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Questions:Tell us a little about how your self?What made you want to get into Law? Tell us about your first case? Tell us about your first loss. What are the different judiciary branches for The Bahamas? It’s been my experience that there are public perceptions pertaining to law that almost seem gospel-like and I’d like to get your opinion as to the validity of these common beliefs. Bahamians tend to walk the street, sometimes with reckless abandon with the perception that “all pedestrians have the right of way” is this true?Should a citizen’s vehicle be rear-ended in an accident, the offending vehicle is automatically in the wrong, no questions asked, just shut up because you’re wrong? What is the first thing citizens should do should they find themselves in an accident? Vehicle tints being too dark, is that an actual offense? Law Enforcement show up at your home or stop your vehicle and want to search without a search warrant, you refuse, the push ahead and search anyway claiming “suspicion” is that legal? If someone breaks into my home or business, I lickin’ shots. Apparently where I shoot them though determines what happens to me, can you give some clarification? If a citizen is a person of interest and is brought in for just questioning, not under arrest, should they be questioned without an attorney? C) Can they get up and leave if they are not under arrest?Am I entitled to a speedy trial? Without having to make a “donation”? -_- Should a married couple seek legal counsel when going through a divorce? Something I know you’re very passionate about, what is the current copyright status of The Bahamas? What are some things pertaining to the law you would like every Bahamian to know?Find Brother Nat on FB : https://www.facebook.com/natcambridge_______________________________________________RECORDED AT GRAND BAHAMA STUDIOSAdvertise with us at HeadNod Music & S.T.A.M.P (The Street Team Advertising Marketing and Promotion.eMail - marketing@headnodmusic.com_________________________________Find Codename: Agents of Chaos on: FB | IG | TwitterStream us and download for free at agents-of-chaos.simplecast.comSupport us at our PayPal Link: paypal.me/codenameaocSearch & Subscribe on: Genius Radio | Broughtupsy 242 | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio | Amazon Muisc & Audible
Questions: Tell us more about what you shoot and how long you have been photographing this genre? We jump in a time machine and go back to when you started doing photography. What would you tell yourself how would you coach yourself? What was your best memory of your career? Do you put all of your prices online? One thing that we talk about on the podcast is the idea of failure and how you learn from failure. Can you share a time in your career when you failed and what did you learn from it? Lightning Round: L1: Mac or PC? & Why? L2: Lightroom or Photoshop & Why? L3: Speedlight or Studio Strobe & Why? L4: One piece of gear you couldn't live without? L5: Android or IOS & Why? L6: Coffee or Tea? L7: Domestic or Craft beer & Why? If craft beer what’s your favorite brewery? Tragedy strikes. You have one camera and one lens and $500 in your pocket. What would the camera and lens be and how would you use the $500 to launch your business & stay afloat? Where do you see your career headed in the next 5 years? Are there any books/resources or tools you would recommend to our listeners? You are a badass Growth Hacking by Ryan Holiday The obstacle is the way What do you want your legacy to be? How can our listeners find you online? @lindseypoy Lindseypoyar.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/talkingpixelspodcast/message
There’s a lot of implications in an increasingly mobile world. Amazon has increasingly become mobile first. So today we talk to Wes Pomeroy, who is the Director of Digital Merchandising at Verizon Wireless. You heard that right, we landed an interview with a director at Verizon Wireless.Data is useless, insights are priceless.Wes and I used to work together at Moxie Interactive and we spearheaded improving conversion rates on mobile devices. In fact Wes used to be my boss. So Wes you have a ton of ecommerce and mobile experience, can you tell us about your background?Questions: Tell me about your mobile experience.Walk me through a short history of how mobile has changed in the past 15 years.How is shopping on mobile different today than say 3 years ago?Is selling online getting harder or easier? Why.How does mobile complicate this?Amazon’s detail pages are getting clunkier by the day. Doing the opposite of typical ecommerce best practices. It’s like a jungle on mobile. What are your thoughts on this?Amazon just released Profiles, a social media version of FB for Amazon. And it's only viewable on mobile. Do you think Amazon can play in this?Verizon has a video series of techxperts Let’s talk tik-tok. Should brands be playing their to increase sales and build audiences?Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/myamazonguy)
Deck Medic and Benetrends Financial on Franchise Business RadioInterested in Franchise Ownership?Contact Pamela Currie to receive a COMPLIMENTARY Consultation on Selecting a Franchise.Pamela Currie, Host of the Franchise Business Radio show and Founder of Franchise Intellect, Inc. www.FranchiseIntellect.comMobile: 847-970-8765Email: Pam@FranchiseIntellect.comJeff Konopack, VP Franchise DevelopmentDeck Medic, Inc.I joined the Deck Medic team back in 2008 after owning a painting company for 20 years. Deck Medic has been in the outdoor wood restoration business since 1990. After running the old company for a few years it occurred to me that the best way for us to grow was going to be through franchising. Employees care about their check in two weeks, owners care about the customer calling us back for a maintenance coat in 2 years.In 2012 we decided to turn Deck Medic into a franchise, it took a few years and a name change from Deck Bright to Deck Medic because of trademarks but in 2016 we started franchising. I am not only the VP of Franchise Development but an original franchise owner myself. We currently only have 14 franchises but have 3 more scheduled to join us next year already and hopefully we will have a few more sign up this fall for next spring.Although we are “Deck Medic” we clean and stain more than just decks, we also protect Fences, Play Sets, Gazebo's, Pergola's and all outdoor wood surfaces. In addition we offer power washing service for concrete, paver patios, and house exteriors. Our wood repair options range from one board to a full re-deck.Most of our customers are homeowners but we also handle a lot of condo and town home associations. With everyone sequestered at home this year we have been especially busy with most of the franchise owners already surpassing last year's numbers.I would say what has been most interesting since we became a franchise is dealing with the Covid19 issues. In the past we used to always print the quotes up in the customers driveway then present it to them at the kitchen table while we were there. This year we had to switch to more email quotes and early in the year while everything was still an unknown I would talk to the customer on the phone while I was on the deck and they were looking at me out a bedroom window.One of the best things about the deck restoration business is that it is not only recession proof (we did well in 2008 as well) but apparently pandemic proof as well. In a normal year most franchises have more work than they can handle but this year we have all be busier than ever.One of the unique things about Deck Medic is that in addition to the 30 years we have been in business and the training each franchise owner gets is that we have all of our own proprietary products. Our deck cleaners give our owners a competitive edge over the competition and since we make our own 100% oil based stain when the customer is ready for the maintenance coat in a few years there is only one place they can go to have that done, back to the local franchise owner.Our typical franchise owner is someone who is a people person, they have to be able to communicate well with the white collar homeowners as well as our blue collar workers. They must like the outdoors and not be afraid to get their hands dirty. They have to be able to wear all the hats; estimating using our software, selling, scheduling, payroll, hiring & training, and billing.One of the things I like about being a small franchise is that I get to know all the owners, their businesses and their employees intimately.QUESTIONS:Tell us about Deck Medic? What is it you do and what is the history of how Deck Medic was founded?Why did you decide to franchise?Who is the typical end-customer for a Deck Medic franchisee? Is there a specific market or demographic that is ideal for a franchisee?What makes Deck Medic unique?How did you as the Franchisor and your Franchisees manage to COVID19?What is the typical profile of a franchisee?What is the estimated investment range (Item 7 in the FDD)?Larry Carnell, Vice President of DevelopmentBenetrends Financial, Inc.Larry Carnell processes over three combined decades of award winning franchising and business ownership, managerial, development and advisory expertise. He has helped thousands buy, sell, fund, manage and strategically exit their businesses. Carnell is a recipient of international and national awards including an entrepreneur of the year award. He has been a frequent speaker, instructor and trainer for numerous organizations including universities and associations and their respective seminars, and conferences. Carnell has authored numerous articles on business, business development and other subjects. He is a recognized subject matter expert on Rollovers for Business Startups (ROBS) and funding and is credited with helping to introduce ROBS nationally to the first franchise and business broker acquisition.He is a recipient of several certifications/designations including Certified Franchise Executive, Certified Business Intermediary, Accredited Business Intermediary, Certified Franchise Broker and other certifications. LinkedIn lists him as a worldwide “Top Recommended Professional”.In addition to his current position, Carnell has served in various executive and other roles with companies and advisory firms as a Founder, Senior Vice President, Regional manager, National Trainer and more. He holds a BBA degree in business from the University of Memphis.In light of growing funding challenges working with a business and funding expert can help one avoid costly Mistakes. Larry looks forward to helping you live your dream of business ownership.Former NAE "Entrepreneur of the Year" recipientInternational and national award winning franchise expert and speakerFortune Magazine "TOP 100 Most Admired Company' award winning advisor and national trainerRecognized as Mr. ROBS - The person who helped to first introduce retirement asset funding to the business and franchise community decades ago. Nationally recognized Subject matter Expert, lecturer and speakerLarry has helped over 10,000 people buy, sell, & design exit strategies for businesses.The Franchise Business Radio show is a platform to bring together franchise professionals to connect, educate and collaborate to serve the franchise community and those considering franchise ownership.Spotlighting Leaders in the Franchise Industry, experts in funding, legal, marketing and consulting.Franchise Business Radio hosted by:Pam Currie, FounderFranchise Intellect, IncMade possible in part by:Host Pamela Currie, Franchise Intellect, visit: http://www.FranchiseIntellect.comAlso made possible in part by:Franchise City, visit http://www.Franchise.cityFranServe, visit https://franserve.com/To nominate or submit a guest request visit: http://www.OnAirGuest.comTo view guest photos from this show, visit: http://www.ProBusinessPictures.com
Questions: Tell us more about what you shoot and how long you have been photographing this genre? We jump in a time machine and go back to when you started doing photography. What would you tell yourself how would you coach yourself? What was your best memory of your career? Do you put all of your prices online? One thing that we talk about on the podcast is the idea of failure and how you learn from failure. Can you share a time in your career when you failed and what did you learn from it? Lightning Round: L1: Mac or PC? & Why? L2: Lightroom or Photoshop & Why? L3: Speedlight or Studio Strobe & Why? L4: One piece of gear you couldn't live without? L5: Android or IOS & Why? L6: Coffee or Tea? L7: Domestic or Craft beer & Why? If craft beer what’s your favorite brewery? Tragedy strikes. You have one camera and one lens and $500 in your pocket. What would the camera and lens be and how would you use the $500 to launch your business & stay afloat? Where do you see your career headed in the next 5 years? Are there any books/resources or tools you would recommend to our listeners? What do you want your legacy to be? How can our listeners find you online? @coffycreations --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/talkingpixelspodcast/message
Erica Mason talks with Alison Smith, Hollie Borrego, Lori Sinclair, Cynthia Berndt and Lisa Knudtson about their transition to remote learning and what they are doing at Stone Mountain to offer support for their students. QUESTIONS: Tell me a little bit about each of you and what you like about teaching at Stone Mountain? How has your approach to teaching changed during remote learning? How are you finding ways to connect and engage with students when you are not physically with them? What are some of the highlights or surprises you have experienced during this time? What are some things you think will change when we transition back to the classroom? Any final thoughts?
Erica Mason talks with Jeff Collins, a music teacher at Eagle Academy about how he has adapted to remote learning. QUESTIONS: Tell us about yourself, Eagle Academy, and everything you are doing there. How has remote learning changed your approach to learning? What have been some of the biggest challenges for you and your students? Tell me about teaching music in a remote learning environment. Tell me about your students, how are you keeping connected with kids? Is there anything else you would like to share before we wrap up today?
Erica Mason talks with Graig MacHendrie (Digital Library Specialist at Sagewood middle school) and Linda Conway (Director of Library Programming) about how they have transitioned to a remote library, how things have changed, and how they are supporting teachers with remote learning. QUESTIONS: Tell us about your job and how your role has changed during remote learning? What do you see are the biggest needs for teachers and students? What are the kinds of things you look at when looking at resources, to determine, what is valuable and will support good learning? What are some ideas and strategies that you're using to do remote work and supporting teachers? What are you most excited about when implementing our strategic plan? What are some of the challenges you have faced? What is the most important lesson you have learned as an educator over the years?
Erica Mason talks with Tony Jackowski and Mary Murphy about their program at Mesa middle school regarding Global awareness and social entrepreneurship. QUESTIONS: Tell us about your program at Mesa Middle school regarding global awareness and social entrepreneurship. What does it look like for incoming students? Do you have students that have leadership opportunities to mentor new/ incoming students? What other ways can the community support the program? How has remote learning affected your program? Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners?
Until recently, La Chocolatrice, located at 67B Westgate Road, Newcastle, was still filled with the laughter of people transported into a world of beauty and magic, learning a skill they perhaps thought they never would: making and tempering chocolate.Owner and chocolatier, Zoe Rutter's decision to open a school of chocolate was inspired by her childhood and her time spent in France. However, it took several years after graduating from university before she took the plunge to follow her dreams.Part 1: Identity (1:31)In Part 1, Zoe explains exactly what she aims to achieve with La Chocolatrice, because it is a lot more than just a chocolate shop.Questions:Between the magic of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the world of temptation in the film Chocolat, where does ‘La Chocolatrice’ see itself?What exactly can people expect from a workshop?In what way does your shop bring new life into Newcastle city centre?Part 2: Childhood Dreams (11:54)Part 2 takes us back to Zoe's childhood and how her love of chocolate and baking in general developed during her time in France, laying the foundation for La Chocolatrice.Questions:Tell me more about the journey that inspired you to open this shop?You have had a few different jobs too. What motivates you and what advice would you give to listeners about pursuing their dream jobs?Part 3: Living a better life (24:20)In the last part we discuss some of the health benefits of chocolate, including mental health and wellbeing.Questions:How do you view chocolate in terms of mental health and wellbeing?How can chocolate help us slow down and appreciate what is important in life?Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this episode. To keep up to date with developments at La Chocolatrice click here or follow her on social media (@la.chocolatrice).Kindly spread the word by leaving a few comments, subscribe on iTunes or Google Podcast. Lastly, please like and share the article and podcast with friends and family on social media:FacebookInstagramTwitterMusic credit:Rob Irish: https://rob.irish/music
Laurie LaComb and Aaron Ragon talk with Marsha Alston, the Youth Services Program Manager at Douglas County Youth Initiative, about the different programs and services that are within Douglas County aimed to help and support our students. QUESTIONS: Tell us about the Douglas County Youth Initiative. What are other programs you offer to Douglas County? If there was one thing you wish all parents could take away from our conversation, what would it be? RESOURCES: https://www.search-institute.org/our-research/development-assets/developmental-assets-framework/ https://www.douglas.co.us/community/partners-and-providers/youth-initiative/ https://www.douglas.co.us/community/partners-and-providers/youth-initiative/wraparound-referral-form/
Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd, broadcaster, advocate and small business owner.Date: 7 January 2020 This week we welcome a pair of inspiring young female entrepreneurs who, after growing up in a semi-rural part of greater Sydney; took that life experience and founded Aggie Global, a social business connecting small farmers to big markets in developing countries via an ecommerce platform. Social enterprise isn’t necessarily a new concept in small business but it has been wholeheartedly embraced as a way to find a balance between income and inspiration by the millennial generation. As they begin their entrepreneurial journeys they are hungry to find meaning in what they are achieving and giving back to the global community in which they operate. But how do you make sure what you’re doing is financially viable and not just going to burn out your good will? Lisa & Zoe Paisley are here today to share with us their story of building a business from the ground and the heart up. Welcome to the show Zoe & Lisa. Topics we’ll be covering: Questions: Tell us about your Agritech business and where the idea first came from? We are the cofounders of Aggie Global, a social business connecting small farmers to big markets in developing countries via an ecommerce platform. Lisa and I have always been exposed to agriculture, having cats, dogs, horses and chickens on our family place since we were kids. At high school we studied agriculture and were even given a plot of land to grow fresh veggies. When it came to choosing what to study at university, we both wanted to do something that would make positive impact. And at the end of the day, we all need to eat, so agriculture was a no brainer. We also love to travel and be outdoors. So we did work placements across Australia and the world where we found that we loved working in agricultural development because it could have massive positive social impact for farmers in developing countries. This is why we started Aggie Global, to make positive social change by connecting farmers to new markets which boosts their income and addresses poverty. Since then, we have worked in Fiji for 3 years, and found that the tourism industry is importing $30m AUD worth of food into the country every year, yet the majority of Fijian farmers live in poverty. This disconnect is what Aggie Global is addressing. By connecting local farmers to local hotels and restaurants, farmers are increasing their income by 5x the national average and saved buyers up to 6x the amount of money spent on food. Aggie Global showcases what local food is available and when via an ecommerce platform. Having this one-stop shop to buy local food, saves a hotel procurement officers hours of time, reducing the procurement process from months down to minutes. How, in your opinion, are social enterprise businesses changing the world for the better? Social businesses can have huge positive impact in the communities in which they work. Social enterprises are a hybrid of positive social impact and sustainable business models, which means they can adapt quickly and scale out internationally when built well. By being a business, the impact is not determined by donations or grants, but is self-sustaining from the sale of its products or services. All profits are generally used to move the business forward and drive further positive impact. We believe social businesses are crucial for the key social challenges being faced around the world. Poverty, food security, equality and climate change all need to be addressed from multiple angles and social businesses are bringing a new way to address these issues For example, there is a cafe in Sydney that employs refugees. By employeeing these refuges it helps them get on their feet in a new country where their previous work experience may no longer be valid. The growing social business movement means that long term impact can occur and vulnerable individuals are less reliant on aid or government funding when it is needed. Social businesses, especially start ups can adapt to changing conditions quickly. Businesses can leverage technology to address real problems and reach a wider audience. This is why the growing social business movement has taken hold because of how adaptable yet tailored this approach can be and is why Aggie Global has taken this approach. In practical ways, what are some of the mistakes you’ve made with setting up this type of social enterprise business which others can learn from? Our biggest mistakes are intertwined. The first two are 1) not trusting our gut and 2) not making a decision quick enough. In start-up world you’ll constantly hear “fail hard and fast” and “learn from those mistakes.'' This was something we didn’t do so well to begin with. Initially, Aggie Global was going to be this really cool app that would do all these amazing things, like identify crop diseases from a single photo. We had talked with customers and had thought this would be an amazing thing that would use AI and have a huge impact for farming communities. But when we actually looked into it further, the app itself had no impact and farmers weren’t interested in using it. So after a year of finding app developers and finally getting an app released, we had to call it off and loose some great team members. We knew from the start that that idea was a mammoth job but we wanted to get something out in the market and start collecting data. Which meant we were ignoring our gut and what our customers were saying, meaning we didn’t call off app development early enough. So another lesson here is know your customers and learn from them quickly. Also don’t be married to the solution. See what is actually happening and not what you want to be happening, so constantly question and evaluate your findings and take away your expectations and what you want. The last thing is specific to Aggie Global, rather than businesses as a whole, but its Fiji Time. We literally have to be knocking down doors to see people when we need to, inorder to be effectively moving the business forward. Getting outside and talking with farmers, partners and government bodies, have been the biggest drivers for our business. To find out more go to their website: www.aggieglobal.com Or connect with Lisa and Zoe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-paisley-60b49917a/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-paisley-07049917a and https://www.linkedin.com/company/14543921/
Sky Jarrett is an executive coach and pioneer of 21st century leadership. She has a passion for unlocking human excellence and specializes in using researched-based and neuroscience techniques to support leaders in improving their effectives and thriving in the digital age. As a leadership and organization development consultant at one of the world’s largest consulting firms, Sky has 12+ years of specialized expertise in large-scale transformations helping organizations transform their culture, leaders, and performance from within. Sky is also a certified instructor, advocate, and change agent for mindfulness and has been instrumental in bring mindfulness to Fortune 500 companies. She is committed to growing the reach of mindfulness across industries and geographies as a way of expanding the human capacity to deal with the relentless and fast-paced challenges of life in the 21st century. Transcend, LLC is an organization aimed at supporting individuals, groups, and organizations in helping them transcend barriers to maximize their greatness and achieve extraordinary results. Combining unparalleled expertise in Leadership Excellence, Human & Organizational Development, Brain Science, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology, Performance Excellence, and Inclusive & Diversity principles, Transcend specializes in curating experiences, program, and talks designed to inspire and transform. Questions Tell us a little bit about your background? What are three to four characteristics or traits that you think a leader needs to have in order to really lead an organization that will be customer centric? In terms of as a leader, there is the old adage are saying that says, “Leaders are not born versus leaders can be created.” what are your thoughts on that? How do you stay motivated everyday? Could you share with us what's, what's the one online resource tool, website or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? Can you share with us maybe one or two books that have had the biggest impact on you? Could you share with us maybe one thing that's going on in your life right now that you are really excited about - either something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find you online? During times of adversity or times when you feel like you're faced with obstacles that you may have dotes that you are unable to overcome these obstacles. Do you have any quote or saying that during these times you will draw on it to kind of regain your strength and focus and momentum? Highlights Sky shared that she will start with her background and work her way into mindfulness and how she got into that space. She shared that she and her siblings were very blessed to have a dad who really cared about their future and at the tender age of 9, he had them thinking about who they wanted to be when they grow up. So, he took each of them sat a stone, asked them what they were interested in doing, who they saw themselves becoming. At the time she thought she wanted to go into medicine and when he took her to the hospital to meet with a doctor just to talk about what that career path is like and what it's like to be a doctor, she learned that she’s afraid of blood. So, medicine would not be the path for her, but that led her down a journey to really discovering what and who she wanted to be, and psychology was really intriguing to her. What she found interesting was that we spend majority of our lives at work, for the average person 40 to 60 hours a week or more for some of us and how much quality of that experience really impacts the rest of our lives. And so, for her, really intrigued by that notion, she was compelled to want to make a difference, to somehow improve that life experience, that work life experience. And she felt that approaching it from the perspective of leadership and helping leader to be more effective and more conscious in how they impact their employees and the people that follow them, that she could scale her impact on people and their lives that way. So, she sort of went from wanting to help people from a medical perspective to really, at the end of the day seeking to improve people's life experiences at work and tackling that from a leadership perspective. Yanique shared that the program is called Navigating the Customer Experience - And I remember in some of our pre conversations you are just trying to align to make sure that you know, what you had to offer would align very well with our audience. Now, leadership is a very big part of customer experience as you would know based on the work that you've done with all of these large organizations. And if the leadership is not mindful and basically not leading their teams in a way that is going to yield the greatest level of productivity in all the dimensions that your life needs leading in, not just in terms of work, but health and wealth and spirituality and emotionally then you're really not going to have a truly successful organization. Sky stated that she thinks of leadership not only as the person with the title, if you will, who is hereby appointed and hailed as the leader. But she thinks of leadership or someone as a leader, as someone who has made a conscious effort to take a leadership role in their own life. So, living their life by design, being intentional about how they live their life and for many of us, we see leadership as sort of a service, having a service orientation. Who are we leading? Who are we serving? Who are we influencing? And that can be in a work capacity or a personal capacity. And so, how she connects that dot from a customer centric perspective, if she thinks of herself as someone who is leading the trade and pioneering 21st century leadership and she thinks about the leaders who she wants to be serving. She has to take a customer centric perspective to really understanding who are those individuals, what are they struggling with, what are their challenges and what it is that she has to offer them that's unique to support their journey. So, number one is having that sort of awareness and having the where it all to think about the customer in that way, to have that customer centric view to begin with she believes is important. And to support that, Sky thinks having the capacity to sort of cultivating a capacity for empathy is very important so that we can put ourselves in the shoes of the people that we're serving, whether that is the end user of our product or service or the employees that we're serving and supporting as well. But cultivating a practice of empathy where we can put ourselves in their shoes, understand their perspective and serve them in that way to her she thinks is tremendously important. Sky also mentioned, specific to having that customer centricity, she thinks more than just the awareness, but the capacity to sort of think from a systemic perspective, especially in now a 21st century. When you think about the impact of globalization, we're so much more connected now than we were before. And so, you hear the buzzword of thinking about the ecosystem and thinking about all the players, the market landscape is just so much different now than it was before. So, she thinks also having that capacity, obviously awareness more than the awareness, having the capacity to think on that many dimensions. In her world you talk about increased complexity, the more high you get as a leader, the more complexity you have to deal with, thinking about stakeholders and your customers on that many levels. And when you think about how you engage with those customers and the ecosystem that's involved in that engagement, it's not so much indirect, one-to-one, um, business to customer or customer to customer relationship anymore. It's so much more dynamic. So just having more of a capacity to navigate that complexity I think is really important. And a lot of the work that I do with leaders is to help them scale that capacity to build more capacity to deal with more of the complexity that I believe is inherent in the 21st century. So, she would say those are the three things for her. The awareness, cultivating a capacity for empathy and having the capacity to deal with more complexity, to be able to navigate that she thinks is really important. Sky shared that she boils leadership down to influence and how you're able to influence people, again, both in your personal life but also in business and while she thinks characteristics, there are certain personality traits that someone can have that makes it a lot easier for them or somewhat makes them more magnetizing. So, the typical characteristic people think about is, “Oh, they're so charismatic and they're such great people pleaser.”Sky thinks there are assumptions about what makes a leader effective, but she also does a lot of strengths-based work. So, looking at what makes an individual special from the perspective of what their strengths are and how they can maximize and leverage the power of that strength to make them a powerful leader. And there was a lot of research that was done to uncover, “Whoa, is there like a particular ingredient that leaders need to have to be successful?” And they looked at the CEOs across the globe and they found that not necessarily that leaders can approach leadership from the perspective of what makes them special and what makes them shine. You think about Bill Gates, he's not the most charismatic of them, but is he an effective leader? Yes. Is he an effective business businessman? Absolutely, no questions asked. He for her is an example of someone who really understands himself, is very in touch with the things that makes him special and has figured out how to apply his specific ingredients to do what he needs to do to be effective in a way that's authentic to him and to her, that's the most important thing, that element of authenticity. Yanique agreed and stated - I liked the fact that you touched on authenticity. I think it's so important. I read a lot of Brené Brown's books and 've been following her for maybe about seven, eight years now. I did a workshop with her a couple of years ago that she did read Oprah on scrapbooking, kind of helping you to fine yourself and just talk about shame on the things that we take for granted in our lives that we think other people don't suffer from. We're all actually suffering from some of the very same things, just maybe different experiences. And one of the very strong characteristics or traits that I will speak about in our workshops that we do here in Jamaica is I personally believe that the most important role of a leader is to grow and develop people. Would you agree? And if so, why is it so important? And I guess you'd have touched on it when you mentioned capacity for the leader to ensure that he grows and develops the people around him or her. Sky shared that this point is really near and dear to her heart. It's sort of the bread and butter of why she do the work that she does, is to help people to grow, to develop, to be their best self, to be their authentic self. And she thinks as leaders we have a responsibility to do that for the people that support us and the people that we support. And one of the things that she thinks is most important part of that journey is to give ourselves and each other the permission to be human because so many of us going to a work environment and we have this expectation of who we want to be at work, the image that we want to project at work as if we're living two different lives, we have a work life and we have a personal life, two different people going to show up for each of the life and we are one person. And the more whole we can be, the more authentic we can be is the more fulfilled we will be. There is a thing of living in congruence, that’s a psychological term where you're living this ideal version of yourself, but it's not who you feel you are meant to be or you're living out of obligation but you're not really connecting with who you are at your core and who you are in your true authenticity. And so, the more misaligned we are, the more misalignment we have between who we want to be and who we're actually showing up as is the more unhappy we are. And that can lead to burnout, it can lead to anxiety, depression, and for sure if not all of those things, you just won't be as happy living that life. So, for her, helping people to create that space, she thinks as leaders we have a responsibility to create that space of safety where people can show up as they are and close that gap of in congruence. Yanique agreed. It’s awesome that your company is dedicated to transforming that particular area because a lot of organizations need that message, that reinforcement to recognize that their role is to help people really grow and align themselves to who they're truly, truly meant to be and sometimes that requires some soul searching because some of us are working in jobs 30, 40 years and we really don't know what we want. We kind of just on that treadmill going everyday, not really sitting down and questioning ourselves and giving ourselves truthful answers, what really, really makes us happy. Sky shared that she calls it living by default versus living, but we're just living life by default, just whatever comes our way, we'll go at it versus being intentional about one, getting clear about what we want for our lives, what we want for ourselves, how we want to spend our time, the difference we want to make in this world. She had a moment she was robbed at gunpoint in Jamaica, December 2015. And the thing that she walked away with was thinking, “Okay, so this happened at three o'clock in the afternoon, broad daylight. The gunman knows that I saw his face.” So, really and truly, he had no reason to let her walk. And she walked away thinking, “What if he made a different choice? And he ended my life in that moment. So, what that I'd have lived. So what? What difference have I made in the world that would really warrant the life that I lived up until that point?” And many of us don't have those experiences to help us think about those types of questions. But if you think to live your life with the end in mind, rest assured you're going to be more inspired to be more intentional about how you live your life, the difference that your life makes, the impact that your life has made on this world. And really getting behind that and being more intentional about designing your life in such a way that you can live out the best version of your life, she strongly believes in it. Get off the damn treadmill and live by design, don't live by default. When asked about how she stays motivated everyday, Sky stated that she is committed to living her life by design and with the whole concept of not living. She thinks one of the most important things for her is being in alignment with her truth and having a solid understanding of who she wants to be and really having an intention around that. So, that allows her to wake up every day with clarity of who she is and who she wants to show up as every single day. Because when we don't have that clarity, it's so much easier for us to stray and get discouraged, we feel lost and confused and stuck and who is motivated when they're in that space. When you have clarity of who you want to be and you have this insatiable passion that you wake up everyday feeling like you can't wait to get out the bed, that's when you know that you've tapped into something really special. So, for her, it really helps for her to be motivated, to be in alignment, number one, number two, being committed to living life by design and she can literally wake up every day saying life is so good because she has made it that way, because she has chosen to make life good, that's why she can say life is good. Another more important part for her, or equally important part for her is the success of her clients. So, going back to that customer centricity, having conversations, take her individual coaching clients as an example, she met with one just this morning and she shared a victory with Sky, something that she wouldn't have achieved outside of the journey that she has been on, that Sky has been supporting her with and for her to unsolicited just shared with her, “Oh my gosh, you wouldn't believe what happened last week.” And for her to feel so good about that, they were on video and she could see the happiness and celebration in her face, in her eyes, and she was so excited, so proud of herself, so happy for this success that they were able to celebrate together, that keeps Sky going for sure, it keeps her motivated. Yanique mentioned that Sky shared one of the oldest types of advertising for any business and it's really what all businesses should aspire for, true word of mouth advertising in terms of really being able to speak about the value and the greatness or impact that on an organization or an individual is able to help them overcome. Because the reality is all businesses go into business to make money, but usually they going to business to solve a problem. So, what problem are you solving for that individual or that company or that set of people and are you consistently doing it? Are you looking for opportunities to make it better each and every time? Are you flexible? Are you accessible? those are all the things that customers are looking for, ease of doing business, convenience. So, I think once you can ensure that you're doing that consistently and your customers can say it for you, not you saying it for yourself, then it speaks volumes to the impact that you have on people's lives. Sky agreed and stated that here is the dilemma that we're all faced with, every single one of us living in this day and age is that life has changed, the pace of life is so much fast now then it has ever been and sadly is the slowest it will ever be. Listeners thinking about that, that manifests in each of our lives in a very different way. Like for her, it just feels like life is on a rapid seriously and she thinks it creates a very difficult space for many of us to kind of feel like we're keeping our head above water, constantly feeling like we're sinking, constantly feeling like we're falling behind, we may suffer from information overload because news is coming from every which direction, we have news coming out of our ears, we don't know which news platforms to keep up with and, “Did you hear about that? No, you're too lie. What's going on over there feeling?” feeling like we’re always out of the loop. FOMO is so real because there's so many different information platforms and we want to keep track of everything so we don't have FOMO and we keeping up with the Netflix and just keeping up with life in general and the responsibilities and how difficult it is to navigate life. And you think about things land like Airbnb and Uber and social media and how it's changing how we live life. So, to her a lot of people are bringing in 20th century lifestyle skills to the 21st century and it's not going to work. So, that for her is the problem that she’s helping people figure out how do I navigate this new way of living? How do I navigate this new way of living in business and in their personal lives so that people can, to your point, go through life with more of a feeling of ease, much less anxiety, much more fulfillment, being more effective in our personal lives and in our work life and have this general feeling of, “Man, I'm thriving, I am flourishing.” which is very difficult to achieve, more difficult now than ever before. And so, that's what she seeks to offer my clients and she does that in different capacities, both on an individual basis, but also in the corporate context. She works with teams to do that kind of work, so you talk about flexibility, accessibility, those are all things that she brings to the table, she doesn’t do cookie cutter solutions, she does very tailored solutions for her clients and really meet them where they need to be met. In regard to online resources, Sky shared that the two that comes to mind for her but the first one that came to mind was Acuity, which is the online scheduling platform because she has clients who she meets with on a weekly, monthly, biweekly basis. The scheduling, we live in a day and age where taking things off the to do list is one of those lifestyle strategies, the more you can take off your to do list or your thinking list, the better, the easier. So for her, giving them access and this is also one of those customer centricity tools or conveniences that she likes to offer her clients as well, where the scheduling is up to them and they're able to grab time on her calendar that is convenient for them, the day that works for them, the time that works for them based on the options that are available. So, it works for her because she gets to dictate what hours she wants to work, on what days and they get to pick and refuse availability based on what works best for them. So, that's one tool she doesn’t think she could live without. The second would be QuickBooks, it's how she manage her finances, her invoicing, all that good stuff. When asked about books that have had the biggest impact, Sky shared that she would for sure say one is The Motivation Manifesto: 9 Declarations to Claim Your Personal Power by Brendon Burchard, this was like a wake-up call, this book was like, “Whose agenda are you living? Girl, reclaim your agenda. This is your life. Let's get it together.” that book was like really help things to snap into gear for her. But then you have all this motivation, you're like, yes, I want a better life for myself. But what exactly does that look like? And so, the second book that she felt really powerful was a book called The Calling and it was a book that really helped her to tap into that inner voice, tap into her authenticity and tap into what is she being called to do in this world really helped her to crystalized that. And funny enough, that journey took her back to what she had aspired to do when she was nine but you know how life has a way of just being distracting and society starts to dictate who you want to be and what you want to be when you grow up, and the more noise you hear is the more confused you become and the more you stray away from that which you're really meant to do. So, that book for her was a way to reconnect to who she really is and what that she really wants to do in this world. Sky stated that she has the honor, the pleasure, the benefit, the glory, any insert adjective to really support people primarily in the corporate setting and these people are paying “one begga money” to get these support services and she wanted to figure out a way that she could scale and provide the services and offerings to more people than just those within a corporate context. So, what she’s working on now is an online program which will provide the work that she does for these high paying clients to the average person who might not have the benefits or the luxury of a company paying for this service for them, but they can access it. And essentially what it is, and she’s really timing it around the new year, this is a time when so many of us come up with new year's resolutions, we’re really excited, we’re really pumped, we can see this version of ourselves, we do vision board workshops and we’re fully charged and ready to go and then by February, March all resolutions have a back burner and we are not living our best life. So, this program is really designed to address that problem, why is it that we start off with so much steam and we run out of steam second or third month of the year? And so, she’s certified in a program that was designed by a Harvard professor that looks at what is it that gets in the way, it’s like you’re on the starting block and they say, “On your mark, get set, let’s go and you take off and you just lick up into an invisible wall.” What are those invisible walls that keep getting in our way and how do we transcend those barriers to living our best lives. That's the program she’s launching, it will be an online program and she’s just really excited to make her work and make this work accessible to more people at this scale. Sky shared that the program is expected to release at the end of November, so in advance of the new year so people can get their engines revving and they're ready to go by the beginning of the new year. Sky shared listeners can find her at – www.transcendglobal.org Instagram - @transcendllc LinkedIn – Transcend, LLC Sky shared that her mantra is just a reminder that she has everything that she needs to live the life that she wants and if it's not coherent in her, it’s something just really reminded herself that everything is figure-out-able, she’s resourceful and she can figure it out. So, the quote for her is, “I have everything I need to live the life that I want.” and it's just a really uplifting thing and powering resourceful quote for her to help navigate any uncertainty. Links The Motivation Manifesto: 9 Declarations to Claim Your Personal Power by Brendon Burchard The Calling
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Cassie as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things sales, getting past your fears, getting results, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Cassie Howard is a self-proclaimed Freedom Alchemist for rebellious entrepreneurs looking to do life and business on THEIR terms. She lives in Toronto, Ontario with her husband, 2 kids, and their herd of cats. Cassie is obsessed with fast cars, hip hop, and eating peanut butter with a spoon. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Knowing when to move on and change your career. -Stepping into the coaching industry and her journey! -Working from home and living a freedom lifestyle! -How finding a coaching will help you get to where you want to go faster. -Getting past your fears and running after what you want. -The reason why you aren’t getting the results you desire! -Why mindset matters as much if not more than strategy! -How to enjoy selling vs feeling “salesy” and “sleazy”. -The sales activities you need to do daily to get to where you want to go. Questions: -Tell us about your journey and how you got to where you are today! -Can you tell us about the freedom you have experienced since starting your coaching business? -Do you ever feel like you forget how beautiful the freedom lifestyle is? -What fears did you feel when you were ready to hire a coach? -How long have you been in your coaching business? -What tips and tricks do you have who want to make an impact but aren’t seeing the results they desire? -For someone who feels like they are missing something, what suggestions do you have for them? -What are your top 3 tips around growth, sales, or signing more clients? -What other examples do you have when it comes to selling daily? -How do you help your clients transition from feeling salesy and doubting themselves to feeling like a badass? -Can you tell us about a personal time where you had to overcome an obstacle and when you did, you felt victorious when you did? -What shift did you notice in your business when you stopped caring what people thought about you? -What do you do to tap into the on fire inspiration to do work fast? -What is the most exciting thing going on in your life and business right now? Favorite Quote: “If you are paying attention the clock and how much time its been, you’re not dong it for the love of it and you have to do it for the love of it otherwise the results won’t come anyway” “You can’t see every single thing you can do but other people can see what you are doing” “Selling = helping! Selling is not taking something away from someone its an exchange!” Connect with Cassie! FB: http://facebook.com/cassiehowardbiz IG: http://instagram.com/cassiehowardbiz Buy her book: Allergic to Average Buy her awesome Matcha: www.mettateaco.com
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Christie as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things mindset, money, intuition, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Christie Bailey is an online sales + marketing mentor who helps driven, high-achieving women scale their coaching businesses to 6-figures and beyond with hustle.. AND flow. As a former fitness influencer and coach turned business mentor, Christie took what she learned from the fitness industry (and her failures in that first coaching business) to help others scale without the struggle. Her mentoring combines sales + marketing strategies, life coaching, spirituality, and a healthy dose of asskicking to help her clients hit 6-figures and beyond while living a life they LOVE. Christie currently resides in LA where you'll find her hiking, working out, or lying on the beach with her pup Lucy. Her personal motto is - you get to be loved, appreciated, and massively fucking compensated, simply for being you, online. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Why your mindset is so important to making more money! -The real truth about wanting it all! -Quieting your mind so you can take the action needed for success! -Making massive shifts in your life and your business! -Listening to the intuitive nudges and what to do next! -The daily subtle shifts you need to make! Questions: -Tell us about you and how you got to where you are in your journey! -How do you listen to the intuitive nudges more and not overthink it? -How did you make the shift from constantly doing and allowing more? -What are your top tips for marketing? -What strategies do you have mindset wise and to grow business? -How do we get past the fear of giving more free things and know they are going to receive? -How do you focus on attracting people who are ready to pay you? Favorite Quote: “Driven women, who want everything —> they are the people who will most likely hold themselves back” “What are you pretending not to know?” “How can you already be enough and make money from a place of love instead of fear?” “What are the things that make you you? That without these things you wouldn’t be yourself?” “When I give my heart to others, it always comes back to me” Connect with Christie! IG- @christie__bailey FB Group- www.facebook.com/groups/thehustleflowcollective Website- www.christiebailey.com
