Episode 7: Natasha Davis, Impact Branding Consulting

Guy Powell: 00:00:13

Hi, I'm Guy Powell and welcome to the seventh

Guy Powell: 00:00:16

episode of the backstory on marketing. If you haven't

Guy Powell: 00:00:19

already done so please visit pro relevant.com and sign up for all

Guy Powell: 00:00:24

of these episodes and podcasts. I am the author of the upcoming

Guy Powell: 00:00:28

book the post COVID marketing machine. Prepare your team to

Guy Powell: 00:00:32

win. You can find more information on this at marketing

Guy Powell: 00:00:36

machine dot pro relevant.com. Today we'll be speaking with

Guy Powell: 00:00:40

Natasha Davis. She is a brand strategist and visionary. Over

Guy Powell: 00:00:45

the past 15 years she has coached and consulted hundreds

Guy Powell: 00:00:48

of executives and companies on using the power of agility for

Guy Powell: 00:00:53

profitable brand positioning, Natasha became determined to

Guy Powell: 00:00:57

help uncomplicate the most complicated aspects of branding

Guy Powell: 00:01:01

and strategic planning. She is affectionately referred to as

Guy Powell: 00:01:05

the Chief Visionary by her clients and business community.

Guy Powell: 00:01:09

Natasha developed and launched the predictive model CRM tool

Guy Powell: 00:01:13

for consultants to profit enhancer analysis in 2019. She

Guy Powell: 00:01:19

has numerous accolades such as having been awarded as the

Guy Powell: 00:01:23

entrepreneur and executive professional of the 2011 year,

Guy Powell: 00:01:27

excellence in marketing and 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award by

Guy Powell: 00:01:32

President Barack Obama in 2016. And appointed as a state of

Guy Powell: 00:01:37

Georgia, small business economic development leadership committee

Guy Powell: 00:01:41

member by the National Small Business Association in 2019.

Guy Powell: 00:01:47

She's also a published author writing about the power of

Guy Powell: 00:01:50

personal branding. Her most recent book is hashtag be

Guy Powell: 00:01:55

unleashed, unleashed your millionaire mindset to build

Guy Powell: 00:01:58

your brand. Welcome, Natasha.

Unknown: 00:02:01

Thank you so much, guy. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Unknown: 00:02:04

Looking forward to hanging out today.

Guy Powell: 00:02:07

Absolutely. I look forward definitely to talking

Guy Powell: 00:02:10

with you as well. And you've got a great background. So tell us

Guy Powell: 00:02:13

how you got into marketing. What's your backstory on

Guy Powell: 00:02:16

marketing?

Unknown: 00:02:17

Well, you know, I took an untraditional route to where

Unknown: 00:02:19

I am today. I started as a registered nurse, a trauma rule

Unknown: 00:02:23

nurse and I function as a registered nurse in the

Unknown: 00:02:25

emergency room saving lives for many years. And the

Unknown: 00:02:29

entrepreneurship bug came up in Bitney as it had with my father

Unknown: 00:02:33

and my grandmother. So it's in my blood. And I tried to shake

Unknown: 00:02:37

it off, I really did. I tried to shake it off. And like, don't be

Unknown: 00:02:40

ridiculous, you're a registered nurse, you went to school, you

Unknown: 00:02:42

got the student loans to prove it, and the degree so just keep

Unknown: 00:02:46

going. And then I couldn't shake it. And then I realized I was

Unknown: 00:02:50

tapping into certain tools that I didn't realize I had. And so

Unknown: 00:02:55

where it was very natural for me to see something and to, you

Unknown: 00:03:00

know, make a decision about something or to analyze

Unknown: 00:03:02

something around business and around marketing, it was a

Unknown: 00:03:05

little bit more challenging for others. And while working in the

Unknown: 00:03:08

emergency room, I started to dip my toe into entrepreneurship.

