No Magic Pill!
In today's episode, I'm going to be talking to you about the fact that I believe there's no magic pill to creating a successful business. There's no overnight success.
I'm going to be talking about the fact that I believe it's a long game. The fact that we need to think about and focus on building goodwill and trust. I'm going to talk you through, how I think we can do that.
I am going to be talking a little bit about the importance of word-of-mouth marketing and we're also going to be looking at the importance of really building a brand that stands for something and how it can help you to future-proof your business.
And finally, we are going to talk a little bit about the importance of building a brand especially when we're going into a recession, the fact that people are much more likely to be loyal to their favourite brands and what that means for your business.
I love to hear what you thought of today's episode, let me know in the comments.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
(01:59) Update: Back to school week
(04:32) Overnight Success - Theres is no Magic Pill
(07:24) The Long Game - examples
(09:04) Ripple effect, word of mouth marketing and the three C's
(11:49) How to build goodwill and trust
(15:35) Delayed Gratification
(18:17) Recession loyalty
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I'm Lucy Rennie, and welcome to my Future Proof your Business Podcast.
The podcast that provides you with everything you need to know to build solid foundations and ultimately Future Proof your business.
I'm on a mission to share my love for small business with you and help you to enjoy the extraordinary ripple effect that comes through harnessing the power of people and relationships.
And I want to make sure that you can reap the benefits of being a business and a brand that people know, like and trust.
I'm a huge champion for small business and a massive believer in the fact that people do business with people.
This podcast is here to inspire you, encourage you and support you on this roller coaster ride that is building, growing and Future Proofing your business.
Hi, and welcome to episode three of the Future Proof your Business podcast.
And in today's episode, I'm going to be talking to you about the fact that I believe there's no magic pill to creating a successful business. There's no overnight success.
I'm going to be talking about the fact that I believe it's a long game, the fact that we need to think about, focus on building goodwill and trust.
And I'm going to talk you through how I think we can do that. I'm going to be talking a little bit about the importance of word of mouth marketing.
And we're also going to be looking at the importance of really building a brand that stands for something and how it can help you to future-proof your business.
And finally, we are going to talk a little bit about the importance of building a brand, especially when we're going into a recession, and the fact that people are much more likely to be loyal to their favourite brands and what that means for your business.
But before we get cracking it, before we start talking, before we get into the topic of the podcast, just wanted to update you a little bit, really.
This week, the first week in September, and it's back to school week, which is a time of year that I absolutely love.
Not only because the kids go back to school, so actually, we've got a bit peace and quiet and we can get on and do our work and do what we need to do. But also, for me, it's almost better than New Year. It's almost better than the 1st of January. I don't know, I get excited about it. I think it probably stems from when I was younger. I used to get excited about going back to school and finding a new pencil case, getting some new shiny pencils, a new homework diary. I used to have holidays in France and I remember the supermarkets at this time of year, they just had aisles and aisles and aisles of pencils and books and stationery and paper and all those good things.
So I'm not going to lie. I'm going to admit a little bit I do have a little bit of a stationary fetish. So I think that's probably linked to why I love this time of year. But I also think it's a great time of year for particularly small business owners. And the reason why I say small business owners is because when I used to work in the corporate world. They used to say. Especially in the steel industry, if we hadn't kind of made a profit. If we hadn't made the sale by July. Then really the year was finished and we weren't going to be able to turn it around and had to start thinking about the following year.
Whereas I believe for small business owners, September to December is the perfect opportunity to come back fresh, excited, motivated after holidays, and really kind of focus and drill down on what you want to achieve in the last four months of the year.
And I think if we can really get focused on that and understand where we want to be and get clear on what that looks like, I believe that there's still loads of time to smash our goals or to get where you want to be by the end of the year.
