in your industry and positions you as the number one business to work with, then do make sure that you book a call with me. Link is in the show notes. That's bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. And I'm looking forward to speaking to you on that.

(02:03):
So jumping straight into this episode, I want to start talking about, should we be doing one thing or the other? And my answer is it depends. Okay. It really does depend. This is my perspective. A lot of other people have a lot of different opinions. But I'm going to talk you through a case by case. Scenarios of each element of, or each element. There's a lot of elements but a few elements, a few of the main elements of marketing that we can talk about, its individuality and find out, what we should be aiming for. Let's start with an obvious one, which is videos. So if we look at marketing through video, we want to look at this in context to where it's being put. So again, it depends. Is it a Facebook live Facebook lives? They are intended to be raw and rough around edges.

(02:59):
They're not intended to be perfect by any means. However, it's been proven that video that has transcripts available and that are a little bit more to the point can create more traction. But it really depends on where you're putting these, live videos out. If you're in a Facebook group that is your community and you're putting out a video, they want to see the behind the scenes, they want to see the real you. They want to see you just having a chat with them on, the same level. They want it to be less markety because they want to feel like they're getting to know you as a personal brand and as the person leading the business. So it's fine for it to be rough around the edges. It's fine. This morning I was walking my dog and we went a different route to usual thought it'd be a great idea to go a completely different route and do live in my group.

(03:56):
Great way to mix it up there. And we started to approach this road and I thought, Oh my gosh, I, my puppy is only eight months old and she's still getting to grips with the whole callback thing. She will come back but sometimes it takes a few yells. So we did this whole kind of episode where I was shouting her name, trying to get her as a comeback. And it was just sort of like, just the guy's got to go. I'm so sorry. I'll come back in a moment. You know, people appreciate that. And they're fine with it and actually it adds a bit more familiarity, humility. And people feel like, wow, cool. She's just like the rest of us. That's the thing. Sometimes these kinds of things really help to bring familiarity and relatability because, you know, life's not perfect.

(04:48):
A Facebook live is a great way to show when these things happen, it's just like the news reporter who was meant to be doing this polished news report. This video went viral of his kids, kind of like crawling in and then his wife crawling and trying to pull the kids out. It was rather funny. If you haven't seen that, make sure you do. But I'm sure everyone in the world saw that video. But, a lot of Facebook live is designed for those moments. And particularly with social media, it's very appropriate for it to be a little bit more rough, a little bit off the cuff. And it's totally fine if you're looking to put a video on a Facebook ad, depending on a strategy, you might want to be thinking about making that video a little bit more slicker to the point, more strategic, a lot more fought out with captions a hundred percent.

(05:41):
And making sure that it's delivering what it needs to do and it's edited in a way that it makes sense of people that they're going to get what they need from it, and that there's a strong call to action that pairs on the screen, all of these other things. So in that instance, you're going to be far more strategic when it comes to creating a video for Facebook and it's going to look far more polished. Now when it comes to being perfect, you know, at the end of the day, perfect is an achievable goal, but it's something we should all be striving towards. I think that's the way I like to put it because I do think that having an excellent standard in whatever you do, even when I'm doing those off the cuff lives, I'm still preparing. I'm still thinking strategically about what I want to say to people.

(06:29):
What's my core message? What do I want people to do? What's the purpose of the video? What's my call to action? All of those things. You know, I'm thinking about in my mind about what I wanted to do to deliver. So it's not gonna be perfect, but in certainly being strategic of certainly being thoughtful around what I'm sharing and I think, we should all be striving towards making things as good as we can make them, but when I talk about being perfect, it's never going to be, but we can strive towards that. Somebody with that. That's kind of like an example for videos. So if when we look at, let's take a more guests that sort of cut down the middle. Let's look at a download. So I'm going to talk about a download. I'm talking about maybe a PDF guide, like for instance, my ultimate market leader guide.