Unknown: 00:03:13

And that's where I got sucked in like a vacuum. You know, I

Unknown: 00:03:16

realized, oh, my gosh, I really have something going on. As I

Unknown: 00:03:19

said, I worked in the trauma room. And at the time, there

Unknown: 00:03:22

were medical providers and other other medical professionals that

Unknown: 00:03:25

wanted to start businesses, and they would ask about some

Unknown: 00:03:29

business things and I just rattle off things you're

Unknown: 00:03:30

supposed to do. And they were like, how do you even know this

Unknown: 00:03:33

stuff? I'm like, Well, who doesn't? It's common business

Unknown: 00:03:35

sense, right? Apparently it wasn't. I didn't want it. I

Unknown: 00:03:39

didn't get that. And they started referring to me as the

Unknown: 00:03:41

business nurse in the ER. So when colleagues were saying,

Unknown: 00:03:45

hey, they're trying to do some all you gotta go talk to the

Unknown: 00:03:47

business nurse in the ER, and apparently everybody knew it was

Unknown: 00:03:51

me. And so I realized, Okay, wait a second, there's some time

Unknown: 00:03:55

to transition here. And a few years went forward. And I

Unknown: 00:03:59

realized, hold on, you know, I'm loving this business side. I'm

Unknown: 00:04:02

loving this other me. And I'm starting to not love as much the

Unknown: 00:04:07

nurse side of me. And I started to struggle with that. And I

Unknown: 00:04:10

remember, at one point, I had hit a really difficult place

Unknown: 00:04:16

where I had to choose I had to choose not because it was

Unknown: 00:04:19

mandated upon me, but it was myself inside of myself. I was

Unknown: 00:04:23

no longer happy with what I was doing. And I had to choose to

Unknown: 00:04:27

cross over 100% into business. And I tell you guys, that was

Unknown: 00:04:30

the best decision that I made. It was not an easy decision. It

Unknown: 00:04:34

was hard. And it came with the challenges because as a nurse, I

Unknown: 00:04:38

did not have to market I did not have to go outside and wave and

Unknown: 00:04:41

beg patients to come in. I just sat there and poof, they showed

Unknown: 00:04:45

up. So my Rude Awakening, the reality check happened. My first

Unknown: 00:04:52

full four years in business as a full time entrepreneur. I

Unknown: 00:04:55

remember the first year I was sitting in my office and I was

Unknown: 00:04:58

doing what good business people do. I had the Rolodex on that,

Unknown: 00:05:01

you know, y'all know about Rolodex and y'all know about

Unknown: 00:05:03

that, right? So I had my rolodex, I had an actual office

Unknown: 00:05:07

phone, you know, I had my computer, I had my file cabinet.

Unknown: 00:05:10

Everything was perfect. I had a beautiful clean desk, because

Unknown: 00:05:13

you know, I didn't have anything going on. So why wouldn't my

Unknown: 00:05:15

desk be clean? And I sat there, and I'm wondering, did I pay the

Unknown: 00:05:20

phone bill? Because the phone isn't ringing? Why isn't the

Unknown: 00:05:24

phone ringing? I pick it up, I got a dial tone. I'm on point.

Unknown: 00:05:28

I'm like making sure. And it hit me. Hey, ding dong. If you don't

Unknown: 00:05:33

go tell them you're here. How do they know? And that's when I was

Unknown: 00:05:37

like, Okay, there's a little bit more to being in business than

Unknown: 00:05:41

just looking good in business. And that's when I took on the

Unknown: 00:05:45

the challenge to understand what does it really take to run a

Unknown: 00:05:48

business to get people through the door to keep people in the

Unknown: 00:05:51

door to look respectable out in the business community? And

Unknown: 00:05:54

that's when I sunk my teeth into marketing and into branding.

Guy Powell: 00:05:59

Yeah, absolutely. In branding? Well, marketing is, is

Guy Powell: 00:06:04

critical, that's for sure. And, you know, it's so it's, it's so

Guy Powell: 00:06:08

easy, you know, to think about going into business, but it is

Guy Powell: 00:06:11

so hard to get that first client or the first clients and what

Guy Powell: 00:06:15

have you. And so you've been doing this for a number of

Guy Powell: 00:06:18

years. So let's see, what is the most thing? What is the the best

Guy Powell: 00:06:22

thing that you're most proud of?

Unknown: 00:06:24

Wow, you know, here's the thing, I'm proud of so many

Unknown: 00:06:27

things because I'm I'm I am a Jamaican woman, in an industry

Unknown: 00:06:35

that is not dominated by Jamaican women, to be honest,

Unknown: 00:06:38

right? And so I'm really proud that I made it, you know, I'm

Unknown: 00:06:43

really proud that I made it, I'm proud of all of the businesses,

Unknown: 00:06:47

I've been able to help the business owners, I'm proud of

Unknown: 00:06:50

the companies I've helped, I'm proud of. I'm just proud of me.

Unknown: 00:06:55

And a lot of times business owners don't take a chance to

Unknown: 00:06:57

sit back and just say, be proud of you. Like you've made it. You

Unknown: 00:07:00

know what I mean? You made it through, and you're going

Unknown: 00:07:02

onward. So there's so many things that I am proud of, I'm

Unknown: 00:07:05

always proud of the success that we get for clients. I have a

Unknown: 00:07:09

heart for for my clients. I said we I actually love my clients, I

Unknown: 00:07:12

really do. I love every last one of them, even the ones that give

Unknown: 00:07:15

me extra gray hair. Okay, I love them. So it's one of those

Unknown: 00:07:20

things that I find it hard to always answer what am I most

Unknown: 00:07:24

proud of, but I'm really proud of the effect and the results

Unknown: 00:07:28

that I've been able to bring to the table, being able to package

Unknown: 00:07:32

and use my gifts and deployed in the universe to help other

Unknown: 00:07:34

people. And actually being able to witness that help, you know,

Unknown: 00:07:38

is one of the things that I'm super, super proud of. Yes, it's

Unknown: 00:07:42

always nice to get an award, I was very excited about the

Unknown: 00:07:45

awards. And once I realized I was being awarded with the

Unknown: 00:07:48

Lifetime Achievement Award by President Barack Obama. I was

Unknown: 00:07:51

like, Oh my God. I'm not even 60 or 70 Yet, like you know, and of

Unknown: 00:07:59

course, you know, you step back. And the first thing you think

Unknown: 00:08:02

right guy is how the heck you know, how did that happen?

