Your Dream Business

Your Dream Business

By Teresa Heath-WareingBusinessEntrepreneurshipMarketing
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Your Dream Business episodes

  • The Hidden Persuaders: Unlocking the Secrets of Sales Psychology with Behavioral Economics

    In this episode I interview behavioral economist Melina Palmer. We chat about how behavioral economics can enhance sales strategies using techniques like price anchoring and framing.

    The episode also tackles ethical considerations and the psychological principles behind decision-making. Melina shares actionable insights to help course creators, membership owners, and coaches improve their business communication and ultimately boost sales.

     

    KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST


     

    If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to

    Apple podcasts

    or

    Spotify

    and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

     

    LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

    Connect with Melina on

    www.thebrainybusiness.com

    ,

    LinkedIn (Melina)

    ,

    LinkedIn (The Brainy Business)

    ,

    Twitter

    ,

    YouTube

    ,

    Instagram

    ,

    Facebook

     

    Connect with Teresa on

    Website

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    The Club

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    Sign up to Teresa's email list

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    LinkedIn

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    Facebook

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    Transcript

    Teresa:

    What is behavioral economics and why on earth should you care? Well, the short answer is because it helps you communicate better to your customers and ultimately helps you to help them make a buying decision. My guest today is a behavioral economist and she shares the most amazing tools and strategies and just generally super smart stuff that we can do in our businesses, such as things like price anchoring and framing that will help us help our customers make that buying decision.

    If you need to sell something in your business, which is everybody, then do not miss this episode.
    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. And I hope you are really, really well. Okay. Today, I've got a great episode for you. I first heard today's guest on someone else's podcast and I listened to the podcast twice.
    In fact, I think I even gave it a third listen because it was so good. And so much of what she said was just genius and really, I totally geeked out on it. I absolutely loved [00:02:00] it. And if you are trying to sell things in your business, which I hope to goodness you are, then this is definitely going to be an episode you want to listen to.
    My guest today, Melina Palmer, is a behavioural economist. She is a globally celebrated keynote speaker and author and the CEO of The Brainy Business. Now you might be wondering what on earth is behavioural economics, I've really struggled saying that, got to do with us as business owners. Well, basically it's all around how our customers buy from us and how we can help them with that buying decision.
    Now, as you will hear in this episode, I get a little bit nervous at the beginning of some of these things, you know, how, like, you know, we all know bro marketing tactics. We all know like real scammy, horrible ways, NLP ways in which people get people to buy.
    And My worry was, is that what people do with this? And it isn't. And as Melina kind of demonstrates really early on, it's about using it for good. [00:03:00] Like, you know, as if you're a superhero and we'll give you these powers. Now only use it for good. So, so yeah, she talks about so many cool things that, like I said, your brain might hurt a little bit at the end of it, but it'll be a good hurt and you'll be so glad.
    She talks about things like price anchoring and how having a price anchor can actually help you then sell something else. She talks about things like framing, where how you say something matters more. Sorry. Yeah. How you say something matters more than what you say. She talks about social proof, but in a different way.
    She talks about it from a herd mentality point of view. And again, some really cool stuff. Basically, I don't want to waste any more of your time. I want you to just jump in, listen to this. This episode is full of super, super smart takeaways, and I know you're going to get a huge amount from it. So I have two tiny favors to ask.
    First favor. Please tag me and Melina in on [00:04:00] social and let us know what you thought of this episode. It means the absolute world to me when someone does this. I think I've said to you before, I sit in a room in my office recording these to myself, other than my two dogs by my side, but it To then hear your reactions and find out what you think about it is brilliant.
    And if you're feeling extra generous, then why not go ahead and give me a lovely five star rating over on Apple or wherever you listen to the podcast. Okay, let's get on with the episode. Here's Melina. I am super excited to welcome to the podcast today, Melina Palmer, Melina, how are you doing?

    Melina:

    I am doing fantastic. Thank you. Glad to be here.

    Teresa:

    I am very happy for you to be here. It's actually now in the UK while we're recording this, it's about coming up to 6pm. And normally by this point, I'd be like, hanging would be the official term. I'd be like, okay, we're nearly done. But honestly, Out of all the calls I've had [00:05:00] today, you are the one I've been looking forward to the most.

    Melina:

    Aww, well, thank you. Delighted, honored to hear it. And I know, yeah, end of the day interview too, especially depending on what you've been doing through the day. It's like bringing the energy for the interview is, is a thing. I get it. So.

    Teresa:

    Yeah. Yeah. Which I somehow managed to have this good, and I guess When you do a job like I do, where you do have to be on camera, when I come off though, I'm great when I'm on, and when I come off it's like, don't speak to me.

    Don't look at me. Don't have a conversation with me. Like, my husband is like, how? How are you so nice on the calls? And then you are so mean when you get off them. Well, it's just because that's my job. So, yeah, sorry about that. Anyway. We are going to talk about something very smart today. So like, just be ready people to just get thinking because this is going to make you think.
    And I've heard Melina on another podcast, which I listened to [00:06:00] multiple times, which is unheard of for me. But I was like, this is so good. I feel like I need to write it all down. I feel like I need to listen to it again. So we are going to be talking about Behavioral economics, which doesn't sound the most sexiest subject, but it is, believe me.
    So what even is that? And why should we care?

    Melina:

    Yes, other than, you know, a field that needs some rebranding, perhaps, but that's not really the

    Teresa:

    Maybe.

    Melina:

    So essentially, I just like to say, you know, if traditional economics and psychology had a baby, you would have behavioral economics. And the reason that the field came about is because traditional economics assumes logical people making rational choices in everything they do all the time.

    And as we're all human, we know that that's not really the way that it works, right? We have the best of intentions sometimes and still end up, you know, we know we should eat right and exercise and we find ourselves, you know, [00:07:00] binge eating a bag of Cheetos while binge watching Netflix or something.

    Teresa:

    Were you, were you here last night?

    Melina:

    I know, right? It's like, not from personal experience, of course.

    Teresa:

    I've never actually done that, but I've heard people do it.

    Melina:

    Yes. And so, you know, what you end up with are these models that are built on bad assumptions. And so it's predicting what someone somewhere decided people should do versus what we actually do.

    And so over time, you had psychologists, economists, neuroscientists start working together, entering into another's fields, trying to do research to see if there are these common threads in the brain that can be used to better predict what people will really do. And thankfully, you know, there are and lots of them and that's where behavioral economics comes into play and my role as an applied behavioral economist is helping people in their businesses to be creating communication that's more brain friendly so [00:08:00] that customers buy and employees buy in.

    Teresa:

    I love that and I love the way you just said brain friendly because you know what kind of comes to mind sometimes when I think about behavioral and understanding kind of how people buy and what they do is when do we worry that it tips into like a manipulative like I've seen it, you've probably seen it, in the online space it can happen a lot of like NLP type things and just like a few things that you're like, Oh, interesting.

    I see what you're doing there. Like, how do we, how do we know the difference? And is there even a difference?

    Melina:

    Well, the thing is, so couple things about our brains and, and some stuff to know before I answer your question directly would be, so one, research shows that we humans make up to 35,000 decisions a day.

    Each. Just do not. So many things that we're dealing with really are, life [00:09:00] is just a series of micro choices, micro moments all strung together. And if I ask you, you know, how many decisions do you remember making yesterday?

    Teresa:

    It's barely one. We had peas with dinner as opposed to a cauliflower. Right. I remember making that one.

    Melina:

    Yeah. Right. But not anywhere near the thousands of choices that we're making throughout the day. And the reason is because our brains are really separated into two systems. I just talk about it as conscious and subconscious because I think it's easiest for people. So, in this way, that subconscious brain is making the bulk of your decisions.

    Every single day. And it has the rules that it's using to make those decisions. It likes predictability. It likes the status quo. It's using habit to say, if when this happens, probably should do this thing, right? And so those are the rules of behavioral economics, behavioral science. [00:10:00] So. You as a human person, when you're creating the content for your website, when you're doing the sales pitch, when you're writing what you're going to put in the ad, when you're doing the subject line of your email, how you put the information in the email, and everything in between, whether you think about it or not, the way you present information is impacting the decision that someone is going to make.
    So you are what we would call a choice architect, whether you want to be or not, whether you think about it or not. And so what I say is, well, yeah, people can use any sort of knowledge for evil. I trust that you're all not going to, right? And you're here to, Help people to know what it is that you sell and why it's a good fit for them and to make it easy for people that are saying like, Yeah, that's not for me, right?
    I'm not in it. That they can find out before they book the call, before they have a conversation and don't want to be a part of it. It's just win wins all around. So, you know, if it is happening, whether you think about it or not, I say [00:11:00] better to be thoughtful about it in advance and make it better for everybody.

    Teresa:

    Yeah, and I think we've all been in that situation where, and I know I for sure have many times, where someone has been in your world a while, they, you think they know what you do, they like you, they, you know, they consume your content, they follow your stuff, and then you are, I've had a conversation with them, and they've gone and bought from someone over here, and you're like, why?

    You, like, you follow my Insta, like, why not me? And they're like, didn't, didn't know you did it, or it didn't. And it's like, it's so frustrating that you, I think, the good in us wants, want people to make a conscious decision about the purchase they're making, but we need to help them, and I really truly believe that because otherwise someone somewhere else is helping them make that decision and they're going off and buying someone else's thing and not your thing.

    Melina:

    Right. You want to make sure you're not getting them all primed and ready to buy someone else's stuff. Right.

    Teresa:

    And I think [00:12:00] in my personal experience, that has happened because I thought, you know, they haven't bought. I thought, okay, that's fine. It's obviously not right for them or not for, you know, the price or whatever.

    And then I found out they spent just as much or the same with someone else and I'm like, I don't quite understand why that didn't convert. This is such a hard thing because I just want to go, what do we need to write? What do we write? Tell us what to put on a page. How do we get people to buy from us?
    Are there some kind of rules or some thoughts or some kind of things we need to bear in mind in order to help that?

    Melina:

    Yes. And so, of course, you know, I always joke I need a mug or t shirt or something that says it depends on it because. Context really matters. And we need to know, you know, where people are coming from and everything, but, but really, so in my first book, what your customer wants and can't tell you, I have, you know, kind of what I call a recipe of steps of things to, to do and think about as you go through any sort of sales process.

    And so, you know, first piece here being, you know, What [00:13:00] do you want people to do? First question to answer. And if, if you only get one thing, what is the one thing that matters most? And knowing that you don't, you're not going to go from point A to double Z in a process, right? So we're thinking again in those micro moments, micro decisions, if it's just like this, Email we're going to send, let's say, right?
    The subject line, like first we need to make sure it lands in their inbox, right? But then we say the subject line, I just need them to open the email. And if that worked, then what's next? And then what's next? And then what's next? And break it down into smaller bits. And know, like, this piece of content has one job.
    What is it? What are people naturally doing and how are we getting them to like keep moving along in the process? So first, just even knowing that we want to be thinking in those micro moments and know that some moments are more what we would call nudgeable than others. So in behavioral economics, we work in a [00:14:00] space of nudges and nudging.
    And so, you know, I just like to give the example of if somebody had been using your services and they've canceled. And they're gone. That is a lot, not really a super nudgeable process to bring them back. It's a really hard sell. But there was a moment, something happened, probably multiple somethings, further back in their experience, like, When they used a chat or they sent an angry email that you didn't want to deal with and ignored because it felt scary or they called and were on the phone and said that they were upset about something like those moments were maybe more nudgeable.
    There was something you could have done there to save it. That that's different, right? So as we're in that, you know, buyer mindset and we're trying to get to the next step, they're like, How likely are we to get them to, to nudge to the next piece or to stay on track is an important piece as you look for what you want to be optimizing on your [00:15:00] language or, or imagery or, or anything else.

    Teresa:

    So that's a really good point and it really resonates with me. Cause one of the things that I talk about is not trying to get people to marry you on the first date, you know, and it is a nudge thing. However, recently I. I actually interviewed someone recently who talks about, and they're not the first person I've spoken to, about making people, or not making people, getting people to make a purchase as soon as possible.

    Because they came at it from a point of, they're at their highest intent when they first discover you and they first consume your content, so get them to do something immediately. But of course, one thing that I've always learned, and I have a degree in marketing, and my background's in marketing. So, you know, I've, I've done a lot in marketing.
    So, but mine was always that nurture process. So is it that one's right and one's wrong, or is it like, because the, the micro moments and the kind of, okay, the next best step and next, the whole dating analogy makes real [00:16:00] sense to me. So, Is it that that is the way to go about it, or is there also a thing where you could just get someone to part with their cash straight away?

    Melina:

    So, once again, we have the it depends answer for this, and what I would say, looking at it, would be, you know, if you're selling, if you have a small, Like loss leader type of a product that you're trying to get people into. That's the first piece to something larger, or you sell, you know, smaller ticket type of items that that is likely a good way to be going.

    And I think the question is, you know, Getting them to buy, you know, how are we defining buy, right? So like I said, I use the same principles when it comes to getting employees to buy in because you know Whether you're or not, you are having money exchange hands You're selling someone on an idea that you need them to buy in on, right?
    And so getting them to buy in [00:17:00] on the idea of you as a thought leader And say yes to you and maybe signing up for your newsletter or other drip campaign or to follow you on social media or to do a little something may have the same value that you need based on what whatever your sales cycle is. And so, you know, if you're selling 20, 30, 50,000 dollar, programs, is someone just like, where's my credit card?
    Right? Probably. Yeah. It's like,

    Teresa:

    Hang on a minute. Just go straight in, yeah, and sign it up.

    Melina:

    Ta da! Right? Like, it's not necessarily the process that someone's going to be going through there, but There may be a

    55 min
  • Embracing Rejection: Building Resilience and Visibility with Alice Draper

    In this episode, I delve into the often-dreaded topic of rejection, particularly as it affects women entrepreneurs. I interviewed Alice Draper, founder and chief strategist at Hustle Writers, who shared valuable insights into why rejection feels so daunting and how women are often socially conditioned to avoid it.

    We discussed strategies for building resilience to rejection and provided practical tips for crafting effective pitches to increase visibility. We also shared personal stories of rejection to emphasize that it's a common experience, even for seasoned professionals.

    Join the conversation to learn how overcoming the fear of rejection can open doors to business success.

     

    KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST


     

    If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to

    Apple podcasts

    or

    Spotify

    and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

     

    LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

    Connect with Alice on

    https://hustlingwriters.com/template

    ,

    Podcast

    Connect with Teresa on

    Website

    ,

    The Club

    ,

    Sign up to Teresa's email list

    , 

    Instagram

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    LinkedIn

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    Facebook

    or

    Twitter

     

    Transcript

    Teresa:

    In today's episode of the podcast, we are talking about rejection. Now, I know it's something that you don't want in your life. And in fact, as humans, we avoid it at all costs. But today's guest Alice shares with us some insight as to why that's the case. And also, If you are a female, why it's even more the case that we try and avoid rejection at all costs, which really helped me understand why it's not our fault.

    Alice also takes us through the six things that you should include in a pitch when you are trying to get on someone else's podcast, which if you know me and you've been following me for a while, you know, this is a big part of the strategy that I teach is about getting you visible. So we not only deal with the very practical sense of this is what you should include, but we also look at the whole rejection piece and how you can strengthen that rejection muscle.
    So you don't let it stop you in your tracks. I also [00:01:00] share a rejection that I had recently, and she shared one of hers. So if you are thinking this goes away and you don't have to deal with it at certain points in your business, Then believe me, you are exactly in the right place because we are going through it with you.
    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of your dream business podcast. As always, I'm your host Teresa Heath Wareing. And I really want to thank you for taking the time to join me today. I appreciate you probably like many of us have very busy lives. So I really do appreciate you making the effort to not only listening to the podcast, but also to investing in yourself.
    This is something that I have done massively through the years in terms of making sure that I am constantly improving my education, constantly working at how can I be better and how can the business be better. In today's episode, I'm interviewing Alice Draper, who is the founder and chief strategist and is on a mission to make publicity easy and accessible for under recognized women entrepreneurs at all stages in their business.
    When Alice started the business, she knew that publicity in the right places would garner her the authority that she needed to position herself as a high end copywriter. And so she started [00:03:00] pitching magazines like VICE, Refinery 29, HuffPost and Business Insider. This came with an unplanned skill, the art of the pitch, which is how she ended up pivoting her business towards publicity.
    She has now been running Hustle Writers for over two years. And in this time, she has secured her clients with over 500 podcasts, including countless top one and top 0. 5 percent podcast. A big part of Alice's work is to normalize rejection and how rejection resilience ties into success. Alice and I talk all about rejection and what it's like, and also how we need to get over the fear of being rejected, especially when we put ourselves out there.
    And I know what it's like. I have had it firsthand experience as well as working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and helping them do the same. It is tough, but if you can master the skill of being rejected, brushing yourself down and starting again, then [00:04:00] believe me, this is how it is going to lead to success for you and your business.
    So I really hope you enjoyed today's episode. We talk some real practical stuff as well as a bit of mindset stuff. So it's got something for everyone. Okay. Welcome to the podcast. Alice, how are you doing?

