Your Dream Business

In today’s episode of the podcast, I talk about my NEW Small Business Growth Path, The Marketing That Converts Academy and a VIP Mastermind Stay I am hosting in December.

• It never gets easier, it just gets different. Each stage in your business you hit will bring fresh challenges.
• When you first start your business, you are doing everything including trying to learn so much and join every course – The information can be overwhelming.
• There is SO much out there right now for resources and information.
• My NEW Small Business Growth Plan – 3 different stages (Bloom, Grow, Flourish). This allows you to identify where you are at in your business and gives you ideas on what you need to do to get to the next level.
• My membership doors are open Friday 24th September to Wednesday 29th September – this is the last time before the price goes up next year!

• My NEW Small Business Growth Path 06:03
• The Academy Next Level 18:10
• VIP Mastermind Stay 19:37

Join The Marketing That Converts Academy before the price goes up!

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So last week's episode, I've just got to touch on it before we get on with this week's. Wasn't it good?

Honestly, I loved that episode and in fact, it's on my list to go back to listen to again, and jot some things down that we need to do. And fully enough, I've just recorded the episode that's coming after this one, which is with Dennis Yu, it's a really good one, lots of really, really good stuff in that episode.

And at the end of the episode, I say that, you know, even though we know there's this big list of things to do, it doesn't necessarily mean that like, we should beat ourselves up if we haven't done them. Because. But some of these people who I have on the podcast, they come on to talk about one specific thing that they do all the time.

So it feels like easy because that's the thing they do, or they're at a different part in their journey to where you are. So it might be that, you know, for, for instance, take me in the podcast that I have a process now that kind of works itself, which is brilliant, but it didn't start out like that. And I think what happens is sometimes you look at someone else's sort of journey or you look at where they are and you look at what they're doing and you beat yourself up thinking, "Oh my goodness, I should be doing that. Why aren't I doing that? Why isn't my business at that point?" And it's just because you haven't got there yet. And that's okay. Because everyone you're looking at was exactly where you are right now.

And they had to get there themselves and some get there faster, some get there slower, some do it one way, some do another. It really doesn't matter. It's just a case of don't beat yourself up about it. Which is a little bit, what I want to talk about today. And to tell you it might be a bit of a weird episode.

I'm sat here. It's really early in the morning. I'm with my coffee and I feel like we're just going to have a chat, which I like, I like, I get nice reviews on the podcast saying that it sounds like we're just out for coffee, having a chat, which today we are, I'm sat here with my coffee chatting to you. So, yeah, that's lovely.

I love to hear that. Also. I love to get the reviews and reviews really helped me get seen and get the podcast seen. And, you know, what's really frustrating. Like I've been going at this for 209 episodes and like I watched the rankings, I get an email every week telling me what rank I am and it makes no sense.

No sense. I get regular consistent downloads, lots of downloads. And yet my ranking goes up and down and up and down sometimes disappears. Like I'm not even ranked and I'm just like, how can this be the case? And then I see someone start a podcast, like five episodes of one review and they're ranked higher than me.

And it's like, I don't get it. So if you're not doing anything at any point today, which probably isn't the case. Cause I know you're super busy. But you know, Uh, scrolling Instagram later. Maybe could you go to the apple podcast app? If you're with apple, if not, wherever you are and go and write me a lovely five star review, I'd really, really appreciate it.

Cause sometimes these things feel tough and that's the other thing, actually, I want to say. Is that it doesn't change, you know that, don't you. So in my head, when I started my business, everything was like, if I could just get to this point, it will be easier. If I could just get to this point, I'll manage that better.

If I can just get to this point, I'll feel more confident. It never stops. It's like, it's like having a child. I remember my sister saying to me when I had my daughter, she had already had three children by that point, she had had a girl in twin boys and she said to me, "It never gets easier. It just gets different."

And I think that's a great analogy for business. I think that's really good because it's right. It never gets easier. Like. You know, and funnily enough, I've been writing some emails for next week. It could be no, is it for this week? I don't know when it's for anyway. And that's, from when you batch, you don't know when things go out and it talks about New Level, New Devil and that's exactly true.

It's so true. So when you struggle and think, I just need to get to this point, when you get to that point, you suddenly then have a whole new host of things that you've got to think about and worry about. Like I said, a bit like having a child, you desperately want them to sit up so they can sort of, you know, whatever, manage themselves a bit better.

And then when they sit up, there's another problem. And then you want them to crawl and then when they crawl there's another problem. So. And you think that when they can talk, it's going to be better. And then that causes something else. So it's just like that in business. So, like I said, today's going be a bit of a random episode.

I've got random bits of paper in front of me which I'm about to move. So I'll probably make sounds I'm sorry. Um, I feel very unprofessional today. But I want to tell you about something I've been working on and I'm super excited about it, but also I'm the queen of doing things last minute, but I don't know about you, but I work really well under pressure. When I don't have like loads to do.

And people literally hammering on my head for stuff. I'm a little bit. I take too long. I'm a perfectionist. I take too long. I work on these things. So one part of me is panicking. I'm not going to get this done. And another part of me is going, you absolutely have to get this done Teresa, because one, you're literally talking about it on the podcast. Two you've written emails about it that are ready, scheduled to go out whenever they're going out.

So you will make this work. So sometimes I think that's great, but basically let me try and explain to you what I've done. And how this kind of fits in with the fact that the academy doors are open this week, as you are listening to this. And I think I gave you a heads up that they were opening last week.

So I have created a Small Business Growth Path. Now that name might change. I'm still not convinced on all the stuff, all the details. So, but I hopefully I think that that will do for now. So basically what this is, is it's comes from the fact of exactly what I said at the beginning. When you are in business, you are doing an amazing job.

You're listening to this podcast. You're learning. You might be in the academy, you might be getting support. You might be right reading blogs, doing online courses. You're doing all the stuff. But the problem with that is, is that you are totally overwhelmed with everything you should be doing.

So for instance, on last week's episode, you know, the amazing Rachel talk to us about all the different types of posts we should be doing. And how to get all that engagement. And how to make something go viral. She talked like writing all those insane amount number of blog posts. Next week, Dennis Yu's going to talk about how we should be using video and where you should put that video and all these things.

And honestly, your head could just spin off with all the stuff that you could do. And this is where this world we're in now is a double-edged sword. When I started in marketing, things were limited. Like you could only do certain things and your budget often meant it made your choice for you. So that almost as frustrating as it was, was simpler because of the fact that you didn't have many choices. Now we have a million choices and a million things we should be doing. Should we be on every different social media? Should we be on TikTok? I don't do TikToks yet. Should I be doing them? Should I do more reels? How do I do more reels? Should I be writing a blog as well as a podcast?

Should I be doing videos on YouTube? Should I be going live every week? Seriously, so much stuff. So what I wanted to do was put together this, this path that basically told you at what points to do what. Because you know what happens, right? So what I've done is I, I it's up in three different stages. So I've called each stage a different thing.

So why I think I've called it. I've called it bloom, grow, flourish. So bloom is like, when you're first showing up and starting to shine and sort of like sticking your head out of the, of the parapet almost. Grow is when you're already stood there and you're like, right now we need to expand a bit.

And then flourish is when like, let's go crazy. So, and, and the other interesting thing about this is I've been working with one of my amazing team on this, and we've been using gardening analogies because like, you know how I got into the gardening thing, but it's so true. So for instance, like at the beginning, when you first start gardening and when you first start marketing, You've got to have like the right environments and the right climate and the right conditions.

So, and those things can be like, uh, you know, have you chose the right market? What competition is there? Like is a wanted thing? Have you got the right conditions for it? So are you, you know, putting out there in a place where it should be, is it got the right sort of website or the right way you can communicate with it.

But the key thing that really struck with me when we talked about this gardening analogy is the fact of. When you first start and plant those seeds. So your seeds being a product or service, you've got to have a good quality seed to begin with. And you need some tools. You need some things to help you.

So that might be, you know, social media stuff or some tech tools or whatever. But when you start putting it in the ground, It takes ages to come out of the ground. And you need to water it. You need to be consistently looking after it for it to get to the point where you can even start to see it, let alone grow into the thing that you want it to grow into.

So when you're starting marketing what happens is, and what often people get so disheartened about is they, they put the, the seed in, they put the, you know, the first post on social media and they don't water it, or they're not consistent with it, or they're not looking after that platform. And they're not, you know, nurturing those people who are like, there's five people who are interacting with them.

And they're just thinking that like, if they just keep putting more seeds out that basically that's going to do the thing and it doesn't. What happens is you get disheartened cause you don't see anything cause you sit there and think, you know, my marketing I've been doing it and nothing's happened.

But the truth is it is happening. You just can't see it. And it's those people who can be consistent and keep doing it and keep doing and having the faith that at some point it will start to work. And at some point when you grow a plant, the seed will come and sprout out and you'll start getting the beginnings of your shoots, which again is not your, it's not the sales.

It's not the big stuff. It's, it's the beginning. But again, that's where we need the faith to keep being consistent and keep putting it out there. So what I've put together, and this is going to be in the academy. When the academy does open right now, there's a couple of reasons why now is a good time to join.

One is that this is the last time the doors open before next year. And I think we'll probably be something like February, March time. I think, I think it was May actually this year. Two the prices going up. So I've decided. Um, and I might do an episode on why I've put the price up, but I decided that the quality in there, the community we have, the level of knowledge, I guess, means I want to put the price up.

So the price is going from $59 a month to $97 a month. And I know that's quite a big price hike, but it really does denote the quality that you're getting in there. And. And if you join now then it'll only have the $59 a month. If you don't join this time, then the next time you won't get it, $59. So that's the other reason.

And the third reason is this new growth plan ah growth path that don't even know the name that I've put together. So I just want to talk you through how this looks so you can understand a little bit. Okay, so I've put it into three different stages. That's the first thing. So we have the stage one, as I said that's bloom, stage two that's growth, stage three that's flourish.

So let me take stage one. Each of the three stages is broken down into social content, emails, sales, and clients, systems and team, and then your community. And at each stage, I have a statement for you to read and see. Is that me? So for instance, on the first stage, and obviously I'm still finalizing this and tweaking it and doing various updates.

So this probably won't be the finished what I'm reading now, but so on the first one for stage one in social, it'll say you have social media, but you're struggling to post consistently and you aren't getting all the all-important engagement. You're a bit baffled by it. You feel overwhelmed by all the things you've got to do.

You don't know what platform you should be doing it on. And like I said, you're not consistent. So if you read that and go "Oh, that's me." Then I give you an action or a few actions to do in order to get you over that mark. Because there's no point in me talking about batching content or Facebook ads or some of the other kind of more in-depth stuff.

If you aren't doing that first bit. And that's why I think. I'm so excited about this and why this is so important because we can do the courses on all the stuff. But like I said, if we're trying to create something and we haven't even got step one, then it's going to be impossible. So for instance, on content, it says, you're not sure what content you should be doing, or what you, or what would attract your customer? What to say to them? Again, you're sort of baffled, you're doing a scattergun effect and you're not sure what your customer wants to hear from you and what's going to engage them. So in that particular lesson, in that exercise and action, I talked to you about how to find what your audience want, where you can get the topics from.

I talk about why you shouldn't sell all the time. And again, I give you very specific tasks in which to do. And once you have those tasks done, tick you've done stage one of content. Now I know this seems quite a lot, but this isn't meant to be done over like five minutes. This is like, this is building a business and businesses take months and years to build.

So, I know it sounds a lot to be like, "Well, okay, how long have I got to do that? That sort of consistent social media stuff before I can move on to the next stage." So again, I tell you that I tell you. Okay. Once you've done this consistently for a couple of months, then you're ready to go to the next stage. Again with the team.

So in stage one, I've put basically you're just doing everything, you know, normally in stage one, people don't have a team, but if I take stage two, uh, I've put, you have a VA for a few hours, or you're thinking about getting one, but you're not sure how to get one or, and what work you can give them. You're at the peak of overwhelmed because the business is growing.

Uh, but you've got so much work to do and you need to start looking at how you can outsource it. You're scared of messing up. You're scared of giving it to someone else and you feel like you're not organized enough. So again, what I teach you in that section in stage two, when I talk about teams and systems, is how to bring on a VA, what to outsource, what questions to give them and the process that's involved to that.

But like I said, that's only at stage one at stage two, because at stage one, you're not ready for that at that point. Now the other thing about this growth path that I've done is the reason I've chunked it up into social content, email sales slash clients, team systems, and then community is because you might be at stage two in, in social, but actually your sales a stage one. So you can be in different stages for different things, which is why I've split it up like that. Because otherwise I'm going to be talking to you about how to do social at a level that you're not at you're at high level. So I'm really, really crazy excited about this and the potential for it and how it's going to help people really grow.

And then what is brilliant about it is it's it's in the academy. And I don't know whether it will always stay that way, whether I'm just going to give it to the academy members in this next go when I close the cart because I want to test it out. And then after that only they will have it. I'm not entirely sure how that works at this point.

I'm not sure whether you will have to go through this as a course, or you'll have to go through this before you join the academy, I'm not entirely sure, but anyway. So that's why I put it together. That's why the academy is going to get it because we're going to see how this goes. But honestly, I just think this is a business game changer, because like I said, The courses are great.

And the other thing that's great is the academy is full of courses. So for instance, on social stage one, I recommend the courses to go and watch and have a look at that are the ones that are appropriate for that stage that are in the academy. And then, like I said, the other great thing about it is that you'd get to come on a coaching call.

So if you're at stage one on content and you've done the work, but you're still not a hundred percent sure that it's right. You get to come and talk to me and you get to share with me what you've done and I get to go, "Yes that's right. Or I would look at this or have you thought about this?" So I'm so, so crazy excited about this.

I honestly think this is going to be amazing and I'm really hoping that you've listened to this and think "I want, I want to be part of that. I want to, I want to know

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Rachel Miller who is a mum of 6 children, builds and grows online businesses and also teaches people how to grow their audience and how to convert them. We talk all about how to get really good Facebook engagement without paying, what type of content you should be posting and how to convert your audience to sales.

• The fastest way to build a relationship with someone is to start a conversation!
• Treat your Facebook profile like a conversation you would have with a stranger.
• Each platform has its own preferred types of content – such as Reels on Instagram.
• AMC – The right audience, message, and content.
• When you post on Facebook, you get the most out of that post between the first and third day.
• Facebook and Instagram are the same algorithm.
• Business Suite allows you to schedule your content on both Facebook and Instagram.
• Post depending on the size of your business.
• It’s ok to post the same content again!
• Talk about your audience and ask them questions.
• If you post a picture of yourself – ask a question about them.
• If you’re going to talk about a win, talk about one of your students instead of yourself.
• Facebook likes engagement as this shows the platform that your audience is enjoying that content.
• Build your audience then create content around them.
• Your content doesn’t have to be the answer – it can ask the questions instead.

• An introduction to Rachel 04:56
• Organic traffic 10:32
• Organic reach for Facebook business pages 12:54
• What if I post and it’s tumbleweed? 18:17
• How to boost your Facebook organic reach 19:05
• How often should I post on Facebook? 25:17
• What type of content does well? 28:37
• How to make money from a blog 43:50

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Join Marketing That Converts The Academy

Hello and welcome to this week's episode at the podcast. How are you doing? Right? I just rewatched, uh, the beginning of the interview that we're doing today and it's so good. It's so good. But before we dive into that and I tell you who it is and what they're all about.

I want to give you a heads up that next week, the Academy doors are going to be open. So they open on Friday the 24th of September. And they're closing on Wednesday the 29th of September. The doors only open for about 10 days a year. And although it feels like I talk about it a lot. They only opened literally 10 days a year.

They've opened twice this year, I think. And next year they'll open twice. Now, the reason I'm giving you the heads up is because you don't have very long if you want to join. And secondly, the price is going up. So when I opened the doors, the price will be $59 as it is. Um, currently it has been last time I opened it, but when the doors close, the next time they open next year, it's going to be 97.

So if you are on the fence, if you are sat there thinking, "Yeah, I wanted to, I'm not sure, you know, see how it goes." You really want to think about joining this time, because the next time it's going to be a lot more money. And the reason it's going to be a lot more money is because of, and this is so hard to say this stuff when it's talking about your own stuff, but like, The quality of the stuff in there is so good.

The time and effort and attention I give is immense. And the Academy is one of these things where if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would still do it. I love it. I absolutely adore it. They are my people, they come first, I do the best things for them. They have all the best opportunities and I do all what I do.

And, and I, I see some of the, you know, people out there sometimes who you can see it's for the money or you can see it's for the fame, or you can see it's for the, I don't know what it is for, but like genuinely, I just adore working with all these small businesses. And like, I constantly joke with my husband can we have a party at my house and invite everybody around.

I'm like, they're like my family. So I just wanted to let you know, before I jumped into this interview, which is amazing that that is happening and the doors are going to be closing on the 29th and they weren't opening until next year and they will be a lot more money. So like I said, don't delay come and join me.