Unknown: 00:08:05

You're like, am I even like worthy of such a thing? And then

Unknown: 00:08:08

you start thinking, you have to be like, Heck, yeah, I'm worthy

Unknown: 00:08:11

of it. Give me my Lord. So the awards are great. But to me, the

Unknown: 00:08:18

awards are byproducts of all the things that I'm proud of.

Unknown: 00:08:22

Because without those without the the outcomes of results, the

Unknown: 00:08:25

people I've helped the lives I've saved, the companies I've

Unknown: 00:08:28

saved, those awards wouldn't even come to fruition. So the

Unknown: 00:08:31

awards are, like, you know, public recognitions that I'm

Unknown: 00:08:34

proud of like, oh, yeah, this is really cool, you know, but it's

Unknown: 00:08:36

a byproduct. But I'm really proud of the work that I've

Unknown: 00:08:38

done. And being a positive role model and an example for other

Unknown: 00:08:43

people in business, not just not just Caribbean women, but all

Unknown: 00:08:47

people in business men, women, mature, you know, young season

Unknown: 00:08:52

new entrepreneurs, old entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter

Unknown: 00:08:55

just being a positive role model and like a being like, like,

Unknown: 00:08:59

listen, she can do it. Anybody can do it, right?

Guy Powell: 00:09:02

Well, know that know what you can do? I'm sure not

Guy Powell: 00:09:06

everybody can do. That's true.

Unknown: 00:09:08

That is true. I'm very specific. That easy. No, it's

Unknown: 00:09:15

actually not not at all. Not at all. It's not it's not easy at

Unknown: 00:09:19

all. But it's really fun. My father, may he rest in peace was

Unknown: 00:09:22

my best friend. He passed away just about three years ago. He

Unknown: 00:09:27

used to say to me, and it used to just get under my skin. Oh

Unknown: 00:09:31

sweetheart businesses and hard. You're just making it hard. And

Unknown: 00:09:34

I'm like, Would you please stop saying that the phone does not

Unknown: 00:09:38

ring? You know, you know? And he would just say no, honestly

Unknown: 00:09:43

business and my dad was been in business for himself since the

Unknown: 00:09:46

age of 19 until he passed away at 70 years old. And he always

Unknown: 00:09:51

would say we make it complicated businesses and hard. There's

Unknown: 00:09:54

basic principles and you just got to feed the principles and

Unknown: 00:09:57

that thing used to just get under my skin so hard on the

Unknown: 00:09:59

political ones. so easy that How come this is this is happening?

Unknown: 00:10:02

You know, I had the only attitude, but he's absolutely

Unknown: 00:10:05

right, I've come to learn that business actually is not hard.

Unknown: 00:10:09

We complicate it, we put billions of layers and nuances

Unknown: 00:10:15

and corners and curves and turns on basic things. For example, we

Unknown: 00:10:19

take marketing, marketing is a very clear cut simple roadmap to

Unknown: 00:10:24

follow, yet, somehow, society has completely complicated the

Unknown: 00:10:32

whole thing and has added 55 layers plus another 1000. It's

Unknown: 00:10:36

like, it's not that hard, you know, you have a product that

Unknown: 00:10:39

has a price that you need to promote to certain people in a

Unknown: 00:10:43

certain place. That's it. It's simple. Yeah, yeah. That's it

Unknown: 00:10:47

clean roadmap, just figure it out and run with it.

Guy Powell: 00:10:50

You four Ps, I use the four Ps all the time. I

Guy Powell: 00:10:53

mean, somebody people come out with a 10 PS, the 14 days, the

Guy Powell: 00:10:58

12 PS,

Unknown: 00:10:59

I can't I can't even remember that, first of all, and

Unknown: 00:11:02

half of those Ps are duplicates of the first original piece. So

Unknown: 00:11:06

yeah, right. Like, let's not reinvent the wheel, I actually

Unknown: 00:11:10

love traditional just can traditional marketing and

Unknown: 00:11:15

business principles. Now, there obviously, is times that you

Unknown: 00:11:18

have to use, you know, contemporary, but I actually am

Unknown: 00:11:21

an old soul, I do not believe in 100% contemporary methodology, I

Unknown: 00:11:26

believe that there is a very healthy blend of traditional and

Unknown: 00:11:30

contemporary, but I also believe that you cannot have successful

Unknown: 00:11:35

contemporary business approaches, marketing and

Unknown: 00:11:38

branding without understanding traditional.