    Alice:

    I'm doing great. How are you doing, Teresa?

    Teresa:

    I'm really, really good. We've already had a conversation about where you're from.

    The accent doesn't tie up with where you live, which isn't where you are right now. So that's like messing with everyone's head potentially. So you were saying that you're originally from South Africa.

    Alice:

    Yes, I'm living in Dubai and I'm zooming in from Norwich. So we're both in the UK right now.

    Teresa:

    So it's, it's very interesting where you're, you're all over the place.

    I love it. I love it. So you talk about something that is most people's idea of, well, like hell really, rejection. And you, in your information that you sent over prior to the podcast, you wrote something that I thought was really [00:05:00] interesting. Pitching is tough because rejection is almost guaranteed and us women are not ready.
    Why? Because society never prepared us. Can we just talk about that for a minute in terms of A, why it's tough full stop, and why, then it might be tough for women.

    Alice:

    Yeah. Yeah. So rejection is tough full stop because humans are hardwired evolutionarily to avoid rejection. Like if we're, if our ancestors were rejected, they'd be kicked out of the tribe.

    Like they could have no food and no shelter, no water and die. So like that lizard brain is still there and we're just, We're going to do everything in our power to avoid being rejected from our community because that screams threats and that screams like something very bad will happen. And so, We see that, but then we also see that the more marginalized you are, the more like you will do anything to avoid that rejection.
    And it's for very valid reasons. So if you take a man, he's had to kind of take [00:06:00] risks his whole life. And he's also seen other men take risks their whole life. So if you take like dating in the heterosexual context, like it's the men who are putting themselves out there and pursuing women, and it's the men who are normalizing and habituating to the fact that they're getting rejected.
    But then it's also like the men seeing other men around them take risks and be okay. Which kind of like affirms the brain, okay, I'm not going to get kicked out of the tribe, it's going to be all right. Whereas for women, often we kind of grow our whole lives not getting rejected, like you can enter adulthood and not have ever like gone and asked someone on a date and had known.
    So you see perfectionism coming, kind of being a lot more tied to women. And, and I mean, like there's kind of various studies that would show this. One of the ones that comes to mind is with jobs. Like there's various studies that show that women will only apply for jobs when they meet all and [00:07:00] more of the criteria and men will apply for the jobs when they don't meet the criteria at all.
    Yeah. And I had a client who used to work in HR and so she used to always say like the men would always negotiate the salaries and it was very, very rare for a woman to negotiate salary. And like working in HR, you just expected people to negotiate salaries. That's what you did. That's what her job was.
    So yeah. So I think that's the kind of gendered lens. And then. Not learning to kind of build that rejection resilience, not learning to make bold asks is the most costly thing, not just in life, but in business. Like if we can't flex that muscle and stop normalizing rejection, we're not going to kind of pursue the biggest and best things that we want for ourselves.
    Yeah, sorry.

    Teresa:

    I was just gonna say, so do you think that's the, that's the key? Do you think it's a case of actually this is just a muscle you've got to build? Or do you think that there are [00:08:00] things that you can do prior to getting rejected to feel better about it or to be prepared for it?

    Alice:

    That's a great question.

    I mean, I think that the muscle is going to get built, like it's got to get built regardless. And I think that preparation helps. Like there's a reason you're scared of getting rejected because You don't want to make a fool of yourself. So of course, like with a fear, you're going to do the best thing you can, which is make sure that your offer is in the best position.
    It could be your pitches, the best picture could be, and like every you're getting kind of everything lined up in the best way possible. And if you know that. And you're putting stuff out. When you get rejected, it will still hurt because you will still kind of spiral. And like, I'm not gonna, such as they do, like, go on a rejection hunt with no strategy, like, of course, if you've sent out like 50 pitches and all of them have been no's, and some of them have been like not so nice [00:09:00] no's, and, or ghosted, and you've never gotten a yes, like, maybe it's time to look at that strategy and see if something could be changed, maybe the offer needs to be tweaked, maybe the pitch needs to be tweaked.
    Something needs to change. Maybe you can enlist your community to come have a look and give you some advice, but at the same time, you can have all of that down and then not have that muscle and get one rejection and decide that that is determining, like that is a sign that what you're doing is wrong and what you're doing is not working and you should just stop or give up.
    And I mean, I, I built. It's like I started, I set my first rejection goal like years ago and I, you know, I've been talking about this for ages and my podcast launched last week and so we've been pitching partnerships for the podcast and we had like some amazing partnerships. Someone wrote us for us for like a Vancouver newspaper because she liked what we were doing so much and then I got one really, really rude rejection where I got accused of using AI to create fake authenticity and then the person I concluded with, how [00:10:00] disgusting, full stop.

    Teresa:

    Oh wow, wow, wow, wow.

    Alice:

    I felt like my like hot lip to my throat, I just felt like red and ashamed and horrified and immediately I was like, I can't do this anymore. Clearly I'm just gonna make everyone angry by like, pitching them.

    Teresa:

    Oh my god, that's horrible. I feel sick for you. Like, I just see sometimes I don't understand with like, There's only once I've been slightly rude to and rejected something and that is not me at all.

    They obviously caught me on a very bad day and basically they pitched someone for my podcast and they, they had said to me, you know, I'm big fan notice. You've never had anyone talking about this particular subject and also notice you've not had this person and I'd love to pitch them. And basically, I had had someone on that subject.
    In fact, I had had the [00:11:00] person they were pitching and it annoyed me because it was like, Oh, come on. And the worst thing was if they had literally just gone to my podcast page on my site, her face was one of the main faces I showed. Right. So it was like, you didn't even do your homework. So I sent quite a, short, direct message saying I would do your homework in future because not only have I had it, two people talk about this thing.
    One of them was the person you're pitching. So I was annoyed, but that's the only time I've ever sent anything like that. Ordinarily, I would just go, thank you so much, but unfortunately I'm really busy. I'm whatever it might be. I don't often say no, if I'm honest, but like, I do find it fascinating that someone would be so rude.

    Alice:

    Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I don't even think that your response is rude. I would take that as you're being honest. Like that is helpful information.

    Teresa:

    She should have done her homework.

    Alice:

    As the pitcher, you're like, oh, damn, I made a mistake there. But this was like, oof. And you know, like. Yeah. I actually had read the articles.

    I was like, there is a human [00:12:00] behind. Yeah. There's no AI. It's a human. Like it's getting affected by this rejection. But the thing is, is that. When you get something like that and I've had entrepreneurs tell me that they've had like a really bad rejection early on and like trying to pitch themselves and this could be whether it's publicity or it could be for business and that they are too scared to put themselves out there again because of that and I completely understand I mean like that was my reaction and so one thing that I know and you know it goes with that kind of like what does rejection do it threatens our safety is that community is the like override because if you can enlist your community to kind of champion you and support you in this, it says to that lizard brain, Oh, I'm not getting kicked out of the tribe.
    I'm actually safe. Actually, everyone's supporting me through this. So, Like I, I went and wrote a LinkedIn post about it and I spoke to like various people on my team. . Sorry, go ahead.

    Teresa:

    I mean, I just wanna know who said that now, obviously, but this, the, the funny thing is, and the, the cool thing is the fear that we will oust from the community, which like you said, comes from a very old, you know, thing that has been around for a very, very long time that our brain just hasn't caught up on yet.

    The irony of the whole thing is the more we share the rejection and the vulnerability, the more likely we are to be included in the community because everyone goes through it, right? So this morning, I sent, I'm in the moat, I'm in the middle of a launch at the moment and it's a very high touch launch because it's for a high touch, high cost program.
    And so this morning what I've done is I've sent out a load of voice messages myself from on Instagram and one of them's come back and basically said, you know, really lovely. I can't afford you. I would love to do the program, but I've signed up with such and such a person. I know who they've signed up with will be not even a 10th of what I [00:14:00] charge.
    So, you know, that all makes perfect sense, but even that, and I know this person personally, and I love them and she's so sweet to me. And she's like, I love you. And I want to be in your world. I wish I could afford you. And even that makes me go, Oh God, I don't want to send the other messages.
    Because it hurts so we don't like it, but I think it's super important to share that we all go through it. We all, no matter what stage you're at, no matter how big your audience is, no matter who you're hanging out with, everyone is getting a rejection at some point. And I'd go as far as to say, if you're not, you're probably not putting yourself out there enough.

    Alice:

    Yeah, precisely. Like, I could quote that and put it in a little clip or a quote, but I, I love the story you just shared. Cause I mean, it's so relatable. I've had that too. And I think that sales holds us back so much, especially as women. I like, I don't know, but I've seen it with various of my clients who are business coaches and I've gone through their [00:15:00] programs and I've like spoken to the people kind of, and it's like, you've got the offer, you've done the market research.

    You've like ticked all these boxes and now it's just stalled at this, like, get it out there stage. It's a stalled at this, like, start pitching, start talking to business partners, start, like, sharing it with your network, start selling to your network. And selling is just terrifying because you're going to get rejected.
    Like, there is no ways everyone out there is going to say yes So the offer we're selling is just not how the market works, regardless of how good the product is.

    Teresa:

    And sometimes the rejection will be nothing to do with you. Like, so one of the things you talk about, one of the things I want to dive into, because it's actually something that I talk about a lot is this getting visible.

    And for me, the direction I come up from it is my audience They often run a personal brand and therefore they should be trying to become the expert or one of the experts in their field [00:16:00] because the more that they can lift their visibility up, the more they can build their audience, the more people they can serve, the more money they could make.
    How, what's your take on visibility? What kind of things do you, what's your drive for getting people to become more visible? What's the kind of back bit to it?

    Alice:

    I mean, everything you just said there, I think it's so much like I, there, there's, you know, cause I do podcast publicity. That's kind of what I do for my clients and what the whole business model is rooted in.

    And when someone comes and works with us on like a one on one basis, it's usually because they have a very clear strategy, like they're trying to sell more books, they have a book launch and they're just trying to get more books. But the effect is huge of publicity. You know, I. I did actually have someone who'd never been on podcasts and she wanted to come and work with us because she had this very niche, very specific field where she served like this really medical, she was like a marketing officer for like a very medical niche field in America.
    And so there were not [00:17:00] actually tons of podcasts that she could get onto, but she worked with us for like, a little while and got into like nine or so podcasts. And I mean, she messaged me like a few months later and it was like, I just landed a huge client because someone heard me on her podcast. But in our sales, she explained that talking on podcasts was literally just to have the social proof so that when it shortens the sales cycle, so that when someone Is interested in her, they can go click play on these interviews, which is also more credible for...

    43 min
  • Chatbots: Your Secret Weapon for engagement and Business Growth

    In today's episode I chatted with chatbot expert Mel about the ease and accessibility of setting up chat funnels on Instagram and Facebook for small businesses. Mel shares valuable hacks, tips, and strategies for improving engagement, building email lists, and integrating chat funnels into your marketing plan. 

    The discussion emphasizes the affordability and low barrier to entry for businesses of any size and highlights the importance of personalizing customer journeys via DMs. Tune in to learn how chatbots can enhance your online presence and convert followers into leads.

     

    KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST


     

    If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to

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    , Email: [email protected]

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    Teresa:

    If you've ever seen any of the big names in the online industry using chatbots, you know, where they post something and say, comment this or DM me this, and you thought, oh man, that must be really big and complicated and expensive to set up, then you definitely want to listen to this episode today.

    In today's episode, I chat with the amazing Mel who is a chatbot expert, and she shares with us how easy and accessible it is for small businesses of any size to set up a chat funnel on Instagram or Facebook. She talks about some of the amazing hacks and tips that you can use, and also some genius ways in which you can help improve engagement.
    And get people on your email list. Like I said, this is not a trend that is just happening and people should jump on. This is a really cool [00:01:00] strategic thing that you can do for your business. So today's episode is not to be missed.
    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I hope you are good. This week we have a really cool interview. [00:02:00] I have been doing some serious interviewing, batching of interviews. And it's like, you know, when you record a load of interviews and you're like, I just can't wait for them to come out, but they're going to have to take the time to come out, but I'm super glad that we're bringing this one out pretty soon after recording, because I feel like this is something you need to hear.
    Now, if you know me, you know, I don't jump on the latest thing. I have a long history in marketing and therefore when a platform comes out and loads of people jump on it, I often, I can kind of like behind a little bit because I'm like, let's just really see what it can do for us before it takes time out of my day.
    And I spend too much time working on something that might not actually do anything for my business. So. I didn't jump on threads. I'm still not on it. I never went on Snapchat. I'm not on TikTok. Like, and I'm not saying that they can't all do amazing things for our businesses. I'm sure they can, but for me, I didn't feel the need to add something else.
    However, this thing I do want you to jump [00:03:00] on and it's not even that new. Today. We are talking about chatbots and chat funnels and basically how you can comment a word in a DM and or in a cap, comment. And then get an automation sent to you. So we're talking about that today and it's actually not new.
    I talk about the fact that years and years ago, about eight years ago, I did a speaking thing in America and many chat were there. And then they kind of disappeared for a bit and then they came back again. So it's not that this is a brand new thing to do, but actually I have seen the increase in this massively over the last six months.
    I've seen some of the really biggest names in the industry using it. And therefore I really think. That you should have a look at it. Also, it's a low barrier to entry from a knowledge point of view and a money point of view. So it's really one of these things that actually, once you learn the basics of it, then it's a rinse and repeat thing.
    So for me, this is really, really important episode. It's also lovely to have [00:04:00] on the podcast, someone who I'm working with in my accelerator program. Although we don't talk about that at all, because. The aim of having her on is nothing to do with selling my program, but she just happens to be one of my accelerator people, which is awesome.
    And I'm currently working with her on her launch, which is going really well, which is also awesome. So the lovely Mel is a conversational marketer and a many chat agency partner with a long career spanning B2B publishing, social media, paid ads, and chat funnels. She combines the power of conversation with strategy to help brands get more sales, more leads from their marketing.
    This stuff is so cool and so smart. And like I said, the barrier to entry is low. So if you are an business owner of any type and you are on social media, Instagram or Facebook, then this is definitely, definitely an episode you're going to want to listen to and something that you're going to want to check out and you're going to want to check Mel out.
    So without further ado, here is the awesome Mel. [00:05:00] Mel, welcome to the podcast.

    Mel:

    Thank you for having me.

    Teresa:

    I'm excited to have this conversation because I think this, I'm such a geek, right? I'm not sure I come across as a geek, but I am an absolute geek around tech, funnels, all of this sort of stuff. And this is the conversation we're having today, which I'm so excited about.

    So we're going to dive straight in and I'm going to get you just to explain. What is a chat funnel?

    Mel:

    So a chat funnel is essentially a, a new way of marketing your business that can compliment what you do already. So for a lot of businesses, their marketing will comprise doing their social media posts.

    They'll be sending people to landing pages. Those landing pages will build their email list. Now, nothing wrong with that, but chat funnels enables brands now to personalize that customer journey and actually get them from the social [00:06:00] channels into the email list through the DMs. And I'm talking specifically here about really Facebook and Instagram.
    And Instagram is where I love doing most of my work and where a lot of the clients that I work with actually get the traction. And so for chat funnels with regards to Instagram, You are getting them to comment on your post, which is playing into the algorithm for engagement and comments and reach. And you're giving them a keyword that's bringing them into the DMs.
    You're taking them through a really short marketing journey, which is normally, this is what we've got. The, this is our offer. Would you like it? This is your name. Please give me your name and your email. And that pings it straight into the, the brands CRM email system, which delivers the thing, the PDF, the checklist, what it is they've signed up for.
    So chat funnels essentially is about personalizing that marketing journey through the DMs. And it's for the consumer, it's one to one. So they are [00:07:00] feeling like it's a one to one journey, but yet still for the brand, because it's automated, it still has that one to many outlook. So they are not, individually talking to everybody that is automated, but the automation is providing that personalization of the customer journey.
    And it's all really super exciting.

    Teresa:

    It is. And I was telling Mel that one of the first speaking gigs or the first speaking gig I did out of the country or in the States was for Leadpages, which For those of you who don't know who Leadpages are, they basically do landing pages for list building. And they also owned a company at the time called Drip, which was their CRM on the back end.