What you got to lose? Nothing. Absolute nothing. It's going to be ACE. Okay. Let me tell you about today's interview. Today I am interviewing the very lovely Rachel Miller and oh my goodness it was so good. Like the phrase knowledge bombs is a bit irritating to me, but it was literally like everything she said. I was like, what?

Say what? How? This is amazing. She was amazing. She was so good. Also she's a mum of six. Children. Six. Like how on earth? Uh, so yeah, six children, she runs a huge, amazing business. She has devoted all of her time, teaching people how to grow audiences, teaching people, how to convert them, how to get really good Facebook engagement without paying.

Now, I don't think I've ever had anybody on talking about Facebook and engagement because it always felt like a bit of a lost course to me. But some of the stuff that Rachel said it was unbelievable. So, so good. She's built multiple websites, each earning six figures plus, and she loves seeing other people do the same.

I don't want to talk anymore cause she's too good. Enjoy this episode. Please let us know what you think. I know she'd be, she would love to hear it and I'll see you at the end.

Okay. I am really excited today to welcome to the podcast. The very lovely Rachel Miller. Rachel welcome.

Rachel: Thank you so much for having me today. I truly appreciate it.

Teresa: Honestly, the pleasure is all mine. I have heard the most amazing things about you and what you do. And funny enough, I was on a call just before our interview. And someone said, I said, "Oh I've got an interview next." they said, who that who is with? And she's like, "Oh my God, she's amazing."

So. But in case someone who's listening to this doesn't know who you are. Can we just give two minutes of like who you are and how you got to do what you're doing today?

Rachel: Oh, I always find, this is like an interesting like moment. Does that make sense? I am a mom of six kids. Right now I have bribed my children and told them they can watch TV early in the afternoon if they do their reading very quietly.

And they're, they they've got like a summer school. Computer thing they're supposed to do every day for an hour, like to make sure they don't have that summer slide. Like you will sit here and you, so when I close my eyes and I picture who is Rachel, I picture me, the mom with the kids juggling work and life.

And I also know that I love making an impact on people. And how can I be a mom of six kids at home juggling the pre-teen drive everywhere scenario. And still make an impact. And that's why I've run a businesses online is because I can manage all of those things. I can juggle all those things. I can seem like I've got it all together and I do have it together, but I don't because like, who does? But I can run a business.

If it's an online business, if it works with an audience where it's on, I basically can craft it around my life. And so that's what I do. I've built audiences. Um, I built blogs. I built websites. I've built e-commerce lines that then all serve my, my life, my lifestyle, and allow me to be at home with my kids.

And I also teach other people how to grow an audience, which is fun. But ultimately I am growing and running my own businesses as well.

Teresa: So like you should have seen my face when you said six children. Six children, like first off, Rachel does not look old enough to have even one or two let alone six. How old are they?

Rachel: A bottle? I'm great.

Teresa: How old are the children?

Rachel: My youngest is 10. And so we have three, 10 year olds, and then we have a 12 and a half, 14 and 15 year old.

Teresa: Wowses.

Rachel: I know.

Teresa: Like that is a busy house.

Rachel: And I thought I was busy when I had toddlers. But the reality is that preteen stage where they're having you drive everywhere.

Teresa: They take up so much more room.

Rachel: Take up more room and they need to talk to you a lot, like about all the things.

And they like, does that make it, like, I don't know how to explain it. It's very, it's a little time-consuming. I'm loving it, but I love the fact that I get to have a business that I can run and I can control. And I don't need to, like, it's not the 12 year olds dramas about who hers, where her shoes went, you know, all of those things that can't have.

I don't need to worry about that cause I can organize my business. So sometimes it lets me, I think be a better mom because I'm not, I'm not internalizing my kids' stuff as much, um, instead of like, "Hey, this is your choice, you lost your shoes. You're gonna wear the wrong shoes to wherever it is." And instead I can say, I can control my business.

I know where my business is shoes are. Not that a business part shoes, but you know what I mean? I know where that is. I can, I can control it. I can help that grow. And I think it almost makes me a better mom because I don't internalize as much of the kids' stuff, but this is that pre tween teen stages. It's just drama.

Teresa: An 11 year old girl uh, who's my daughter. And then I have a step son who's 18, and I have a stepdaughter who's 24 and I met them when the step daughter was 15. Oh man, that was one hell of a learning curve. Like you're right. When they get to this age, it's kind of funny because in one way, they're like so much easier because you almost don't see them because it's like my daughter, if I allowed her, we'll just come in and go on her iPad and go in her room.

But on the other hand where they want a talk to you, you really have to like, "Yeah, okay, I'm listening." And they're talking about stuff that you like either you don't know about or that's where it's at the home get. And I'm like, "Well, what are you saying? What's these words." Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah. And they want to drive to like all of the places.

So my oldest two have like little part-time jobs, which I'm really grateful for. But they don't have cars yet. So. And then they've got braces because they inherited my mouth. So they all have braces. Well, not all, cause we're an adoptive family, but even the ones that are adopted, they are going to get braces too, because they got someone's mouth.

But my point is, yeah, we have a lot of orthodontists appointments with the family of six. It's enough see number of orthodontist.

Teresa: Can we have space? Like a car parking space. Can you put our name on that?

Rachel: So here I can run my business from the orthodontist parking lot. They just want it. With COVID, COVID has been the biggest gift because before this, I had to go into the office. Now because of COVID they want me to stay outside the office. I'm still supposed to be on the property because like, I can't leave my minor unattended, supposedly, but they're in the building and I'm happy as a clam with my cup of coffee in the parking lot, working in my car.

Teresa: So good. So good. You know, what I'm really excited about.

And I'm just going to like jump straight in is one of the things you talk about is organic reach and in particular Facebook. Like, and I realized that when I looked at bringing you on, I didn't think I've ever had someone talk about that because I didn't think it ever existed. And you must hear this all the time.

Like Facebook, dead. Organic reach, dead. Don't bother. See you later and move on something better. Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Rachel: We just, just that my blogging partner, just this morning sent me a screenshot. We got over 161,000 clicks from Google to our website. Now people will think, "Okay, well that's SEO." But the reason why we got those clicks is because we got our URL to spike.

How did we get our URL to spike? We got our URL to spike because we drove organic traffic on Facebook and Pinterest and YouTube. So when we have all at the same time, traffic linking to these things at the same time, Google's like, whoa, this link is a verified link. We're going to put it higher up in the ranking.

And then once it's higher up in the ranking and more people find it where people click on it. Well, now all of a sudden those 10 posts that literally were not ranking at all, because at the same time we posted them on Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube and we had them linking in, we had them spike and now they're sending us consistent traffic and I don't even have to promote them on Facebook anymore.

Teresa: Like, so I know someone is sat there now with us and there earbuds going, "Say what? How can I do that?"

Rachel: My business make multiple six figures that. One does this, I have five different businesses, but that one business makes multiple six figures and I'm not working on it. Because once I did that promotion once, I now can sit back on my laurels and the other, the promotion like snowballs.

So now Google's going to pick it up. Now Pinterest is a long tail keywords. So the more I have the longer, it doesn't last for like the first three weeks that you get no traffic. The most traffic you get is about three months in. So I know like three months from now, I'm going to get, I don't have to work from now because for the next three months, it's going to work for me.

So all of that kind of snowballs when you have the right structure set in place. And known for all organic traffic and growing all or audiences. But I use Facebook as my catalyst.

Teresa: Like that to me being in this industry is like, If you had to put a profile or a platform to that sentence, Facebook would not be the one you chose.

Like it would be the last if I may choose. How on earth do you. And we're talking. So let's just kind of find people listening. We're talking about a page aren't we? We're not talking about your profile.

Rachel: So, yes, I use a business page and, um, we drive massive amounts of traffic with business pages. So we actually have clients right now that we've worked with, um, who are reaching 27 million with single posts on Facebook.

Like this happened two weeks ago. So we help people. And we had somebody last week tell me that she crossed over 70,000 fans. She started with me less than a year and a half ago. So she was like zero. Like she never had a business, never had any promotion whatsoever. Um, so like we have our fastest person in the year. One month, one week started from zero and got to a million Facebook fans without any ad spent.

She's spent under 183. She spent $183 to get back. It's totally possible. People who say something's dead. Well, if you think it's dead, you're gonna act like it's dead. Whereas if you say, wait a second, there's traffic in the world, what do, what other people are getting traffic? There's people searching stuff on Google.

There's people looking at content on Facebook. There are people browsing the internet, those people didn't go away. So if they're browsing, I can be in front of them. How do I do this? And gain the system? And it's a lot of fun to just turn the machine on.

Teresa: It just sounds like some wizardry, like this is the, this is the stuff that I tell people all the time doesn't exist.

Right. So everyone wants the magic ones. Everyone wants me to go to them and go, I'll do this one thing. We've been keeping it secret. Do this one thing and your business supply. And I say all the time, there is no magic wand it takes work. Which I'm guessing. And you just nodded it does take work. This isn't a, oh, you put a secret word in the algorithm goes, "Yes." And brings it in.

Rachel: There is work. But there's also some like shortcuts. Does that makes sense? Like there's ways to get there faster. So if you're talking about yourself with your content. Well, that's the long way. Because like, think of like when you go to a party and what's the fastest way to get a stranger like talk to you, I'm an extrovert. So I'm really good at going to places and getting a stranger to talk to me because I desperately need every single person to say hi to me and say, they love me and smile at me.

And I get to talk to them. Like I need to talk to. Like my husband's like, "Why are you talking to the cashier?" I'm like, "Because I want to know how her day's going." You know, like it's a thing. All the cashiers know who I am. So anyways, my point is I want, that that's something important to me. So I've watched, when you go to like a party or a social situation, what's the fastest way to build a relationship with that person?

It's not to go up to that person and talk about yourself. Let's say, "Oh, how, do you have a problem with XYZ? My business has a solution." You would never do that in real life. Like you wouldn't be like, heck no, under the carpet, I'm dead. Like the world swallow up. But we do that on Facebook. So if we literally just treat our Facebook pages, our Facebook profiles, if we treat them like a conversation we'd have at the grocery store with a stranger, we're going to see that our rate rates skyrocket quickly.

Teresa: Yeah.

Rachel: So if we start the conversation with, "Oh, you dropped something." "Oh, I see you're here." "I had a question. Um, are you a mom too? Because I'm looking at this and I'm wondering about it. That's a way. I'm looking at this thing on the grocery store...

In today’s episode of the podcast I talk about building a community and how you can build a community that loves you and wants to buy from you.

• Be authentic – Be yourself. The way you are online should be the same as how you are in real life. You can’t be anyone else.
• Not everyone is going to like you and that is OK!
• By being authentic you will attract the right people for you.
• Be inclusive – everyone is welcome. Be proactive about showing this.
• Be consistent – people need to know you are there. Inconsistency can put doubt in your community’s mind.
• Earn trust – if someone is going to invest time and energy into you, they need to trust you. To earn trust, you need to show up in your community.
• Don’t let people down – if you say you are going to do something, you need to make sure you do it.
• Add value to your community – you are going to have to give away some information/support for free.
• Give your community a reason to engage.
• Listen to what your community has to say and ask lots of questions.
• When you have an audience – do things to delight them! Make them feel special and make it exclusive.

• Why building a community is so important 05:13
• How to build your community 07:25

Create Your Dream Business Bootcamp

Inclusivity in marketing podcast episode

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So I am batching ahead again. Someone asked me the other day, how I've managed to do all the things like the podcast and the emails.

And this is how, cause I batch ahead because I sit and do a number of podcasts at once and then they're all ready for the upcoming weeks. And obviously, I have an amazing team that helps me and as I speak, it's actually a Sunday. I don't normally work on a Sunday if I can help it. Although I don't mind working on a weekend, it's actually quite nice when no one needs you or you haven't got to speak to anybody. You can just sit down and crack on. But I'm going away hopefully next week, uh, for a break, which honestly, I cannot wait. I just, I'm praying nothing happens between now and then, like COVID stuff, but yes, I'm hoping that by the time you're listening to this, which is in a couple of weeks, I might still be on a beach somewhere.

Fingers crossed. Anyway, this week, I want to tell you about a couple of things. First thing is the bootcamp is back. I am very excited about the bootcamp. I love doing it last time. I've made some tweaks and improvements added a few different things, shortened it up a little bit, and it's going to be awesome.

It's going to be so so good. So basically the bootcamp is a four-day session with me. That sounds like we're literally going to do it at four days solid as in we'll meet every day, four days, day one, we're going to do a workshop about what does your dream business look like? Because when we talk about creating your dream business, I'm I kind of hate saying it, cause it sounds a bit like, "Oh so I can work on a beach with my laptop." And actually not everyone wants that.

Not everyone wants a six figure launch. Not everyone wants an online business. Not everyone wants a huge team. The first workshop we do is to really work out. What is it you want for your business? How do you want your business to look? Because then what you can do is you can kind of get off that rat race of trying to compete with other people or think your business isn't good enough if you don't have X, Y, Z, when actually that might be important to them, but that's not important to you.

That's the first thing we're going to do on workshop one on the first day. The next day on the Tuesday, we're going to be doing workshop two, which is looking at how do you get to that dream business. Now we know what you want. What steps can you start to take to get you there? And what plan do you need to put in place then on the Wednesday, we're going to have a coaching call.

So these are the calls I do within my Academy. And it's when anybody can join me and they can ask me anything about their business. And if I was to ask my Academy members, what was the best thing about the Academy? They would probably say a coaching call. You get to literally pick my brains. You get to ask me a question, I'll give you a direct answer back and we do this on Zoom and we do this via a conversation because the fact that normally if you come to me and any good person coaching mentoring. You should be the same. If you come to me and said, "Teresa, should I do this?" I've got about five questions back at you before I can give you the advice that I think is the most suitable. So we've got that on the Wednesday. And then on the Thursday, we're going to finish off with a workshop session on mindset.

Because great if you know what you want to do, know where you want to go, but if your mindset is not in the right place, it's so, so key. If you just think I can't do this, who do I think I am? And all those other horrible things that kind of eat away at us, then basically, you know, that's not going to help you. You could have the best plan and blessed best strategy in the world.

You're never going to do it. That's what we're doing on Thursday. We'll have a celebration party. There's going to be competitions or the prize is worth over $1,400. So it's a great prize. There's going to be other amazing things along the way. We always have a great sense of community in that. So it's going to be awesome.

So if you've not already signed up, please do so it's teresaheathwareing.com/bootcamp. And I will see you in there. I'm very excited. Okay. So this is kind of like fits well with today's discussion because today we're going to be talking about building a community. And how you build a community that loves you or a community that wants to hear from you or wants to buy from you or gives you something. Like how many people have had a Facebook group where no one talks, no one ever says nothing and he feels like you're pulling teeth. So today I want to talk about how do we build a great community. And it's really nice.

Like I said, we're talking about the bootcamp and then I'm talking about this because one of the things I am complimented on a lot is how amazing my members are. Every time we have a guest speaker come in. When we do our online events SOAR and the lovely Biz Paul presents it. He has said to me on so many occasions, he can't get over what an amazing community we have. How amazing the people are. How supportive they are. How genuine they are. How there's no, like sometimes there's yeah, I've been in communities where it feels either clicky or it feels like not engaging. No one's bothered everyone's out for themselves. And honestly like it, I am just in awe that my community is so amazing. And I was really lucky the other day that I was talking to someone about it, who who's in the community.

And I was like, how amazing, how like these people are phenomenal. And she turned right into me. She went "Teresa you do know it's because of you, don't you." And I was just like, no, whatever. She was like, no, seriously, the reason you have a great community is because of you. And I just thought, and I was completely touched, but, but honestly, in everything we do, so last time we ran the bootcamp, I was looking back at some of the kind of comments in the group and it was all like, this is amazing.

These people are amazing. Love this group, love this community. Build my list whenever we do that, again, loads of amazing comments about the community and whatever, and it's brilliant. I love it. So I thought let's kind of pull apart why I think I've got a nice community and how you can build that community too for your business.

And, and you may be thinking, well, I don't want to build a membership or I don't want to build a Facebook group and that's fine. A community isn't that. A community, I'm part of the Apple community. Cause I love everything Apple have to sell me and I buy pretty much everything Apple has to sell me. It's not just a community when you're trying to build like a membership or a Facebook group, it's about your customers.

It's about what are you putting out there? It's about you. Like, you're listening to my podcast. You may not have even ever followed me on social media. You might not have even opted into one of my emails. It just might be that you are listening to the podcast, but you're part of my community. So what are some of the things that we can do and and how you do it?

So I've got a little list of things that I think are important to me and how I build my communities. Firstly, I think I ever in my intention was never like, oh, I'm going to build this great community. I'm doing this kind of afterwards. I've managed to put together this phenomenal group of people in every kind of, part of my business that I have.

And now I'm looking back to think, "Well, what did I do? And how did I do that?" So it wasn't I ever set out to be amazing at this. Um, and I'm definitely not saying I'm amazing at it. You know, I'm doing all right. So I thought I'd share it. So the first thing I think that I've done is I've been entirely authentic.

