Welcome back to the Brand Builders Lab Podcast. We are on episode 89! This week I'm answering questions from you, my listeners, on building your business, becoming a speaker and how to start podcasting as well!

I love the mix of questions that have come through. I'm going to be sharing the handles of the people that ask the questions so that you know that I actually responded because I really do appreciate you sending the questions through.

 

PODCASTING

So let's start off with a couple of questions about podcasting. They were kind of similar, so I wanted to give an overview of what my thoughts are. If you want to start a podcast in 2020, which if you love speaking, if you want to build your brand, I think that this is one of the best things that you can do and you have expertise to share. Why not? I say, I have found the podcast to be an amazing brand builder, both locally and globally. It's helped me get speaking gigs. It's helped other people find me generally, whether it be for Brand Builder's Academy or for other things, strategy sessions, etc.

So I think it really gives people a flavour for you. So both at @creativepitches and @themyouandme.

 

Q. How do you get started podcasting and then also what length and frequency should podcast episodes be?

When you're getting started, my question is how does it fit in with your overall brand strategy and what's the purpose of having a podcast? Why do you want to do it? Because it is work. It depends on you how much work it is, but you want to be really clear. And I think that that's something that, you know, at the beginning of the year I really look out or just, you know, when I'm in planning mode, I'm really looking at what's working and what's not. What do I want to do? Like do I want to go global? How do I want to interact with my community and how do I want to build my brand?

And is this form of communication and content, something that really resonates for me? It's something that I think I could easily do and it's something that I want to enjoy as well. Because at the end of the day, if you don't enjoy the content that you're creating, you're never gonna stick with it. So number one is how does it fit in with your overall brand strategy and what is the purpose of you having a podcast? Number two is that I would actually recommend recording two or three episodes and see how it feels. This is how I started mine cause I'm like do I want to do this? Is this actually something I'm going to enjoy doing? Is it easy for me to do? Is it something that I could actually do every single week? So just talking about the length and frequency there is that I did start off my podcast doing it fortnightly.

But really if you want to have impact, I think you should be doing a minimum of once a week. The other thing is around length is that there are some podcasters who do 10 minute podcasts where they might do two or three a week. Now that is probably the same awardees, the same length of time that I might do a solo episode, which might be 30 or 40 minutes. So you could still do it in one go and then chop it into three or four episodes. And it just depends on how you like to communicate. I actually thought that I might try some of that this year where I might kind of do some shorter episodes, but maybe a few more in a week and say whether you my audience like that, does it get more traction? Is it something that people enjoy? So I really think that you've got to work out what works for you.

And I think that you can also set the intention that your podcast who does 10 or 15 minute episodes that are shorter, uh, and that's just how you work. You don't do sort of 30 or 40 minute or one hour episodes. So I think that's completely your decision as well as far as length of time and frequency. The next thing I would say is that if you record your test episodes, they should be episodes that you've absolutely published so that you know wasting your time. But if you record those episodes and you decide, yep, I love podcasting, this is awesome. Then what you want to do is that you want to buy a good USB microphone. You can get one on eBay. I think I had the snowball mic to start with. I've now got a Rodes podcaster microphone, which I love, but you can get them fairly inexpensively, but you know, start off with something that's got good sound as well.

And then you can decide if you want to produce, which basically means edit the videos yourself or if you want to outsource that. So people like Bamby Media or Lyndal from the Podcast VA, they do that sort of editing and they also do social posting and all the rest of it. So it's really up to you how much work you want to do or if you want to outsource that. I personally record and edit my podcast, but I have been, I was doing video a long time before I was doing audio, so it's something that I can do super quickly. It's something I enjoyed doing and it's easy as well. The fourth thing is that I actually got Lyndal Harris from the Podcast VA to set me up with all of my hosting platform and then that distributes my podcasts across all the apps. And then my online business manager, Melissa, from MJ as virtual, she creates all my images and puts all of the content on the website and so that's the process that I use. So I think podcasting is different for everyone.

For me, I'm okay to write a few bullet points and then talk about it for 30 minutes, but other people do a lot of research and spend hours on it. So I think you need to work out what works for you, but also what's going to work as far as how much time you've got. Because remember, this is you creating fake free content and I think it's absolutely worth it. But I think you've got to decide how much time am I willing to spend on this and what help do I need. So I hope creative pictures and then you and me. I hope that that helps with your question. The three resources that I want to give you are three other episodes, which is episode seven the lazy girl's guide to starting a podcast, episode 41 what I learned from my first year in podcasting and episode 79 which is with Lyndal Harris on launching a podcast as well.