(07:16):
Now I'm sure there are a lot better ones out there, but I've certainly made that look as good as I possibly can make it. Now, why have I done that? Why is this so polished versus the Facebook live Fenton incident I threw out earlier. The reason is in my Facebook group people know me. People expect to see rough and ready. When I go live walking the dog, that's what they're going to expect to see. But when they're looking to download something that as an experts I've created, the expectation shifts. You expect to see something that looks professional, you expect to see something that really demonstrates my credibility and reflects the kind of service that I'm giving. And that's really what we need to look at. Does it reflect the level of the service that you are giving and does it reflect the values of your ideal client?

(08:17):
And so they're happy to watch me, you know, run around and in the march with my dog because you know, a lot of people have dogs. People understand that that's what you do. But you're not happy to receive something that I professionally put together covered in mud and it's to your door. You know, that's not what they want. That doesn't reflect their values. It doesn't reflect what they expect to see. And particularly if, for instance, this download is coming as one of the first interactions that someone has had with me, I want to make a good first impression. So what I'm talking about a download or a PDF? Yes, I think it should look good. There are a lot of people that say, no, don't worry about it. Just do whatever is the value that it delivers. But what's your price point?

(09:02):
What does your ride a client expect to receive? How does this reflect the type of service that you are then going to supply? Does this really articulate how awesome you are? Does it do that? If it doesn't you have an opportunity. Facebook live, you can't change it is what it is. It's done what it's done and that's what it's designed to be. Right? You have prepared a valuable document. They you would hope with Karen attention, you have every opportunity to make it look good. It doesn't cost much to make it look good. It doesn't take much thought to make it look good. It doesn't take much thought to take your incredible expertise that you've pulled into a PDF document and make it understandable. Make sure it's proof-read. Make sure that the copy looks good, that you've laid out with images that you've laid out nicely so people can understand and read it.

(09:52):
It doesn't take much effort. It doesn't take too much time. It doesn't take much money, and I personally, if you're not willing to spend a small amount of time, effort, and money on making that first impression really good, then what kind of service are you delivering for your clients? I'm sorry, I said it a little bit controversial, but there we go. That's my opinion. I genuinely believe that and make sure it reflects what you're delivering moving forward because that's what your marketing should articulate. It should articulate how awesome you are, so puts a little bit of effort into these things and it freaks a lot of people out because they think, well, I can't do it now. You might not be able to, but you'll get your knowledge out on paper and and hire somebody from Upwork, Fiverr from your network, whoever it is to put it in and make it look nice.

(10:41):
It's a one and done thing. Once you've got the value in the gold there, all that he'd do is make it look pretty. Let them do that. Make sure that it reflects what you're delivering. If you want to become a market leader, let's up level, let's do something that actually reflects that market leading level that you want to achieve. Okay, so that is what I want to say on downloads and PDFs. That's a hard line I have. Yes, it should be polished. Yes, it should be perfect. Because it's not difficult to achieve and so just do it. When it comes to photos, similarly, if you're putting a ton of photos up on your website, over your social media and so on and so forth, social media again is a great area. You can get away with less professional photos on Facebook, LinkedIn.

(11:33):
You absolutely do want a professional headshot when it comes to putting photos on your website. If you're a market leading company, you really should be investing in a great photoshoot. Somebody who is experienced and taking the kind of photos for your industry and your business and it's good. Go do your pick the bass. It really does. You good to re invest in that? I've been using the same pictures now. I think it's about three years or so. But this photographer was amazing and I love my pictures. I'm not sure anyone could ever do a better job. Eventually my brain are going to get too hard lined in and I'm going to have to upgrade them. It's this book that accurately reflect who I am anymore. But it's like you seriously, I think I still get people saying that a little bit about me in those pictures.

