THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER PODCAST with Rachel Klaver

oh you get Rachel Rantypants this week

This is a common moan that normally only Rod (my husband and business partner) gets

But I know I need to share it…

I teach the ARMED model of content creation

It’s got five steps

ABSORB

REFLECT

MODIFY

EXPRESS

DISTRIBUTE

I talk about it in my book Be A Spider, Build a Web - and I read some of that today in this week’s private…

Money mindset

Here’s some things that tell me you’ve got money mindset issues:

* You feel like you're having to justify your value to others

* You don’t pay your suppliers on time/ at all

* You would rather discount than get a NO.

* You tell people your value, but you know you’d go lower in an instant

* You keep oscillating between “I deserve this” and “What am I doing…

This week I wanted to share with you my own learning and development based around another part of my Be a Spider, Build a Web book.

So like normal, I’m going to read out a portion of the book, then talk about what I now teach and how it’s evolved.

It doesn’t mean that the words I wrote are defunct. They 100% aren’t

I stand by the truth that no one likes a desperate salesperson. And no one wants to be pushed into buying.

But I work with so many small business owners who take that fear of being too pushy too far - and I want to talk about that today

If you’re on the FREE version, you get the excerpt read….

If you’re on my paid subscribers list, you get to listen to my thoughts and suggestions for being a wise spider who’s ready to sell (and how to make your web better to catch more of your people)

Hello there!

This is our first week of the new Wednesday format - and it’s a private podcast especially for you - on a marketing insight or idea that is related to content marketing

(this is for paid subscribers only)

It’s also often going to have an excerpt from my book, something that’s evolved in my thinking SINCE then and a wee challenge for you

This we…

There’s many things I love about our topic today, and today’s guest. Bayley Hughes started Brain Play because she could see that there was a gap between what teachers felt confident teaching, when it came to STEM related topics such as robotics, and programming for young learners, and what children wanted to learn. 

So she started to run afterschool programmes in several schools, with tutors who were university students, and closer in age to the children coming, to make them more relatable. Brain Play has now grown to a web of schools across Auckland and now offers holiday programmes, in school programmes and support to staff wanting someone to help simplify the STEM skills our children need exposure to ready themselves for a world different to the one I grew up in

Now in her late twenties, Bayley is starting to reshape and explore how her business might evolve as she’s grown and evolved. 

It’s a real reminder that our business offerings, goals and message doesn’t need to stay stagnant, and that our business is can evolve as we do, fitting in with our life as it changes, rather than us trying to squeeze a business that no longer quite fits us, into a life we’ve in.

This podcast is about the business Bayley grew, and the marketing she did to get it there, with a hat tip to the business Bayley might want to grow in the future, and how to work that all out. 

In this episode we cover:

• How Brain Play started


• Why it’s an important business in NZ


• How Bayley finds new customers


• What Bayley’s learned through marketing through schools


• The advantages and disadvantages of having a young team


•  What’s shaping Brain Play’s future right now

Important Links

Find out more about Brainplay

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is the fear of meanies, trolls and haters holding you back on using social media for your business? Or even worse - preventing you from showing up with confidence for your business?  

I want to help you turn that fear on its head.

I used to be crippled with fear. I was bullied as a teen so was super sensitive to negative comments, and then mixed with my ADHD rejection dysmorphia, a fear of being wrong, and a strong dislike of conflict and it would mess me up bad

There’s something about keyboard warriors who don’t even know us and how we allow them to ruin our day, week and worse, ALL OF OUR CONFIDENCE.

In this session we'll talk about what a hate comment is, how to spot actual trolls and meanies and what to do when you get one.

Those haters might be doing YOU a favour ! It's all a matter of how we see it. I'm going to help you reframe your thinking, and give you a strategy that will work on any platform

I'll walk you through a process you can use to overcome anxiety around negative comments, and then show you how to really maximise the comments (once we've determined they are hate comments) to build engagement, and community and help you find your ideal customers.

(This was originally a Linkedin Live - and so there may be references to comments made by some of the people watching during this episode. )

In this episode we cover:

• How I used to react to trolls, meanies and haters


• Why it’s so common for small business owners to struggle with this


• What is a hate comment (and what is not one)


• How the algorithm protects us


• Why hate comments can strengthen your community


• The two options we can take when we get a troll or a meanie commenting


• The four step RESET process you can use to transform your marketing

Important Links

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download OUR free DIY Marketing Audit checklist

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s something about a beautiful coat. Finding the perfect coat for you can transform your outfit into something stunning. 

In 2019 Claire launched Velma and Beverley, a bespoke coat and jacket company becoming known for its’ bold use of colourful wool and the option to select a cotton lining that bests fits your own personal style. 