So those are three that you can go and check out. And thanks for your question.

 

Speaking

@anjiekonte – How do you make the transition from business owner to speaker, I want to get some 2020 speaking gigs

@Annasmalecelebrant – What advice would you give to someone trying to establish themselves as a speaker/mc

The next section of questions were all about speaking. So from @anjiekonte, how do you make the transition from business owner to speaker? I want to get some 2020 speaking gigs and then @Annasmalecelebrant. What advice would you give to somebody trying to establish themselves as a speaker in MC? So I felt like I could answer these questions together. Thank you ladies for your questions. So speaking for me is usually part of a wider strategy to move to a one to many models so that you're reaching more people who maybe you know, your own community if you're running your own events or you're growing or accessing somebody else's community. So you get asked to speak at somebody else's events. So I've always been a speaker. I was a speaker in school, I was as a speaker in corporate, and now obviously I do speaking in my business as well and it's really helped me to grow my audience.

But you know, there's also, it's also something that I really love to do, but for me, I'm really clear that speaking is part of my brand building. First of all, I want you to be really clear on what your products and services are and what it is that you offer, and then take a look at how am I going to amplify my brand and people who know me, trust me, how I'm actually getting my message out there so that people actually want to find out how they can work with me. So I think you've just got to think about it like that. Unless you are deciding to become like an inspirational speaker full time and that's actually how you're getting paid, then I think you've always got to align it to your business and your products and services. So I only talk about bold branding.

Yeah. I talk about how to build a bold brand. I talk about business strategy, those sorts of things, but it all comes back to BBA, which is my online course and that's what I want to be known for. Now I do get paid to speak as well, so it is definitely a revenue generator but it, but the strategy around speaking is to grow my audience so that I can work with more people in BBA. So I think that that's something that you really need to think about. How is your speaking aligned to what it is that you want to grow and develop in your business? Also, how is speaking aligned to what you want to be known for? Yes, so Anna, I know that obviously you're a celebrant so you marry people, so being an emcee is not that far off from it. I think you've just got to really think about how you're positioning yourself when it comes to somebody coming to your website that they know that that is actually something that you offer.

And I think just that knowledge is something that, or just talking about it, I think just talking about the fact that that's what you do can be the, into people hiring you. Because if you actually say celebrant speaker say, then that kind of all fits together as well, so it makes sense and people can then find out more about how you might be an MC at their wedding or at an event that they're hosting. But I think you've got to be talking about it more. What are the things that I do do is that when I am speaking at an event, I might talk on stories around tips for being a speaker and some of the things I do with my audience and some of the things that I think about of how I work with my clients who have asked me to be a speaker.

This is the way that I work. And then other people love seeing that. So I think that your process and how you work and the customer or brand experience that you're giving is also a really great attractive for PayPal. Now, if you've never been a speaker and you're wanting to do speaking, then a couple of things for you is that you should absolutely go and listen to episode 40 episode 60 and episode 60.1 which take you through how to position yourself as a speaker and get the gig. Should I charge to be a speaker? And then what you need to do if you want to be a speaker. So that kind of outlines all of those things. But what I want to say is that if you want to start to be a speaker, then you've got to start showing up and actually talking about the things that you do because before you actually get the gig, people want to hear you.

So whether it's you starting a podcast, whether it's you being on Insta stories or Facebook live, people get a flavour for you. They understand how you speak, what you speak about, what your personalities, like, all of those sorts of things. And I think that that's really important. If somebody wants to either be on the podcast or they want to be a speaker at an event I'm running, I really want to see how they present because that is actually part of my brand experience for my community. When I bring somebody in to be a speaker that they are succinct to the point. There's actionable takeaways. They fun, they're confident, you know, they're really clear on what they here to do, those sorts of things. So I think that you've got to really start to think about maybe three or four things that you talk about. So topics and if you want you can go and take a look @theconnectionexchange.com and in the menu you can go to speaker and you can say my speakers page and then you can see how I positioned myself as a speaker as well.

But I think that if you want something, you've got to name it and claim it, which means you've got to say, I am a speaker. This is what I speak about and this is how you can book me. Or this is how we might be able to talk about me speaking at your event or being on your podcast or things like that. So you actually have to outline how people can work with you and that will make the process so much easier. Plus they know that it's something that you do. So hopefully that helps with those questions. But definitely go listen those additional episodes, I go through things in a lot more detail for you there as well.

