Ask Christina First

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, we dig into how to differentiate yourself from your market. The three main suggestions are you are already doing it, your nature and your own bias and lastly company culture. All three of these embody the totality of who you are which create your business. When you first created your company and vision, what were the things that made you different? It’s important to understand that you are already what makes it different. A way to make this process make sense is to do your due diligence. Christina suggest you begin by first finding 10 business in your market and area that are similar to yours. Find out what their price points are, what type of company it is and find out the overall culture of the business. The culture of a business boils down to everything you've chosen to include in how your business looks and how it is operated. What is the culture of your company? This is what will set you a part and be the underlying atmosphere of your branding and marketing.

In this episode you will learn:

1. What is company culture and how it affects your branding?

2. Why it’s important to understand the competition in your area.

3. How to find tune your business so clients will find you amongst others in your field.

Going back to understand your vision is a big part of understanding how to differentiate yourself from your market. Doing this can help you elevate to the next level by simply creating a platform that serves the unique qualities you bring to your market and expertise. Knowing you are already what makes your business different is key, use what makes you different to your advantage.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, we dive into the meaning of grass roots networking and why this is a major part in becoming a trusted expert in your field. Networking and marketing can be distributed in many forms like social media and advertising, however there are other ways to truly connect with your community that don’t require you to be in front of a computer. Investing in yourself so that you become a trusted and chosen expert in your field is the meat and bones of grass root networking. Its when you go out and introduce yourself to your community while also investing in becoming an expert in your field. One example Christina focuses on is going to in person meetings. She challenges you to find a meeting in your field of work and attend 4 meetings for a month. You can use sources like meetup.com, eventbrite.com, facebook.com and community calendar. In order for you to be chosen, you have to be an active member in your community. Finding out authentically what people need is another true aspect to grassroots networking. It’s not about selling something, its about filling some of the holes in a person's life. Ask questions and inquire deeply into if someone could genuinely benefit from having you in their lives.

In this episode you will learn:

1. What is grass root networking and how you can benefit from it.

2. Ways in which you can become a trusted expert in your field and within your community.

3. Why it’s important to be authentic and caring when people are potentially looking for your services.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, we recap her last state of the economy presentation at FIBI Pasadena in 2017. Christina will be presenting on the current state of the economy at FIBI Pasadena October 17, 2019. Focusing on forecast and trends, Christina begins her presentation by asking people, why is it important to know the state of the economy? There are many reasons, but a very important one is to know when to make a move so that yourself enough room to alter your investments based on the market. During the 2008 crash, Christina who confesses to being unaware changed the entire atmosphere of real estate causing a ripple effect in how people handled their investments. After Christina was forced to pull out, she managed to use what money she had and became a hard money lender. Two important questions are what are we doing and what does it mean?

What do you do for marketing your business? What materials do you invest in that help you get the word out? In this episode of Ask Christina First, we again focus on marketing as marketing is a necessity if you want to continue running your business. There are different ways that you can market your business/product and that can depend on what you price your product at. Some lower priced products for explain can benefit tremendously from using a platform like yelp, while higher priced products can rely heavily on referrals. Either way, the marketing material you use is essential in being found. Some marketing tactics require you to physically be present. Christna believes that for her, networking is one of the best forms of marketing. This can be attending events, speaking on panels, etc… Becoming recognized as an expert in your field is another great way to market your business. This can be done by contributing your work to magazines, blogs and those of the like. Not being afraid to share with the world how you can help people is key.

In this episode you will learn:

1. Various types of marketing materials that can help you get the word out.
2. How to transform one form of marketing into another.
3. Understand the significance of in person marketing.

As Christina continues to focus on marketing, you will see the importance of making what you do known to the public. If you are some that doesn't agree with one form of marketing, its okay to try another. What will work for someone else may not work for you. The key is to find what is right for you so that replacing your clients and maintaining cash flow has a positive impact on your business.

Are you a small business owner that shies away from marketing? Do you feel like marketing to any capacity is salesy? This mindset can actually negatively affect your business. Of the 4 cornerstones to running a business, marketing is one of the most important. The term marketing gets a bad rap because it was easily associated to salesman whose primary job was to sell you something you probably didn't need. Now as an existing small business owner, this concept can leave a bad taste in your mouth, making marketing one of the more difficult parts of running a business. In this episode, Christina breaks down why good hearted business marketing is key to keeping your business successful. Once you take away the old concept of forcing people to buy things, you will soon realize how important it is to market your business in a way that suits you and your needs as an entrepreneur. Christina helps us understand what true marketing is and ways in which you can do this without the worry and judgement you may feel when it comes to marketing. You can do this kind of marketing by going to events, signing up to your local chamber of commerce, or even creating meaningful products to pass out to people. There are tons of ways to do marketing that don’t require you to feel ashamed or embarrassed.