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Paul as a guest on this podcast! (OUR FIRST MALE SPEAKER!) We go over all things marketing, passive income, mindset around launching, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Paul Thomson has built an online business empowering six, seven, and even eight-figure business owners to create and sell online courses. Specifically, he’s helped entrepreneurs at all levels to share their expertise in the online space, scale their business, and make money while they’re at it. He is an Australian native currently living in Bali while traveling the world. Featured in Forbes, Thrive Global & Founder of The Online Course Creators Hub, Paul continues to pave the way as one of the leading industry experts in course development & marketing. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Traveling the world! -Generating passive income! -How to create the perfect course for your audience! -Launching your course for success! -Building up brand awareness for your business! -Getting your business ready for a big launch! -Mindset strategies to use during a launch! Questions: -Tell us about you and how you got to where you are today! -For someone who doesn’t have a course but wants to create passive income, where do they start? -What are your top launch strategies that people need to be doing? -For those who don’t have a big audience, how can they create an audience to sell their course to? -What kind of people do you work with? -When do you suggest people start an online course anyways? -What are some of your favorite mindset tricks you have used or helped your clients with? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you had to over come an obstacle that truly made you feel victorious? -What marketing tips do you have for people to grow? Favorite Quote: “Sell the transformation not the how” “If you get your mindset right, anything is possible!” Connect with Paul! Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1862960490402024 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thepaulthomson/ Website: http://www.thepaulthomson.com/
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Megan as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things people pleasing, burn out, following your passion and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Megan Seamans, is a life coach for women who are ready to create balance before burn out so they can have it all. She helps women to go from stress to ease, and turn fear into confidence by supporting them in moving out of blocks and rewriting stories that are keeping them from living fully free. Megan helps women to live more adventure, build the business of their dreams, ditch their inner people pleaser for deep relationships, and design a life that is lived fully on purpose. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -What to do when you feel like you don’t belong! -Finding your passion! -Pushing through your fears! -Listening to your intuition! -No longer being a people pleaser! -What to do when you hit burn out! -Taking breaks when you need it! -Knowing who you are at your core! -Amplifying more of the good! Questions: -Tell us a little about you and how you got to where you are today! -How has your blog transitioned over time? -Do you remember what you were feeling when you first started? -What tips do you have on working through fear? -How do we listen to our intuitive nudges better? -How do you suggest getting out of the day to day cycle? -What do you think about celebrating and how important it is? -How do we stop being a people pleaser and put ourself first? -What are your favorite self care activities? -What happens when people are in burnout already? -What suggestions do you have to help release judgment on ourselves? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you had to over come an obstacle that truly made you feel victorious? -What would be the first step into going back to knowing who you are? -What is the most exciting thing going on in your business right now? Favorite Quotes: “Fear is so normal” “If you are going to ‘what-if’ the bad then you have to ‘what-if’ the good too” “The problem is pretending you have time” “No amount of guilt you have will ever change the past” Connect with Megan! https://www.meganseamans.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/meganseamans FB: https://www.facebook.com/MeganSeamansCoaching/
Karen Millsap, the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency and Founder of The Groflo, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she led countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others. Egency is a leadership development and training firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. The Groflo is a community that shares mental + emotional growth tips and positive lifestyle inspiration. Karen's client list includes NBC’s Golf Channel, Hubspot, Universal Studio Resorts, Sprint and many more! Her work has been featured in Forbes, SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning America, MSNBC, and many others! She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community. Karen is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries. She received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey? Could you share with us a little bit about empathy? Where does compassion come from? Does compassion come innately? A taboo topic that is found in Jamaica is incest and abuse. When I hear people talk, especially when you're talking to young girls to help them to move from that trauma and that experience because it's something that stays with you for life, how do you respond to them in terms of, you made it through, everything's going to be okay. Do you think that traits of empathy and compassion are required more than the traits of technical competencies of doing the job because those things had to build had to build the relationship? Could you share with us how do you stay motivated every day? What's the one online resource tool, website or app that you couldn't absolutely live without in your business or life? Could you share with us any books that have had the greatest or biggest impact on you? What’s one thing that’s going on in your life right now that you are really excited about – either something that you’re working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find you online? What’s one quote or saying that during times of adversity you tend to revert to that quote or saying to help you to refocus or recenter so that you can move forward? Highlights Yanique mentioned, I first phoned Karen on Good Morning America when Robin Roberts was interviewing her a couple of weeks back. And I was so impressed that we actually have people out there that are called Grief Consultants. And it was amazing to hear that she was using her pain, she's channeled it into good to go into organizations and train leaders on how to effectively communicate with their team members and build better teams. Karen shared that unfortunately, this knowledge and this passion came from the tragedy when her husband Richard was killed and at the time she was working in Human Resources and recruiting for a national home building company. So, her background up to that point had been in HR but touched in different pieces of recruiting and training and leadership development and all of that good stuff. So, after her husband passed, when she transitioned back to the workplace, she found that there was just this huge disconnect between the expectations of corporate America and humans, what we are capable of doing and how we process in the midst of such a delicate time. And so, when she experienced this firsthand, her immediate response was, “How can I use this to help other people?”Now, part of it was helping individuals because we definitely need help in navigating grief. It's such a complex journey and it doesn't look the same for everybody, but we also need help interacting with people who are going through their own grief journey. And so, that's where her heart was initially led, although there were one off individuals, who she was helping along the way, she really honed in on creating workshops or training and leadership development tools that would help people to manage grief in the workplace. So, her company, they develop The Four Pillars of Practical Empathy and those are Awareness, Communication, Support, and Productivity. And so, as she started down that journey of talking about grief in the workplace, there was a lot of resistance as you can imagine. First of all, people don't want to admit that there's this elephant in the room, everybody is going through something, grief is a universal human experience. The biggest myth about grief is that we think it only occurs because of a death, but it actually comes from different losses or changes. It could be from becoming a caregiver to an elderly parent or finding out that somebody in your family or even yourself is diagnosed with a terminal illness, there's so many different things. But again, it comes because of a change or a loss when we expect things to be different or better or more and it just doesn't turn out that way. So, as she started to just kind of break down all of these barriers and these myths that are surrounded with grief, again, corporate America was not really receptive because by saying you want grief training would be admitting that you have a problem because brief is kind of looked at it as a problem. And so, she recognized this resistance and most of what she was teaching was really surrounded around compassion and empathy in the workplace. So, she decided to just adjust slightly and instead of leading with the problem, she led now with the solution which is compassion and empathy. And as she was pulling different resources and research articles and studies and all of this that just helps us to create a basic framework for human interaction in the workplace. As she was pulling that, she recognizes, well, it still touches on grief in the workplace because if we are operating with compassion and empathy on a day to day basis, that's mastery preparation for the time of crisis. We're already connecting in this space that's just really vulnerable, we've established trust and respect through kindness, so when somebody does hit a tough life situation, which inevitably happens to all of us, then at least your work family is prepared to walk through those tough times with you and handle that because you guys have already established this kind of workplace. So, it's been a journey to get to this point but she’s super grateful that she learned all that she did throughout this journey because it's helped her to serve her clients at a whole new level, not just the basic leadership development, it really is taking it up a notch. Yanique shared, I like the fact that you've mentioned that you started to lead with the solution, and you focus on empathy and compassion. And one of the things that we have identified in the whole client or customer experiences, people are driven by how they feel, their emotions play an integral part. I think even more than the intellectual because the emotion drives how the intellectual will respond. Yanique shared, I personally think that it's not something that you're born with, it's a learnt behavior and it's all dependent on how you're socialized, what you're exposed to, the behaviors that you see, both from your environment that you're in as well as maybe even from things that you're exposed to are stimulated by like the television or even social media. But not everybody knows how to be empathetic. When asked about empathy, Karen shared yes and no to Yanique’s statement. Yes, it is something that can be learned, but no, it's not something that people are only inheriting that ability through a learned environment. That's not the case. People are born with empathy. There are people who are born with a lack of empathy. As a matter of fact, there's a chemical in the front part of our brain, in our amygdala that triggers our emotions and so you could live and be raised in a very compassionate home, but you were born kind of without feelings, you don't get too riled round up but that doesn't mean that you didn't have an environment that included feelings and emotions and conversations around that, it really is how we're born. But even if people are born without or with a lack of, maybe they don't have a lot of empathy, you still can adopt behaviors and skills and habits that bring empathy into conversations and interactions so that way the person who you are interacting with feels valued. And so, empathy is really being able to feel and understand another person's emotions and respond with care. So again, that feeling part may not be natural for some people, but you can try to understand where they're coming from and respond in an empathic way. So that's how it looks and so as it pertains to their customer experience, you may not be able to completely resonate with where this customer is coming from. And she gave you an example, it's a personal example. She bought a new car at the end of last year and the sales team, they weren't that great but she needed to get out of her car, it had 140,000 miles on it, it was just not safe anymore. Karen said she was kind of in a rush to get into the car and didn't do her due diligence on a few things that she noticed within 24 hours of driving off the lot. So, she immediately contacted the sales team, they were not very responsive. So, then she looked online for customer service team, they were not very responsive. So, being the person that she, she’s just saying, well this isn't okay. So, she’s going to do her due diligence. She contacted the corporate office to say, “Listen, there are a couple of defects and this is actually not safe. So, I just purchased this car and we need to figure out a resolution.”Now up the chain of command, the customer service sucked, it was terrible. And she was telling them like the rear-view camera is not working, that is a safety issue. If she runs over a kid, do you think they're going to say, “Oops, that's our bad, we should have responded quickly to that email.”No, she’s going to be the one who is dealing with the legal ramifications. So, she’s pushing forward and say, no, this is not okay. She felt like there was a disconnect between kind of the first level of customer service and then once you get to the executive office, once she got to the executive office and there was an individual who was assigned to work with her, he followed up, he was patient on the phone, he made sure that the service manager they got her in touch with was timely in his response. He kept Karen in the loop, even if there was going to be a waiting period, he communicated that to her and what he did that was different than the first level of customer service was he empathized with the fact that we have a single mom here who has made a very large investment and she’s not saying she got anything fancy, but when you purchase a car, lease a car, that's an investment, you are putting your credit on the line and all of that. So, it's not something to be taken lightly and so because of his understanding of where she was coming from and her position and her worry and concern, he made sure that he saw it all the way through. Where on the front end, that didn't happen. Now what did he do differently than the first people who may be answered a call or answered an email? He didn't do much in the practical sense, except for the fact that he took his time to patiently understand where she was coming from and communicate in a way that made her feel like she was being heard, that her purchase was valued, her position as a customer was valued and he wanted to make sure that we found a resolution, he responded with care. So, it didn't take him much, but just the way that he was on top of it made a world of difference because she was ready to just blast this company, don't ever buy from them and that's not her character. But she felt like they did not care that we had such a major issue and it was only because, and she told him on their last call, she said, “It is only because of you and how you resolved this, that I feel satisfied.”The first three months of this process, which she didn't mention, it took a long time to get to that point, but the first three months was treacherous and because of this one person who showed compassion, who interacted with empathy and who made sure that a resolution was done in a caring way, she felt like, “Okay, I'm okay. I could come back and buy another car from them.”She knows that sounds bad because it was such a crazy, but he did resolve it with empathy. Yanique stated, so it's more about listening to what the person is saying to you, understanding where they're coming from and why this is a pain point for them. And as you said, responding in a way that, “Oh well, no big deal.”Instead in a way that, “I understand where you're coming from and what can we do to make it better?” Because it would seem from the first level of customer service that they were more concerned about making the sale and less about providing after sales support to you. Karen agreed and stated that it doesn't take a lot of time, it doesn't even take a lot of effort, you are on the exact same call with the exact same person and literally your tone can change, and your active listening skills can change the trajectory of that outcome. You just have to decide while you were in the midst of that, “How am I going to show up for this person? Am I going to be caring or am I going to be short and curt? Am I going to listen or am I just thinking about the next thing that I need to get done? Or Am I be grudgingly going through the motions?”Either way you have a choice and the energy level is the same. Karen shared that she believes that the major difference between empathy and compassion is one word, Action. We are meant to put compassion into action, it's how you are showing up for people, whether you're showing up for a colleague who's going through something that's difficult or the way, for example, this gentleman responded to her. He made sure that he was calling every four days with an update to let her know what was going on because she was really left in the dark and that was frustrating. So, compassion is what you put into action. Empathy really is kind of the starting point, like she said, being able to feel and understand and then choosing to respond in a certain way but that response is your compassion. Now, one thing that she’s done through agencies, they created a Compassion Action Plan. And what it does is it addresses, if you know somebody who has experienced in the organization, who's experienced a major loss, and they just touched on five because this is usually an activity that they do in workshops but for this eBook, what they did was, they just put five in there. And so, divorce, I'm becoming a caregiver, death, we identified those and how can you put compassion into action?So, if you just thought about it for a second and you thought about, okay, I know a colleague lost their spouse, what is a way that I can show up for them? What would be one or two ideas that come to your mind? Yanique shared, so they've lost a family member and seeing that I experienced at similar situation last year, what I looked for in people who showed compassion were people who came, they were just there, they were there to support me, it’s simple things like just coming over and sitting and talking just to have the companionship at that point in time because you don't want it to be alone because it's an experience of trauma and being alone, your mind wanders all over the place and you feel more lonely. So, you kind of just want somebody to be there and you want them to know that you want them to be there without you having to tell them, I want you to be there. Karen agreed and stated that she’s going to ask Yanique for another example but pausing there for a second. That is another example of how it does not take much for you to just show up for somebody, does it? She remembered at my husband's funeral, Karen looked, and she saw at least 20 people from her office who were there, and that just made her feel so supported because you're right. When we go through a major loss like that, somebody close to us, somebody within our inner family, our intermediate family, then we usually go to this place of isolation in our minds because you get on this emotional rollercoaster and there's so many complex feelings, it's hard to keep up with those thoughts. So, you really feel emotionally and mentally drained and so when you have people around you, as you mentioned, they help you to stay connected to life, so you're not just completely caught up in your head, you're not isolating yourself and end up on this negative thought cycle and start spiraling downward but you have somebody who's just present. And she had somebody, her name was Jamie, she actually mentioned her in her Ted Talk because she mean this, she would just show up and just lay on the floor with her or lay in her bed or they would like walk around Target, she is one of her closest friends and she told Karen later after hearing Karen’s Ted Talk, so this was four years after this happened, but she said, “I admitted to my husband almost every night when I came home. I don't know if I'm doing enough, I don't know what else I'm supposed to do.”So, for four years as she is relishing this friendship and it anchored in her mind is something to teach other people, just show up. She didn't even realize that it had made an impact on her healing journey, it made a huge impact. So, you're right, she always tells people, we all need a Jamie. So that's good. So, the first thing is show up, be present but what's something else that you can do for a colleague? Yanique shared that when she lost her dad last year, it was also important, and I guess that would link back to being present. To assist me with anything, low hanging fruits that would distract me or make me feel not supported. Karen shared that the difference there is, is that what they did was they stepped in to respond to your basic needs because it could have been like handling bills, it could have been like handling other logistics that when you're in that mental fog, you don't really have the capacity to do so. And so, if you have people who you trust, who are near you, this could be different for colleagues. For colleagues showing up and responding to basic needs is like making sure you have food. Creating a food calendar or just saying, “Hey, it's okay if you need to take longer than five days.”because usually that's the bereavement period, it’s like five days for somebody in your intermediate family but they can say, “You know what? I know you have this project going on, I'll help you with that. What's your client's name? Let me step in, just give me a couple of details and I'll go into the system and I'll figure out the rest. But you don't worry about it.”That's responding to a basic need that's helping them to keep their life afloat and that is putting compassion into action. When asked if compassion come innately, Karen stated that in our world, in our society, it's just awkward. Grief is just awkward, and some people feel like, “Oh, I don't know if I'll say the right thing. I don't know if I have enough time to be there.”We come up with all of these different barriers in our mind and the difference between holding onto those barriers and acting like Jamie will say as a reference point is she just leaned in without knowing if what she was doing was enough, but her heart just led her to do that. What happens is we stop our heart from responding naturally because then our mind starts to take over to think that we need to say the right thing, we have to be perfect on how we show up, what if it's not enough? Our heart and mind starts to battle. But you're right, it is an innate response. It's just our mind can start to suppress that response because we start to feel awkward and that's her mission is to make grief less awkward, let's talk about it. Let's talk about all of this because again, it is a universal human experience, we are all going to go through it. Karen thinks if we have these conversations, for example, Yanique having her on the podcast again, thank you because it's helping to reach different people and to open up a different mindset so we can respond differently. Because right now, we're perpetuating suppression and isolation and that's what's making our journeys unhealthy. If we just opened our heart up to respond in a natural way, that doesn't look perfect and here's an example. If somebody at work tells you, “I just found out that my spouse has cancer, or I have cancer.”Instead of not knowing what to say and then not saying anything, which is actually worse. If somebody didn't acknowledge or say it’s the first time seeing them that Richard had died, she felt like, “Well wow, that was kind of a big deal. Like we're not going to say anything about it.”We don't have to go down the rabbit hole. But anyhow, if somebody shares some tragic news with you, you can say this, you can say, “I am so sorry that you're going through this. We don't know what is going to happen at the end of the day, but I know you are strong. I know that you have this light inside of you that you can just push through and I'm here with you, like anything that you need work related, if you just need to take a walk, if you need to get out of the office or if he just needed somebody to talk to for a few minutes, just know that you're not alone.”That's not giving false hope, that's not saying everything's going to be great or just pray on it, it's not giving any of that. It's just saying, “I'm meeting you where you are and yeah, this is hard. This suck, but you're not alone.”That is enough. Yanique asked, what do you think about situations when someone shares with you for example, that they had a tragedy and they’re going through grief like a death for example. And the person responds and says, I know exactly what you're going through because I find that grief is different for everyone and you may lose someone, and you respond in a different way. It impacts you in a different way and I may lose someone, and it may not impact me in that way, or it might impact me worse or less. Do you think it's a safe to say, I know exactly what you're going through? How do you know? Karen shared that she thinks that this is another uncomfortable yet common response because it's true, it's a common response only because people feel uncomfortable and they're just kind of like, “Ah, what do I say?”And it just comes out so naturally and that's not really what they mean. They're not saying, I know exactly what you're going through because somebody has said that to her and she’s like, “Oh, your husband's been murdered. I didn't know that that happened to you.” And not to even downplay it, because some people will compare losses, they'll say, “Oh, well I went through a divorce and so I know how that feels.”Again, no, you don't know how it feels, but their heart is in the right place. So, the first thing she would say is if you're on the receiving end of that comment is to give that person a little bit of grace because at least they're trying to be there. Do not take offense to that and kind of see through their words to see their heart and their intentions and their heart and their intentions is to comfort you in the moment. But Karen’s advice to the person who wants to say that and guess what? Karen has said that to people before in a different light. And before all of this happened, before she became more aware of some of the myths that we use to comfort people. But if you are about to say that, hold your tongue real quick and then just think about saying something along these lines. Again, “I don't know what you're going through, but I went through a situation and I know that pain is real. I know that those hard times can come in waves. I know that sometimes it can just feel really consuming and so if you feel anything that is just so painful and it feels hard for you to manage, you can come talk to me. I don't know what you're going through, but I know what pain feels like and I'm willing to just be here for you.” It's authentic in the sense that she can relate to your pain even though she hasn’t experienced the same loss. And here's the thing, two siblings could lose the same parent and feel completely different about it. So, imagine the differences of somebody who says, “Oh, I went through a divorce too.”or “Yeah, I also had a miscarriage.”or “Oh, when my mom was sick.”We compare them but there's so many different factors that make that situation so different and unique, but at least being able to relate through the pain, Karen thinks that's the authentic place to be. Karen shared that there are pains like that where, for example, she has a friend and her parents were not kind growing up, they just weren't, and she doesn't have a relationship with them now. Now she doesn’t know that she's experienced any kind of sexual abuse. She knows that has had happened in her family, but it did not happen to her. However, the abandonment of your parents and them not wanting to be with you, it's a pain that stays with you through adulthood. A physical kind of trauma is also something that stays with you through adulthood and sometimes you have to see your abuser. And so, it's like how do you live in that space? So, what she encourages people to do is to create healthy boundaries, they can't always be physical. A lot of times they have to be mental and emotional.So, the person again who is hearing something like that, they're on the receiving end of that comment, you have to create an emotional and mental boundary just knowing that whatever they're saying to me, if it is not resonating with my heart, with pure comfort and peace and, and even empathy, than I'm not going to receive that, you choose if you're going to receive their words are not. Now for the person who is trying to comfort or build them up because a lot of times they're thinking if you've been a victim, what I need to do is pour into you that you are strong, pour into you that you have gotten over it, kind of build up your confidence and resilience but again, sometimes we just fumble over those words and so instead of saying something that is diminishing their past, meet them where they are. Again, the same starting, “I can't imagine what you have gone through, but I see who you are today and I see that you are a fighter, I see that you are a survivor and even if those pains are still being held with you, which I'm sure that they are, I can only imagine that they are. There is something in you that is not giving up and I admire that in you.” That is truth. That is absolute truth. It does not diminish the pain that they have experienced, but it is uplifting them to say, I have seen that you did not give up. And I applaud you for that. But it is okay if you're still feeling and battling all of the wounds, the emotional wounds and mental wounds that you carry with you, but it's still, it uplifts them and it builds them up and that's at the end of the day, what we should be doing for each other is to build one another up so we feel safe, so we feel protected. When asked about traits of empathy and compassion that leaders should have in order to build a team. Karen agreed and shared that one of her favorite Richard Branson quotes is, “When you take care of your people, your people will take care of your business.”And that is the absolute truth. A lot of times leaders are driven by the numbers and the data, but you have to remember there are people behind those numbers and that data it didn’t just magically appear, this is coming from somebody’s knowledge capacity, their relationship building, their goal setting. There are people who are driving these numbers and so you have to get to the source of your success, the source of your success is your people and how you treat people is how they produce at work. Now, a lot of times people, Karen kind of hears two things most often. One is, leader say, “I want to be a better leader, I want to connect with my people, I want to help them in a different way. Basically, build up their personal success but I don't know how.”And that's because we have to kind of get past that old adage of leave your personal stuff at the door and so, she thinks that again, leaders want to, but we are shifting society and we're shifting how we show up at work. So, that's why it's such a great time to really live out her passion because people are more receptive to this message and they need just some structure, some framework behind it. That's the first thing, but then the other thing is there are leaders who are naturally showing up with kindness and they are seeing just amazing, powerful results. An example of this is, uh, one of her clients from Sprint, this gentleman is the general manager of one of their four business units, and they have been the number one team for the last 15 years straight. Fifteen years they have consistently outperformed the rest of the company and when she met him, she asked him to come onto her podcast, Invest Humanand she said, we just need to talk about what this is and he said, one word, “Kindness.”It is all about how you treat your people. Now when she goes into organizations, she breaks this down through like communication, interactions, conflict resolution, like how do we bring it into that. But it really all has to do with kindness because when you treat people well, then employees become more enthusiastic about their work and if they are enthusiastic about their work, what happens to their performance, it improves. What happens to the customer experience because of the person that they're interacting with. It’s like again a no brainer, it should be a no brainer, but she thinks what the shift that's happening is that people just kind of need permission and they need that framework because for so long we've lived in this space of kind of being robotic at work and only expecting or evaluating someone's performance and not opening up the experience, the actual employee experience. Yanique shared that the interpersonal skills, the soft skills, showing kindness and ensuring that you exercise empathy and compassion, those are definitely characteristics and traits that as a leader will take you much further than any technical competence. Karen stated that that is such a good question – how she stays motivated daily. She doesn’t live in a constant state of motivation. She has learned through different personality tests and stuff, she does have a natural personality that is drawn to the silver lining. So, she doesn’t stay in a dark place for too long. However, and when you've experienced this kind of tragedy, you can't help but to be in a dark space for a while. So, what she learned during that time, her most trying times so far in her life, it's absolutely critical for us to build a foundation of healthy habits so that we can navigate any hard time when it comes. Life isn't fair so you're not going to go just through one thing, it's not a one and done. And there are every day stressors that we have to work through, relationships, traffic, personalities that are not meshing. There's just so many different stressors that can make us feel weary and burnt out. So, it's not that you can live in this constant state of up because what goes up must come down, but you have to learn to find that balance when you do come down and how do you take care of yourself. So, for Karen, whenever she’s going through a challenging time, smaller or large, it's just a matter of tapping into those habits that she established when she was in the midst of her darkest hours with grief and she wasn't intentional then, she was very set on her why, her why was her son. She knew that she wanted to be a good mom for him and didn't want to be living in this state of like brokenness and in this victim mindset, like it wouldn't have been healthy for him in the long run. And so, as she focused on him, then she started to create these healthy habits that just made a huge impact on her total wellbeing. So, when you are feeling down, take a break, that's okay. Go for a walk, do a breathing exercise. There’re so many different habits on your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellbeing that once you know what those habits are, then you can tap into them regardless of the low that you're feeling because they are tried and true. They helped you in a dark, dark place or they help you in a, I'm frustrated and burnt out place as well. When asked about an online app or tool that she couldn’t live without, Karen stated that she thinks she would have to answer two ways. One is she really strive for strong organizational skills. She has very strong organizational skills, but she does that because she has a bad memory. She’s just going to be vulnerable here for a second, but Karen recognizes that her mind being an entrepreneur, being a single mom, having experienced trauma, she just has a bad memory and so she compensates by having really strong organizational skills. And one of the tools that she loves is Google Keep, it helps her because it just allows her to brain dump and when she is able to brain dump all of the different distractions that come into her mind, she’s creating that space of mental clarity so that she can stay focused on her priorities. So, Google Keep has been really helpful. But there was also an app that helped her early on in my grief with mindfulness and meditation and that was called Headspace, and she just signed up for the free version because she wanted to see what it was about, and it helped her because a lot of times we get into negative thoughts cycles at night before we're going to sleep. Our mind is just racing and then we start feeling like, I don't have enough time. What do I do tomorrow? Did I not do this today? And so that on top of any kind of trauma that you may be working through, Headspace taught a breathing pattern that she was even able to teach to her son, that at night if she can't fall asleep, it works wonders. And so it's really simple, it's just a matter of counting your breaths when you inhale and exhale, when you inhale, you count one when you exhale, two inhale again, three and so on up to 10, you don't change your breathing pattern, you're not, you don't have to take long, deep breaths, but when you get to 10 you start back at one and there's something about that Karen said she could do that three, maybe four times at the most, and then she pass out, she’s knocked out. It's taught her such a powerful breathing technique that she shares that with almost anybody she interacts with because she thinks we're all a victim of those nighttime blues when it's kind of hard to fall asleep. Yanique then stated, that seems to be a popular app. I've actually downloaded it on my phone, but I haven't clicked on it because things have been so busy. But I had a guest that was on our podcast and maybe two, three weeks ago and that was one of his recommendations. I find it interesting that shortly after, I'm getting the same recommendation, so that app must be really good. So, I think today I'm going to make sure I click on the app since it's on the phone and I haven't actually used it yet to see what it's all about. I have no problems falling asleep though but sometimes I do get distracted, like I'm doing something, and I start thinking about something else and I jump from one thing to the next. So, if Headspace can help me to refocus at times, that would be wonderful. Karen stated that she thinks that it definitely, what she liked about it most was in the free version, it teaches you where some people just embark on this meditation journey and you're like, “Ah, how do I do this? I'm falling asleep. No, wait, I can't stop these thoughts.”There are so many barriers and she liked how in the free version it actually teaches you some of the techniques that are helpful. Karen was asked about books that have had the biggest impact and she stated that there is a lot. She shared that she was not a reader until she was 30 years old. She hated reading growing up but after her husband died, she became obsessed with reading about heaven because she just needed that confirmation that he was okay, and she would see him again. And that's what kind of got her down this journey. So, she’ll say the two, there really are so many but to that she thinks made such a huge impact one was Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. It teaches you how you can change your mindset from being a victim or living in a fixed mindset to having a growth mindset. And again, it gives applicable takeaways on how you can teach even children, how you can teach, whether you're a teacher, a parent, a coach, it just helps in that state, how you can also use it in the workplace. So, Mindset by Carol Dweck was amazing. And then also it's kind of a tie between these two, Life's Golden Ticket: A Story about Second Chances by Brendon Burchardbecause it's a fiction book, but it gives you this visualization of you having a choice and kind of revisiting different people or moments in your past that have led you up to where you are today and accept where you are today so that you can move forward. And then the other one is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which she knows is a lot of people's favorites, but it's one of hers particularly because it was suggested to her probably almost three years ago now, but she just read it at the end of last year and she believes in just divine timing and at the time it came to her life, she wasn't ready to read it, but when she read it, it was exactly the time that she was supposed to just digest that. So, it's a great book again for people who are just wondering, “Man, does all of this mean something? How do I know I'm headed down the right path.”So, that's why she loves that book so much. Karen shared that she’s super excited about launching her new group coaching program. She’s going to be doing a group coaching and it is called, “Soul Care Coaching with Karen”and so she wants to create a network, this specific offer is for women, but she wanted to create a network for women where they are able to just grow, they are able to find healing and just become the best version of their self. And so, just sharing herself and stories but also sharing other coaches along the way. So, she’s really excited about that. But then she also launched her first eCourse, Heal Forwardand that's for anybody who has experienced a major loss or a hardship or they're just feeling depleted in life and they want to heal and move forward. It's a six-week series that just gives a whole bunch of selfcare habits and tips, worksheets, videos, all that good stuff. It loads you up so that you can build that foundation that she talked about of healthy habits. So, she’s excited about those two. The eCourse just launched and the coaching will launch in March 2019. Karenshared listeners can find her at – www.karenmillsap.com Karen shared that regarding quotes or sayings that she tends to revert to, that ironically, it's like a little plaque that she found and it's on her desk as she’s looking at it right now. It is her favorite, it says, “Everything's going to be all right. Yep even that one thing.”Bob Marley said that. But she likes how it says, “Yep”, even that one thing because it's like yeah, you can get really stuck on something, it's like no, no, no, everything is going to be okay. Even that one thing, and she loves her some Bob Marley, so it resonated right away. Links Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck Life’s Golden Ticket: A Story about Second Chances by Brendon Burchard The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Ashley as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things manifestation, overcoming trauma, finding and listening to your intuition, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Ashley Ahmadzai is a professional Psychic & spiritual life coach who specializes in mindset elevation and manifestation. She supports her clients in designing a vibrant life thru psychic readings, intuitive healing and channeled coaching. She has created the Mediocre to Magical Academy to help educate the community about the metaphysical world & inspire them to create a magical life! ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Overcoming obstacles -What to do when you feel lost and unsupported -Leaving the past behind -Creating your life on your terms -The importance of growing your mindset -Learning how to listening to your intuition and those inner nudges -Finding your inner voice -Mastering manifestation -Using your big girl voice to get what you want -Transitioning to living in an “easy” world -The energetic bend and snap Questions: -Tell us who you are and how you go to where your are today! -How did you remove your past in your current identity? -How do you get back in tuned with your inner voice and listening to that rather than the other noise? -What tips and strategies do you have for people to trust more? -How would you describe manifestation and how can you teach someone to do this? -How do you suggest finding more of those high vibe people to spend your time with? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you had to over come an obstacle that truly made you feel victorious? -What is the most exciting thing going on in your life and business right now? Favorite Quotes: “On our tomb stone we always have the year we were born, the day we die, and a dash in between. That dash in-between those numbers is your life and you get to create it” “You have to put your order into the universe just like you order at a restaurant” “God doesn’t steer a parked car, you have to know where you’re going” “You need to mind your mind!” “If you want to shift a trauma thought, you have to say an affirmation until its in your subconscious mind!” “Rejection is God’s protection!” “The universe is never going to override your free will, switch your story and change your life” Connect with Ashley!! - Website: AshleyAhmadzai.com - Instagram: ashley.ahmazdai - Facebook: Ashley Ahmadzai (leave a message if you add her) - FB Group: Mediocre to Magical Academy
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Kimi & Pua as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things fears, quantum leaping results, finding your dream business, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! BLE Digital co-founders Kimi Morton + Pua Pakele were drawn together by a calling — a burning desire to help people fall in love with their businesses and their lives! These fitness trainers turned corporate productivity coaches turned business coaches believe there are too many entrepreneurs with BIG DREAMS to serve the world in badass, amazing ways, that end up feeling like it would be easier to just quit and go back to a “real job”. BLE Digital is more than a business, it’s a radical movement to empower people to follow their dreams and expand the way they think, work, and live in today’s modern world. Kimi + Pua support entrepreneurs with their free Tribe on Facebook, a variety of digital media services, their free Broke-ass to Badass weekly podcast, and their signature 8-week program, Broke-ass to Badass, which guides entrepreneurs around the world to create badass online businesses from a foundation of efficiency and productivity. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Rebranding when needed! -Starting a new business and ditching the negative thoughts! -Doing more of whats fun! -The freedom and what it feels like to have your own business! -How investing in yourself gives you quantum leaps! -Scaling your online business! -The importance of clarity in your business! -Planning your week each week! -Asking yourself those impactful and intention questions! -Putting yourself out there and constantly growing! Questions: -Tell us about your journey, how you met, and how you got to where you are today! -Did you guys feel that imposter syndrome when you first started? If so, how did you combat that? -What are the first few steps to making money in your business? -What other top tips do you have to start making more money in your business? -How did you make your business transitions easy transitions and did you get any backlash from your audience? -How else can you shift back into that aligned space in your business daily? -Do you have a few examples of the questions you ask yourself? -What suggestions do you have to allow negativity go through one ear and out the other? -What tips do you have for people to grow their belief? -What obstacles have you faced that you were able to overcome? -What were your little girl dreams? Favorite Quotes: “You fall into things that you end up enjoying” “Shift the how into who” “Does your life feel heavy or light right now? Can you train yourself to follow the light?” “We are only vulnerable for judgement when we judge ourselves” “You have a responsibility to get out there and share!” “People are suffering without you!” “You can’t wait around for others to give your permission you have to give yourself permission” Connect with Kimi and Pua!! Website: bledigital.com IG: Instagram.com/brokeasstobadass FB Group: bledigital.com/tribe Podcast: bledigital.com/podcast
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Hanna Hermanson as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things marketing, starting your own business, turning your dream life into your real life, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Hanna Hermanson is the founder of Dream Life is Real Life, which educates and inspires by showing people what’s possible for their lives. We no longer need to wait for the lottery or retirement to “live the dream” - Our Dream Life is our Real Life! A former academic advisor and yoga teacher, Hanna marries her passion for helping others achieve their goals and coaching practice. Hanna quickly realized that in order to dream big you need to take care of the most basic need -- income! Hanna loves supporting her coaching clients to create simple business and marketing plans that make great money and impacts. The Dream Life Coaching programs have supported 1,000s of service-based entrepreneurs, teachers, mentors in creating actionable, simple business models that deliver financial results and personal fulfillment. She is a digital nomad, a Forbes Coaches Council Member, the host of the Dream Life is Real Life Facebook group and podcast, AND she trains middle school students and teachers in her Dream Life Academy! ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Knowing when you aren’t in the right job and how to change it! -What to do when the rug gets pulled from underneath you! -Dedicating yourself to making your dream life your real life! -Catching the vision! -The difference between being in a company that isn’t your own and having your own business! -The tools needed to follow joy! -The main marketing strategy you need to start asap! -Recovering from being a workaholic! -Setting mandatory boundaries in your business! Questions: -Tell us about you and how you got to where you are today! -When you started your NWM business did you have the idea of this business you have today? -Can you talk about the fears you overcame after moving across the country and not having a job anymore? -Tell us about your transition from one business to another business? -What other tips do you have to build an engaging community? -What is something most people don’t know about you? -Can you give an exercise of your boundaries in your personal business? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you had to over come an obstacle that truly made you feel victorious? -So for people who are seeking mastermind groups in person or online how do you suggest them finding that? Favorite Quotes: “It’s never going to work if you are forcing yourself into someone else box!” “What do you want to be proud of? What do you want to be known for?” “Decide to do something that feels good!” “The number one marketing strategy is to listen!” “Your offer is the bridge from their dream life to their real life!” Connect with Hanna!! Free Gift: www.dreamlifeisreallife.com/gift Website: https://www.dreamlifeisreallife.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamlifeisreallife IG: https://www.instagram.com/dreamlife_reallife
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Julie Theis as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things mindset, mastering your psychology, changing your beliefs, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Julie Theis is a Psychology expert, Trauma specialist, and a Life Transformation coach. Holding a B.S. in Psychology, she has specialized in psychology and human behavior for 6 years. She is also a Beauty Queen that has won Crowns, titles and awards which includes Miss Montana 2017. She currently works to heal women that want to break past pain in their lives to finally become who they were meant to be. Whether it's a painful breakup, childhood abuse, divorce, sexual assault, etc. She works with those in pain and transforms them to feel happy, confident, and at peace. She has overcome several traumas which includes abuse and even homelessness. Julie set up a Charity Foundation for Children called Dance for a Purpose, where she uses dance to help kids to increase their confidence and empowerment through dance. Julie lives in Montana, America and has a following of over 6,000 on Instagram. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Overcoming your past and hitting your goals! -Mastering your own psychology! -Abusive relationships and getting out of it! -Rewiring your beliefs! -Worthiness and feeling worthy! -The 1% rule of improvement! -Reaching your goals! -Dancing and the dance industry! -Discovering what is holding you back! -How your subconscious works! -Loving yourself more! -Doing the inner work all of the time! -Celebrating where you are and how far you’ve come! Questions: -Tell us a little about who you are and what you do! -Is your background the reason why you wanted to study psychology? -What are your top tips to get out of an abusive relationship? -Can you explain how you can develop a new belief system? -What tips do you have for those who measure their worth with their income? -For someone who is contemplating a decision, who is on the fence, what would you say to them to make the decision? -Do you have something you like to do daily to take the 1% shift? -Tell us about your foundation and the beauty industry that you are in! -When someone is trying to dig up what is holding them back, how can you help them dig that up? -What is a journal exercise for people to start recognizing the words they are using or discover what is holding them back? -What is the main reason why you started this business? -Can you tell us about a time that you had to overcome an obstacle and when you did, you felt really victorious? -What is the most exciting thing going on in your life and your business? -Where can people find you? Favorite Quotes: “Being worthy is already in you! You don’t have to become a different person, you need to become more of who you already are!” “It will never be if x then y” “Is what I am doing right now benefiting me?” “Neurons that fire together, wire together” “You don’t have to have evidence of success for it to still be possible for you!” “You aren’t going to be able to make more money if you don’t feel you are worthy of more money!” Journal first thoughts: Money is.. Wealth is Rich people are.. I am…. I see myself as… Connect with Julie!! Website: www.julietheiscoaching.com Instagram Personal: www.instagram.com/_julietheis/ Instagram Business: www.instagram.com/intentional.ceo FB Group: www.facebook.com/groups/2039030876362909/