BUSINESS BUILDING

Q. where do you start if you have an amazing business idea but you have no business experience at all

 The next section has a couple of questions, which is around business building. So my first question comes from, @heyyybecalina – where do you start if you have an amazing business idea but you have no business experience at all

I talked about this in my book Play Big, Brand Bold. It's called dream. It's an acronym. So D.R.E.A.M which is basically what I do if I'm thinking of a new business or a new product or a new project.

So D.R.E.A.M is really about what would be amazing for you. So let's say you've got this business idea. What does good look like? What would you like it to do? How would you like to go to market? What do you want it to do for people, for customers, all those sorts of things. So D is about dreaming about what you want that to look like and write it all down. So I want this product to be sold or this business to operate in Australia.

I want to be mentoring women to do X, Y, and Z. I would love to have an online course and a podcast. So really think about what would good look like for you and what do you want it to do.

The next thing is I want you to RESEARCH and find out everything that you want to know about this particular business. And can I just tell you anything that you need to know about business nowadays in 2020 is online, it is probably on YouTube. If you said, she said there's so much information available, but you really want to start to research, how much would it cost? What would it look like? What would I need to do when it comes to tech support supplies? I don't know if there's a product or a service business that you're asking about, but I would really start to take a look at what would I need to do in order to get this off the ground and start to really take a look at those sorts of things because you want to just understand what's required of you financially and time wise to get this done.

The next thing is a which is EXPLORE, so what are all your options for this yet there might be different ways that you can do it. You might be able to structure the business in different ways. You might be able to deliver the product and service in a different way. You might be able to create the product in a different way as well. So this is something that you want to check out. How are you exploring the different ways that this could look and then once you've explored those different ways you want to start to research again to understand how that would look and what that cost might be or what the process might be.

The next thing is to A for ASK, so ask people around you what you can do or how you can do it. People are willing to give so much support and help.

There are so many free Facebook groups for women in business who are starting up, so I think it's just really starting to connect with people and asking the question, this is the type of business that I'm wanting to start. Does anybody have any advice or thoughts? Like I need to start an email list. I need to build my website, I need to get this product created. These are the questions that I've got and just start asking. I would start asking a lot before I actually started creating, but just that's because people are willing to give the information.

The next thing is once you have dreamed about what you want this to look like, once you've done the research of what you need to do and then you've explored the different options and then you've asked questions that you need answered and you decide, yes, this is definitely what I want to do.

Then I would say make it happen.  If you've worked all of these out, then now is the time to start to move things forward. I have to be honest with you, I built my website watching a YouTube video about DiVi website theme. There's about a billion videos on YouTube about every topic that you could possibly want to know. I laid turf in my backyard based on a YouTube video that I've watched as well, but the point is is that you can learn anything that you want online. The one person that I do love to listen to about her business story is Sara Blakely from Spanx because she was, she would just went and did all of the exploring and the research. She designed the Spanx she got at patent and she got it created. She didn't tell anybody about it. She just worked on it. She worked on it for two years, if I'm honest that hopefully is not going to take you that long nowadays. But I think it's just that tenacity to figure things out, and I think that you have got to be somebody who has a real thirst for knowledge and who wants to figure things out so that you can get these new things off the ground and you have to be an action taker. So the only way that you're ever going to create something is to actually take action, move forward, try things, test things, and then grow and develop your knowledge around it. You don't need to have all of the answers before you start, but you just got to start, and once you start and you know what it is you want to do and then you can take the next step to figuring out, well how other people had done it, if it's been done before, are there people that you might follow who have got a similar business model who have been successful too?

I've got my online business mentors who have got the same business structures me who do something completely different, but I'm like, I'm going to follow their lead because they have successfully achieved what I am looking to do. And so I'm going to learn from them and I'm going to learn from myself and my experience and my customers, and then I'm going to make those changes in an informed way as well. So, @heyyybecalina I hope that that answers your questions. If you've got any other questions, then hit me up in the isntagram DMs.

q. What should I focus my budget on when launching into a cold audience?

The next question is from anonymous. What should I focus my budget on when launching into a cold audience? So the first thing I want to say is that I've got an amazing episode, is episode 59 on how to launch a product, service or event by Holly from facing motherhood and motherhood, Melbourne.