I have people meet me and they're like, oh my God, you're just the same. And it's like, yeah, I'm just me. Like, this is who I am, how I am on the podcast, how I am on my bootcamp when I'm doing free training. When I'm in the academy, when I'm at an event, I'm exactly the same. And the reason is so important to be completely yourself is because you can't be anybody else and not everyone's going to like you and that's okay.

And do you know what, that was a really hard thing for me to get my head round, like I'm a people pleaser. I like to be liked. I mean, who kind of doesn't really, but, and so for me in the early days, I wanted everybody to like me. I wanted everyone to want to be part of what I did or be a client or recommend me or whatever it was.

But the truth is they're not going to, like, you could be the most amazingly beautiful person in the world and kind and generous, and someone is still going to go "You're not for me." So that's okay. But the reason being authentic is so important is because you're only going to attract the right people.

When I look at all my members, my students, people listen to the podcast. There is definitely a theme of the type of person I attract. And that's because I am being authentically me. Now, there are people, like I said, who will listen to a podcast, who will hear me on someone else's and think "This woman is an idiot. Not for me." And that's all right. That's okay. I'm not for them. But then there are people that listen to it and go, "Oh yeah, I love this. I love how she talks about it. I love what she does." So being you and do not apologize for it, don't try and hide it. Don't try and match yourself to someone else. Just turn up as you.

And I think that's so, so important. I don't ever think, you know, when I talk about community again, it's not just in the group. It's not just in my Academy. It's on every single thing I do. I am just me and I act like me. Um, the next thing is be inclusive. Okay. So it's never been a case of these types of people are welcome in my community.

Not at all. Everybody's welcome. And when I talk about being inclusive, there's some great episodes I've done about inclusivity and marketing. So if you haven't heard them go and listen to them, but it's simple as things like, you know, make sure that every type of person you deal with is represented, is seen on your marketing, on your social media, make sure that you are really, really kind of proactive about showing that about showing that anybody in any walk of life is welcome in your world. Again, you know, cause I don't want to trap people who don't want to be inclusive, so that's fine. So as long as I am inclusive to people who are quite frankly, not for me, uh, will not join my community.

And that is absolutely fine. So being inclusive is really important, authentic the other kind of key one and then I've got some other good ones to, to talk more specifically about the community and building that is being consistent. Like, people need to know that you are there. So if one day they come to your social media and you're like, I'm on stories.

I'm talking in the DMS, I'm doing all this stuff. And then suddenly three weeks later, there's nothing. And you haven't been around for two weeks. That inconsistency is going to put some doubt in their mind that you can not be trusted. That's not the right word, but if they're going to invest time in, you know, their time in you and their energy in you, are you going to be there.

Also, the other thing that I find and I've seen happen a lot is people pivots. I'm not a big fan of the word pivot. Like if you look back, I have done marketing forever and the flipping day. But don't get me wrong I have tweaked my offering. I have tweaked what I talk about on the podcast. I talk about mindset as well as the marketing side, because I've realized how important that is.

I talk about building a business, running a team because I do all those things. And I know my audience might find that useful. But suddenly I'm not Teresa that is a HR expert or Teresa that that's the tech queen, like I'm just marketing and have always been marketing and business for a long time. And I think sometimes when you see people pivot, so I'm trying to think of a good example, but there's been loads of them and I've seen it so many times where, "Oh, I'm the online course expert."

"Oh, now I tell you how to build a group." "Oh, now I'm doing coaching." "Oh, now I'm doing something else." And like they'll open a group and then they'll close it and they'll start a podcast and then they'll stop it. Like, it just doesn't sit nice. It just makes you think, what are you? Who are you? What are you doing?

And I've seen it so many times. I've seen it so many times where people start something, they don't, they're not consistent at it. They're not kind of, you know, tenacious with thinking, okay, no, one's showing up right now. No, one's paying attention, but I'll just keep going. They then go, this isn't working pivot.

And then those people that they started to attract they're like "Oh, you're not doing that anymore." And they lose that community. That kind of consistency is so, so important. Not only from a turning up point of view, but also consistency of message and what you do. Okay. So one of the other things you need to do when you start building that community, so those are kind of like your baseline stuff, if you like, and this is when you start building in you're, you're getting people into your world is you need to earn their trust.

Now people sometimes think about money when they think about this. It's not that it's like. I don't want to hang around or give my time and energy to people who I don't trust. And when I say I don't trust, it's not like, oh, you're a liar. It's just the fact of, okay, this is what I'm coming for. Is this what I'm getting?

So in order to earn their trust, you need to do things like you need to show up. Again, if I've committed into your community and you stop showing up or you stop engaging, then that kind of eats away at that trust I've bet. Um, and I remember, um, I think it was, uh, Uh, Stephen Covey. I can remember his name then.

Uh, Stephen Covey. I was watching one of his YouTube stuff from ages ago of him doing a talk. And he talked about trust as in like a jar of pebbles. And he basically said, or water or whatever you want to put in the jar. But he basically said like, everyone starts off at a certain level. And the more trust you give them, the more you add, the more you add, the more you add when you take it, you like take double amounts.

So for one pebble, you put in, when some, when you do something that makes you feel that you can trust someone, when I do something that loses your trust, I take out like two, three pebbles, or you'll take out two, three pebbles. So the, every time you do something where you break someone's trust, you remove more of that trust.

And then what happens is you hit a deficit and then basically before they can even trust you again, they need to build back up to a level where was their kind of baseline level. I've probably done a terrible job of explaining it. It's really important to build that trust. Gosh, I didn't know how you guys cope with the enlightingness I give you in these podcast episodes. Hilarious. Okay. So show up. Do, as you say, you're going to do so if you tell people like, again, I had an example the other day where someone was like, they needed some customers, they needed their audience to kind of be, you know, buying from them. So they decided to do a live and then literally hours before they thought, no, I'm not gonna do it.

And it's like, no, you've told people, that's what you're going to do. Now you need to do it. Things like when you set a price. So the Academy, when it opens next week, I think. It's going to open again at $59. And when I closed the doors, the next time it opens next year, it's $97. That's what it's going up to.

Now if I said to you, you can join now for 59 and it will grandfather in ie you'll never pay more than that a month. And then next year when I opened the doors again, it's down at 49. Your trust is lost completely. So I'd never do that. So when I say it's going to go up to 97, it's going up to 97. Whether people buy at that price or not, that's the price it's going to be because I am being completely kind of transparent and honest and open.

So you can trust what I say. It's the same. Whereas like, you know, some people, you just think only if I wait a bit, I'm going to get a deal. That's not building the trust. That's not helping you. Okay. And then don't let people down. Again. Unfortunately. You know, more often than I would like where people say they're going to do something and they don't do it, or they don't get back to you.

So if for me, if you are pitching a client or trying to bring someone new into your community, that needs to be fast as anything. So if I've had an email, if I email someone saying, "Yes I'd like to go ahead with your service." And three weeks later, they haven't emailed me. They're not, I'm not using their service. Because that's a brand new, I'm a brand new client.

I want it to be taken seriously. I want to know that you are going to do what you say you're going to do. So don't let people down. Show up and do, as you say. Okay. The other thing you need to do in this kind of earn trust or the way that you can earn trust is add value. So if people think you are holding back all your information, holding back the best bits, not supporting them, not helping them unless they pay, then that's not going to feel like I can trust you very well.

So at that value, give them that information, support them. So again, I'm just...

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Anthony Blatner who is a tech founder and ex -IBMer. Anthony helps companies unlock their B2B marketing potential using LinkedIn ads and the power of technology. We talk all about LinkedIn advertising – the power of them, the cost of them, the different types and how you can get started with them.

• Ads are there for when you are ready to throw gas on the fire – you have something that is working and your funnel is in place.
• You have to know who you are targeting for your ads to work properly.
• LinkedIn ads target people based on who they are such as their job roles or industry – which is why they are best for B2B.
• LinkedIn is great if you want to target a niche professional at scale.
• LinkedIn is a more expensive platform to advertise on.
• The minimum spend for LinkedIn Ads is around $10 per day but you will likely need more than this for really driving traffic. You can expect to pay around $8-$10 per click.
• Be really specific with your audience you are targeting on LinkedIn.
• Types of LinkedIn Ads - Sponsored content, sponsored email, conversation ads, dynamic ads (desktop ads) and text ads (desktop only).
• Start with sponsored content ads using lead forms if you are new to LinkedIn.
• You can be professional and personal on LinkedIn – personal content can cut through the noise and get your personality across.
• The best way to get started is to advertise a lead magnet with a sponsored content ad and lead form.
• You can only advertise from a company page on LinkedIn.
• Business pages on LinkedIn are good from an SEO perspective and tend to come up higher in search results.
• Have some recent updates on your business page before advertising but you don’t need to worry about posting too much.
• Only your followers see your content on your business page so keep it up-to-date but more people are likely to see your content on your personal page.

• An introduction to Anthony 04:53
• Are LinkedIn Ads more technical? 06:50
• The power of LinkedIn Ads 09:22
• The cost of LinkedIn Ads 13:40
• Are you ready for LinkedIn Ads? 15:23
• Common LinkedIn Ads mistakes 20:45
• Different types of LinkedIn Ads 22:32
• LinkedIn content 27:14
• Getting started with LinkedIn Ads 29:27
• Do I need a business page on LinkedIn? 36:28

Website

LinkedIn

Create Your Dream Business Bootcamp

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So this week got an interview all about LinkedIn advertising. I'll get to that in a minute. However, before we do that. I just want to tell you that I've bought the bootcamp back. So back in, I said like, May, May, April time. I did a five day bootcamp called Create Your Dream Business Bootcamp.

It was so good. It was basically, it has three workshops and those workshops are aimed around knowing, you know, what do you want your business to look like? How you structure it to get to that sort of business and then your mindset around it. It includes things like prizes and coaching calls and so much good stuff.

And like I said, the feedback was awesome that I had last time. So if you signed up, you didn't get chance to do it, then you definitely want to come and do it. If you haven't checked it out or signed up, then please do go and have a look. Cause it's going to be fab. It's completely free by the way. So go to Teresa Heath, I've got my name, teresaheathwearing.com/bootcamp.

And you can sign up there and you'll get everything sent to you when you sign up. That's going to be brilliant. So I'll just leave that with you, for you to go and, um, and go and take a look at that when you've got five minutes, obviously, if you're on social, any of my social, we'll start sharing the fact that we're doing the bootcamp coming up.

So on to today's interview. Now I really liked, I really like it when I don't know the subject and I know nothing about LinkedIn advertising. I did it years ago, but wasn't very successful and then hardly anybody I know does it. So when this guy approached me to say, could he come on the podcast? I was like, do you know what?

Yeah, because some of you will be using LinkedIn for your main platform. And I just think it's good to give you a heads up or an idea as to whether you should look at the advertising. Is there any good? What does it do? So, like I said, I was complete student with this. I was asking all the questions because I didn't know what I was talking about. So the lovely Anthony came on to talk about it. So Anthony was a tech is a tech founder and an ex IBM-er. He has seen lots of companies with great services failed due to ineffective marketing. So he started an agency to help those companies unlock their B2B marketing potential.

By blending his experience in marketing and software, he's able to help digital agencies reach their potential using LinkedIn ads and the power of technology. So like I said, I'm not even going to like deep dive into anything we talked about because I'm just going to let you to jump in and listen to what he had to say. So here is Anthony.

It's my great pleasure that I welcome to the podcast today Anthony Blatner. Anthony, how are you doing?

Anthony: I'm doing great. How are you doing?

Teresa: I am good. Really good. Thank you. It's the end of the day for me, it's been a busy one. I was going to say go my house call, but actually have a life to do a bit later on.

So, um, and then I can enjoy a glass of wine. Um, but where are you based? You're obviously in a different part of the world to me.

Anthony: Yes, I'm in Austin, Texas. So I am, uh, not just starting my day, a little bit late in my day. It's 11:00 AM here. Um, but yeah, Austin, Texas.

Teresa: Because were British and we asked you the questions like this, what's the weather like?

Anthony: Um, well, it's actually kind of rainy and overcast here today. Uh, but overall temperature wise has been pretty good. Last few weeks have been good, like mid seventies, low eighties. Now is the perfect time for Texas, you know, overall, uh, it's going to get pretty hot pretty soon.

Teresa: So what does it kind of go up to?

Anthony: Uh, it'll get to triple digits Fahrenheit. Um, and usually over the summer, we'll have a lot of like a hundred degree days, a hundred, 105.

Teresa: Wow.

Anthony: Yeah.

Teresa: That's crazy. Crazy hot. I have not been to Texas. It's on my list of places. Obviously that list is just paused during this amazing time that we're in, but it is on my list.

So anyway, we will crack on, like I said, I love asking what's the weather like question. So Anthony, in case my audience haven't heard from you, why don't we start off as we always do in explaining who you are and what you do.

Anthony: Yeah, absolutely. So I, uh, I specialize in LinkedIn advertising. Uh, there's not many people out there that do.

Um, so you know, happy to share tips and tricks for LinkedIn advertising. It's been a great platform. Um, but a little bit about me is my background, I come into the marketing world from the software side of things. I started my career at IBM building big e-commerce websites, going out to their clients. And when I was in, when I moved to Austin here, I got involved in the startup scene. So I started building mobile apps on the side and eventually started a mobile app development agency that I ran. Um, we built a lot of apps, a lot of software for a lot of different companies from startups to big companies and saw that a lot of companies would build an app and put it on the app store and do really well, um, with a good marketing plan, if they, if they were able to get that distribution.

And then we saw a lot of other companies spend a lot of time and a lot of money and build just as good of software, but without a good marketing plan, you would launch your app. And it would just sit on the app store and, you know, and it would die. So we saw the need and the opportunity we that's, how I kind started getting, getting pulled into the marketing world was once you build the app, you got to help them market it distribute it. Um, so that was my segue getting into the marketing world. And then over the years, just finding that LinkedIn was the best platform. Um, with my background, I had mostly B2B software clients, so that B2B space was just doing the best on LinkedIn. So that's what I've been focused on over the last several years is just LinkedIn advertising and targeting those B2B audiences.

Teresa: Love it, love it. And that's cool. Like, you know, it's come from a software point of view. I'm interested actually. Now I done LinkedIn ads many, many, many years ago. I think I dabbled once. Is, is it the kind of more tacky type of ad? Is that, did that kind of path help you with this, or is it just the same, a little bit of the types of ads?

Anthony: Um, I'd say it's, it's pretty similar to the other ad platforms. I always like to say, like, LinkedIn's like a few years behind, like Facebook and people in terms of like what, like what their ad platform looks like. Like you get in there and you're just like, this is simple, like simple, but I'm confused.

Teresa: And I think that's generally LinkedIn full stop.

It's there you know. And I hoped for Microsoft to go, but we're like, please make it beautiful. Please make it beautiful. And they just haven't quite got there.

Anthony: They, they did a redesign of like the front end, the consumer side of the platform. So my hope is that will eventually make it to the backend. I know they're working on a business manager, which they don't have yet for the ads platform.

But uh, they are in, are working on it. I think it's going to be out next year. They said, so they're definitely making a lot of advancements. Um, I think originally when Microsoft took them over, we were like expecting a lot really quickly. And I think they've been kind of working in the backgrounds and we've seen a lot of new features over this last year, especially during COVID like LinkedIn lives, LinkedIn events and like a lot of that stuff getting promoted.

So I think they're making strides. But to jump back to your question, as far as like the techie side of things, I think, I appreciate being able to get into code when I need to. And like, you know, as simple as like adding conversion tags to websites and LinkedIn insight tags to sites and like, you know, being fine with just copying and pasting code, putting those snippets in there.

If I need to rearrange anything else, um, you know, I do spend a lot of time doing that, but I'm very comfortable like getting in that and I, I appreciate having that background of being able to do that when I need to. So often I'll spin up landing pages for people and that's pretty easily connect all that stuff together.

Teresa: Yeah. Cool. So, okay. I said to you, before we got on, I love it when we talk about subject that I literally have no idea. Right. Because one, I learned stuff, which is really cool, but two, I asked the stupid questions, so you're just going like, you can just put your fear now, because this is probably going to be the easiest stuff topic in your life. But I really do want to get to basics because one thing that my listeners will have, like most business owners slash marketers slash social media managers have is the overwhelm of so much stuff. And lots of them are some of them dabble in Facebook.

Some of them are not quite there yet in terms of advertising. So let's get right to basics in terms of explain to me, if you, if I had never thought of advertising for what does the LinkedIn ads do for someone using them?

Anthony: Um, so ads, so starting very basic, you know, ads I, you know, even to the very small business, I'd say ads are when you're ready to throw gas on the fire.

So when you have something that's working, when you have your sales process, you have your funnel when it's working, then ads are good to go. Throw a fuel on the fires, what I always say, be careful not to throw a fuel on the fire before there's a fire there, or are you going to waste a lot of money. So, you know, throughout the years there's been people I've talked to who are like, you know, let's, let's start ads.

It's a brand new business. You know, we don't know who we're targeting. And I'm like, well, you're going to spend a lot of money testing those audiences and those ads to figure out what does work. So in general ads are when you have something that's working, you're just know you're ready to push more traffic, more leads, more customers into that funnel.