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Jessica Caver Lindholm as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things money, entrepreneurship, developing unwavering faith and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Jessica's a leading spiritual thought leader, entrepreneur and coach known as the ultimate freedom girl. She launched her online empire in 2014 and quickly grew it to a 6-figure business in just 6 months (after only earning $7,000 the previous year in as a personal trainer and yoga instructor). She's a down to earth, relatable, tell-it-like-it-is coach and business woman who creates massive results and regularly hits unrealistic goals (and helps her clients do the same) by leveraging a blend of inspired action and intuition with the most effective online marketing strategy. Jessica's list of clients range from brand new business owners to 6 and 7-figure entrepreneurs across the online spectrum from coaches, health experts, intuitives, visionaries, musicians, artists, creatives and more. She leads her community to build businesses and live lives by unleashing ALL their soul, creating massive impact AND income. Jessica's ToLivingFree brand and business is projected to cross the 7-figure mark in 2018. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Knowing if entrepreneurship is meant for you! -Making decisions from love vs fear! -Releasing the pressure around yourself and your business! -How to make money when you don’t help others make money! -Getting paid to be you! -Aligning with the higher level version of you! -Making high level income in your business! -The reason why you aren’t receiving money! -Getting into the belief system that life is happening for you, not to you! -Coming back to unwavering faith! Questions: -Tell us who you are and how you got to where you are today! -What to do when fear pops up! -When someone is on the fence of a decision and scared to start, what would you say to them? -How did you start in your coaching business and get to $100k months? -What can you say to someone who isn’t helping someone receive a tangible result like money release the fear around making money? -How can you help someone release the pressure on themselves? -What are your top tips and first steps to releasing judgement? -What were the key factors in going from $10k-$100k within your business? -What does “make a decision” actually mean? -How do you push past fear and say the thing that needs to be said? -How do you go back to who you are and what you stand for when you have been adopting other’s beliefs? -Since this podcast is all about becoming Fiercely Unstoppable, what is an obstacle have you overcome that truly made you feel victorious? -What is the most exciting thing that you are working on right now? Favorite Quotes: “You are either all in and you know you are meant for more, or you are dabbling on the sidelines!” “Your results are a direct reflection of your faith!” “Nothing is an emergency!” “True freedom and getting back to certainty comes from realizing you are always in control of yourself and how you feel!” “If you judge it and make it wrong, you wont receive it!” “It’s not about wanting more, it’s about wanting it all!” “The part we overcomplicate is being ourselves, sharing our message, and giving ourselves permission to have everything we desires!” “Is your fear a valid enough reason not to live your destiny?” Connect with Jessica!! Free Goodie: https://tolivingfree.com/millionaire IG:https://www.instagram.com/jessicacaverlindholm/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/jessicacaverlindholm/ Website:https://tolivingfree.com/
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Danielle Ryan as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things quitting your full time job, having the mindset needed to go full time in your biz, how to stop comparing yourself, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Danielle Ryan is a former public administrator turned entrepreneur. She operates a mobile wellness studio curating private yoga classes, guided meditations, and mindset coaching packages for individuals looking to truly harness the connection of their mind, body, and soul. After spending what felt like an eternity living her life to appease everyone around her, Danielle decided to call it quits on her corporate career, and trust her heart to guide her to her truest intention. Her passion now lies in providing others the tools they need to step beyond their fears, reconnect with their inner purpose, and start living the lives they have always dreamed. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Going down a path that doesn’t feel right to you! -How to be an adult! -Finding what truly lights you up! -Taking the scary leaps and following your dreams! -Quitting your full time job and going full time in your business! -The freedom of designing your own schedule! -Setting yourself up for success! -The mindset shift needed to quit your job! -Getting past people who don’t believe in you! Questions: -Tell us who you are and how you got here! -What would you say to someone who feels like they had the enough is enough moment? -How is your life different now that you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone? -What is something that most people don’t know about you? -What did your life look like before stepping into your own business? -What tips do you have for someone to transition from quitting your job and going full time in your business? -What mindset shift do people need to make to step into their business full time? -What is the best and worst advice you’ve ever been given? -What advice do you have to release what everyone else is saying about your decisions and make the decision anyway? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you had to over come an obstacle that truly made you feel victorious? -If someone is feeling anxiety about not know what is coming next, what suggestions do you have to get out of that headspace? -What suggestion do you have for people who are constantly comparing themselves? -What is the most exciting thing happening in your life and business right now? Favorite Quotes: “If you’re stuck in the comfort zone, that is your limitation!” “If you want something go for it!” “When you are in the space of desperation, you are less likely to receive the things you are looking for” Connect with Danielle!! IG: www.instagram.com/lifestylebydesignstudio_ Website: www.lifestylebydesignstudio.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/daanielleryan Adulting 101 Podcast: Google Play https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/I4j5rgfhtoyunnkdrlfcetworie iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/adulting-101/id1228961303?mt=2 SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/danielledoesadult
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Melanie Ann Layer as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things traveling full time, overcoming the trenches, creating results in your biz, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Melanie Ann Layer is the founder of the Alpha Femme brand and the creator of Trifecta Coaching. She is a location independent entrepreneur and travels the world with her incredible man. Together they are transforming the conversation around relationships and making a global shift in how people show up in their lives and businesses. Melanie is a high-performance life coach, a luxury brand business coach and she leads women in leadership positions into greatness with her world class coaching programs. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Running a business while traveling the world! -Going from living in your car to luxurious living! -Getting out of a relationship that doesn’t serve you! -Feeling guilty around money and how to change that! -Understanding gratitude! -Creating a 6 fig business from nothing! -Elevating your life! -Growing your belief within yourself! -Looking at the world as if there is no competition! -Genuinely listening to people! -Creating a compound affect with results! -Finding what works and doesn’t work in your biz! -What to do after a bad month! -Creating a big impact on a small number of people! -Overcoming your fears! -Showing up with integrity in your biz! Questions: -Tell us who you are, about your journey and how you got here! -Where is your favorite place you’ve visited so far? -How did you first get into coaching? -What advice do you have for people who are wanting to start a business but don’t have the full belief within themselves yet to do it? -What strategies did you use to blow up your business so quickly? -How old were you when you first started this business? -What is something that most people don’t know about you? -Being 5 years in, what is your favorite part of your business now vs when you first started? -Do you have any advice for people who say “Yeah well I will never be as good as them”? -What suggestions do you have someone who is trying to create consistent income? -What does your daily routine look like? -What advice do you have mindset wise to get them out of the lacking belief state? -What do you think is the best advice you were ever given? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, what is a time that you have overcome an obstacle and you truly felt victorious? -As you have grown, do you have other tips to creating that influence besides the deeper connections? -What is the most exciting thing going on in your life and your business right now? -What advice do you have for people when going live and going live when you don’t feel like it? Favorite Quotes: “Become addicted to the breakthrough feeling” “What you have overcome you are qualified to help other people overcome!” “Start with integrity and grow from there!” “When I first started I believed something could happen in my life, now I know!” “You don’t need to know you are going to make it big you just need to believe!” “Everything we have created is because of us!” “When you run a business, one mistake doesn’t define your business, it defines the decision!” “It’s not about the number of people it’s about the PEOPLE!” Connect with Melanie!! Instagram.com/alphafemmeofficial Instagram.com/Melanieannlayer https://m.facebook.com/melanieannlayer.alphafemme https://m.facebook.com/MelanieAnnLayer.AlphaFemmeOfficial/ Email: melanie@alphafemme.com
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Jamie as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things being uniquely you, overcoming imposture syndrome, hitting rock bottom, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Jamie King aka The Slay Coach is an online business coach for female entrepreneurs. Last year she was a struggling Fitness Network Marketer, on the edge of sweaty selfie burnout. Since has grown her coaching business to over a quarter of a million dollars in sales in less than a year, and is super passionate about teaching her signature Money Making Model Mindset+ Spirit + Strategy, to boss babes of all kinds! ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Being outside the norm! -Stepping into entrepreneurship! -Following your dreams! -Speaking your truth! -When to shift your career! -Building your personal brand! -Imposture syndrome! -Finding what you are meant to do! -Raising prices when needed! -What to do when you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom! -Building real relationships with people! Questions: -Tell everyone who Jamie is and about your journey and how you got to where you are now. -You talked about hitting rock bottom, what advice do you have for someone who is in that place? -What suggestions do you have for people who have that imposture syndrome? -What are the most important strategies for people to do when just getting started in their business? -What does your day to day look like now? -Where can people find you? Favorite Quotes: “Manufacture a rock bottom” “When you hit rock bottom and you surrender, magic will happen” “Our comfort is the enemy! It prevents us from having things we want!” “If you are aware of your desire, it’s yours!” “Deflect the lie! Deflect anything that doesn’t align with what is true!” “Your income is a reflection of your impact and influence together” Connect with Jamie!! Website:www.theslaycoach.com www.chardonnayandslay.com Instagram: @theslaycoach Facebook: facebook.com/chardonnayandslay FREEBIE THE UNROUTINE MORNING ROUTINE That you will actually stick with! https://www.chardonnayandslay.com/p/THEDAILYSLAY
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Sharleen as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things overcoming depression, how psychology connects with your voice, working with celebrities, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Sharleen Linton, based in London, UK, is a Vocal Therapist, a Backup Singer and an Entrepreneur that has worked with several celebrities from Cheryl Cole to Jennifer Hudson. She's also a Certified EFT Practitioner, she also has a strong background in Psychology having studied Psychology at University. Her mission is to empower celebrity recording artists and up and coming artists to sing amazingly and give them the techniques to help them overcome fears and blocks around performing and being on stage, from stage fright and performance anxiety. She believes that she has what it takes to help Celebrity singers such as Adele and Zane who suffer from anxiety around performance and stage. She believes that her techniques can bring a sense of peace, power and confidence to all artists that perform on stage. Sharleen also desires to help entrepreneurs and influential people feel as if they can do anything and be fully successful in what they do using powerful techniques that can set them free. ———--------- In this episode we talk about: -Psychological Empowerment -Touring as a backup singer -Stage fright and getting past it -Combining your strengths -Connection between your voice and psychology -Not getting involved in the industry drama -Stepping into your full power -Working with Adele and other famous singers -How you are a BADASS! -Switching gears when you aren’t inspired -Getting through depression -Fear of fame and getting through that Questions: -Tell us who you are and tell us about your journey and how you got here! -What is EFT? -What tips would you have for people to release the fear when doing in public events or going live on fb? -What can people do to release the clutter, release the tension, and comparison and actually step into their full power? -What was it like to tour with Adele? -Do you have anything else people don’t know about you? -What was the link to go from touring to your business? -What tips do you have for people who feel like they are in the background in their life? -Can you tell us about a time that you overcame an obstacle and felt victorious? -How did you get into using EFT in your business? -What other top tips do you have to get your clients stage ready? -Do you have favorite ways you like to celebrate yourself or your clients? -What are you most excited about? -What strategies do you have when people are fearful of fame? -Where can people find you? Favorite Quotes: -“Your voice is responding to your mind!” -“When artist connect to who they are they make better business decisions!” -“The most beautiful thing about video marketing is you get to be in deep resonance for what you stand for!” -“When you embody who you are naturally- you don’t have to try to be anyone else! People want to listen to you and buy from you!” -“Practice feeling great even when you aren’t feeling well!” -“People get fearful of the future because they told themselves a story of what it would be like” Connect with Sharleen! Website: https://myvocaltherapy.com Instagram- @myvocaltherapy Facebook- @myvocaltherapy Twitter- @myvocaltherapy ------------------------------------------------ Did you hear about my FREE training this Thursday?! I will be diving into my TOP 5 Secrets to Massive Sales! How I went from $0-$100k in a year! You do not want to miss this! SAVE YOUR SPOT HERE!-->bit.ly/5secretstosales
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Chelsea as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things work flow, productivity, what to do when you feel burnt-out, and so much more! Sit back and enjoy this super fun episode! Chelsea B Foster is a workflow and productivity specialist, coach and host of the Burnout-Proof Your Biz Podcast. Chelsea provides a unique perspective to the entrepreneurial world by advocating for “no one right solution for all businesses.” Every business is unique, so the way they run and the tools they use should also be unique. She has helped transform the businesses and lives of overwhelmed and exhausted small creative business owners by guiding them in creating organized, specific workflows that are not only simple but easy to use and by assisting them in selecting tools that work for their business and their personal learning and organizational style. This has allowed them to become the expert so they run their businesses and live their dream lives on their own terms. With an emphasis on building relationships and face-to-face interactions, Chelsea is able to connect with her clients on a deep level. She supports women who are so over feeling lost and near burnout all the time and are ready to finally start living their dream life through private coaching, done-for-you setups, workshops, and a membership group (The Empowered Boss Lab). ———---- In this episode we talk about: -All Things Work Flow! -Making the transition! -Organizing your life and biz! -The importance of market research! -Releasing the “should’s”! -Platforms you must have! -Keeping track of your customers! -Time blocking! -Breaking the norm! -Making your own rules! -What to do when you feel burnt-out! -The systems you need to have in place! -Client on-boarding and off-boarding process! Questions: -Tell us who you are and tell us about your journey and how you got to where you are are today! -How did you know this was the perfect transition for you? -What do you find you most help people with when it comes to this avenue? -What is a must have for business owners to really scale? -What is a CRM? -Do you have a top tip for productivity? -What is something that most people don’t know about you? -What do you think is the worst advice that you were ever given? -What shifted for you to release that? -How did you embody the person with the confidence that you have everything you need? -What did the shift do for you emotionally? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you overcame an obstacle and you felt like an overcomer? -What daily activities do you do personally that helps you with your mindset? -What is the most exciting thing in your life or what you are working on right now? -Tell us about your podcast! Who is it for? -What other suggestions do you have for people who is feeling the burnout? -Have you noticed a shift in your family now that you are both entrepreneurs? Favorite Quotes: “Be comfortable doing things different from everyone else!” “You made this business so you could have your dream life!” Connect with Chelsea! https://www.chelseabfoster.com/ http://chelseabfoster.com/workshops https://www.chelseabfoster.com/burnoutproofyourbiz Instagram: http://instagram.com/chelseabfoster
I had so much fun with this interview! You all will LOVE Monica as a guest on this podcast! We go over all things PR, finding a platform that makes you feel confident, quantum leaping, feeling fulfilled, and so much more! Monica works with influencers and business owners to launch and grow their business in the digital and podcast space, giving them exposure to new audiences beyond social media. She helps her clients gain exposure to new audiences by sharing their stories through podcasting, unveiling the raw stories that go beyond the Instagram filters. Monica believes that in today’s social media landscape, it’s time for brands to focus their strategies beyond posting on Social Media. A podcast interview establishes expertise faster and has a longer lifespan than a social media post, making it a non-negotiable when it comes to increasing brand awareness and building long term content. You can read more about that here. She is also the Founder of The Influencer Girl Lifestyle Podcast which is all about connecting entrepreneurs, influencers, and experts who are making an impact all across the globe. Past guests include ; Sarah Herron - Founder of SheLift, Erika Stoleman - Founder of FashionLush , Sarah Tripp - Founder of Sassy Red Lipstick, Christine Lakin - Actress (known for Step by Step and Hollywood Darlings) and Director, Jamie Schmidt - Founder of Schmidt Naturals and many more. ———- In this episode we talked about: -Playing small in social media! -Why podcasting is amazing! -Burnout and how to get unstuck! -Feeling fulfilled and not settling! -Stop waiting and just do it! -Finding a platform that makes you feel confident! -Manifestation and alignment! -All things PR! -Quantum leaping -Finding yourself and stretching your comfort zone Questions: -Tell us who you are and how you got to where you are today! -What gave you the motivation to say enough is enough, I’m going to do something different? -How did you transition from blogging to podcasting? Any ‘ah-ha’ moments? -Can you touch more on this transformation in your business? -What have you seen shift in your business since you transitioned to podcasting? -Since this podcast is all about stepping into your fiercely unstoppable self, can you tell us about a time that you had to over come an obstacle that truly made you feel victorious? -What do you think is the worst advice you were ever given? -What is something that most people don’t actually know about you? -How did you incorporate your first loves with what you are doing now? -What is your biggest advice or tips when it comes to PR and getting yourself on podcasts and things? -What is your why? -How do you think your life has changed since stepping into your most confident self? -What does quantum leaping mean for you? -What is the most exciting thing going on in your life right now? -Where can people find you? Favorite Quotes: “Everything is a preparation for that thing that is going to catapult you!” “Step into the person you are meant to be in every roll in your life!” “You can’t create something for the sake of creating something” “Just because it is monetize-able doesn’t mean you have to monetize it!” “Share your message so others can share theirs!” “You can’t hit your next level unless you step out of your comfort zone” Connect with Monica! Website: MonicaWoodhams.com IG:@monicawoodhams Membership: http://monicawoodhams.com/influencer-girl-membership
Hot Topic, has 425+ employees at their Corporate HQ in Los Angeles and with around 10,000 company-wide depending on the season. They recently initiated a new onboarding experience at their corp HQ with the intent to ramp-up speed and engagement, so that it could impact productivity and tenure. Johnny Sanchez is the Head of Recruiting at Hot Topic & BoxLunch, A retailer based in Los Angeles. QUESTIONS -Tell us first what the onboarding process was like before and why you decided to change it? -Walk us through what you did to begin the design the new process? Ultimately you built a roadmap guiding employees through their first 30 days...describe that… -Results: 50% decrease in new hire attrition (leaving within 1 year): Internal NPS from 38% to 68%: Increase in qualified referrals: -Lets talk tech for a minute….could you what technology you used to create this new onboarding experience? -What other tools are part of your HR tech stack...ATS...sourcing tools… etc -Lessons learned?...Last words of advice to other employers about onboarding…? LINKS https://twitter.com/johnnyblu6 https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanchezjohnny/ https://www.workatht.com/ https://hros.co/case-study-upload/how-hot-topic-drives-engagement-and-productivity-with-enhanced-onboarding SPONSORS Hiretual.com and Roborecruiter.ai
Joshua March is the founder and CEO of Conversocial a cloud solution that enables businesses to deliver customer service over Social Media at a large-scale. Conversocial is used in the contact centers of hundreds of major retailers, banks, telcos and other brands to enable them to manage the high volumes of complaints and questions they're receiving through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, including Google, Hertz, Tesco, Barclaycard, Hyatt hotels and many more. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Your company caters more to organizations that are serving customers on a large scale, can the service also be provided to persons who are not serving customers on a large scale? What are some of the things based on the line of business that you are in that you see coming into play in the near future in terms of customer service and what do you see coming as things that we need to prepare ourselves for more as businesses? Is there a formula that exits out there to measure effort? How do you stay motivated every day? What is one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is the one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find you online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Joshua stated that he has been working in the social media space for many years. His previous company was called iPlatform and they were one of the first ever companies building applications on top of Facebook for brands back in 2007/2008, the early days and while he was really excited about the use of the app platforms which you may remember back then like Farmville and stuff like that. He was really excited about how those platforms could be used by brands to engage with their customers. What he pretty quickly realized was that the really, really big change that was happening wasn’t in just how people were communicating and that there was this big shift going on which pretty much happened now but it's continuing to happen away from other types of digital communication and into Social Media and mobile messaging primarily on And the he included mobile messaging within the Social Media, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, now What’s App, coming up We Chat, so it's not just the public, it's the private side as well. He really saw that as the future of how everyone individually would be communicating with each other and he really believed that as these channels became the dominant communication channels then that would change how businesses had to communicate with their customers too and it would be really important to customer service and that suddenly happened. The start of that was really people turning to the public side of Social Media to kind of escalate complaints about a business and get a response. And while that still goes on it's actually transitioned now to be much more about businesses just investing into the private side, private messaging with these channels. The preferred customer service channels and that's all the reasons for that. A - It's much better from a consumer side, it's so effortless and easy for someone to pull out their phone and message your brand, it means that you get really high customer satisfaction if you promote it as a service channel and from a business perspective it's great to get that customer satisfaction but it's also a great efficient channel, you can manage these digital messaging channels and in an asynchronous way that’s highly efficient from an agent workflow perspective. And with the launch of the bot platform is much easier to automate and so it's just become this channel that is really much better than anything else out there from a cost perspective and customer satisfaction perspective. Joshua stated that the background to that was that they’ve been going 5/6 years now and their (Conversocial) software is from real customer service software, they spend a lot of time building a real case management system into the ability to have automated routing and workflows dashboards where you can see exactly what your agents are doing. Now all of those kinds of functionality become really useful as soon as you have a team of agents. Now if you go back 3, 4, 5 years ago, the volume of people who were coming through and complaining through Social Media and mobile messaging was only really a couple of percent of all of your inbound volume. And what that meant was that for a small, medium sized businesses, it was it really wasn't a lot of volume and it was something that probably just some agents or have a couple of agents maybe they're just doing that on the side. But if you're a big business even 2% it's still a lot. And so, the big businesses even in those early days were still setting up 10, 20, 30 full time agents to do customer service through Social Media and mobile messaging. And they are really kind of catering to that audience. Now today it's actually starting to shift a bit because as you start really promoting, if you stop promoting like message us as your main customer service channel or if you're using the new Facebook Messenger customer champ plugin which allows you to actually paddle Web chat on your site using Facebook Messenger. They have customers who are doing that and Facebook Messenger is now responsible for 44% of all of that service volume including phone Nino and so once the volume start getting that high which they do if you're promoting it, even if you have a much smaller team of agents you're still going to need multiple agents just handling social messaging. And then a platform like Conversocial becomes extremely valuable. So, you still need to have a team but the companies that need a team of that size for social messaging becoming smaller and smaller as the volumes keep getting bigger and bigger. Yanique mentioned that his business caters to the type of customer that needs the information now. Gone are the days when you'd write a letter and submit it to the organization through the mail and a couple of weeks or months later you get back our response plans. The clients that we're dealing with nowadays there’re in the now age. Joshua agreed and stated that we live in an in the moment world where people are expecting almost real-time response to everything. And if you're going to take days to respond, they're probably just going to phone you at that point, people need an answer or they'll just go to a competitor, that's the reality. But on the flip side, one of the great things about digital messaging and asynchronous messaging as opposed to traditional web chat is that it's more like texting a friend and texting a friend it's pretty much real time that they're responding in 5 minutes. And if there is occasionally a message it takes a little bit longer and some are shorter and that's fine. And the traditional web chat world that doesn't work because the web chat world is like sitting there with the chat box open when waiting for a response and so you have to have current agents online responding within seconds. But with an asynchronous messaging you can even out those bums most a lot more easily and you can have a smaller number of agents handling a much larger number of customers as a result. Because as soon as you respond that pops up as a notification on their phone, they don't have to be sitting there paying attention all the time. So, it's very convenient for both the customers and for customer service agents. Joshua stated that messaging is really what's growing, it’s going to dominate the industry and depending where you are, there are different messaging platforms. Now the one that's very exciting from people in many areas of the world especially Europe, U.K, South America is WhatsApp. WhatsApp is just such a dominant messaging platform that has completely replaced SMS in many parts of the world via internet. They're just starting to experiment with business accounts and the word on the street is that some point this year probably early this year. They're going to be releasing business tools and releasing an API which allows platforms like theirs to help their customers manage them. And he thinks that as soon as that happens it's going to become a huge, huge business to consumer channel. He thinks a lot of businesses are desperate for it, a lot of clients, customers would love it, it’s super convenient. People are using all the time already, so, he thinks that's going to release load this year. There is one which is very interesting, probably not going to explode in the same way because they're going to be much more careful and constrained about how they release it is Apple Business Chat, so this is Apple's business chat solution built on top of IMessages. Apple's nesting system is completely integrated with text messaging, so it’s used on iPhone and it goes blue and that's with IMessaging and getting more capabilities so that they're enabling brands to have business accounts. And what's exciting about this, there are two main exciting things. One is security, they're very well-known for privacy and security similar to WhatsApp in that regard. The other thing is discoverability and this is where they're going to really have a very interesting advantage over other messaging platforms. And there are two parts to it, one is in maps. So, if you are in apple maps looking at a local restaurant or a coffee shop there will be a button that says message them and you'll be able to just message them straight away and be like, “Hey, I want to order this or I want to order that” tightly integrated with Apple Pay, you could pay seamlessly and then go pick it up or they deliver it. And that could actually act as a kind of intermediary problem like the kind of post mates and stuff like, where at the moment of sitting in between and potentially this can make it super easy to go straight to a restaurant. And that's one area of discoverability and the maps the other area is with Siri the voice system. And this is where it gets really cool especially for big brands. We will acquire hotels, if you want to like message them saying you want to extend your stay for the night, how do you do that today, you have to look them up. You could message them on Facebook if you know about that and you have the app, you could DM them on Twitter there is always things that they're promoting in interesting ways but with business chat you’ll just be able to say, “Hey Siri, message Hyatt tell them I want to stay another night.” It's done, no app needed. Nothing else. It just like sends that message and Hyatt can respond over text, you can even pay using Apple Pay on your phone if you wanted. That's a pretty cool and like seamlessly integrated experience and will potentially bring voice assistance into like how people are into engaging with businesses for the first time. Apple is going to be very careful in how they roll that out and the brands they work with, they want to make sure they create really nice experiences. He thinks there's some really exciting stuff with that and could be pretty meaningful. Yanique mentioned that a big part of what she heard in a lot of what Joshua said was convenience. She thinks convenience is definitely one of the key differentiators that businesses who are disrupting the whole customer experience platform, they're really killing it in that area and making life more convenient for their customers because that to her is just a very convenient. Joshua stated that there is a huge amount of data which talks about the benefits for this, his favorite book on this subject is The Effortless Experience : Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nicholas Toman and Rick Delisi of CEB, who is now part of Gartner and it's a book that’s given to lot of a lot of his clients and Effortless Experience costly had a huge amount of data from years like large studies and it shows that the most important thing that affects customer loyalty after a service interaction is the effort that they have to put in to getting their true result. When someone has a problem or a complaint or an issue, they just want that issue to be solved as soon as possible, as easily as possible and it's very hard to increase their loyalty following any service interaction even if you really go crazy go above and beyond. They had an issue and you solved it great, they're not going to be ecstatic, maybe they'll be a little bit happier, what happens in the majority of cases, is that their loyalty is reduced and the data shows that if you do anything that makes it harder for them to get their issue solved; it has a massive negative impact on loyalty. If you make them jump through any hoops to speaks with an agent that they have to repeat themselves, they have to tell one person one thing and then they have to speak to someone else and tell them the same thing again. Anything like that which is just annoying and hassle or puts a delay, puts them on hold has a really, really negative impact. And so, if you can just reduce that effort, then you could have a massive impact on Customer Loyalty. He thinks this is the core of what makes social messaging so powerful is that it’s just so effortless. He spent the last year writing a book as well which is going to be coming out this quarter which he’s excited about and it's going to be called “Message Me”, it's all about the future of customer service and looks at the impact of messaging and he talks a lot about effortless experience in that book because he thinks that in many ways they kind of figured out the foundation and they could have asked this question, “How do you make it effortless?” And he doesn’t think that technology was really there at the time when they wrote book to actually implement it. But he thinks that with messaging, we finally do have the technology to implement a service channel which really can be completely effortless for consumers and that's super exciting. Yanique stated that one of the things that she’s most amazed about as it relates to customer experience as well is regardless of where you are from in the world or however you are socialized, whether you're from Europe, North America, South America or the Caribbean, at the end of the day because we're all human beings, we're all yearning for that connection we're all yearning for some basic needs to be met. As Joshua said, she agreed that if you have to put in less effort you are more likely to go along with that particular service provider because they make life much easier for you. You have so many hurdles to jump over on a daily basis, whereas, if you're running a business, you're a family maker, you have a husband to take care of or a wife, kids up and down, just so many things pulling in all different directions. So, if you can do business with an organization that is looking out for you in that aspect and they're pulling you in less directions and they make it super easy kind of like Amazon, you can sit down in the convenience of your own home and basically order whatever you'd like to order and it's delivered to you, you don't have to go into the store and stress yourself out walking up and do figuring out which aisle it is in. Everything can be purchased with the click of a button, it really does definitely drive you to be loyal to that organization because you look back on those experiences and that's what would make you continue doing business with them. Joshua agreed and stated that it’s important and he thinks not enough businesses really pay attention to it today. People are used to the point of looking at measuring customer satisfaction and empty apps. I actually love to see more and more businesses measuring customer satisfaction and NPS but he would actually love to see more and more businesses people measuring effort and measure how convenient, how effortless was it for them to get help, he thinks that would be really impactful for a lot of businesses. Joshua stated that in measuring effort, there isn't a standard kind of well-known way in the same way that you have NPS for example. There's a great case study from one of their customers British Telecom, telecoms company in the UK where they took this pretty seriously and they created what they call a Net Easy Score and very simple, they just asked people after service interaction, “How do you find that experience? How hard or easy was it to resolve the experience?” and it was just three answers. It was easy to resolve, it was it was difficult or it was kind of mutual. So, super simple question and they rolled that out across all of their service channels and they started tracking customer retention and the retention of the customers who'd reported that they had an easy service experience versus the customers that said they had a hard service experience and they found a huge difference. They found the customers who'd had a hard service experience were difficult to resolve their issue was 40% more likely to churn over the next three months, 40% more likely which is a huge number. So, they made a massive impact on whether those customers would stay as customers or not and when they actually looked at the different kind of Net Easy Score as they call it for different channels they found that social media and messaging and webchat that were the easiest channels by a long way, they were easier than phone by 4 to 1 and they were easier than email and cell service by 2 to 1. So, a huge impact for online business from understanding that and these are pretty simple way of asking a question. Yanique asked if this question is asked after every interaction with their business or is it a question that they ask maybe on a yearly basis based on the customers who are their clients. Joshua stated that they did the actual, so, before they started working with them so he doesn’t know exactly how they do it. The way that they help their clients do surveys today through social and messaging is that your after-service interaction has been closed and resolved, then they send out an automatic survey inside the messaging thread from the Facebook Messenger or Twitter that ask them whatever question they want to have set up. So, it's after every service interaction, he thinks that's the best way to get that kind of data. Yanique agreed and mentioned that people do remember the experience that they have had within the first 24 hours and then after that if it's not super great or really bad, they really don't remember the details. So, that question should be asked after each interaction. Joshua mention that they see that the faster you get out after the issue has been resolved, the higher the response rate. Joshua stated that he is a pretty highly motivated person in general. His overall motivation is really about the stuff that they want to achieve as a business. And when he set out starting the business, he had this kind of very clear vision, he was like, “There's a reason that everyone is switching to these channels from a consumer perspective.” That's because it's a better channel, it's more efficient, it's easier, it's more convenient, it’s on everyone's phone, the way the messaging organizes communication which is by people instead of subjects is more natural, this is just a better way of communicating. And he really believed and still believe that if companies switch to these forms of communication then it's better for them and better for the customers. And they kind of set out their vision and they set out this clear mission of saying, “Yes, we want to really build the next generation of customer service software.” It's all focused around these new channels which they really believe are better. He gets a huge amount of motivation from seeing them and make that vision become a reality. Every company that they sign up has a customer who then starts more actively promoting these channels and increasing the volume of service issues that’s dealing with messaging instead of phone and email. All of that really gets him excited. He loves to see that continuing success and performance and the things that they’re achieving as a business. He’s kind of prepared to do whatever it takes to help them make that vision become a reality, he doesn’t really think too much about specifically what he enjoys doing during the day or not, it's really just about what he needs to do in order to help them be successful and that's what really gets him excited. Joshua stated that the app that we cannot live without would have to be Twitter. They have to use lots of different technology in the business, they love of using different technology. Twitter has this incredible network and he uses it a lot personally, tied to it for the news these days. But they use it huge amount for business as well, they connect with a lot of their customers on there, we connect to a lot of influences, a lot of thought leaders, they do a lot of thought leadership and share a lot of thought leadership through it. So, it's just added such value to his life and to the business. Joshua mentioned that The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nicholas Toman and Rick Delisi certainly from an approach to customer service perspective. From a management perspective, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz is one of his favorite and has been the most impactful book from a management perspective, kind of entrepreneur’s journey, how to really scale a business and manage a management team and very raw and very real, a lot of really valuable insight. So, that has been one of his favorite books. The other than that, he loves reading Sci-Fi, he’s a huge fan of Sci-Fi which he thinks actually gives him tons of business ideas and ideas about the future. So, he thinks it’s actually super valuable for anyone especially entrepreneurs working in technology should absolutely read a lot of Sci-Fi. Yanique mentioned that reading Sci-Fi is a very unusual genre of books to read but she can see where Joshua is coming from with it because it kind of opens your mind to the impossible and that's where we're heading. Joshua agreed and stated that if you're interested in customer service, the future of customer service, you should read his book “Message Me” which is going to be coming out pretty soon which he mentioned earlier as well. Joshua stated that something that he’s excited about right now, the book Message Me was the kind of his main passion project over the last year. He really wanted to kind of get down on paper two things, both his thoughts as to what businesses need to be doing today to really benefit from messaging, benefit from automation, how they really need to structure customer service teams, how to train agents how to promote these things in the right way. But then also, his vision for how messaging and automation intelligence are really going to change customer service in the years ahead. So that's been a big labor of love actually he just went to the printers a few days ago. So, he’s pretty excited about that, so that's a really big one. Outside of that, he’s also a big fan of personal development, he’s been getting more and more into meditation over the last year and in a few weeks, he’s actually about to go do his first Meditation Retreat where he’ll be on a silent meditation retreat for 10 days. So, he’s excited about that and slightly nervous. Joshua shared listeners can find him at – Twitter - @joshuamarch www.conversocial.com Twitter - @conversocial LinkedIn - Joshua March Joshua shared that a quote that comes to mind is the quote from Winston Churchill, “When going through hell, keep going” he really loves that quote, the key for any entrepreneur but is really true for anyone trying to achieve anything big in life is really persistence and grit, whatever you do and whatever you try to do and the bigger the thing you trying to do, the more ambitious it is, the harder it’s going to be. The more road blocks you’re going to face, the more mistakes you’re going to make and failures you’re going to have, every single person no matter how successful has those failures, in fact, the more successful you are, the more failures you’ve had and the key throughout all of it is to never give up and to keep going, pick yourself up, learn from your mistakes, keep evolving and that’s really the only thing that will get you anywhere in life. Links The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
Catherine M. Mattice is President of consulting and training firm, Civility Partners, and she has been successfully providing programs in workplace bullying and building positive workplaces since 2007. Her clients include Chevron, the American Red Cross, the military, several universities and hospitals, government agencies, small businesses and non-profits. She has been published in a variety of trade magazines and has appeared as an expert in major news outlets including NPR, FOX, NBC, ABC, USA Today, Inc Magazine, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, Washington Times, Psychology Today and Bloomberg. Catherine is Past-President of the Association for Talent Development (ATD), San Diego Chapter, and one of the founders (and current president of) the National Workplace Bullying Coalition. In his foreword to her book, Back Off! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying @ Work, Ken Blanchard said it was “The most comprehensive and valuable handbook” on workplace bullying. BACK OFF, and her second book, “Seeking Civility : How Leaders, Managers and HR Can Create a Workplace Free of Bullying”, are both available on Amazon. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Can you talk with us about some of the things that help to create that positive work environment and is it only up to the employees or does leadership play a big role as well? How do you feel about customer experience on a global level? What are some of the things you encourage organizations to do to create that kind of culture where people are feeling positive, where the energies are consistently up? How do you stay motivated every day? What is one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Catherine Mattice shared that she was the director of Human Resources for a non-profit organization and found herself working with a bully and this guy and herself were both directors. They both reported directly to the President of the organization, he was not her manager. He was her peer but he was definitely a bully. He was an uber excessive micromanager, he yelled, he made it very clear if he didn't like you, he was very difficult to work with. She personally felt bullied by this person and that was very exhausting, it was like every interaction with him was frustrating. It took a lot of courage to interact with them because you figured you're going to be yelled at, it was just a very emotional experience. And then also as the director of HR she dealt with all of the organizational problems that he created as well so his particular department had a crazy turnover. She spent a lot of time counseling his employees in her office and also spent a lot of time talking to the President about this person's behavior and sort of begging the president to solve it. And the president would always just say, “That's just how he is. I don't know why it bothers you. Be the bigger person.” Which was of course frustrating to hear her pleas for help to just sort of be ignored. And then during all that time she started getting her Master's Degree at San Diego State University and she decided to write a paper for one of her classes on this topic of sort of toxic work environments. And during that paper she came across that phrase, “Workplace Bullying” and she has been obsessed ever since and have continued to scramble to learn everything she possibly can about workplace bullying and she created a business around helping organizations solve that problem. Yanique shared that the issue of bullying seems like something that's not affected by a lot of organizations but it really is a widespread issue. Catherine agreed and stated that they call it the silent epidemic in the U.S.A lot of other countries actually have laws around workplace bullying but America does not. So, it's just as pervasive if not more so than harassment and discrimination because it's really equal opportunity harassment and so there is a lot of it. A lot of people feel bullied at work, in fact research puts that number at around 30 to 50 percent of people have been bullied at some point in their working life. Yanique stated that it's interesting that Catherine mentioned that it's such a high percentage and asked if she believe that it filtrates out of the education system because a lot of kids are bullied in schools as well. Catherine stated that she thinks that we are all mean, the society at large is mean, look at TV, it's all full of mean drama. Reality TV is mean, politics they’re mean, we're mean when we’re on the road, we can be uncivil if someone's going too slow or cut us off. We tend to have this propensity to sort of lash out and we live in a high stress environment because we're always on our phones, we always have someplace to be and so she thinks it's harder to be kind and to take a step back and be nice and take a breath and focus on civility. It's easier to let your frustrations get the best of you. And in school certainly bullying happens and there is some research that's found that if you bully as a child you probably bully as an adult. And also, if you're a target as a child you may be a target as an adult. Catherine Mattice stated that leadership absolutely is the biggest player in the culture so leadership has to decide, “This is the kind of culture we want” and then putting things in motion to create that kind of a culture. Bullying is an organizational problem and culture is an organizational problem and it has to be solved by the leaders so leaders really have to say, “We want a positive work environment because we know it impacts internal and external customer service. We know it impacts innovation and decision making and people's ability to learn.” so when you have a savvy leader who knows that positive relationships and positive feelings about your organization impact the bottom line then you're lucky and you get a positive work environment. But bullying is absolutely an organizational problem not an employee problem. Yanique asked what if the leader is a bully himself? Catherine shared that she gets that question a lot. She stated that she honestly hates to give this advice but you have to leave. If the CEO or the leader is a bully, there probably isn't anyway that leaders going to hear anyone out if the leader is told people perceive you as too abrasive. Sometimes an HR professional or maybe someone close to the leader in the C-Suite depending on their relationship can have a conversation with the leader and maybe able to be heard. But in her experience, leaders believe that sort of abrasive aggressive leadership style has worked for them and so they're not going to be interested in changing unless you can really show them the damage they're causing. People can change, she coaches people who are bullies all the time but the CEO or the leader, unless somebody is close enough to that person to have that conversation she would say you may want to consider leaving because the culture is not going to get any better. Yanique mentioned if the leader is a bully as Catherine said and she recommend that they leave. Do you feel that even though you said you believe people can change but a big part of change means that they have to become self-aware that something needs to change because many of them would be like, “Well the problem isn't me, it’s them.” She has heard that so many times in organizations when employees make complaints and a lot of times that the complaints are being made, they're not willing to accept that sometimes the issue is not necessarily with the other person but sometimes we need to look internally and look at how we could be doing things differently because maybe if we take a different approach you will get a different result. Catherine stated that she recognizes that because of Social Media and the Internet that company is there maybe more focused on customers than they used to be but it's more about the branding than really caring about customers and you see that with all of the negative things that go on. United Airlines being an example, they had this big media problem when they had the police come and remove a customer but that was a culture problem, that's the reason that happened, that the people who worked for United actually thought to themselves, “We are going to call the police and have this customer forcibly removed.” That's a culture problem with United Airlines. She thinks that customer experience and customer service boils down to culture as well and having a positive work environment as they've talked about. Catherine stated that she thinks a big thing that she sees with her clients is that when companies call her because their culture is negative, one of the things they're not doing is living their core values. So, she has really come to see the value in core values and she has seen it firsthand that if you can live your core values and make your core values part of everything you're doing day in and day out then that would really affect the culture because then everyone is very clear on how they're supposed to act. Going back to the United Airlines example, United versus Southwest Airlines which always wins customer service awards. Their three core values are servants heart, warrior spirit and something about having fun. If an employee is making decisions in the context of those three core values, they would never ask Police to forcibly remove a customer's not doing anything wrong. So, United Airlines wasn't living their core values and that's how things like that happen. A lot of companies don't see the value in core values until something awful happens and then they realize, “Oh, we've got to get back to our core values.” Yanique mentioned that some companies have core values that their employees don't even believe in. Catherine agreed and stated that that goes back to it though, she sees this all the time, companies have core values and they're on their website and maybe they're on a sign somewhere in the lunchroom and that's the extent of it, so how can employees believe in those core values when they're not part of their day in and day out life. It's up to the organization to say, “Here are our core values. This is how we want everyone to behave.” And then the organization has to find ways to advertise those core values regularly and ensure that employees know them and live them regularly. Yanique mentioned that it's like you're basically trying to find new and innovative ways to reinforce and basically have lots of repetition. So, now it becomes a part of their DNA. So, if courtesy is one of your core values, in everything you do you try to effect courtesy that way when you're dealing with external customer it's not something that you're trying to put on, it comes so naturally because it's something that you practice every day anyway. Catherine shared that she thinks it's all of the negative stuff that she sees really fuels her fire and makes her work even harder to make a dent in all of the negativity. It really pains her to see employees unhappy and what you do for a living is such a big part of your self-esteem and your self-concept. It's a huge part of who we are as people, what we do for a living and to have that torn down and have somebody like a bully clawing at your identity and your self-esteem and yourself concept day in and day out. It pains me to know that there's people out there who experience that and that's what motivates her. She is driven to touch the lives of as many employees out there in the world as she possibly can. And also, she has been through some things that have made her angry at the right amount of angry where she has submitted proposals to work with a client and the stories they told her were absolutely awful and then she’ll submit a proposal, she work with a charter to try to solve it and then the leader comes back and says, “I don't think this is important enough to spend that money.” That makes her angry and that anger fuels her too. It makes her want to work harder. Yanique stated that she knows exactly what she means in terms of them not seeing the value in it. And as Catherine said, it really boils down to the value system of the individuals that you're dealing with and what they deem of importance. Catherine mentioned that one of the app is LinkedIn that she uses regularly to make connections. She uses HubSpot to manage her customers and interactions. MailChimp that she’s using for email management. She stated that there's definitely a lot of tools out there that she feels like she couldn't live without that help to keep her basically organized and having everything just flow. Catherine mentioned some of the books that have had a big impact on her. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, that was her very first personal development book so that one has had a big impact on her. She has read a lot of books on workplace bullying, one book she mentioned a lot that had an impact on her is a book called Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance by Kim Cameron. He is in the positive psychology space and he talks a lot about essentially how to create a positive work environment too and he has very specific action items in that book that she actually offers up as advice quite a lot and it's a short read, she highly recommend that book. That's probably one of my favorite sort of business books. Catherine stated that one piece of advice that she would give business owners and managers is that they should help their employees find meaning in their work. Help them find a profound connection to everything that they’re doing and that the company is trying to accomplish and your company will flourish if you do that. Yanique reiterate, help them find meaning in what they're doing. Therefore, there must be a direct link between what the company's goals are and what the personal goals of the employee is because if those two things actually have some congruence then both entities actually have a win-win situation. Catherine agreed and gave an example of that, she was doing some training for a company that kills mosquitoes, that's their business. She was doing some training and on a break, she just sort of asked the trainee sitting next to her, “Tell me more about your business, what you do?” and she said, “Well, we killed mosquitoes. That's about it.” That's all she got. And this other person sitting next to her says, “Is that all you think we're doing here? We are saving this community from West Nile Virus.” He was offended that she thought all they did was kill mosquitoes and so he believes he's saving the community from this horrible disease by killing mosquitoes and killing mosquitoes was a means to the end goal of saving that community. So that's what she’s talking about, help reminding your employees that there's a bigger picture beyond their tasks. Catherine shared that they just finished up all the quality issues today. She just released an online course that is essentially her consulting methodology. It's a way to help organizations that can't afford expensive consultants but they need to change their culture. This online course takes them through that process and it has a whole bunch of videos and worksheets and checklists and job aides and literally somebody could take her course and change their organizations culture using the tools in the course, so that is the thing she is super-duper excited about right now. She mentioned that the course can be found at civilitypartners.com/makeover Catherine shared listeners can find her at – LinkedIn - Catherine Mattice Zundel Twitter - @CatMattice Facebook – Catherine Mattice Zundel Facebook – Civility Partners Website – www.civilitypartners.com Catherine shared that there is a quote that she always reverts to and it's by Viktor Frankl who was in the Holocaust and suffered some horrible things and one of his famous quotes is, “The last of any human freedom is the freedom of choice.” We get to choose our attitude in our circumstances and it's really important to keep that in mind. We can't be victims of circumstance, we have to take charge of how we react to the circumstances and only then can you overcome adversity. Yanique reiterated, basically freedom of choice is something that we all have regardless of the situation that we're in. And that's a great privilege. So, we should definitely try to exercise it as much as possible. Links Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance by Kim Cameron Back Off! Your Kick-Ass Guide to End Bullying @ Work by Catherine Mattice Seeking Civility : How leaders, managers and HR can create a workplace free of bullying by Catherine Mattice