Guy Powell: 00:11:41

Yeah, you know, and let me go back to a point that

Guy Powell: 00:11:44

you made I really liked this, is that where you said, you know, I

Guy Powell: 00:11:47

love my clients. And, you know, I think marketers also need to

Guy Powell: 00:11:52

love their customers. You know, and companies, you know, as, you

Guy Powell: 00:11:57

know, how many times and I hate to say it, I'm guilty of it, you

Guy Powell: 00:12:00

know, I, I love my clients and I hate my clients at the same

Guy Powell: 00:12:04

time. Sometimes. It is it is them and their challenges and

Guy Powell: 00:12:08

understanding their challenges that I think, you know, really

Guy Powell: 00:12:11

makes a difference as an as an external consultant, just like

Guy Powell: 00:12:14

what you're doing. And, you know, it really does, if you

Guy Powell: 00:12:18

can, you know, take to heart what they're going through and

Guy Powell: 00:12:20

what they need to do to be successful in the marketplace.

Guy Powell: 00:12:23

It really, really makes a difference.

Unknown: 00:12:24

It really does. I think that we we as business persons

Unknown: 00:12:28

and even even as an expert, right, you're you stand in a

Unknown: 00:12:31

subject matter expertise, arena, you don't stand to say I know

Unknown: 00:12:35

everything. So even as a subject matter expert, I still need to

Unknown: 00:12:38

lend my my ear, and I have to lean on other experts, because

Unknown: 00:12:42

you don't know everything is one person. So when when I approach

Unknown: 00:12:46

a business, and they say listen, we need help. Here's the reality

Unknown: 00:12:50

of it. It is the hardest thing to admit, as a business owner,

Unknown: 00:12:54

I'm not doing something right. I'm failing the business, I'm

Unknown: 00:12:57

failing the mission. I'm hurting the clients because I'm hurting

Unknown: 00:13:01

my team. It is the hardest thing to admit, right that I'm messing

Unknown: 00:13:06

this up, I'm really messing this up and then to go get the help.