That's where ads are handy. And now where LinkedIn ads kind of play in the big ecosystem is, you know, on, in the, for the big platforms you have like Google, Facebook, and you have LinkedIn. Facebook's great for B to C when you're targeting a broad consumer audience, maybe based on, you know, the demographics or what they're interested in.

Um, Facebook is great with that because they have a lot of content. They see how people, they have seen people, you know, interact on and off the platform. Now some of that's changing, but, um, LinkedIn is more targeting based on who somebody is. So based on job titles, company, names, industries, company sizes, and all those various, um, options.

So. That's why LinkedIn is good for B2B. Facebook's good for B to C and the platforms themselves are kind of configured for those ways. Whereas on LinkedIn, we have all the options. You know, Facebook does have some options for like job title and industry, but they're very limited. And just like the way people use Facebook, you know, I know I probably have my professional stuff on Facebook a long time. And I know most of my, you know, um, family and colleagues, I don't see them putting that stuff in the Facebook. So Facebook just lacks a lot of that data. Whereas on LinkedIn, we always say like, that's one of the first places, somebody updates when they get a new job or when they start a new company or even starting a new side project.

So LinkedIn's data is, you know, all the users put that in there. It's all first party data. So thinking about iOS 14, that's coming out this week. You know, LinkedIn owns that data. They know it. So. We're not really concerned in the LinkedIn space of, you know, much of that impact. Sure. There'll be something as far as like conversion tracking and like re-targeting, but as far as like the core of what we're doing and our, where our campaigns are based off of all that data is coming from LinkedIn, none of that's going to change.

We're still going to use job puddles, company names, none of that's going to change. So LinkedIn is great. When you want to target a niche professional at scale. So, again, Facebook's good for broad consumer audiences. Even if you were saying all business owners, maybe Facebook is a better platform for you because it will be cheaper.

Potentially LinkedIn is a more expensive platform. Um, and you pay for the targeting that you get, but you can target specific types of professionals. Say you wanted HR directors at financial services company. That'd be finding a needle in the haystack on Facebook. You know, you'd be, you'd be getting a lot of clicks, but 99% of those would not be the right person.

So all the data your pixel seeing is just not the right data. So, you know, that kind of muddies your data and it's hard to drive any kind of result out of that. Whereas on LinkedIn, I can specifically target HR directors in the financial services space, you know, at a big company at a small company. And use that to drive the campaign. And then I knew I'm getting all the right people. So that's kind of where LinkedIn plays in the space, um, and where LinkedIn is good. Good for, um, So that's, that's kind of a rundown.

Teresa: On my experience is that LinkedIn is considerably more expensive than Facebook, but you raised a really good point there in the fact of, if I'm running an ad, I might be getting impressions, but it's a vanity metric, you know, or it might even be getting the clicks, but not the conversions because I'm targeting an audience that is that I'm trying to find the right people.

Whereas if I know someone's job title or I know the sector or the industry or the kind of types of business I'm after then obviously I can get a much stronger, I guess, person looking at it, but it might cost me more. How much are we talking? Is there a minimum per day? What's your expense in terms of like paying for ads?

Anthony: Yes. A minimum per day is 10 bucks per day, uh, in the US um, is LinkedIn's minimum. So, you know, Facebook's like a dollar, but LinkedIn is 10 bucks a day. Um, but you're probably going to need more than that, you know, significantly more than that to drive enough data, to make decisions based off. Um, what we usually see on LinkedIn in the US um, targeting a mid-level or higher, you're usually paying at least 8 to 10 bucks per click or more if you're targeting, you know, CEOs of fortune a hundred companies.

Sure. You can be paying 25 to 50 bucks a week. Um, but it just depends on the competitiveness or your audience. Most people are going to be around 8 to 10 bucks per click. Um, but you know, when you, again, when you need to target that niche decision maker that you can't find anywhere else, if you know, if you were to run that campaign on Facebook, Sure you could be paying like a dollar for a click over there, but you know, I'm sure even like, you know, I'd say 90, 90% of your clicks, aren't going to be the right people, probably more than that.

So suddenly you're paying a lot more on Facebook or, or the same amount that you are paying on LinkedIn, but making sure you're getting good traffic and good clicks coming through there.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. So one thing I wanted to touch on just a bit,...

In today’s episode of the podcast I talk all about money mindset and how important this is as a business owner. I also give you an activity to do that may help your money mindset!

• Your money mindset can have a big impact on your business.
• A scarcity mindset: You are scrambling around to make money, you are worrying about paying bills, you worry there is never enough, you say you can’t afford it, you are jealous of those who have more, you worry about competitors, you are scared of change, you believe there is only so much, you hope others will fail and you don’t set any goals.An abundant mindset: You are grateful for everything, you notice the small things, you cheer others on because you know there is enough to go round, you are willing to take risks, you are generous, you want to learn more, you know there will always be more, you think big and set goals, you share your knowledge, you are inspired by others ahead of you and you believe there is enough for everyone.
• The activity – make a list of the negative thoughts you have around money, then re-write those negative thoughts into better thoughts. Think about what you would say instead. Write down 3 things that could make you feel abundant.

• Why is money mindset important? 03:20
• Scarcity vs Abundance 04:16
• Money mindset activity 10:55

Transcript Below

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So we are nearly at the end of the summer holidays. In fact, if you're listening to this, as it comes out, we've probably got about a week left.

And although I love my daughter and my stepson. I'll be very glad when they're at school and the house is a bit quieter and I can crack on a bit. That will be great. How have you managed? It's-it's hard. Like it's really hard trying to do all the things and not trying to shout at them on a minutely basis. It's really difficult.

So like I said, I formally be quite glad that they are back at school and I'm confident that you might feel that way too. Okay. So today we're going to be talking about money. And specifically your thoughts around it. So I have, I guess I didn't really think about money in the way I think about it now. Definitely not.

I think, I didn't think it was important when I started my business. I saw it as a very practical thing. You know, I asked for money, people give it me if they have my service and I didn't think much about money mindset. In fact, I didn't even know it was a thing if I'm honest. And over the last few years, five, six years, I've been doing more and more and more work on it.

And now I feel like I'm really happy with my mindset around money and actually the difference it's made to me and my business has been quite significant. So even though I am not the world's expert on a money mindset, and actually that's on my list of amazing people to get on is someone who can talk about money.

I do want to take you through a session that I did at last, at the last SOAR I did, which was in June. I think. We do one in November as well, which is coming up and in a few weeks time, the cart will open again for the Academy for only like four days. So obviously if you get to join then you get to do the November event.

So this is one of the activities we did in the event. The event, isn't like, it's not like an event where I bring speakers and you just sit into some speakers all day. It's a really practical event. I do bring speakers, amazing and different speakers that you don't find everywhere else. And my sessions are all around doing practical stuff.

So I did this whole session on money mindset because having done all the work I've done doing all the coaching I do in the Academy. I can really see that sometimes this really holds people back. So I want to just go through this activity with you today, if that's okay. And it's just something that you can think about.

If you've got a pen and paper and you wanna write down. Then cool. Great. But it's certainly something that you can think about as we're, as you're listening to this, if you're driving or as I do often listen to stuff, when I'm doing my makeup or whatever you're doing, so you'll be able to do it. So don't panic. So firstly, why, why do we even need to think about this?

And I think it's really, really important because actually, like I said, it can have some really big impacts on your business. If you don't have the right mindset around money. It's like, so like the mindset thing, we know how important it is, but just the other week I was having a call with one of my Academy members and they were talking about the fact of, they thought they were all full on rubbish.

You know, business wasn't very good. And they obviously weren't very good because of the fact that they haven't got the customers coming in. I had to have a real sort of discussion with them and say, just because you don't have a customer at the moment does not mean that you are all those things. And it kind of tips back to that whole mindset thing.

If you're thinking in a certain way, You're going to attract more of it. And if you're thinking in a negative way, you might attract more of that. So I just think it's nice to think about money in a good way. Anyway, I'm rumbling. So let me get to the point. So the first thing I got them to do was to think about what their thoughts were around money.

Did they have a scarcity mindset or an abundant mindset? So if you have a scarcity mindset, which I definitely had, and I was definitely brought up in this environment, then you think these kinds of things. You're scrambling around to make money. You stress about paying the bills. You worry, there's never enough.

Like, you know, there won't be enough business. There won't be enough customers. There's too many competition. You say we can't afford it. And just even words, I know it sounds really like you might listen to this thing and, "Well yeah, we can't afford that thing." Just even saying that sometimes can have like a trigger in your brain that's like, it kind of says, "Well I'm never going to be able to afford it." but it might be, I just can't afford it right now, or I haven't got the money for it right now, but I'm going to see how I can. You're jealous when people have more, although ever since I read it, We Should All Be Millionaires with Rachel Rodgers.

She actually frames jealousy in another way. As like almost a motivator or knowing what you want in the world. So when you see someone like, I dunno, I was gonna say driving a Ferrari, but I'm not jealous about that. I think I've thought for, they're not built for me. I'm trying to get in and out of one of them in my size had just been absolute nightmare.

So, but like, let's say. You know, garden envy, someone's got a humongous garden or they've got a huge team or whatever, whatever, if I'm jealous at that, then that's kind of, she frames it as a good thing. Cause it's like, well, that's what you're trying to aim for. That's what you're trying to go for. Being jealous where it's like, I'm just trying to think.

Annoyed or a bit bitter about it. I think that's the scarcity thing. Worrying about your competitors, thinking, you know, well, they're doing it. Now I'm not going to have a business course with change. So you might not want to change and flex as often because you're scared of what's going to happen. Believes there's only so much.

So have you ever liked. Oh, this happened to me. I would have plans to launch the Academy and I found out that a potential competitor was launching at the same time. And I thought, what an absolute nightmare, like, you know, that's it now it's going to ruin my launch. And actually that's the scarcity mindset of there's only so much, you know, rather than thinking there's plenty to go around with.

You know, we'll be absolutely fine. I hope that others will fail that you look at others and think "Nice one. Let's hope they don't get many members because that means I get more and not setting any goals." So I'm interested to, you know, as you were listening to me, go through those points, whether you're sat there going, "Yeah I can see myself doing that." because I totally could. Now, given all the work I've done, I then now try to practice an abundant mindset. So this is the kind of things that you would think about or do if you were trying to be abundant. So the first thing is grateful of everything and I am like crazy grateful of the smallest and the biggest and the teeniest things like going and getting tomatoes off my plan.

That is just like the best thing in the world. Driving a really fancy car is really nice as well. I'm very grateful for all of it. So when you start looking at gratitude, it's really hard to be have a scarcity mindset when you have gratitude, you know, because you're so grateful for everything. I mean, as I'm recording this now that the world, well, the world has been a bit crazy generally, but obviously everything's going on in Afghanistan.

And, and because my husband was in the military and has been there hundreds and hundreds of times, and he knows lots of people who were still going back in and trying to rescue people. And right now, like I could not feel more grateful for the life we live. In this country in the UK. And that I'm not in a position where I fear for my life, but for being a woman, like how grateful am I of that?

Like hugely grateful. And we notice the small things. So I do, I totally notice, the small things. I really make myself pay attention to them. And when I'm doing a gratitude practice every morning, I'll write four things that I'm grateful for. Sometimes big-ish and others times that absolute tiny, you know, like my amazing husband gets up and makes me a coffee in the morning.

Like that is amazing. Cheers others on. So when you're in a, an abundant mindset, you know, there's enough to go around and therefore you really encourage and help and support others. And I'm a real giver. Like now I remember working for companies where it'd be like, you know, as if you'll do an exam at school and you've got your arm around your papers so no one could read it.

I'm not like that now I'm very open. I give a lot. And the idea of that is one, you know, people get concerned and say to me, not worried, they're going to steal that and do it for themselves. It's like, well, if they do, they do. And I'm not concerned about that because of the fact that I know people will come to me for me.

And if they don't want to come to me for me and they want to go to the other person for them, then they'll do that too. So it doesn't worry me. Willing to take risks. So doing a few things that feel a bit risky, knowing that, you know, actually I'm going to spend that money on that coach, or I'm going to do this thing to Uplevel the business, or I'm going to bring on a team member.

Generous. I like to be generous like this one of my favorite things. If I'm honest, I love nothing more than offering to pay for things, treating people to things, just giving people bonuses. I love it. I love it. Well, wants to learn more. So again, knowing that there's still so much more to learn so much more we could grow.

Know there will always be more. So a bit, like I was saying about terrible example I gave at the beginning of that, that Academy member who's like I haven't got a client and therefore life is awful. If they had an abundant mindset, if they were using their abundant mindset, they think I don't have a client right now, but I know there's going to be another one where it's going to come from and how. I don't know that, but I just trust that it well.

Thinks big and sets goals, which again, like if you're being abundant, then you're ready to kind of go "Yeah this is what I want in my world." Shares the knowledge. We talked about this, and I'll say I'm big at doing this inspired by others ahead of them. Again, this is something that I have done and people have done with me.

So I've just worked with someone on my 90 day program who wants to do what I do. So perfect. Come and join the 90 day program and I will show you how I do it. And that's what I did. I find people who did what I wanted or had the business I wanted. And I was inspired by the fact that they did it rather than feeling annoyed or resentful that someone was more successful than me.

And I just thought, great, I can do this too. And then believe there's enough for everyone. So again, that competition is not concerned, you know, that there's enough people in this world to be, you know, giving something for everyone. So those are the differences. That's the scarcity versus abundance. So hopefully you've kind of sat there and thought, "Yeah, actually I, I'm good there, but I do often think about that scarcity thing."

So I try and sit firmly in the second list. The second list of all the things that I've just said in the abundant mindset, those are the kinds of things. So then what I asked everyone to do was I wanted them to write their thoughts around money. So make a list of the negative thoughts you have around money.

So, and this was really interesting. It was things like, and this often came from other people. So for instance, mine would be money doesn't grow on trees. That's, everyone's heard that. I'm sure people like us don't have stuff like that. My mum used to have this saying, I think it's like fur coat and no knickers or something.

It's a ridiculous saying. But like basically saying, you know, it was all for show or whatever. She often saw money as bad as in people who have money are horrible and they're bitches and that, oh, I just swore I never swear on the podcast. I'm so sorry. Yes. Sorry about that. I'll not do it again. You know, that the money it makes you mean and horrible and yes, so many negative things.

I'm sure you can sit there and think. Oh, I remember being told this or this is something I say maybe. So I got them to write down their thoughts around money, and then I got them to rewrite them. So rewrite the negative thoughts into better thoughts. So the way I do this, or the way I encourage the members to do this is sometimes it's not as easy just to rewrite the thought.

So let's say people who have money are evil. Sometimes you might go to rewrite it and think, oh, I'll re rewrite it's saying people who have money are just lovely and you don't believe it. So therefore that can be a bit hard and it feels a little bit like not disingenuous, but just feels like you're going through the process.

You don't believe it. So what's the point in writing it down. So what I like to do then is if it feels like a bit of a stretch to just flip it into a positive, I like to see if I can disprove it. Is there people that have money who are actually very nice. Well, yeah, I can think of lots of people that are nice that have money.

So actually I can believe that that's not the case. And I might just write in my, my next section where I want to rewrite these negative thoughts. I might write not everyone who has money is evil. I know lots of people who are lovely and kind and generous who have money. So whatever you were thinking, and if you've, if you're writing this down or you're coming back and listen to it again, you've written it down basically next to it.

You just want to write, what would I say instead? Money doesn't grow on trees is another good one. So you might flip that to money's everywhere, like, and it is, it's everywhere. Like just constantly the world's obviously goes around with money. So you might want to have a think about how to rewrite them.

And like I said, if you can't rewrite them, then try and find an example that has, that has proved that statement wrong. Another one like that you have to work really hard to get money. Well, I know people don't work really hard and have lots of money. So that statement isn't true. Either rewrite it, or think of an example where you can disprove your statement.

So once I've done that and they wrote down them, I gave them a couple of exercises to do. I got them to write down all the amazing ways that they are abundant. And I didn't give them like ages to do this because this sort of thing you could go on forever, because most of us, and if you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming you're the same.

Most of us have lots and lots and lots to be grateful for. You know, we might have a house, you know, that we live in, we might have food on the table. We might be able to, you know, keep ourselves clean, brush our own hair. We might be able to breathe and walk and like there's so much. And like I said, you know, when you go into it and you start to realize actually how very lucky am I, it's huge.

So like I said I got everybody to write down. What, what did they abundant for and how are they abundant? Then I got them to write down three things that they could do to make them feel abundant. Because it's a feeling. It doesn't mean you have to be really rich to be abundant. So can I tell you something really silly?

One of the things. So my friend Ailish talks about do what makes you feel bougie? Okay. So she has sparkling water and fancy teas. They make her feel bougie. So for me, like, if I want to feel really rich, this is gonna sound absolutely ridiculous. I buy Ziploc sandwich bags. And I'm just waiting for dramatic pause.