    Anyway, I went out, like I learned about this stuff a really long time ago, and ManyChat, who is the company. So there's obviously the chat funnel, but the company that the system is called ManyChat that most people use in other systems other than ManyChat.

    Mel:

    There are, there are, yeah, there are other chats, there are other platforms that you can use.

    [00:08:00] I, a lot of people, myself and a lot of people I know, use ManyChat. Quite simply, from the other ones that I've looked at, is because it's actually quite simple. Once you've learned how to use it, it's a no code interface, so you don't need to have vast amounts of technical knowledge in order to be able to use it.
    So that, yes, there are other platforms out there, but Many chat, specifically is the one that I use. Yeah. It's one of the biggest ones out there. Yeah.

    Teresa:

    And, and they were one of the speakers and this was literally like eight years ago and they were like chat funnels, chat bots. This is going to be the next big thing.

    And it was huge. And I remember like, you know, seeing the stats of open rate and click rates and thinking, this is amazing. And then it disappeared. , and you and I have talked about this as to why it disappeared and changes to the API and all tech stuff that is really beyond me. Yeah. Essentially as well.
    Yeah. So then it stopped and now it's back and [00:09:00] all the big people are using it.

    Mel:

    They are. Yeah.

    Teresa:

    So. Let's just because I touched on that, have you got some stats and I appreciate I am literally just throwing questions at you. So have you got some stats in your head about the kind of conversions that people can expect through this kind of stuff?

    Mel:

    So essentially from what I see and from the flows that I build for clients and from myself and just in the wider industry as well, you can expect to open rates and click through rates of between 60 to 80%.

    Teresa:

    I mean, that's wild.

    Mel:

    But generally, you don't get that on a landing page or an email. It's not to say it's impossible, but generally, it's actually because no one really ignores a message from a brand in their DMs.

    And if that marketing journey is relatively short, as I believe it should be, and it's personalized, You know that and the ability to bring them straight from that social media channel into the CRM without having to be taken off platform is what gives it that kind of unique [00:10:00] touch in getting those higher open rates and those higher click through rates.
    So, yes, in essence, that is kind of the stats that we are looking at. They open rates and click through rates are much, much higher.

    Teresa:

    So, which is amazing because that is the aim of everything we're doing. So one of the things I know about you is that obviously you also do Facebook ads and you started in the ad space.

    What made you decide to go over into offering this as well?

    Mel:

    So I essentially, I wanted to add another string to my bow apart from just doing and doing Facebook ads, which I still love, still do that. And my background years and years ago, long time ago now, for your children, is in print publishing. So I've worked in journalism and editing and page design.

    But essentially, you know, the theme through all of that is, is conversational. It's, you know, editorial, it's about getting the message across through, well back then, through the print media, and I came across ManyChat now four years ago, [00:11:00] I think, and I think it's because I commented on someone's post on Facebook, and then this automation popped up, and I was like, wow, that's amazing, and then, and then I kind of delved a little bit deeper, and then I found ManyChat, and then I just went down this whole rabbit hole for weeks and weeks on end, and it totally played to what I was looking for.
    In, you know, adding an extra stream to my business that is conversational and it's personalized because it's, it's what I've done for years in my previous career. And the fact that it kind of links into Facebook as well meant it kind of married up very well with what I was doing existingly in Facebook ads as well.
    So it's, it's kind of, you know, my love of the written language and being able to communicate with people through a chatbot, which is more. It's a much more casual way of talking to people as well. And we use emojis and it's, and it's quick and it's conversational and it's personalized. [00:12:00] And I love it. And so then as soon as I found that, I was like, right, I'll have to go and learn this.
    And I did. That's exactly what I did do.

    Teresa:

    But like you said, this is so freaking clever for so many reasons. One, like you said, we all know engagement on posts is key to get anything to actually have any traction. So the fact that you the whole way this starts is by commenting on a post or sending a DM or whatever.

    But if it's a comment on a post, that action alone is going to start kicking off that algorithm in terms of like showing other people the fact that it's done in app. making it hopefully as seamlessly as possible for the person who's going through it. Because I remember like, I think I must've talked about chatbots a really long time ago, but I remember saying to people like, imagine when you're, you know, saying to someone and before you could put the link in a story or something, [00:13:00] you're going to say to, okay, go to the link in my bio and you click the link in the bio and then they head over to wherever that is and they do the thing.
    Like there's too many points. And when I talk about a funnel, I talk about at any single point, someone could fall out the funnel. And we've got to make that as seamless and as easy as anything, so that people don't fall out or don't think, oh, this feels a bit disjointed. I don't want to do this. So the fact that this is done seamlessly within it is brilliant.
    One thing I want to address, because I am guessing If people are listening to this podcast, they've probably seen that like, we can name some big names that have done it. Like Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, Michael Hyatt uses it. Like lots of huge names are using chatbots all the time in their marketing.
    So instantly people are going to think I can't do it. Right. Like they've got a team, they've got this, the like, how do I get the chatbot to talk to my CRM system? Like, can we just allay some [00:14:00] fears in terms of, is it, well, maybe we won't allay fears. Maybe we'll go, yes, you're right. You can't do it.

    Mel:

    No, not, it's certainly not just for those who have the huge, the huge accounts. Yes, you do need to have, an engaged, instead of talking specifically about Instagram, an engaged Instagram account. Now people will be seeing possibly at the moment, there is a little bit of concern that people aren't getting comments on posts, but The chat funnels, the, and Manychat can connect into more than just the post.

    It can also, is the posts, the reels, the stories, the DMs, the Instagram lives, when people mention you in their story, when you use a reveal sticker and someone has to type a word in order to reveal the image, there are various different ways in which you can trigger those conversations. It doesn't just have to be on a post.
    So, you know, but essentially if you, you know, Think about, do I need to have a big account to use this? No, [00:15:00] you certainly don't, you need an engaged audience and that also, but that also comes down to your organic strategy as well, but, you know, separately to chat funnels, you need to have an Instagram, you know, strategy for putting out, you know, engaging Instagram content that you ordinarily you want people to to watch and engage with regardless of whether you have a chat funnel attached or not.
    And, and if you've got that by having a chat funnel attached to that to give away your, you know, your freebies, your offers, build your list, whatever you need it for, that will just amplify your existing engagement and your reach.
    So, you know, by getting to people comment on the posts or to send you into the, send them into the DMS or reply to a story, your content is, is instantly being, being magnified in that way because it is playing to the algorithm. The follower numbers, Well, excuse me, are not important. It's actually more to do with your content and how you're utilizing that content to maximize your reach [00:16:00] and reach your potential followers and customers.

    Teresa:

    And also taking something off your plate, which is business owners. That is so flipping key that we are able to bring things in that will help engagement and help sales and help conversions without you having to actually do the thing yourself in real time, because that is hard. Okay, so talk to me about the, so I've been in many chats, I've had to look around you, I've done work with you on it, and you're right, it's really lovely to look at and really like, I, things like that matter to me, like it needs to be intuitive and it is, which is great.

    The thing that I think people are going to get stuck with, so I want you to answer this in kind of two ways. So I think people are going to get stuck with how do I attach it to the thing, my CRM. I want you to talk us through a funnel that doesn't have to attach, right? And then touch on the How hard is it to get it to attach?

    Mel:

    So, [00:17:00] essentially, in order to, integrate it with your CRM, there are, ManyChat does have native integrations, but what I generally tell clients to do, and what I do for clients, is to set up Zapier. Or the other and another integration kind of platform that provides the bridge between the two. I personally use make, but I tend to use Zapier for clients.

    And that is quite simple to set up within Zapier. You attach your many chat is the trigger. And then your CRM is obviously the action towards the end. So that is, is actually quite simple. Do you have to send people to your CRM all the time? No, you don't. If you were actually just starting out and you didn't have an email, system at all.
    ManyChat does have native email, which then keeps them all within the ManyChat platform. So, you wouldn't need to provide that bridge. However, I think you would probably

    37 min
  • Has the online course bubble burst? How to adapt to the future of selling knowledge based content.

    Is there still money to be made from selling online courses? A while ago, online business expert Pat Flynn argued that online courses are in decline due to oversaturation, low completion rates, and the availability of free information online. He’s not wrong but in this episode of the podcast I offer my own insights on the future of online courses and strategies for course creators, membership owners, and coaches to adapt to the many changes that are happening in the online business space.

     

    KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST


     

    If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to

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    and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

     

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    Transcript

    Are online courses dead? They are oversaturated. People aren't completing them and sales are low. And let's face it, you can get free information anywhere on the internet. And with AI, do we really need to buy another online course? And if you're a course creator, Is it even still a viable business? Today, I discuss all of these things.
    Pat Flynn did a YouTube video a few months back that talked about why he is stopping selling knowledge based things. And I am going to unpack the things that he said and also give you my opinion on what I think about what he said. Do I think horses are dead or do I think there are some things that we can do to help combat some of the really valid points that he shared?
    Whether you're a course creator, membership owner, or a coach, this is going to give you a really valuable insight to the online industry and what is happening right now. And some of the things that you can do to help ensure that you maximize your sales and create products and [00:01:00] services that your customers are going to want to engage with.
    And most importantly, gives them the transformation that they're looking for. This is not an episode to be missed.
    Welcome to the Your Dream Business Podcast. I'm your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. An international bestselling author, award winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast.
    I am so excited to guide you on the journey of creating a business and life that you not only love, but one that perfectly aligns with you and the season of life that you're in. In each episode, I'll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your online business. Plus we'll be diving into some mindset tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated, and are going to stop you from getting in your own way.
    So if you're a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you are in the right place. Let's get started.
    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of your dream business podcast. [00:02:00] I'm Teresa Heath Wareing, your host, and I'm here to help course creators, membership owners, and coaches grow their online businesses.

    Teresa:

    We have so many people come into the online space, the space that I've been in for 10 years now, and yet, so few of them seem to grow it to where they replace their done for you and one to one income or give themselves a substantial income that they are hoping for. So my job with this podcast is to help you grow an online business to the level that you want it, be it five figures, six figures, seven figures, or even more.

    So today's episode is all about online courses. and the possible demise of them. Let me explain. I have become a bit of a YouTube fan. Rather than sitting down and putting the TV on and watching normal TV or binging Netflix, I appear to just be watching YouTube stuff. Now, don't judge me, but my husband and I love a bit of homesteading stuff.
    So [00:03:00] we watch a lot of that. And if it's just me on my own, I often watch business stuff or personal development stuff. And A couple of months back, I was watching some videos, which surprisingly, it's taken me this long to do a podcast about it, but I think it's really useful to do it. It was a YouTube video from Pat Flynn that was titled stop selling info and do this instead.
    And basically why he thinks courses are dead. So what I'm going to do in today's episode is I am going to take you through what he said. I'm going to give you my opinion, and I'm also going to give you my thoughts and some of his thoughts around. what you should do instead if courses are dead. And even if you're not currently selling courses or have no plans to, I really think this is still going to be super interesting because it actually talks about the shifts that have happened in the online space and why they may affect different things that we do as online business owners.
    So one of the first things he talks about is the fact that people aren't buying online courses [00:04:00] anymore. Now I have a saying in the club, which is you don't need another course. So I am almost backing him up with his theory here of you don't need another course, stop buying online courses. I have bought my fair share of online courses.
    I have sold a fair share of online courses and I have helped Many, many, many, many business owners sell their online courses too. And what Pat was saying and the, the graph he showed was that during the pandemic, his courses hit an all time high in sales. Now I can attest to that, that during the pandemic, the online business space really thrived because.
    Suddenly the whole world is online and therefore it made perfect sense that we were going to suddenly do a lot more online stuff and this attracted a whole load of new people in to the space and they discovered the online world so during the pandemic I did not at any point put my feet up and furlough myself.
    I [00:05:00] worked really hard because it was super, super busy. And then what he showed was after the pandemic, his sales dropped dramatically. Now, I also concur to this because not only, and I think this is the key thing, not only is it that the core sales dropped, I think online stuff in general dropped. And there are many reasons for this.
    One of them is that we had spent the last year or two online and people were tired of doing online stuff. They were tired of Zoom meetings and courses and sitting at their computer 24 hours a day. Although I have to say, interestingly enough, I ran some in person events after the pandemic and they weren't working as well as they were used to either.
    So honestly, I think the whole industry and business and marketing in general was going through a real change and shift, but basically it has [00:06:00] decreased. People who buy online stuff has decreased, but I don't want you to worry about that for the time being. So let me go on to one of his other points as to why he feels like courses are dead.
    People don't complete them. And again, this is exactly coming back to my, we don't need another course because people buy courses and, and we're really good at selling them. Okay. People in the online space are very clever. We have some really cool marketing tactics that basically sell an online course, like it's going to be the dream and it's going to fix all your problems.
    But the truth is, you have to do the work. And I don't just mean go through the course, which it's a thing in itself. I mean, actually then take action on the stuff that you've learned and people aren't doing it. In fact, the stats for people in the online space, completing courses is really low, like three, four or 5%.
    Like, Not very high at all. Those are the people who [00:07:00] fully complete a course. So if you imagine if someone is selling a course, they sell a hundred places. There is a really small amount of people who are actually doing the work. And the thing is, if you're a course creator, you want people to do the work because if people do the work, then you get testimonials.
    Then you get to prove your concept and then you get to help sell some more. So those were two of his kind of big points. The other thing he talked about, which is a really fair point, is it's saturated. The information industry is completely saturated. When I started my online business back in, well I don't know what year it was, but it was 10 years ago.
    I should be able to work that out. Quick maths, 2004. No, 2014. Oh my goodness. 2014. That's right. It's 2024. Hey, listen, you're not here for my math skills. FYI. When I started my business, it was unknown. Like in the UK in particular, this online thing was really like, what is [00:08:00] this? And I actually would say in parts of the UK, It is similar.
    Like there is still, there is still parts and industries and people in the UK that still don't know about the online business world. However, it is way more saturated than it used to be. But more importantly, it's It's not that the online world is saturated. It's the fact that the knowledge is saturated.
    As I said at the beginning of this episode, I watch a lot of YouTube. I learn a lot of things on YouTube and that's the truth we have available to us. I mean, it's a wonderful, amazing place we live in where we can literally just YouTube something and find out how to do it or what it is or why it's important.
    So there is very little information out there that is not available for free. So you can go and like this podcast, I've done 300, what is this? 364 episodes. There is so much content out there. So one, it's completely free and there is so much available to see, but also we have AI [00:09:00] like. this wondrous wizardrous thing that we can just type into AI and say, please tell me this, please give me this, what is this?
    So the landscape is not the same as it was. And that I agree with, I agree with the landscape has changed. The online course sales were going up, they hit a peak in pandemic. They've been tracking down since I, he proved it with his graph and he's very honest about his results. I get that people don't complete them.
    I totally unbordered that. And we live in an age of information where we can find out anything. So with all that being said. What did Pat say? And what are my thoughts on what we have to do? Because if that is the case, what is there for us to do? Well, actually the good news is for those of us who really care about our audience and really care about them achieving things and getting results and having the transformation, [00:10:00] which is a hundred percent me.
    And I'm sure because you listened to this podcast, it's a hundred percent you. The good news is we can still do things in order to help our audience do that. We just need to tweak the way we do them. So we are less likely to be able to make a huge amount of money by just doing evergreen, set it and forget it stuff.
    Create a course, sell it over and over and over and over again. Now I'm not saying people won't buy it. Absolutely people might buy it, but are they going to complete it? Possibly not. Have I done the same myself? Absolutely. I am really strict now on what I buy and I only buy very specific things that I need and that is something I talk about in the club and in my accelerator programs where they have access to me.
    I say, unless it is something very specific, we are not creating another course as in I am not giving them another course. I am only delivering content. So for instance, at the time of recording this, we had someone come in and talk about productivity because it's [00:11:00] who I work with and they're amazing.
    We've got someone coming in to talk about chatbots. In fact, there is an episode very quickly, I think it's next week, in fact, talking about chatbots because it's a really cool strategy and we should be looking at it. We might have someone come in and talk about very specific things where we have a gap of knowledge.
    I am not just putting out a course in, in my stuff just for the sake of teaching them stuff. So what are we going to do if people can get information? If they're not completing the courses, we need to go back to why are they buying them in the first place? And the truth is they want a transformation. And what Pat calls it is we need to give them implementation.
    Instead of just straight up giving them access to the information, they don't need information, they need implementation. And what I call it is the transformation. Because they're buying the course to have a transformation, but the problem is they are not implementing what they are given in the course, so they're [00:12:00] not getting the transformation.
    So what we need to enable people to do is to help them with the transformation, help them achieve the thing that we want them to do. And That is the, that's the key bit really is helping them achieve the thing that they want to do and giving them more help in doing that than just producing a course. So what are some of the things that you can do other than maybe just a course?
    So I've got a few options for you and some of these I have done, some of them I do. So we have got the live course element because in order to get the transformation, they need a few different things. And this is why I've always been a fan of I have an accelerator program where they get one to one calls with me.
    I have a membership where you get to get on a coaching call with me. I do one to one work. I do have some courses, but also I do a lot of paid masterclasses and challenge and paid workshops where they get to ask me questions because [00:13:00] one of the things that people are missing when they buy an online course is the ability to individualize the content to their particular case.
    So just because I would do a process for a lead magnet, okay, that process will work no matter what industry you're in and no matter who your customers are. However, there are certain things that I would do differently based on different industries and different people and different customers. So what they're not able to do with the course, and one of the ways I want you to think about it, is how can you individualize or how can you match the content better to the person consuming it?
    Because what we want to know always is if someone's got a really good idea, we want to go, but will that work for me? And in able to say, will that work for me? It means You need to understand who I am, what my, who my customers are and what I offer them, and then match the information you have about the [00:14:00] thing against those things and tell me what is going to work best.
    So they're missing that. They're missing the fact to match it to them and where they are. The other thing that they're missing when they buy an online course is they're missing the accountability aspect. So the fact of Okay, first off, this course is going to work perfectly for you, but this is what I would tweak.
    And secondly, when are you going to take the action and do the thing? And then the final thing that they could be missing is the review part of it. Because as we know, if you are in the online space, everything is a trial and error and we need to look at it as a trial and error. We need to look at it as, how can I learn from this thing?
    What can I achieve from doing something, whether it's the result I wanted or not, what have I learned from it? So those three things I think are the things that you can't get when you buy an off the shelf online course with no other bits other than just work through the course yourself. You don't get the individual, [00:15:00] individualization.
    God, it's so hard for me to say that. to you and your business. You don't get the accountability and the taking action bit and you don't get the reviewing the results to see if it works. So how can you create a course that is going to do those things? So one of the things that you can do is create a live course.
    Now, this is something I have done a number of times. I had built my list, which was a list building course. And it was over the first time I ran, it was over 10 days. I nearly killed them. It was a lot of work over 10 days. Then I ran it over three weeks. Then I ran it over a bit longer because every time I ran it, I learned.
    And that's the other thing. If you are sat there thinking you just want to create a course, having never sold it before, and you want to literally just sell it over and over, that's really not the most awesome of ideas because you're going to need to test it. What do people want? What are they resonating with?
    What aren't they resonating with? What is missing? What questions are they asking that your course is not [00:16:00] doing? So actually running a live course just generally is really good practice, but that is a way that you can hold them accountable. You can personalize the information to them and their business, and you can help them review it.
    So live courses are really, really good. The other thing a live course does is it gives them an element of community, which is the other thing that they might not get when they buy a course. So if they are buying an off the shelf course, an evergreen thing, where they just purchased it themselves, you have no community in that.
    And again, one of the things that helps people get results is that accountability, which I said already, but the accountability with their peers, as well as. with you who is helping them run the course. So like I said, live courses that are either over a set period of time or, and this doesn't have to be three weeks, three days, 10 days, whatever.
    This could be months. This could be a 12 month program. In fact, something I'm working on at the moment will give support over 12 months. [00:17:00] The other thing that you can do, which I have done a few times, quite a few times is one off kind of workshops or masterclasses that are paid. So let's say you're teaching something that is a bit shorter or where you want people to actually take the action and do the thing.
    Then a workshop or a paid masterclass can be really, really good paid for both. Obviously you're gonna have to bear in mind that, you know, how many hours is it going to be? Are you going to do anything beforehand or after? Are you going to give any individual stuff or is this all group? But it's a really nice way of bringing someone into your world, teaching them something, but also helping them to take action.
    And again, the most important thing in all of this action taking is that you get testimonials or they get the results. That's the most important thing, they get the transformation, but then you're able to get testimonials from it to say to people, look, I do know what I'm talking about, and I am getting these results for people.
    And finally, another way is memberships. And. [00:18:00] I am having some interesting thoughts at the moment, which I will put in a podcast at some point soon around memberships and what's working and what isn't. I'm doing some tests and...