Unknown: 00:13:10

So once a consultant comes to the to the table, the consultant

Unknown: 00:13:14

is there really to support and so we know that if the company

Unknown: 00:13:18

didn't have an issue, a challenge or a need, we wouldn't

Unknown: 00:13:22

even be there. Right? And so when that when they come with

Unknown: 00:13:25

all their their luggage, I call it a little seven piece Louie

Unknown: 00:13:29

baton set when they come with their seven piece Louis Vuitton

Unknown: 00:13:31

set that's fully packed, and they hand it off and say thank

Unknown: 00:13:34

you take it, they they hit a brick wall. They don't know what

Unknown: 00:13:38

else to do. And it is us as consultants that have to learn

Unknown: 00:13:41

how to do what we need to mobilize that seven piece Louis

Unknown: 00:13:44

baton set and how do we do that with our skills and our

Unknown: 00:13:47

expertise? Okay, well, let me go get this person and grab that

Unknown: 00:13:49

suitcase, you grab those two suitcase because you know, you

Unknown: 00:13:52

do that. That's what we're there to do. So they every client

Unknown: 00:13:55

comes with past issues. And also perceptions that are completely

Unknown: 00:14:01

wrong. Like, I love it when people say I don't understand

Unknown: 00:14:05

why you have to post on social media several times a day. Why

Unknown: 00:14:09

can't we just get away with three times a week? Okay, let me

Unknown: 00:14:14

explain some things to you. Right? Or I love it when you

Unknown: 00:14:19

when they say after 30 days, how come none of the marketing is

Unknown: 00:14:23

working? I expected this and this should have been happening

Unknown: 00:14:27

right? We should have had a 10x by now. Okay, let me explain to

Unknown: 00:14:32

you how this actually works as opposed to what you saw on

Unknown: 00:14:35

Google. You know, let's look that up. So it's sometimes it's

Unknown: 00:14:40

it's just displaced perception and understanding. And as a

Unknown: 00:14:44

consultant, you have to be able to educate. That's another thing

Unknown: 00:14:47

as a consultant we have to educate. We're not there just to

Unknown: 00:14:50

show up right? We have to educate in our area of

Unknown: 00:14:52

expertise, but also as a consultant. truly loving your

Unknown: 00:14:56

client also means knowing when it's time to cut them off, or

Unknown: 00:14:59

when it's Time to get someone else on the team. That's what

Unknown: 00:15:02

truly loving your clients mean as well. Because sometimes you

Unknown: 00:15:05

got to learn when to cut the umbilical cord but like, Okay,

Unknown: 00:15:08

you're gonna fly because you've added seven more pieces to your

Unknown: 00:15:12

existence seven piece Louis baton set, and we're not

Unknown: 00:15:15

carrying it. So we love you so much, we're gonna let you be

Guy Powell: 00:15:19

you Yeah, that is very true. And and that's a

Guy Powell: 00:15:22

tough as a consultant, it's always tough to find that time

Guy Powell: 00:15:25

to let go. And but nevertheless, you know, if you've taught them

Guy Powell: 00:15:29

right, and you've given them kind of the infrastructure that

Guy Powell: 00:15:32

they need, then they should be able to fly on their own and,

Guy Powell: 00:15:36

and that actually is also a moment when you can really say

Guy Powell: 00:15:40

we have succeeded in doing in doing something valuable so that

Guy Powell: 00:15:44

they can, you know, actually, you know, move further and

Guy Powell: 00:15:47

potentially even faster. So,

Unknown: 00:15:49

agreed, agreed. I think just like with marketing, if you

Unknown: 00:15:52

have a marketing strategy we have what we're starting with

Unknown: 00:15:55

and what we want at the end, right? As consultants, you still

Unknown: 00:15:58

as you are marketing as a consultant, or you are putting

Unknown: 00:16:01

marketing plans, we still have to also know there's a beginning

Unknown: 00:16:04

and there's an end, right? Sometimes consultants come in

Unknown: 00:16:07

with a mindset like this indefinite mindset. No, you want

Unknown: 00:16:10

to have a start time and an end time. And at some point, if as

Unknown: 00:16:14

long as you know, there will come an end. Just like in

Unknown: 00:16:17

marketing, we have to we have a start, we're trying to achieve

Unknown: 00:16:19

something when we achieve it, we'd hit the goal. We have to

Unknown: 00:16:23

know when it's time to let go, as opposed to holding on to

Unknown: 00:16:26

clients long past when it's time for them to be free.

Guy Powell: 00:16:30

Yeah, absolutely. So tell us about impact brand

Guy Powell: 00:16:34

consulting, what what kind of clients do you have? And what

Guy Powell: 00:16:37

kind of problems do you typically run into?

Unknown: 00:16:40

So impact branding, works primarily with healthcare

Unknown: 00:16:45

works in the healthcare industry, we do a work with

Unknown: 00:16:47

government agencies, local city, we also do, you know, federal,

Unknown: 00:16:52

we work with service professionals, other

Unknown: 00:16:56

consultants, other service providers, we do some work with

Unknown: 00:17:00

product based companies, but primarily service based

Unknown: 00:17:02

businesses, and are in logistics, also certificate

Unknown: 00:17:08

Trucking, we do logistics. So the type of problems or I don't

Unknown: 00:17:12

want to say problems, the pain that our clientele typically

Unknown: 00:17:16

experience is, I know there's something wrong, but I can't put

Unknown: 00:17:21

my finger on it. And it has to be fixed. That's usually that's

Unknown: 00:17:26

usually what happens. Like, I've been three o'clock in the

Unknown: 00:17:29

morning and two o'clock in the morning, I am awake, stressing

Unknown: 00:17:33

because something's wrong. And I don't know what's wrong. And

Unknown: 00:17:37

I've thrown everything plus the kitchen sink at it, trying to

Unknown: 00:17:39

fix it, and it won't fix other problems or challenges that

Unknown: 00:17:44

clients have come to come to us with is we have had this

Unknown: 00:17:48

strategic plan that we wanted to roll out, and it never rolls

Unknown: 00:17:53

out. We don't know why we start the year fired up ready to roll.

Unknown: 00:17:57

And by the time we get to the third month of the year, is like

Unknown: 00:18:01

we forgot where we started. And by the time we get to the end of

Unknown: 00:18:04

the year, we are back where we started. And this has been a

Unknown: 00:18:07

vicious cycle. So we tend to get people that are in a place where

Unknown: 00:18:13

they are looking for enhanced performance and efficiency. And

Unknown: 00:18:18

they have not been able to accomplish that for whatever

Unknown: 00:18:20

reason, and they're looking for some fresh eyes, they're looking

Unknown: 00:18:23

for outside view to come with a strategic lens, so that we can

Unknown: 00:18:26

go ahead and close that gap in order for them to see the

Unknown: 00:18:29

performance and efficiency they're looking

Guy Powell: 00:18:31

for. Yeah, I think and that makes a lot of sense,

Guy Powell: 00:18:34

too. I think, you know, even for myself, you know, you put

Guy Powell: 00:18:37

together a plan for the year. And and it is it is hard. I

Guy Powell: 00:18:41

mean, you know, you get stuck on doing the day to day things and,

Guy Powell: 00:18:46

and you know, we're kind of in the same in a similar business,

Guy Powell: 00:18:48

and we have clients as well and you get, you know, kind of

Guy Powell: 00:18:51

bogged down in what they need. And then it's very easy to put

Guy Powell: 00:18:54

off and put off what you need to do on business. And it is nice

Guy Powell: 00:18:58

to bring in an outsider, it sounds like in your case, you

Guy Powell: 00:19:02

know, just help to get past that and but not only get past it,

Guy Powell: 00:19:06

but really identify, you know, some of the obstacles and

Guy Powell: 00:19:09

challenges so that you can help them to more easily, you know,

Guy Powell: 00:19:13

get past that and then accelerate and enhance their

Guy Powell: 00:19:16

overall business.