Jeff Toister Show Notes Jeff Toister helps customer service teams unlock their hidden potential. He is the best-selling author of The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide To Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service. More than 140,000 people on six (6) continents has taken his video base training courses on LinkedIn Learning aka Lynda.com. Jeff’s 15 training videos on LinkedIn Learning include Customer Service Foundations and Leading a Customer Centric Culture. Jeff was named one of the top 30 customer service professionals in the world by Global Gurus. He was also named one of the top 50 Thought Leaders to Follow on Twitter by the International Customer Management Institute. Feedspot has named his Inside Customer Service Blog one of the Top 50 customer service blogs on the planet. Jeff holds a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification from The Association for Talent Development. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Can you tell us about your journey in writing the book – The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service? What is culture? As entrepreneurs, what are some of the things they should be thinking about? What are some advice you would give to an employee or a business owner who is trying to sustain a service culture and with growth they have not been able to manage the culture with the massive growth that they have experienced? How do they scale but at the same time maintain that same service culture and experience? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Jeff Toister stated that what compelled him the spectrum of customer experience was the very first customer he served. He would love to say that it was a success story but it wasn’t, he didn’t do a good job and that changed things for him. He was 16 years old, he was working in a retail clothing store and he had gotten about 15 minutes of training and the person that was supposed to be training him said, “I’m going on break, good luck, here’s the key to the dressing room. Do the best you can, I’ll be back.” He was nervous as young kids often are and I didn’t know what he was supposed to do. A customer comes up to him and he’s just thinking, “Oh no, I don’t know anything” and that’s obviously the wrong mindset but that’s the mind set he had. The customer asked, “Do you carry Dockers?” it’s a brand of khakis and he knew what they were, he had no idea if they carried them or not and so he’s looking around the store and he’s hoping that there’s a big neon sign that says, “Dockers right here” but there was not. And being 16 years old and being inexperienced, the first words that came out of his mouth were, “I don’t know” and without getting a second chance to recover, he got angry and he said, “Wow, this is terrible service” and he stormed out of the store. He knows that that was the wrong answer, the challenge is when you’re employee in that situation how do you stop yourself from giving that wrong answer, that comes with experience, life experience and training knowledge and so in that moment he knew it wasn’t the right answer, he knew he didn’t do well and he never wanted to feel that way again, that was many years ago but throughout his entire career, he has always gravitated towards 2 things: customer service but in particular, What makes employees tick? How do we help our customer service employees perform their very best? And how do we remove these obstacles where we put them in a position where they are not as able to be successful? He has always been fascinated with customer service, he has always been fascinated with training and all of his jobs have focused on that and for the last 12 years he has been a consultant who helps organizations tackle these types of problems. Yanique stated that she finds it interesting that it was a not so positive experience that propelled you into this because as a consultant that many times when a customer becomes loyal to business, if you track back the root cause, it’s usually a dissatisfied customer who dealt with an employee who was able to turn the situation around and just because of how it was handled, now every time they come back to that business they only want to deal with that particular employee, they’ll even wait sometimes if they’re on vacation to come back from vacation to transact business with that company and it all came out of a negative experience. Jeff mentioned the “Peak-End Rule” (Psychology Term), he stated that it explains what Yanique said is true. It’s about customer perception or perception in general that we tend to not notice things that are normal. We tend to notice things that are different than normal and what really stands out is the thing that is most different and so the bad experience if you kind of think of that as the heartbeat of customer service, the bad experience is kind of like this really bad deviation from our normal experience and then a really good correction, really good fix is a huge difference. So, it stands out because it’s such a leap from a horrible experience to this great experience, it becomes imprinted in our memories and that’s the peak part, if it’s the last experience we had with that organization or that person, that really gets imprinted in our memories. So, the Peak End Rule kind of explains why that big gap, it’s so true when we recover from a bad experience, that’s what really sticks in our customers’ mind. Jeff Toister shared that he’s glad that Yanique’s impression of his book was that it’s a practical guide and he really appreciate that because that was the goal in writing it. He found a couple things and one was that he consistently had this theme with his client which was culture, “How do we get our employees obsess with service?” and the other thing he found quite frankly was that companies tend to have money to invest in technology, they often don’t have the budget to invest in people and he thought, “If I could put this into a book and make it a practical step by step guide, maybe they can’t afford to hire me or you to come in, we wish they would. If they don’t have the budget for that, this book will give them everything I’m already sharing with my clients.” That was the starting point to say he’s going to make these ideas available. So where did they come from, they came from work he was doing but then he wanted to profile companies that were successful, and one of his biggest challenges in writing the book was, he didn’t want to include some of the usual suspects - the Zappos, the Southwest Airlines, the Nordstrom, the Disney, the Ritz Carlton, not to take anything away from those organizations, it’s just that we’ve heard their stories so many times, there are other companies out there that are delivering amazing service. So, you ask where did those stories come from? He started researching what other organizations have a strong service culture where they’re known, they have the reputation, maybe it’s service ratings, maybe it’s stories written about them, they’re known for having employees who are obsessed with service and then he started researching, what do they do and it was amazing to him that there was a consistency across all of these companies, in terms of how they approach it and so he was able to pull his own work and in the research he did into these companies and put them into the step by step guide and say, “Hey, there is something here. There’s a process that all of these organizations are following and we can give this recipe to anybody who cares to follow it.” Yanique agreed that he tries to look at a very practical, operational way that any business, even if it’s a small business with just 5 employees would be able to extract that information and run with it in their own company. Jeff stated that even a team because one of the biggest questions he gets is that people say, “I read the book but I’m not the CEO and I don’t even think my CEO cares too much about service, she says it important but I know she really cares about the budget.” And that’s fine, you can still use the book. He has examples in there with specific teams or departments, so whatever the size, whether you’re the CEO or you’re just leading the small team within a bigger company, the goals and the ideas that you can use these tools to create a service culture in whatever you control. Jeff stated that he thinks sometimes culture is one of those words that we take for granted, we all say, “Culture is important” but maybe we mean different things. To him, culture when we’re talking about an organizational perspective, it’s a system of behaviors and beliefs, it’s how a group of people act or thinks and understand the world. Sometimes we think culture is a statement that says, “This is our motto or these are our values” and that’s not quite accurate. Culture is what people actually do, so if people are living those values each and every day then those values are accurate and they reflect your culture, if not, then they’re pretty empty. He gave an example, there was a bank in the United States about a year ago, there was this huge scandal because what they were doing was opening accounts for customers that didn’t request them. Millions of accounts were affected and the reason it was happening is because there were a lot of pressure for the individual employees to meet these very aggressive sales targets, so that’s what led to this huge scandal that the CEO resigned, there was a lot of fines, the Federal Government started to look into it. What was interesting though was that the CEO even in the moment when it was announce that the scandal broke and the CEO still had his job and he was announcing this scandal and this big settlement of a lawsuit, he still pointed to their culture as being customer focused and to him, that’s the perfect example of Your words doesn’t really matter if they’re not backed up by your deeds. How did people actually act? In that organization, the culture was about sales pressure and doing anything at all cost to sell a product. That was their actual culture. So, when you think about organizations and one of the organizations he wrote about in the book is a place call REI, if you love the outdoors, that’s the place to go for your camping equipment, your hiking equipment, bicycling, whatever. REI is an example of culture that really matches what they say. For example, if you go in and you’re looking for camping equipment, you’re not going to have somebody just kind of point you to the camping equipment aisle, the person who works there who’s going to help you is an avid camper, they love camping and they can’t wait to share with you what they know so that you can love camping too and that’s by design because they purposely stated that their goal as an organization is to help us all enjoy the outdoors. That to him is when culture matches what we’re saying, that’s pretty healthy but at the end of the day, culture is what we do, it’s how we perceive the world, it’s what we actually believe. Yanique agreed and stated that in her process of dealing with some businesses this week, she called a company that deals with cooking gas and their office is not located in the city, it’s located on the outskirts of the city so it’s a 20-minute drive and she asked them if didn’t have any other mode of payment because she told the sales representative before they came that she will be paying by card and she specifically requested that the gentleman coming brings the card machine. He comes and he didn’t bring the card machine and of course he now informs her that she needs to drive all the way to the location to make the payment. So, she called them and said, “Can the payment be taken over the phone?” “Oh no, we just changed out our card machines and that’s not possible anymore.” Yanique called and ask them, “Do you expect me to drive 20 minutes outside the city just to get to you to make a payment for a service that you provided, I think you really need to talk to your finance department and think about a more customer friendly way to accept payments from your customers.” And it’s interesting because they were voted one of the best customer service organization in their industry and that left a bad experience. Even when the guys came, the service was good but then the payment part is a part of the service as well. Jeff agreed and stated that whenever that happens, he always wonder why does it happen and is it that the person doesn’t want to do their job, sometimes but often it’s that they are put in that position or no one shared with that driver that Yanique had had that communication or that driver was specifically told, “We’re not doing cards so this is what you have to tell people.” Those employees are often put in a bad position where they almost can’t win. Jeff stated that maintaining the same service culture and experience is a big challenge for a couple of reasons. One is that keeping culture exactly the same is impossible because culture changes, every time you add a new person to the team, every time you add a new product or a new line of service or a new channel, it changes just a little bit. He doesn’t know if it’s possible to keep culture the same but maybe consistent and have it grow and evolve in the right way, that’s maybe the goal for those businesses. The other challenge is scale, as businesses grow it becomes necessary for the business owner or the business leader to trust more people to do the work and that business owner can’t be in all places at all times, they can’t talk to every single customer and so the process of building a service culture really is about that scale question, “How do I instill in my employees what I believe in my core?” and the way to do that is that you have to make it clear, you have to articulate it. Just like how he was asked, “Let’s define service culture.” In these organization you have to define, “What does our culture look like?” and the tool that he uses is something called The Customer Service Vision, it’s a very simple statement, it could be something that you already have like a Vission or vision statement for your company but it’s very simple statement that says, “This is what outstanding service looks like.” And every employee in the organization has to understand what that vision statement is, what does it mean and most importantly, how do they personally contribute in their role and once you achieve that, then you can scale using that vision as a guide and that’s the first step, you’ve got to have that vision. The second step is employees all have to understand it and the third step is that you have to use that as a way of doing business, one thing he sees that business owners/ business leaders do that really hurt that effort is that they treat culture as a separate project, so people will maybe take time out of their normal job to do some cultural things, maybe on a culture committee or we’re doing culture as the theme for this year strategic planning and then we go back to work and just do our jobs, that’s not how you evolve culture, culture is our behavior so we need to use culture as a guide for making all decisions, it’s how we create strategy, it how we invest in technology and processes, it’s how we hire, it’s how we train people, it’s how as a leader you’re deciding what to put in front of your employees and talk about every single day and if we are not talking about culture and how outstanding service should look like then your employees are not going to believe that it’s important, they’ll focus and what you talk about and that’s the biggest challenge for leaders. Jeff also hear a lot of companies say to him, “We’re just so busy, we’re too busy to deal with culture.” And he would say, “No, you’re not because what you’re really doing is you’re still creating a culture, it’s just not the culture you need.” Yanique agreed that with the point that even though they’re not focusing on culture, every organization has a culture but is it the culture that they really want and so if you don’t have intentionally activities, whether it be meetings, conversations, group outings, strategies built around what you’re trying to achieve, then the culture will emerge on its own. And so, you’d have a culture you don’t want all because there was no intentional act but not because you didn’t put any attention there doesn’t mean it’s not formed. Jeff mentioned that often when you don’t put the intention there, it goes in the direction you really don’t want it to go. Yanique mention that the take away from this interview is culture is not something that just doesn’t happen, it happens even without your intentional behavior behind it, it’s going to manifest and this is why you really have to intentionally work towards the culture you want. It’s like eating because we have to eat every day but if we don’t intentionally make an effort to eat healthy then we’ll eat anything and of course the body will just consume whatever you put inside of it and if you’re consuming negative thing then it will lead to disease and chronic illnesses versus taking an intentional approach towards eating, ensuring you do your meal preps, you exercise 3 to 4 times a week, you’re getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night, those are things that are intentional activities you schedule into your life to ensure it’s done every single day. Jeff stated that he really likes this question because motivation is a part of something he looks at all the time, not just his own motivation but employee motivation. He thinks we often look at it the wrong way, we look at how we get motivated versus how to not be demotivated and so for him, motivation is easy, he does what he loves. He finds the inner section of what he loves to do and what he can be successful doing and where he has a little bit of skill. Jim Collins’ Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other’s Don’t’ Built to Last : Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, one of his landmark books. He talked about this head shock concept for companies, it’s an inner section of what you love, what can you do well, what can you get paid to do and he takes that personally. And so, he gets up every day excited because he loves this. The demotivation happens not just for him but for everybody where we perceive that there’s obstacles that stand in the way of doing what we love. In a service environment, referring to his story about his first service encounter, that happens to employees every single day where they want to provide great service, almost every employee wants to provide great service but there’s some obstacle that they perceive is standing in their way and that’s what’s demotivating them. Every day he works on himself but he helps organizations and employees work on finding what are those obstacles and they can remove those obstacles, motivation becomes really natural. Yanique stated that it’s interesting because she does workshops for organizations and a lot of questions that she hears from employees is that sometimes you can’t do what you love because you have bills to pay but then, if you have that kind of mindset which goes back into your attitude. Is it your motivation that affects your attitude or your attitude that affects your motivation? In reference to Yanique’s question if motivation affects attitude or attitude affects motivation. Jeff stated that he is a big sports fan, so the team that’s winning, are they because they are motivator or are they motivated because they are winning. He thinks success breathes that and those two go together. Doing well, we feel good, we’re motivated and if we’re not doing well we feel bad with a bad attitude, we feel demotivated. There’s a concept called, “Learned Helplessness” that a lot of employees’ experience. What it is that over time they feel like they failed trying so they just stop trying. It gets really bad is a lot of times they stay in the same job, not every job is right for every person and so they’ll stay in the job or maybe they have those bills to pay and they don’t feel like they have another good option and so they kind of give up but they keep coming to work everyday and that makes it so much worst because it’s defeating. Jeff stated that the tool that he uses every single day is a website called Highrise, it’s a way of keeping track of clients and projects all in one place. One of his core value is accountability and he believes if you say you’re going to do something, you do it. As an entrepreneur, you have a million things going on and trying to meet deadlines and maintain commitments and do what you say you’re going to do is extremely difficult. So, he uses that through every single day to keep track projects, initiatives, people and making sure he maintains all of his commitments but he also uses it to not just look at an individual commitment but how does that connect to all the other commitments he has made so that he’s not overloading his plate. He uses LinkedIn and Twitter every day as well and primarily to connect with other people and learn from other people and see what other people are doing as he thinks we are definitely in a relationship business. As someone whose passionate about training and adult learning, he’s always learning as well and that’s often where he finds “What are people doing that’s interesting?” So those would he his second and third picks. Jeff shared that he loves to read and is sometimes reading 2 to 3 books at a time. He thought about and said, “What are the books that stick with me?” and that’s the challenge with the book, that we read a book and say, “Oh it’s good” and then you ask, “What have you used from that book?” Jeff shared that these are some book that he uses a lot. One is called Street Smarts by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham and what he loves about it is that it’s an entrepreneurial perspective on the business side of running a business and he thinks in the world of customer service and customer experience, too many of us are unfamiliar or tentative around the business side, the number side. He had a discussion online with someone the other day where they were upset that executives only care about the budget and the point he tried to make and comes from this book is, the way to get executives to care about customer service is you have to translate customer service into numbers because that’s their language and if we’re not doing that or if we don’t know how, we’re only hurting ourselves. The next one is a book called Getting Things Done by David Allen, it’s a system for managing your time and commitments and it’s a principle based system rather than go out and buy this portfolio and you have to use this specific software, it’s more about principles to use whatever you feel comfortable using. He uses those principles to do things that allow him to keep on top of things. For example, at the end of everyday he has zero messages in his email inbox and for most people that’s unbelievable but it’s because he has these set of principles that David Allen shared with him in his book that he uses every day. The third book is a book that really made an impact on him, it’s called Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips and what he did was he studied the United States’ 16th president which some people would say would be one of their most amazing leaders in history and he looked at some of the things that Abraham Lincoln did as a leader that we can pull from today. One of his favorite examples that he uses as a consultant and trainer is Lincoln was really the first president to spend a lot of time going to people rather than expecting people to come to him for a meeting or a conversation and the reason he did that, it’s management by walking around which we know now but the idea was, if you approach people in an environment where they feel comfortable and make them feel like we’re on an even keel and you’re not trying to intimidate them then they’re much more likely to open up to you and have an honest and frank conversation and he learned when he’s working with a client and he meets with their front line staff and ask them about their job, they are always ready to tell him exactly what is working well and exactly what they think is going wrong and he thinks it’s because of that principle of coming to them and making them comfortable. Jeff stated he has this thing where he realizes that his audience doesn’t have a lot of budget to spend on customer service maybe technology but not on people. So, one of the things he has been trying to do is transform his own business where he can make resources, tool, concepts available to people at little to no cost and somehow still get paid. A few examples are his book, the investment on the book is USD $14.95 for the paperback or USD $9.99 for the kindle, that’s a pretty low investment yet he puts all the tools he uses as a consultant in that book so you don’t have to hire him because you probably have USD $14.95, you may not have his consultant fee. He has training videos on LinkedIn Learning and Lynda.com and he has learned that a lot of his clients and companies that he works with already has a subscription to one of those platforms, so you can get his training without having to pay for him to come in, the video is right there, it’s available to you and if you don’t have a subscription, it’s fairly inexpensive and then things like this podcast, he loved this opportunity and really appreciate it because it’s a chance for them to have a dialogue about service but it doesn’t cost anything to subscribe to the podcast and learn from it and learn from not just himself but from some of the other amazing experts that Yanique interview. Those are free resources that anybody can take advantage of and he’s really excited about the opportunity to help people wherever they are in their journey. Jeff shared listeners can find him at – Twitter - @toister (www.twitter.com/toister) Customer Service Tip of the Week – www.toistersolutions.com/tips Insider Customer Service Blog – www.toistersolutions.com/blog Jeff shared that he’s not a big quote person, the reason he’s not a quote person, the first reason is because he sees quotes and they sound great but then what do we do with them. He’s more of an action person and the second reason is he has done research on some quotes and he has been disappointed to find that that person never said that or that’s not what they meant. He gave an example, the quote, “The customer is always right” no one said that and it bothers him that we have accepted this as some mantra in customer service and he did some research on where did this come from, why do we believe this and there is not really an agreement but it came from a few places. One possible source says Ritz Carlton and he said, “The customer is never wrong” and the context was that even if the customer is wrong, of course they are sometimes, you don’t argue with them, you just find a way for them to help them become right. Marshall Fields who is a famous retailer, he said, “Right or wrong, the customer is always right” and his point was the same thing that the customers will of course make mistakes but we don’t argue with them, our role here is to help them become right, to help them succeed. He wished he had a great quote to share but when he finds those quotes and he found out no one ever said that but the story behind the quote often is much more interesting. Yanique mentioned that in most of her workshops towards the end of the session, she always explains to the participants that the customer is always right literally is not a true statement because there are times when the customer is wrong but what we should be guided by is the principle that as employees, we are not here to prove the customer wrong, we are here to help them, they are wrong but we are not here say, “Hey Mr. Customer, you’re wrong and we are going to punish you.” But more like, “It’s okay, let’s work back to how we can undo what’s happened and find a solution so that you can leave here feeling good, let’s make this right.” Links Highrise Street Smart by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham Getting Things Done by David Allen Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service by Jeff Toister
The RxSafe RxASP 20 Adherence Packaging system has made a significant impact to the efficiency of a Community Independent Pharmacy, Love Oak Pharmacy. Special Guest & RxSafe Customer: Ben McNabb, Owner, Love Oak Pharmacy Topic: How RxASP 20 adherence packaging has allowed Ben to introduce a tangible product to his customers and increase revenue and profitability in the process. Questions: Tell me a little about RxSafe and how the RxASP 20 works in independent retail pharmacies. You also just introduced a new marketing service called PakMyMeds, can you tell me what that is? Can you give me some background on Love Oak Pharmacy? Why did you decide to purchase a product like the RxASP? Tell us what your experience has been with the RxASP 20. Let’s talk about how adding a new product line instead of simp
40 is the new 30, orange is the new black and HR is the new marketing. You what now? Michael Brenner is the CEO of Marketing Insider Group and believes employees represent the greatest opportunity to create meaningful marketing programs. Questions: Tell us about Marketing Insider Group and what you do? Your own employees represent the greatest opportunity to create meaningful marketing and to develop Human Resources programs that increase sales, while also finding and retaining top talent. - please elaborate? What’s the link between content marketing and HR? Value for employees/budding content marketers: Grow your personal brand, Increase or establish your authority on the topics you are interested in, Gain new social media followers, Maybe even find that new job or get promoted What you can do activate HR as the new Marketing: How can we create a Customer-Centric Vision How do you create Content Employees Want To Share Finally, how do we go about to Measure The Results What are some pitfalls to avoid? What companies are doing it right? What’s the next big thing for HR & marketing? Where can people connect with you? Get the full scoop at: http://employerbrandingpodcast.com
Tema Frank is a best-selling author, international speaker, teacher and business consultant. Tema Frank has over three decades’ experience in marketing strategy, usability testing, and customer experience improvement. In 2001 she launched Web Mystery Shoppers Inc., the world’s first company to do “omnichannel” customer experience testing. Using social media techniques before “social media” existed, she recruited a panel of 75,000 mystery shoppers worldwide. In doing all of this, Tema was able to test all of the customer service channels that organizations would experience such as: live chat, telephone, social media and in-store. Tema is also a fellow podcaster and she started podcasting in 2012, she is our podcast senior and her podcast is called Frank Reactions Podcast on Customer Experience, a definitely must listen. Questions Tell us a little about yourself and your journey Can you speak a little bit about your 3P profit formula that you speak about in your book and why do you think the brand is so important and what would be some of your recommendations as it relates to a small business trying to incorporate some of the things that your book recommends into their own business? What are some everyday solutions that you believe that can help change the mindset of some of these business owners so that training their staff and getting them understand how they want them to treat their customers a priority? Tema’s first experience working at a bank where she had team members that were hanging out at a bar with the boss drinking during the working day, while you guys put in all these work, how was that experience? What are your thoughts on Social Customer Care? What is the one website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? We have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers who feel they have great products and service but they lack the constantly motivated Human Capital. If you were sitting across the table from that person, what’s the one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business? What’s one thing going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about (What are you working on to develop yourself and your people)? What is one quote or saying that during times of adversity and challenges that you refer to as a reminder to help you get more focused? Highlights Tema stated that she was always customer focused and her very first career was in Business Government Relations and as a known as a Lobbyist and that’s all about understanding public and how the public react things and what’s important to them. She stated that she started to develop it from there, that this focus on understanding customers, understanding users, so it was always an interest of hers and then her first book which came out in the mid 1990’s was about Canada’s best employers for women and what she concluded was that best for women were great for men too because they treated all people well and of course a huge element for great customer experience is great employee experience. The recent book just kind of ties it all that together but she thinks that customer experience is just so important because we all are customers and to have a good society, we need to treat each other with respect. Yanique stated that it’s one of the things that motivated her to start this podcast because she is a customer experience trainer and she goes into organizations and helps them to work with their leaders, work with all of their team members so that they can all get an understanding that customer experience is everyone’s responsibility not just the customer facing employees because for some reason, IT and Accounts seem to think that because they are not directly interfacing with the customers it’s not their responsibility. Tema stated that the exciting thing is that in some ways it is easier for small businesses because one of the key elements to creating great customer experiences is a leader, a CEO who cares and who thinks that it’s important, so if you have your own business, you’re in a wonderful place to set that tone. The book Peopleshock: The Path to Profits When Customers Rule, when she talks about the 3 P’s of profit, the 3 P’s are Promise, People and Process and you need to all of these right to create great on going customer experience. The Promise is: why are you doing what you’re doing? And what about it will motivate people to care? And those people include customers and employees and she gives some examples in the book. Even a business as seemingly uninspiring as a janitorial service company, you can find ways to make that inspiring. The Promise is also important because it sets a guideline and a filter for decision making because part of providing great customer service and customer experience involves letting go and giving your front lines more responsibility and more authority, if they’ve all understood and bought into this common vision then they have a filter it helps them make the right decisions when they have to make decisions without you there to say yes or no. People is the second element and we obviously focus a lot on employees which is crucial because you’re not going to have happy customer if you don’t have happy employees but beyond that and beyond the customers and prospects, there is a whole range of other people who will effect whether or not you can deliver consistently great customer experience, so that includes people like your suppliers, your distributors, so if you have been rude to your suppliers and don’t treat them well and there is a shortage of supplies, who think is going to get it? It won’t be you. So all those external relationships with vendors, with all these people can influence ultimately whether or not you can keep on delivering great customer experience through good times and bad. The third P and this is where a lot of organizations slip up is Process, when you are just getting started, you don’t have a lot of processes in place and you can sort of fly by the seat of your pants and just do stuff and get it done and that’s great when you’re getting started. Tema stated that she would really recommend that any small business right from the beginning, start documenting how you’re doing things. There’s a whole bunch of reasons for doing that not just for customer experience, it will also make it easier as you grow but you want to re-evaluate your processes as you grow so every once a year, look back, “how we’re doing things and does this make sense?” there is an example that she gives in the book of a manufacturing company and they complain that there is this one customer for whom they always have to punch a into a piece of metal before they can ship it to them, it was kind of annoying but it was a good customers so they said, “ok, fine, we’ll do it for them” then interviewing the customer, it turned out they were saying, “we love working with this company but it’s really annoying because they ship us these parts with holes in them and we have to fill the hole before we can use it.” Doing some research it turned out that the need for that hole dated back to a decade earlier when they were both using different equipment and at that point it was needed but nobody really had ever reassess the process, here they were doing something that added to the time, added to the cost, added to everybody’s frustration and it wasn’t helping anything, in fact it was hindering. So regularly evaluate that third P. Tema stated that the best thing you can if you can persuade them to do it is for them to go and work on the front lines for awhile, just spend a day or half a day or even a month working on the front lines and find out what’s really going on there because as you become more senior in an organization or even in a small business, if you as the CEO are focused on raising money and doing big deals, once you get the deal you’re not thinking about what’s happening to that customer and it’s really easy to lose touch. So the most important thing is get out there, talk to customers, existing customers not just focusing on getting new ones and if it’s possible, get on the front lines and find out what they are experiencing or go undercover. She stated that there is a show in the US called Undercover Boss and it amazes her with that show how many of the CEO’s and they are always shocked by what they discover and she’s thinking, “What makes you think you need to go on TV to do this?” Throw on a wig, go to your store, you don’t need a TV show to do the undercover thing. So that’s something that is really valuable. If you are not the CEO or the owner of the business and you’re trying to convince them then the next best thing that you can do is bring them the voice of the customers, so whether that’s through an audio recording where they are actually hearing the customer complain, something that makes it real to them, even if you can’t get an audio recording, even if it’s transcribing, writing out the words, these are the exact words our customers are using, that will help make it real to them in a way that reports our statistics or you telling them in your own words just aren’t going to have the same impact. She recommends if you can get them on the front lines or getting yourself on the front lines and if you can’t at least present the voice of the customer to those in charge. Tema shared that one of her first work experiences was depressing and that was what led her into entrepreneurship because she thought that was just ridiculous. It was an interesting experience, basically they apart of a rebel unit that was set up and the guy that was leading the rebel unit, he was great at building a team which did involve hanging out in bars and partying but then once he had the team in place and there was work to be done, he wanted to continue hanging out in bars and partying and her boss came to her said, “Look, you’re not helping your career by staying in the office and doing your job, you should be at the bar with the VP” she was working in marketing at the time. She said, “Sorry, that was not what I signed up for” when the time came for lay offs, all the first people to get let go were those of them that was doing the work and it took 9 months before head office realise that everything was falling apart and then he finally got fired but it was really frustrating and disheartening experience but it gave her the opportunity to start her own business. Yanique stated that she believes that out of every negative situation there is always something positive that can come from it. So Tema sharing her story and seeing how she has been able to rise above the obstacles and she is able to let people know that at the end of the day you do have some employees who genuinely want to come and do a great job, they are not into slacking off and just sitting around and not doing anything, so that’s important. Tema shared that the thing is, if employees are just slacking off and not doing anything is usually because you have failed to motivate them with that promise. You’re not treating them right; you’re not inspiring them. Tema stated that money is necessary so that you can survive but paying somebody more won’t get them to be more customer friendly. She stated that one of the biggest solutions that entrepreneurs could use to motivate their employees is involving them into decisions making, instead of imposing decisions from above, try to get decisions to often flow from below, so the people who are closet to your customers in some ways have the best knowledge about what’s going on in your organization and a lot of employee unhappiness is because they feel they are not heard and they do in fact know better than some of their bosses but the bosses won’t listen and don’t care about what they think. So you want to involve people at all levels and from all departments in decision-making and in strategizing about how we can make things better for the customer. Earlier Yanique mentioned that often IT and Accounts don’t think that customers have anything to do with them and one thing to over come that is to get those people on departmental teams and let them start hearing the customer. Her first major business with Web Mystery Shoppers, the reason she created that company which was in the early days of eCommerce and websites and she found that their was a marketing department, sometimes a completely separate eCommerce unit and then the IT people, they all depended on each other but they were set up as completely separate units and weren’t even speaking the same language and what she did with that business is that she would have anywhere from 30 to 300 people from their target market who gave detailed feedback about, “This is what’s frustrating us about your website” and when she was able to go back to all these units and show them that it was a way to bring all these people together and realise that they did have a common objective. Yanique stated that on Tema’s website is that there is a free book that you offer 85 Tips for User Friendly Website and one of the things she found is that when she is looking for guests for her show and she’ll probably source them through Amazon if they wrote a book that really inspired her and thinks it would be good to hear their message and Amazon probably has their profile with information about the author and it usually should have a link to their website or some of the authors has their email address listed right there, what she found very frustrating as a customer herself is that most websites for some reason have a contact us form where they control how they contact you versus giving her the opportunity for you to provide their email address so that she can reach out to them because when she sends that contact us form and it says send, she is not guaranteed that somebody is going to receive that in an inbox and respond to her in a reasonable time. Tema shared that is part of what is driving people onto Social media to complain as if you provided me with better service in quieter means whether it’s making yourself easily accessible to customers through phone or through email and dealt with that better then people would not go and complain about you so much in public. Social Customer Care is something that is rising – many companies have contributed to that happening by underfunding their Call Centers. Therefore, as a customer if you have a choice in sending out a tweet and getting a response versus spending half an hour hold – of course the customer will choose the quickest response and do the tweet! So what has happened is companies have trained customers to go on Social Media, so we can’t turn that clock back and so smart companies are now staffing accordingly and making sure they catch things on Social Media quickly and deal with them well and quickly. Yanique shared that many customers do not share private messages with companies – they post the complaint on their wall. Tema agreed and said as a company – you should respond immediately in a non – defensive way. Tema also made reference to the CEO of United Airlines that companies should start by blaming the customer! Companies should approach the complaint calmly, let’s talk about this sounds complicated, maybe we can discuss this offline – I would be happy to help you. Then you send the message to anyone that saw the public tweet that, “Yes, we care and we want to help.” Tema responded to Yanique’s question by saying deleting posts or complaints that customers make is a very silly approach as this places you at risk for the situation to escalate further. Especially in an era with Screenshots! Tema shared the one website, tool or app that she absolutely cannot live without in her business is Gmail. An enhancement to Gmail called “Active Inbox.” Tema shared Active Inbox is a task manager that is attached to Gmail that allows you to set tasks, set appointments. Tema shared some of the books that have some great impact on her over the years – “The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker – so much good advice about how to bring out the best in your people. The one message that has stuck with Tema over the years is instead of trying to fix people’s weaknesses – structure their jobs so they focus on their strengths. Her other book recommendation was “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jnr. and E.B. White, about how to write more clearly and effectively – the main message Tema has taken away is to omit needless words – anytime you have written anything go back and see if you can substitute a 3 syllable word with a one syllable word and have the same meaning – the more you can distill that way – the more powerful your message will be. In response to Yanique’s question on how to motivate your employees in having a successful business - hire carefully and listen to all of your employees, ask them questions, get to know them, involve them in ideas and decision making. If you do that and involve them as a real person – you will get plenty out of them. Tema shared that she is working on an update for her first book that she wrote in the mid 90’s – Best Employer. Tema is also working on how she can make the concepts and principles of Peopleshock: The Path to Profits when Customers Rule more accessible through online courses and workbooks. Tema shared that connecting with her is pretty easy: Email: tema@frankreactions.com Twitter @temafrank Linked In – Tema Frank Frank Reactions Facebook Page Frank Reactions Podcast on Customer Experience Tema shared the quote or saying that she uses to re-ignite her spirit during times of adversity is “Remember the movie isn’t over yet” – meaning we are at a low point but something good is coming!