    23 min
  • How to maintain the human touch when using AI to grow your business

    Can AI really help you grow your business? And can it ever really be used with integrity so that the output sounds like you and feels authentic? These are some of the big questions I ask my latest podcast guest Michelle Thames. She’s a marketing expert and knows all there is to know about AI. In this brand new episode she shares her top tips for saving time and money with AI whilst maintaining a human touch.

     

    KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST


     

    If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to

    Apple podcasts

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    Spotify

    and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

     

    LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

    Connect with Michelle on

    Instagram

    ,

    Facebook

    Connect with Teresa on

    Website

    ,

    The Club

    ,

    Sign up to Teresa's email list

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    Instagram

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    Transcript

    Teresa:

    [00:00:00] If you're a business owner, you literally can't go. a couple of posts without someone talking about AI and what it can do for our business. But is it really true? Can using AI save us loads of time, loads of money, and most importantly, without it looking like it's AI? Because that's the thing, isn't it? We don't want AI written stuff and images that look like they've been made with AI.

    Can it really do that stuff? So today I am talking to the lovely Michelle Thames, who is a marketing expert, who is a passionate fan of AI and what it can do for our businesses. So we get into the weeds of using AI for marketing, what kind of things you can get it to do and how most importantly, you can get it to sound like you and not a robot.
    Hello, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I am Terese Heath- Wareing, your host. And I am so glad you've decided to spend your time listening to me today. I'm guessing you're doing something else while listening. I always do. So in the morning, when I get ready, I always have my phone propped up in my bathroom and I am listening or watching.
    I'm really into watching YouTube at the moment. I'm learning things to do with the business, to do with [00:02:00] myself. I actually, just as a side note, by the way, I have my human design done. wondering if anyone else has had theirs done, come and DM me if you have. And if you love it, I love all this kind of stuff.
    Now someone is probably sat there going, what's human design? And I'm going to start to explain it. And you're probably going to go, what really? But you know, I'm into like, you know, I like a bit of woo. I don't mind this stuff. So human design is based on the time, the place and the date in which you were born.
    That's as much as I can tell you because I'm not an expert, but I'm a projector. Okay. So if you are an expert in human design or you have done your own, just so you know, I'm a projector, come and tell me what you are. So I've been watching a lot of them on YouTube at the moment, explaining to me what it means. Anyway.
    So I'm guessing as you're listening to this, you are doing something else. So again, why not come and DM me and tell me or comment on one of my posts and tell me where you listen to the podcast. Cause I like to know, cause I'm very naturally nosy, which is good. Because I interview people and that's quite a [00:03:00] helpful skill.
    Okay. Today we have an interview, which is awesome. Now, a couple of weeks back, we had Holly on talking about AI and it was general AI just talking about, you know, what it does and what it is and, and big AI and fancy AI and all that sort of thing. And today I have the lovely Michelle Thames on. Now, Michelle is a marketing trailblazer, an acclaimed podcast and a trusted monetization strategist with a passion for empowering women entrepreneurs.
    She has established herself as a dominant voice in the digital marketing space. Michelle also spoke at my summit, so I had her to come and speak at the summit, and she talked about AI at the summit, and that's where I wanted her back on, but she's going to talk about AI in a very different way, she is going to talk about marketing and AI, so we are going to dive much deeper into how is it saving us time, how can it save us money, I have to say, if you've listened for a while, you know, I've been in this space for a very long time.
    I [00:04:00] did my degree in marketing 20 years ago and have worked in marketing my entire life. And the stuff that AI can do now would have cost thousands years ago, not even that many years ago, like literally two, three years ago, it would have cost so much money.
    As business owners I think we often kind of go, it's hard and things are hard and it is hard. Boy is some of this stuff easier than it ever was. So I for one, I'm very grateful, but Michelle has basically built her marketing agency and her marketing business on using AI and she uses it for so many things. So in this episode today, we are going to dive into What AI can do for our business, how we can use it for marketing and how we make sure it doesn't always sound like AI.
    Cause that is one of the downfalls to it, is that sometimes we can spot AI very quickly. So I really think you're going to enjoy this episode. She has some really useful tips. [00:05:00] If you find it useful, I would love to hear it. Please go and check out Michelle as well. We will make sure we hook up to all of the links in the show notes, which you can find them at teresaheathwareing.com/363. Here is the lovely Michelle.
    Michelle, welcome to the podcast.

    Michelle:

    I'm so excited to be here. So excited to chat today.

    Teresa:

    Me too. Me too. So I always thought the podcast the same way and I keep saying I'm going to change it and I will change it, but I haven't got, got round to that.

    So let's start as I normally do, by you explaining who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today.

    Michelle:

    Yes. I am Michelle Thames. I'm from Chicago. It is the windy city, but it's beautiful in the summer. I am a marketing strategist and business coach and how I got started is really crazy. I actually have a background in healthcare administration.

    You know, I went to school, got a job like they say, do, you know, go to school, get a job and worked in healthcare, but it wasn't for me, unfortunately, unfortunately, I was fired from my job in [00:06:00] healthcare and it really pushed me into my passions. And so I was already blogging on the side, doing beauty blogging and really figuring out this digital world.
    Back in 2008, 2009, we're like, this was all so new to people. And I got the opportunity and was found online because of my blog and everything to work for a beauty brand that was up and coming. And I got to help them build their social media foundation, their digital foundation, everything from email, social, digital, influencer marketing.
    I got to learn so many different things. And I was like, oh my goodness, I could totally like do this for myself too and do this for more people. And so I started a marketing agency with my husband and that's where I am today. And I also help women build businesses online, whether that's you're a solopreneur, whether you're an author, you are a dentist and you want to create a brand like building a personal brand in today's age, it's like something really amazing that we can do and we can make money being ourselves.
    So I like to equip people with those skills and say, Hey, you can monetize off your skills and expertise, but you have to be able to market [00:07:00] yourself too. So I do a little bit of everything on a podcast just like you, but that's, that's who I am.

    Teresa:

    So there's a couple of things I want to pick up on that first off. You and your husband working together. Was that scary? Well, there's a couple of questions I've got like, first off, both of you going into a business and therefore I'm assuming no other income coming into the house. Was that terrifying? And secondly, how do you manage working with your husband?

    Michelle:

    Yeah, no, I really love working with my husband.

    He loves social media, just like me. It's really crazy. We're like marketing nerds and it was scary. I'm not even going to lie, but I had asked my husband, could I quit my job? And he told me that I totally could. I was like, you know what? I got a plan. We're going to be fine. I just like, believe that, you know, we're going to have faith.
    And like, what we're going to put into is going to work. He used to work in education. So he was a teacher and it was just really stressful. And one day he came home. He was like, I don't, I don't think I can do this anymore. And I was like, Quit. We'll figure it out. And we've been figuring it out for the last, he has been home three years, and I've been doing this for [00:08:00] five years full time.
    So we've been figuring it out. And like, yes, it's scary, but I kind of feel like you have to know that you have something and know that it'll just be fine. Like, everything will be okay. If you really have that mindset, like, I know people say like positivity, but no, really say, okay, I know it's going to work out.
    I am diligently working towards this and it's going to be fine. Like, I feel like this is what we're supposed to be doing. I really love marketing and he really loves marketing too. And we really help. We really love helping people get their business visible and like helping them get new clients. It's like a high, like that you can't get anywhere else.

    Teresa:

    I love that. And, and I think there is something about we need to work it out, which means you work it out. I think when it's optional, it feels optional when it's like, I need to pay my mortgage. I am going to make this work. There is no greater motivation. Is there?

    Michelle:

    None? Because it's like, yeah, I could go back to a nine to five, right?

    But I don't want to do that. And that is okay. Okay. It's okay. People do that. It is okay. If you're a part [00:09:00] time, but like, this is all that we do have. And so people, yes, it is me and my husband. So yes, it is one income, right? We're all, it's the family business. So it is like a different type of mindset. I'm like going hard every day.
    Like, well, okay. I've got to reach out to leads. I got to follow up with these people. Make sure I post on social media, make sure I keep up with the clients that I currently have. Putting myself out there speaking, getting on podcasts like this. It is a strategic plan every day. Yes. So there is no other choice.

    Teresa:

    Yeah. Yeah. I love that. We want to talk about, or one of the things that you talk about is AI, and I want to talk about that. However, I want to talk, I just want to ask you something else first. It's kind of like, obviously, you know, and both of us are from a marketing background, we both do marketing. I want to get your take at the moment on social media because you are so passionate about social media.

    It has worked so successfully for you. I personally, at this point, I have a, I'm having a real like, ugh. Like that noise just describes it like, uh, with social media. [00:10:00] And I am wondering, do you think it's still working? Is it still working? What are people doing wrong? How can they make it work? What just where do you, and I know this wasn't one of the questions I was going to ask you, but now I'm just picking your brains.
    What are your thoughts on it? Like, am I right to think, Oh God, it's hard or am I just not doing it right?

    Michelle:

    No, this is good. This is a good question. And no, I think all of us are feeling like, uh, but the truth of the matter is it definitely still works. Here's the thing, me and you, we have taken time to build a community of people.

    We have followers that's that huge number, right, 400, 000, whatever. None of those 30, 000 people are probably your ideal person or part of your community. So we really focus on building community and really digging deep to the clients and customers that we already have and getting repeat customers, you'll be fine.
    Because I work with big brands and what we do is we focus on the customers and [00:11:00] clients that are always showing up, that are always buying, that are VIP clients. They're going to always tell more people, but you have to build a community and care about the actual people. A lot of people care about that big follower number, which means nothing because there's influences with 4 million who can't get 20 people to an event.
    I've sold out of free events. I've sold out of events that cost money. I've had people show up to my, I mean, I have 30, 000 followers. I don't think that's like a huge, massive number considering how long I've been online. But I feel like what I have done is built a community.
    And so yes. Instagram is like changing. It's like, uh, but I feel like if we just show up and create the content that we want and like stop the oh, it has to be 20 seconds, this whatever, like fit into a mold and just be ourselves. And because I was thinking about a video that I want to post, I'm going to go to a concert.
    I want to post how I had fun as a millennial because that's who I am, right? I'm building a personal brand. I think. We can take off the, like, it has to be so rigid and just have fun with [00:12:00] it. And like the clients will come if we focus on community. So I feel you girl, like, and everybody's feeling this way.
    Instagram is like, Oh, but if we don't show up, then it's like, we won't get, we won't build the clients, especially organic. We can always run ads to things, but having that organic foundation, I think. is this. And let's just, you know, think about like why we're doing it. We don't even have to show up every day or feel the pressure to either.

    Teresa:

    I think, I so love what you just said. I think creating the content you want to create. I love that. I think too many people, and I remember hearing it was an influencer. It was someone talking at an event and they had a ginormous account and they were saying, don't just jump on the latest trend to get followers and to get views because you're going to attract people that aren't your people.

    And if, and this is the whole point, and I think you're so right where people just get swayed by the numbers. They just think, Oh, I really wish I had that many followers. I really wish. And you know, and [00:13:00] I know we can look at an account that has loads of numbers and their engagement is on the floor for the size of the account.
    Right? So I think one. Embracing the what do I want to post, I think is really, really helpful to me right now, because I feel this pressure. So I used to have a social media manager and the social media manager stopped doing done for you services. And basically since then I haven't replaced her. So I am technically doing my own social media, which is laughable because that's what I used to do as a service.
    Like I used to do this. And now when it comes to my own, I'm like, I don't want to do it. And I don't know what to do. And I'm struggling to, like, I can teach this stuff all day long. I can support someone else doing it all day long, doing it for yourself, very different.
    So I think the whole kind of like, well, actually what do I want to post for starters? Whereas I think probably I've been overthinking of, oh, I need to be doing this type of content and this type of content. And then of course I go and research other people's content and then think, oh, well, they did this.
    I probably need to do this. And also it's about loving on those [00:14:00] people. And it's about building a community. It's not about, you know, woo, I got X amount of views or X amount of follows off the back of something great. Move on to the next thing is about actually, am I really appreciating the people that are in there?
    And. And I think this is the beauty of having a smaller account. When someone is starting off, you can do that personal outreach. You can get to know them. You can follow them. You can see their content. You can engage with them. When you, yours must be a really hard account, well, much harder now to manage given the size of the account compared to what it was.

    Michelle:

    Oh yeah. No, you mean my, my Instagram? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I have 37, 000, but I feel like that's not like super huge where I can't manage it. Like, I get messages every day, but I feel like, number one, like you said, I make connections with those people. Now, one of my clients has 147, 000 on our Instagram account, and yes, like, that's, you know, It takes like a team to manage something like that.

