TRANSCRIPT

This week we are talking about the fact that it's time to get testing now. As I said before, this podcast is called the brand builders lab and I have got an amazing special guest on for you later either this week or next week. I'm deciding when to post it and you'll understand why in just a second. I spoke to Tara McMullin who is the founder of what works podcast and the what works network. She has been somebody that I have followed for such a long time and her and I were discussing recently like in the last week when I recorded that episode that it's really hard to kind of go, I'm an expert in something because the market's constantly changing. Now, obviously you can be very knowledgeable if you're in your area of expertise, which mine is obviously branding and marketing and building a business, but she was, we were both just saying that it's hard to kind of go, I'm an expert because the market's constantly changing and so I just think it's really important for me to encourage you to have the mindset of testing, shifting, pivoting, learning on a constant basis.

I just don't think that you can be in business today if you're not in that place of learning and constantly looking at what else can I be doing? What's working and what's not? So that's what I wanted to talk about today and what it means to be somebody who is always testing as well. It's about testing things out, thinking bigger, going boulders, seeing what works, what feels good for you, how personally I can break through my own assumptions, my fears, my resistance, but also how do I learn how to do new things that could work for my business. And one of the big things I think is the assumptions pace. We make assumptions all the time. We make them on a daily basis. We assume that ads won't work, that you need to spend a certain amount of money, that you have to be a certain type of personality that have to be a certain kind of business.

All of these things we make assumptions. No, no, no, I can't do that because that's not right for my business. But my question is, have you tested it? And this is actually not about just testing for the sake of testing. The question that I want you to ask is, is my business where I want it to be? Is it doing what I want it to do? Am I in a place where I think, yeah, I have got it nailed. There is nothing that I need to improve or change or evolve. If you're in that place, then I want to give you a high five and say congratulations. But a lot of people, and I'm kinda gonna say the majority of people are in a place where they're like, no, my systems could be better or my sales could be better. I would love to have more clients or I would love to be more visible.

I would love to be better at social media. Whatever it is, it's time to actually take a look at them and say, what am I going to do differently? What am I going to test and change and try that is going to help me to move forward. And so what I want to do today is I want to give you a number of questions that I want you to ask yourself. And then I'm going to share with you a number of things that I'm going to test this year. And then I'm going to come back to you in like two or three months. And I'm going to report back on what I think has worked and what hasn't worked and what I've learned from it. So I hope that that's something that you're going to enjoy and something that's going to be useful and relevant for you as well. So, first of all, what I'd love you to do is I want you to sit down and I want you to ask yourself, well, you don't have to sit down. You can go for a walk, you can do whatever you want, but I want you to ask yourself a couple of K questions. So write these down if you are currently in a position to write them down. Number one, what could be better in my business right now? So for me, Facebook ads, they do my head in.

I have bought a course. I need to go through it in more detail. I want to do better at Facebook ads. So right now that's something I need to do better. At. The next question I want you to ask yourself after you ask, what could be better in your business is what could you try? So let's, we're just going to use my example. So I could take a course. I could get somebody to sit beside me and help me to do it so that I learn I could outsource it completely. So there are a number of options. Those are my options. Yeah. Is I could either outsource it, I could DIY learn it myself or I could get somebody to sit beside me, hold my hand and take me through it. So those are some of the options. The next question I want you to ask is if was thinking bigger, what would that look like?

So now I need to also think about, well, if I was doing Facebook ads, what am I doing? Maybe I'm just doing images. I could maybe be doing videos, maybe I could be doing lives, and then turning those into ads. If I was thinking bigger about creating more engagement and sharing different types of content, I have not thought this particular example through. I'm just shooting the braise as we go through these questions. So I'm going to share with you a number of things that I'm going to test this year. And if you are going to go ahead and test a few things, I would love you to share with me on Instagram or wherever we hang out and chat what you're going to test as well. Because I think it's really important to actually kind of go, okay, these are some of the things that I'll be testing this year.

I actually shared on my Instastories stories a number of these as well, so I'm just going to go through them in a little bit of detail but not too much. Just give you a bit of a, I guess taste for what are the things I'm going to try and why I'm going to try them.

 

TEST #1 – MORE PODCAST EPISODES THAT ARE SHORTER

 

So the first thing I'm going to test is I'm going to do more podcast episodes that are smaller, so bite size content. So instead of it being either like a 30 45 or one hour episode, I'm going to try and make them a little bit shorter. So we'll see how we go because you know I'm a talker, but the other question is as my audience, do you like them shorter or do you like them longer? So this is what I want to test. I want to say, can I grow my audience and is this something my audience likes if I do it in this format.

So I'm just thinking and looking at how I'm going to feel about it, whether it's easier, whether I think it's better, whether it means that I'm growing my audience, whether you was my least not like it or not. And so that's what I'm testing. I'm gonna test it and try it because I know a few podcasters who do like three, 10 minute episodes awake, which obviously is going to be a lot smaller than the mega episodes that I do. But I guess it's also me looking at if I do something that's like 15 minutes or 20 minutes, can I go in depth the way that I normally do on my podcast? And once again is the content and the depth of the content that I'm providing in a shorter episode still helpful for you. So as I test, I actually need to be listening to my audience.