Cause I think you were thinking, I was gonna say, you know, speed boats and champagne, no Ziploc sandwich bags. I know how ridiculous this sounds as I'm saying it. Basically we were poor when we were little and we were the kids that went to school with like tinfoil sandwich, like sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil, like, I hated it.

And, and the, the people who at school with if they had like a proper sandwich bag, you'd think "Ah they're rich got loads of money." So for me, like that is a ridiculously stupid, but amazing one to do. Like if I buy them and we have them in the house, I suddenly feel like, "Oh my gosh, I am so abundant." So I got them to write something.

Then it might be another thing that makes me feel really abundant is I have a fresh flower delivery every other week. That makes me feel super abundant. It's like, that's amazing. It doesn't have to be crazy expensive. It could be the feeling abundant might be taking the afternoon off because you've got the luxury to take some time off.

So whatever it is, like I said, it doesn't have to be, I made of money, so I can do this, or certainly not put yourself in debt to do something or spending money that you haven't got. But there are so many ways in which we can feel abundant. So, so many. Let me just run through those things again. So I gave you the list...

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Dina Behrman who is a PR (Public Relations) strategist, helping entrepreneurs who struggle to take their business to the next level. We talked all about what holds us back, why we get nervous to put ourselves out there, and how to actually go about getting featured and getting some publicity for your business.

• When you start doing PR for your business, you will have more content to share on social media – it works hand in hand with your marketing.
• When you are pitching to places, you can talk about your social media presence.
• You CAN do PR as a solopreneur and small business owner.
• You can either use an agency, or do your own PR.
• You are helping a journalist out when you get in touch with them and share your tips for their readers.
• You are going to help the people who read or listen to your piece too.
• PR is very powerful for expert positioning because when you get featured, you have the association with recognisable and credible names – they are endorsing you.
• PR is long-lasting, ever-green content – when you have an online article feature, it is there for people to find years later!
• PR is amazing for getting in front of a new audience – make sure you are choosing places that your ideal clients will be.
• PR is also great for connecting with your existing network when you share your excitement! Opportunities could follow.
• Think about quick wins – where could you be featured that is quick and easy? This then helps when you are applying to bigger places as you already have some features.
• Journalists don’t need you to be a perfect or professional writer – they just need the content from you! They have editors that will review your piece.
• Twitter can be a really good place to connect with and engage with journalists.
• You can cold pitch journalists, you don’t have to have relationships with them or lots of contacts.
• You can find journalists by looking online or in magazines – do a bit of research.
• Think about what you can give in terms of value to the journalists – look at the types of things they have previously published, what will be a good fit/popular for their audience?
• Put together a media kit to sum up your highlights to apply for podcasts and digital publications.
• Stretch your comfort zone slightly – you never know what opportunities could come up when you put yourself out there.
• The worst thing that can happen is they say no or not reply.
• Just because they said no once, doesn’t mean it’s a no forever – try again another time.
• If you keep pitching, you will get featured! Make sure you are tailoring your pitches.
• Once you start getting featured, you may find other journalists will then reach out to you.
• Keep an eye on the hashtag #JournoRequest on Twitter to look out for opportunities alongside the proactive stuff – see if there is something that is relevant.
• Leverage every feature/opportunity you get – it is a big deal – be proud!!

• An introduction to Dina 03:54
• PR and Marketing 05:29
• Why you should consider PR 11:55
• Potential barriers 18:04
• Do you need to build relationships 23:48
• How to pitch to journalists and stand out 25:32
• What if they say no? 35:20
• #JournoRequest 45:08

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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? I'm getting into the swing of things. May I'm batching, and this is like the fourth one I've done. So I seem to be doing it a bit quicker and easier.

You need a bit, the always stumbles me is the beginning. I hate the beginning. I hate just like saying the same things every week and just like, Hey, how you doing? It really drives me crazy anyway, life as a broadcaster. So. We have a really good interview for you on a slightly different subject, which is cool.

But before I start talking about that, let me just remind you that if you caught last week's episode about bringing on a team, Jen, who I talked about in her course is available, but it closes this week. I think. So we'll put a link back in on the show notes, obviously, hopefully by the time you click it, it'll still be open, but it does close this week, I think.

Okay. So this week I'm interviewing the lovely Dean of Berman and Dina is a PR specialist. So. This is really interesting, cause we don't talk about PR very much and it kind of got me a bit excited in terms of like, actually, what if, what if I could get some PR what if I could get involved? And we had a really good conversation about it, about the stuff that kind of holds us back, why we wouldn't do it, why we get nervous?

Why, you know what, if we think we're terrible writers, how do we even go about it? And demon talks us all through that process in terms of. Just trying to get yourself out there, trying to get some quick wins, getting in like places and getting some publicity for your business. So Dina is a journalist turned PR strategist who works with entrepreneurs who struggled to take their business to the next level.

She helps them do their own PR. So she doesn't do PR for people anymore, but she helps them do their own PR. Leverage their media so they can share their story and help more people while gaining more followers, raising their prices and making more sales. You know, the thing about PR is like when you CPR and you see someone being featured, you can't help, but think.

They're really credible. So obviously depending on where they're being featured is a big thing. But for me, if I see someone being featured in Forbes, I'm like, why is this big deal? Like that is that's huge. So she worked as a publicist for. Many seven figure businesses and has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs learn how to do their own PR through her PA no too many PS PR power costs and PR masterminds.

She's also been featured as a PR expert. Here we go. In Forbes, entrepreneur Huffington post the guardian BBC radio amongst others. So she talks today about looking at doing. PR for your business, how it can work, even if you are a solo preneur, how you can get started. So I think this is going to be a great one for everyone.

Just to kind of like open your mind to like, Hmm. Maybe I might try that. So without further ado, here's one. I'm really excited today to welcome to the podcast. Dina, Berman, Dina, how are you?

Dina: I'm doing well. Thanks. I'm excited to be

Teresa: here. Good. I'm glad I'm excited to have you here and talk about the subject.

But before we get started with what we're going to talk about, I started the podcast into the same way as I always do, which I'm sure is does anything for my listeners, but how does who you are and how you got to do what you're doing today?

Dina: Yeah. So I'm Dana and I'm a PR strategist. I work with entrepreneurs to teach them how to do that PR so that they can get beaches in the press and how to leverage that media coverage to really grow their business.

So my background is in journalism. I started out as a journalist and I did that for about 10 years and I was working as a commissioning editor at a national newspaper supplement. And then I was freelance. Writing for lots of different publications and nice for most of their kind of, um, National UK newspapers, lots of magazines.

And I started my business. Initially. It was a side hustle I wanted to, uh, diversify. So I started doing PR and copywriting. Um, and then it was around 2015 and I'd had my oldest child and I kind of came back to work and I just. Kind of renewed sense of purpose. And I decided that where my passion really lay was actually teaching others how to do their own PR.

And so I have worked as a publicist myself as well. I've worked with a lot of, kind of, um, seven, um, emotive seven figure business owners to do their PR for them. But my passion is really in helping entrepreneurs learn how to do their own PR and to do it in a way that really positively impacts them and their business. Yeah,

Teresa: love it. Love it. So I was just saying before we got on that, I don't think we've had anybody talking about PR, which is interesting. Like obviously I come from old school marketing degree, worked in marketing all my life. Uh, marketing and PR were two very separate parts of a business weren't they just because they are two very different things and I found I'd be interested in see what you think that.

The world has moved on and marketing has changed and social media came and digital marketing that PR and marketing seem to become a lot closer in terms of where they're sat in a business.

Dina: Yes, definitely. I think like PR and marketing works so well together. So if you're someone who's like posting a lot on social media, then once you start doing PR it gives you content to share.

And like you, you have like this extra content that you can share on social media. But equally when you're pitching to different places, if you can say, you know, you've got an Instagram following or something like that, then that's really helpful when you're pitching. So I think they both feed into each other really well. Yeah.

Teresa: Yeah. I'm on, I'm really excited about this conversation because I, I do think that business owners. And solo business owners, think for one second that they can do PR I think that they think, and possibly I do as well, but either that you've got to have a PR agency helping you, or if you're not big and have a big story, then people aren't interested.

Dina: Yeah. Yeah. It's literally like, those are that sort of objections that I hear, like so often. Um, so, so many people will be like, I just want to outsource it all to a PR agency. And I get that because we're all so busy, like doing a million things, but honestly like a decent PR agency is usually going to be about five to 10K per month.

And if you're signing up for like a year long retainer, like that's a big expense, but not only that, when you get to the end of that year, you don't have any knowledge of how to do it yourself. So you either have to like sign up for another retainer or you're kind of left floundering. And so I have clients where even if they know that ultimately at a certain point, they want to outsource it.

It just makes it. So much sense for them to learn how to do it fast, just so they have that understanding of how it works and, you know, to be able to, uh, get started with PR yourself, you don't need to be super well-known or have a big following. And you honestly don't. You know, I've worked with entrepreneurs who are generally sole traders and, you know, across a whole different range of industries and you can get PR in so many different ways.

There are so many different major opportunities out there and you don't have to be, you know, you can get featured as an expert. You don't need to be. The leading expert, the topics like, cause people think, but you know, there's someone else doing what I do and they're more experienced, but actually like a journalist, this is the thing.

Journalists need experts to quote, journalists, need people to share their stories. They need case studies. They need content. And especially I think, because I've come from that, Dennis, but I know what it's like, like when you're on a tight deadline and yeah. Oh, my God. I need to speak to a relationship expert.

If only I had the relationship, I mean, I had like a marketing expert. You could like give me these clothes. You are actually helping a journalist out when you get in touch with them. And you're like, I can share tips with your readers on this, or I can share my story about this. Um, it's, it's helpful to them.

They, they need, you know, business owners that can, that can genuinely help. And I think. I don't know about you, but like so many people I speak to, they feel kind of funny about calling themselves an expert. I think that's something for female entrepreneurs. It's like a bit of imposter syndrome and actually like we're experts.

We know our staff, um, most of us have spent like, you know, we, we might have trained or we've spent years doing what we're doing. And like what, what experts, especially for journalists that don't know our subjects. And I

Teresa: think you're right. You said it before and I've read it in a book. Uh, did he still feel Thomas said it in one of her books?

We're not, we're not professing to be the only, and most expert voice. All we're doing is putting our, take our thoughts, our experience and knowledge into the group of conversation. We're not stating that we are right, and everyone else is wrong or because someone else has said something similar, it means we can't say it, but you're right.

And also you said something else that was really important there that we would often look at contacting anybody about us as a, uh, we're bothering them without necessarily thinking no, we're actually helping them actually providing a service and making that job in their life a little bit easier. And in my limited experience of PR, so obviously when I started my agency and having worked in lots of other models, Places where we did PR the truth of the matter was when we did PR we were helping the Mac because it was like, great.

Is that a great story we can use? I can just fill that space done. Brilliant. Yeah. Are you a, and for me, obviously, we worked with, we had a PR guy in the team who had really good relationships and they knew him and trusted him and knew that when he put a story in that it was worth doing and the same way he would say, I'm not gonna put it a story forward because it's not strong enough.

And if we start putting terrible stuff forward, then never going to post my stuff. So. So, yeah, I think thinking as it, as it from a, a helping point of view and you assisting them is so much nicer. And if that gives you the confidence, then that's the way you need to think about.

Dina: Wow. Yeah. I think it is literally, it's like a mindset shift of thinking, like going from thinking, oh my God, I'm going to be like bugging this Plaza and it's going to feel so awkward and I'm going to be like, Hey, write about me.

And if you literally come at it from it. Yeah. How can I help the Geminis out and also like thinking about the audience, like what's going to be really valuable for them. Like you could share like a really inspiring personal story and people are literally going to read that and feel motivated, inspired, or you're going to share like some really great tips and advice, and it's genuinely going to help the people that are reading or listening, whatever it is.

So I think it's, it starts with that kind of mindset shift. Yeah.

Teresa: Let's get back to basics a little bit. Let's talk about why first off, like I don't, I'm fairly sure I know the answer to this, but let's, let's have a chat about why would they even consider PR in the first place?

Dina: So I think that are so many benefits to PR and I.

Obviously I'm like evangelical, but PR I think all business owners should be doing. Yeah. But I think that you get something from PR that you don't necessarily get from other types of marketing. So I think it is really, really powerful for expert positioning. Um, and one of the reasons for that is when you get featured in a publication it's third party movement.

So you are having that association. Say you get featured in Forbes. So many of my clients like adjust. They just love to be featured in blogs and I've had lots of clients speak to them. Bob's, it's one of those places that comes up and it's such a recognizable brand. And so just by being associated with someone like Forbes or entrepreneur or business insider, Big recognizable names.

That's the party endorsement. It's like these publications are endorsing you and that's really, really powerful. So even just, you know, we talk about having like the, as seen in logos and it's literally the, the strip of logo is kind of on your website. It says as CNN, but that in itself is really, really powerful.

Expert positioning for you. It's a credibility boost because these publications are very credible. They're well-known they're well-recognized they're well-respected. Being associated with some of these publications can be really powerful for your expert positioning for positioning you as an authority in your field for boosting your credibility.

So that's one thing that you, you don't necessarily get like from other types of marketing. The other thing I love about PR is that it sticks around. So when you have an art school that comes out, that's online. It's there for people to find months, even years later. And I've had people get in touch with me where they found like something I wrote on like Huffington posts, like years ago, because they were searching for a particular topic and it came up and you get that kind of evergreen aspect to PR again that you don't necessarily get with.

Say, I dunno, like Twitter, where. So quick, I feel like electricity, just music quickly, or a lot of social media, it kind of hangs around for a couple of days. And then, you know, it's onto the next thing. And with PR is that for a long time for people to find, I think the other thing about PR the way that it works in terms of.

You know, being able to kind of grow your business, you can use it obviously to get in front of a new audience. So you have places like any of the sort of, you know, national newspapers, like I think the daily mail. That's circulation, something like a million readers per day. And then online is just crazy.

It's I need to check what the most recent figures it's in the mid, like tens of millions. I think it was like 52 million unique visitors a day because it's global as well. It's like big in America. It's big in Austria. So when you're looking at the numbers of people that you're guessing in front of, or somewhere like business insider, they have, I think it's 60 million unique visitors.

It's just like crazy numbers. So it's amazing for getting in front of a new audience and obviously like you, you want to be aligned. So you want to think what are the...

In today’s episode of the podcast, I talk about hiring a team for your business. I tell you about my own team, how I get stuff done and manage things and why hiring has been so crucial to my business.

• It takes a village to raise a child, and run a business!
• You may not be able to hire people in your business straight away, it will take time to be able to.
• If you are working with a part-time VA, be mindful they may not be available every day for you.
• Before you hire your first member of your team, make sure you have some money in the bank to cover their wages for a couple of months.
• Every time you hire someone, they will be able to take something off your plate to free up your time.
• Sometimes you do have to hire people before you can fully afford them – but as soon as they help you, this frees up your time and headspace in order to do more in your business and make money.
• Having a team that can’t do anything unless you do it, makes you be more productive and holds you accountable.
• There are people who will be able to certain things better than you can!
• You do have to let go of some things.
• There is a hiring process – how you find them, how you communicate, how you set boundaries, what you’re going to pay them, how you onboard them.
• Systems are so important when it comes to working with a team – you can use something like Trello to organise your processes.
• Loom is great for recording processes for your team.
• Hiring people for your team takes time and thought.

• My team who help me with my business 02:05
• Building a team 11:43
• Tips for building your team 15:22
• The importance of systems 20:00

Sofia – Podcast Manager

Ben’s Sales Page Service

Phil – Podcast Assistant

FREE Front Row CEO training and download

Jen’s podcast episode

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you? I'm good. I am batching content as we speak or say, as I speak, I'm speaking right now. I'm literally spending the day doing podcast episodes because we've had a really, really busy few months in the business and I got a bit behind not behind as in it didn't come out on time.

As in, I like to batch and be ahead and over these last few weeks, I've really well. Last couple of months, I've literally been doing things as they need to doing so I'm working really hard at the moment to get ahead and get organized, which actually flows really nicely into what I want to talk about today.

You know, that saying It takes a village to raise a child. Well, I think that can be true about running a business. And often, especially in a business like mine, where I'm the face of my business. It can often seem like there's just me. There's just me and maybe one or two other people. And I do most of the stuff because it's my business. But I want to give you some reality of running a business.

I mean, if you're running a business, you'd know the reality. But as in kind of the reality of how I get stuff done, how I manage things, who I've got on my team and why getting that team was absolutely crucial to having the business I have today and the business I hope for going forward. So I guess let's start by going through who helps me and who I have in my world.

Now, most of these people are on a business side, but I also have some people helping me on the home front as well. So at work, right. I don't want you to listen to this and think "How on earth I I'm never gonna be able to afford those people. I can't afford to bring them to these people like sounds great Teresa, but yeah, it's not going to happen."

Obviously I didn't start day one of this day one I started with no one. About, I don't know, a year, I think into my business at nine months into my business, I then thought, what is this VA thing all about what is a virtual assistant all about and do I need one? And if so, what do they do? And how can they help?