The ability to showcase New Zealand wool, and then create a garment that is bought from people all over the world is a huge delight to Claire who grew up in the King Country and still holds a huge passion for farming. So much so she also serves on the board of Rural Women NZ, and co-hosts a podcast called Black Heels and Tractor Wheels, highlighting some of the incredible rural women in New Zealand.

Today we talk to Claire about what she’s learned about starting up her own clothing line, how she’s worked out what to outsource and what to keep control of, how she’s marketed her business, and what she is planning for it as it grows.

In this episode we cover:

• Where the name Velma and Beverley came from


• How Claire keeps it a NZ made, sustainable product


• Why there’s no plans to move out of made to measure clothing


• How Claire’s busines ties into the rest of her working life


• What Claire’s learned from creating a label


• How her business is part of many other rural businesses running in NZ 

Important Links

Find Velma and Beverlet coats here

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I love the power of freely available content that helps your potential customer find real gems of information from you. This is called ungated content as all they need to do is check out your social media, read a blog, watch a youtube video or a live and they can get all the goodness you choose to share. This podcast is an example of ungated contact. 

There are some who believe that this is the only way now to distribute our content, and then use that to build what I call in my book a sticky content web.

I’m a huge fan of freemium content - content that is of a high quality, and is free to access and use.

But I also love gated content. Gated content is content the potential customer pays for with their email address. There’s a transaction that happens where you give me your email, and I then send you something. 

This strategy can either draw people in closer, or push them away - and we want it to bring them closer.

In this episode we talk about the value of both gated and ungated content, how to make them work together and why I tell nearly every business to have some form of gated content in their marketing

In this episode we cover:

• What is gated and ungated content?


• What you need to make open to everyone


• Why some content should be “paid for”


• How to know which one is which


• Why some people hate gated content


• What you should never do with gated content

Important Links

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download OUR free DIY Marketing Audit checklist

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The first time I tried Vince it was in a white paper bag, passed to me by its creator Debbie Stowe at one of my live training events. I took it home and over the next few days used it in my family cooking. Nobody noticed until I fessed up that I’d been “watering down” our meat with a dehydrated vegetable mince look alike. 

That of course was exactly how Debbie and her husband Nigel had imagined their vegan product would be most used. Not as a product just for vegans, but as a way to easily introduce more vegetables into family dinners, fitted into our Kiwi dinners, and perhaps dinner plates all over the world.

Considering world domination when you’re a bootstrapped food business operating out of a tiny kitchen is no mean feat, and Debbie and Nigel have had to constantly push past the fear barrier, while ensuring they’re growing at the right pace for themselves, the business and their stockists

Vince is now stocked in supermarkets as well as being sold directly. In today’s MAP IT Marketing episode, Rachel Klaver talks to Debbie about how the business came to be, the help they’ve had along the way, the impact they want to make and what’s next on the growth plan list.

In this episode we cover:

• How Vince started


• Why this vegan product isn’t marketed specifically to vegans


• Some of the challenges in growing the business


• How Debbie and Nigel work together


• What needs to happen to take Vince beyond New Zealand


• What they’ve learned working with supermarkets

Important Links

Find Vince here (including stockists)

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make (including marketers) is to assume that something it’s not a good idea simply because we don’t like it. 

Email is a great example. Everyone has an idea of what frequency of email is ok, but it’s generally far less than what is actually ok!

However there are some marketing tactics that go on that are not good for you, your brand or your business. Some of them are even against the terms of service of the platforms we’re using. 

This podcast was created after I was cold messaged on my personal facebook profile by a small business owner pitching her system. When I asked her where she got my details from she initially lied and said it was from a Facebook Group which didn’t exist (and if it did, it would have been likely her behaviour was not allowed anyway!) She finally admitted it was from software she was using to find potential leads - using the friend lists of other people she’d connected with. 

After blocking her (she would not stop), I went to my MAP IT Facebook group to ask them what marketing tactics they hated, or believed needed to stop.

So here’s our list - and my suggested alternative methods to use instead.

If you’ve ever been tempted by that offer that’s too good to be true, told to send cold emails and direct messages, or wondered how to show your best side… OR would like to join me in my need to vent about dubious marketing practices, then THIS episode is most definitely for you. 

In this episode we cover:

• Whether there are some marketing tactics you shouldn’t do


• Why people do them anyway?


• What marketing activity gets a bad rap and shouldn’t


• What’s ok but I personally don’t recommend (and why)


• What better alternatives are to dodgy marketing practices


• What to do if you’re on the receiving end?

Important Links

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.