Unknown: 00:19:17

Right. Here's one of the things too. I tell you, when

Unknown: 00:19:23

we come to the point where someone's like, we need help, I

Unknown: 00:19:26

always reaffirm our clients, there's nothing You're not

Unknown: 00:19:29

stupid, you're not a bad person. You just this is not your

Unknown: 00:19:32

wheelhouse and it's okay to get help. There is a there is a

Unknown: 00:19:35

significant difference

Unknown: 00:19:36

between

Unknown: 00:19:38

writing the plan and implementing the plan. And I

Unknown: 00:19:43

usually have two two sides of the table. I either have people

Unknown: 00:19:47

that have been able to write very elaborate, beautiful plans.

Unknown: 00:19:51

They are very sexy, very sexy, but when you look at it, it's

Unknown: 00:19:55

missing substance, and it also had never gets implemented. Then

Unknown: 00:20:00

I also have another end of the spectrum where people are

Unknown: 00:20:03

implementing, implementing all the time without a plan. That is

Unknown: 00:20:08

a perfect recipe for madness. Because there's no destination,

Unknown: 00:20:13

we don't know where we're going. We don't know how we're getting

Unknown: 00:20:15

there. We don't know how we measure if we're in the right

Unknown: 00:20:18

place, is, it's the same thing as getting up in the car and

Unknown: 00:20:23

just hitting the road and just going and someone's saying,

Unknown: 00:20:25

Where are we going? Oh, I don't know, we're just going I know,

Unknown: 00:20:28

but where we're going up there, but where, and then you make all

Unknown: 00:20:33

the stops. With with the price of fuel, you're burning through

Unknown: 00:20:37

fuel. It's like, you don't know where you're going. So I end up

Unknown: 00:20:40

getting people on two ends. And here, here's the, here's the

Unknown: 00:20:43

thing that I can say, because it's true. The hardest clients

Unknown: 00:20:49

are the ones that implement without a plan, they are the

Unknown: 00:20:53

hardest group to get back on track. Because most people that

Unknown: 00:20:58

implement without a plan, they know they need a plan. But

Unknown: 00:21:02

they've convinced themselves that they don't need to stop,

Unknown: 00:21:06

develop the plan first, then implement, they think that they

Unknown: 00:21:10

can plan upon and implement at the same time, and you really

Unknown: 00:21:14

can't do that. So those are my more challenging clients, the

Unknown: 00:21:18

ones that implement without a plan, it's kind of like shooting

Unknown: 00:21:21

from the hip, you know, they're trying to create this microwave

Unknown: 00:21:24

thing. So it's very important that even in marketing, I mean,

Unknown: 00:21:28

even as something as basic as we want to increase our customer

Unknown: 00:21:32

acquisition by 10%. Perfect, how, how and why those are

Unknown: 00:21:38

questions, we have to ask ourselves, right, how and why.

Unknown: 00:21:41

And then when we go through our keys, okay, what's the product?

Unknown: 00:21:46

Who are the people? What's going to be the price? What's going to

Unknown: 00:21:48

be the place, right? How are we going to promote it, we have to

Unknown: 00:21:51

go through that. Because then otherwise, we're going to be

Unknown: 00:21:54

doing things haphazardly. So when we know what we're doing.

Unknown: 00:21:57

And he's okay, the way we're going to do our 10% acquisition,

Unknown: 00:22:00

increase of clientele is we're going to do 123, stop, we're

Unknown: 00:22:04

going to do 123 consistently. The people that tend to do the

Unknown: 00:22:09

planning without the web, do the implementing without planning

Unknown: 00:22:12

don't do anything consistent, like one hit wonders, right?

Unknown: 00:22:16

They show up, they disappear, they show up, they disappeared

Unknown: 00:22:19

and make a post. They send a mailer, they do a event, and

Unknown: 00:22:23

then they just keep it moved. Oh, that didn't work. That

Unknown: 00:22:25

didn't work. Let's go try something else. And you're like,

Unknown: 00:22:28

Well, you didn't even land yet. Like, wait a second, like, let's

Unknown: 00:22:31

make sure. Like, did we even go back to see why it didn't work?

Unknown: 00:22:35

Because then what will happen is you'll repeat, you become a

Unknown: 00:22:39

vicious cycle, you repeat the same thing. And what do they

Unknown: 00:22:41

always say? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting

Unknown: 00:22:46

something different? Is insanity is madness. Right?