    So like, yeah, I think if it does get to the size, but you [00:15:00] never want this because of the size of the account of the customer service or like how the brand or how you respond to go down because then if that goes, the whole ship goes down. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it needs to be like, and we have to think about, Oh, don't think about people are DMing me.
    That person could be DMing you because they're trying to work with you. Like, yes, respond.

    Teresa:

    I think you're right. I think that's the other thing. Like I actively encourage people to DM me and I actively respond to them. And I, you know, my account's teeny tiny, but you know, I remember watching Jasmine Star years ago and someone, she stood on stage and she was talking about outsourcing and she was saying, I outsource the things I can outsource.

    So I outsource stuff like admin. I outsource stuff like tech stuff. And, She said, I personally manage my own account and that at the point was like hundreds of thousands and someone asked her a question and they were like, well, the account, you know, my account is really busy. It wasn't as big as, [00:16:00] uh, and I just don't have time to respond to all these people.
    So can I just get someone else to do it? And she's like, You respond to the people. Yeah, but I get a lot of DMs and she went, you respond to the people. And she was really like, I loved it. Cause it was like, if Jasmine Starr can do it, you can do it. Like, you know, and I think people are a bit like, Oh, DMs, but hang on.
    If that person, if you had a shot, that would be the equivalent to someone walking through the door. What are you going to be like, Oh God, will you just leave? It's really irritating. So, yeah, I love that. I love that.

    Michelle:

    And you can use automations too. So, ManyChat, right? If you don't have the time, we're

    41 min
  • Five Proven Steps to Achieve a Multi Six-Figure Online Business
    In this episode I share five essential steps to grow a successful multi six-figure online business. With over 10 years of experience helping businesses scale, I’m able to share the 5 key steps that all these businesses have taken to achieve their financial goals (and beyond!)
    I’ll bring in elements of my personal journey and adjustments I’m currently making in my business which will hopefully give you inspiration for your own. Listen now to start implementing the 5 step formula you need to take your online business to the next level.
    KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
    1. Demonstrate Expertise: Establish yourself as an authority in your niche by creating high-quality, long-form content.
    2. Build Visibility: Utilize strategic outreach, social media, and networking to increase your visibility and reach your target audience.
    3. Nurture Your Email List: Build a strong email list and nurture relationships with your subscribers to drive conversions.
    4. Craft a Compelling Offer: Create a valuable and irresistible offer that addresses your target audience's needs and desires.
    5. Master Launch Strategies: Develop effective launch strategies to maximize sales and generate buzz around your products or services.

      6.  
      If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.
       
      LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
      September 2024 Masterclass
      Long-Form Content: Your Secret Weapon to grow your business
      How to become more visible and grow your audience
      Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
      Transcript
      If you are looking to grow your online business, then this episode is for you. If you are a course creator, a membership owner, or a coach, and you have an online business, then I am going to be sharing with you the five proven steps to achieve a multi six figure online business. Over the last 10 years in business I have helped hundreds of business owners grow their online business, not just launch it, but grow it and earn the money that they want to earn from their online business. So they can either stop doing one to one or stop doing done for you work. The five things that I share in this episode are the five things that I see in every successful online business.
      They have these things. And they are going to be essential in you growing yours.
      Hello and a really warm welcome back to another episode of Your Dream Business podcast. As always, I'm your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. And if you are an online business owner, a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you are absolutely in the right place. Because in this podcast, I share tricks and tips and tools and strategies all around growing your online business.
      And what makes me qualified to do so? [00:02:00] Well, I have a degree in marketing. I've spent the last 20 years in marketing, last 10 of them in my own business, running my own online business. I have helped business owners hit multiple six figures in their business, have hugely successful launches and grow their list and their visibility.
      And that's what I'm here to help you with too. So today I actually feel like, well, I feel like in my business, we're doing a bit of a not a reset as such. We've had a few changes. A few things are being tweaked. I've brought up some new team members. Um, um, some new things are on their way. I'm going to be doing YouTube soon and we're trying out some different things with chatbots and various other things.
      And like I said, I'm getting some help because I'm getting increasingly busy. So, um, We are having a bit of a review of the business because obviously as I bring on new people, I want to tell them where the business is at and what we're doing and what we're trying to achieve and all that good stuff. And one of the things that I'm doing is reviewing the content I put out there and who I'm putting it out for.[00:03:00]
      And some of the content I'm creating is actually for a masterclass that I'm doing this week. So if you are listening to this episode in and around the day it comes out, which is the 2nd of September, then luckily you are in time to because on the 5th of September, I am running a masterclass called five proven steps to achieve a multi six figure business online, even if you think you've tried everything before.
      So in doing the presentation for that and getting that together, I have kind of honed in my content and come up with a framework Because it's so much easier for me to, frameworks are great because it helps me keep focused on my content, but also it helps other people remember that there's five steps to something and therefore what are those key steps and are they doing them?
      So what I thought I would do in this episode is give you a little sneak peek into what that content is. And obviously, if you join me for the masterclass on Thursday, it's free, it's live, you can ask me questions, then I will be going into more depth. [00:04:00] So what are the five steps that we need to have an online business, a successful growing online business?
      And I just want to back up a minute because I think I've talked before on the podcast, but I am going to say again about why I am focusing on the growing aspect of an online business. I believe there are lots of people who come into this space who are setting up online businesses with the dream of having an online business, serving lots of people, having a bigger audience, having a one to many.
      Proposition, which basically means you create one thing and many people buy it rather than one to one, i. e. if you're a one to one coach or a done for you service. So let's say you're a marketer and you currently do people's marketing for them. And instead you would like to transition through to a membership where you teach people or where you coach people to do it.
      So I see a ton of people coming into this space all the time. And what's [00:05:00] interesting is There are very few that really hit big, big incomes in this space. Now, I want to caveat that with one thing. Not everyone wants to earn a big income in this space, and that's fine. I'm not saying you have to, I'm not saying that that is part of being successful, but there are a lot of people who want to earn more than they are currently earning.
      One of the things that I hear a lot is I want to earn what I did when I worked. But without having a boss. So often people have come from a, an employee's job or a corporate job, and they want their business to bring them in the money that they used to earn being employed, but without having a boss. And what I'm seeing is lots of people moving into this space of having an online business, but then not many of them succeeding to getting the online business to where they want it to be, i. e. bring in the money they want it to bring in.
      And like I said, that doesn't have to be, you know, millions and millions, millions that could just be [00:06:00] covering their income. Obviously I'm talking about six figures and beyond because that is a really good way of me showing credibility. Like if I can do that, if you want to earn 50, 000, then I can definitely help you with that.
      So like I said, that's why I've kind of really focused on, okay, let me help people because that's the bit I'm really good at doing. And I think, again, if you've followed me for a while, you know that I Certified as a coach a few years back. And I talked a lot about mindset, but actually what I think you're going to see going forward is a lot more strategic advice.
      Now I am forever grateful that I have a certification in coaching and I know all about mindset and I have all these tools and strategies in my toolkit that I can whip out at any point when working with either my accelerator people who are my group program. So there's normally between six and 10 of these people and they get individual calls with me, they get group calls with me.
      And what's lovely is if I am helping them with a strategy and [00:07:00] suggesting they do something and I see a block coming up, then I'm able to work through that block. Whereas I guess, I guess that's probably one of the things that is my, I don't know, USP, my superpower is that obviously you tend to have strategic people who tell you what to do, or you have mindset people who coach you and work with you, whereas I can put the two together.
      And you need the two together, FYI, because I am proof of that. I had all the strategic stuff and I still didn't do the stuff I needed to do. Anyway, so my content was very much kind of mindset y content and then some strategy, but I was literally just looking back at all my episodes in 2023 and it was a lot of mindset.
      And I needed that for those of you who might be new to my world. I spent 2023 getting sober. And I am still sober, thank goodness. And that was a big journey and a big thing for me to do. And I was going through a lot of mindset stuff myself, which I think is why, which makes perfect sense, why I then shared a lot of mindset stuff.
      However, [00:08:00] like I said, I'm pulling it back to strategy. I'm bringing out the mindset when I need to, but my zone of genius is strategy. I have a degree in marketing. I've spent all these years in marketing. I know what I'm talking about in this space. So what are these five things that you need to do these five steps in order to achieve a multi six figure online business, or just put in a figure that you want, but basically you are not there now and you are trying to get there.
      There are five key things that I'm going to be sharing in the masterclass on Thursday, the fifth that you need in place in order to help grow your online business. And I want to talk them through really quickly here with you. But like I said, on the masterclass, we'll go into more detail. Okay. Step one, you need to demonstrate your expertise.
      And what I mean by that is you need content. Now we live in such a different world than, I mean, the online space is like, Nothing like I've known when I first did my [00:09:00] degree or when I first started working in marketing, the online space is very different. And one of the things we have to do is demonstrate our expertise.
      We have to show that we know what we are talking about. And a couple of episodes back, I will make sure I link up to it in the show notes. I talked about why you need long form content, and this is what I'm talking about. Number one, step one in the five steps is demonstrating expertise. And by doing that, it's creating long form content, long form content, being a podcast or a YouTube video or a blog, something that demonstrates to me that you know what you are talking about. Then You can take short form off it and you can use the long form content to post on social media and do various other things like that.
      But step one, you must demonstrate expertise. It makes perfect sense. If I'm going to buy something from you, then I need to know that you're good at it. Okay. So you need to show me and give me confidence and build that know, like, and trust by step one, [00:10:00] having that demonstrating expertise, which like I said, the best place you can do that is long form content.
      Step two. Becoming visible. So with step one, you are hopefully going to attract some people into your world. If you are doing good at SEO, if you are doing a good job of promoting things on social media, maybe you're running ads, then great. That is going to get you a bit of something. And the dream of putting something out there and hoping it goes viral.
      You know, I've not had it happen. I've not seen it happen for many people. So yes, we are going to track some people by demonstrating our expertise, but what we need to then do is become visible. So step two is becoming visible. I have talked about visibility a few times. We've done an episode on it, so I will make sure we link to that in the show notes.
      FYI, to see the show notes, they are on the app that you're listening to this. Or if you go to teresaheathwareing.com/362, then you will find the show notes. [00:11:00] So where was I? Okay. Yeah. So becoming visible is super, super important. Like I said, I've done a whole episode on that.
      We'll link to it. But the visibility piece is so important because otherwise, how do you get people in front of you? How do you get seen by your perfect customers? And FYI, that's kind of a given. You need to understand who your perfect customer is. How do you get in front of them? What are the strategies that you can do?
      So. When you get visible, you're already demonstrating your expertise because people wouldn't have you on their podcast or on their stage or writing a blog for them if you hadn't already proved that you know what you're talking about. So that demonstrating expertise, that long form content is really going to help when you're becoming visible because people are going to look at you and go, Oh no, they do know what they're talking about. Look at what they've created.
      FYI, this isn't necessarily the order in which you should do things. I'm not sat here saying, spend two months on demonstrating experts, spend a month on visibility, a month on the next thing, not the case. [00:12:00] So all of these kind of need to be done at the same time, which feels a little bit overwhelming, but.
      Don't get overwhelmed. So becoming visible, you need to get seen. So we've talked about, like I said, getting on people's podcasts, standing on people's stages, doing guest blogging, making connections with people, doing collaborations. How can you get visible, so other people can start to discover who you are and what you do?
      And then again, let's say you've stood on a stage and you've talked about something, then hopefully someone will then come to your site or come to your social media and realize that you are an expert because you are demonstrating expertise. Number three is effective list building. So this is almost kind of the, the bridge from the people just knowing who you are to the people potentially buying from you.
      You need to basically take people from knowing who you are and trusting that you're an expert to then getting on your email list. I can talk about this [00:13:00] all day, every day, you know, for 365 days a year. List building is so, so, so important. You don't own your social media. You don't own the platforms that you're on.
      You will own your email list. So when you're demonstrating expertise and when you're becoming visible, you should be doing everything to put those people onto your email list. And when I talk about an effective list building strategy, I talk about. What lead magnets have you got? How do they connect to the content that you're doing?
      Where are you promoting those lead magnets? Where are you sharing that people can get on your list? And it's about being proactive. List building is not something that is just done reactively. It can't be, if you are not proactively pushing your list. I can pretty much promise you now that you are probably not getting many people on your list.
      So where I have grown my list by a thousand at once or by 2000 at once, I have done something very specific to [00:14:00] grow my list. I have sponsored something. I have created a summit. I have done ads. I have been on someone else's summit. I've spoke on someone else's podcast. I have specifically done something to help really push up my list building activity.
      Okay, let me go over those three points again. So one, demonstrate your expertise through long form content. Two, become visible, getting yourself out there to other people. Three, effective list building. Make sure that every opportunity you are getting people on your list, make sure you have lead magnets.
      And under that effective list building is also nurturing the people on your list. So loving them, making sure you're emailing them, making sure you're not just emailing them when you've got something to sell. Step four in my five steps is building a compelling offer. Now this bit is really, really important.
      And actually this is much harder to do from a, or for me to try and give you the, the key ingredients of it, because often When I'm working with the accelerator [00:15:00] people, when I'm on a call with them and they're talking about their offer, and actually I get them to give me the details of their offer before we even get started.
      I get them to fill in this big form so that I can really understand who their business is. I also get them to give me answers to some personality tests so I can see how they like to work. I just love a personality test. So the offer thing is a bit tricky because often when I am Discussing with someone, if the offer is right, there are many, many factors to take into consideration.
      So who is the offer for? What's the transformation you're giving them? What, uh, how are you delivering the offer? i.e., is it, you know, a small group thing? Is it a big group thing? Is it a, you know, do it yourself course thing? what it means to them and what's the cost. So there are so many things that come into building that compelling offer.
      It's not just as easy as me going courses at this price work really well. That's not the case. It does have to be a conversation. And also what happens [00:16:00] at this point, when people are putting together their offer, they often go to their friends or family and go, would you buy it? Terrible, terrible, terrible idea.
      Because unless they are your perfect customer, and also they are in the market to buy, then it's very hard to get a completely clear answer from them. And even if they are a perfect customer, and they're in the offer, or in the region to buy,...
      21 min
    6. Practical ways to use AI to save time and money (and avoid the pitfalls!) with Hollie Whittles
      This episode is an insightful discussion of me and my very lovely guest Hollie Whittles, an award-winning TEDx speaker and director of two digital companies. The conversation explores the impacts of AI on businesses, highlighting practical applications that can save time and money, and provides examples and guidance on how business owners can effectively integrate AI into their operations. 
      We also touch on the ethical considerations and potential biases associated with AI use. Hollie shares her personal career journey from talent management to leading her own companies, and her ongoing voluntary work promoting digital skills and entrepreneurship in schools and small businesses.
      KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
      1. AI is a valuable tool for businesses: AI can automate tasks, improve efficiency, and provide valuable insights, leading to cost savings and increased productivity.
      2. Ethical considerations are crucial: As businesses adopt AI, it's essential to address ethical concerns such as bias, privacy, and transparency.
      3. AI is accessible and adaptable: There are numerous AI tools and platforms available to businesses of all sizes, making it easier than ever to integrate AI into operations.