And, and my first ever person that came and worked with me was Katie. Who was a godsend and I'll explain more about Katie in a bit. And then I went from Katie and then I got someone else. And then I got someone else, then get someone else. And then we're at the team we are today. Don't listen to this thinking, this isn't going to be relevant because you haven't got a team or maybe you don't think you can afford a team.

And I know, like I know they sort of things like that that really are annoying where they're like, well, you know, you can't afford to get one, but really you can't afford not to get one. And you know, and, and it is true, it is weird, but it's true. Anyway, let me tell you who we've got in the team. So I still have Katie with me. Now Katie and this is the thing I want you to think about as I'm talking about this. Katie's role has changed because, you know, as the business changes, you need different people doing different things. So Katie initially came on as a VA to help support me. She did stuff for me. She managed things. She created process on things because I had nothing, literally, nothing, everything was in my head.

Everything was like just me doing all the steps. So Katie was a great first person to bring in, but then as time has gone on Katie's role has moved and changed. And Katie, now I speak to roughly every three, four weeks, and we just do an overview of what's coming and what's happened because Katie really now is, is it strategic level.

And what she does in her role in her business has changed. And my business has changed. So we've changed Katie's role within my business so that she now really does strategic stuff. She's the one who kind of helps me look really wide into the future and talk about, right. So for instance, we had a call the other week and it was like, what's going to happen in the next six months.

So she's really good for that sort of stuff. So Katie is still with me, which is lovely. Then if I do it in kind of, well, there's no particular order, but I've just written them down. So the next person I have working with me is Becci. Now Becci is, she's not full-time, but she does quite a lot of hours for me.

And Becci is like my right-hand woman. Becci is the person that I get on a call with every week at the beginning of the week going right. We need to do this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and Becci just goes. "Yeah, sure. I'll take it." Honestly, she's a flipping godsend. She's really good. I talk way faster than I type.

So having someone that I can communicate with on a call or zoom or in person, because Becci happens live, not that far from me is just brilliant. Becci's organized. She gets stuff done. She's, you know, she's proactive. She's happy to take on things. So like, you know sometimes like I've worked in the past with people who had say, or could you just have a look at how to do that in Kajabi?

And they'd go, "How do I do it in Kajabi?" And I'd have to find it to then tell them where's Becci really good in the case of she'll go, I can work it out. I'll find it. It's fine. So Becci helps with all aspects of like content planning. She helps us social media scheduling. She helps it planning out my diary when it comes to things like speaking, she gets all the forms arranged.

She gets all that stuff done and she does a bit of research. Becci does lots and lots for me in the business. And like I said, she is my right-hand woman. Right, in terms of getting the stuff done. Then we've got Johanne. Johanne is based over in the Philippines and Johanne is full-time. She works full-time for me.

And Johanne is like, I get almost a bit like, you know, my right hand as well. Then the fact of Johanne does all the kinds of stuff where I can just. She has processed stuff that she does also stuff like, so this morning I literally just sent us something saying, "Can you just type this up into this format?" or "Can you make that look like that?" Or "Can you do those sorts of things?" So Johanne's kind of around all the time. I wouldn't say she works full-time every single day. Because not every day, I've got stuff for her to have, but I like the fact that she's there in case I need her. Whereas Becci doesn't work full time and therefore, if I've got something that I want doing quickly, I can't necessarily expect Becci always to do it. Which is something to bear in mind when you bring on a team member. That if you're bringing on a VA of some sorts that if you're not paying them full time, then there's going to be a lag in between like, oh gosh, it's absolutely throwing it down outside. So I apologize. You can hear them out. There's going to be a bit of a lag between like giving them something and when they get it back to you. But as long as they manage your expectations, and you're aware of that, I messaged Becci this morning saying, "Are you around today?" And she hasn't got back to me yet. And that was like many, many hours go and that's fine because we had a call up during the week. She knew what she had to do.

And I was going to put something extra on as it is. I've given some stuff to Johanne and I've done some bits. So like I said, what I really wanted for Johanne was something, someone that was full-time that could be there for me when I needed stuff done quickly.

Then I've got the lovely Sofia and Sofia is also based over in the Philippines. She is my podcast manager. She manages everything through the podcast. They've basically after I've recorded this episode I've just marked it in Trello, that's recorded the rest of the team, there are more people than just Sofia that does this, this whole thing, but basically Sofia makes sure all the steps are done.

Everyone's doing their bits. And she then puts the podcast out into the world. She does the social media for it. She basically takes that whole process off my hands, which is amazing. She's super-efficient. She's known for a long time and is very, very excellent at it. Um, it's really, really good.

So then I've got Ben. Ben is based in the UK. Ben is my tech guy. So Ben did my website. He also offers a new service, which I will link up to if I can find well, if he's done the sales page for it yet, which I'm not sure if he have all done the page for it. He's offering this new service where he is basically designing and building sales pages or the pages where you go and decide if you want to do something. So a sign up page. And initially when he told me about this idea, I was like, nah, I don't think that's going to work. And then I sat there and thought, "Oh God, I'd love someone to do my sales pages for me." because I do them all in Kajabi. And I know, although Kajabi is excellent and I talk about it a lot and it's really, really good.

I also know there's limitations. Like there are to anything that's a kind of off the shelf builder. Whereas Ben can do things from scratch, make things, look how I want them to look. So he is now designing all my sales pages and managing that whole process from that point of view which is ACE. I'm really excited about that.

I have the amazing Phil who is listening to this, as I say his name because he is editing my podcast. Phil is also able to edit videos. He can do various other things around media in terms of like videos and audio and that sort of thing. He's excellent. Work with me a long time. Super-efficient. Very reliable.

Obviously I'm going to hook up to these people who are open to getting business from anybody else. Obviously, you know, not, not my full-time Johanne or that, but yeah. I will check with them. And if they're looking for business, I will link up to them in the show notes. But I know that Phil, for sure and Ben, for sure they have some great stuff and they're great at what they do.

So yeah, Phil's ACE he does the podcast editing, which again, he's in Trello. And he's just once I've put it in his folder, he then just takes it and does it. And then I've oh, no, hang on. Let me think who's is next.

So I'm trying to give you like the people who deal with like the Teresa Heath-Wareing stuff. So the next one in the Teresa Heath-Wareing stuff is I've just bought on Meryl and she's over from the Philippines again, she, I actually contacted Johanne and said, "Do you know anybody who's a designer?" And she pointed me in the direction of Meryl and she's a designer and she's now going to help me. This is a really new position that's just come up and she's going to help me do like social media posts, create workbooks, because I tend to do all the design.

So she's going to have to do that. And then I've got Ann who works. So I've told you before, we only really have two clients. So Ann looks after one of the clients, does an amazing job, very efficient. She's excellent. But Ann also does lives in my group in the Academy around content creation. Cause she's a really talented content creator.

And then the lovely Kirsty, she looks after the other client for us. And she does social media, Instagram. She is a plus size travel blogger as well. So that's like a hell of a lot of people. When I write it down, it feels like a lot of people. And then in my home, I have someone who walks my dogs. I have someone who now helps in meal planning and meal prep for me, my amazing husband does the cleaning.

I have said, let's get cleaner. He won't cause he is obsessed that no one will do it as good as him. And I have somebody who helps me with personal stuff sometimes like taking things to the post office or those are the things. And again, that role has been really new that, and the meal prep role has been really, really new.

So you'll probably sat there thinking "What the actual hell do you do Teresa because you've literally just reeled off all these people who do all this stuff. And how on earth? Like, oh, how much are you paying for all this?" Okay. So let me tell you like where it started and how I got to where I am today in terms of like this whole thing.

So when I bought Katie on, I wanted to be able to pay her for a good few months. So I made sure I had the money in the bank for a good few months before I took her on. I took her on 10 hours a month. Which I know sounds nothing, but I promise you you'll be amazed at what someone can get done in 10 hours, because I set this the other day on a coaching call, I think, for the Academy.

And I was like, I it'll take me 10 minutes to do a job, seven minutes cause I'm like, "Hmm, do I have to do that job?" And fluffing around? And then like, literally three four minutes to actually do the thing. Whereas if you give it to someone else, they literally just take three, four minutes. So I wanted to make sure I've got Katie's money before I bought her on.

And then every other team member that I have taken on, without doubt I have taken on before I thought I could afford them. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying put yourself in debt. I'm not saying take some big risks. I knew that I could pay for them that month, I knew that I had the money for them. But going forward, I wasn't a hundred percent sure that like that was going to work.

Um, but every single time without fail them, taking something off my plate, freed me up to do something else or something came in or we did another launch or someone. Yeah, it just worked out every single time. So I know this kind of, you know, have people before you can afford them sounds like a ridiculous saying. But honestly, every single one of the team I've been like, you know, "Can I honestly afford to bring that person on? And you know, is this going to work?" I've never been in a position where I'm like, I've got loads of money. I'm just going to bring in this person, that person, that person. No, never, it's always been like, oh, this is a bit scary, but because it's a bit scary, I'm going to make the most of it. You know, it was really interesting today.

So I got up and I sat and I have to be careful myself because I'm sat here think "God, who do I think I am?" but I got up and I was a bit lazy getting up if I'm honest. I'm normally pretty good, but I was some time spent way too long on Instagram. I also play solitaire on my phone, which is a terrible habit. I don't spend that long on solitaire, but I did this morning. And I was getting ready to get started on my day and feeling a little bit lazy for it.

And then the lovely Rachel turned up who is doing meal prep for me and doing a bit of like stuff around the house. And I went downstairs and she arrived and I was like, "Oh gosh, it's all a lot mess down here. Let me just sort the dishwasher." And she's like, "Well that's what I'm here for. Leave it. And I'll do it."

And suddenly it made me think like, "All right, Teresa. You've bought all these people into help and you're staying in bed until like nine o'clock this morning." Cause I didn't have to get up for anything in particular. "And what on earth are you doing? You really need to be working your backside off now."

And so it's lovely that I have the option to do that, but actually having these people make me work harder. Also having a team that can't do anything unless you give it them is again like a really good focus. It's like I said, for me, it really helped my kind of taking on any or all of them really helped me to go right to step up productivity, do more of what I have to do in terms of a, has to be me. Okay. So I hope that, I hope that doesn't sound like I'm literally sat here, lauding it, like look at all these people because I've certainly not, I am not. And I love and appreciate every single flip in one of them. They are amazing.

I'm very, very lucky. So if you're thinking about bringing on 18 member, and like I said, I started with one. You might have lots of questions about how you do it, how to go about it. And the reason I'm doing this episode this week is one because actually, you know, this has been big in my world recently I've taken on a few new people, do new roles and that's really, really huge.

So it's really front of mind. But also my amazing friend, Jen Lehner is doing a course and I

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with the lovely Amy McLaren who is the CEO of three passion-led businesses - Lady Strength where she takes women on trips that get them to leave their comfort zone, a charity called Village Impact where they help build schools in Kenya and a luxury Airbnb! 

• Take one step at a time and just put one step in front of the other.
• You can learn so much about yourself when you are put in an uncomfortable situation.
• It took 3 years for Amy to write and publish her new book.
• Your legacy and the impact you have on the world starts from the little things we do every day.
• We can all do more good in the world.
• Giving back doesn’t have to be a huge gesture – you can start small.
• Just be kind - in life and business.
• You may never know how much of an impact a simple act of kindness can have one someone.
• Living with passion doesn’t have to be expensive and you don’t have to change your whole life.
• Do more of what makes you happy and brings you joy to fulfil your passion. This could just be small moments of your day, not your whole life.
• There is no point doing something that makes you unhappy or feel unfilled.
• We are all here for a purpose and to do something.
• People never forget how you make them feel.
• It is important to encourage our children that they can have what they desire, but they have to work for it!
• Take a moment to check in with your life and ask yourself if you being intentional with your time and what you are doing.
• If this was it – would you be happy?

• An introduction to Amy – 05:00
• Women in business – 18:45
• Turning passion into purpose – 21:46
• The myths about living passionately – 29:48
• Leaving a legacy – 35:04
• True happiness in your life – 45:05

Book – Passion to Purpose

Website

Transcript Below

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So if you are new around here, welcome, it's lovely to have you here. If you've been listening for a while then welcome.

You're still very, very welcome to be here. Also, if you've been listening for a while and you feel like sharing this podcast, I would be so very grateful. It's like with everything you have to just keep working at it and working at it and working at it. And even though we are over 200 episodes, we still keep, to keep having to work at followers and get the podcast in front of people. So I would really, really appreciate it. And by all means, tag me in, and then I will share your post to my audience. I would really appreciate that. So anyway, thank you for that. Um, okay. This week we have an interview. And it's a really, really good interview.

It's with a lovely lady called Amy McLaren. And you know, when you meet someone or you talk to someone and you think, "Oh my God, you are like so genuine and nice, such a lovely person." Well, that's exactly what I felt when talking to Amy. She was just so nice. We had such a nice chat. It was really, really good.

Amy is a mum of two. She's a CEO, adventurer, a tea lover. When I say I love tea for those of you know, I mean, gin. So I don't think she means that, but I think she does like gin as well. A ceiling pusher, first-time author and a people connector, experienced maker ride-or-die friend, Peleton crusher, wife, Airbnb entrepreneur, and Founder of Village Impact and Lady Strength.

That's an amazing bio. So basically Amy came on to talk about the fact that she has a new book coming out. The premise around the whole book. So the book's called Passion to Purpose and she's put together this book to talk about how you can take yourself from living with passion and having a life full of passion.

And we talked about that a lot. We talked about kind of the the journey she's gone through with the various different businesses that she's got her charity, which, oh my goodness. Like when you hear what she's done with this charity and, and the lives that should have impacted is huge. Her business Lady Strength when she does masterminds and adventure travels and that sort of thing.

And then, as I said, this brand new book that's come out, which I've already gotten order and I will link to it in the show notes. Amy has had a really interesting and busy life like this lady has got plenty to do, and yet somehow still manages to achieve amazing things and live a life that she absolutely loves with passion.

And I just think it's such an amazing message. I'm really excited to hear for you to hear this episode this week. Because I think we need to remind ourselves that we're not just doing this for, you know, we're not just in this business thing and we're not just like running these homes and families or whatever we're doing for the sake of it.

You know, we get one life. We need to enjoy every flippin at moments of it. We need to embrace it and, and do things that lights us up and we enjoy. And I just think it's really interesting to hear. The kind of take that she's come from and some of the stuff she's done, it's been really, really amazing. So I am going to let you just get on and listen to this episode, here is the lovely Amy McLaren.

So I am super excited today to welcome to the podcast the very lovely Amy McLaren. Amy, thank you so much for joining me.

Amy: Oh, thank you. It's um, it's so fun. Cause you're, you're being British. It's like, I am British myself, so I like, I love chatting with people from the UK. It's my day.

Teresa: Got me. Cause to listen to you, Amy you certainly don't sound British. Like this.

Amy: No. I know, but I still say a few words. Um, but you know, I was born in Oxford, England in a little village, uh, born in the Marlcliff but grew up in a little village called Tackley um, near Banbury, Kidlington area. Um, yeah, so I am UK. I still call myself British. Um, but I do sound very Canadian as well.

Teresa: I love it. I love it. I love it. So Amy I'm really excited for this conversation. Say you've got some great stuff to share with us, but let's just by the start by introducing you to my audience, tell them who you are and how you get to do what you do today.

Amy: Sure. So my name is Amy McLaren. I am a mom. I have two young kids. I have a ten-year-old daughter who I think sometimes is 16.

I don't know how that goes. Um, and I have a little, um, we adopted a little boy from South Africa and his name is Sam and he's seven. And I also have, I guess I'm a fur baby mom. We have a golden labradoodle. That's like my home life. And then I'm an entrepreneur at heart and I have, um, a few passion-led businesses.

So I have my charity that I started called Village Impact with my husband, where we help build schools in Kenya. And then I also have a brand called Lady Strength where I love getting out there and traveling around the world and taking women on really trips that are pushing them out of their comfort zone in a lot of different ways through Lady Strength.

And then my most recent passion-led business is I'm a luxury Airbnb that I just started. So I'm definitely a passion-led entrepreneur.

Teresa: And you are busy. Like that is a lot of stuff. I mean, I have an 11-year-old girl. I totally get the going on 16, like.

Amy: Scary. Right. It's scary.

Teresa: You try and think back in there.

I'm sure. I wasn't like that. I'm sure I wasn't that confident and that kind of like. So aware of the world and stuff, but they're hilarious. They have grown up so, so fast. And now I don't know about your daughter, but mine won't let me choose her clothes.

Amy: No, I know I've I haven't had that for a while and my daughter is really into.

Which I guess is a good thing. She loves comfy baggy big clothes because she just likes to be comfortable. So I'm kind of like, whoa, that's good. At least I'm not fighting like. Short crop tops and all that other stuff. Maybe, maybe it'll come. I'm not there yet.

Teresa: We have the crop top thing and we are real time.