In this episode you will learn:

1. Ways to market that aren't salesy?

2. Why marketing is a crucial aspect to any business.

3. How to let go of the negative concept that marketing is bad.

Christina gives some amazing advice on how to change the way we think about marketing. The goal for starting a business is for it to be successful, but without marketing your chances of that happening are slim. Marketing can be a fun and positive way to keep you heading in the right direction.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, Christina focuses on being the good hearted business owner and how it affects your customer service. Sometimes in being a good hearted business owner, pricing your product properly to include time spent on customers service may be overlooked. Determining if you’re a high or low priced product should be the first step. This will help you figure out how much the amount of customer service necessary for each product you offer. Christina shares an example about a time where she was on a phone call with a client at 8:30 at night while her family just arrived to their hotel room while traveling. Christina’s husband asked her why, and she replied that its because that particular client pays for a higher priced product which gains them more access to her customer service. Differently priced products provide different levels of customer service.

In this episode you will learn:

1. How to determine where you should price your product?

2. The level of customer service that should be included in each of those products.

3. How much does it cost you to service this product?

A product is also a service. If you can spend the time determining all the points made above, you will have a better understanding of where your customer service should go. It doesn't mean that a lower priced product deserves less customer service, however it does play a role in how much of your time and money you are spending.

In this episode of Ask Christina first, we talk to David Tilney who is an expert in hassle free property management. Being coined as one of the first people to introduce this type of investing to the market, David felt like he was at his end with trying to find good property management. David says that in the beginning getting it off the ground wasn't easy, however with persistence he began to see a turn around that gave him the okay that hassle free property management would work. This type of investing, David says, long term ownership and managing free and clear properties over time will produce an income regardless of your condition or situation. Meaning, you can make money in your sleep, on vacation, or enjoying time with family. “An empty house eats you, it does not pay you.” David explains to Christina that he views the property as the liability and the tenant as the asset. “The key to running this business is having people pay you.” Another great point to David’s strategy is that when vetting potential tenants he steers away from people who have either the victim or entitlement mentality.

https://davidtilney.com/resources/property-management-resources/

In this episode of Ask Christina First, she talks about the effects of customer service on you, your business and your branding. The belief that customer service needs to be done in a particular way, can actually trap you. It’s imperative you understand the systems you have set in place around your customer service. Those systems require a due diligence that will determine if they are a fit for you or not. A big question to ask yourself is, do these current systems match the nature of my business or what I promised my clients in the beginning? Rerouting back to the basics of your business can help you answer new questions that bring insight and improvements. How is your product delivered? Can your customers get in contact with you easily? Does your website include what’s necessary? You have to create systems that serve you and your type of business.

In this episode you will learn:

1. How does customer service affect you, your business and branding.

2. Not all customers service systems work in your favor; find what works for you through trial and error.

3.Why customer service creates the nature of your business.

In this episode of Ask Christina First, we learn how to deal with customer urgencies and why adding time into your daily schedule is necessary in order to handle these urgencies as they come in. A major first step is understanding and accepting that urgencies happen and will happen on a daily basis. Preparing for these urgencies using your existing systems will create a space where you can handle the urgency and move forward. How much time you allocate for urgencies depends on the level of customer service you’ve promised your customers. For example if you are a luxury business, your high level of customer service is going to have to be incorporated into your current systems. Being a high level luxury business requires a high level of attention to your customers and their needs. The space needed to handle urgencies needs to be prioritized in your time management system. Another way to add in urgencies is during your daily dump. Here you can add slots of times where an urgency can be handled or where it will make sense to allow allocated time to handle this particular problem. This creates a space where your customer urgencies arent hijacking your time. How you handle these urgencies plays a major role in the atmosphere of your business which includes your overall values. Are you a business that runs off of fight or flight or does your business hold values that require and allow you to focus on what's important and getting it done?

In this episode you will learn:

1. Why adding customer urgencies to your daily schedule will save you time and headaches.

2. Discover what level of customer service you’ve promised your customers in the beginning.

3. How to determine if your business is ran on fear or instincts.

Customer urgencies are a big part of running a business, but if you do not make space for these urgencies to be handled your business could begin to feel the pressures of it. Making time for urgencies is a great way to keep you, your employee’s and your customers happy.

In this episode of Ask Christina first, we explore both the pros and cons of being a good hearted business owner and how that can affect your systemic systems. The past few episodes have been on systems, but Christina focuses more on why as a good hearted business owner you those systems are overextended. A trend Christina recognizes with good hearted business owners, is the tendency to deliver high grade customer service for a product or service that doesn't equate in compensation or time. Christina’s goal is for people to see the true value beyond just delivering exceptional service and products. You have to take into consideration the many systems that need tending that must be factored in. Delivering exceptional service and not being paid the same for its value, can over time cause your business to fail. The goal is to run and grow a successful business and good hearted business owners seems to take the short end of the stick on this matter in particular. Over delivering.

In this episode you will learn:

1. How to decipher if you are one of these good hearted business owners.

2. Understand how your systemic systems create the ton for your business and how it all matters.

3. Why systemic systems will help support the success of your business now and in the future.

The reason Christina is so passionate about the good hearted business owner, is because she is aware that your purpose lies very deep in why you started the business in the first place. Helping the world become a better place probably holds significant impact in your business and your life. However that doesn't mean that your services and products shouldn’t include all that is necessary for the overall functionality of your business and the success of your business.