        4.  
        If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.
         
        LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
        Connect with Hollie on Linkedin, Website
        Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
         
        Transcript
        Teresa: AI is everywhere, but what does it really mean for our businesses and can it really save us time and money? And is there anything that we should be looking out for and steering clear of? That is what I'm discussing today with my guest, Hollie Whittles.
        Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast, and thank you so much for joining me. Honestly, I appreciate you taking your time out. and hanging out with me. It's really, really awesome. So this week we have an interview and I'm actually interviewing one of my very good friends who I have known for quite some time, and we joke that she's quite a big deal.
        Hollie Whittles is an award winning TEDx speaker, author and director of two digital companies, Fraggleworks and Purple Frog Systems. Her passion is to educate, entertain, and engage. Spending more than 7, 000 hours speaking to audiences across the UK. She has helped hundreds of business owners to grow their businesses.
        Hollie is in constant demand. Her charismatic and knowledgeable approach empowers people to get results. They want their adoption of the right technology, strategic planning, and digital marketing. Hollie is also the national policy skills [00:02:00] champion for the Federation of Small Businesses, FSB, and is the vice chair of the CompTIA Community Executive Council.
        She also sits on the boards for Digital Leaders, Career and Enterprise Company, and the Digital Poverty Alliance. So she has quite a bit of experience in this sector. So Hollie is all about technology and AI. Basically one of the businesses you run, as you will hear, is a is at the forefront of doing some of this stuff.
        So what I wanted her to do was to come on and talk a bit about AI, maybe demystify it because Hollie isn't a techie person. Her husband who she runs her business with is more techie than she is. And one of the things that she does and one of the things that she speaks about is AI and how we can use it in our business and all of that good stuff.
        And I don't know about you guys, but at the moment I am seeing everybody talk about AI, I mean I have for a while but I am literally seeing you know, how to run social media using AI, how to do a webinar using AI, how to, [00:03:00] like everything just tags on the end using AI. So I think this is a really good conversation. We give some really practical ways in which we can use AI in our own businesses.
        I give a couple of examples of how I'm doing it. And hopefully it gives you a little bit to think about from the AI point of view. So without further ado, here is the lovely Hollie. Hollie, welcome to the podcast.
        Hollie: Hi Teresa.
        Teresa: I'm very excited to have you on. As I've already said, you are a very dear friend of mine and we've already been laughing because we just stumbled over the first bit, which was.
        Hollie: No, I forgot how to say hello.
        Teresa: It's tricky sometimes. It's tricky remembering who we are, what we do, how to say hello. It is tough sometimes.
        Hollie: Yes.
        Teresa: Molly, I always start my podcast the same way. One day I might change it. I'm going through a lot of tweaks at the moment, but for the time being, we'll stick with it. Please tell us who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today.
        Hollie: So thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So my name's Hollie. I'm from Purple Frog Systems. I'm one of the directors. We set up in 2006, I [00:04:00] think from a place of working for really big corporate where I'd burnt out and we were like, what can we do? My husband was in the same position. So we set up our own company and then we've gone from strength to strength and we do data analytics, machine learning, AI.
        So very much on the kind of the cutting edge of IT and wouldn't change it. I'm probably unemployable now.
        Teresa: I think we all are. If you've had your own business, like that's it. No one can ever employ you ever again. So let me go back a bit. First off, corporate, what did you do in corporate world? I feel like I should know these things about you, but I'm not entirely sure that I do. So I'll ask.
        Hollie: Yeah. So I used to work in talent management. So we ran sort of corporate programs across an entire enterprise level organization. So we had like apprenticeship, programs, we had graduates, we had vice president programs, and I organized some of those and we took people off and out the business and checked them off cliffs to see what would happen.
        And yeah, so it was all about sort of growing people and people development, but it was a big sort of IT consultancy. So they were all techie [00:05:00] people.
        Teresa: Okay. And your husband came from tech?
        Hollie: He did. Yeah. So he was running a gaming systems company. So he was their IT director, but it's a big American company.
        And they basically ran slot machines for all the casinos from Vegas all around the world. So he was always flying over there.
        Teresa: Nice. I mean, it's not a bad place to fly to.
        Hollie: No, exactly.
        Teresa: So you decided both at the same time to come out of your employed roles and start the business together.
        Hollie: Yeah, so he, he went first.
        I stayed an extra two years, but I was still a director of the business and then I, I sort of left my role to join him. So yeah, we, we kind of have, we got married, we bought a house, we went on holiday, we changed jobs, we did everything all around 2006. We just had some sort of midlife crisis. I think.
        Teresa: It was quite a year or two.
        Hollie: Yeah.
        Teresa: What made you go into, explain in very layman's terms, what it is you do for big businesses now? [00:06:00]
        Hollie: Yeah. So I always use the analogy of someone like Richard Branson or Alan Sugar, and they have very, lots of different arms off their business. So he has like Virgin balloons. He has Virgin Atlantic. He has all the different arms of Virgin.
        If he's sitting in his office thinking, how is the entire Virgin group doing? You've got all those different organisations and systems that don't talk to each other. So he probably just wants one dashboard that he can look at To view how well his entire organization is doing. He can drill down into which bits he's interested in.
        So what we do, if we put that reporting layer over enterprise solutions, it doesn't matter where the source systems are, whether they talk to each other or not, it could be SAP, it could be Excel, it could be access, it could be an HR system, it could be anything, it could be a webpage. And we allow people then to make meaningful decisions from that data.
        And then with the advances in AI, the next thing that we do is we apply machine learning to it as well. So what can we predict for the future using that data? So it's all about [00:07:00] empowering businesses to make better decisions.
        Teresa: So what made you guys think, oh, that's what we're going to do, like, because you obviously neither one of you had come from that specific thing.
        You have the tech background, yeah, and obviously tech knowledge. But what made you go, oh, let's have all the tech things, we'll pick this thing and we'll just go with it.
        Hollie: Yeah. So I think we went with what Alex's brain liked the best, really. So he's really good at sort of architecting systems and very much.
        It was before the cloud was a thing, really. So he was kind of designing these big data warehouses. So we started the business off doing that and it was called business intelligence then, but actually it's now more referred to as data analytics. So he was very much, that's the technical path. That's my area of expertise.
        At the time we weren't going to have employees. So we were like, just going to do it with ourselves. And then as we started growing, that's when I joined and we're like, maybe we do need some employees actually. So I bring all the people management, the strategy, the marketing, all the things that you [00:08:00] need to run a business that's non technical, so together we kind of cover all the different roles you need to be successful.
        Teresa: Yeah. And I think that's the thing, cause people often, especially in the techie industries, they are really good at the tech bit. They don't always necessarily have the other skill sets, but the same with, you know, it's like someone with our skill sets going into the tech, not being able to do that.
        So it's cool that there's two of you together that kind of bring both of those skill sets. So you were in the business, you have a big part in the business, but you have a whole side arm of things that you do as like, I want to say voluntary and it pretty much is all voluntary what you do, isn't it? So explain that side of what you do.
        Hollie: Yeah, so for me, while we were growing the business, I was really interested of pathways into that business. So the first kind of thing that I did was I'm going to go and do some talks in schools. So I became an enterprise advisor, which then connected me with the Careers and Enterprise Company. And then to promote the business, you start doing a bit of business [00:09:00] networking and I was approached by the Federation of Small Businesses, who kind of explained to me, as well as them being a membership organization, they also have these additional voluntary roles where you can kind of help them champion other businesses, and also you can get involved in policy. So, they kind of hooked me into that, and I started off being an area lead, so very much promoting stuff in our local region. I then became the regional chair, which was then, very much West Midlands focused, so I was sitting on negotiations about HS2 and digital infrastructure, 5G rollout, all that kind of stuff.
        And then they were like, actually, we've got another role for you. And it just kept escalating, which was a national role, which was all about skills and apprenticeships. So the next minute I'm chairing MP round tables, popping down to the treasuries, talking to the department of education. So that is all very much ticking my box of connecting people together, helping others, and also attracting young [00:10:00] people into our world, because you can have such an exciting career in digital. So it's just about securing those things.
        Teresa: That's amazing. Like, amazing that, A, you volunteered to do this stuff, because when you run a business, like, You know, we were just talking about it.
        We're friends, but we haven't like hung out for ages because we're both so busy. And like, so to then volunteer your time to do something like that. And it sounds like it takes up a chunk of your time.
        Hollie: It does. Yeah. And it is a cost to the business, but I think it's something that is really meaningful. It gives me my sense of purpose, to be honest.
        So I feel like I need that and I can, I can feel the difference that I'm making.
        Teresa: That's really nice. Cause like, You do deal with huge companies in a very tech way. So that probably like the giving back element doesn't feel as strong, whereas doing something that, and it's back to that whole, you have to design how your business looks and what works for you.
        Cause someone might look at you from the outside and [00:11:00] go, why would you volunteer your time doing this when you are super successful over here with this big business? And. But that doesn't light you up as much or that doesn't give you everything you need. And like you always do. And since I've known you've always gone into schools and done things, I mean, which honestly, I've gone into a couple of schools and done things that scares the living daylights out of me because these teenagers are terrifying.
        And I have one, so I know, but like, you know, so for you to be like, you know, going out there and having conversations with them. But this is, and this isn't what I brought you on to talk about, but this is really interesting because I've got my daughter at the moment working in my business, which is awesome.
        And I get her to do all sorts of different things. I'm really trying to encourage her to consider having her own business and to consider the options, not necessarily straight into work or straight into, like, I don't think schools do enough to go, well, one, what different, what different roles are there for starters?
        Because you are in a world that moves at the speed of [00:12:00] light, literally the speed of light. And so those roles, like when, you know, you and I like have some marketing background and my, when I did my degree, there wasn't even really websites as such. There were websites, but there weren't even that like bigger thing.
        There was definitely no social media, like the term content creator, like, no. So even in my role or in marketing, it moves at a pace, but like in tech is moving at such pace that roles are being created that were never created for roles that were being done and now being assisted by AI and all that sort of thing.
        So for you to go into schools and go, Hey, this is a world that you could get into and actually something that they might be interested in. So I've got Bea at the moment, my daughter doing, I say that like, you don't know who she is, but I'm saying it more for the audience in case like you. Who's Bea? That's my daughter.
        She is doing like a Pinterest course for me. So she's now getting this whole thing. Like she's on Pinterest herself from a personal point of view. And now she's starting to realize, Oh, like there's a business reason people use Pinterest. So, you know, again, trying to give her something that she would have an [00:13:00] idea about or an interest in and then going, let's learn how we can do it. So. I love that. I think it's awesome.
        Hollie: Yeah. And I think it's really important because like you say with the schools and the curriculum, it takes so long to actually change what the curriculum looks like. We have to then go in there and bring it to life. And what I'm trying to say to students is that you're not necessarily going to go into a role.
        A, we don't know what it is because it doesn't exist yet. But B, rather than just thinking about English and maths, let's think about entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, basic digital skills.
        Teresa: Resilience. Yeah. Why are you not teaching all those things?
        Hollie: Yeah. This is what we actually need.
        It doesn't matter what sector you're in, a carpenter still needs to know how to create an invoice and put himself on Facebook. So, and it's also breaking down those genders. Like I've just said him for carpenter, but I'm trying to sort of communicate. It doesn't matter what gender you are, you can go into any role.
        But what regardless of the role, we need those work ready skills and it's that [00:14:00] proactive attitdue can do and it's breaking down those barriers and just make it accessible for everyone.
        Teresa: Yeah. And I, I love that. I mean, I could go down a whole other direction here in saying that I'm currently having a discussion with my daughter's school because I want to take her out of school to where in fact, by the time this podcast comes out, we would been gone and back but we're actually going to Japan and the Philippines, which I am so freaking excited about.
        And in the Philippines, we're meeting Johanne and her family. Johanne works me. And we're meeting her family, and we're bringing them to us in another part of the Philippines and giving them a holiday. And like, I am like, surely to goodness, and Bea will understand more about what Johanne does in my business and how she lives.
        And like, surely that is much better than sitting in school for a week, but not necessarily agreeing with me at this point. So I'm arguing the toss with them because it's like, I would much rather give...
        35 min
      4. Practical ways to use AI to save time and money (and avoid the pitfalls!) with Hollie Whittles
        This episode is an insightful discussion of me and my very lovely guest Hollie Whittles, an award-winning TEDx speaker and director of two digital companies. The conversation explores the impacts of AI on businesses, highlighting practical applications that can save time and money, and provides examples and guidance on how business owners can effectively integrate AI into their operations. 
        We also touch on the ethical considerations and potential biases associated with AI use. Hollie shares her personal career journey from talent management to leading her own companies, and her ongoing voluntary work promoting digital skills and entrepreneurship in schools and small businesses.
        KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
        1. AI is a valuable tool for businesses: AI can automate tasks, improve efficiency, and provide valuable insights, leading to cost savings and increased productivity.
        2. Ethical considerations are crucial: As businesses adopt AI, it's essential to address ethical concerns such as bias, privacy, and transparency.
        3. AI is accessible and adaptable: There are numerous AI tools and platforms available to businesses of all sizes, making it easier than ever to integrate AI into operations.

          4.  
          If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.
           
          LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
          Connect with Hollie on Linkedin, Website
          Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
           