And in this case when I'm talking about the podcast, that is you, if you're listening to this. So I would love to know your feedback on shorter episodes. So I'm going to be dropping a couple of extra ones and I'm just going to look at the stats.  So in the back end of my system, I can say exactly how many people have listened to the podcast episode, and so I think it's really important to constantly be looking at that. So that's the first thing I'm going to test is shorter podcast episodes more often.

 

TEST #2 – WRITING EVERY DAY AND NAMING & CLAIMING WHO I AM

The second thing that I am going to be testing or doing is that I'm going to start writing every day. Next week I'll be recording my audible books. I play big brand bold for audible in Melbourne and hopefully all going well. It'll be out at the end of March. Now this has been something that I have had a huge goal around for ages, if I'm honest, because I am such a massive audible consumer.

So there's a few things to unpack here. The first thing is when I was listening to atomic habits by James clear, which I shared that I love and would highly recommend you just kind of got to get past the first or second chapter. And then I think it's great when you're listening to it on audible, he talks about stepping into the person that you want to be to create the habits that you want. So now I'm saying I'm a rider. Yeah. I've said for so long that I'm not a writer, but you know something. I am. I've written my first book. I'm halfway through writing my second book. I've outlined my third book. I am a writer. Yes, I'm a speaker. Yes, I'm a coach, but I'm also a writer. So what do you need to start saying? You are in order to start to step into who you want to be and how you want to be.

So the sorts of things I want you to think about is what are you kind of holding back and saying, I want to be, and I spoke about this on a Facebook and an Instagram live. The language that we use is so important. When you say I want to or you know I'm going to or I wish it's kind of up for debate. It's like it's not really something you've committed to. Whereas when you start to say I am or I will, it is like you're shifting the whole emphasis, power, energy behind what you're doing. So when I say I am a writer, that is like I am claiming that. And so that's what James talks about. Identify who you want to be and then start to step in and say, that is who I am. So if you kind of run, but you want to be a runner, then you don't say I'm trying to run or I'm trying to be a runner.

You say I am a runner, so claim it. Yeah, claim it and own it. And so the more that you do that, the more your mindset will be that that is who you are and that is what you do. So I am testing this out. I am going to write every day I am got skin to start to say I am a writer because I am an author and it is something that I am enjoying more and more because I'm owning it. So I want you to test out owning, claiming and saying I am or I will. Yeah, that is like a definitive, you are going to own it and move forward with it. So I'm going to be writing every day. So that's something that I'm testing as well because that's not something that I'm used to and I'm excited to get into that.  So once I finish record this podcast episode, I am going to sit and write for like an hour.

 

TEST #3 – SOCIAL SHARING & FREQUENCY

So the other thing I'm going to test is going live a lot more often and doing more IGT TV as well because I feel like when I am alive and when I'm engaged with my audience, I feel so much more connected and excited and I feel like I'm able to share a lot more because I'm in more of an like an energy transfer and conversation. And it's something that I really love to do. So I am going to be going alive at least twice a week moving forward for the month of February and I'm going to say what it does to my engagement, my followership, all the rest of it. And when I'm talking about social media in general, the other thing I'm going to test out is, and I was chatting with one of my baby I ladies about this the other day, is that some people who are Instagram, I'm going to say experts who work in the Instagram space say that you should only be posting three times a week.

So that's what I do approximately. But then other people say in order to grow, you should be posting at least twice a day, which seems to be old logic, but maybe it's not. So I'm going to test it. So I'm going to do a week where I'm posting twice a day and then I'll do my normal schedule, which at the moment is just a couple of times and then I'm going to let you know what the outcome is because I just think instead of me wondering, I don't know who to listen to. I'm not sure which way I should go. I just think you know something sous. If you want to know something, you've got to test it out and see what works for you and your audience. And I think that that is the way to go because everybody's different. Yeah. So when it comes to my number three tests, it's going live, changing up my content and posting more and seeing what that does and seeing if it's a waste or not.

 

TEST #4 GOING GLOBAL WITH EASE

The fourth thing that I'm going to test is that because my word this year was global, I really want to break into the U S market. So I am going to start to take a look at time differences and do some more lives early in the morning because that's when the U S is online and I'm also going to be creating automated webinars that go into the U S as well. So it's going to be free webinar training that it's going to be on autopilot and I'm learning from some of my mastermind buddies that this is working really well. So I am going to be testing and trying that out too. But I just think it's really looking at those big goals that you've got. You know, so my word was global and it was ease. I had two words and so if I can start to get my brand out there in the U S build it more and do that in a way that is easy or that does not cause me stress and is filled with ease, which is automated webinars then awesome.

Yes. So that is what I'm going to be doing and in those webinars my Instagram handle is going to be in there. So that's going to be interesting to see too. And so these are some of the things that I'm testing, so I would love to know what you're going to test. Let me know. Those are three or four things that I will be testing in 2020 and I'm going to come back to you and I'm going to let you know how those tests went. Yeah, and you can let me know how your test is going as well, but listen, I am going to leave it there for this week because I am trying out the shorter format so that I don't wrap it on too much. I hope that that was of help. I hope that you are going to look at what you can test in your business, how you can really start to do things differently and if something's not working for you right now, then look at what are my options.

So let's go back to those questions.

The questions were what could be better in my business right now?

What could I try?

What am I options?

If I was thinking bigger, what would it look like? And so I want you to really start to think about those things. If you've got any questions or comments, hit me up in the DM, in Instagram @suzchadwick. I would love to know what your going to test.

 

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