Candidate experience. Everyone's talking about it. Someone made a really useful model that we can all learn from. That someone is Ben Gledhill who leads Talent Acquisition at Sofology. Learn more about Ben's approach in this interview. Questions: Tell us about Sofology and what you do? What is candidate experience? Why is it important? What’s your approach to it? What inspired you to create your model? Where should you start? How can we measure candidate experience and make sure we use the data well? What brands/organisations inspire you in terms of candidate experience? What’s the next big thing? Where do you want to send our listeners? Read the article and subscribe: http://employerbrandingpodcast.com
Brett Campbell, from journeyman cabinetmaker to fitness entrepreneur having built one of the fastest growing fitness brands in Australia is a man on a mission and he’s living the dream life of a young and successful entrepreneur. Impacted and inspired by the passing of a childhood friend, Brett is now taking his mission to the next level, helping the generations of entrepreneurs and professionals realize their true potential and assume a life of freedom and abundance that is possible for all who dare to take charge of their destiny. Brett’s mission is to help over 100 Million people discover, design, develop and deliver their passion and expertise to the world so that they can make more money, help more people and ultimately live a lifestyle of their design. Brett is also the owner and CEO of Fiit International, a global health and fitness company whose products and services have helped over 45,000 clients and the Authority Academy, an online community for Internet marketers, coaches, speakers and small business owners. He’s also the founder of the Unleash Your Greatness Movement, an international live event series to help others pursue living the life of their dreams. Having grown up in New Zealand, Brett now lives in the gold coast of Australia with his lovely wife Emily and their two pugs, Burt and Pugsley. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey On a global level, how do you feel about customer service/ customer experience? Health and fitness is important, how do you think it plays a role if your employees are healthier, not just physically but also spiritually and mentally so that they can really be a well-rounded employee in order to perform in your business? What are some important considerations for an entrepreneur or an online business owner to be successful? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Brett Campbell stated that he was born in Australia and they were living in a trailer park/caravan park, himself, his sister and his parents. One day he was playing outside and he heard his name yelled out, “Brett, Brett” and he said to himself “Oh my god, what have I done” because he was a rascal type kid. I run into the trailer park and put his head the window and it was his mother calling out his name. She said, “Brett, Brett run across the road right now and get some help”. What he was witnessing was his father has his hands on his mother and was about to throw her through the window. He just came back from the local pub so he was drunk and this was sort of the regular occurrence. He ran across the road and got some help and that was the last moment, last memory he had of his father, shortly after his mother and sister and himself jumped an airplane and moved to New Zealand to start a new life. He shared this story purely because at that age he remembered clearly and vividly, saying to himself that he will do everything he possible can in his power to make sure that his mother and sister never have to worry ever again. He assumed the responsibility of being the man of the family and that’s quite a big responsibility for a young boy to take on but it has been the driving force of every single thing he does in his life. He went through school, got kicked out of school as he was the kid that talked too much, he got a call to the Principal’s office and they say, “Brett, it’s probably better off that you leave school now.” It got to a point where he would walk into English classes and the teacher would point to the hallway and say, “You’re sitting out there today.” It got to the point where he said maybe school isn’t the best for him to harness what he was suppose to being doing on this planet, which at the time he had no clue what that was but he fell into an apprentice cabinetmaker. He became a cabinetmaker and stayed there 5 years too long because he knew from day one that was not he was made to be doing on this planet. He was good at it, became really good at it and he became the best in the factory, he was grooming to take over ownership of the factory but the reality was that something he knew he wasn’t meant to be doing and there are too many people on this planet right now in a job, in a career, doing a course at university, doing something right now that they know that that’s not what they meant to be doing and at the time unfortunate for him, he didn’t recognize that quick enough. He then jumped on an airline, left New Zealand, moved to Australia and started a fitness company. He started as a solo personal trainer, he was training time for money, he was training people and then he uncovered what online Internet marketing was and haven’t looked back since. They built a franchise, they built about 16 different products and services that cater to the health and wellness industry ranging from a franchise to an education school to online products and services and then he found the love for online marketing and building business and the natural transition of people asking him how he did and how he can help them which led into Authority Academy where he helps entrepreneurs and business owners follow what they call The Authority Road Map which is a unique framework that can help anyone out there who has the passion, the skills, the knowledge, how do you take that and turn it into a business so that you can generate a very nice, comfortable lifestyle around that. Brett agreed that he has had a very excited and adventurous journey thus far and there is a number of things that have happened and reason why these things happen is that he is the that guy, you hear the saying, “Ready, Fire, Aim”, he let off 20 rounds first so he’ll fire, fire, fire, ops he’s ready and then aim, hence the reason why he is able to do so many things because he has had that attitude from day one which is engrained that he just doesn’t give up, he’ll keep moving forward. He just wrote his first book and he shared in it that, “We work on the right things, just at the wrong times” and it’s something for entrepreneurs and business owners to really be aware of and with the opportunity that they have right with the online landscape and how easy it is to get your message in front of people. Too many people right now are working on the right things such as: maybe it is the right thing for you to be learning Social Media and Facebook but if you haven’t got the foundations, you haven’t understand what your business is all about, why you’re doing the business that you are doing, you can certainly be like he was; build a franchise with 35 locations in 6 months then realize that maybe this franchise wasn’t the path he wanted to go down. Brett Campbell stated that the customer experience is imperative, he talked about it in Authority Road Map, it is the second pillar which is Customer and Community and inside of that he talked about a concept call “Your Client Perfect Journey” “What’s the dream come through experience?” Whenever he’s working with anyone, he’ll say, “Let’s outline the first time someone hears or sees anything about you, what does that perfect journey looks like from there on?” Too many entrepreneurs, business owners do this and he admitted that when he heard about this online that you can generate thousands of leads easily online, he started to not look at each lead as a person, he was looking at them as just another number and they have generated 500,000 people on their databases and at the start they were generating 1,000 leads a day and he was just looking at them as a number. It is a very important distinction and he hears it so much now with people complaining about Social Media, “I only got 3 likes on this post that I did” or “I only have 200 people engage in this post and it used to be thousands” what we need to stop and remember is 200 people or 5 likes, that’s 5 people who have engaged with your stuff, people are taking time out of their day and so it ties back to the customer experience. You must first know that each customer is a human being with a soul, with their own issues, once you can really grasp that, it’s super important, any overall journey of a customer because what’ the goal of business is to get repeat customers, is to have people staying, paying and referring into your business. Brett stated that it is imperative and he talked about this concept in his latest book called Right Now: Why Not You and Why Not Now? and it’s all about taking action right now, not tomorrow, not next week or next month and one of the pillars he talked about is the concept of the 4 P’s which comes under the developmental phase. He believes that there are 4 things that we as human beings must develop these key areas, there is the Physiology, there’s our Psychology, our Personal Knowledge and our Productivity, as an employer it’s integral that we are teaching and training our employees in the 4 key areas, so health and fitness is one and it’s imperative. If you have someone eating terrible food and you can see that they are sluggish after lunch, you need to have those conversations and say, “How is this affecting your productivity? How this is affecting your focus and energy moving forward?” because it’s all about team culture as well, you lead from example, you can’t walk into the office with a pie and expect other people to not to follow – not saying any employer should say, “this is what you have to eat if you work here” just talk about the education around it like, “Hey, I notice that at 2:00 pm you get into a bit of a tired patch, I can see that your energy shift and you can see productivity drop” You need to address those things head on. Health and fitness is one component of it, it really comes down to the psychology as well and teaching and training your employees to become aware of what is actually happening when we talk about mind, body connection, when we talk about how they are feeling. Brett stated that every single business is an online business regardless. Do they produce and deliver their product deliverable online? That is probably classifies more as a capital leader online business. He thinks the biggest things once again is the beautiful luxury that we have with online space is that you can get feedback very quickly so we can create whether it’s an opt-in page or a product, you will know fairly quickly, all you need to do is send some traffic to a page and we could know within an hour whether it’s going to work or not. He stated that they just ran an Authority Academy event in the Gold Coast and one of things he was sharing with people is the concept of split testing and the luxury that we have with it is so easy, in 50 seconds you can have a brand new page split testing off each other and let the software that you are using define it but he shared this case study where they were converting, one of their opt-in pages were converting at 48% and it was over 20,000 conversions so it was pretty steady and then something triggered him to split test the page and finally converted at 58% over 10,000 conversions. Think about that number, over 10,000 opt-ins, a 10% difference, we’re talking about a lot of money when you are talking from the money you are investing to generate a client but you’re talking about the missed opportunity as well. What you need to be aware of when you are embarking online is the easability to be able to create and execute on something but also be aware that that can be all Achilles Heel for you as well because this is where working on the right thing at the wrong time really comes into fruition. For example, say you want to go from offline to online and you talk to some marketer out there who is a “coach” and they say, “Yes, you need to build a sales funnel and drive traffic to an opt-in and this is what it’ll look like.” What he sees and when people come to him and say, “We have been trying, we’ve built a funnel, we created this course or program and it’s not working.” It’s because they have lost traction and they have lost connection with the foundational components of their business and that’s really identifying what does your client really want and what does your client really need. So because it’s so easy to create a product or service and get it up online, a lot of people miss the core concept of are you delivering the right thing at the right time, what is the actual product deliverable that you are selling in exchange. In reference to Yanique’s question about the Hardware Store that is now migrating online from a Brick and Mortar set up. Brett suggested that the Hardware Store should take their contact list and upload it into Facebook – have your customers connect with you, post things of value to your customers. Use video and show customers how to do things, re-purposing videos as videos are “hot” Do not be solely focused on selling your products. Brett stated that the tool he couldn’t live without is ClickFunnels and Infusionsoft hands down. One that he likes right now is Trello, they use it as communication through team. It is used from a team communicative perspective. Brett shared that one of the books that have had the biggest impact is the first that he jumped into which he didn’t read a book until he was 25 years old. He taught himself how to speed read but he thought it was him being lazy just skipping through, skimming pages but at the age of 25 he immerse himself in his first book called The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber, it was the first book that he started and was like, “this is me, they are talking to me” which is ironic because it is the story about the entrepreneur, the technician and the manager and they used McDonald’s as an example of building a business that can be franchised and duplicated and he finally went on to build a franchise. Brett suggested that you need to connect with your big Why, your big mission, vision of what you truly want to be doing. He shared that he started the online world 8 years ago, all he want to do was make money online, sit on the beach and drink Piña Colada, that was the vision that he wanted but what he really wanted, his biggest vision in life is to stand on stage in front of tens and thousands of people and share the message that life’s too short to not be living to your fullest potential. If he wants to achieve this big vision and mission, there’s no way he can possible do it by himself and that’s where the concept that his friend created a framework called the EPT (Entrepreneurial Personality Type). The first thing as an entrepreneur, the question you ask yourself is “How do I get ahead, how can I help myself move forward?” when you do your first hire it’s purely on the basis of how can they help me move forward, it’s selfish act so to speak. You are giving someone employment, money and all of those things but the reason why people hire is because they need help. The next step moving forward through that is “How do we both get ahead, how do I help you now as an employee start living to your potential?” and that’s where a lot of employers get scared about, they say, “I don’t want to empower my employees too much, they would probably get up and leave.” That was limiting belief that he had and instilled in him as well until he had the conversation with a couple of different friends and one of the comments landed and it was like, “Why wouldn’t you want people to outgrow your business, it’s an amazing thing that means you have done a great job, you have helped them now go to their next level in life.” It is in agreement with his message in life is helping people live their full potential. He has people in his company now that doesn’t want to be there in the next 12 months because they are going to outgrow it. When you are around him, you are inspired to go and live to your true potential and if he has people in his company who is sitting around a computer and going, “This is not really what I want to be doing for the real of my life.” He has to understand and live with the reality that he is going inspire people around in his circle to go out to do something bigger and different. It also comes down to not being afraid that you need to have an employee that’s going to be a 20-year veteran in your company. The Ultimate Goal is Contribution – how do we contribute to someone other than ourselves – how do we get there. Brett stated that the one thing that he is working on right now is definitely his book; it has been over a year in the making. He released it in October 2016 but he wrote it 1 year previously in November. It is what the book’s message actual represents as it’s not a book to him, it’s the message. It’s what’s itched on to the pieces of paper and more so now because it has been out for a couple of weeks, he is getting tons of feedback, people messaging and tagging him in posts on Facebook just sharing how much of a change it has starting to make a change in their life because it’s very practical step by step, it’s not just philosophy, it’s like, “go and try this, go and try that” so you can start seeing momentum. All we need to move forward and start living to our full potential is to start creating momentum, start creating steps right now and that’s what’s really exciting, they have tied also Unleash Your Greatness Bali escape which they run every year, which is an event they run in Bali, it’s a 5 day event, it takes people from all over the world there and it’s amazing. He is just loving being able to now be in that position of contribution. He is still building a business, he is still building businesses but to be able to take that step out and really start to have more profound impact on people’s lives. Brett shared that the book Right Now!: Why Not You and Why Not Now? by Brett Campbell can be found at www.rightnowacademy.com/book, you can also find it on Amazon and in book stores around the world. Brett shared listeners can find him at – www.brettcampbell.net Brett Campbell Facebook Brett Campbell Twitter Brett Campbell Instagram Brett Campbell Podcast – Deep Dive Podcast Brett shared a quote that he has a couple and one of them is “Done is better than perfect” is critical because too many people get road blocked and stage fright on the sense that “It needs to have this before I do this” or “I have to achieve this before that.” The other one is from Michelangelo is “The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Links The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber Right Now!: Why Not You and Why Not Now? by Brett Campbell ClickFunnels Trello Infusionsoft
Calvin Wayman is a bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker and Social Media Entrepreneur. The most inspiring thing about Calvin is what he has done in such a short time. He shows that where there is a will, there is a way. Seeing where he is now, it’s crazy that in just spring 2015 he was still working an employee job, feeling stuck at a job that he was not passionate about; he ultimately decided to give himself a chance. He suddenly quit his day job to pursue his dream of working for himself and went selling door to door; he’s a man on a mission. He owns Cobbes Media, a Social Media Management Agency designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs to stand out beyond 97% of everyone else on Social Media. He has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Social Media Examiner, The Huffington Post and was even named one of the Top 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by www.influensive.com. He recently ran in a 50 mile ultra marathon just to challenge himself and he just barely released his 1st book which debuted on the Amazon top 100 of all books in the success category. His book is called Fish Out of Water: The Guide to Achieving Breakthrough and Permanently Transforming Into the New You. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey What are some recommendations for starting your own business and do you think customer experience is something that they should be thinking about from the initial stage or is it something you take into consideration after you start the business? How do you feel about customer experience as a customer and owning a Social Media Management Agency, how do you approach it online? What are some every day solutions that you would recommend to a small business owner to help them improve their customer experience? Can you share a little about your book and how can it really help persons listening to this show, what are the main take away, your purpose and intension was for this book? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Calvin Wayman stated that the thing that he tells most people right off the bat that is important to know is that he is a regular dude, he’s somebody who just wanted more out of life, wanted freedom and it’s important to know that because when he was getting started on his journey, he would look at people that he admired like Lewis Howes, Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone even Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres - he would look at all these super successful business people and tend put them on a pedestal and say “Yea, these guys are great, it be awesome to be like them.” Knowing that there is no way in the world he could close to them or have whatever they have, so he put them on a pedestal or on a top of a mountain as a Guru that can’t ever be attained and what he learned over the last 1 ½ year since he quit his day job, being able to connect with so many amazing people is that they are just that, they are people and when that clicked for him he said, “Oh my gosh, here is this person in front of me that’s a multimillionaire or a billionaire having a conversation with them, seeing that they are just a regular human being” then it clicked for him that he can go after this and that excited him. It’s been a crazy 1 ½ year with things he has gone after and challenges he has put himself through and he just wanted people to always know where he came from like less than 2 years ago he was still working at his job, just going through the motion of what we all do, wanting to live a decent life, he has a wife and a 3 year old son. He wants people to realize that if someone like him coming from where he comes from can do it and he’s not come close to arriving where he wants to be but if he can do it, you can do it too. As an Entrepreneur, Calvin shared that throughout his whole transition and even when he was in his day job, something that was always in his mind, a quote from Zig Ziglar, “Help enough people get what they want and you can have anything that you want.” So wherever you are at in any stage, whether you’re an employee working for somebody’s company or you’re looking for more freedom, it absolutely comes down to customer experience because it’s coming down to making people feel cared about, loved, taken care of, helping them get what they want because the truth is, if you really want to go after more the way to get it is going to be by giving them what they want so you can have what you want. So you’re thinking of it on whichever side of the isle you’re on, employee or entrepreneur. As an Online Entrepreneur, Calvin stated that it’s more important in a lot of ways because customer experience is one of those things that is mandatory, you’ve got to have it and if you don’t have it then it’s horrible, that’s where stuff really get crazy when people don’t feel cared about, they feel betrayed and how he does it online is that part of the training he does on online Social Media often is something that he calls the 4 C’s to Social Media Success and the last C that everything comes down to is Connection, no matter what you do, whether you’re doing it online or in life, the way you’re going to build your business and have it grow and scale is by building those connections. He calls it “Doing the scaling by doing the unscalable.” He thinks that a lot of time what gets in peoples way when it comes to customer service experience or just the whole interacting and giving the customer something that is pleasant is a lot of times it feels like it’s taking time and it is and it feels like it’s taking a lot of investment and sometimes it is but they’re human beings and if you want to take it to the next level, then you have to have that foundation and there are so many great examples of it. A lot of people have iPhones and if he asks this question of “Who still have their iPhone box?” most people will raise their hand, it’s a box but they have it down to the detail of what you feel like when you open that thing, it’s a piece of cardboard but it’s designed so well, it has the phone right there on the top and it makes you feel special and you think you should be keeping the box and most people do, they don’t do anything with it, they just set it in their closet but they feel bad about throwing it away, it feels good so must be something worth keeping. So it touches everything, especially on the online space you have to scale by doing the unscalable, reaching out to your customers when they don’t expect it, even when you’re trying to grow your following and you think of your followers as “customers” - give them a good experience. Calvin stated that everyone that follows him on Facebook, he’ll go back to them and send them a voice memo so that it makes that touch more human because on line, it’s so easy to forget that there is another human being on the other line and so if you really want to stand out and give somebody a great experience, then just do something that makes it human, if they hear your voice instead of just seeing chat, then that’s such an easy way to stand out from everybody else. It’s super important no matter what your business is, certainly off line but also online as well and sometimes even more important because most people just forget about it. Calvin stated that some people just do the work and don’t really touch back and they try to get cell phone numbers of their customers and they’ll text them and they can text from their computer system but that’s something that’s more personal, it feels more real. He mentioned doing the voice memo; sometimes they’ll do a quick video for a specific customer and say their name just to give them the results. Anything that he feels that make it more human, that probably one of the biggest thing you can do because that’s what people want to have but at the same time, it’s not making the mistakes because when the experience is bad, that’s where things really get in the way. He recently had an experience where he was at the other end of it, he got delayed at an airport for 26 hours and it was unnecessary. This is an example of companies that put policies over people and that is one of the biggest mistakes anybody can ever do when it comes to your customer experience, never put policy over people. He stated that a few weeks ago he went to the airport and everything he does is electronic, he’s a millennial so he doesn’t have printed out itineraries, he has them on his cell phone. He got in the line and he handed the Security his phone; he has the airline app on it, he goes to it and say, “Huh, I’m not seeing the barcode, I’m seeing the itinerary but I’m not seeing the barcode to scan” so he looked through the app he wasn’t seeing it either and his flight is in about 50 minutes so he needed to get things moving and after they can’t find it, they got several other security people over to come look at the boarding pass, to find the barcode, they can’t find it. After several minutes of several people looking through it, they then said he will have to go to a kiosk and print it out and he has never done that before. He went to the kiosk to print it out, the airline that he was flying had their portion of the kiosk turned off, so you couldn’t print it out. He went back to security and said, “Hey, the kiosk is off, so we just need to find it, here’s my itinerary showing my flight, showing my seat number and everything but we can’t find the barcode, what should we do?” And after having 5 different people look at his phone app, they couldn’t figure it out, so then they said, “You better go down to the airline’s customer service.” He went down to the airline’s customer service and said, “My barcode is not showing” and he says, “Yea, we have a little bit of issue, let me see if I can get it fixed” and then he says, “Oh, I actually can’t turn it on because you are within the 45 minutes before leaving” he says, “Even if I could, you’re gonna have to get another flight.” He said that his flight’s not for 40 minutes, that’s plenty of time. He said, “I’m sorry I can’t” and he asked him why and told him that he has a meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00 am, he can’t miss that meeting. The customer service representative said, “I can’t turn it on” and he just kept on saying it would make so that he might be late and it was literally 40 minutes before the plane leaves and he asked him, “How long does it takes for you to walk to the gate” and he said it takes him 7 minutes but he doesn’t have to go through security. Calvin asked him to give him 15 minutes, let him try but he kept giving him all the reasons he can’t and said that he didn’t want him to come back and have to reschedule he would rather me reschedule right now. So here’s someone that could have made one little switch and said, “Yeah, we have had issues, let me turn it on, I understand that you’re under the 45 minutes that me try to get people through but let me get you through.” He talked with him for 15 minutes and then even after he had it booked, several other people way later than him was going through security to get on that same flight. He had so much time and what makes it even worse, he had to sit out that airport for 26 hours missing an entire day, missing his important meeting that he had and when he got the flight the next day, he looked at his watch from the time he was at security to the time he got through and it only took him 9 minutes. Now here is someone putting policy over people and what he learnt from him after they booked it, he asked him, “What made you not want to do it?” and he said, “Well, there’s this manager lady that every time it’s under the 45 minutes, she gets mad at the gate when we turn it back on” and so, he was covering himself to not get in trouble with his own manager and it was enough to have him a customer not wanting to use that airline again because it was such a negative experience, he had never been delayed for so long for something and unnecessarily. That’s an example of having an experience gone bad because what it ultimately came down to a company that has a policy, and policies are important because they help a company function and run more smoothly but when you have policies that contradict the human experience and you put policies over people, that’s where you have a problem and there is a really amazing book that talks about this type of thing that puts it in a great way and it’s buy Dale Partridge, the book is called, People Over Profit: Break the System, Live with Purpose, Be More Successful , it’s such a good book and it shows how you need to be thinking about your business whether it’s online, if it’s an airline or if it’s a brick and mortar, businesses are about people fundamentally not just processes or policies. If you take care of your people, you’re going to take care of your business and where everybody gets in trouble. There’s this big thing happening with Wells Fargo over the last few months in hot water in the United States and the biggest issues that they are having is how they have been treating their people or their customers in not good way. The biggest take away is you got to put your people over your policies. Calvin shared a great example of Morton's Steakhouse, there’s this guy jumping on an airline and he’s going to go on this long airline flight so he sends out a tweet and he tags Morton's in it and he says, “Man, this is going to be a long flight, I would love a Morton's Steak at the end of this.” He was just joking; he sends out the tweet completely joking almost like if it’s starting to snow, we’ll make a tweet that says, “Dear winter, please go away." He gets to the end of his airline flight, he comes off the plane and guess what he sees right there in the airport, a guy in a tuxedo, bow tie and all with a Morton's Steakhouse meal for the gentleman completely for free. Morton's saw that tweet and if you think of all the logistics that had to come in play for that to happen, for somebody at Morton's to see that tweet, to then get it approved in however long and say “Let’s do this stunt”, and to even find the guy’s airline and see when he was going to land and plan everything to get the food cooked right, to be right there in the airport when he landed, it’s crazy, so many resources were put into that but the question is “Do you think that made a connection with this guy? Do you think it gave him a good customer experience?” Absolutely! And that’s the point, it blew his mind so much that he was so excited about, so impressed, realizing what Morton's did, he ended up writing a blog - posting and sharing his story and it ended up being shared thousands and thousands of time and Morton's business blew up because of that and that’s just one little thing, taking care of one customer, doing one little thing and most people might look at that in the beginning or even the idea of it and say “Well, we can’t do that because that’s going to cost us time, money and resources” but it’s something that you can’t scale and do over and over but it’s when you do those human touches that your whole business will grow and Morton's has that story within their culture and so it just has this whole culture of taking care of people and people over processes, people over policies, people over procedure and that’s how any business continues to flourish is when they keep that in mind that it's the people that matter and give them the experience, they are the reason YOU are in business. Calvin stated that January is coming up and that’s when he thinks the book is really going to become heavy and super important because in January everybody sets New Year’s resolutions and they get super excited about it and then come February everyone flat lines or people quit. When he started the book, he was analyzing that and was like, “Why is that? What’s happening here?” and what he discovered is there is this thing that is not talked about in business or goal setting or aiming high in any part of your life and it’s this period where after you get excited, after you start taking action on a goal, you hit this point where it’s not very exciting anymore, you feel out of your element, you feel awkward, You feel like a fish out of water and that’s because you’re doing something that is out of your element jus t like a fish is out of its element when it’s out of water. The tragedy is when most people hit that point, like in February when they become fish out of water, because they are out of their element, they end up reverting back to their old fish bowl of mediocrity and so what his book is all about is recognizing that this is going to happen, so in any business that you’re in, if you’re a business owner that wants to completely change the culture of your business or develop a whole completely new customer experience, then you’re going to go through this growth stage where you’re going to feel like a fish out of water because it’s going to be completely new territory from where you’re at right now. That’s what the whole book is about is recognizing that you’re become a fish out of water but here are the principles that you can go through to not just revert back and flat line and become normal but completely break through and create an entirely new standard for your life or your business. Yanique stated that there is a section in the book called, SWIM which is an acronym and it says swim like a shark. Shark and development and moving forward in your life, are they connected and can you share with us a little bit about why you would need to swim like a shark and what are the characteristics of a shark that we would need to be inculcating into our lives. Calvin shared that shark in his book is a really positive thing; he uses the opposite like a "guppy" which your smaller average version of yourself and a shark is something completely different, something you transform into. He did that because when you breakthrough that fish out of water phase, you don’t just become a bigger fish, you become a completely different fish, something that’s confident, you literally transform. One of the main principles he talks about near the end of the book is swimming like a shark and SWIM is an acronym of four things that he noticed with successful people and when you start behaving like a shark then it pulls you in that direction to become a shark yourself and SWIM stands for Success, Words, Improve and Measure. Success is defining success the right way and he has noticed has he talks to millionaires and billionaire, they think of success completely differently than a guppy does. For example, a guppy thinks that success is arriving at a destination or getting the result but what he noticed is that successful people are masters of the mundane, they are used to doing the same thing over and over and that is success. Said in a different way, they view success as something completely in their control, so they are focused inward on saying, “What can I do?” they take personal responsibility for it and it’s by doing those things and taking personal responsibility that makes the result happen as a buy product but they are not waiting for the result to come before they say, “I am successful” like you might as a guppy, “I’m not going to be successful until that day, until I achieve this.” You can wake up, be successful today, you can have your goal in the distance and say, “If that’s my goal, what action can I take today to get me closer.” That’s the main thing with the S in SWIM in that chapter, is recognizing what sharks think about success and realizing that it’s in your control and staying focus within your control. Words is showing that people that are successful and they live by success principles are the people we admire whether they are a famous movie star, whether they are Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, a millionaire, a billionaire or somebody with a big company, they speak differently than most people, they have a different language, the words they use and the topics they talk about is what Words is all about. A piece from the Words section and it’s something he learned from one of his mentors Michael Bernoff, he is known like the other Tony Robbins, he’s great with transforming people into a new version of themselves. One day he was getting coaching from him and he asked him a question and he said, “Sure” and he completely stopped the conversation and said, “What did you say?” and he said, “What?” and he asked again, “What did you say?” and he said sure. And he said, “Calvin, do you know what sure means?” He said sure means screw you and it shocked him, he said, “What you need to realize Calvin, is that sure and maybe and I don’t know and perhaps, those are all fluffy, uncertain words and if you want to be successful, what you’ll notice is successful people use words that are definite like yes, no, absolutely and they are certain in the things they say, they are absolute.” It was an amazing coaching lesson for him and he said, “Calvin, what you say matters, the words you use matter.” He looks at the word “sure” as a curse word for him because he went through the same process and he saw how he changed his language when he was on his way to becoming a millionaire. That was a major lesson for him, so that’s what Words is all about. I stand for Improve, this is important if you’re looking to grow your business to always have a better customer experience. You will notice with Apple or any good company that has been around for awhile is that they don’t ever arrive, they’re always improving, and they’re always looking for the latest ways to develop the customer experience. A great example of somebody that finally got their act together was Nintendo. For years they were stuck to the console and in the day that was the thing to give the best customer experience but then these things came around called the cell phones and people were on mobile and it took them forever but finally this year they came out with PokemonGo. PokemonGo was a way of improving from where they were and it created such an amazing customer experience and it exploded and it had the biggest growth of any app in history when they made that switch. That’s what I is all about. It is always continuing to improving where you are because successful businesses, successful people never arrive. The final thing that helps with everything is M. M stands for Measure and measuring the right things. He went to a mentor and was complaining because something wasn’t happening the way he thought it should or he wasn’t growing as much as he thought he should and he said, “Well, how are you measuring it?” and he replied, “I’m not measuring it.” And his mentor said, “That’s the problem, you don’t know if you’re winning, if you don’t keep score and you get more of what you measure.” Measure is super important it’s what he notices with so many successful people, it’s what sharks do, and they measure the key indicators of what they want to move. So keep score but measure the right things, measure the things you want to get more of. Examples of what you should measure and what you shouldn’t measure, according to his mentor, what most people do if they want to get in better shape or increase their finances and so they measure how heavy they are, if you think you’re going to get more of what you measure, you’re in resistance, you don’t want to measure how heavy you are because don’t want more pounds. People want to get out of debt and yet they are measuring their debt, so they are in resistance. So what do you measure? You measure what he explains as a lead measure, something that if you do more of it, it will change the result. So if you want to lose weight, instead of how much you weigh, you could do a couple of things, you could measure how much weight you lost, so you get more of it or even better, measure the thing 100% in your control like how many days you worked out or how many sets you did or how much you maxed out, how many perfect days you had with eating well. Do the things that if you do them that they are 100% in your control then it can predictively change the result. If you want to get out of debt, measure your income, measure ways to make money and that’s what going to get you closer to getting the actual result that you want. M is for measure, you don’t know if you’re winning if you don’t keep score and to take it one step further, measure the things that getting more of is going to help you win. This is what the sharks do, this what makes them successful and the cool thing is anyone can adopt it. That is how you SWIM LIKE A SHARK. calvinwayman.com/book Calvin Wayman shared how he stays motivated everyday; he stated that he is motivated by the I in SWIM. HE believes in Tony Robbins when he says, “Progress Equals Happiness.” That’s what drives him, he wants freedom, he likes impacting peoples’ lives but more importantly, he likes to see where he is at and taking it to the next level and that makes him feel good. When he went from being completely in debt to becoming debt free that felt good, improving in that way. When he went from being an employee to having his own company, that felt good. When he was 30-40 pounds overweight and he lost the weight, it felt good. When he went from running a half marathon to an ultra that felt good. Just getting up every day and saying, “What can I do to improve myself?” just to stretch yourself a little bit because we are all where we are at and to get where it is that you want to go is not as crazy of a drastic change as we might think, it’s like 1% improvement a day but over time, in a hundred day, you are twice as good. Calvin stated that the one online tool he uses everyday is Calendly. In an online world where you’re talking to people from all over the world and their different time zones, sometimes it’s hard to meet but when he got Calendly, that just fixed everything so people can go set time with you and it takes out all the guess work. People come to him all the time and say, “We should connect.” And then he can put it in their court instead of going back and forth and being stressed out, he can say, “Here’s my personal link feel free to pick a time and I’ll be there.” Calvin stated that there are some books that he tries to read every year because they make an impact like How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is a big one especially when it comes to dealing with people and having customer experience. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not by Robert T. Kiyosaki was huge for him creating the type of business he wanted to and being more entrepreneurial. Something more recently is a book called The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, it’s all about if you want to be most effective, how you can strip away all of the noise and find that one thing that you’re completely the best at, focus on that one thing, get it done and it just changes everything. That was huge for him especially when he was writing his book because he had so many things going and when he read that book and realized if he just focus on this until it was done, focus on completion, then it makes everything better. Calvin stated that the one thing that he is working on right now is his first live event. It is something that he has never done before, stepping into new waters and that’s what he is nervous about but excited about it at the same time. Calvin stated that listeners can find him on: www.calvinwayman.com Calvin Wayman Facbook Calvin Wayman Snapchat Calvin Wayman Twitter Calvin stated that he has a quote but it is not tied to the customer experience but it’s tied to a business owner, an entrepreneur or somebody that’s leveling up. Sometimes when we are moving or we have a desire to move into a direction, we feel stuck and we feel like we are facing adversity and we don’t know how to get through it and something that has helped him is another thing that he learned from one of his mentors is “Done is better than perfect.” It means just move in any way that you can because often times as business owners or entrepreneurs we are our own worst critic and we want it to look perfect but progress doesn’t happen without movement. Movement requires action and when we are hitting adversity the biggest thing it does to us is the fear freezes us so to break that apart, just give yourself permission that it’s better to look sloppy and do something than nothing. So done is better than perfect and just take that next step. Links Fish Out of Water: The Guide To Achieving Breakthrough and Permanently Transforming Into the New You by Calvin Wayman How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not by Robert T. Kiyosaki The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller People Over Profit: Break the System, Live with Purpose, Be More Successful by Dale Patridge
Jane Anderson is a Personal Branding and Presentation Skills expert. She is a communication expert with over 12 years in personal branding and LinkedIn in profile development. Jane works with experts in their field to grow their businesses and increase their leads, her clients include Virgin Australia, Cisco, Leggo, IKEA, Rio Tinto and Origin Energy. Jane has been featured in Business Insider, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Courier Mail and Marie Claire and is the host of the number 1 ranked iTunes Podcast, The Jane Anderson Brand You Show. Jane is a nominee for Telstar Business Awards for 2016 and a mentor on Thought Leaders Business School, helping clever people be commercially smart. Jane has been endorsed by LinkedIn as one of the top influences in Australia and New Zealand; she is also the author of 3 books including Connect: How to Leverage Your LinkedIn Profile for Business Growth and Lead Generation in Less Than 7 Minutes per Day. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey How do you feel about customer service/ customer experience on a global level? From your book, what are some of the top things that will help business owners to grow their business, to leverage and understand their business and how customer service can help their business and get more leads and more customers and will they see results? Yanique indicated that se read Jane’s website that Jane believes people should really be optimizing on their personal brand because people buy you. How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Jane Anderson state that when she was growing up something that she has always been interesting in was the world of business but while she was in high school, her very first job was in retail and she worked for a company called Mavis Shoes in Australia and Mavis Shoes is a family type shoes store and they have branches all over Australia. She started working for the Mavis Shoes brand when was she was 14 years old but the keeping was that the Mavis family owned the Mavis brand and it was a big iconic family in Australia and they sold the company and moved on. She started in retail and remembered how the experience was with customers and how she was allowed to have a customer by herself for the first month. They had to have somebody with them the whole time, the standards of training was high but it lead her down the path of really starting to become interesting in personally branding businesses so the Mavis name is still known in Australia, they are 3rd and 4th generation retailers and she has since gone on to work with other industries like State Government, Roads and Transport but she kept coming back to retail, she spent about 15 years in retail, she was a manager. She did a marketing degree but have always loved customers, she loves being able to make them happy but she worked with the Mavis family for 12 years and one of the things she found while working with them is that what drew people to the business was because everybody had a story about the family, everybody knew something about them or they knew the daughters and what she notice was that the family had a strong reputation in the community and they were very well respected and her job was to make sure that their values of customer service that she adapted those and did things in the same way as if they were in the store, she went on to be a area manager for them. She then went on to work for a super retail group, Supercheap Auto in Australia, it is the fastest growing retail companies, they have just over 10,000 staff and she was the Learning and Development Officer for them. She always knew she would go out on her own, it’s something she has always been committed to is customer service. She grew up in a place called Lismore in Australia, which is laid back, she moved to the city when she finished University because she just wanted the jobs there and she has gone on to doing other things. Jane Andersons stated that on a global level from what she see and talking clients is that she thinks there’s not one way to do things anymore, there are so many channels the way you access customers and particular now, what’s the digital platform that matches the face to face customer experience. She stated that she was talking to someone the other day and they said, “the only reason why I on Twitter is make a customer service complaint because if I can’t the answers, they’ll soon answer me if I’m on Twitter”, so the customer service experience she thinks is a lot more transparent than it use to be in the past. If somebody has a bad experience, it’s not that hard for us to go and find out, people make comments on Facebook pages and Twitter, so the digital foot print as part of your customer experience in your business is something she thinks people don’t always think is much. She stated that the other thing is about evolving and changing, so if you look at the retail industry, something that they have noticed in Australia and it’s been in the media, is that retail businesses are being extraordinary slow to adapt online shopping as part of their experience, so a lot of Australian shoppers have shopped overseas online because the can get it cheaper and so Australian retailers suffer because they are not offering the customer experience that people want, so people will shop overseas. Those 2 things, the impact of digital social media, businesses evolving and changing fast enough because it’s the ones that edge all, who can move quickly if they look at thing like Instagram or what people are able to sell and create the customer experience and integrate that, it’s just not walking pass the shop front anymore. Jane stated that the challenge is that the customer is driving the direction of the experience, not the businesses and it depends on the kind of business you are in but she thinks that 1 of the challenge is being able to know when to listen to customers and when not to, she always thinks of that Henry Ford quote, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Sometimes it’s that balance, it’s not necessarily playing with the popularity contest. They’ll say, I need you to look at what’s trending and stop marketing around what customers or what people are talking about and what’s trending but the problem with that is that you’re just diluting your business because you’re focusing on what people are talking about what they want but sometimes it’s about being comfortable that what you’re talking about is actually about what people need and you have to be comfortable that you might not be popular, you might not be everybody’s favorite but if you’re following what everybody is interested in, you become commoditize, so you have to be very careful that you can still stand out even if customers are wanting it and everyone’s following what customers want. Sometime you have to actually go in the opposite direction. Jane stated that when she first started her business, she is a sole entrepreneur and have a team of 1 staff member full-time and rest of her team are contractors but one of the things when she first started and she left corporate business life was that she had some money saved and she thought she was going to go out and start her business and the first year she lost about $30,000.00 in google advertisments and search engines optimization and it wasn’t that anything was wrong with those products, they are fantastic but she spent it on the wrong person and she was a little naïve and this person said that they were an expert but she might have well just given the money away. When that happened she had a choice, she had either go back to job or she had to find a way to make it work with zero budget, so it forced her to start to learn about LinkedIn a little more, it’s free and she can go and start reaching out to people and contacting them and that was in 2009. At the time she was also writing profiles for her clients, so they were getting jobs, and branding people and what happened was that she used LinkedIn to help grow her business and that was how, she learnt from someone in the United States of America about how the algorithms work. She is also productivity. The book was written for people who are time poor, who just really need it to work for them when they need it to, when they are trying to grow their business and what are the activities they need to work on that will get the growth. There are thought leaders, experts in their fields she has worked with and she generally says, “you can get your turn over up to the $300,000.00 mark just purely through LinkedIn before you start your website.” She stated that LinkedIn is extraordinary powerful and what it did for her at a time when she had no money and she had to try and work out how to grow her business, it puts you in the drivers’ seat as to hoping that you will get an enquiry on your website. Jane stated that a client who is a sole entrepreneur, her name is Rachael Burke who lives in Australia and is a Sales Expert and she came to her and said, “I’m not really good at lead generation but I’m really good at selling, so I just need more customers.” So what she did with her was to show her the formula and how to get it to work and she increased her sales by over 66% in 3 months, so that’s in the hundred of thousands of dollars. She does LinkedIn for lead generation for large organizations as well as small ones and sole entrepreneurs. Jane stated that in Australia, they have a business which is a big superannuation and superannuation in Australia is like money you put away for your retirement and they built all the LinkedIn profiles for the staff and for the financial planners for the business and what she got them to do was, they have a change of legistration in Australia so it was a great time to educate the market on some of the changes because nobody was educating the market, she was out looking. She said to them that they need to run webinar, they need to got out and educate some of these clients and they got 500 new leads from that webinar. That was purely through leveraging the profiles and that was about 50 staff that got their profiles built. The opportunities that are in there but the thing