Guy Powell: 00:22:51

Absolutely. And to your point, you know, when they

Guy Powell: 00:22:55

The other thing that I found too, is that, you know, hey, we

Guy Powell: 00:22:58

did that, we did that. And then we did that two years ago, and

Guy Powell: 00:23:01

it didn't work. We didn't, you know, and then all of a sudden,

Guy Powell: 00:23:03

you know, all of that. And you know that execution and

Guy Powell: 00:23:07

implementation and just consistently building upon what

Guy Powell: 00:23:11

you're trying to do. And, and in that respect, really helping

Guy Powell: 00:23:14

them to build their brand, and helping them to be consistent in

Guy Powell: 00:23:18

how they build it and consistent with the customers that they're

Guy Powell: 00:23:20

trying to target. And, and that I think that's that's really

Guy Powell: 00:23:25

hard. A lot of, you know, a lot of businesses don't, you know,

Guy Powell: 00:23:28

they do they do want to just jump from one thing to the next

Guy Powell: 00:23:31

because it didn't work within the first you know, three days

Guy Powell: 00:23:33

or three months, right?

Unknown: 00:23:36

You're right. It's like, oh, that didn't work next.

Unknown: 00:23:38

It's like, no, wait a second. You know, I and that's why I

Unknown: 00:23:40

said I love traditional business methodologies and traditional

Unknown: 00:23:45

marketing blended with contemporary because back in the

Unknown: 00:23:48

day, right guy businesses knew how to make you know, they had

Unknown: 00:23:53

staying power, they knew that it took time they knew, listen, if

Unknown: 00:23:57

you want me to address 100,000 people and get their loyal

Unknown: 00:24:01

attention, that is not going to happen in three days, three

Unknown: 00:24:04

months at all, you know, they had staying power. And the

Unknown: 00:24:09

problem they didn't have why the ones that disappeared that

Unknown: 00:24:12

should still be here is they didn't have vision for the

Unknown: 00:24:14

future. They started lacking future vision. They just thought

Unknown: 00:24:18

we're stuck. And that's where complacency becomes the great

Unknown: 00:24:22

demise, right? Because now we get complacent. So I do believe

Unknown: 00:24:26

in meant mixing traditional and contemporary and being very

Unknown: 00:24:29

clear about how you're going to make the appropriate adjustments

Unknown: 00:24:33

at the right time. So we have to monitor things pay attention to

Unknown: 00:24:35

it. If it's not working. Let's see why. And I went and that's

Unknown: 00:24:40

perfect. I've had that response before. We did that already. Oh,

Unknown: 00:24:45

great. So tell me how did you do it? And what part of it did not

Unknown: 00:24:49

work? Well, it just didn't work. No, no, I get that. I totally

Unknown: 00:24:54

get that. But I'd like to know specifically what about it

Unknown: 00:24:59

didn't work. because it don't tell me the whole thing didn't

Unknown: 00:25:02

work. That means that they never tracked it. And so that's where

Unknown: 00:25:05

education comes in. The only way you can say something did not

Unknown: 00:25:09

work, is that you did everything right about it. And it did not

Unknown: 00:25:14

work. And that's what we find, right? We'll find, oh, that

Unknown: 00:25:18

didn't work. Because, you know, email doesn't work anymore.

Unknown: 00:25:21

Okay. Well, let me see. Let me see your stats. Let me see what

Unknown: 00:25:24

you did. Okay. You did one email every six months. Yeah. And you

Unknown: 00:25:32

said it didn't work. So how did you have your strategy strategy

Unknown: 00:25:35

said you are going to do an email a month for 12 consecutive

Unknown: 00:25:38

months. And you were going to do this, this and this. But based

Unknown: 00:25:41

on the stats of this campaign, you did two emails, one every

Unknown: 00:25:45

six months. So how is it that it's not working? What no one

Unknown: 00:25:50

opened? Uh huh. Okay, let's educate you on how this thing

Unknown: 00:25:54

works.

Guy Powell: 00:25:56

Right? Well, you know, you're right about the,

Guy Powell: 00:25:58

the measurement piece and how important that is, and the

Guy Powell: 00:26:01

tracking and making sure that, you know, you do the email, and

Guy Powell: 00:26:05

then what happened, then diagnose what went wrong and

Guy Powell: 00:26:09

what what went, right. So I'm on the, you know, as you know, I'm

Guy Powell: 00:26:12

on the ROI side. And, and that's, that is critical, you

Guy Powell: 00:26:17

know, to be able to make sure that your numbers and your

Guy Powell: 00:26:20

tracking is done, so that you can really see whether there has

Guy Powell: 00:26:23

been an effect. And to your point, you know, so many people

Guy Powell: 00:26:26

don't want to wait long enough to see that it's working. You

Guy Powell: 00:26:29

know, you've got this plan, we had the plan, and then you know,

Guy Powell: 00:26:32

not to follow it or not to follow it long enough is, is

Guy Powell: 00:26:35

pretty critical.