(12:23):
I've managed to avoid the goofy grin as much as possible in these photos. I do hate the goofy grin that I have that. I'll save those for my less formal pictures over on Facebook. But you get the jest. You need to be reflecting the family. Just as I said in the PDFs, you know, invest some money and time into getting those kinds of photo shoots done. And making sure they're right. I invested in a stylist and a brand expert to make sure that we were tying in everything that we needed to into those photos so that it fits within the rest of my brand and so and so forth. I do think you should absolutely invest in a photographer to do that, but Facebook again, is the type of platform where it can be a little bit more often ready.

(13:11):
There are plenty of filters out there that can make you look a little bit nicer if that's what you want. Or leave it as it is. It always depends what platform you're using. What purpose are you using it for? Is it for professional use? Does it reflect the values of a market leading company? If it doesn't then you should probably invest. You know, I would always err on the side of caution with photos. I definitely think every marketing business should have professional photos done and of that's what should happen. On social media you can sometimes get away with the less professional photos and actually it's preferred that you have less professional photos over on Facebook and things like that because again, the relatability, the sociability of the platform and so on and so forth.

(13:56):
But, don't forget you're not just focusing on Facebook cause if you just face fixing on Facebook then you're going to have serious problem with your business. You need to be looking at other ways of making money, not just through social media avenues. So we do have to think about that. I'll just bash a table or really hurt my knuckle, but I'm not going to edit it out because I'm in flow. So then that is photos. That's my opinion on fake taste. Then when we look at, for instance, your website. Now, one of the big things I want to say about your website is before you start paying a ton of money on your website, you make sure that you think through, I'd have real clarity on your messaging, who it is you're speaking to and make sure where possible that you have access to make changes to it.

(14:44):
Because as long as you can do that, you can get away with getting a website up there and to a certain standard. Because if you've got control of changing the copy and things like that, it's not the end of the world cause you can go and amend it, but don't get this kind of hard coded one stock up there that can't be amended and that you have to literally travel and do three tasks in order to find someone who will unlock it for you. And it'll tell them, take 10 to 12 weeks to update and so on and so forth. So be really clear on your branding, your messaging and your kind of copy that you want to use on your website, have you photos ready, all those kinds of things before you start investing a ton of money into it. Because I see so many people focusing on their website before they've got that sorted.

(15:28):
And it's really unnecessary, first of all, because your website is a representation of you. And if it's not representing you well, then you're going to be losing a ton of business. A little while ago I would've said that you don't need a website. Now, I've changed my view on that over time. It's far too easy to get a website for you not to have one. So that's something I would say on the matter. You don't need a website to make money, but you definitely need a website in order to position you as a market leader. It's the first thing people do. They want to Google you, they want to look at your website. They want to see, they want to check you out, they want to see what you're up to and they want to see the, you know, people, I've had people on a, on a discovery call with me then go off and then check my website afterwards because they want to check the, what I'm saying.

(16:18):
And they want to kind of get that reiteration of yes, I am making the right decision to invest in that person. So the website I believe is, very, very important to get right. And so I really do think we should be going for polished. We should be going for a professional and we should be making a big effort. If you want to show your more human side, that's fine. That can be weaved in. You can even link to your social media and other places like that. And you can have elements of the website that's a little bit more kooky, a little bit more within your personality. But I definitely don't think rough and ready and slapdash is what we're after on a website. We want it to look professional. We want to make sure that it's, it's looking spot on for these people who are checking you out to go, does this represent the expectations that I want from this company?

(17:02):
Is this expressing the values that I have? Think it's always, always comes back to your ideal client. You know, think about who they are, what they expect to see and how they want to achieve it. So make sure that you think about that when you're creating a website. Graphics. If you're trying to create something that looks professional, get professional graphics, don't try and wing it. It's going to make you look shoddy and tinpot. So graphics are important. Canva costs nothing if you don't want it to be, you don't want to pay for extra branding stuff. You know, get Canva or pay somebody to do, you know, your graphic design.

