TRANSCRIPT:
Episode #3 
 
Welcome to Say The One Thing. I'm Julia Chong and in this episode, I’ll be sharing with you Why You Absolutely need Clarity & Focus for your business. 
 
Before I took on the role of a Content Marketing Coach, I was doing a lot of things for my business like web design, social media management, content writing, personal branding. 
 
At that time, I thought that if my business can offer many services to clients, then they will surely buy from me. And that’s where I can earn lots of money. I’m like a one-stop shop. 
 
But I was so wrong! I ended up doing a lot of things but it felt as if I am doing nothing at all. 
 
When I met my coach, Genecia, she made me realized that I have no clarity in my brand and business. She told me that my ideal clients don’t know me and what exactly I do. Yes, they may have a small idea but I don’t stand out like my competitors. In fact, I am invisible. 
 
And because of I have not clearly define what I do and who I serve, I couldn’t focus to deliver my best offerings to my ideal client. 
 
As we begin to scope down to just one offering, I was determined to become a personal branding coach. However, when my coach asked me what do I love doing, I dug deep and realized that I love writing. 
 
You see, I love to write since a young age. Before the invention of emails, we had this snail mail thingy call pen-pal. It’s basically a friend from another country and we keep in touch by writing letters to each other. When I started working, I used to contribute to my company’s newsletters or participate in their communications project. One of the bosses commented that I wrote very well and asked me to develop that gift. 
 
Well, I didn’t listen to his advice. On one hand, I thought being a good writer, you’ll need to become a journalist. I was not interested in that at all. On the other hand I didn’t think I was a very good writer. I only knew that my writing was good enough to pass any grammar or spelling test! 
 
Over the years, I am very mindful of my writing skills. I will take short courses to make sure that I know and understand the standards for communication through emails and letters. 
 
When the internet came along, google became my best friend for free resources on writing. And other educational platforms like Udemy is where I could access very affordable courses on writing communications and social media. 
 
For the last 3 years, I began to understand a lot more on content writing, especially brand story telling. And I also learn how to generate tons of ideas easily for my social media content writing. 
 
Back to the conversation with my coach… So that now I found what I love doing, which is content writing, I’ve decided to become a content marketing coach and focus on delivering excellent services to my ideal client. 
 
I finally had clarity in what I want to do and now able to focus on growing my business. 
 
For me clarity & focus comes hand in hand. You need both to be able to do well, not only in business but in life as well. 
 
Be clear in who you are and what you stand 
If you are very clear on who you are and what you stand for, then it makes easier for you to establish yourself as a business person, a subject matter expert, or a thought leader. 
 
Having clarity also means that your ideal client will know you better. They will be able to understand you and your brand better. 
 
If they know you better, they will like you. 
 
If they like you, they will trust you. 
 
The more they know you, the more they will like and trust you. 
 
The more they know like and trust you, the more they will buy from you. 
 
 
You’ll need to be Be clear of who your ideal client is 
When you have a very good idea what kind of customers you want to serve, half the better is won. 
 
Having clarity of who your ideal client is allows you to use keywords to address their pain points, understand their problems or frustrations, allowing you to come up with products that will help to solve their problems. If you can solve their problems immediately, you’ll gain them for life. 
 
If you don’t have a clear idea of your ideal client, then you will struggle to bring your message across. 
 
You will struggle to target your campaigns to them. Why? Because you don’t know how to speak their lingo or create an emotional response in them. 
 
You are basically not talking to anyone at all. So having a clear idea of who you want to serve or work with helps you to talk to them addressing their pain points. 
 
Be clear in what you offer 
When my coach first asked me to just offer 1 type of service to my ideal client, I was very nervous. 
 
Because my mindset is this = if I offer many services to my ideal client, then I will be able to earn money from all these services. If I only offer one, then how to earn more money??? 
 
Fortunately, my coach told me to trust her and follow her advice. 
 
Now I understand the concept of offering only one service – which is my content writing. But through content writing, I can create other sources of income like courses, workshops, 1:1 coaching…. 
 