          Transcript
          Teresa: AI is everywhere, but what does it really mean for our businesses and can it really save us time and money? And is there anything that we should be looking out for and steering clear of? That is what I'm discussing today with my guest, Hollie Whittles.
          Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast, and thank you so much for joining me. Honestly, I appreciate you taking your time out. and hanging out with me. It's really, really awesome. So this week we have an interview and I'm actually interviewing one of my very good friends who I have known for quite some time, and we joke that she's quite a big deal.
          Hollie Whittles is an award winning TEDx speaker, author and director of two digital companies, Fraggleworks and Purple Frog Systems. Her passion is to educate, entertain, and engage. Spending more than 7, 000 hours speaking to audiences across the UK. She has helped hundreds of business owners to grow their businesses.
          Hollie is in constant demand. Her charismatic and knowledgeable approach empowers people to get results. They want their adoption of the right technology, strategic planning, and digital marketing. Hollie is also the national policy skills [00:02:00] champion for the Federation of Small Businesses, FSB, and is the vice chair of the CompTIA Community Executive Council.
          She also sits on the boards for Digital Leaders, Career and Enterprise Company, and the Digital Poverty Alliance. So she has quite a bit of experience in this sector. So Hollie is all about technology and AI. Basically one of the businesses you run, as you will hear, is a is at the forefront of doing some of this stuff.
          So what I wanted her to do was to come on and talk a bit about AI, maybe demystify it because Hollie isn't a techie person. Her husband who she runs her business with is more techie than she is. And one of the things that she does and one of the things that she speaks about is AI and how we can use it in our business and all of that good stuff.
          And I don't know about you guys, but at the moment I am seeing everybody talk about AI, I mean I have for a while but I am literally seeing you know, how to run social media using AI, how to do a webinar using AI, how to, [00:03:00] like everything just tags on the end using AI. So I think this is a really good conversation. We give some really practical ways in which we can use AI in our own businesses.
          I give a couple of examples of how I'm doing it. And hopefully it gives you a little bit to think about from the AI point of view. So without further ado, here is the lovely Hollie. Hollie, welcome to the podcast.
          Hollie: Hi Teresa.
          Teresa: I'm very excited to have you on. As I've already said, you are a very dear friend of mine and we've already been laughing because we just stumbled over the first bit, which was.
          Hollie: No, I forgot how to say hello.
          Teresa: It's tricky sometimes. It's tricky remembering who we are, what we do, how to say hello. It is tough sometimes.
          Hollie: Yes.
          Teresa: Molly, I always start my podcast the same way. One day I might change it. I'm going through a lot of tweaks at the moment, but for the time being, we'll stick with it. Please tell us who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today.
          Hollie: So thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So my name's Hollie. I'm from Purple Frog Systems. I'm one of the directors. We set up in 2006, I [00:04:00] think from a place of working for really big corporate where I'd burnt out and we were like, what can we do? My husband was in the same position. So we set up our own company and then we've gone from strength to strength and we do data analytics, machine learning, AI.
          So very much on the kind of the cutting edge of IT and wouldn't change it. I'm probably unemployable now.
          Teresa: I think we all are. If you've had your own business, like that's it. No one can ever employ you ever again. So let me go back a bit. First off, corporate, what did you do in corporate world? I feel like I should know these things about you, but I'm not entirely sure that I do. So I'll ask.
          Hollie: Yeah. So I used to work in talent management. So we ran sort of corporate programs across an entire enterprise level organization. So we had like apprenticeship, programs, we had graduates, we had vice president programs, and I organized some of those and we took people off and out the business and checked them off cliffs to see what would happen.
          And yeah, so it was all about sort of growing people and people development, but it was a big sort of IT consultancy. So they were all techie [00:05:00] people.
          Teresa: Okay. And your husband came from tech?
          Hollie: He did. Yeah. So he was running a gaming systems company. So he was their IT director, but it's a big American company.
          And they basically ran slot machines for all the casinos from Vegas all around the world. So he was always flying over there.
          Teresa: Nice. I mean, it's not a bad place to fly to.
          Hollie: No, exactly.
          Teresa: So you decided both at the same time to come out of your employed roles and start the business together.
          Hollie: Yeah, so he, he went first.
          I stayed an extra two years, but I was still a director of the business and then I, I sort of left my role to join him. So yeah, we, we kind of have, we got married, we bought a house, we went on holiday, we changed jobs, we did everything all around 2006. We just had some sort of midlife crisis. I think.
          Teresa: It was quite a year or two.
          Hollie: Yeah.
          Teresa: What made you go into, explain in very layman's terms, what it is you do for big businesses now? [00:06:00]
          Hollie: Yeah. So I always use the analogy of someone like Richard Branson or Alan Sugar, and they have very, lots of different arms off their business. So he has like Virgin balloons. He has Virgin Atlantic. He has all the different arms of Virgin.
          If he's sitting in his office thinking, how is the entire Virgin group doing? You've got all those different organisations and systems that don't talk to each other. So he probably just wants one dashboard that he can look at To view how well his entire organization is doing. He can drill down into which bits he's interested in.
          So what we do, if we put that reporting layer over enterprise solutions, it doesn't matter where the source systems are, whether they talk to each other or not, it could be SAP, it could be Excel, it could be access, it could be an HR system, it could be anything, it could be a webpage. And we allow people then to make meaningful decisions from that data.
          And then with the advances in AI, the next thing that we do is we apply machine learning to it as well. So what can we predict for the future using that data? So it's all about [00:07:00] empowering businesses to make better decisions.
          Teresa: So what made you guys think, oh, that's what we're going to do, like, because you obviously neither one of you had come from that specific thing.
          You have the tech background, yeah, and obviously tech knowledge. But what made you go, oh, let's have all the tech things, we'll pick this thing and we'll just go with it.
          Hollie: Yeah. So I think we went with what Alex's brain liked the best, really. So he's really good at sort of architecting systems and very much.
          It was before the cloud was a thing, really. So he was kind of designing these big data warehouses. So we started the business off doing that and it was called business intelligence then, but actually it's now more referred to as data analytics. So he was very much, that's the technical path. That's my area of expertise.
          At the time we weren't going to have employees. So we were like, just going to do it with ourselves. And then as we started growing, that's when I joined and we're like, maybe we do need some employees actually. So I bring all the people management, the strategy, the marketing, all the things that you [00:08:00] need to run a business that's non technical, so together we kind of cover all the different roles you need to be successful.
          Teresa: Yeah. And I think that's the thing, cause people often, especially in the techie industries, they are really good at the tech bit. They don't always necessarily have the other skill sets, but the same with, you know, it's like someone with our skill sets going into the tech, not being able to do that.
          So it's cool that there's two of you together that kind of bring both of those skill sets. So you were in the business, you have a big part in the business, but you have a whole side arm of things that you do as like, I want to say voluntary and it pretty much is all voluntary what you do, isn't it? So explain that side of what you do.
          Hollie: Yeah, so for me, while we were growing the business, I was really interested of pathways into that business. So the first kind of thing that I did was I'm going to go and do some talks in schools. So I became an enterprise advisor, which then connected me with the Careers and Enterprise Company. And then to promote the business, you start doing a bit of business [00:09:00] networking and I was approached by the Federation of Small Businesses, who kind of explained to me, as well as them being a membership organization, they also have these additional voluntary roles where you can kind of help them champion other businesses, and also you can get involved in policy. So, they kind of hooked me into that, and I started off being an area lead, so very much promoting stuff in our local region. I then became the regional chair, which was then, very much West Midlands focused, so I was sitting on negotiations about HS2 and digital infrastructure, 5G rollout, all that kind of stuff.
          And then they were like, actually, we've got another role for you. And it just kept escalating, which was a national role, which was all about skills and apprenticeships. So the next minute I'm chairing MP round tables, popping down to the treasuries, talking to the department of education. So that is all very much ticking my box of connecting people together, helping others, and also attracting young [00:10:00] people into our world, because you can have such an exciting career in digital. So it's just about securing those things.
          Teresa: That's amazing. Like, amazing that, A, you volunteered to do this stuff, because when you run a business, like, You know, we were just talking about it.
          We're friends, but we haven't like hung out for ages because we're both so busy. And like, so to then volunteer your time to do something like that. And it sounds like it takes up a chunk of your time.
          Hollie: It does. Yeah. And it is a cost to the business, but I think it's something that is really meaningful. It gives me my sense of purpose, to be honest.
          So I feel like I need that and I can, I can feel the difference that I'm making.
          Teresa: That's really nice. Cause like, You do deal with huge companies in a very tech way. So that probably like the giving back element doesn't feel as strong, whereas doing something that, and it's back to that whole, you have to design how your business looks and what works for you.
          Cause someone might look at you from the outside and [00:11:00] go, why would you volunteer your time doing this when you are super successful over here with this big business? And. But that doesn't light you up as much or that doesn't give you everything you need. And like you always do. And since I've known you've always gone into schools and done things, I mean, which honestly, I've gone into a couple of schools and done things that scares the living daylights out of me because these teenagers are terrifying.
          And I have one, so I know, but like, you know, so for you to be like, you know, going out there and having conversations with them. But this is, and this isn't what I brought you on to talk about, but this is really interesting because I've got my daughter at the moment working in my business, which is awesome.
          And I get her to do all sorts of different things. I'm really trying to encourage her to consider having her own business and to consider the options, not necessarily straight into work or straight into, like, I don't think schools do enough to go, well, one, what different, what different roles are there for starters?
          Because you are in a world that moves at the speed of [00:12:00] light, literally the speed of light. And so those roles, like when, you know, you and I like have some marketing background and my, when I did my degree, there wasn't even really websites as such. There were websites, but there weren't even that like bigger thing.
          There was definitely no social media, like the term content creator, like, no. So even in my role or in marketing, it moves at a pace, but like in tech is moving at such pace that roles are being created that were never created for roles that were being done and now being assisted by AI and all that sort of thing.
          So for you to go into schools and go, Hey, this is a world that you could get into and actually something that they might be interested in. So I've got Bea at the moment, my daughter doing, I say that like, you don't know who she is, but I'm saying it more for the audience in case like you. Who's Bea? That's my daughter.
          She is doing like a Pinterest course for me. So she's now getting this whole thing. Like she's on Pinterest herself from a personal point of view. And now she's starting to realize, Oh, like there's a business reason people use Pinterest. So, you know, again, trying to give her something that she would have an [00:13:00] idea about or an interest in and then going, let's learn how we can do it. So. I love that. I think it's awesome.
          Hollie: Yeah. And I think it's really important because like you say with the schools and the curriculum, it takes so long to actually change what the curriculum looks like. We have to then go in there and bring it to life. And what I'm trying to say to students is that you're not necessarily going to go into a role.
          A, we don't know what it is because it doesn't exist yet. But B, rather than just thinking about English and maths, let's think about entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, basic digital skills.
          Teresa: Resilience. Yeah. Why are you not teaching all those things?
          Hollie: Yeah. This is what we actually need.
          It doesn't matter what sector you're in, a carpenter still needs to know how to create an invoice and put himself on Facebook. So, and it's also breaking down those genders. Like I've just said him for carpenter, but I'm trying to sort of communicate. It doesn't matter what gender you are, you can go into any role.
          But what regardless of the role, we need those work ready skills and it's that [00:14:00] proactive attitdue can do and it's breaking down those barriers and just make it accessible for everyone.
          Teresa: Yeah. And I, I love that. I mean, I could go down a whole other direction here in saying that I'm currently having a discussion with my daughter's school because I want to take her out of school to where in fact, by the time this podcast comes out, we would been gone and back but we're actually going to Japan and the Philippines, which I am so freaking excited about.
          And in the Philippines, we're meeting Johanne and her family. Johanne works me. And we're meeting her family, and we're bringing them to us in another part of the Philippines and giving them a holiday. And like, I am like, surely to goodness, and Bea will understand more about what Johanne does in my business and how she lives.
          And like, surely that is much better than sitting in school for a week, but not necessarily agreeing with me at this point. So I'm arguing the toss with them because it's like, I would much rather give...
          35 min
        4. Practical ways to use AI to save time and money (and avoid the pitfalls!) with Hollie Whittles
          This episode is an insightful discussion of me and my very lovely guest Hollie Whittles, an award-winning TEDx speaker and director of two digital companies. The conversation explores the impacts of AI on businesses, highlighting practical applications that can save time and money, and provides examples and guidance on how business owners can effectively integrate AI into their operations. 
          We also touch on the ethical considerations and potential biases associated with AI use. Hollie shares her personal career journey from talent management to leading her own companies, and her ongoing voluntary work promoting digital skills and entrepreneurship in schools and small businesses.
          KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
          1. AI is a valuable tool for businesses: AI can automate tasks, improve efficiency, and provide valuable insights, leading to cost savings and increased productivity.
          2. Ethical considerations are crucial: As businesses adopt AI, it's essential to address ethical concerns such as bias, privacy, and transparency.
          3. AI is accessible and adaptable: There are numerous AI tools and platforms available to businesses of all sizes, making it easier than ever to integrate AI into operations.

            4.  
            If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.
             
            LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
            Connect with Hollie on Linkedin, Website
            Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
             
            Transcript
            Teresa: AI is everywhere, but what does it really mean for our businesses and can it really save us time and money? And is there anything that we should be looking out for and steering clear of? That is what I'm discussing today with my guest, Hollie Whittles.
            Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast, and thank you so much for joining me. Honestly, I appreciate you taking your time out. and hanging out with me. It's really, really awesome. So this week we have an interview and I'm actually interviewing one of my very good friends who I have known for quite some time, and we joke that she's quite a big deal.
            Hollie Whittles is an award winning TEDx speaker, author and director of two digital companies, Fraggleworks and Purple Frog Systems. Her passion is to educate, entertain, and engage. Spending more than 7, 000 hours speaking to audiences across the UK. She has helped hundreds of business owners to grow their businesses.
            Hollie is in constant demand. Her charismatic and knowledgeable approach empowers people to get results. They want their adoption of the right technology, strategic planning, and digital marketing. Hollie is also the national policy skills [00:02:00] champion for the Federation of Small Businesses, FSB, and is the vice chair of the CompTIA Community Executive Council.
            She also sits on the boards for Digital Leaders, Career and Enterprise Company, and the Digital Poverty Alliance. So she has quite a bit of experience in this sector. So Hollie is all about technology and AI. Basically one of the businesses you run, as you will hear, is a is at the forefront of doing some of this stuff.
            So what I wanted her to do was to come on and talk a bit about AI, maybe demystify it because Hollie isn't a techie person. Her husband who she runs her business with is more techie than she is. And one of the things that she does and one of the things that she speaks about is AI and how we can use it in our business and all of that good stuff.
            And I don't know about you guys, but at the moment I am seeing everybody talk about AI, I mean I have for a while but I am literally seeing you know, how to run social media using AI, how to do a webinar using AI, how to, [00:03:00] like everything just tags on the end using AI. So I think this is a really good conversation. We give some really practical ways in which we can use AI in our own businesses.
            I give a couple of examples of how I'm doing it. And hopefully it gives you a little bit to think about from the AI point of view. So without further ado, here is the lovely Hollie. Hollie, welcome to the podcast.
            Hollie: Hi Teresa.
            Teresa: I'm very excited to have you on. As I've already said, you are a very dear friend of mine and we've already been laughing because we just stumbled over the first bit, which was.
            Hollie: No, I forgot how to say hello.
            Teresa: It's tricky sometimes. It's tricky remembering who we are, what we do, how to say hello. It is tough sometimes.
            Hollie: Yes.
            Teresa: Molly, I always start my podcast the same way. One day I might change it. I'm going through a lot of tweaks at the moment, but for the time being, we'll stick with it. Please tell us who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today.
            Hollie: So thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So my name's Hollie. I'm from Purple Frog Systems. I'm one of the directors. We set up in 2006, I [00:04:00] think from a place of working for really big corporate where I'd burnt out and we were like, what can we do? My husband was in the same position. So we set up our own company and then we've gone from strength to strength and we do data analytics, machine learning, AI.
            So very much on the kind of the cutting edge of IT and wouldn't change it. I'm probably unemployable now.
            Teresa: I think we all are. If you've had your own business, like that's it. No one can ever employ you ever again. So let me go back a bit. First off, corporate, what did you do in corporate world? I feel like I should know these things about you, but I'm not entirely sure that I do. So I'll ask.
            Hollie: Yeah. So I used to work in talent management. So we ran sort of corporate programs across an entire enterprise level organization. So we had like apprenticeship, programs, we had graduates, we had vice president programs, and I organized some of those and we took people off and out the business and checked them off cliffs to see what would happen.
            And yeah, so it was all about sort of growing people and people development, but it was a big sort of IT consultancy. So they were all techie [00:05:00] people.
            Teresa: Okay. And your husband came from tech?
            Hollie: He did. Yeah. So he was running a gaming systems company. So he was their IT director, but it's a big American company.
            And they basically ran slot machines for all the casinos from Vegas all around the world. So he was always flying over there.
            Teresa: Nice. I mean, it's not a bad place to fly to.
            Hollie: No, exactly.
            Teresa: So you decided both at the same time to come out of your employed roles and start the business together.
            Hollie: Yeah, so he, he went first.
            I stayed an extra two years, but I was still a director of the business and then I, I sort of left my role to join him. So yeah, we, we kind of have, we got married, we bought a house, we went on holiday, we changed jobs, we did everything all around 2006. We just had some sort of midlife crisis. I think.
            Teresa: It was quite a year or two.
            Hollie: Yeah.
            Teresa: What made you go into, explain in very layman's terms, what it is you do for big businesses now? [00:06:00]
            Hollie: Yeah. So I always use the analogy of someone like Richard Branson or Alan Sugar, and they have very, lots of different arms off their business. So he has like Virgin balloons. He has Virgin Atlantic. He has all the different arms of Virgin.
            If he's sitting in his office thinking, how is the entire Virgin group doing? You've got all those different organisations and systems that don't talk to each other. So he probably just wants one dashboard that he can look at To view how well his entire organization is doing. He can drill down into which bits he's interested in.
            So what we do, if we put that reporting layer over enterprise solutions, it doesn't matter where the source systems are, whether they talk to each other or not, it could be SAP, it could be Excel, it could be access, it could be an HR system, it could be anything, it could be a webpage. And we allow people then to make meaningful decisions from that data.
            And then with the advances in AI, the next thing that we do is we apply machine learning to it as well. So what can we predict for the future using that data? So it's all about [00:07:00] empowering businesses to make better decisions.
            Teresa: So what made you guys think, oh, that's what we're going to do, like, because you obviously neither one of you had come from that specific thing.
            You have the tech background, yeah, and obviously tech knowledge. But what made you go, oh, let's have all the tech things, we'll pick this thing and we'll just go with it.
            Hollie: Yeah. So I think we went with what Alex's brain liked the best, really. So he's really good at sort of architecting systems and very much.
            It was before the cloud was a thing, really. So he was kind of designing these big data warehouses. So we started the business off doing that and it was called business intelligence then, but actually it's now more referred to as data analytics. So he was very much, that's the technical path. That's my area of expertise.
            At the time we weren't going to have employees. So we were like, just going to do it with ourselves. And then as we started growing, that's when I joined and we're like, maybe we do need some employees actually. So I bring all the people management, the strategy, the marketing, all the things that you [00:08:00] need to run a business that's non technical, so together we kind of cover all the different roles you need to be successful.
            Teresa: Yeah. And I think that's the thing, cause people often, especially in the techie industries, they are really good at the tech bit. They don't always necessarily have the other skill sets, but the same with, you know, it's like someone with our skill sets going into the tech, not being able to do that.
            So it's cool that there's two of you together that kind of bring both of those skill sets. So you were in the business, you have a big part in the business, but you have a whole side arm of things that you do as like, I want to say voluntary and it pretty much is all voluntary what you do, isn't it? So explain that side of what you do.
            Hollie: Yeah, so for me, while we were growing the business, I was really interested of pathways into that business. So the first kind of thing that I did was I'm going to go and do some talks in schools. So I became an enterprise advisor, which then connected me with the Careers and Enterprise Company. And then to promote the business, you start doing a bit of business [00:09:00] networking and I was approached by the Federation of Small Businesses, who kind of explained to me, as well as them being a membership organization, they also have these additional voluntary roles where you can kind of help them champion other businesses, and also you can get involved in policy. So, they kind of hooked me into that, and I started off being an area lead, so very much promoting stuff in our local region. I then became the regional chair, which was then, very much West Midlands focused, so I was sitting on negotiations about HS2 and digital infrastructure, 5G rollout, all that kind of stuff.
            And then they were like, actually, we've got another role for you. And it just kept escalating, which was a national role, which was all about skills and apprenticeships. So the next minute I'm chairing MP round tables, popping down to the treasuries, talking to the department of education. So that is all very much ticking my box of connecting people together, helping others, and also attracting young [00:10:00] people into our world, because you can have such an exciting career in digital. So it's just about securing those things.
            Teresa: That's amazing. Like, amazing that, A, you volunteered to do this stuff, because when you run a business, like, You know, we were just talking about it.
            We're friends, but we haven't like hung out for ages because we're both so busy. And like, so to then volunteer your time to do something like that. And it sounds like it takes up a chunk of your time.
            Hollie: It does. Yeah. And it is a cost to the business, but I think it's something that is really meaningful. It gives me my sense of purpose, to be honest.
            So I feel like I need that and I can, I can feel the difference that I'm making.
            Teresa: That's really nice. Cause like, You do deal with huge companies in a very tech way. So that probably like the giving back element doesn't feel as strong, whereas doing something that, and it's back to that whole, you have to design how your business looks and what works for you.
            Cause someone might look at you from the outside and [00:11:00] go, why would you volunteer your time doing this when you are super successful over here with this big business? And. But that doesn't light you up as much or that doesn't give you everything you need. And like you always do. And since I've known you've always gone into schools and done things, I mean, which honestly, I've gone into a couple of schools and done things that scares the living daylights out of me because these teenagers are terrifying.
            And I have one, so I know, but like, you know, so for you to be like, you know, going out there and having conversations with them. But this is, and this isn't what I brought you on to talk about, but this is really interesting because I've got my daughter at the moment working in my business, which is awesome.
            And I get her to do all sorts of different things. I'm really trying to encourage her to consider having her own business and to consider the options, not necessarily straight into work or straight into, like, I don't think schools do enough to go, well, one, what different, what different roles are there for starters?
            Because you are in a world that moves at the speed of [00:12:00] light, literally the speed of light. And so those roles, like when, you know, you and I like have some marketing background and my, when I did my degree, there wasn't even really websites as such. There were websites, but there weren't even that like bigger thing.
            There was definitely no social media, like the term content creator, like, no. So even in my role or in marketing, it moves at a pace, but like in tech is moving at such pace that roles are being created that were never created for roles that were being done and now being assisted by AI and all that sort of thing.
            So for you to go into schools and go, Hey, this is a world that you could get into and actually something that they might be interested in. So I've got Bea at the moment, my daughter doing, I say that like, you don't know who she is, but I'm saying it more for the audience in case like you. Who's Bea? That's my daughter.
            She is doing like a Pinterest course for me. So she's now getting this whole thing. Like she's on Pinterest herself from a personal point of view. And now she's starting to realize, Oh, like there's a business reason people use Pinterest. So, you know, again, trying to give her something that she would have an [00:13:00] idea about or an interest in and then going, let's learn how we can do it. So. I love that. I think it's awesome.
            Hollie: Yeah. And I think it's really important because like you say with the schools and the curriculum, it takes so long to actually change what the curriculum looks like. We have to then go in there and bring it to life. And what I'm trying to say to students is that you're not necessarily going to go into a role.
            A, we don't know what it is because it doesn't exist yet. But B, rather than just thinking about English and maths, let's think about entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, basic digital skills.
            Teresa: Resilience. Yeah. Why are you not teaching all those things?
            Hollie: Yeah. This is what we actually need.
            It doesn't matter what sector you're in, a carpenter still needs to know how to create an invoice and put himself on Facebook. So, and it's also breaking down those genders. Like I've just said him for carpenter, but I'm trying to sort of communicate. It doesn't matter what gender you are, you can go into any role.
            But what regardless of the role, we need those work ready skills and it's that [00:14:00] proactive attitdue can do and it's breaking down those barriers and just make it accessible for everyone.
            Teresa: Yeah. And I, I love that. I mean, I could go down a whole other direction here in saying that I'm currently having a discussion with my daughter's school because I want to take her out of school to where in fact, by the time this podcast comes out, we would been gone and back but we're actually going to Japan and the Philippines, which I am so freaking excited about.
            And in the Philippines, we're meeting Johanne and her family. Johanne works me. And we're meeting her family, and we're bringing them to us in another part of the Philippines and giving them a holiday. And like, I am like, surely to goodness, and Bea will understand more about what Johanne does in my business and how she lives.
            And like, surely that is much better than sitting in school for a week, but not necessarily agreeing with me at this point. So I'm arguing the toss with them because it's like, I would much rather give...
            35 min
          4. Long-Form Content: Your Secret Weapon to grow your business
            In this episode I discuss the intrinsic value of long-form content for establishing expertise and building trust with customers. I delve into Alex Hormozi's strategic shift to long-form, unedited content and provide actionable steps for creating effective long-form content. 
             