So, yes, this time of year for me is really exciting. And I have got a pot of red pencils. And we were looking with my Mastermind members yesterday. We were starting to think about, okay, so what do the next four months of the year look like? What do they want to be focusing on when they want to be? And we'll talk a bit more about this in the next episode. But there's a really great visualisation tool that I'll talk you through which really helps you to kind of hone in on what success looks like for you, where you want to be. But for now, I want to talk to you a little bit about the fact that very often we see across social media, we hear our friends or people talking about it.
We see all these ads and these gurus that are talking and selling almost like an overnight success. We see these ads and things where people are saying, I'm making six, seven figure business in a few weeks with no audience. Or we kind of from the outside looking in and kind of think, wow, it looks really easy.
People have just suddenly appeared and they're making all this money or they've created this successful business and I just want to bust that myth in my proper Northern terms. I want to bust it, I want to get rid of it and just kind of put it out there that there really is no magic pill, there really is no kind of magic recipe or something that you can do that's going to make your business successful straight away.
99.9% of all the businesses that we see have been in it for a long time.
They've been turning up, doing all the things, showing up, being consistent and working really hard to stay on that rollercoaster ride that is running a business and it just doesn't happen overnight.
And I just want to recognise that. I think and recognise the fact that it is a roller coaster ride and that it does take time.
But also on the other side of it is when you do it and when it does work and when things start to move, it's so rewarding, it's so exciting and it's so fulfilling and satisfying because you know that you've put the work in, you know that you've been showing up and you've been doing all the things and actually things are starting to work for you.
So, yeah, I think that was kind of a message today. Let's get rid of that idea that there's a magic pill and let's think of it more as a long game. Let's actually think of it as a runway to your business taking off and being successful and being successful and sustainable.
So the whole point of me coming on here and calling it the Future Your Business podcast is because I believe that the possibilities of creating a business that really works for you, but that's sustainable, that keeps on giving and that's here for the long run and that isn't a one night wonder and that does keep working for you and giving back.
Yeah, I really believe that it takes time, but it's really satisfying when that does work. So I just wanted to kind of touch on that a little bit more and look at some examples and where I'm coming from with this in terms of being a long game.
And I suppose, in a way, what I believe from 25 years of working business and working with hundreds of different small business owners, I'm a massive believer that business is all about people and business is all about creating goodwill and trust.
And that the best way of creating your business and creating something sustainable, of creating something that feels adds value and that people want to buy from time and time again.
The best way of doing that is through value, through building trust, by turning up, showing up, being consistent and doing the things that you say you're going to do.
It always makes me laugh and sometimes people kind of laugh at me when I say this and it sounds really obvious, but actually, are we really doing it?
There's so many, I think, examples of where we're not.
It's about kind of doing what you do and doing it to the best of your ability, so making sure that you're delivering what you say you're going to do and managing those expectations.
And ultimately, if we can build a bank of goodwill within our customers, within our audience, we can build trust within our brand so people know what they're going to get, people love what they're getting.
Then ultimately, what they're going to do is get up on top of the rooftops and shout about you, they're going to tell their friends, they're going to share with family and colleagues and they're going to want to talk about you.
And for me, that's the essence of future-proofing. Your business is creating that ripple effect, which is word of mouth marketing.
So basically a place where we don't have to be necessarily selling or pushing or doing, it just happens naturally because people think it will.
So in terms of how we can go about doing this and how we can think about this, it's in a way where I want you to think about what's behind your brand and how we can build a brand that stands the test of time.
And the way I believe we can do that is through three simple steps, which is Clarity.
So get really clear on who you are, why you do what you do, who you work with, how you offer help, how you offer value, and how you can stand out from the crowd, how you can become a brand that is value led, that knows what it stands for, that represents really good values and has a clear vision.
It's then about Communication.
So it's about how we actually tell that story, it's how we get that out, how we connect and communicate with our different audiences.
And again, you'll hear me talk about this a lot, but it's also about fixing that Leaky Bucket.
So the communication side of things within our brand, yes, of course, it's about promoting and doing what we're doing, but it's also really about helping to manage those expectations and communicate in a way that people trust us, that people know what they're going to get and we're being honest and transparent and from a place of value.