So my ideal client can see that I offer 1 type of service but they can buy from me through whichever way they feel comfortable with or what they want. 
 
Be clear in your objectives 
When it comes to content writing, objective is the first thing I’ll ask myself or my client. 
 
What is the objective of writing a piece of content for, let’s say, social media. 
 
If we are not clear about our objectives, then it’s going to be very difficult to create content for our business. We will be wasting our time and effort in creating content for our target audience but they do not respond to it. 
 
When we have clarity in our objectives, it will be easier to engage with our audience through content, products or services. They will be able to see, feel and respond to it because you are addressing their pain points. You are also telling them the benefits of using your products/services as well as showing them what success or glory looks like. 
 
Focus helps you to do just one thing and one thing very good 
When you have clarity in your business, then you are able to focus on doing one thing and doing it well. You are able to identify the specific actions that you want to take to do an excellent job. 
 
Today, I am very focused in growing my business by creating marketing activities that centers around my content marketing services. 
 
When you are focused in your business or your work, your performance and productivity will improve. This will in turn boost your self-confidence. It also energises you to do more. 
 
Focus helps you to do things faster 
When you are focused on a task, say marketing campaign, your brain will be very focused on that one activitiy alone. you can complete your task faster because you are not bothered by distrations. 
 
 
Focus helps you to create high quality products/services 
Being focus means that you don’t have much distraction when you are coming up with new products and services. You’ll make fewer mistakes and your end product or services will be highly valued by your clients. 
 
For me, I will only focus on one thing at a time. For example, I will focus to come up with a done-...

Personal Branding 
One of the lessons that I’ve learnt through my first business is Personal branding. I knew what branding is about and I was very meticulous about my jewelry brand. However, I neglected to establish myself as a brand, if you know what I mean? 

When family, friends and colleagues first came to know about my handmade jewelry business, some of them were eager to help me. They will tell me what kind of designs or styles are trending. Or they would tell me to look at and be inspired by this so-and-so jewelry maker. Being a self-taught handmade jewelry maker, I could easily be inspired by other designs and come up with my own. And because I could, I started to make jewelry pieces that are in trend or using specific kinds of materials, such as semi-precious stones. 

When I took a step back and looked at my designs, I realized that I had deviated from my original idea – I wanted to combine leather, silver and beads and create a style of bracelets call leather wrap bracelets. It can be a single wrap or multiple wraps. It can also be in the size of a cuff bracelet. 

That’s the reason why I was not feeling it. When I look at my products, I couldn’t see Julia Chong in it. Sure, it’s nice. It’s pretty. But it didn’t have the attitude and flair of who Julia Chong is. 

No wonder my business was suffering. Because I was not clear of who I am as a designer / creator, my ideal clients are confused about me and my brand. And with this experience, I started to work on my Personal Brand. I realized how important personal branding is and have been passionate about this topic ever since. 

Didn’t focus on selling 
The other lesson I’ve learnt is that I didn’t focus on marketing and selling my jewelry. I was spending my time and energy, designing and creating new pieces every 2 weeks. After that, I spent another week to take pictures, upload to my website, create content and post it on my social media. 

I was not focus on promoting my products or create a brand story around the products. 

I didn’t know about using funnels or creating more awareness of my brand and jewelry. 

In my current business, I have successfully learnt how to create funnels that draw in the right kind of fishes that would pay me for my services. I begin to learn more about content writing and story telling to help me be better in my sales & marketing. Of course, these skills are then transferred to my clients as part of my coaching program. 

Resilience 
After going through an unsuccessful first business, I realized that my resilience level has increased. Of course there were many times I wanted to give up and take the easy way out by going back to the workforce. Furthermore, there’s a guarantee of having a stable income at the end of every month. 

But somehow, something in me tells me that I must try until I can make it. I still have enough strength in me to keep fighting and I know that my breakthrough was just round the corner. 

I am thankful that I didn’t give up because I dug deep and use a forgotten talent that I have and became a Content Marketing Coach.