Luckily now it's like, it's not crop, but it stops at her waist. So I can just about manage that. But yeah. Children aside life is crazy busy. So tell me about, did they come in the order in which you said, so was it the charity first, then your business and obviously the, the Airbnb. So tell me about the charity and what made you even start down that route? Why you wants to do it?

Amy: Yeah. So, absolutely. So first of all, like you said, these three businesses did not happen overnight, and nor did they happen in the last, like they happened, like you said, in a sequence. So the first one for me was my desire to give back and creating Village Impact. And I, um, like as I mentioned, I grew up in the UK.

My parents were wonderful. We did a lot of traveling, which I miss. Like I travel a lot now, but being in the UK, you're so lucky because you get to go to all these different places for like a weekend or whatever you want to do. So we did that as a kid growing up, but my, my parents were really good and showing that we can give back in all these different ways.

So we were at soup kitchens. I mean, we had strangers over for dinners because they had nowhere to go and my mom wanted to give them a home to come to, like we were like shelters. So we did all this growing up and that kind of thread of giving back and the desire to help more kind of carried on through my twenties and I volunteered at the hospital and was always doing something.

And, and then my husband and I started a business together and we gave some of those profits away, but my charity really started. And it sounds so funny. Cause at the time I wouldn't have seen it as a pivotal moment in our life by any means, but we were sitting down watching TV. And at that point in my career, I would, so I was a teacher by trade.

I went to school for teachers, teachers college. I taught grade 1 for 10 years. At this point in my career, it was like my seventh year and I was not enjoying it. I felt really trapped. My spark had like completely gone. So we were anyway, we were sitting down one night watching Oprah's Big Give and for anyone that has seen Oprah before, I mean, everyone loves Oprah and wants to be Oprah.

Of course. So we were watching the show, this Big Give show. And I said to my husband, I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm like, I want to do what she's doing. Like, I want to go back to you know, traveling overseas and helping abroad because growing up in all of my twenties, I was living with Thai families. I was in refugee camps.

Like I was immersed in completely different cultures. And I like truly love that. I love learning from other people and what I can, you know, learning from other cultures, because I think there's so much in that. And, um, I was kind of in teaching and I didn't feel like I was filling my buckets or going up that way.

So we've watched this show and, um, my husband doesn't drink, so, and that's okay. He loves water. I should drink more water, but he loves water. I was drinking my wine. Right. And we're sitting there and we're watching the show and I just said like, that's what I want to do, but I want to do it. At an international scale because that's what brings me joy.

Like that's what opens my heart. Like that is truly what I love to do. And he, and I'll never forget. He's like Amy, he's like, he's like, when do you want to do it? And I'm like, well, Christmas. Right? Cause as a teacher, you only get two weeks off. So he's like, okay. And I'm like, all right, let's do it. You're the business guy.

Like you, you make the money. I think of how we can make the money and I'll organize because I don't know. I don't know about you. I love organizing stuff.

Teresa: And especially trips and things like that. And yeah, having it all there, making sure everything's all done. Love it.

Amy: Yeah. So we did and we sat and I, so, um, we did, we organized a fundraiser and we basically asked seven, um, entrepreneurial friends at that time, if they would share their predictions for the upcoming year in their business.

And they're like, okay, that sounds good. And they did. And when then we charged people to listen to that advice and. Um, at that time, it was a teleseminar, which is essentially a webinar that people paid to listen to that information. And we raised $14,000 and it was crazy. Right. And like two days. And we, so we took that money.

We took it down to El Salvador. We helped at an orphanage. We helped at a school. Um, we did, we lived with a family in there, um, up on the top of the mountain. They didn't speak English and we didn't, and obviously, I wouldn't expect them to, but you know, there was no, it was a little hard to communicate a little, but I love that stuff.

It was fun. And we learned a lot and we helped and we're coming back that day and on the plane and students like, okay, I think I know what you want to do. And I'm like, And then the next Christmas we did the same thing. We raised some more money and then we went to Africa and that's kind of like the start of what now, you know, like, and again, 10 years later, that's not overnight 10 years later.

Now we have quite a big nonprofit. We have a small staff, but we built 15 schools, um, helping over 5,000 kids. And we partnered with the government. So we're really big on partnerships and community-led. And we partnered with the government. So our schools are built and the government sustains them by supplying the teachers.

And essentially run some. And that was a really big for me, like Stu and I were to walk away. I never want something to crumble, so they, um, they would still happen. Everything would still go on. Um, but that's essentially my long story like Village Impact. And then just as Village Impact has grown I've, I love the travel and pushing out of my comfort zone, which created Lady Strength which is only really a couple of years old or a few years old. And then my Airbnb experience, we've always invested in real estate, but never short-term rentals. And that's really come about in the last year. Um, cause I really believe we'll get one thing going right before you, I can't do all those things at once.

Teresa: And that's the thing, you know when we said at the beginning and I was at I bet that is a lot of work, but of course what happens is you build it and then you get processes and systems and team, and then you find, you can pull away from the everyday grind of it and do something else. So tell me about Village Impact because I mean, that is just phenomenal.

I don't know. And I think you'll probably younger than I am, but I don't it's my age. I'm 40. I can't remember three, two.

Amy: I'm not, I'm not far behind you.

Teresa: Recently. I've got really passionate about the injustice of some of the things that are in this world and how people have to live or how they're treated.

And, and more and more, I'm starting to think. I'm starting to see that growing the business I have and growing my own wealth can now impact on other people. And that's exactly what, you know, what you guys have done. You've, you've built something to impact and help other people. Was there a point where you were like, geez, I'm out of my depth on this because I wouldn't even know where to start.

And especially in teaming up with, you know, the government and that sort of thing, like how did you know how to do this?

Amy: Oh, I, I didn't, I did, I didn't at the start. It was messy, like so messy. Like when we started, we, um, we actually were running the fundraisers through our business, so we were paying tax dollars on the donations personally, and everything was such a mess. Um, but I didn't know what to do. So to me, I Googled like how do I start a charity? And I literally found a good lawyer in Toronto who still works with us today. And I said to him, I'm like, "Okay I want to start a charity. What do you think?" And he actually said to me, which was great advice.

He's like, "Well, do you want to start a foundation? Or do you want to start a charity? Because if you want to start a charity that is essentially another corporation it's another business." And it is, I mean, a charity, like I have a board of directors, I have some staff it's, it's run like a business. So that was a good eye-opener for me in a great conversation.

And I think a lot of people don't realize the options or different things that you can do. Like you don't have to start a big nonprofit. There's the option of a foundation or these other little things that you can do. So now I've gone on a chance. We were just talking about that and I want to make sure I answered your question.

So, no, it was never, it was messy at the start. Do you know what I mean? It was like, I just put one foot in front of the other, and then it's grown over time. And now I have a greater understanding than what I did. I didn't know how to start a nonprofit 10 years ago and working with the government has come from just our relationships that we've built on the ground over time.

So we've managed to build some really great relationships with the Kenyan community and they've led us to be able to have the relationships that we do with the government today.

Teresa: That's amazing. And I think there was a few really good messages in there for, for people who are listening, one, you just took one step in front of the other, and I think sometimes we get so sort of concerned by looking at someone who's way futher ahead in the journey of us and thinking, "Well I could never do that. How on earth could I ever do that?" Well, yeah, but you couldn't do that on day one and you get to that point and another thing, I think that is so important and funny enough, I've just been early on today. I was writing some emails cause I batch write emails and things, and I was talking about, you need, you need a team.

And if that team is a good partner or a VA or community, or, but it is about networking, it's about like knowing you can't do this on your own and building...

In today’s episode of the podcast I talk about the Summer break and how you can manage your time during this time, as well as put a plan together so you can rest a little!

• Don’t let the little things get to you
• Batch your content as much as possible
• What is the bare minimum you can do right now? What do you HAVE to do? Is there anything you can defer or delegate?
• Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t achieve something!
• Book some time off
• Offer calls with clients on the same days so you are set up and focused on doing that
• We often think we have to be flexible all the time – but if you give people less option they will make it work
• Is there anything you can move back to free up your time?
• Think about when you work – we don’t have to just work 9-5! Look at where you can fit a few hours in maybe before the kids are up or when they go to bed.
• All of this depends on you and your own situation – you have to make it work for you and remove the pressure
• Offer child swaps with a friend so you get some hours to work without the kids
• Explain to your children they are lucky their mum/dad work from home and they don’t have to go anywhere else
• You could also explain to your children that you need to work and would really appreciate a couple of hours undisturbed so you can get something done and then you will have time to spend with them
• If you have a team – can they do more?
• Make sure you have some time for you as well as your family!
• Don’t be hard on yourself – you are doing an amazing job

• An exciting event 01:28
• A plan for the Summer break 04:30
• Managing your time during the Summer 05:45

Listen to episode 200!

Friend Zone to Authority Island Event

Transcript below

Hello and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So last week was episode 200 little bit of a different one with me and my lovely husband. So you've not had chance to go and listen to that then please do go and do that. It's just a bit of a, like, ask me anything, some personal questions, some work questions, some funny questions. So, yeah, that was good fun, I enjoyed it. But like I said, something different for episode 200. Now time to get on with the next hundred episodes. So in this week's episode, it's going to be quite a quick one again, often with solo ones.

If you're new to the podcast, when it comes to a solo episode, uh, sometimes it can be a little bit off the cuff and sometimes, you know, they can be really well planned, but more often, a little bit off the cuff. And this week, I want to talk about the fact of some holidays and the summer break and what we're going to do and how we manage.

But before we talk about that. I want to tell you about an online event I'm doing. Now I'm very lucky that I get asked to do quite a lot of online events, which is great. And most of the time I'm not very organized enough to let you know on the podcast. But this time I made sure I was. So this event is called Friend Zone to Authority Island where sales and profits await.

Now the dates are August the 17th to 19th. And it's basically 32 high achieving experts giving mini masterclasses, showing you how to position your business to standout. Attract the right clients, make money with products that run without you, no matter what state you're in or how long you've been doing it. Can you tell I'm reading this?

I'm a nightmare reading on it. Anyway, this online event, like I said, it brings together all those experts. And if you're wondering whether this event is for you and whether you should check it out. If you're tired of working around the clock and not seeing any profit or income, and you're ready to get some step by step blueprints. And I know obviously a new now me, all my stuff is step-by-step. If you're tired of listening to gurus, I give you all the pieces of the puzzle because they need you to do other stuff. Then this is for you. And if you're tired of struggling to get started, attracting your dream clients in your niche and you're searching for that one piece of information, single strategy that will make an impact on your business.

And you're ready to hear it. So, uh, it's really, really good for you. If those things are kind of resonating, so you can discover how you can easily stop being seen as a content creator and start being seen as the go-to expert in your niche. And I think like the Authority Island thing is really important because you've got to well, haven't got to be the authority or authority.

It's just, you want people to see you that way. I won't be able to work with me who think she knows what she's talking about. So I think that's really important. So it's a really nice online event, this one. I'm going to put my link in the show notes. So if you want to check that out then wherever you're listening to this, you'll find the show notes below and the link will be there.

So do go and check that out. Also, we're checking it out on my social media as well. So you might see it there. So there we go. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up about that online event. So this week let's talk about the summer holidays. Now, if you haven't got children, then don't panic. It doesn't mean that this isn't going to be prevalent to you or something you need to listen to.

But I really think it's important for us to get together a strategy or some, make some commitments to ourselves about what we're going to do in the holidays. Now we're obviously in it, in the thick of it already, my daughter broke up a number of weeks ago. Now, you know, cause I'm really honest about the stuff I share my daughter with my ex-husband.

So that immediately halves my holidays down, which is an absolute blessing. You don't have to say, I know it sounds awful. And I adore her and love her, but the idea that I get weeks where I get to focus, I know I am very lucky because of that. Uh, one of the upsides, sides of divorce. But obviously with the week she's here, I'm still juggling her and my stepson is here all the time. Dogs, family bla bla bla bla bla. So what are you going to do over these kind of six, eight weeks? Whatever it is that we've got left now. And even if you haven't got children who are off, it's summer. And we've been working our backsides off. I was talking about this the other day, being an online business.

And I know most of you have really similar as in not that you're an online business, but I know most of you during the holiday, sorry, during the holidays during COVID, didn't take time off didn't necessarily have furlough, didn't necessarily have the time off that maybe some others did. Um, Sorry. I'm just a, do not disturb my computer as always.

I always forget. And then you always hear a noise anyway. So lots of you have been working really, really hard. And summer generally is the time that we get to rest a little bit. And normally we get to go on holiday, but it's still very much in the air, depending on what part of the world you're in as to what holiday you can take, where you can go, that sort of thing.

So I want us to look at like, what are we going to be doing over the next few weeks? Not only if we've got children. And, or other commitments, parents, siblings, people we have to care for. But what are we going to do to make sure that we manage these next few weeks? So I've got a couple of ideas for you. I had some really good ideas from my membership because I did a talk on this.

We did a live on it to help them plan for the summer, and I got them to share their ideas. So one of the ideas, if you do have children, which I thought was really, really nice. One of my members said, "I'm not going to let the little things get to me." And I think that's really important. Now during the first lockdown and we had homeschooling, I, oh, I got myself into such a state.

Like I was really conscious about what my daughter was doing with school. I was getting really crossed when she wasn't doing what I thought she should have been doing. We were constantly in loggerheads. We were constantly having conversations about, you know, not trying hard enough, do this, do that. It was horrible for both of us.

So when it came to the second time of homeschooling, I just thought "You know what, I'm not going to be so hard on her or myself. I'm going to just let her crack on do what she needs to do. If she doesn't get it all done, then that's fine by me." Now, I'm not saying that's the most brilliant parenting tip in the world, but I'm just saying from my own and her mental health, I knew that I had to step back a bit.

So actually, when this member said that she's, you know, going to let the small things kind of slide a bit, I think that's so right. I think when they're at home and you're trying to work and you're trying to do the things. I know for sure me, I can find myself getting a bit het up about stuff. So I'm going to try really hard, not to let the little stuff, the niggly stuff get on my nerves.

I'm just going to let it go. From a work point of view, I'm going to try and do some of these things. So I batch content, you know that this week, actually, while she's not here, I'm going to be batching a lot of content, the podcast, email, social media, all those good things over the summer, as much as possible as I can.

And then I'm going to look at anything else like, so we do something called an Inspired Action in the academy, in my membership, where basically I ask people every week to do one thing for their business. It's normally small. It's not normally big and onerous. It might just be a reminder. It might be something new to try.

So I've batched all of them. So I've done all of them, right the way through to October already in that all scheduled. So what in your business, can you sit down and batch and you know, and I've talked about batching before, but doing the same activity all together, makes you much more efficient and it makes it much quicker.

So sit down, workout. What can you batch. Ask someone to take, oh God, I'm get to you, notes gone. Also want to sit with your child offer, you know, an hour or two send to grandma's, whatever it might be. If you can put them in front of a film and try and get that batching stuff done. So that's the first thing I'm going to do.

I'm going to batch stuff that where I can. The second thing I'm going to do is I am going to see what bare minimum I can do through this period. So what do I have to do in my business? What has to be me? And if you've got a team or a VA, what could be given to them? Like, what other things are you doing that you don't necessarily have to do?

What can you put off? What can you wait and think "Do you know what, I do need to do a new lead magnet, or I do need to change that thing on the website, but it doesn't have to be done right now. And I'm going to put it in my diary. Come the first week, when they're back at school, I'm going to have a list of things that I then am going to plan in that I'm not going to do in August."

Don't beat yourself up for trying to achieve something that you, you know, it's going to be tough to get done. So the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to book some time off. I'm going to look at my diary and work out when I don't have any calls or the other thing I try and do with the batching thing is I do all my calls on the same day.

In fact, it just want to touch on this a minute. I had a member in the academy who was offering calls to her customers and she was like, "I've got one over here. I've got one over here. Got one over." And I'm like, that's, you know, that's really hard to dip in and out of those calls to have them all over your diary, why don't you just offer them on a couple of days?

And she's like, "Well, you know, some like I'm on the evening. So I'm like, I'm on the weekends." So I said, if you don't offer it, it makes them decide like, and if they come back to you and say, "Do you know what, thanks for those dates. But I really couldn't do with an evening one." I said, if you want to do it, then do it, but don't give it them as the choice to begin with.

So she took my advice and changed the Calendly, her setup. So what she was offering and basically sent out the email to all the people who need the calls, would those particular dates and only one person came back and went "Any chance you could do a different one." And she did, otherwise all of them booked in on the days that she chose.

So we often think, "Oh, well, I've got to be flexible. I've got to be like, yeah, anytime you want." No, not at all. You know, even with clients. And I know, obviously I'm in a different point in my business, but even when I have clients, it's like I try and batch them next to each other. So, so if I got a call at 10 o'clock one day and it was going to be for an hour, Then when someone asked me for call, I'd say to them, "How's 11 o'clock?" on that same day.

They don't know that I've got a whole day free the next day. And if it works for them, then great. If they come and they can't make it, then you know, you can work around that. But I always try and batch these things together. So I can't remember where I got to. Oh, that's it. So, so I'm looking at where I've got spaces in my diary.