            It includes the importance of consistently creating content that addresses customer problems, avoiding content driven by vanity metrics, and leveraging long-form content to generate short-form material. It also sets an actionable challenge for listeners to start producing their own long-form content and reinforces the necessity of this strategy for successful online businesses.
             
            KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
            • The Power of Long-Form Content: Long-form content is essential for establishing expertise, building trust, and ultimately driving conversions. It provides a deeper dive into topics, allowing you to showcase your knowledge and authority.   

              • Shift Focus from Vanity Metrics: Instead of chasing likes, shares, and comments, focus on creating high-quality, in-depth content that genuinely helps your audience and potential customers. Prioritize value over vanity.

                • Create a Content Ecosystem: Long-form content is the foundation for creating shorter, more digestible content formats like social media posts, blog articles, and email newsletters. This integrated approach maximizes your content's impact.

                  • If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.
                   
                  LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
                  Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
                   
                  Transcript
                  Think about the last person you bought something from. I am betting that you believed they were an expert and that you had built a level of know, like, and trust. In today's episode, I am going to be talking to you about why long form content is essential for building that know, like, and trust and showing you as an expert.
                  I'm going to be sharing with you what Alex Hormozi had to say about long form content and why he is going all in on non edited long form specific content for his customers. And then I'm going to talk you through the three points that you need in order to start your long form content strategy.
                  Obviously we're going to talk about what long form content is as well. I'm also going to be adding a bit of an accountability and an action taking at the end. So if you are not doing any long form content, [00:01:00] then that is your cue, your sign to get started because all the successful business owners that I know and work with have long form content.
                  And that's why I'm going through this podcast episode with you today to help you do the same.
                  [00:02:00] Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. And as always, I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. If you caught last week's episode. You will know that we talked about podcasting with the awesome Kevin, which was great.
                  And it feels like I'm kind of following on a theme, which I promise you it's not intentional, but it's kind of worked out that way about how can we build that know, like, and trust, and make sure that we are seen as an expert to our potential customers. and why you need a long form content in your business.
                  Two weeks ago, I talked about sending emails over posting on social media. And this week I'm talking about why you need long form and again, potentially more long form and less social media, which again, sounds like I'm very much being anti social media. I promise I'm not. I just think that sometimes we put [00:03:00] our focus in the wrong place and we wonder why our business isn't growing.
                  And in all of the work that I do with the club members and the accelerator members, this is how I get them the most success by them focusing on the things that are important to drive their business forward. That is why today we are talking about long form content. So I'm going to start off by just explaining what long form content is and what I mean. I'm going to talk about Some of my reasons for having this conversation, something that Alex Hormozi has done recently, and what long form might look like.
                  And then I'm going to give you three kind of points, which you can use to help you come up with your long form strategy. First thing then, what do I mean by long form content? Well, long form content is kind of exactly what it says. It's a long form of any content. So social media, reels, YouTube shorts, that's all short form.
                  So it's a [00:04:00] small bite size bit of content. Long form is a YouTube video. It's a podcast. It's maybe going live for a certain length of time. It's writing a blog with substantial words in them. Long form is when you go deeper into that content and you produce something that will take longer to consume. And we need long form content in our business.
                  If you are listening to this, I am going to make the assumption that you have a, a business that you're very good at. But you are trying to offer an online version of this business. So you might have one to one work or done for you work and you would love to include a course or a membership or some group coaching.
                  Maybe that's all you have. Maybe all you have is online business stuff and you don't no longer offer one to one or done for you work. In order to grow an online business. And I would like to [00:05:00] set you a challenge of proving me wrong. I don't know any very successful online business owner who does not produce long form content.
                  So let me remind you again, what I mean, blog, podcast, videos, lives, anything that is longer form. If you, if I think about anybody that jumps to mind, Amy Porterfield had a podcast for a million years. Um, Jenna Kutcher also has a podcast, Jasmine Starr podcast. And I think she does it on YouTube. Alex Hormozi does a lot of stuff on YouTube.
                  Uh, Stu McLaren, I think has a podcast as well. Like they're all of these big people who have hugely successful online businesses have a consistent long form content. And consistent is also a key word here as well. So you can't just write one blog and go, I do long form content. You need to consistently, consistently keep showing up and doing the long form.
                  One of the reasons that you want to do long form content is [00:06:00] It shows you as an expert, so that know, like, and trust, this is it. So if you listen to my podcast every single week, or maybe you've just discovered me, hi, thank you for listening, you will soon get to understand who I am, what I'm like, and what I know.
                  As in, you're going to understand how good my knowledge is and how much of an expert I am in the subjects that I talk about, because how could I come on and do a podcast or how could I come on if I was doing a blog or YouTube and talk consistently about it if I wasn't necessarily an expert in that industry or in that subject. Having consistent long form content proves you are an expert and you know what you're talking about.
                  The second thing that it does is it builds a relationship. Again, as you're listening to this episode, as you listen to other episodes, you get to understand what I'm like, and we start building a relationship. I know that sounds [00:07:00] really strange because obviously I can't talk to you unless you come and find me on social or DM me or get on my email list directly, but.
                  We are starting to develop a relationship. It builds the trust in me. It builds the relationship in me in terms of who I am and, and how I show up and how I like to work. And if you love it, great. And if you don't, that's fine. So the consistent content, the long form content is perfect for that. Now, recently, Alex Hormozi, well I say recently, probably a couple of months back now, did a YouTube video about why he's changing up his content and how he's changing it up.
                  What he basically said was he was going to be doing no more wide content. So what he meant by that was he is going to keep it very specific to the problems that he solves for his customers. Because what he was doing is he was having content on [00:08:00] relationships because he works with his wife in the business.
                  He was doing content on fitness because happens to love fitness, but that isn't what he does for his audience. And what was happening is he was attracting people into his world to watch a video on fitness, and they weren't his ideal customer in there for they would never potentially turn into a customer. So he has decided that he is going to bring his content focus really, really sharp.
                  So he is going to create content that is interesting to his existing, sorry, to his ideal customer with the problems that he fixes. The next thing he's doing is he is stopping doing highly produced content. And what he means by that is because he does YouTube, he's not doing like jump cuts.
                  He's not doing like stock stock videos coming in. He's not doing like crazy graphics. He's literally doing him to screen talking. And the third thing he's focused on with his content was that long [00:09:00] form nature. He actually said that he doesn't want someone who is not willing to sit and listen to a 40 minute youTube video about a subject.
                  He saw that as if you can't invest that time, you're not going to be wanting to invest the work and do the stuff. I'm not saying that that is right or wrong or anything. I'm just saying that was his thought process of this, which I find really interesting. And again, Actually, I don't disagree with.
                  I do think there's a place for everything, but actually for him and what he wants people to do and the changes he wants people to make, I think that's probably pretty key for him. So he's decided to do all of those things, to put those things in place, to basically make sure that he is not doing short form or not a lot of short form.
                  And I'll come back to where the short form fits in with the long form. He's not doing highly produced and he's not doing, uh, wide. He's keeping it very, very niche, [00:10:00] which brings me to the kind of three points that we need to think about when we are creating our own long form content and three things that I want you to take away from this and take away from what Alex has talked about or what I've talked about.
                  Alex has talked about. So the first thing is you need to make content for your perfect customer. What would your perfect customer want to consume? And I know this sounds like a really obvious thing to say, but it was exactly what Alex was saying. He was producing other content around getting fit, having, uh, you know, relationship advice because he worked with his wife.
                  That wasn't what he was helping them fix. I have in the past talked about other content. It's not necessarily content, but you know, being aware of the problems that your customer has that isn't necessarily just what you fix in order to relate to your customer. So that isn't what this is talking about.
                  Let me just clarify that because even I feel confused after I said that. [00:11:00] There's a difference between understanding the problems in your customer's life that don't necessarily relate to the thing that you sell and creating content around it. So. For instance, I could share something on social media that talked about being a mum in business, because I understand that lots of my audience and lots of, and you might be listening to this, and you might be a mum in business and therefore you would relate to it.
                  However, I'm not necessarily going to produce long form content about being a mum in business. Now I can, and I can talk about it if required, but That's not necessarily one of the problems that I fix. What I fix is I help people grow their audience, become more visible and become the go to expert in their industry, create an offer that people are going to buy and launch that offer.
                  That's where my zone of genius is. That's what I do. I do the marketing. Obviously, I have some mindset stuff, so I will occasionally talk about mindset stuff as well. But the key thing [00:12:00] is, the first point is, what content does your customer want to consume? What do they want to watch? What do they want to listen to?
                  What do they want to read? What problems can you help them fix? And that's where your long form content comes in. So what questions do you get asked over and over and over? When it comes to this content thing, then the second point really is, is kind of attached to it. So the second point is it's not about the views and downloads.
                  It's not about the vanity metrics. It's not about getting a podcast with a million downloads. If those million people are not going to be your ideal customer. So it's not about jumping on the latest trend, doing the latest TikTok, doing the latest dance. If that is not what your customer is going to buy from you about, or why they're going to come to you.
                  Because great, you could get, go viral on you doing a dancing TikTok, but that is [00:13:00] not going to convert to customers. That is not going to do anything for your business. So I would much rather have a smaller audience consuming my content who are my perfect customers than a ginormous audience who follows me because they think it's funny that I do stupid dances.
                  I don't, by the way, in case you're new to me and you're thinking, where are these dances? I don't. Um, but They come to me for the right reason. They're not coming to me for something that I'm just trying to jump on a trend and I'm just trying to break the algorithm or I'm just trying to hack to get more downloads or more views or anything like that.
                  So I want you to come away from the idea of it's about the views. It's about the downloads. It's about the, the number of people. And I want you to create your content thinking, will this help someone? Will this get them forward in their life or solve a problem for them that you help fix? Let me go over those two steps again.
                  Step one was creating the content for your perfect customer, stuff that they will want to consume. And step two is not [00:14:00] jumping on a trend and not doing something just for views and downloads, which like I said, goes very, very hand in hand with the whole thing of creating content they want to see.
                  I was listening to something the other day and someone said, which was such a good point, that most people consume content fast, short form content, i. e. reels and TikToks and things, while sat on the toilet. And I don't know about you, but I don't know that I really want someone considering to work one to one with me or joining my membership or accelerator program while sat on the toilet. That is not where I think I'm going to convert them. So that is not necessarily where I want people consuming my content.
                  However, I do personally consume a fair bit of YouTube stuff and I watch it on my TV. I will play a YouTube podcast to myself or I'll watch it while I'm doing some other bits of work. If I'm doing stuff that doesn't require too much brain power, I will make a point of watching that [00:15:00] content rather than scrolling while sat on the toilet.
                  Now, I'm not telling you obviously about my toilet habit. I was just saying what this person said. Okay. So that brings me to the third point, create your short form out of your long form. This is where some people get it in their head that creating long form content is such a massive beast. And I'm not going to lie that especially something like a podcast or a video where you've got some production level in it, it does take a bit of work.
                  However, I can do one podcast and create all my social media posts from it. if I wanted to, I can create emails from it. I can, so my long form is like your core bit of content. Everything else comes off the back of that. So yes, it might take a bit of time to create that long form piece, but once you've got it, it helps quicken up the process for your short form.
                  So if you do have things like short form videos, if you do use things like reels, then [00:16:00] having them as clips to go to your video or go to your podcast or show a bit of your live or creating some content around the latest blog post. So it's not that we're saying, don't do short form at all. It's saying, let's use the short form out of the long form.
                  Let's be trying to send them back to the long form and actually sitting there and paying some attention to that long form bit of content. Now. You might be sat there thinking, but short form's all the rage and everyone's doing short form. I want you to remind you that obviously there are many, many people being very successful, different types of things, and one of those is long form.
                  I listen to the Hubam Lab podcast sometimes, and those episodes, oh, and I listen to, um, Rangan Chatterjee's Podcast as well. And those episodes are like two, three hours long. So yes, even though we really like to consume quick content, we want quick ideas, we [00:17:00] want short form things. Actually, when it comes to some things, we want that long form content.
                  And like Alex Hormozi said, you've got to think about how are people going to buy from you? And are they really going to buy from you after just watching a few reels or after just seeing a few Instagram stories? Or are the people that spend time in your content more likely to buy from you, more likely to want to get on your email list, more likely to trust you and know you and build that with you?
                  I want to give you another action on today's podcast. I want this to be a thing that I start doing more and more because As I say in my club all the time, you don't need another course. And I truly believe unless there is something very specific you need to learn, and even then I still want to question why you need to learn it, but unless there's something very specific you need to learn, you don't need another course.
                  What you need is action. What you need is accountability. And that's why [00:18:00] the Dream Business Club and the Rise Accelerator are all about accountability and action to help you move forward and actually progress. And what I'm going...
                  21 min

                About Your Dream Business

                From the publisher's feed

                Hi! I’m Teresa if you are a business owner who is striving to build a business and life you dream of on your own terms and doing something you love then this is the podcast for you!

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