And then thirdly, the final part of this is the Connection, which is about how do we connect with different people, how do we reinforce what our brand stands for and how do we connect with the wider audience, how do we encourage people to shout about us and talk about us and share the love for our brand.
And we're going to be talking much more about these three steps throughout the series.
I'll be probably touching upon them in each episode, really, if I'm honest, because it's something I really believe in.
I'm convinced that this is what we need to do and it allows us to kind of think intentionally about it and get ourselves in a good way.
And I think if we can really nail those three C's then we're creating our own magic pill, we're creating the ripple effect that is that word of mouth marketing, that is the solid, well reputable brand that people want to work with time and time again.
With that, I think there's a lot of talk about how to build that goodwill and trust and what that means.
And one of the things I wanted to talk to you about and one of the things that very often some of my clients asked me. In fact, just last Friday. I was having a one to one with a gorgeous lady and she's embarking on a new adventure and we were talking about the concept of whether we should at all and if so, how much we should give for free when we're creating our community and when we're talking and we're building our content and we're communicating and telling our story and connecting and all those good things.
The question was kind of how much do I give, how much do I tell, where do I draw the line and where do I say no and hold on a minute. If you want to know more about this then actually you need to work with me or you need to invest in my services, etc.
And it's a really interesting topic and I think we could probably do a whole ten episodes on this question of where and how we should deliver free value or not.
And I just want to put my cards on the table because I just think it's a no brainer.
I believe that actually we can't give enough true value.
We can't give enough value to our audience, to our customers, to our community.
And I think that the more we do that, the more we go above and beyond then it's never going to be a waste of time.
All it's doing is adding to that goodwill. All it's doing is allowing people to get to know us.
It's allowing people to understand how we work, what we think, the ways in which we see the world, who we are behind our brand.
And the more we add value to people, the more that they're going to learn, they're going to develop, they're going to be able to implement the things that we're teaching or that we're sharing and the more they're going to want more because they're going to get the results that they are looking for, that they desire.
And so if anything, it's going to have that compound effect where they're going to want to come back for more.
And probably will, I know they will want to invest and want to get more kind of bespoke or personalised or one to one kind of input and eyes on their business so they can get more sort of tailored content or tailored value.
So yeah, I'm definitely a believer in delayed gratification and I don't know whether you've seen this or what you feel about this, but my inbox at the moment is being bombarded by the same kind of people, the same names who are constantly sending emails and selling to me.
So one week it's about selling templates or the next week it's about a webinar or the next week it's about a workshop.
And that's all fine and good because obviously I'm not denying the fact that we're all small business owners, we need to make money and we're here to sell and all those good things.
But what happens is each time somebody goes in for the sale, we chip a little bit away at the goodwill.
And the more that we sell and the more we're asking from people, the more we're saying, come on, come and buy from us, the more that chips away and the more that that kind of bank of goodwill, of that kind of capital of trust and goodwill diminishes.
And ultimately at some point it's going to empty, which means that at some point people are going to switch off, people are going to go, hold on a minute, he's been asking me, or you've been asking me now to buy so many times, I've just had enough, I'm not interested.
And it's a short game.
What I would like to encourage you to do is to think of it more in terms of delayed gratification.
And I suppose this is a bit like yeah, so it's a bit like imagining now it's the run up to Christmas, isn't it?
I know we mentioned the C word, but it's four months away.
I know in my head I'm thinking Christmas parties, I want to get in that little black dress.
So I'm going to start thinking about not eating hummus and doritos every Friday night when we go and start thinking about carrots.
So I'm starting to think about how I can implement delayed gratification in my diet and the way that I'm thinking about things so that I'm going to get that success and get into that black dress at Christmas.
And it's a little bit the same.
It's the same in terms of how you market and how you approach your business strategy.
I want you to think of it in terms of delayed gratification and the longer that you can go without asking for that sale, by building trust through content, through added value, through showing up, by being consistent, by helping people, by really being true to yourself and your brand and letting people get to know you and build that relationship.