is with LinkedIn is that, she find most people will come to her and say, “I’ve got a LinkedIn account but I have never achieve any results from it.” and then she’ll ask them what their profile say, there are often be no content in it at all or she’ll ask them how often they have reached out to people? What have you said to them? What have you invited them to? What’s your content plan? And they don’t have any of that, so LinkedIn doesn’t make clients magically appear, you have to go out and find them but you’ve got to have really good collateral and they make a decision about you in 3 seconds. You have to make sure that all your collateral and profile is so nice and polished and sharp and that it matches how amazing you are in person because we only have 3 seconds for them to go “wow, this person knows what they are doing, this person is amazing, I have to talk to you.” To have a profile that really works, like making sure it turns up in search results as well as having that impact when they see you. For just a simple 3 seconds, that’s how long they look at it before they move on and have a look at somebody else, so they have to make sure that they make their job really easy. Jane stated that people need to shift their attention now onto the other person, so you’re looking for what’s the common ground or what the purpose because the other person is asking themselves “why are you offering to connect with me?” so you’ve got to be able to answer the “why”, so if you’re reaching out and for example, she was reaching out medical financial planner, if he just looked at her profile and say, “why is she offering to connect with me, I don’t understand.” She explained to him that she does a lot of work with doctors, she helps them with lead generation but she helps them who are going into specialist training programs and she said to him, “I would love to catch up with you, I think there’s an opportunity for me to perhaps add some value to your clients, if not, that’s totally fine but here are some links, you are welcome to check out what I do and I would love to catch up with you for coffee one day and see what I can do to help you as well.” And so he met with her, so it all started from there and you’ve got to focus, look at their profile, what is it that they do and you have to address, “I notice this on your profile or I notice that you do this type of work, I notice that you’re in the same industry, I do this type of work or I help people like you in this space, so I thought I’d connect.” Jane stated that what happens is that just because you are ready to sell, doesn’t mean that the customer is ready to buy. So when you reach out to people, people have got to get to know you so they are going, “hold on, I haven’t even met you” and it’s a little like dating. She recalled she went on a date with a guy once and he turned up with a bag pack and she said to him, “have you just coming from the gym?” and he said, “No, you never know, things might go alright” and she thought he was joking and he opened his bag and there was a tooth brush, he had a change of clothes, his undies. She stated that LinkedIn is a little like that, is that sometimes we turn up with a bag pack, we’re ready to move in together, start this relationship and go in whole but the customer is saying, “hold on, can we just have coffee first, who are you?” So we sort of scare people and that’s when you hear people say they just get harass by sales people. You have to connect, be liked, friendly but then you’ve got to let people get to know you through your content, Mark Port who wrote the book, Book Yourself Solid said, “you have got to earn the right to sell.” And the problem is that most people don’t earn the right and then they scare people away. You can then ask for the value, you can ask for what you want based on the value you delivered. So in other words, if you have given enough, you have done enough content, if you kept visible enough, if you build enough trust, now you’re ready to go and ask for what you want. One of the things she does with clients is that she will look at how much value they have given to their audience because what they do is done nothing, they have given no value and they will say to her, “I want to be able to grow my business on LinkedIn but it’s not working.” But are not giving their audience any value, so you can’t go and ask for what you want because you haven’t earn it yet. You can do that in less then 7 minutes a day. Jane shared her concept of people buying you, her experience working with this family from she was 14 years old, people’s connections were so intertwined. Jane shared back then the only way people really knew who you were was if you were on TV or something or if you are in the newspaper. Now, Social Media has heavily leveled the playing field so if you leverage your name and identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that you bring to your customer. Jane says thought leaders will at times come to her and say there is so much content out there already about for example productivity and Jane believes there is only one of you and so people deserve to hear your unique views on the subject – your experiences, your voice, you lens, your interpretation and your insights. Your Social Media profile, particularly something like Linked In offers great opportunities for a small business owner or soloproneur that is leveraging their own brand – you own your own profile, you can add agility, personality and so much more which is a threat to larger companies. Jane shared how she stays motivated every single day – Jane thinks it is important to be really clear about your purpose and what you want. Jane shared she thinks that motivation really hits you when you have a choice at 2:00 am in the morning and you have the choice of going to bed or finishing that last bit of work because you really want to do it and get it done. Jane says she believes that it is in those moments that your motivation will either work for you or against you and it is in those moments that purpose is really important. Jane says some other factors that really keeps her motivated is that she is very particular about the people that she works with – she chooses to work with thought leaders and experts in their fields as they inspire her. She further stated that if they bring the best to her and inspire her then she can bring the best to others and inspire them. Jane also shared that it is important to find a group that you can belong to that are similar to you such as an industry association etc. and then Jane said there is also the basics such as eating well, get enough sleep as these activities help to make you more productive and efficient. Jane shared the one website, online tool or app that she absolutely cannot live without in her business is LinkedIn as a Social Media platform but the one app she cannot live without is actually an app that she created. Jane spent some time as a Productivity Consultant working with some real large corporations, she did a lot of work helping CEO’s and EA’s how to work really well together and what she found working with the two set of persons was the speed of communication between going to meetings and being on the run. Jane said she was looking an Concur, which is an IT company that looks at the on-the-go economy and how there is this shift to doing things on the go. Jane said the app she has created is called “Memo-Mailer” and it can be accessed at memomailer.com and it is available on iTunes. Jane stated the way that it works is holding down the button in the app – say what you have to say and then the app will email the memo to your Inbox. Jane said sometimes ideas come along at really inconvenient times and this tool really captures those things. Jane stated that she built the app with her colleague Dermot Crowley, who is an expert in Productivity and he has written the book Smart Work, which was recently released and hit Best Seller in Australia. Jane said that’s the app she definitely cannot live without. Jane shared some books that have had the biggest impact on her Sew Your Thoughts by Matt Church, he has spent the last 30 years helping people who are experts in their fields commercialize their ideas. She also mentioned Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port, which is a New York Times Best Seller and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Jane mentioned another book she really believes is great is How the World Sees You by Sally Hogshead, she has created a diagnostic testing that helps people identify what makes them fascinating. Jane also mentioned Seth Godin’s Linchpin as a great book too. Jane gave us an additional nugget through the book – Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck – another “must read!” Jane shared the one thing that is going on in her life right now that she is really excited about is a piece of work that she is working on to further develop her Linked In engagements with clients which will be called the Lead Generation Indicator. The tool is specifically designed for people who are experts in their field and will help clients identify 12 activities that will grow your business even if it is from scratch with absolutely no clients. A complete package for business owners. Kay stated that listeners can find him on: Jane Anderson LinkedIn Jane Anderson Facebook Jane Anderson Instagram Jane Anderson Twitter Jane Anderson SnapChat Jane Anderson Periscope Jane Anderson Website Jane shared a quote that she has on her wall and sees all the time during times of adversity – “If you are going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill ***Jane says she feels that this is a quote that she believes is in the trenches with her when she needs to hear something real and authentic. Links Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey How the World Sees You by Sally Hogshead Seth Godin’s Linchpin Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
Daniel “ Dan” de Witte is a Business Coach, Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur dedicated to sharing his knowledge with small businesses who want to leverage the online market. As a business coach, Dan specializes in tailor business strategies, business development and automation. Working closely with businesses to identify their needs, Dan thinks outside the conventional box to develop easy to implement effective solutions. As the founder of the Outer Space Network, Dan has used his knowledge and experience in rapid growth and brand development to create an original mentoring and support platform. Although bright eyed and bushy tailed, Dan isn’t a stranger when it comes to starting and growing successful businesses, starting his professional career as an internationally published photographer. Daniel knows designs and presentation, his creative flare and instinct for presentation gives him a competitive edge in brand development. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Could you explain to our listeners who are thinking of transitioning from brick and mortar to the online space, how it is that they can manage their customer experiences and do you think it’s different in managing that experience face to face versus online? What are some key indicators that need to be considered? In your new product Active Relay, could you share with us what are some ways you try to humanize that experience even though it’s automated? On a global level, how do you feel about customer service/ customer experience? What are some every day solutions that you would recommend to a small business owner to help them improve their customer experience? If you have a customer who wants to migrate from their existing email marketing plan with Aweber, Constant Contact etc, - would Active Campaign facilitate that migration? Please give us an example of how Zapier works and what does it really mean for a small business? How do you stay motivated everyday? What are some books that you have read that contributed to your success along your journey? What’s the one thing that’s going on in your life that you are really excited about that you are working on develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find you online? What is quote or saying that helps you stay on track and re-focus during times of adversity? Highlights Dan de Witte stated that he officially launched a brand new tech product called Active Relay. He has moved from his coaching base platform into another SAS (Software as a Service). He stated that he would be where he’s at if the internet didn’t exist and that the crakes of what he does and stated that that’s inspiring, for instance, we’re doing this podcast over Skype when I’m in Jamaica and he’s in Australia and there’s nothing more inspiring and powerful than that. He loves adventure spots and love getting out has much as he can from the computer, although of lately he hasn’t had enough time away from the computer because of the launch of the new product but that’s definitely one of the aspects he enjoys in life because that’s the ultimate goal, creating these digital businesses or businesses that are enabled by the Internet is to give us more time, more freedom so that we can do the things that we love and enjoy doing but also spend time with family and friends that are valuable in our life. As an online Entrepreneur, Dan shared that branching into the online space can be overwhelming to start because there’s all the flashy whiz tool and everyone trying to tap the next best thing that you should jump on and use and he’s a big believer of simplicity, so starting with one platform and working your way up from there. To tie that in with the customer experience is humanizing that whole aspect. We can get caught up in creating automations and automated business processes that we end up automating ourselves or working ourselves out of the business which is a blessing and a curse at the same time, it’s a blessing because it gives us more time to and more freedom but a curse on the same token, we lose the one to one connectivity as you would if you were a traditional brick and mortar base business where you can actually build that relationship by a simple hand shake, exchange of a business card. When you go online, it becomes a lot of smoke and mirrors and one of the challenges a lot of businesses faces is making sure that they are messaging what they do in the offline space, the brick and mortar space is the same as what it would be in the online space and as humanizing as possible because at the end of the day, all we want to do is be a part of a community and what you are building in your brick and mortar businesses regardless if it’s Joe’s Tire Shop down the road, he’s got a community of people that come back to him time and time again because they built the relationship and what we want to do is to try and replicate that relationship in the online space. Dan shared some background information on his new product Active Relay, it is a payment platform that is designed around a CRM called Active Campaign, so they are the payment platform element of an email marketing CRM. They are selling digital products and digital services and even physical base products online, it’s quite a challenge for you the user to sell something without having to do a lot of configurations, multiple third party tools and at the end of the day it stacks up and become expensive for you the user or the seller of whatever you sell. The whole goal of Active Relay was to simplify and enable people to sell online smarter, better, faster. The second element to that is bridging the customer experience and making that 10 times faster. In the online payment space, which is where Dan is heavily focusing his energy is in that ecommerce space and around how can he bridge the relationship that they have offline and taking that online to becoming what they call a lead in the online space as well or an email prospect is taking that person from being just an email prospect to actually giving you their credit card over the Internet because that’s the next step, getting that credit card information from them. He stated that he is not going to go up to someone random in the street and go, “Will you marry me?” because 9 times out of 10 they are going to say no. There are the people that first move or advantage are the opportunist but 9 times out of 10, if someone walked up to you and asked you to marry them, you more than likely would say no. It’s the exact same in the online space, so what they have done in Active Relay is, they are enabling people to sell things online faster and smarter and simpler but they are also shortening the checkout experience depending on the experiences of people who listen to the podcast, when you purchase things online, you generally have to go find the product, add the product to the cart, confirm that’s the product you want in the cart then go to checkout and go through 2 or 3 steps in the checkout before you get your product. What Active Relay is design to do is put all of that onto the one page, so you clink on the link to buy the product, the product is on the order form, the information you need to fill out is on the order form, you it buy, you then get funneled into the Active campaign CRM and away you go. That’s how they have shortened that experience and taking that journey from being a bit of a barrier. What people have been finding online is that multiple steps or doing more than one thing at once, it becomes a real blocker in the space and everyone’s lazy and if it seems too hard, then we are going to cut away from it. He stated that you can take people on a wild journey and that’s the most exciting thing for him in the online space. You get to control the whole journey, you can do that in the offline space as well but you have a lot more control in the online space because they don’t get to ask you anything back, you get to tell them what they are doing on the next step, you give them the options, “Do you want to do this? Yes or No” you’re not doing “Do you want to do this? Yes or No or Maybe” that “maybe” is a lot of hesitation. So they want to make it as simple as possible for people to purchase your product online or even just be in your community online. Dan shared that he just got back from around the world trip and using the brick and mortar, the United States customer experience is phenomenal compared to Australia. He stated that Australia’s customer service is rubbish. He remembers walking into a classic American diner in New York, there was a lunch line waiting to get in and they put their names down on the list and waited to be seated and the head waiter /seater remembered their names and 45 minutes later after they had left and he was like “thanks Daniel and Lauren, I hope you enjoy the rest of your travels and safe travels back to Australia.” In the amount of time that he sat them down, sat 30 or 40 other people in the diner and he still remembers his name. They left the diner saying “that’s really cool”. That whole experience was amazing, just simply by remembering their name and you can do little things like that in the online space where you can send an automated sequence of emails and have someone’s first name in it because it feels more personal, the connection is more genuine and then you go to a café in Australia and it’s like “Good morning, what would you like?” that’s it, there’s no effort to build some form of relationship and then they deliver you the stuff and there’s no “enjoy”. He stated that there are restaurants in Australia that are fantastic but the general consensus of the diners in Australia, the customer experience isn’t there from a personality stand point. Yanique stated that something as simple as remembering the customer’s name is very important. It’s powerful because regardless of where we are from in the world or what language you speak or what culture we are from, we all have something that is unique to us and that’s what people call us by and so you give someone your name, it’s important to use it and use it properly because it differentiates the experience and it sets that whole experience a part. Looking at what Daniel remembers from his trip, the food could have been good but he didn’t mention that the food was great, he mentioned that the fact that waiter was serving 30 or 40 other tables and he remembered you and your guest names and that’s what stood out in his mind. It is always the little things that separate the really good companies from the ones that doing the bare minimum. Daniel shared some everyday solutions for small businesses online to improve their customer experience – being authentic on Facebook and authentically telling the story of you, if you are one that always wear make-up everywhere and you’re all about the make-up and the aesthetics, then you need to genuinely portray that online in Facebook videos and pictures but if you are a person who loves building the relationship around who you are and authentically portraying that, you win as well. It’s like picking your digital persona to resonate what you are in real life because people can smell fake from a mile away. When you look at portraying your image online, you want to make sure that it is as authentic as you are in real life. The way to do that is to test it with your audience, ask your audience, “What do you think of our new website or what do you think of our new eBook or guide that we just release in the market space?” the ones that care will tell you and the ones who don’t care aren’t customers you’re going to have long term. He shared that in regards to tools that you must have – Active Campaign which is an email marketing CRM because you want to keep in contact with your people regardless if you own a brick and mortar business or not because at the end of the day we are all playing on out mobile phones, we’re all checking Facebook, so if you can be connected with them by simply sending them a email that is just touching base saying, “Hey, how is your day going?” that speaks wonders to building the relationship and you can do all of that with active campaign and it’s a really simply platform to start out, to get you online you looking at USD $9.00 a month. The other tool that he really loves is called Zapier which is a connectivity tool that connects anything that you can think of to anything you can think of in regards to online tools, it’s the junction box for PowerPoints so you can plug in to anything and it’s a great tool for increasing productivity and fast tracking a lot of internal stuff, for example, if a client does something, you want to be notified or if they email in some content, you want to upload it to something else, if someone schedules an appointment in your calendar and you want them to go into your email CRM to send them an email saying, “Thank you for booking in a time”, there’s so many things you can do with Zapier. WordPress, there are so many free platform out there to get you up and running like getting your website online but if you really want to increase your speed. He stated that why he recommend WordPress is that you can upload themes, you can connect it to any platform and what WordPress is, it’s essentially a CMS and that stands for Content Management System, so you would have a WordPress installation on your website and that would manage your whole system so that things like your homepage, your thank you page, your blogs and all of that gets managed in the WordPress element of your system. If you couple these 3 together and if they are done in the right way, you’re not only saving yourself time but also money in the process on developing your products and infrastructure but also, you’re improving your customer experience because all 3 applications are designed to make life easier and make life more efficient. Active Campaign would assist in on boarding – customers would have to do the migration themselves but it’s a very simple process. Dan stated he has a Zapier connection that connects an opt in form on his website and it connects to his CRM Active Campaign. He has a pop up on his website and this pop up doesn’t actually connect natively into Active Campaign – so he uses Zapier connection to send the data over. Dan also stated that he uses Slack, which is Facebook Chat for your staff. If a client certain number of actions over a particular time frame for example clicks on 3 emails, reads 4 blogs over the space of two weeks and has not purchased a product from me before. Dan de Witte says he wants Zapier to send a notification to his Slack Team to say, “Hey, can you personally follow up with John Smith because he has done x, y, and z in the last 2 weeks and not purchased a product.” This action shows we have someone on board that is paying attention what is happening and is reaching out to help them have a better experience. Dan de Witte states that he’s burning the midnight oil as he’s up by 4:30 am most mornings and not in bed until 11:00 pm most nights just because of the launch of Active Relay. Dan states what motivates him is giving other people the opportunity to be more and do more in the online space. Giving others the flexibility, more time to do things that you really enjoy doing! Dan stated your staff in your business, if you are a Brick and Mortar, are your biggest brand ambassadors – if you are not inspiring and leading them then you are shooting yourself in the foot. Dan de Witte stated that he’s not much of book reader as he learns through doing, however, he would recommend Start with Why by Simon Sinek, Dan says anyone who wants to learn who why what you do will sell – this is the best book to read. The Art of the Start by Guy Kiyosaki. Dan further stated he reads a lot online and he learns a lot online. Yanique shared how learning for her online has been such a remarkable and great experience that she has learned so much from You Tube videos, reading articles, connecting with people in Facebook Groups and so she agreed with Dan that doing is definitely one of the best ways to learn quick. Dan de Witte says short answer would be Active Relay. Dan says he is thoroughly enjoying the journey he has been on with Active Relay over the last 6-8 months. He says he’s learning everyday about his users are selling online and how they would want to sell. Dan shared he’s newly married and he is thoroughly enjoying that personally that he’s doing now! Dan de Witte says listeners can find him on: www.goactiverelay.com www.activecampaign.com Dan de Witte Facebook Dan de Witte Twitter Dan de Witte shared one quote or saying that really connects with him all the time is “Logic will get you from A to B but creativity will take you anywhere.” Dan says we are all creative in some aspect. Links Active Campaign Zapier Slack Start with Why by Simon Sinek The Art of the Start by Guy Kiyosaki
Dr. Anissa Holmes is voted one of the top 25 women in Dentistry by Dental Products Report. She has effectively mastered the skill of the use of social media with a Facebook following of nearly 50,000 fans. As a Practicing Dentist, Social Media Strategist, Author, Podcaster and Speaker, Dr. Holmes shows dentists exactly how to create a profitable, thriving dental practice which has motivated, inspired team members and patients who are now raving fans. She does this by providing actionable steps to help dentists develop their business culture, their systems and their brand. Dr. Holmes is the host of the iTunes podcast, The Delivering Wow Dental Podcast and is also the author of the book Delivering WOW: How Dentists Can Build a Fascinating Brand & Achieve More While Working Less. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Can you share with us how you use some of the strategies and actions to create that delivering wow experience in your practice? In your book you say that there’s a myth that says “To be successful, we must be better than everyone else, we must try harder and work longer” but then further on you say it’s not about being better, it’s about being unique, can you speak a little more about that? On a global level, how do feel about customer experience from the Jamaican perspective, what do you feel are some of the things that are limiting organization from really delivering that WOW experience? Do you think that there is a direct correlation between poor leadership and poor customer experience in a lot of businesses? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? Do you offer programmes for persons who may want to take the step a little further, who may want to connect with you and learn how to use Facebook to build their business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Anissa Holmes is originally from the United States of America and grew up in New Orleans and attended dental school in Alabama. After completing dental school, she met her husband who is an oral surgeon and he grew up in Jamaica. They decided about 10 years ago to move from the USA to Jamaica, he figured that that’s where he could make the biggest difference so she sold her practice she had in Birmingham and she started again in Jamaica. She worked a few years for another dentist who had a really great reputation and about 5 years ago she started a brand new practice in Kingston, Jamaica and the premise there was that the practice would eventually be the number 1 dental practice in the country known for delivering a wow experience to its patients. Anissa Holmes shared the first step of creating an amazing practice; one that people talk about, one that has a fascinating brand is first creating that vision and saying, “What do I want to be known for? At the end of the day, what am I working for? What do I want to achieve?” Her vision was to create the number 1 dental practice in the country known for delivering an amazing wow experience and that was the vision that they would be there and that was the vision before anything was put in place and from there they said “What sort of practice would we need to be? What sort of team members would we have to have? What would have to be our core values?” Before they did anything, they actually thought about what they wanted to be and when she says “we”, it really is “we”. She feels like businesses that are super successful, if you look at Zappos, Amazon, Disney - it’s all about the team and for her when she was creating her core values for her company, she involved the team and they said “What do we want to be known for?” They did things like saying they wanted to be very unique, they wanted to make an impact on the community, they wanted to build strong teams, and they wanted to be known for delivering wow. So they set those core values out and so every decision they make had to be in align with those core values, so pursue growth and learning and so having those luncheon learn session where her team is constantly training and having book clubs where they are reading books together in terms of growing business and personal development with a kindle and that was something she did for her team, she thinks it’s really important, many people create this checklist and just put it down somewhere or hang it up but they don’t live it and once you have that, you know your vision then you have to say what sort of business do we need to be, what sort of team do we have to have and then you have to start creating amazing systems and really just designing how you are going to get there. Anissa agreed that there were team members that weren’t agreeable in her vision. She stated that it’s very interesting because she really believes now that she is in a different realm and working with business owners and dentists and a lot of them have fear. Fear that the team is not going to buy into this whole creating an amazing experience culture and so what happens is that they do nothing. What she always says is that if you are a business owner, it’s your business, it’s your vision and her team is very aware for example if they have 100 things that have to happen to be able to create amazing experiences or to have consistency in the quality of work that they do or to make sure they are seeing people on time. These 100 things have to be done and if she could do them all by herself, she would have no reason to hire someone and she can keep that money in her pocket but she made a decision that all of these things need to be done, so there are different people that need to do it and the job has to be done and this is the vision of this company and it’s okay if you don’t feel like this is the right company for you but at the end of the day this is the company, these are the values, this is what we are working for. Anissa stated that when they first decided that they are going to be known for delivering an amazing experience, some people that was working at the practice said “okay, we are willing to try” they are still there and they are happy and they are making more money than they have ever made. This year January they had the entire team write down what it is that they are going to achieve, she put down her dream to go to Europe and have gone to Europe, 4 of her team members actually got cars this year which is a huge deal for people working in small businesses in Jamaica to be able afford a car. They have had amazing things happening and it’s because she aligned with her team members, she told them from the very beginning, if you they help her grow this business, you are going to develop personally, you are going to impact your family, achieve all your personal dreams and those that bought in with her, they are definitely living their dreams and some people it wasn’t for them and that was okay and she was okay to let them go. Even along the road she has had different people and had to increase her team, just a few months ago they were testing someone for their new Dental Assistant, they needed to add a new Dental Assistant and someone came in, she was an assistant at another practice and she says “You mean I have to give a tour?” And that’s something when they look at their reviews, people constantly mention that – customers say “I can’t believe that I am getting a tour before my procedure”, and so this person was clearly not going to fit into the vision and the culture of the practice and so she just didn’t work out. Anissa Holmes stated that it’s very interesting because when you look at businesses, a lot of time they are focusing on what’s the competition doing, what’s this person doing and in Jamaica for example, her practice has a social media presence that is now over 50,000 fans and they are doing some cool things and as a result of it they see other practices that are doing similar things or posting similar things of what they are doing and she says it’s okay because they are connecting with people and growing their businesses but she is not focused on that. What she’s focused on is really always being innovative, being different and really not looking at what any one else’s doing and every year trying to strive to do something different. For example, 2 years ago they said that their vision, their focus for that year would be to create KPI’s and systems so that everything would be written down and so they created the manuals, they did that to systemize the practice and the next year; they said how can they create customer experiences , so that was their whole focus for last year and that’s when all of their team members were trained in Hand and Arm Massage and now they offer complimentary Hand and Arm Massages, so everything in terms of their brain storming with their team building was, how can we create a better experience, they created a system that at the end of an appointment they were guaranteed that a patient would give them a video testimonial and it’s just creating that system, touch points of giving them a tour, offering them a Hand and Arm Massage, giving them the headphones and the iPads, giving them a warm towel at the end, the Doctor, the Hygienist, the Front Desk saying, “How was your experience?” Guaranteeing that the person is going to say it was great, so that was their focus, just focusing on that. This year their focus now that their system is in place, they have an awesome team, their doing great experiences, this year they are like “How can we be different in our community impact?” So this year they say every month they are giving to different charity, they have done small make over competitions, they have given equipments to Children’s Hospital, their dental clinic, they have done all sort of things and it’s about being unique, not worried about what anyone else is doing, just trying be very innovative, be very different. In their practice they have a guarantee that you’ll be seen within 15 minutes of your appointment time or your next exam is free but you have to have the systems in place and that was done 2 years ago, she could have not given that guarantee then but they have it now and they guarantee that you will have an amazing experience and you get a great quality of work. Just focusing on what can you do that makes people become very drawn to your business. Anissa stated that in marketing, it’s not good for her to go out and say, “I’m a Dentist and I do fillings or I’m a Dentist and we do teeth whitening” doing an advertisement like that is not very effective because Dentists are supposed to do that but when you create an advertising campaign or creating promotional pieces about how you make people feel and how you have been able to change their lives by taking away the fear and giving them an amazing experience, what happens is that people are drawn to your business and you are able to grow. Dr. Anissa Holmes stated that hiring for the right profile, they do that and they look at DISC testing behavioral style, for example, if their Hygienist is very outgoing in terms of her behavioral style, they want someone who has the profile of being a very sensitive, very compassionate type to be her Dental Assistant and so they kind of have that balance, the person who does their training of Dental Assistants has a different style and that’s part of it. The other part is that once you start to be knowing for having a certain type of business, those sort of people are going to be attracted to your business and so they are now finding that a lot of their new hires are actually coming to them saying that they know about their business already, they have been following us on Facebook or people are talking about them in the community and they want to work in their practice and so it’s that sort of the mindset of the people and again, once they come in having that training and so most people are not trained on understating that they way you connect with people is not by necessarily talking, it’s about listening and a huge part of their training with all of their team members is understanding the importance of listening, of asking questions, so you can get to the heart of the matter. For example, in dentistry, a lot of people may say, “I don’t want a crown” some dental offices or dentists around the world will say in their mind, ”They don’t want it because they can’t afford it” or “They don’t want it because they are afraid” but you are not asking them why they don’t want it and you just move on and you miss out on that opportunity to help them. Dr. Anissa Holmes stated that what they do in her practice they will say “Why don’t you want that crown?” and they may say, “The reason why I don’t want it is because my daughter is getting married next month and so I just don’t have any money right now”, and you can say, “Will you be ready in a few months?” and then they say “Sure” and you say “Okay, great, just write it down and when you come back for your next cleaning then we’ll go ahead and have it sorted out then” or they’ll say “I don’t want it because I don’t think I need it” and then you can say “Okay, let’s talk about why or what happens if you don’t do it. In my experience of practicing for so long this is what happens and so if you don’t fix the tooth, what’s going to happen is that you’re going to be out one day and you’re going to bit down and it’s going to break, it’s going to split, you’re going to have to take it out, it’s going to be more procedures, more cost and based on the condition, you are in a 80% chance that that’s going to happen to you, are you okay with that?” The person is going to think and say, “You’re right, I need to do it.” It’s all about training your team, letting them understand how that happens and when they see it happening over and over again, in terms of people making decisions to have a purchase or do treatment because of asking questions, they buy into it. Anissa Holmes stated that she feels that a lot of organizations and businesses locally and internationally, the challenge is that they don’t understand how valuable it is to help you to grow your business and for her having business, her dental practice is set up on systems, it’s very profitable, it can run without her and a lot of people think that for you to have success, it’s going to take 20 years of you working, 80 hours a week and that is not the formula for her that she wanted to take and for her she said, “How is it that I can create a practice that can essentially run without me?” meaning that she is there because she wants to be there not because she has to be there, she has 2 other dentist that gives her freedom at this stage in practice which is over 17 years to now start teaching other dentist and do other things as well. That’s the key for saying, “What’s going to be the way for me to get there? Is it working for 20 years or is there a smarter way?” Once you start thinking of the smarter way, everything that she does, she likes to break it down and figure out how she’s going to do it. For her, the how of how she was going to get there was looking at creating a unique business, creating something that people would be talking about and it’s because she got it, because she understood the importance of putting in an amazing customer experience and there was an objective there. Also if we do this, this is what will happen to me personally, she can have a more balanced life, better things for her family, for her team as well. A lot of people just think that a business is all about having it for 30 years and you work in it until you can’t work anymore and that’s really what business is all about and people at a higher level realize that that’s really not what business is all about and it’s about serving your customers, being able to solve their problems and also create something that would give you that balance and be able to give you that profitability to do what you want to do for your family, people just don’t know that formula so they just work too hard. Anissa Holmes agreed that there is a correlation between poor leadership and poor customer experience in a lot of businesses and it boils down to leadership and sometimes you have great team members or you have a great product or service but you have no one to really lead that team and a lot of times that vision does come from the leaders. In her practice for example, it was her coming and say, “This is the vision I have for my practice” and getting people inspired to take part and they knew that it would help them to achieve their dreams as well and so she finds that businesses that have the strongest leaders are the strongest businesses so it absolutely boils down to that. Sometimes as a leader, you have to make decisions that may make you uncomfortable, for example, there may be people who are on your team and you have to be the one to says, “Listen, this is not working” or training them again or saying “I’m sorry but we need to shift you to a different position because you’re not able to really give your fullest potential in this position” and being able to shift people around in a way that they understand and not get offended and leaders have to make those uncomfortable decisions but they also have to be there to inspire people to greatness. Anissa Holmes stated that staying motivated it’s really about just creating a culture where you are having fun, where you are solving peoples’ problems. She hears from her team that it’s not like going to work, it’s like you have a family and you build that culture and you see the lives that are being changed, how you’re helping people and that’s really powerful. The other thing that’s interesting is that her team, they all know their strengths and they know their weaknesses and for her, she really great at coming up with strategy and design of different implementation plans that they are going to be doing, she’s really great with helping to inspiring but a lot of the “nitty gritty” details that have to happen and she can’t do everything herself. She is not great at following up with patients every single night for phone calls but that’s something her husband does every night and that’s great but for some reason she can’t do it but it’s important and it has to be done and so one of her team members who is really great at that, she’s one of the assistants, people love her, she’s the one that actually makes all the calls, she does it the next day so by then they have the time to settle and really assess but she calls every single day and she follows up with people and she’s consistent. So they all know their strengths in terms of their behavioral styles and weaknesses so what they do has a team is that they don’t judge, just take the best of everybody and put them in the right spot that way the business can continue to thrive and that boils down to leadership and because of the culture and everybody knows it, no one gets offended, it’s about everybody giving their best so that the business can grow and at the end of the day if the business grows, everybody wins because we are able to have a more profitable business and as a result, salaries can increase and benefits can increase and everybody wins. Anissa Holmes shared that the one online tool she uses everyday is Facebook, she stated that she started using Facebook in 2010 when she first started her Dental Practice in Jamaica and that’s when Facebook was getting started with their business pages and when she first started using Facebook, she said she is going to use this tool because you can share your culture and you can share your practices’ story and it’s very difficult to do that in other forms of paid advertising. You can actually build a community of people that are helping each other that are not even patients, some are patients, people are asking questions and people are answering each other questions and it’s really cool. At that time they started to get 5 new patients a month because people were engaging with them and over the years, is that their audience has grown, they’ve understood what content works, what doesn’t work, they understand how to embrace Facebook Ads and targeting and creating audiences where they can retarget people, for example that have been to their website, people who are similar in their characteristics behavior to their existing patients. Now they are getting 40 or 50 new patients every month just from Facebook marketing and she’s spending only US $500.00 a month for their paid advertising and it’s very interesting because about 2 years ago she was testing the return investment on all of her paid advertising and she actually made a decision to drop every other form of paid advertising, they had a yellow pages ad and so she was spending US$800.00 a month, she’s getting 4 new patients, just speaking in USD and is she’s charging US $200.00 , then she is breaking even. Now she said let’s shift that money over so now she’s spending $500.00 a month and getting 50 new patients and the industry standard is 12-15 a month, they are getting 50 just from Facebook. She loves when people come in from Facebook because that means that they know them already, they know their culture, they’ve been following them, they see what they’ve been doing in the community, they see how they are changing lives, they’ve seen patients video testimonials, they’ve been to their website, they know about their team and to her there is no other form of paid advertising where you can just connect with people like Facebook. Anissa Holmes stated that she currently has an online course and it teaches dental practices, she has students from all over the world; she has several hundred that are in the programme. It’s an online course, the first 3 or 4 modules is teaching you about how to grow your culture and the importance of that and how you have to have that part right before you start creating ads and copy writing, create calls to action and targeting and creating ads and that’s available on her website which is www.deliveringwow.com. It’s created specifically for Dentists but the principles are uniform and where she is now that her practice has grown to the point where she can cut back a little bit and the plan now is for to work 2 ½ days and spend the other time working on training small business owners/ entrepreneurs, so the next step for her is creating an online course which will help local businesses not online entrepreneurs, local businesses where you have a wine shop for example or if you are have a training centre promoted on Facebook so that’s the next step for her. Anissa Holmes stated that there are a lot of books that she reads all the time and a few books for when you’re just getting started are: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, Eat That Frog by Brain Tracey, those are some great books, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh - book talking about the story of Zappos and creating an amazing customer experience. What she tells people too is that you have resources in terms of books but podcasts are really great and she use to spend her time with books and now she is also really hooked on podcasts because you are actually able to speak and hear from the authors of what’s going on in their mind and even for herself, strategies she spoke about in her book that was released earlier this year, they have already implemented additional strategies. Things are always evolving, you’re pivoting, you’re testing, you’re growing and so listening to podcasts is another way to get that fresh material as it comes out. Anissa Holmes stated that she is excited about a few things, in her Dental Practice, they just added another Dentist and they are super excited about this and so are the customers. They are at a point now where there is no debt for the practice and that’s where they want it to be and they are now looking to taking the team out of Jamaica for training, getting into that international space with them. They are excited to start that next phase of just taking it to the next level in terms of being able to have other experiences and bringing additional things back to Jamaica to make the Practice even better. Personally, just growing her online business and blogging and as she creates one course, another opportunity opens for her and she is really excited about what’s going on the online space as well. Anissa stated that listeners can find him on: Twitter @deliveringwow Facebook @delivering wow Delivering WOW Website Anissa Holmes stated that her motto, what she is known for is keep “Delivering Wow” “and it’s just two words but to her it means so much, it means always just get to one point, you say what’s next for me? How can I make a bigger impact? How can I inspire more people? How can I change more lives? And once you do that, your business is growing, you are profitable, how can you impact your family, how can you travel more, how can you achieve your dreams? Links The Delivering Wow Dental Podcast Delivering WOW: How Dentists Can Build a Fascinating Brand & Achieve More While Working Less The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy Eat That Frog by Brain Tracey Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh - book talking about the story of Zappos Twitter @deliveringwow Facebook @delivering wow Delivering WOW Website