So if I've got whole days where I've got nothing, I'm literally putting busy in there and that's going to be days where I can maybe take a day off. I've literally just booked some tickets to go and see the Lion King in London. I'm really excited about that with my daughter. So I've booked that in my diary.

Cause I had two spaces. I had two days consecutive or I had no calls, which is great. So that's the next thing. Look at what's in your diary. Look at what you've got coming up. Is there anything that you can push to September? Is there anything you can move to a day where you've got another call? Just ask the question.

If they say no, they say no. It's gotta be worth a chance. Right? So that's my other thing. I'm going to try and give myself some time off. Then the next thing is I'm going to be thinking about when I actually work. So who says we need to work between nine and five, Monday to Friday. If you have a partner that works in the week and is back on the weekends, that maybe they could have the children on the weekend, on the Saturday, go out for the day and you can use that day to work.

Some of my members said they get up early before the children. I mean, it's easy if your child is over kind of 10, 11 cause they'll be sleeping then. And then if they're a bit younger, that might be a bit difficult. Or when they go to bed that you do some work then, and you are present with them in the day. That all of this depends on you, your individual situation.

These are just some ideas. Like I said, I know I'm very lucky that my daughter only does a week with me and then a week with her dad and also she's 11. So now I can say to her "You know, go and look on your iPad or whatever." and not have to say that to her, by the way, I have to say, stop looking on your iPad or your phone so she can pretty, she's pretty good at entertaining herself.

Also, I am more than happy to have other children round. Only one more, by the way, I'm not inviting the whole, the whole class, like I'm happy for her to have a friend, because that generally means that she is busy doing something with them rather than coming in to me. Oh, and the other thing, one of my members suggested, which I thought was great was she does like a child swap.

So she might have their children on one day that week, and then they swap and they have her children. So that's a really nice idea too, if you are working or you have a business friend who has got children and you're all about the same age. Not you the children. So that's another couple of ideas, which I really liked.

And then the last thing I just want to mention, and like I said, this is going to be short and sweet because it was just a few ideas. And I wanted just to bring it up at this point. I'm not going to feel guilty. Okay. And I don't want you to either. We run our businesses. We have busy full lives. We can't put the business on hold for the summer.

Like we can't put our family on hold. So I don't want you to feel guilty. I don't want you to think when you're working, you're a terrible parent. And when you're being a parent you're a terrible business owner, because believe me, I felt that too many times and I promise you, it is not productive. It doesn't do anybody any good, especially you. So what I'm going to do, and I'm not going to let my daughter, I'm not gonna let my daughter make me feel guilty either. So when my daughter comes in and goes, "Mum can we do something?" And I'm working, I will say to her. You are very lucky that I worked from home. So that's the first thing you don't have to be put somewhere else, you know, carted off to your grandma's or whatever.

You're really lucky that you get to stay in your home. You get to get up late, you get to hang around and do your things in your house because I worked from home. And how lucky are you that that is the case? So also I have to work. This is a reality. I would love to come and play with you, but I do have to work.

So what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask you to leave me alone for two, three hours, whatever it is you need from them. And again, it depends on their age, but I try and have a conversation and I literally would say, I'm going to shut my door and unless you're bleeding or something's on fire.

Then probably don't disturb me. She also, I'm also very lucky that because of the type of world I live in and work in, she knows if my door shut, she just doesn't disturb me. Now I might get texts, but at least she doesn't come walking in the door. And she has done that from a fairly young age, I would say because they're probably sometimes a bit better than we think.

So anyway, I will say this too, and I'll say, and if you can let me to work for these number of hours, then afterwards, I will then come and spend some time with you. But, like I said, I'm not going to feel guilty. I am happy that she gets to have her summer in her home and she's not putting some childcare thing, you know, which if she had to be, she'd have to be.

And I do it. You know, so I say that to it and I say, but therefore, you've...

Today’s episode is a very special one because it is officially my 200th podcast episode! I have my lovely husband Paul joining me for an ‘ask us anything’ style episode with questions from my amazing community.

• Diane from Shine Business asked what camera I use and about my home studio set up. I use a Panasonic G7/G85 for my camera, I have two LED lights and a tripod that connects to my desk that keeps everything at the same height. I have an AudioTechnic Mic for my podcast and a road mic for interviews and speaking. The camera lens I use is 20mm Lens Panasonic f1.7.
• Diane also asked what eye makeup I use – I use Naked palettes from Urban Decay and also use some from Younique.
• Wendy Hill from Hill Start Nutrition asked what is on our travel bucket list – On Paul’s is Yellowstone National Park and mine is Japan. Wendy also asked if any of my family actually know what I do – the answer is, not really!
• Laura from cruise coaching asked how long it took for me to get consistent clients and income – After the first year or so, I took on a VA to help with consistency which then helped my whole business to be more consistent.
• Nic from In Craft Corner asked who we would have a conversation with dead or alive who would it be – I said Breneé Brown and Paul said Richard Branson.
• Nic also asked if I have any tips for someone who wants to become a public speaker – this has a lot to do with your confidence but know your subject inside and out. Be completely yourself! Start small and just start doing it.
• Jo from The Foodies asked if we had one day’s notice to do a dinner party for lots of important guests, what would we make? – I would make my famous Beef Wellington and Paul would make Sausage, Chips and Beans!
• Karuna from Soul Enterprise asked what questions to ask a marketer you might want to hire – If they have worked in your industry that could be a good thing but they don’t have to have. I would ask what experience they have and what they do, have a look at their own social media and see what it’s like! How are they educating themselves and keeping up with the latest trends?
• Kate from Workflow with Kate asked what is the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard someone say? – People who think they know everything and are arrogant – there is always something to learn and learn from!
• Kate asked Paul what the most useless thing he has ever bought is – some 20cm wide curtains!
• Kate asked what our best pieces of advice are – Paul said don’t get stressed too much about everything, try and be positive and not keeping thinking about the negatives that could happen. I said what if this Is exactly where you are meant to be right now? There is a reason for everything.
• Caroline from Hunkington House Kitchen asked about my daily routine and how I plan it with distractions – It is all about your season of life, be realistic and understand your limitations. Try to get up 15 mins before you know your children will be up to have some time for you. Plan what you are going to do every day whilst looking at your diary and don’t beat yourself up!
• Caroline also asked how I feel giving advice and helping other business owners – It is the best thing ever knowing I can support people with their business and give them ideas to generate sales and improve their business/life. For me, that’s why I do this stuff! I love it so much.
• Leigh from Soul Resuscitation asked what my dream gig is and who I would most like to interview – The dream place for me to speak used to be Social Media Marketing World which didn’t happen but now it would be to do a TED talk. I would most like to interview Breneé Brown.
• Simone from Simone Sumers asked if there was a pivotal point in my life that everything changed - It all changed when I was working as a nursery nurse and started babysitting – they were all pretty successful and had the most beautiful houses. It really opened my eyes and made me want more.
• Paula from Outstand Development asked when I have laughed the hardest in my life – I do laugh a lot but a time that stands out is when I used to have a graphic designer called Matt and we would send each other street talk voice notes.
• Steph from Stephanie Jane Home Alignments asked what I would say to someone who wants to go against the grain – We have been bought up in a society where we go to school, then college, then university, then get a job and there needs to be other ways. You have to be realistic that you can achieve anything! If you are willing to put the work in, you can totally do anything.
• Carol from Caiger Art asked if I think there is a time limit to making a business successful – no not at all! It all depends what ‘success’ means for you.
• Carol also asked do we like the same music? We both like pop and dance music. Paul doesn’t like the old stuff as much!
• Louise from Louise Sims Web Services asked if I were hosting a dinner party, who would I invite – It would have to be Stephen Fry and Chris Hemsworth!
• Kim from Kim Carr Coaching asked if I were in charge of Glastonbury festival, who would the top 3 pyramid stage artists be? – Gorgon City, P!NK and Take That.
• Gail from Gail Sibley Artist asked the first step to take to hire someone – you always think you’re not ready and it is scary! I found a VA near me who I was recommended, we sat down and had a bit of an informal interview. To start with, she did 10 hours a month and it was AMAZING! She freed up so much of my time that I could grow my business and then hire more people.
• Gail also asked how I stay motivated – If you need a break, have a break! But I do love what I do so most of the time I am really passionate and motivated.
• Gail asked if we both have the same hobbies – we LOVE the garden and being out there/doing it. Paul loves to ski, walk and mountains, I don’t. Our joint hobby is probably drinking gin, we are very good at it!
• Biz Paul asked if I were world president, what would my first act be? It would be to install prosecco fountains in high streets and have it come through the mains. Then a 4 day work week as a standard!
• Jennifer Gilmour from Latte and Live asked if me and Paul fall out, does it affect my business? We don’t fall out often but if we do it doesn’t affect the business because I just come away to my office and continue!
• Shannon from Actually Social asked where the weirdest place I have a scar is – I have one on the top of my nose from picking a chicken pox spot and I have one on my leg where I was riding a bike that was too big for me and I fell off. Paul has one on his finger from when he was a maintenance guy at a stately home when he was 18/29, he was cutting some branches off a tree with a bow saw!
• Shannon also asked what the most exciting non-work related trip we have taken is – My very first trip to Vegas when we got married!
• Shannon also asked how we met – I hated online dating but I went back on and we started talking. When we met in real life, Paul looked so much better than his profile!

• An Introduction to the episode 01:54
• Ask us anything! 02:30

Adrian Salisbury Course

Transcript Below

Hello, and a really warm welcome to episode 200. Can you actually believe I'd done 200 episodes? Crazy. I sent out an email actually the other week saying I've been doing it for over a year and a half.

And I obviously got my math’s entirely wrong because 200 episodes is more like three years, I think. Anyway, today is a very different episode. First off, as you heard from the intro, I have a guest with me today.

Hi, this is so funny. So, this is my lovely husband Paul. Say Hi to everyone Paul.

Paul: Hi.

Teresa: And Paul has been on the podcast before this isn't your debut attending, is it?

Paul: No, it's not. No.

Teresa: We did episode a hundred and we were interviewed by the lovely BizPaul weren't we?

Paul: And that was nice.

Teresa: It was, it was good, fun, and people really enjoyed it.

So when it came to doing episode 200, I wanted to do things a bit differently. But I also wanted to do something a bit fun, which is why the lovely Paul is with me today. But it feels a bit odd. Last time we were being interviewed in a podcast studio by BizPaul. Today, we are crammed in my office, which isn't small, but it feels small to have this in here.

It's really warm. We are both sweating. Because we can't have the fan on. Because it makes too much noise and Paul and I just talking to ourselves, which is.

Paul: Is nice.

Teresa: It's nice. Bit odd.

Very odd, but nice. Okay. So we've got a loaded questions and also interspersed, you will have, uh, questions from my online events. So basically during the online event SOAR that is members only.

I ask people to ask me and I think and this really isn't a ask me anything they we've got some really good business questions. And we've got some really funny, personal, different questions. And basically what's going to happen through this whole podcast episode is we're going to intersperse those in our conversation.

When I say we, we're not gonna do it, Phil's gonna do it. So he will decide where there's a good pause and he will check in a question that was recorded during my event. So this should be fun. Are you ready, Mr. Paul?

Paul: Yes, I think so.

Teresa: So we're going to start off with the serious question. And then we'll, we'll mix up.

Let's see what will fit. Okay. So the first question is from Diane in Shine Business, which she runs with her friend, her friend, her partner, Claire, and they offer training and support to Hair and Beauty professionals. And then, um, in marketing, pricing contracts, HR, et cetera, they also have a membership called Shine Bright.

Okay. So her question was, uh, you mentioned recently that you went mainly from face to face talking events to online and that you had to adapt and invest in camera tech, where the right, you know, this, I hate reading. I hate reading. So this episode is going to be a bit like weird anyway. Uh, we're the exact same here.

So we're the exact same thing here. Told you, can't read. We're just trying to figure out through the tech. It would be really helpful to know what camera you use and anything else that you recommend for your home studio setup. Okay. So that's the first question. She's got a second part question. So the camera Paul is.

A is it Panasonic Windex?

Paul: Panasonic Windex.

Teresa: And we're going to find out and link to the exact one in the show notes. We also have these two lights that are like that. I used to have ring lights. Didn't I, and then big photography lights, but these are like LED or they LED? Two LED lights. And also we've just bought this new thing, I would say technical. What have we done for the desk?

Paul: It's like one pole instead of like, um, having tripod with your camera on it's just one pole that's, um, connected to the table itself. Cause your table rises and lowers down. So yeah, it keeps everything at that height. So when the table goes up, the camera goes up and the mic goes up as well.

Teresa: Yeah. So I have two mics. I have this one that I record, which is audio technic. This is on is for the podcast. And then I have a road mic, which is connected to the camera, which I use for interviews. And when I'm on screen, um, the other thing that's nice is this camera and I'll put the link to the lens in the show notes.

Is that this lens blurs the background and that's really nice, isn't it? Cause it just makes it look so much sharper and better. Yeah. Gives you that that's a field, which is really what it gets so hope that helps. But I will link up to them in the show notes. Also, I must give Adrian Salisbury shoutout at this point because it was his course that I did and he tells you all the tech and how to put it together.

So I will also link to him in the show notes as well. So the other questions I had was, uh, she also really loves my makeup look and in particular my eye makeup. So this is a cheeky question. What I makeup do you use? No problem if you'd rather not answer. I'm more than happy. I'm an open, but you know that.

So I use a few different things. I use naked pallets from Urban Decay, and I also use some from Unique. Um, I'll try and link to them in the show notes. I started using it, forgotten to put my thing on silent. Let me just do not disturb. See, just so you know we're not any more professional on the 200 episodes as we want them.

So, yeah, I use Unique, I use, uh, Urban Decay for, eye make-up just one tip on the only makeup thing. I have really dark eye makeup. So it's the first thing I do. So once I've like put the cream on my face and whatever, before I do any foundation, I put my eye makeup because I can guarantee, like I looked like, I don't know what I looked like.

Like I've been punched in the face or something because it, the darkness is all around my eyes. And then I use a white to get rid of the excess and then I put my foundation on. So hope that helps also I use eyeliner, above and below my eye and I use Urban Decay. I'm looking at Paul, like he knows what it's called a Waterline eyeliner.

That's the one I use. It's really good. Cause I wear contact lenses and we have this trip. We were in

Paul: Vegas.

Teresa: Yeah. We started off in Vegas and then we're heading to Laguna for a photo shoot and there was something wrong with my eyes and my contact lenses and I couldn't wear them and it didn't know what it was.

Um, So basically I had to have my photo shoot with my glasses, which wasn't very happy. And then, and then I took them off some photos, and then we went and paid a really expensive trip to the opticians in Laguna and basically there was nothing wrong. It was my eyeliner and it took days to fix. It was awful.

But anyway, so I now use that particular one, which is good for contact lenses. Okay. Hopefully that helped. So next question. Let's go with the lovely Wendy Hill from HillStart Nutrition. Who's a member. So she's put you both love to travel. What's on your bucket list. There you go. Paul, what's yours.

Paul: Uh, I think for me it, um, Yellowstone National Park.

Teresa: You like mountains and scenery. Don't you?

Paul: Yeah. And the nature and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah. So that would be my, my go-to, which it's quite of crazy. Cause we're not that far when we go over to our friends in LA and we've just never had the chance to go over have we?

Teresa: No.

Paul: Right. Would that be good?

Teresa: Yeah. I think mine I'd actually really love to go to like Japan or something like that. Like we've never been in that part of the world have we?

Paul: No.

Teresa: We tend to go to the States a lot. So yeah, they're probably, but pretty much anywhere right now. I'd happily go anywhere just to be able to get on a plane and travel again. And when does this is on the Workfront, Teresa, do any of your family actually know what you do? Like what do you think? I don't think they. No, not really. I think, I dunno.

Paul: I've got some idea, obviously here you are doing your podcast all the time and yeah, course and stuff.

Teresa: But yeah, I don't think they really,

Paul: If, if you, if you ask the question, I don't

Teresa: What do I actually do? Yeah. I think my dad once said, "I can't believe people pay you to speak. I had to listen to you talk like the whole time you were younger and I can't believe people actually pay to do that now, which is really nice." Thanks, Dad. Um, so Paul, what's your biggest marketing tip? Now I need to explain this because Paul thinks he's really funny, don't you Paul? Um, and he often like likes to share his marketing tips, uh, because he thinks by osmosis, just living with me, he's now a marketing genius.

So what tips have you got for us, Paul? The listeners are keen to hear your words of inspiration.

Paul: Obviously. Where did he put leaflets question mark and that's, uh, uh, you know, a no brainer really at this day and age, you know, things as things come back like trends and all that kind of stuff. But do you feel that, um, leaflets could come back and it would be.

Um, I don't know, positive action for your company tracing.

Teresa: So the other one that Paul always talks about is he says I need merch.

Paul: Yeah.

Teresa: Right.

Paul: Especially like on a day today, I'm here, sat in here sweating.

Teresa: He...