And the longer that you can do that without actually asking people to buy from you, the bigger the bank of goodwill and trust that will be developed.
And what will happen is as people really get to know you and start to kind of check in with you and because you're being consistent and you're showing up every week, they're going to be coming and looking and checking where you are and getting hungry almost for more.
It's like that drip fed that actually becomes part of their, their business, part of their world, then the more that they're actually going to be hungry to buy from you.
Which means that when you do put an offer out there or when you do give them an opportunity to invest in a business with you, the more likely they are to actually want to jump on the opportunity and buy from you.
So I suppose really what I'm trying to say is delayed gratification, build up your goodwill and trust through shitloads of value, by really giving as much as you can, by remembering those three C's.
So Clarity, Communication and Connection, by building that relationship and letting people see who you are and why you do what you do, is really going to help you to build a sustainable brand and to reap the benefits and the rewards in monetary terms and in sustainability terms much more.
It's going to be a compound effect by doing that.
So finally, just before I finish today, I just wanted to touch on the fact that obviously I know that it's all a bit kind of scary out there at the moment with the heating, the gas prices that are going, electricity that's going through the roof, there's lots of doom and gloom.
People are talking about recessions.
We're starting to think about things and I suppose it's quite unnerving for people.
But I think I just wanted to remind you and let you know that in a recession, people still will be buying and we touched upon this in earlier episodes, so don't forget that people will still have reasons to buy from you.
People will still need your products and services and in fact, people are much more likely within a recession to be loyal to the brands that they love.
The reason why this happens is because in a recession, in difficult times, when there's maybe uncertainty, when we're not feeling may be as safe and secure as we normally might, people are looking for a sense of familiarity.
People are looking to feel safe.
People are looking to buy for brands that are going to do what they say they're going to do, where they know what to expect, where they know they're going to get the value that they're expecting, that they know how things are going to work, or they know that whoever is or whichever brand is on their back but they're going to do that.
They can trust them ultimately.
So if there's anything ever been a reason in your small business to really think about the long game, to really think about building that bank of goodwill and trust, it's now as we enter into this period of challenging times.
It's really about thinking about how you can connect with your audience, how you can deliver more and more value and really make sure that you're showing up in a way that your audience and customers are expecting of you.
And I want to encourage you to go above and beyond that and delight them and surprise them and make them feel good about engaging with your brand and make them feel excited about it so that ultimately they do keep coming back for more.
And the cherry on the cake is that they chat about you, that they become your cheerleaders and that they're sharing with their friends and family and colleagues and all their connections.
They're sharing your brand with them, which is ultimately what I believe is the magic pill, which is word of mouth marketing where you don't have to do anything at all in terms of promoting your business because your audience, your customers do it for you.
It's the ripple effect.
So on that note, I would love to hear from you.
I would love to know what you think about delayed gratification, about how you build that goodwill and trust.
Yeah, if you have thoughts on how much free content or how much free value we should be giving and maybe some experiences on that, then I'd love you to get in touch and let me know.
And yeah, let's have a conversation about it.
In the meantime, I will see you next week.
So for episode four, where we're going to be talking a bit more about getting real clarity on your vision, on your mission, on your purpose and your values so that we can really harness that and start telling your story at this time, which is really important.
So, yeah, thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed the episode, then please don't forget to subscribe or tell your friends, family and colleagues about it and I will see you next week for a new episode.
Take care.
Thanks for listening to the Future Proof Your Business podcast. I've been your host, Lucy Rennie, I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you have, then I'd love you to head over to Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast and hit the subscribe button. And I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a review and a rating and help me to reach even more small business owners like you who want to build a business they love.
And don't forget, you can head over to iamlucyrennie.com and sign up to my email list as well as find more tips and tools to help you Future-proof your Business on my website and in the show notes.
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You can find all the links on my website and in the Show Notes.
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