Kay Valenzuela is an international award winner, founder of CXchange Institute, business entrepreneur and a recognize strategist of Customer Experience Design. Kay has been revolutionizing the Spanish speaking market with her own programme that focuses on customer experience, mastering the strategic competitive advantage of customer experience and she has implemented this certification in a number of Spanish speaking countries and is looking for great opportunities to launch into the English speaking market as well. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey As a customer experience expert, how do you feel about customer service/ customer experience on a global level? What are some every day solutions that you would recommend to a small business owner to help them improve their customer experience? What are some important considerations to take into account for an entrepreneur or online business owner you believe to be successful? In terms of sustaining a service culture, how do you translate that culture to be part of their DNA that it spills over into their customer experiences? What are some critical qualities that a leader needs to have in order to run a business that is customer service driven? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business, specifically as it relates to constantly motivated human capital? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Kay Valenzuela stated that she thinks of herself as a very curious person and out of curiosity, after working with Service Quality Institute for some time and doing the interactions with the participants she had before she would always take notes on “Where did they want to go, what were the resolutions they were expecting to find?” And she started keeping track of all those questions and all the things they had on their minds and the challenges they were facing, she just wanted to find the solution for them and for herself because sometimes solutions in customer experience are not that simple, so at the end of a 4 year period, she summed it all up and started partnering with people around the world and experts in the field that started to help her out putting all the answers together and they ended up having a research on development institute and now they have the certification programme open worldwide. As a Customer Experience Expert, Kay shared that with customer experience, we are facing a very interesting challenge and the message we taking across is the following, people have been trying to change people for a very long time and that hasn’t taken us very far, so what if we just start looking more inward into the organization instead of the people. That’s like a different approach to the whole customer experience issue because we keep on having these figures and we keep on having all these budgets that’s basically blowing out in the air, not knowing exactly what we are expecting from it, so now we have the opportunity to set in place a strategy that can be measured, that can be controlled and can be managed and then after we have fixed the story what we have inside then we can go ahead and talk to people. As a Customer Experience Specialist, Kay shared some solutions she would give to a small business owner and it’s that the first thing we need to figure out is where we are and where do we want to go and then after we have that clear answer then maybe we can set up in place a strategy that we can follow, a strategy that we can put into a plan and make sure we take into account everything that is really important for accomplishing this strategy and the first thing would be is “Knowing the kind of service you want to deliver, how do you want to make your customers feel?” That would be the first question that you would like to answer very clearly, clearly enough so that it can also be answered and understood by all the people in your organization. Number (2) would be listen to your customers and your employees, listening is a basic must to figure out what is the strategy that you have to put in place, it doesn’t work anymore when you go from the organizational perspective, you have to listen to your customers and make sure that you are following the right path complying with three major aspects that customers have today and that is: (1) what is the level of effort they need to put in placein order to get what they want. (2) How do they feel while doing that effort and what is their success rate achieving what they want to achieve in your organization. (3) Is you have to define the journey; you have to be in touch of what happens with you or with your organization and your customers at every touch point. Make sure you track their emotions, make sure you really understand what it is they are trying to achieve at each point of contact and you have to train your people to make sure you deliver the experience you discern from them. Yanique commented that this may be a whole lot for a small business owner to take all in – she asked how do you move the small business owner from the mindset of training being an expense and rather an investment. Kay shared in getting business owners to understand that training is not an expense but more of an investment and is directly linked to their bottom line. Kay stated that from her point of view, what happens before is that they are absolutely right, they have been training people but on the wrong issues so they don’t see the outcome of that investment and that’s why everybody thinks it’s an expense but when you figure out that it’s a perspective issue everyone knows and does what they need to do in regardless of what they know, not only what they are trained on. So every time you hire somebody, that person comes with an experience and they will put that into place at your organization, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re a large or a small organization, you will face the same challenges if you don’t get that communication aligned. So what training does is align the vision and align the strategy you want to put in place. If you want to have a bakery and you have to hire chefs, if you don’t tell the chefs the recipe you want to deliver, then it’s impossible for them to figure out on their own, so training would be the first step but it definitely has to be in place within the strategy to deliver great service, it will not happen out of the loop. It’s impossible to have different kind of people with different experiences, ages and different generations to think alike and to deliver a consistent message if they are not trained on it. Kay Valenzuela shared some of the considerations that an online entrepreneur should take into account is that the world is digital and the digital part of the strategy has to be in place whether you have a physical space or not, you have to take into consideration what is the journey your customers are going to follow and the trends are they will go to your webpage, they will go to your social media channels, they will probably get to know you so much better than you’ll ever get to know them by the time they reach you for the first time, in fact statistics say that 8% of the purchase decision has been made online before the customer reaches anyone for the first time. It’s about understating who is the person you are selling to, who is your customer, you have to have a profound understanding of the purpose of your business in their lives and what is it they are trying to achieve when they get in contact with you be it at a physical space or a digital space. You have to make sure you are managing the whole customer journey within the customer sales cycle and make sure that you are very fast at telling them what it is exactly that is so unique about you that they want to stay on your page and they really understand what it is that they are going to achieve by doing business with you. They say you have 6 to 8 seconds to catch the attention of anyone online, so with so much noise out there and so much competition worldwide and you have to come with a clear message across right off the bat when they go to your web page. Kay Valenzuela stated that more important is what is different about you? Why are you unique? Why do you deserve their time and most likely their money along the way? Kay also stated that value also comes from perspective, that’s why it’s so important to be able to draw your customer persona and make sure you have a profound understanding because if you don’t know who you’re selling to, it is very difficult that you are going to create that value right off the bat within 6 to 8 seconds, so you have to know who is your target audience, what is it that makes them feel comfortable with you. There are only 2 ways to stay in business today, it’s either you look like your customers or you only do business with the people that look like you, so you really have to define the personality of your business and you really have to define who is your target audience, not everybody that buys from you is a real customer. Kay stated that from her point of view, it has to do with the owner of the business, it is that primary leader that already has a vision and a way to inspire in such a dramatic way that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner. It will be sustainable if the leaders that manage it have a sustained vision and a sustained attitude towards their business. They are role models and the leadership line has to be in touch with that, they not only being listened to but also being watched every second of the day, so sometimes it’s very difficult to have a great experience culture if you have a leader that would say one thing when he’s in front of the customers and probably something else when the customer moves away, so the culture begins with the leadership and they have to have a sustained message that comes across really clear to what it is that they want to be for their customers and it will follow along. She stated that she has a lot of noise thinking that culture is something that you can create, culture is something that you already have depending on your behavior, so if you have an inconsistent message, you will have an unsustainable culture, if you have a clear message, you will have a sustained culture, whatever it is, whether it be of quality or not much of a quality. Whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re saying in a consistent way, it’s what becomes your culture. Kay Valenzuela shared some leadership qualities a leader must have - the whole experience must be like a story, so they need to have a clear story, there’s a story that invites people to be either apart or move away from what ever you mean as an organization, so when leaders have a clear story and that story is compelling enough, it will definitely help them out not only to sustained the culture but to also have sustained message for their customers. They have to have a clear story, it’s like their identity seal and they have to find a way to create along the touch point, how are they going to tell that story on and on and on again with the same level of engagement. People say that initially, you need more engaged frontline employees and it has been her experience that what we need are more inspiring leaders. Yanique stated that in a country, the leaders of a country are the one that inspires the citizens and that’s why the countries who their GDP’s is better and their ease of doing business are better because the leaders in the country understand, they put themselves in the customers’ shoes which are the citizens and they really understand the importance of transcending that message in a way that is tangible and you feel that it’s easy to do business. Kay stated that when you think of other leaders that are not organizational driven and you say what is it that makes them different? How come you have such a few individuals along history to have had the power to transform the ages and the way society runs and it’s because they have something to say and they feel it’s important to them and it rubs on and she feels passionate when she thinks about this. You think about what is it that they do different? Why do you have organizations that are so successful? Why do you have departments within a failing organization that is successful? So it always comes back down to the message the leader is taking across, how much does he believe in his own dream? What does it mean to be apart of that organization? What does it mean to achieve a certain goal because it makes us better, because it inspires us? And then people follow along and it’s not business dreaming, it’s leadership dreaming, it’s the way they communicate. Kay Valenzuela shared how she stays motivated everyday; she stated that she is trying to follow a very clear line. It’s has been her personal story, when she started working with customer service, she also had an entrepreneurial ambition towards training, towards what customer service meant and the minute she started getting in touch with people and feeling their concerns and all the things they have to face and the same time the big gap they had trying to find some balance into who they were when they are not working and who they were when they are working and it created a whole lot of noise. When she was able to understand customer experience in a different way, in a way that it touched her as a person and understanding how making a great impact in somebody’s life also meant that she was writing a chapter of her own story then it made a whole lot of difference and gives her so much because she sees customer experience now as her own developing story every day. She wants a great story to be told about her day, she wants to be a part of amazing stories, she wants to be a part of stories that will transcend her own leaving time and space and it can only be done through interactions we have with people, it’s the stories that we create together that makes us relevant and that sense of relevance is something that everybody wants and she found it through customer experience and the interactions with people. Kay stated that the one online tool she uses everyday is Whatsapp, it’s her primary line of connection to the rest of the world now especially when she is traveling. Whatsapp is an instant messaging app that you can connect with others through your telephone number and you can send them instant messages, you can send them files, you can send them voice notes, you can send them pictures and it’s really a great resource as a business owner. Kay stated that the books that have had the biggest impact and the first one that comes to her mind is “What Got You Here Won’t Take You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful” by Marshall Goldsmith. The ways that he makes you work through the latter of life thinking how did you get to this place? And do you think you have enough to keep on the journey? And he actual makes you reflect a lot on what are the possibilities in front of you and you are able to make those choices for the better. She also mentioned that there is a book in Spanish from a Spanish writer and beautiful speaker, the book is called “Transformation” by Mario Pooch and it talks about your ability to transform at any moment in time of your life, trying to achieve happiness, whatever that means to you and how you can reinvent yourself everyday to become better, to be better for others, to leave a legacy on society and creating a great story for yourself, one that will be worth not only leaving but also talking about it. Kay stated that she would ask what motivates them because if their employees are not motivated then there’s got to be something wrong with the message they are listening to. She would try to figure out what motivates that leader; does he feel that he has the same kind of connection with his business to where he started? Ask him about how he has met his expectations? Ask him how does he feel? Because if they are enthusiastic and they are really connected it simple shows and it rubs on. Kay stated that when it comes down to leadership, embracing the possibility of being vulnerable and being transparent, it takes so much weight from the leaders’ back because sometimes they feel because they are in a leadership position, they need to have all the answers, they need to have all the strategies and they need to know everything that has to be put in place and that is actually not true. When you think of the characteristics of combining your leadership position also with the capability that your team has to flow in with you and increase your ideas, make them richer, make them profound, you will always get so much more than when you put all that weight on your back thinking that you have to have every answer, when you think about your teams, they’ll be more than happy to share into those ideas they have with you because if you really think about it, they are the ones that knows more about your business than you can because they are the ones facing the troubles and challenges every day, sometimes we are too way back or upstairs and we forget to have those interactions with the customers. Sharing those ideas and collaborative style of leadership will always give you a wider perspective of what are the right steps to take and how do you manage better, how do you lead better and how you interact with your customers better. Kay stated that the one thing that she is working on right now that she is really excited about is CX Mastermind, that is a certification, it’s taken 4 years to put all the programmes together, it’s 5 different programmes, it’s an interaction certification and they are really enthusiastic. They are already down to 6 different countries and right now she is in Mexico in a great alliance with the University of Technológico, Monterey. She is very enthusiastic about the impact that the programme has made on the participants and the fact that it’s based on Science more than philosophical or business orientation, it’s taking the conversation to a whole different level. The first day they spent talking about how much do you know yourself? And people think that they are talking about how much do you know about what you like or what you don’t like? And what they are referring to is do you know how you are biologically built? There are so many answers within our brain, finding the answer to the question. Why do people do what they do? They have found that answer and they have been able to put it in a very simple communication line that people can relate to, understand and you can see in their faces when they see those “blind flashes of the obvious” just lighting up in their faces like “oh, that’s why this didn’t work” “oh, that’s why my employees didn’t listen to me” or “that’s why I couldn’t find the solution.” And it all comes down to, we all have been trying to change something that is dynamically changing on its self and we’ve stayed with a fixed pattern of doing business and that is the one thing that needs to be relocated or redesigned. It not the people, you can’t change people no matter how many hours of training you put people through, you just don’t have the power to change people, the only thing you can do is either inspire them or you can model for them, they will decide what they want. Kay stated that listeners can find him on: www.kayvalenzuela.comKay Valenzuela FacebookKay Valenzuela Twitter Kay stated that she has a few quotes and one of her favorite is “The only thing that your competition cannot imitate is how your customers feel when they do business with you.” The other one which is more inspirational is “It’s never too late to have a new dream and work to follow it through.” Links “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful” by Marshall Goldsmith
Robert Ilijason is an IT Consultant specializing in databases and business intelligence, mainly working with automating processes and data flows. He has worked with customers such as Ericsson, TeliaSonera and mainly IKEA. He is also a writer. Since a few months ago, he is also a retailer and he’s opened an unmanned grocery store in the small village of Viken and now expanding in Sweden. How Robert came across our path was, in doing some research for our podcast interviews, we bucked upon this article and these videos that spoke about this gentleman in Sweden who created an automated store where there were no actual employees and all you needed was your smart phone app to basically navigate your entire experience. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Can you share with us a little about the problem that you were experiencing why you created this app? How would you rate customer experience in Sweden, do you find it’s different from other places in the world? How do you stay motivated every day? If another business owner came over to you and said they are looking to do something similar to what you’re doing in your business, creating an app, but are looking more to have an app to complement their existing store with employees, what is some advice you would give them in terms of developing something that would be customer oriented? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Robert Ilijason stated that he has always been a tech person for all his life; he started out with computers when he was 10 years old. He started to work with it professionally when he was 20 years old and now he is 40 years old and has been with it for 20 years. He has had a lot of different titles, he has been a Web Developer, a Database Administrator, a BI Consultant, which is his current title, but what he’s been doing all these years is solving problems using technology. People go to him with a problem and he uses the correct technology to solve the problem that they have. As an avid problem solver - Robert shared that one day he had his son and he was home alone with him for the first time, he was about 6 months old back then. It was late at night, he was supposed to feed him baby food, his girlfriend had left him a note of what he was supposed to do and he managed to drop the last jar of baby food and it was too late for the stores in Viken which is a small city with about 4000 inhabitants. The stores were closed and he kind of panicked as it was his first time and he didn’t know what to do so he took his son, put him in the car and they drove to the closest city which was Helsingborg and that was a very bad experience because his son (Max) was screaming because he was both hungry and afraid and wondering what was happening and Robert was sweating all over because of the panic he had. During that trip he decided that he doesn’t want to live in a place where he can’t buy stuff all the time but his girlfriend told him that they need to stay in Viken, so he decided that if he can’t move to the store, he has to move the store to him. In Sweden it is very expensive to have personnel and in most countries, so having a 24/7 store in Viken was out of the question, at least if you have your ordinary store. Robert started thinking, what if they just remove the personnel and it proved to be quite simple because the people working in the cash register can be replaced by the customer, it’s not totally without employees because someone needs to fill up the goods and remove the old goods and clean out the store but you don’t need to have someone there all the time. You download the app, you can register online and it takes 15 seconds. You can use the app to enter the store, walk around, you scan what you take and when you’re done, you press the button and after a few weeks you get the invoice. It is a way for him to count the transaction cost because he can add credit cards or different kinds of e-payments they have in Sweden but that cost him a few Swedish quarters which is about 20 or 30 cents per transaction and by bulking up all the purchases the customer does throughout the month, he can count the transaction cost quite a lot. The app was launched in mid January of 2016. Robert stated that most people in Viken are happy that it exists. The biggest problems he has had is not with technology but with his lack of knowledge within retailing, he doesn’t understand that he needs parking spaces and he didn’t have the carts to put goods in, there were a lot of minor things that he missed and the goods on the shelves were the wrong kind but now that it’s turning around by fixing all the problems has they come along and now it’s looking well and he’s trying to expand into more villages in Sweden. Robert stated that customer service is pretty well and he mostly have that experience in many countries in Europe and they are well in the customer experience, in the northern part more so, they are calm people and try to help everyone, it’s a very helpful mentality all over so it’s pretty good. That’s why companies such as IKEA has had such a success all over the world, they figured things out and tried to make things easier for their customers even if it’s their bottom line sometimes. Robert stated that while working with IKEA, he can talk about business intelligence which is not customer service but basically collecting everything that’s happening in the stores. From the stores, from the suppliers, from the trains, boats, trucks to basically optimize the flow of goods to lower the prices to make it more available and cheaper for people, to maintain a good quality while lowering the price for customers. The data is used to provide a better experience. Most companies are using that data, if you are ever asked by a company if you are happy with an experience, you sometimes press a button or you’re answering a survey online, that’s always collected and he recommends that people do it because even if people don’t look at you’re specific answer, they look at it in an aggregate and they will identify problem points and they will be able to fix them if you help them out. If you’re not happy and don’t tell anyone, the problem won’t be fixed and that he sees in his own store because some people are very active in getting back to him and letting him know that “hey, you should really have this product or you should not sell this product and this a problem for whatever reason”, they can help him out to optimize what he has on his shelves. He has the statistics from the sales but they can also tell him “I didn’t buy cheese today because the cheese I want wasn’t there”, he would optimize it in the app so it’s very simple, you can press the button and you can either type or speak to send him information of what problems they’ve had. Robert stated that the app has everything; he tries to push everything in there so it’s easy for them and for him. If customers have a problem in the store like purchasing something and it spoils after a day and they want to return it, do they communicate that in the app? Robert stated there is a small box in the store where you put stuff that are bad for whatever reason or you just want to return it and it informs him of that in the app. What is the response time for getting back to the customer? Robert stated that there is a call centre so it depends on when, if you do it in the middle of the night, it will take a few hours but during working hours, it’s almost immediate response but they have very few customers so it’s easy to have a high service. Robert shared that he tries to look at the possibilities and try to be around positive people, he gets support from his family and other entrepreneurs in the area and by talking altogether they can keep each other’s spirit high so when someone is down they can always help them out to make sure they see the possibilities because it is hard to start something new and you don’t know if you’ll succeed and the costs are sometimes much higher than the money coming in. If you just prevail, you’ll most likely succeed. Robert shared that the most important advice is to start on paper and to talk to someone who actually understands user interfaces because one of the biggest challenges that he has seen when he downloads other apps is that they are very cumbersome to use, it’s confusing, they don’t always follow normal practice that most apps use and especially for bigger companies, they execute poorly. Start on paper and talk to someone that understands how the flow in the app works and do all this before you even talk to a technician. Most technicians, they think in a special way and for them things are obvious but not always obvious for the customer and an example is Apple’s Ipad, the first Ipad wasn’t better than the competition, it was worse in many regards but they managed to tell people instead of saying they have 5 gigabits, they could store 5,000 or 1,000 songs and that’s a huge difference because not everyone understands what is a gigabits it. For a technician a gigabit is obvious but for a normal person, it’s not. He sees it a lot where, you’re in the business and you understand the business and you expect everyone to understand what you’re doing but most people don’t, so you really need to start from the beginning and have someone who understands this and be a part of the app development from the very start. Robert stated that if you have a lot of notes on a professional level, Evernote is also something he uses very much. He uses all different types of cloud services like for storage such as Dropbox and OneDrive and Google Drive. Robert shared that there are many books that have had some impact on him but for this particular project, there is none. He has been influenced by a lot of American entrepreneurs and like everyone else, Steve Jobs is a person to look up to, he did a lot of good things and also Richard Branson. He also mentioned that he really appreciates Tony Fadell, he likes people who are simplifying things and if he had one topic in his life, it would be simplification, he wants to automate and simplify things so there is time for other stuff. Robert stated his excitement and focus is the expansion. It is the main part right now but what he’s mostly focusing on right now is Version 2.0, so right now to shop in his store you need to have your mobile app, you need to go into the store with the app, you need to scan the goods, you need to press to pay and the next version, you just have to have the phone in your pocket. You will go to the store, the doors will automatically open, you go in, you take whatever you want and then you just leave, after a few minutes you get a preliminary invoice which you can accept or reject and after 24 hours you get the proper invoice. So basically, you don’t need to touch the phone, it will be much simpler for the people who don’t like to use technology, it might be more simplified for the elderly, it might be that they are just not into tech and they are afraid of his store today because it’s very tech focused, you have to understand technology. Even if the app is simple, there is a barrier but he can remove the barrier. He stated that it is looking promising right now. Robert stated that listeners can find him on: www.narassar.seRobert Ilijason LinkedInRobert Ilijason Twitter Robert stated that one thing he is using from IKEA is a statement that their founder said and that is “Most things remain to be done.” It reminds him that even though he thinks something is as good as it can be, he can make it better and even though sometimes it feels like he’s stuck, there are so many things that can break it free for him. That is one quote that he is trying to think about a lot. Here is a link to visually view this unmanned Grocery Store - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShNL3oU4Mi0 Links www.narassar.se Robert Ilijason LinkedIn Robert Ilijason Twitter Evernote Dropbox OneDrive Google Drive. Robert Ilijason Unmanned Grocery Store Video
Asa Leveaux is fiercely committed to guiding entrepreneurs to achieve result-based transformations; he activates the genius in their minds and in their money, he also trains them to know that they are the answer to someone’s prayers so they can possess an existence that is saturated in apossibilities. If you are looking for a proven expert who can guide you to address what is blocking you from your true success, to locate where your genius can best be nurtured and how to reside out of the box, you have met the right person. Mr. Leveaux has over a decade of organizational experience working with amazing clients, customers, employees and decision makers while guiding them to achieve remarkable success. His mission and commitments are to take you from your level of bull and give you the tools and resources that will support you on your journey to blissful success. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your journey What are some of the founding principles that helped you to be successful? How do you feel as a customer in your everyday activities? What are some of the things you help businesses work on to ensure that they can make even more than USD $10,000.00 after they’ve made their first USD $10,000.00 and what are some of the keys things they need to be doing differently than everybody else in their industry and market they are in? From your book, can you share some information you are able to get across and who it is meant to help? How do you stay motivated every day? As an entrepreneur, what are some important considerations for an entrepreneur or online business owner you believe for them to be successful? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business, specifically as it relates to constantly motivated human capital? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Asa Leveaux is the founder of Genius Academy; he created the Genius Prescription System, which is a seven step system for aspiring entrepreneurs to make their first USD $10,000.00 in business. And though Genius Academy is the Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer of the Leveaux Group and best selling author, those accolades and achievements just didn’t embody who he was all the time. There was a time that none of those things existed but what did exist was a level of frustration with himself, a level of frustration with no one allowing his cash register to ring as he became an entrepreneur, frustration with his family of not giving him the support that he thought he needed from them, even the frustration of not being able to provide for his little boy who he calls his “son” and his “sun”. Even though he was on state assistance for food, he still allowed him to go to school to second grade without a lunch and that was the last time he allowed himself to do that, he understood that he needed to take action to make that no longer a reality. Asa Leveaux shared that some of the founding principles that have contributed to his success for him is one, understanding that your passion is your problem. What he means by that is we all have a passion, it may be a non-profit which helps battered women, it may be to make sure that children can read in our communities, it may be that we love to make clothes and love fashion and that’s our passion or even fixing cars is something that we know that we are born to do but whatever that passion may be for you, realizing that no one else in the world was given the passion that you have, the way you have it, so because of that don’t insist that support from friends or family should be as high as yours because it’s not their passion, it’s your passion. Don’t create this unreal contract between them as though they need to support you in a way that you support yourself because they have their own passion to work with. That has been the biggest step for him. Asa stated that in his everyday activity as a customer he has come to a point in his life that he doesn’t create expectations for people, so when he enters a store or an atmosphere where he is about to make a transaction, he does his best to enter that space not expecting anyone to be nice to him but stated that’s an internal work he had to do with him being himself. He stated that if he was the person that is over that transactional environment or that retail store, then he is creating that expectation for those individuals that are providing customer service on his behalf to do the necessary things and making sure that those expectations are written down and are clear. So as a customer, doing his best to be mindful and conscious and loving of other people where they are, that’s how he operates. As far as a business person that may have individuals that is responsible for customer service in his organization, that expectation looks like a PWS (Priority Award Statement) and SOP’s as in you will treat the customer this way and being very specific about that to ensure that the customer experience is a good one. Asa Leveaux shared that some things that he ensures that he tells them is that your result statement needs to be visible, clear and consistent. So often individuals are not clear about what they provide for people. If you are in the health care profession and you ensure that people are resilient, that by itself is not enough, he needs to understand that when he exchanges value for value which may look like money for your time, he needs to know what the results are so that he can be very clear of what to expect from you and the result statement has to be there and if the results statement is not there, now he’s a confused buyer and your sales conversation will be longer and harder because you did not set it in stone what it is that you do and how you do it and who you do that for. For instance, he started this interview by stating his name, stated the he ensures aspiring entrepreneurs make their first USD $10,000.00 as a result of creating a Genius Prescription System, he knows who he is meant to serve, he knows how he’s going to serve them and result that they are aiming for, if you don’t have those components, you are wasting your time and theirs. Asa shared that the most recent book that he wrote was a book called “I am Woman Enough: 365 Affirmations for Women”. When he mentions that he wrote that book, he initially gets hit with flack and he understands that because his response to their request of him creating that book was that he was not going to work it, he was complete in his experience of writing books that were affirmation based at that time but women kept asking him for the book. His thing was that he is a man, he is void of ovaries, so that doesn’t make him an expert on being a woman and he was very clear on that. He saw all of the strife that women and men have sent to Steve Harvey, T.D Jakes for writing books catered to women, he didn’t want to be a part of that, he didn’t sign up for that but when a woman stopped him in Texas and said “If you don’t write the book, who will?” He had nothing to come back with, he had no rebuttal and so because of that, he wrote the book, however he had 22 other women to help him in that endeavor. Asa stated that I am Woman Enough book lead him to write his third book called “I am Man Enough: 365 Affirmation for Men” and the reason he wrote that because men sometimes, more often than not, get the bad end of the stick as far as blaming the world, so men are responsible for so much bad to the point that they are not seeing anyone taking a role their empowerment, just because you are the majority in certain spaces does not mean you do not need empowerment, just because you have a preconceived notion of power. That is the reason he wrote that book. There was a time when he was involved with someone in a relationship with someone and they were coming up to their one year anniversary and he wanted to give her something from the heart, not because he was being cheap but because that’s something she valued and it’s important to understand what your partner values, just because the last person liked flowers doesn’t meant the new person likes flowers. He was writing out all the reasons why he loved her and he was placing them in a box to look like a treasure chest and people were passing his office and seeing the project and said I should write a book about that and I said “What do you want me to do? Make all these reasons for her and give it to every woman?” They said exactly and that’s what he did. He created a workbook for couples called “365 Erotic Reasons Why I Love You” He is meeting a need, when your customer is saying they have a potential need; meet the need, that’s called research and development. The first book he created was based on his desire to hire more people that look like him, he was 23 years old with three different businesses and Oklahoma wanted to hire more black people and all of the black people that were showing up to him were usually very young, even younger than him and they didn’t have the necessary skills not just to get in his door but to get in any door. When he talked about this to other entrepreneurs in his community, they were experiencing the same thing. So he wrote a book to help them, the book is entitled “Why I Won’t Hire Black People: Racial Profiling for a Reason”. He stated that when you are writing books, it’s important to research your genre of book, he understood and was very specific, he was going for African Americans in the workplace and he started to look at books that were already doing that so he was reading books like “Black Faces in White Places” or “What It’s Like To Be Me” or “To Be Black In Corporate America.” “What could I do to ensure that people would react, create an emotion in people that would allow them to take action?” In his experience, the real true emotions that will …. are sexual and anger. When you are angry about a book or the content or even the person who wrote it, people tend to take more actions by obtaining more evidence of why they hate the person or why they hate the book, which is why he created it. Another thing he wanted to show them subconsciously is that a lot of times he is hit with “I shouldn’t be judged by what I look like if I am trying to be hired as a black person” and he would say “you are right, however, you are judging my book by its cover by not wanting you to be judged by yours”. It is a lesson within itself. The books are available on Amazon and his website – www.asaleveaux.com Asa Leveaux stated that every day he doesn’t feel like being motivated and sometimes it comes at 7:00 am in the morning and sometimes it doesn’t come until 11:07 pm at night. Asa stated that even with entrepreneurs, sometimes we don’t answer the phone until noon because we haven’t got the motivation yet, sometimes we quit the business three times before noon because things become difficult and we don’t see a way out but in those moments and in those days that he does have a hold on motivation, how it comes is him caring about the individuals who are waiting for him to show up. He knows that he was called for people that are choking on frustration and if he is too concerned about what’s happening or not happening with himself rather than what they are going through, he will remain unmotivated. Asa shared that if you are an online entrepreneur, the first thing he will want you to consider is your domain name. He stated that causes him a high level of anger when he sees a domain name that he knows is not converting anyone. For instance, if you have a book and you are saying that your book is available on Amazon and he asks where can he get it and you say go to Amazon and he asks what is the name of your book and you tell him but he doesn’t see it at all. How does he get there and you tell him that he needs to put in a search for your Amazon, he’s going to be angry, if you tell him to Amazon.com/selfhelp/Jamaica/yourname. He’s going to be angry again. It would be easier to go to a company such as GoDaddy.com and get a domain for your book and create something called a vanity URL which is just you’re pointing where your product is to the point that you want to bring them to. The Woman Enough book that he mentioned earlier, instead of saying go to Amazon and look for Asa Leveaux or look for Woman Enough book, he said go to WomanEnoughBook.com or ManEnoughBook.com and that just takes you to where he wants you to go. Asa stated that you should always direct people where you want them to go and make it easy for them. Yanique mentioned that she did an interview with Jay Baer Author of “Hug Your Haters” and he said from research, one of the number one things that customers want is speed. The quicker and easier customers can access you online the better because nobody has time to be digging and going through different pages just to find one thing. Asa mentioned that also with name, everybody’s name does not convert well in a podcast or any other auditory format. For instance, his name is Asa Leveaux, some people don’t know how to spell his last name, Asa is easy but why would he make that his potential customers’ problem of finding that out. Even though he has www.asaleveaux.com, he also has a www.lifewithasa.com. So he rarely says go to asaleveaux.com on auditory format but he will say it on a written but to say it out loud, he would usually say go to lifewithasa.com and they all point to the same website. Asa Leveaux shared that he compartmentalizes his life, meaning when it’s time for business, it’s business and when it’s not, it’s not. So for him, his phone is real so he doesn’t want to be contacted at 11:00 pm at night from anyone unless something is happening or they are going out for drinks. There’s a company call Grasshopper that allows you to receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls through their app, he makes all his calls through the grasshopper app and the thing about it is when he calls, his business number shows up, so if they want to call him back, that’s the number they call him back on. Asa shared that when he started his entrepreneurial journey the book that gave him the fire he wanted was a book called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” by Robert T. Kiyosaki and he read that book more times than not and was totally enthralled by it, he says that whenever he sees it, like in a waiting room or someone pulls it out, he’ll read it again just because he likes it that much. Asa also stated that another book that made on impact was a book called “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason, which he really loves. The last one would be “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone. If you want to take responsibility for everything you have in your life, you need to read that book because everything that you could be doing could be 10 times that. Asa shared that something he did this morning, he was thinking about the customer experience, as he was getting ready for this interview, he started thinking about what it means to “woo your customer” because you want to them to be wooed, you don’t just get married to them all of a sudden, there’s a wooing process that needs to happen. How can he woo them quicker, sooner, faster? Genius Academy has a main platform called the Entrepreneurial Playbook and the Playbook gives you the different plays for your entrepreneurial journey, it’s a monthly subscription. He then thought what can he do to woo his customers? He then created the opportunity for anyone to take advantage of experiencing that for 30 days for USD $1.00. There’s a link for Genius Academy at lifewithasa.com or they can go to www.geniusacademy.co and look for the Entrepreneur Playbook and he also listed the coupon code. Asa stated that the Entrepreneurial Playbook has different course within it that they get to have access to so for instance, if you want to know how to publish your book, it’s there. If you want to sell your book on Amazon, it’s there and if want to sell period, it’s there. Marketing, how to operate your business, financing and speaking, it’s all there. There are eight courses that you get in the Playbook and you have access to all of them. Asa shared that for him it’s two fold. He stated that if he has people that are working for him, he will ensure that one of his (KPI’s) Key Performance Indicators is that they show up motivated because he may be out putting out a fire (figuratively or literally) and he doesn’t have the capacity in that moment to motivate the person that is handling his customers. However, when they get hired on, they will sign the agreement that these are your Key Performance Indicators and if you do not show up well in these specific ways that are measureable and quantifiable, meaning that you have a positive customer comment cards and you can resolve or de-escalate issues, then you will no longer be an asset. Ensuring that motivation is embedded within the things that are measured to keep someone on the team. The next thing is from a leadership point of view because as a leader, you are responsible for everything that does and does not happen in that business. Because of that you just let people know that you care about them, not necessarily the customer but the person who is caring for the customer because that’s the issue a lot of people don’t get. When you are the manager or even business owner and you keep saying the customer is always right, what are you then saying is that you have no value as the employee. One of the things he learned from Richard Branson is that he doesn’t say, “the customers are always right”, he says, “I value my employees” who are then feeling valued now can give value. If you have a workforce that is happy, they can then give that happiness to someone else but if they are depleted, they have nothing to give. Asa says listeners can find him on: www.lifewithasa.com www.asaleveaux.com Asa Leveaux Facebook Asa Leveaux Twitter Asa Leveaux LinkedIn Asa Leveaux Pinterest Genius Academy Facebook Genius Prescription System Asa stated a quote that helps him by Albert Einstein “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” He uses that to ensure that he is clear whenever he is talking. He understands that your ego can be wrapped into using words when you are talking about the problems of life, you could talk about the vicissitudes of life but he would rather not go that route because his main goal is not for anyone to see the intelligence but he would rather you understand so that you can spend the money. If you are not clear on what he is talking about, you are confused by it, which actually means someone who doesn’t buy. So if he can’t explain to a six year old and that’s with anything, his business plan, how he’s going to talk to his customers, how he’s pitching a new product or service, if they don’t get it, he needs to go back to the drawing board and start over. He stated that he used his son for awhile but he is now 10 years old so he asks his nieces and nephews if it make sense to them and if they can tell it you as far as what it is that you do, then you are clear now. Links “I am Woman Enough: 365 Affirmations for Women” by Asa Leveaux “I am Man Enough: 365 Affirmation for Men” by Asa Leveaux “365 Erotic Reasons Why I Love You” by Asa Leveaux “Why I Won’t Hire Black People: Racial Profiling for a Reason” by Asa Leveaux Grasshopper “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” by Robert T. Kiyosaki “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone
Stephanie Calahan is the Business Vision Catalyst who is known for the fast transformation that she facilitates with her clients through working at the intersection of heart and head. She works with busy, purpose-driven entrepreneurs to own their brilliance, leverage their business and get their message out with power, ease and joy so they can make a powerfully positive difference in the world, exponentially up their level profits, shift their mindsets towards possibility and take a no-excuses approach to boldly creating a highly successful and meaningful business built around who they are. With her unique combination of right brained and left brained thinking, intuitive incite, passion, results based coaching, powerful questioning and strategic systemizing magic. In record time, her clients dance with joy as their visions become reality in their business. After risking personal health and happiness as a high achieving executive and former jet-lagged consultant in corporate America, Stephanie vowed not only to create a life of real freedom for herself and her family but also to teach fellow entrepreneurs how to do the same. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey How do you feel about customer service as a business owner on a global level and do you think there’s room for improvement? What are some everyday solutions that you believe can help improve customer experience? How do you stay motivated everyday? What are some important considerations for an entrepreneur or an online business owner would need to take into account in order to be successful? What is one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but lack the consistently motivated human capital, what advice would you give that person to have a successful business? What is one thing that is going on in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are either working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find you online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Stephanie started by stating that she worked a little over a decade consulting for Fortune Fifty/ Fortune One Hundred clients and leading a team of 250 to 300 people. She stated that there was a lot of activity and stress involved with that world of work. When she started working there, she thought she was going to retire from where she started as she was a true blue employee that really believed in the work that she was doing and was going to continue that until her retirement. Into her experience with that career, the company went from a privately held LLC to a publicly traded company, and when they made that shift in corporate organization, there was a drastic shift in the corporate culture, there was a drastic shift in the treatment of their clients, there was a drastic shift in the treatment of their employees and that no longer matched who she was. The company moved from being people-focused to being bottom-line focused. A lot of the things they did in support of their clients as well as a lot of things that they had done culturally in support of their own associates were disappearing. She was being asked a lot of times to do different things on many occasions that was right on her ethical borders so much so that there were days late into that experience where she was getting physically ill at work because the people that Stephanie reported to were just asking her to do things that were not right for a myriad of reasons, they weren’t illegal but they were just not right. Fortunately, her husband who is very supportive had a conversation and they decided that it was time for her to walk away, it took her about 2 years to be brave enough to talk to her husband but she was nervous because that meant she was walking away from a high 6 figure income and they decided that it was the absolute right choice and she did that and decided to start Calahan Solutions rather than getting another job. When she went to decide what she was going to do within Calahan Solutions, she looked at the work that she did that she wanted to bring with her, the parts of that corporate experience she wanted to bring with her that were positive, the things that she enjoyed doing, the things that she was good at doing. She looked at her peer reviews and reviews from the leadership team that she reported to and looked at the things she did really well and just combined all of that into a business. Her business has morphed and changed quite a bit over the years because one of the things that she didn’t let go of was over working, she was a workaholic and almost worked herself to death. In 2009 she was told she would not see 2010 because she was so ill and so in the course of getting well, she had to rethink her business and that rethinking of her business and how she wanted to deliver services allowed her to become fully her and not hold back because there was this workaholic part of her and there was a part of her that thinks that people are not interested in that aspect of her and so she blocked a lot of who she was too. While that health experience was a scary one, she was actually really grateful because it brought her to where she is today. It has also allowed her to recognize that life is really short and if it’s going to be short, if we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow, then she needs to be the best she can be everyday and so it has given her motivation to really go for those things in her business that are important rather than letting fear hold her back. Stephanie shared that Customer Service/Client Service is one of the most integral parts of what she does. The work that she does, all the way from the conversations that she is having now, the blog post that she writes, the interactions that she has with her clients, the interactions that she has with her prospects are all about service. The work that she does is transformational and if people don’t feel well cared for, they can’t take part in that transformation in a really significant way and then the work that they do is the same thing. The more you can think about the experiences that you are providing whether it is through the conversations that you are having, whether it is through the on-boarding processes that you have when you have new clients but even if you have products that you sell in a store, products that you sell online, think all the way through that experience to make sure that it’s something that’s going to be really positive and enjoyable for the people that are doing business with you. Stephanie shared that one solution she thinks can apply to a lot of people listening is to think through the experience your customers are having when they are interacting with you online and that can be a lot of different things. Stephanie shared an experience that she had (a bad customer experience), that she also wrote a blog post about it. She stated that there was someone she was following online that she really respected and she decided to purchase a product online from this person, she made the purchase on a Friday night and all of a sudden she got 7 different receipts for that same purchase and the purchase was not a low price purchase. Her credit card got impacted by over US $4,000.00 from that one purchase because it wasn’t a US $4,000.00 purchase; it was 7 different purchases of the exact same product. She then franticly started making phone calls to the company trying to get a hold of anybody because that wasn’t her intent to spend that amount of money and she didn’t want to buy 7 versions of the digital product. After 4 hours of calling different numbers, she eventually got someone who had absolutely nothing to do with her purchase, she told the person that she needed their help to escalate the problem, she needed the money to be put back on her card immediately. With all said and done, everything got resolved but it was 4 hours of her time in panic, stress and also unnecessary because if when they had put the product up on their shopping cart they had ensured someone to test it and actually pretend to make a purchase, they would have seen what happens from the customers’ perspective. Stephanie Calahan further stated just because you have stuff set up correctly in the first place for product A doesn’t mean that product B is going to be set up correctly. Test every single one of them, look at the landing pages you’re going to have, look at the thank you pages you’re going to have, look at the emails going out, look at the impact it has on a credit card and what the credit card receipts have because the more smooth you can make that process, the happier a customer you are going to have. Stephanie advised in her own business - she has a few family members that are not that technically inclined that she would ask to run through the process for her and she will refund it right away. Just for them to go through it and let her know if there is anything confusing or if the process was clunky in any way and give her that feedback. She stated that there are a lot of big corporations; the amazons of the world who have teams of people that they call usability testing but smaller businesses don’t have teams of people to do usability testing but you can do something really simple like that which doesn’t take a lot of time that can really save your reputation and relationships by investing in time to do that. In reference to the question of recommendations that Stephanie has for a company that has a physical storefront with items for sale (brick and mortar). The solution she suggests is to be present. In our world of ever changing attention spans where we could have an iPad going, the cash register going, our phone ringing and someone at the counter, just pay attention. Whoever you are interacting with whether it’s on the phone or at the counter, give them your full attention for the time frame that you’re having an interaction with them and let them know they are important to you because they are, they are your customers. Give them the respect that they deserve as they are doing an exchange with you, whether it’s asking a question or making a purchase. Some people look at customer service only from the perspective as people that are giving you money and that they become the customer when they have made a purchase from you. However, the truth is they are your customer the minute they’re in your sphere of influence because the conversations and relationships that you build with people even before they have made a purchase influence how they feel about you. After asking Stephanie Calahan how she stays motivated everyday - she believes in having a big Why? Simon Sinek has a TED talk video on YouTube Start With Why. It’s about getting that piece that’s deep inside of you that you tap into that allows you to do all the things that you absolutely adore about your business and to also do the things that you are less excited about. She stated that her “Why” ties back to her personal experiences. She mentioned that in 2009 she was really ill almost lost her life and the reason she is here today is because a really good friend introduced her to a holistic health coach that helped her figure out the complex mess that she was in and helped her so that she could be here today. She realized that after she got well and learned more about his business, that there is no way she would have found him if she hadn’t been personally introduced to him by a friend and there are so many different world changers that are out there and he would not consider himself a world changer but he changed her world because she’s here today because of the work she did with him. She stated that there are so many world changers like him that are so amazing like him but people don’t know they exist. So her “Why” is to help change the world in a very positive way by helping those world changers get found and be aligned with clients and do what they do best. Stephanie stated one of the most important things that entrepreneurs and businesses should take in account is to build a business that is in alignment with who you really are. There are a lot of people that build businesses based off of what one guru or another says and it’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and it doesn’t work and then they’re always pushing rather than letting the beauty of life and the beauty of their ideal clients find them and just flow. She shared that the first thing she would suggest a business owner do is look at what they have going on in their life right now and identify those spots that are really feeling off and get honest about it and adjust. The more you can build a business aligned around who you are then the more comfortable you are and not comfortable in a bad way as she is a believer in stepping out of your comfort zone, “comfortable” meaning it matches who you are from an energy level, from a spiritual level, from a business strategy level and from a learning and personality values level. The more your business is in alignment with who you are and the less you’re pushing, the more energy you have to be focused on somebody else namely your customers or your clients. When you have a business model that is