It's such a good episode. So I almost feel like, I just want to give you that bot when it comes to cold audience. Personally, I think that if you're launching to a cold audience, then you haven't really planned things out yet. What you really want to ideally do, if you've got the time to do it, is that you need to be thinking ahead and starting to build your brand so their knowledge of you, what you do, and start to make connections and contacts with the people that you want to be touching base with or that you want to be working with. So you could do things like podcasting, blogging, social content as well, but start to make yourself known to them so that you're not going in cold. Because when somebody comes in cold to me, very rarely will, I probably take them up yet, but if somebody starts to create content that's of interest to me, that solves a problem that I have, then I'm much more interested in starting to find out more about them and build a relationship with them and I'm will be much more receptive to a product or service that you've got.

So I think really start to look at how you're building the relationship before you start to push a product to somebody who doesn't know you at all. So that is my question to anonymous and I hope that that helps.

Is a solid brand required from day one or better to get yourself out there then develop a brand later?

My next question is from at @tarynwrezounik. I hope that I said you're saying name right Taryn. And the question is, Is a solid brand required from day one or better to get yourself out there then develop a brand later? So interesting question. I guess the thing that I would say is that you can't have a solid brand from day one because brand is about the reputation that you build. So if you're talking about your visual brand, so your logo, your look and feel, then I actually would say that it's super affordable these days to have somebody create a really professional visual brand for you that is bang on what you want it to be, where you want to position yourself and how you want to show up.

So I actually think that it is worth investing in getting your visual brand done. If you're starting out. It can always evolve and change down the line. But I do think that it's worth investing in that if you can, because I do think that it does give a first impression and I think that if you're just launching, then that's, that's one place that I would actually spend my money. But the main thing is to know what you're here to do and what you want your brand to be. So what's your message? How are you showing up? How do you want people to connect and engage with you? If you can know what you know you're really about, then that is going to build your brand faster. Yeah, that know love and trust factor. So if you're showing up consistently and doing the work required, then I think that that is definitely going to get you up and moving and get traction a lot quicker than if you're not.

 

So I think that the question around is a solid brand required from day one. Reputation is something you build over time. Visual brand is something that you can probably do potentially before you launch, but it totally depends on your budget, etd. There are some great tools around as well, but at the end of the day, a brand takes time to build that trust takes time to build, but the more you show up, the quicker you will be able to do that and some resources for you Taryn is episode 74 – 10 ways to build a connected brand and episode 81 which I loved with Troy McKenna who was an author of the brand hustle was how to accelerate your brand growth, uh, was the name of that episode and I think that that's definitely worth listening to as well.

 

Q. how DO YOU get more wholesale clients?

The next question is from at @_JessCrawford_ how to get more wholesale clients.

So Jess, I'm going to be honest, I don't work a lot in the product based industry. Sarah Cross is an amazing product-based business coach. If you go and take a listen to episode 23 then Sarah talks about building a product-based business. But some of the tips that I would give you and what I would do if I had a product-based business and I wanted to get more wholesale clients is I would personally write a list of all the shops and clients that I want to work with. I don't understand their audiences, what they talk about and what they're looking to do in their business. And then I would approach them with what I have. But I think the main thing that I'd really want to say is that whether it's wholesale clients, collaborations or selling in general, you need to really start the conversation and start to build the relationship based on what the other person needs.

So it's not all about you, you, you, but it's more about how your product fits with their store, their brand, what they are looking to do. And also obviously talk about what makes you unique as well. So I would have a least I'd work through that. I would track my progress and obviously have a system where I can see who I've contacted, where I contact, like when I contacted them. Um, what the responses have been. And I would obviously approach more than what I actually wanted and I would continue to do that. So I think, and this I have had conversations with product-based businesses who are looking to sell wholesale. And sometimes they kind of do these big spurts. And what I would say is ideally this should be just part and parcel of what you're doing on a daily, weekly, monthly type of basis.

So I would personally have goals around maybe 10 or 20 stores a month and then depending on what you do and what your product is, then take a look at how, you know, whether you go bigger with that or smaller with that. But I also think that it's really important for you to start to build your brand so that they are seeking you out as well. And that you've got an amazing customer base and you've got people who are wanting to buy your products, etc. And also, obviously, if you do build a really strong brand for yourself and your sell directly, then the profit margins are going to be a lot higher as well. So I think that having a mixed strategy of both direct and wholesale I think is a good way to go. But personally what I would do is I would be really clear on who I want to target and I would be looking to do that on a regular basis not just at the beginning of the year or something like that. You know, obviously you've got trade fairs, etc, but I do know that the cost of those can be quite high. But I also think you've just got to test and try different things out. So Jess Crawford, I hope that helps.