(17:52):
But I've seen some incredibly poor graphic design out there that really reflects very badly on your company. It has to articulate what you're about, it has to articulate the level of which you're playing at your wants to be market leaders. Then you need to make sure that you have market leading graphics or don't use them. The thing, if it looks rubbish, don't use it. Don't put something a half arsed out there and make sure that if you're going to do something, do it well. The other thing are the copy blogs. Now, this is where the great area comes in. We talk about using the term polished and perfect for copy. Oh my gosh, it would be a dull place, right? If we always aimed for that. Yeah. There are basic things guys.

(18:45):
So proofreading, making sure that it reads well, that it's grammatically correct. It's always a nice thing to do just for the ease of reading and making you look at intelligence and so forth. But, when it comes to the style and like for instance, a lot of people that I've come across swear because they swear in, in real life and that's the style, that's how they talk. And I really do think we should be writing how we speak. So I absolutely think lighten your style. Do that because otherwise everything's very, very dull. However, I will say makes sure the things that you're writing are thought out. Again, if you're thinking about becoming a market leader and we're thinking about how a market leader thinks, they think strategically, they are thoughtful, they are the leader in their field. So you know, whether you swear or not or what style you use like whether it's direct or soft or whatever it might be, you do need to make sure that it's of a certain standard that what you're putting down in words, it's well full tile, you've got proper arguments.

(19:50):
If you're always expressing some sorts of opinion for both sides and that you're expressing yourself as a leader and not someone that's just chucked something together. So again, that gray area, it's not about being polished and perfect. It's not necessarily about it being low, just quick to chuck it out there. But there is an element of it being raw. I think that is essential to making an impact. I think that's very important. But striving to make it the best it can possibly be is also important. So we have to look at what platform are you using, what format are you using? And is it the first time that your clients have come across you, your prospects have come across you. If it is, you got control of what they see, but you don't have control of when they see it.

(20:54):
And that's why it's so important that you get this right, that you don't stop creating marketing materials and content because you want it to be perfect. It's something we should strive towards. We can improve as we go. But at the same time, be strategic and think about what it is you're putting out there. You know, I'm talking to you guys because you want to up level your marketing. You want to become a market leading business. And if that's the case, we do need to be striving for excellence in every area of our business. It's not for everybody. It's tough, it's hard work. But Hey, how, you know, nothing worth doing was ever easy, right? So we have to strive for accidents. Don't let it stop you from creating, do your best, but just be thoughtful. That's all we're asking here is be thoughtful.

(21:48):
And if it really does look pants, invest in someone to make it look better. But be mindful of the platform you know that you're using. If it's a particular social media platform do not do the Facebook live cause it's not polished because that's not what's expected. Just be thoughtful about what you're doing and think about it. You know, is this demonstrating the values that I have and what my audience want and expect to see? For me in whatever place it is that I might be in. So be thoughtful, be mindful and remember that we all start somewhere. Don't get stuck in you know, paralysis and not do stuff. We have to practice. Practice makes perfect, as they say, not quite perfect, but practice will certainly get us closer to perfect. So we do have to keep putting stuff out there, but when it comes to creating those evergreen assets, photo shoots, websites, infographics, videos that will be reused and so and so forth, downloads, then yeah, there is something to be said for good looking marketing and how that represents your business.

(23:01):
Right? That's me done for this episode. I hope you enjoyed my hard line on a marketing aesthetics and I will see you guys in the next episode as ever. Please don't forget to download the market leading guide links in the comments and also to book a call with me if you would like me to help you build your market leading business. Make sure you click the link in the show notes to comb, book that. And do you get in touch at jen@jen-hall.com. If you would like to talk to me, chat to me over email or anything we talked about in the shows, and also, please do leave us a review. I would love you forever. It really does help with the rankings and the ratings of the podcast and it helps the podcast reach more ambitious business owners out there who are looking to become that marketing business and dominate their market. See you in the next episode, guys.