always making you stressed, you don’t have the mental capacity to be thinking of other people in the same way as you do when you are truly joyous about the work you do. Stephanie also stated that one of her programs is called “Money, Mindset and Magnetism”, the clients that align and sign up to be a part of that program are typically having challenges with their sales in one way or another and what she finds is the case with every single private client that comes into that program is that initially they are more focused on themselves, they are not selfish people but they are more focused on themselves than on the people that they are meant to serve, so their sales conversations just implode. They don’t work as well as they could and there’s so many things when we are solid within who we are and our mindset is clean and confident then we are in a different mental space to be able to truly think about the person on the other side of the counter, on the other side of the phone, over Skype, over Google Hangout, whichever way you connect with your ideal customer or client that it allows you to think from their perspective and get much more creative with how you can make their experience a positive one. When customers | clients | patients have a more positive experience, they’re more likely to continue to want to work with you. When asked what is the one app, website, resource or tool that she absolutely cannot live without in her business - Stephanie shared that she adores Infusionsoft (https://www.infusionsoft.com) which is an all in one marketing tool that allows you to make your customer experience very personalized and build relationships with the people you are interacting with rather than it being transaction based. There are different components and there is one component called “Customer Relationship Management Section” and that’s where you can gather all kinds of information about your clients and customers and give yourself good information in order to interact with them. If you do online sales or brick and mortar sales then this tool will allow you to identify who signed up for what giveaway you have, who purchases a product and it allows you to have a more intelligent conversation with them. If you are in a business where it is more one on one interaction, it allows you to note the important things you learned about those people that you are working with. She calls it her memory in a box, she can go back to that person’s record anytime and know what they talked about, what they are interested in and it helps her refresh her memory so that she can treat the people that she is working with, with great respect and honor. She further stated it is more than a CRM as there is also an Auto Responder portion where you can do newsletters, you can do automated communication based off of the types of interactions the customers and clients are having with you or your site. There’s a Shopping Cart portion, there’s a number of different elements that can be used to allow you to know what your customer is interested in and then be able to serve them with that. Stephanie mentioned that the tool – Infusionsoft (https://www.infusionsoft.com) was built specifically for small businesses and they have customers that are in service coaching industries but they have people that run all kinds of different brick and mortar stores whether it’s retail stores and they have customers all over the globe doing all different types of businesses but it specifically for the small business. Stephanie mentioned that she has been doing business with them (Infusionsoft) for a number of years and like a lot of businesses, they have some growing pains, at one point they were getting customers so fast that their customer service wasn’t so good for a while but they addressed that. They recognized where their growing pains were starting to cause them problems and they made adjustments. So Stephanie suggests as another tip - as your business grows, the way that you interact with your customers will need to change and so be open for that and look at those spots where maybe things are falling through the cracks that didn’t use to fall through the cracks and those are customer improvement opportunities too. Stephanie shared that when she thinks about Customer Service, one book that is really fantastic is “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins. You can be a good company and make a lot of money or you can be a great company that makes a lot of money and makes an impact too. In Jim’s book, he did a study of a number of different organizations just understanding why were some companies merely really good and others great and what did the great ones have in common? And one of those things that all the great ones have in common was really good customer service. Stephanie mentioned that when she framed her business, she had to decide if she wanted to be mass numbers or did she want to be high touch and by high touch, she means how well did she know the people she was working with and how involved did she get with them in relation to the work they are doing together. Stephanie Calahan decided that high touch was really where she wanted to sit in that coaching space and so she has a unique rule that she wants to be able to love her customers unconditionally in order to work with them because when you can accept your customers and clients unconditionally in the coaching space, then you have the ability to really help empower them to make fantastic changes in the direction they want to go in their business so customer service is one of the ways that she is able to do that. She also stated that another great book is “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions” by Guy Kawasaki which is about relationships and talking about how you engage with your community, with your tribe, and with your audience. She also mentioned “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini which is a different form of engagement but understanding how the words that you use impact the people you are working with so to make sure that you’re conscious about that and how you interact with people. Yanique asked Stephanie…..we have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers who feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated Human Capital. If you were sitting across the table from that person, what’s the one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business? Stephanie Calahan shared that one advice that she would give is if you are lacking the human capital, systemize. There are so many different technologies out there that allow you to be fantastic at what you do. She then gave an example, when she first started her business; she was going back and forth in email with people anytime she wanted to schedule anything and she could have a lot of people going back and forth with at any given point trying to schedule a conversation on the phone or face to face and sometimes she dropped the ball because she would miss an email or her phone wouldn’t sync to her computer. That is a relationship gap when you don’t reply when you should and so one way that she automated that piece of it was to set up an online availability calendar that syncs with her calendar that is outlining when she’s available for different types of conversations. Let’s say she meets someone on a Facebook group and goes back and forth on messenger. Now, if she wants to schedule a conversation, she can say go to this URL and pick any time that works for you, you can trust that any time that’s on that calendar that shows available that she is also available and it eliminates that back and forth, it eliminates that unproductive time and allows her to have more time for the important things of the conversation and there is a lot of different things you can do within your business to automate different administrative functions and different operational functions so that you are freeing up more time to do the things that you really love to do. When you talk about those businesses that don’t have a lot of human capital, there are some things where people interaction is critical and there are some things like scheduling a meeting that is really administrative and the technology is there that makes it so easy and so streamlined that it is a happier customer experience than the aggravation of all the back and forth. So it ultimately ends up being a better customer experience by automating that piece and frees you up to have more time to be able to do those pieces that are more important face to face or voice to voice. One thing that is going on in Stephanie’s life right now that she is working on to develop herself and her people – she stated that the thing she has been working on for the last couple of months that she is the most excited about is something that came from a love of wanting to combine the concerns of people who are Podcast hosts, Radio Show hosts and the concerns of people that are guest on these shows. She is writing a book right now that is called “Guest Appearance Gold: Sky Rocket Your Reach, Grow Your Influence and Attract Great Clients by Leveraging Your Guest Appearances and Expert Interviews” and she was hearing from hosts that they have all of these guests on their shows and they don’t do anything to help promote the show, they just come on and do their thing and then they get off and that’s a frustration from the hosts perspective. She was also hearing from the guest expert side of going on these shows that it isn’t really doing a whole lot for their business and that’s largely because there’s this whole piece in the middle that’s missing that wasn’t being leveraged by the guest experts and so she has written that book and it started out as a simple check list and after 60 pages, she said it’s not really a simple check list anymore because she was giving a lot of why’s behind different things that people could do and so her intention when the book is done is to give it away because she would like more people to be able to really get the biggest return on investment and in this case it is a time investment that will benefit hosts of shows as well as benefit the people that are experts on those shows. Stephanie stated that what is interesting about when you go on shows; it’s a two way customer service experience because the host is the customer of the guest but the guest is also the customer of the host, when you’re really working together then you can get amazing exposure for the conversation you had together which benefits everybody. Stephanie says that listeners can find her on: Stephanie Calahan Website Stephanie Calahan Twitter Stephanie Calahan Instagram Stephanie Calahan Facebook Stephanie Calahan LinkedIn Stephanie Calahan Youtube Stephanie Calahan Google+ In reference to one quote or saying that Stephanie has that she reverts to during times of adversity and challenge. Stephanie stated that she has many as she has been collecting quotes since Elementary School but the one that comes to mind is by Alan Cohen “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” Links “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions” by Guy Kawasaki “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini Infusionsoft Stephanie Calahan Website Stephanie Calahan Twitter Stephanie Calahan Instagram Stephanie Calahan Facebook Stephanie Calahan LinkedIn Stephanie Calahan Youtube Stephanie Calahan Google+ Simon Sinek TED talk Youtube Video
Chloë Thomas is an Author, International Speaker and Host of her own podcast, eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast. Chloë has been working in eCommerce since 2003, learning how to increase orders, up customer retention and recruit new customers cost effectively. Working with businesses from the High Street right down to start ups, eCommerce MasterPlan is the result of Chloë’s years of experience, the books, blogs and courses have all been created to help eCommerce business owners and Marketers to make the right decisions as they build their own path to eCommerce success. The eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast exists to bring a weekly dose of inspiration direct to the desk of eCommerce business people all over the globe. Power Retail Australia named Chloë as one of the 10 top eCommerce Commentators in the world and within 6 months of launch, the podcast was already the top eCommerce podcast in the UK. Chloë is also the Author of “Customer Manipulation: How to Influence your Customers to Buy More and why an Ethical Approach will Always Win.” Questions Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your journey How do you feel about Customer Service in the UK? Give 2 companies that you really admire in terms of they are doing customer service and doing it well What are some everyday solutions you believe can help improve customer experience? Can you share a little more about the book, what inspired you to write it and who the book is targeted to and how can it help them? Do you find that companies are moving towards marrying the relationship between marketing and customer service? Or is there still a divide in terms of there is a marketing department separate from a customer service department? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your business? What are some books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you where sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the consistently motivated human capital, what advice would you give them to turn their team members and turn their business around to create more success? In doing your research for your book Customer Manipulation, do you find that if the company has poor leadership, that it translates into a poor customer experience? What is one thing you are working on right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Chloë grew up in the United Kingdom (UK) in a rural area called Cornwall (located right down the far South West of the UK), she stated the she was lucky to get into Oxford University and from there was lucky enough to get a job at Barclay’s Bank working in Marketing and quickly realized that smaller businesses is where she wanted to go. She left the very large bank and started to work in retail for a High Street Retailer in the UK and that sparked her love for data and marketing, and how you can improve results and optimize. Over the last 13 years she has been honing that skill until 4 years ago she launched eCommerce MasterPlan and so now 4 years and 4 books later here we are! Chloë stated that she thinks that the UK is okay at Customer Service but is nowhere as amazing as it is in America. She said one of her favourite things to do in America is to go to the mall and find a nice Department store and wander around until someone goes “Can I help you?” It is just amazing how they care about you. There’s more customer service ethics in America, it is more valued as a job in the Hospitality and Retail Sector but in the UK, eCommerce Sector, it has been heartening over the last 12-18 months to hear everyone from the smallest to the largest businesses talking about how important it is to listen to the customer and to deliver what the customer needs and that’s a real turning point because up until then the conferences were just full of bright, shiny, exciting new pieces of tech and clever marketing campaigns but now, everyone’s talking about the customer and that’s a real benefit. Chloë stated that there is a paradigm shift in terms of how people are being more adjusted to customer experience. It’s because the industries have come of age, they are no longer in that early adaptor stage and now moved into an early majority at which point people have got to stop trying to be bright and shiny, you’ve got to say, “We are great at what we do, this is who we are, this is why you should buy from us and why you should buy our products.” Which is more powerful and interesting and quite a relief for her as a consumer as well. After asking Chloë if she could share with us one or two companies that she would recommend as offering great customer service – she lightly shared that she will share some unconventional companies as possibly everyone is expecting her to share Zappos and Amazon. Chloë shared that the companies that she admires are Project Repat (https://www.projectrepat.com), an American company who turns t-shits into blankets, so they’ll take all your old college t-shirts, cut them up and sew them up into a blanket and send them back to you. They really nailed one of the most powerful ways in eCommerce of helping customers, which is to gather the email addresses as quickly as you can and then build a phenomenal welcome sequence. What they are doing is absolutely fascinating on that clear focus and their welcome emails are beautiful. They listen and respond to what the customer is worried about. The other is a UK company called Miso Tasty (https://misotasty.com/#) which sells Miso Soup which Chloë says she thinks is a brilliant business name. They spend a lot of time getting their product right and they realize they’re going to be bringing new flavor sensation to the UK, it is an Asian flavoring that they are not used to. She stated that what she loves about Miso Tasty is the way the products are structured; they reduced the risk to a customer buying, not wanting to spend £20 (which is difficult) on buying this thing to try it out. What they have created is a 2 soup pack that only costs £2 and they can do free postage and packaging. So for customers to try out their products on their website, it only costs them £2 and that’s less than the cost of a pint of beer and it’s just amazing how they thought of the customer’s journey. Chloë shared that often people think Customer Service and they immediately think of the Call Centre down the corridor but real Customer Service embodies the entire process and experience with your business – it is everyone’s responsibility to do true customer service and that is why she truly appreciates the 2 businesses mentioned above Project Repat ad Miso Tasty. For example - It is not about waiting for someone to pick up the phone and say, “How long do I have before getting those T-Shirts to you before I have to buy again?” – they have listened and placed it in the welcoming email so they provide that knowledge to the customer without them having to call up. Chloë says of course there is a financial benefit to the fact you will get more conversions and less people having to answer the phone but there is the whole embracing of that experience through your marketing, strategies and products which is really important. Chloë shared some everyday solutions that she believes can help improve Customer Experience is everything really. She shared that she thinks a couple of really simple tools would be User Testing usertesting.com which is a fantastic site where you can go and just put up almost a job where someone from a certain segment of the population takes a look at your website and answers some questions. For example – you could put your website up there and say buy a lawnmower and then you get a video of that person trying to buy a lawnmower on your website and talking you through it and it is such a great way because sometimes we all sit around with great ideas saying, “Oh I think we should do this website, or oh I think we should do this with the website…” but to actually get some real human data on how someone who has never seen your business before is struggling with it is a great way of improving your user experience. It is great because if you have been looking at your analytics and you find people are dropping off somewhere or they are not going to that page and you can’t figure out why…..User Testing is a great fast track to solving that problem! Chloë then shares the other everyday solutions she would recommend for a business is Web Chat Services – that service that pops up on a website and says, “May I help you?” She shares this one in the UK is getting a lot of big players in eCommerce, they are playing around and working out how best to use it, rather than thinking of it as a customer service tool, think of it as a sales tool as well. When they notice places where people are getting stuck, they’ll activate it and say, “Can we help you?” or “What’s happening?” Usually found on product pages or elsewhere so they are creating a very tailored service for the customer and that is something which is a really easy solution, it doesn’t cost much to put in place and it’s something that even a small business can do and can make a massive difference to customer service and therefore the sales. Chloë shared that the reason she called the book “Customer Manipulation” is because as it all gets more competitive online and consumers are able to voice their opinions so much more easily and as marketers we want to be successful. We need to embrace the fact that every email sent is aiming to manipulate someone to buy from us, every tweet we send is aiming to manipulate someone to think better about us. If we can embrace that then we can get under the skin of the science of manipulation and the way of using manipulation but it is our choice whether we manipulate for good or for evil. If you choose to manipulate for evil then you are very quickly going get found out and it will be the end of your business. Chloë also shared the inspiration for her book and she says it had been a few years since she has done a big book and she had this model that she sometimes refers to as the “Customer Journey” or the “Customer MasterPlan” lurking around in her head and making its way onto slides, chats with clients and networking and then finally it was ready to be turned into a book. The role of the model is to help people, rather than thinking they need to do Social Media or to think they have a problem turning visitors from their website into enquirers to people who have given their email address and what is the best way of solving that problem. Can Social Media have an impact on it and which part of Social Media might it be? It’s kind of another way of the industry growing up rather than thinking oh email, oh Social Media, oh pop ups, it’s about thinking this is our current problem and the problem is turning visitors into enquirers, it’s getting people to the website, it’s getting enquirers to become first time buyers, it’s getting first time buyers to become repeat buyers and what are the ways for doing that. The book is structured into the 5 stages of getting people from those different customer relationship levels to the next one and filled with changes you can make to your website, improvements you can make to customer services, improvements you can make to marketing and also to your products where relevant to take you up and to encourage your customers to move between those customer relationship levels. Chloë says everything that she writes is for the small business owner, so someone with a team of less than 10 and usually for a team less than 5. It is very much for an owner/ head of marketing to help them work out where they should be deploying their resources and lots of ideas of what they can do. However, she knows bigger businesses and other persons have used the book to improve relations in heir B2B’s. Chloë thinks the businesses that are doing customer service well and who will do well in the future are seeing it as one group (Marketing and Customer Service), you may have different departments but they are finding ways to make sure they are working together because there are so many over laps and if you want to do customer service well, it’s got to be through everything you do in the business. Chloë shared that on her podcast a couple episodes back (Episode 55) – she had the head of Brand from Tesco, one of the five largest retailers in the world (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/055-tescos-tamara-duschl-talks/id1005744797?i=1000371058713&mt=2) - she asked her guest just out of interest on the eCommerce side what does the eCommerce team do and what does the Marketing team do as per getting people to the website. The guest stated the eCommerce team sits in one building and they look after the website and Marketing team looks after the promotions and the traffic and they are in a different building. So Chloë shares Tesco does have a way to go as you can’t mothball the conversation – everyone needs to be integrated for a seamless Customer Experience. In asking Chloë how she stays motivated everyday she stated that she is just very lucky to be doing something that she loves and has spent some time over the last few years working out how to structure her days and her work load so that they suit her and having to do the things she likes and not having to do the things she doesn’t. She stated that motivation is something that comes naturally and wished she understood it as she reckons she could write that book but she can’t explain it. Chloë shared that the app that she use frequently is Asana (asana.com) , which is a team and task management tool for organizing. She uses it to organize herself and part-time/out-source people in her business. She further stated in her business that it is her and a lot of part time people so it does keep it all together. There is a web version and also available as an App. Chloë shares that 2 books that have had the biggest impact on her are: “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown which is all about prioritization and working out what you should be focused on in your business and your life. It helps you on the journey to becoming a person who knows how to prioritize as well as giving you tricks and tips along the way. The other book she loves is “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain which is all about introvertism. She stated that this book helped her to embrace who she is and to learn how to make the most out of it. Chloë shared she is an extremely introverted person and that book helped her tremendously. In answering our question on what’s the one piece of advice she would give a business owner who lacks the constantly motivated human capital – Chloë lightly shared she would just change the people as often times it is easier to motivate new people than old ones but that’s not very possible at times due to legislation and other things. Therefore, Chloë shared that is starts at the core, what is the vision of the business, what is the mission, and what are the values. Often times when businesses take a leap forward or an about turn from a bad pathway, it’s because they got really clear about what their vision and mission is and they have reintegrated that into the business and got that back to the heart of what they do. If you can get your people embracing that and believing that and understanding this is what they do then it becomes a lot more straight forward. Our trigger question for Chloë was how did she feel leadership and the lack there of translates into a poor customer experience – she shared she thinks that a business with poor leadership will struggle with delivering good customer services. She made reference to Tesco, stating the problems they have had with falling profits and sales was because the leadership got lost and they lost track of where their mission was and the vision and what they brought to the world. They quickly realized unless they go back to their roots, they are finding they are getting the success back again. That would be an example of where bad leadership led to a decline in customer experience and now they are turning it around. When we asked Chloë what’s the one thing she is excited about that is going on in her life right now - she stated this is her favourite time of the year when this podcast is being recorded (August) that she is not traveling for conferences for a few weeks so she is excited about analyzing lots of data, doing reports and surveys to work out what is the next thing she should do. She is weighing some options as to what her customers need her to produce next in terms of should it be an online course, should it be a Master Mind group, should it be a Membership Site or maybe even another book. She’s super excited about all that probably for launch in January 2017. Chloë says listeners can find her on her website eCommerce MasterPlan Website , she also shared the best way to get in touch with her is through Linked In and Twitter (@chloe_ecmp). Chloë shared that the quote that she always uses to keep her focused during times of adversity and challenges is “Keep Optimizing” (a quote she came up with) which reminds her that if something hasn’t worked, then that’s okay because we’re just going to optimize it, we’re going to learn and move forward, or if she is trying to make something too perfect before putting it live, she’ll remember this quote. We would welcome a subscribe, rate and review for the show and also that the listeners can come hang out at Navigating the Customer Experience Community on Facebook. This is a private Facebook group for our listeners and past guests to come over share insights and industry trending topics and discussions on business and customer experience – click here! Links eCommerce MasterPlan Website “Customer Manipulation: How to Influence your Customers to Buy More and why an Ethical Approach will Always Win” by Chloe Thomas Asana User Testing Project Repat Miso Tasty “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain Chloe Thomas Twitter eCommerce MasterPlan Twitter eCommerce MasterPlan Facebook Chloe Thomas LinkedIn eCommerce MasterPlan LinkedIn
Brian is the founder of Brian K. Wright International whose mission is to motivate and inspire others to discover their unique talents and follow their dreams in life. With extensive experience teaching and training in academics and corporate environments, he understands that many people live far beneath their potential, primarily because they don’t believe they deserve success. Through his experience and research, Brian has learnt and practiced the principles he teaches in his book Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group. Brian is also the host of the Internet Radio Talk Show Success Profile Radio on the Rock Star Radio Network. Brian holds a Degree in Communication Studies and holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the University of Nebraska in London. He discovered a passion for speaking and influencing audiences by speaking competitively in High School and College and by being heavily involved on campus while in school. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Can you give an overview of some of the topics in your book? How do you feel about customer service as a customer yourself? What are two (2) everyday solutions that you believe that can help improve customer experience on a global level? How do you stay motivated everyday? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app you absolutely cannot live without in your business? In helping to write books, do you help clients from conceptuality throughout the writing process? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find you? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Brian stated that he got his Degree in Adult Education at the University of Nebraska and taught at a Business College for almost 5 years where he taught Public Speaking, English Composition, and Business Mathematics (a really fun combination of classes). He expressed when someone is taking a class that is required – you have to make it fun. He further expressed that he taught at this college and even though it was a private college they ran it as a business. He also shared that most of the students that attended the school were non-traditional aged students. He stated that he wrote resumes to help people find jobs which was fun. Fast forward a few years later, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and is now hosting a personal development radio show entitled “Success Profiles Radio” where he interviews world class achievers and learns how they succeeded and what they overcame and what lessons we can learned from that. A few of the persons he has interviewed includes Darren Hardy, Jack Canfield, Dr. John Demartini from “The Secret”, Laura Longmire, Sharon Lechter and James Malinchak – ABC Secret Millionaire. Brian stated that “Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group” is his first book and has been out for a little while. He stated that when writing the book, he wanted it to appeal to young people. Brian says that he thinks leadership is absent in a lot of arenas and the types of people that are in leadership positions maybe can do a better job or they are very self serving and that is not leadership and he wanted to write a book about that. At the beginning, he started to ask himself what makes a great leader? And his goal was to come up with 21 answers to the question. He ended up with 30 and as he started writing, he realized that some of the topics were similar and those 30 topics turned into 21, so he was thankful that he still made his goal. The number one thing that he wrote about was that excellent leaders have a vision for the future. Brian stated when you think of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series, he just created this whole entire vision for what he thought the future should be like, an opportunity for people to explore space, somewhat Utopian! Brian even gave mention to the Wright Brothers who created the first airplane and Elon Musk as a modern day example who created PayPal and changed the platform and functions of eCommerce completely and even created Tesla and SpaceX. When you can have people buy into your vision, you’re going to be much more successful because no great leader can accomplish anything by themselves. Just like politicians, they have to sell their vision of what they want to do in order to get elected and get enough people to believe in that vision and that’s an amazing accomplishment, which leads to another thing that is important to being a successful leader and that is the idea of networking. And going back to the political example, you have to have a huge rolodex of people you can count on in order to accomplish anything. The key is not just getting them to do what you want to do but getting them to believe that what you want them to do is something that they also want to do. He also stated that excellent leaders make people feel welcome in their presence. If you’re a leader and you don’t feel comfortable following someone or you don’t feel comfortable with way that the leader is acting, you are not going to stick around for long so helping people feel comfortable in your presence means creating a culture and that is something you help people buy into. Brian shared most people like certain companies better based on the Culture they have created. In his examples he shared if you have a company that has theme days, a vending machine or foosball table in the break room – these small components help to set your company culture apart. Creating an environment of fun and that is welcoming where people want to continue coming and that’s what excellence leaders do. Brian shared as a customer he has had some good and bad experiences. He stated that what really gets to him is when people don’t listen which is one of his biggest pet peeves. A question is being asked and they are not answering the question being asked or they are answering the question they feel like answering. This mostly is because they have a script, they don’t really know, so they just fall back to a script that they are comfortable with. A customer may request to speak with a supervisor and sometimes people are happy to pass the call over and other people may get a little upset because they want to help but they are not being helpful, people want to speak with someone that can answer a specific question. He shares that what irritates him the most is when he would have to be calling over and over for an on-going issue and no one bothered to take notes about the first call. He mentioned a situation that happened and he had spent 45 minutes on the call with a representative, when he called back a few months later for a follow up on the issue that he spoke about before, he asked about the company fee’s for what they were doing for him and the answer he got from the first representative was great but then when he called back the second time and asked the same question, that representative stated that there are no notes about that, he was not happy that he had spoken about that issue for 30 minutes out of the 45 minutes conversation that he had with the representative. He felt annoyed the representative didn’t think to make notes. Brian also mentioned that if you say that you will follow up with a phone call or an email about a resolution, do what you can to make that happen and follow up. Making proper notes and listening are absolutely critical in customer service. Brian recommend that business owners should spend a day in the trenches with their team so that they can see and hear exactly what is going happening on a daily basis. You get to meet the people on your team; you get to learn what they are going through every single day. Let them train you as to what they are doing and why they are doing it and if you sit with enough people in one day where you take some calls, you will get a much better sense of what’s going on with your team and then you can make training recommendations. That will be outstanding because you be able to feel and experience what your team is feeling and experience or even better you could be a mystery shopper, call your company, call your customer service departments and see how they treat you, see how they handle things. Mystery shop your company to see the kind of experience you are receiving to see if it is aligned with your mission and use it as a training opportunity for your company to do better. Brian shared if your company is interested in doing better and performing at a world-class level – you will engage and do some mystery shopping on your business and then move into some well-needed training. Brian stated that staying motivated has to do with hanging around persons who have similar goals and missions. He mentioned a quote by Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you are not experiencing financial success, look at the 5 people you are hanging around, chances are they aren’t either. If you’re 30 pounds overweight and you wish you have a better body, look at the 5 people you are hanging around, they are probably eating oreos on the couch after work too. If you want to lose weight…..find 5 people who look great, feel great, have a handle on they’re eating pattern and ask them what they are doing, ask them for advise even get a personal trainer if you need to. People who want to help you become a better sales person, people who want to help you with online marketing, so if you want to learn those things, know who you can tap into and get some help with. Brian also mentioned that he enjoys walking and running out in nature but in Arizona it is too hot so he is a member at a gym. He says he is able to enjoy his own thoughts when he walks and runs. He further believes that if you take care of yourself and who you are; you will have much to give to others very much like when you travel and the Flight Attendant states in her safety briefing place the mask on yourself first and then help the passenger next to you – you must be able to help yourself first before you can help others. Brian shared that the one app that he frequently uses and cannot live without in his business is Facebook. He stated that the guests that he gets for his Podcast show is mostly through Facebook and people that he admires and he also receives guest referrals. He stated that he also helps people write their books, so there is a lot of dialogue through Facebook as well. Brian said that he hasn’t done any ads via Facebook as yet; he has been talking with persons and will be starting that soon. Brian says he believes everyone has a book inside him or her; he helps them find their story within and helps them connect and find a way to connect with the world. Brian stated that he does help with the conceptuality of writing books, as he believes that everyone has a book inside them somewhere, somehow. He talks with them about their topic and what makes their topic unique. So if they want to write a book on customer service as an example, there are many books about that, it’s a very common topic. So he would ask, what spin would they place on that topic that would make their book interesting to read and would not be like the other books out there? And that would be an exploration of their background and what they’ve gone through. He coaches them on what topics that can be talked about in the book, create on outline together and the life stories that they would share because people relate to stories kind of how Jesus taught through his parables. He also stated that he helps with the self-publishing aspects as well, he has resources for format and layout of the book, designing the book cover and also printing of the book. Brian shares the books that he has read that has had the greatest impact on him are first - “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield, Brian said he read it several times within a year (2005), it has so many exercises and suggestions for things you can do. He also mentioned that Jack Canfield was interviewed on his show in 2015. Brian also mentioned that he is now reading “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone.” The idea of setting massive goals for yourself and taking action on it has really helped him focus on thinking really big. Brian shared the first personal development book that he read was “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz which really had an impact on him as well. He shared that the book was written in the 50’s. When we asked Brian what’s the one thing that he is excited about and working on in his life to develop himself or his people right now, he happily shared that he is currently working on a book called “Conversations with High Achievers.” He has some of the interviews transcribed and he is doing some editing as well as he has some extra writing to do and hoping to release the eBook version before December 2016. Just the idea that the book could be a huge springboard for more speaking opportunities and for an opportunity to do a live event someday and having some of these great speakers come to speak at his event is exciting and also providing opportunity for people to learn and develop themselves. He says as he re-visits all of these great interviews that he has been reviewing – he has learned so much and it has been a huge blessing for him. Brian shares listening to interviews with successful people is one major thing people can do to develop themselves. Brian says listeners can find him on Facebook - www.facebook.com/Success-Profiles-Radio-166132613536941/ Twitter - www.twitter.com/MrBriankwright Radio Show Page - toginet.com/shows/successprofilesradio Personal Website - www.briankwright.com Email - brian@briankwright.com We asked Brian for one quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge helps him to re-focus and re-engage - Brian said he had a moment earlier this week where he was feeling overwhelmed by things and he recalls a verse from the Bible Isaiah 43:19, as he frequently reads the Bible – “Behold, I will do anything for you.” He stated that it is a promise that is given and means that you are not going to stay where you are forever, something new is on the horizon for you, something wonderful, something great, something fantastic that will change your life. Links “Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group” by Brian K. Wright “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz https://www.facebook.com/Success-Profiles-Radio-166132613536941/ twitter.com/MrBriankwright com/shows/successprofilesradio briankwright.com
Banking. Probably not the first industry you think of when discussing employee advocacy. How can a bank use workforce marketing at scale? I’ve spoken to Camila Romuld of HSBC to find out more. Questions: Tell us about HSBC and what you do there, please. What prompted HSBC to launch an employee advocacy program? Was there any particular problems you were looking to solve? What types of content do you distribute to employees and what type of content tends to get the most intention and engagement? What have been some of the main benefits to HSBC and also what are some of the main benefits to the employees in this program? In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently? Do you find that employees who are active members of this program are they more engaged employees? How do you measure success and can you share your results? Can you tie back this success to actual ROI? What has surprised you the most about employee advocacy? What's next for HSBC and employee advocacy in general? And also a trivia question about HSBC, guess what the acronym stands for? Answer at the very end of the episode. Read the show-notes article: http://linkhumans.com/podcast/employee-advocacy-hsbc Subscribe on iTunes: http://bit.ly/linkhumanspodcast Search like it's 1999: http://webcrawler.com
Tony Bodoh is a #1 best selling author and he’s the founder and co-founder of 5 companies ranging from Customer Experience Consulting to Small Business Training to Television, he easily navigates the International stage, speaking at both personal growth seminars as well as the Uber Nerdy Technology conferences. Tony writes his business blogs, personal growth essays and children’s stories. While he now coaches executives, he has taught High School for 1 year and in the Business Department of Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee for 7 years. As a passion believer in the power and possibility that is contained in each moment of the human experience to alter the course of history; Tony financially supports the building of sustainable villages in Africa and Haiti. Tony learned at an early age the power of listening and letting people know they have been heard. He started a lawn care business at 11 years old, while his friends had 1 or 2 lawns to cut; Tony kept busy all summer with 16 clients including the local Post Office and Post Master’s lawn. He learned that while quality lawn care mattered, most people just wanted to connect and be acknowledged for who they are. Questions Tell us a little about yourself and your journey As a Customer Service Consultant, what do you think are 3 challenges that people face why their customer experience is not consistent in their business? What are some everyday solutions that you believe that can help improve customer experience on a global level? How do you stay motivated? What is one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your personal life or business? Do you think that customer experience is linked to a company’s bottom line? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find your information? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Tony started by sharing that he grew up in Central Wisconsin, it was a place where there was not much exposure to the outside world. When he went off to college in Virginia, he began to see the world that he didn’t know existed and it lead him to start asking questions and really looking deeper into what he wanted to do with his life. He then got a Liberal Arts Degree as that was the path he was on. He shortly realizes that he wanted to run multiple businesses and went and got his MBA. He worked several corporate jobs for large companies where he built analytical systems. While on that journey building those systems, he learned things that he could do to look at data and understand behaviour from data. Tony was given the opportunity to take over the customer experience world in the hospitality company he worked for to do surveys and understand what the guests and meeting planners were saying. Tony started a consulting company in 2009, which focuses on customer experience and was able to bring growth to other businesses that he started. It has spread from the customer experience consulting to small business training and consulting and now building businesses in the television industry. Tony stated the challenges people face why their customer experience is not consistent in their businesses is the human connection – the shared experience that an employee has with a customer or a leader has with an employee is what drives the value for the customer. We talked about the customer’s side and that it starts with the leader and employee and the engagement they have with each other and how they are connecting. Also, the ability to listen, often times we are caught up in our own lives and our minds are distracted. The employee may come to work and because of the challenges in their life they get distracted and are not playing at the top of their game. They are not able to connect in the same way. He also mentioned that there is a disconnection if you don’t believe in the products or services you’re offering and you don’t have the confidence to speak boldly about it. If you don’t believe that you can solve a problem that a customer has, that is a huge disconnection as well. If you’re not unreasonable in your commitment to the product and services that you offer and commitment to solve a problem, you are not going to have a consistent experience over time. On a global level, he believes that people need to experience the product that they are working with, the company that they are working for needs to be willing to invest in their people. Anywhere from 50% to 85% of a customer’s experience is based on the connection they make with the person. Connection is #1 and you have to hire the right people who know how to connect and you have to train them up from there. So you want to keep that skill set growing, keep finding ways for them to connect with challenging people, with people in different scenarios or even if they are having a bad day, how do they build up their emotional ability to connect and to take control. Mindset training is one of the biggest things a company can do. Tony also stated that as a company, we should be asking what is it that our customers are feeling? What do we want them to feel? If we want them to feel this way, what benefit will move them there and what features create those benefits. Do that and we will end up with an amazing product that people will say, how did you do that? It’s because you started with the end in mind. Tony shared that he keeps motivated by running multiple businesses; there is a lot of stuff going on, so one of the things he does every morning is visualization and meditation. “Visualization is geared towards what is it that I am grateful for and what is it I want to achieve today, what are my intentions for the day. And a part of that is to always focus on the abundance around me. Sometimes we get easily caught up with everything, instead just allowing the abundance to flow.” Tony shared that the one app/tool that he frequently uses is Evernote. He is a huge fan as he is able to put every idea, blogs, emails and anything he can in Evernote. It also enables him to upload video and pictures as well. He uses Evernote because he has a lot of ideas to pull from whilst dealing with his clients. He mentions that customer experience is not about statistics, we can use it to measure but it is about a particular experience in the moment. As it is only in the moment that we have the power to change our trajectory whether it’s our personal life, as a leader or as a business. We can’t change it in the past, we can’t change it in the future, and we only have this moment. Tony stated that Customer Experience is the opportunity to turn this world around in so many ways because when people have good experiences just even a smile or a connection with the person behind the counter, if we were all a little more empathetic, it would change the world. When someone experiences an act of kindness or another person sees an act of kindness or someone does an act of kindness all of this leads to a better world. Tony shares that the book he is on right now that he absolutely loves is “Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics” by Richard Thaler, he is one of the leading behavioural economists, so it’s that link between psychology and economics. He talks about the many different cases where behaviour of the human person is irrational. He also shares that the book that really affected his life is “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield, he stated that was the first self-improvement book he read right around the time that he was told he was taking over the customer experience for the hotel company. It was his first step into the world of psychology and the understanding of how people think and feel and behave. Tony shares that he is currently working on a project called Beast Mode Live. He is working with one of the leading mental performance coaches in professional athletics, who has worked with Olympians and they are taking the principles that he has taught for years to professional athletes and bringing it to corporate life and using it with team members in his company. They are now bringing it into the US military on a global scale. They are doing it where it is not funded by the Federal Government or the Politicians but by corporate sponsors so that they can help the military. Tony says, “We are really passionate about it because we have found that 35 - 40% of the military that have completed the service, end up leaving the service and they don’t have a job and many times end up homeless. The sponsorship will help them to touch every member of the military, so that they are at a higher level of performances and when they leave the service they will have control over the money and their emotions and can go out there and do something great because they have done such great service already. Most of them have never had a job outside of the military because they went in right after high school and college and so they don’t understand how their skill sets translate into the corporate life and they want to help them with that. They don’t understand how their skill sets translate into the corporate world. He says this is definitely a passion project and they are putting a ton of effort into it. Tony Bodoh believes that mindset is where everything starts at because that is how he changed his own life. Tony says listeners can find him at tonybodoh.com and also www.twitter.com/TonyBodoh www.linkedin.com/in/tonybodoh Tony shares that this is a quote he has been using lately and it’s from his mentor. She shared it with him in a time where he wasn’t seeing the results he wanted to see in a particular area of his life, he sometimes go back to it as he has it is on his desk. “If the thinking and actions you’ve been doing produced what you were in love with, I’d say keep at it but clearly it’s time to wire a new set of thoughts and then grow them through reputation into new and more expansive results.” We would welcome a subscribe, rate and review for the show and also that the listeners can come hang out at Navigating the Customer Experience Community on Facebook. This is a private Facebook group for our listeners and past guests to come over share insights and industry trending topics and discussions on business and customer experience – click here! New Online Course - Mastering Customer Experience and Increasing Your Revenue - 50% off for all who sign up in September.....A Must Have Course for all Business Owners, Entrepreneurs - http://bit.ly/50OFFMCXIR LINKS: www.tonybodoh.com www.twitter.com/TonyBodoh “Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics” by Richard Thaler “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield
Public transport is a great invention right? Especially when it runs like clockwork. Which isn't always the case. How can transport authorities deliver customer service to their users where they want it and when they want it? I've spoken to Justin Clark of Transport for Greater Manchester to find out who they do social customer service. Questions: Tell us about Transport for Greater Manchester and what you do there? Is it similar to Transport for London? Tell us about the shift from traditional customer service to social customer service? Talk us through you team setup and how it's evolved? Give us an example of a transport crisis and how you handled it? How do you approach people who are angry and upset and want to vent their frustrations? If I were stuck on a tram in Manchester and send a tweet, how long before I get a reply? Is Twitter the most important channel for customer service? How do you use Facebook Messenger? What technology do you use for social customer service? Is there a Transport for Greater Manchester app? How do you measure your results and can you tie it back to ROI? Who inspires you on social? What's next for social customer service and what's on your roadmap? Full article: http://linkhumans.com/podcast/transport-manchester-customer-service Subscribe on iTunes: http://bit.ly/linkhumanspodcast
Cisco is the largest networking company in the world with over 70,000 employees. How does it use Snapchat for employer branding? I've spoken to Carmen Collins to find out. Questions: Tell us about Cisco and what you do there? Tell us about We Are Cisco on Snapchat? How did you go about setting this up? What challenges did you face with Snapchat? Who are the Kitten Rainbow Unicorns? What content gets posted on WeAreCisco’s Snapchat account? What’s the ROI and how do you measure it - any hires? Has it influenced hiring decisions? Do you use Snapchat yourself? Do many existing Cisco employees use it you think? What brands inspire you on Snapchat? What’s the next big thing for Snapchat and employer branding/recruiting? Where can we learn more and connect with yourself? Read the podcast article: http://linkhumans.com/podcast/cisco-snapchat-talent-branding
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