 

Q. Suz, you said that you're going to be doing some really big scary things this year. How do you prepare yourself for that.

 

And our last question for this episode is from @amydoyle.co who is one of my lovely #BBA ladies. And she said, Suz, you said that you're going to be doing some really big scary things this year. How do you prepare yourself for that? Uh, Amy, this is a big one and I'm going to be 100% honest with you when it comes to doing big things. I have to tap into my own thoughts, beliefs, stories, and I have to start to acknowledge them and understand what's actually holding me back. So I actually do, I haven't named it, but if I had to, I would sort of say I do a lot of quiet reflection time and so what that means is that I will actually sit and think what is it that I really want? And I love when I went and saw Marie Forleo, Everything is Figureoutable book tour. She said, you know, the things that we are, that we have a real fear around are usually the things that we want the most. And so I really try and tap into that and think, what is it that I really want and what are the fears that are holding me back? And I might write all of those down. So I might sort of say, you know, well, it's a big risk. Maybe I'll earn less money. What if I endless money? And then, you know, I ended up having fights with my husband about money and then what if I can't do this or do that? And you just start to see all the stories that you're telling yourself.

 

So it is a process that I do go through and I do think you've got to give yourself the space and the time to do that and acknowledge it and understand that the stories that you're telling yourself, other things that usually hold you back. Um, and then you've got to make that decision of how bad do I really want this? How bad do I want this? Am I willing to really go out on a limb and make the big changes that I know I desperately want to make, even though they're scary, is absolutely something that I feel like I'm doing quite a lot of at the moment. Uh, and so what I did over the holidays is that I actually listened to quite a few different books. I listened to the 4-hour hour workweek by Tim Ferriss. I listened to a topic habits by James clear and I listened to The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks.

Now when it comes to the big leap chapter two and chapter five which is making the leap and then living in your zone of genius, not even joking, I think I've listened to both of those chapters on their own about 20 times now because I know that I'm chipping away at fear limiting beliefs and more and so sometimes I have to really immerse myself in something because limiting beliefs can sometimes take a while to shift. Sometimes we have got things that are so ingrained in us that we hold onto them really tightly and so at the moment I go for a walk every day with my dog Beau and I have been listening to those two chapters kind of on repeat because they are really sinking in and breaking down a lot of the stories I'm telling myself. They are inspiring me to create the life that I want and live in my zone of genius because that is where the gold is.

That is where I want to be. And at the moment I'm probably living in my zone of excellence and my zone of competence, which is where you're comfortable. Yeah. And your zone of genius is where you stretch yourself. So at the moment, I've created a mantra for myself, which is this morning I choose to show up as my fully expressed self and live in my zone of genius. Uh, and that is something that I say to myself every single morning and it's me really trying to embed exactly how I want to be and who I want to be into my mind and my life and my heart so that I can take the leaps of faith that I know I need to take in the coming months, which is not easy. So I'm never going to be somebody that's like, yes, you just kind of, you know, decide that you want to do something and you break through your fear and then everything you know is amazing.

I do think that there is a lot of conditioning that we go through, but I do think that that self-awareness and you sitting in that quiet reflection and being super honest with yourself and then creating the opportunity or you know, listening to or whatever it is you need to, whether it's somebody or something or reading or whatever it is, you know, whatever is going to chip away at that for you so that you can really breakthrough that fear and make the decisions you need to make, take the leaps you need to take. I think a really, really important, and so this is like an ongoing thing for me. This is never a set and forget. I talk about this in brand builders Academy as well. None of these is set and forget. You don't all of a sudden start a business and then everything just starts running amazingly well.

You don't all of a sudden, you know, start to grow your audience and then it just continues to grow automatically. Like you have got a breakthrough. Things, show up on a regular basis, show up as your fully expressed self so that people can really get to know you and decide if you're for them or not. And then operate in your zone of genius so that you can really embrace what it is that you're here to do and create the kind of life that you really want. And I think that the more that we hold back and the more that we stop ourselves from doing the things that we really want to do, I think the longer that it takes and the harder that it can become as well. And so you've just got to start to chip away at those things.

Connect with Suz

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