Once in a while, I would ask myself this question, “Should I revive my handmade jewelry business”. The answer is yes but not in the near future. I would need to think it through carefully and plan & strategise it with a good brand story. This handmade jewelry business will have to be a social enterprise and I already know who to look for to help with making the pieces. 

When I look back at my business, it is never a failure, but a good training ground and a lesson that helped me grow as a person.

TakeAways
Firstly, taking control of our lives is important. I know that life is short and if we don’t take control of our lives and decide on our future, then we wouldn’t be able to live our lives to its fullest. Worst still, other people will decide how we should live our lives.

Because I knew I could do more, and opportunities are not presenting themselves to me, I’ve decided to give myself those lost opportunities. Starting my own business means that I can control the amount of projects that I should do and who I want to work with. I am also in control of my working hours. 

Secondly, be adaptable .
While working full-time, I had already started a side-hustle making jewelries for women. So, it was natural for me to bring it to a full-time business. I did everything from design and creation, marketing and administration. I was definitely in control!

However, I experienced burned out after about 6mths into the jewelry business. I took a step back and realized that I was listening to everybody’s suggestions and ideas, except myself. And I was losing the interest in the business. So, I went back to the drawing board and asked myself what I really love to do. I still like to create and love to write. So, I’ve decided to go into web designing, content writer and social media management.

In business, when somethings are not working, we should not be afraid to step back and reflect. If we need to tweak or have a complete overhaul of our business, we should have the courage to do so. Otherwise, we will be miserable in our business.

Thirdly, Don’t be afraid to use your gifts / talents, even if you are not known for it.
Whenever I share my story, from an Executive Secretary to a Content Marketing Coach, people are surprised by my drastic change. If I would have been a content writer, it would make so much sense right?

But we don’t have to make sense. We just have to make sure we are passionate about what we are doing and doing it well for our clients.

You can be an accountant today and pivot out to become a Health Coach.
You can be a HR professional and become a Life Coach.
You can be whatever you want to be, as long as you are not afraid to use your gifts and talents to help others.

Fourthly, if you are new to business, invest in a coach
I have always advocate to get a business coach to help you strategise, plan and execute your business. Also, your coach will help you to be very clear on your offerings and be focus on the directions you need to take for your business.

When I met my coach Genecia, I was doing many things – web design, personal branding, social media management and content writing.

She asked me what I really love to do among the many things that I’m doing. I told her writing but I want to be a personal branding coach! So after many arguments and back & forth, I finally settle for content writing. Not only that, I focused on my talent – writing about the one thing in 10 different ways. This is how I became a Content Marketing Coach.

To-date, this is still the best investment that I have. That is the reason why I am always encouraging new business owners to engage a coach to help them establish a good foundation for their business.

The one thing that I’ve learnt is to dream and dream it big
Eversince I started my business, my dream is to establish a foundation to help disadvantaged women through entrepreneurship and education. And I will use my business as a vehicle to help me get to my dreams.

I used to shy away from sharing my dreams. But I realized that the more I share with people, I begin to feel more and more confident – I know that I am doing something right to help women who may not be as fortunate as I am.

If you have dreams, no matter how big they are, hold on to it. Your dreams is yours and nobody can take it away from you. Don’t pay attention to naysayers, trolls or people who laugh at you and your dreams.

If you have a coach, he/she can help you to create a plan and strategies to help you reach your dreams.

Finally, I want to be an inspiration to others.
I want my journey, experiences, expertise to inspire or encourage others to make the next move and change their life completely.

I want to live my life with a purpose. I don’t want to move along in life without any goals or dreams. That is the reason why helping other women is important to me. I want them to awaken their courage and take the first step towards changing their lives.

At the same time, I aspire to be a good role model to my peers as well as the younger generation.

Conclusion
Today, I am happy to be a Content Marketing Coach. I am passionate about helping female entrepreneurs share their personal brand story on social media, so that they can attract their ideal client, engage with their community and live their lives with significance.

Alright, that’s it for today. I look forward to having you in my next episode where I’ll be sharing with you lessons that I’ve learnt from my 1st business.

Till then, God bless & Goodbye!