Unknown: 00:26:36

It is it is you know, in law, they say words matter

Unknown: 00:26:39

and marketing. They say numbers matter. numbers matter. It

Unknown: 00:26:43

matters. How many emails did we do, how many opens did we did?

Unknown: 00:26:46

How many posts did we do? What time of day? How many people

Unknown: 00:26:49

saw? I mean, we have to really go down the line. Even direct

Unknown: 00:26:53

mail, you know, we did a direct mail. Okay, great. It didn't

Unknown: 00:26:56

work. Okay. How many mailers did you send? Well, we sent one, we

Unknown: 00:26:59

sent it to 100,000. People. Oh, okay. And, and what were you

Unknown: 00:27:05

expecting to happen after that? So it's always interested in

Unknown: 00:27:08

numbers matter. So building the numbers pre, as you know,

Unknown: 00:27:13

projected and then tracking the actuals. It's really important.

Unknown: 00:27:16

And some people get nervous around this right guy, they get

Unknown: 00:27:19

nervous. They're like, Oh, my God, that's too much. That's

Unknown: 00:27:20

numbers and spreadsheets, and not the mathematics and all that

Unknown: 00:27:24

stuff. Actually, just like dad said, business isn't hard. We

Unknown: 00:27:28

just overcomplicated. Yeah, yeah, basic business principles.

Unknown: 00:27:32

Right. Money in money out?

Guy Powell: 00:27:35

Absolutely. And I will admit, there is, for some

Guy Powell: 00:27:38

reason, there is sometimes a fear of the spreadsheet, but I

Guy Powell: 00:27:40

think that's going I think it's getting less, I've been

Guy Powell: 00:27:43

surprised that people that actually, I wouldn't have

Guy Powell: 00:27:46

thought they know how to really wield a spreadsheet, and they're

Guy Powell: 00:27:49

just whipping through stuff. But I think I think, to your earlier

Guy Powell: 00:27:55

point, I think it's more of a kind of a staying power and not

Guy Powell: 00:27:59

just doing one email and expecting that blast to get you

Guy Powell: 00:28:02

something. It's that consistent kind of brand building and

Guy Powell: 00:28:06

brand, you know, getting getting your face in front of their

Guy Powell: 00:28:09

clients so that you can be seen and be remembered. And then all

Guy Powell: 00:28:13

of a sudden, you know, they go Yeah, you know, I do have a need

Guy Powell: 00:28:16

for that. And let me give them a call or let me respond to this.

Unknown: 00:28:20

Right. Exactly. Exactly. And you know, to your

Unknown: 00:28:23

point. There was a big company, they were doing a massive event.

Unknown: 00:28:30

And they just thought because we're a big company, we can just

Unknown: 00:28:32

show up and is that we have to do anything. And after probably

Unknown: 00:28:36

about just under a million dollars in marketing, they had

Unknown: 00:28:39

to pull back. It's like something's not right. We're not

Unknown: 00:28:42

we're this is not working. How could this be? We're this big,

Unknown: 00:28:44

amazing company, how could this be and they had to pull back.

Unknown: 00:28:48

And what happened is they were choosing to enter into a new

Unknown: 00:28:52

territory. They didn't have brand recognition, let alone

Unknown: 00:28:57

brand loyalty. So when we talk about branding and positioning

Unknown: 00:29:01

and marketing and tying it together, the first thing we

Unknown: 00:29:04

always have to remember is that before a brand can earn loyalty,

Unknown: 00:29:10

there has to be a place of awareness. If I'm aware of you

Unknown: 00:29:14

and aware of your brand, then I will recognize you when you

Unknown: 00:29:17

begin to show up. If I can recognize you, then I can patron

Unknown: 00:29:22

you I can use you. If I use you. And I like you then you you I'll

Unknown: 00:29:29

start shifting to a place of preference, because I'll prefer

Unknown: 00:29:32

you over the other and then there will come a point then I

Unknown: 00:29:35

can go ahead and give you my loyalty right. So we look at

Unknown: 00:29:40

branding, a lot of people or smaller businesses, medium sized

Unknown: 00:29:44

companies and every once in a while a large company, they try

Unknown: 00:29:48

to jump from brand zero to brand loyalty like that, and it does

Unknown: 00:29:56

not happen because loyalty can never be achieved. until we at

Unknown: 00:30:01

least reached a point of patronage or usage. That's it,

Unknown: 00:30:05

because it's not the point of usage that you either like or

Unknown: 00:30:08

dislike them. And then we can start shifting down. So that's

Unknown: 00:30:13

one thing that's really important. And that's that stay

Unknown: 00:30:15

in power, right? That's like, looking at the companies that

Unknown: 00:30:18

were here. And, you know, now they're gone, like the Buster

Unknown: 00:30:21

Browns of the world, and Woolworths and, you know, all

Unknown: 00:30:24

that stuff they had, they understood what that meant. So,

Unknown: 00:30:27

understanding of the journey and not being afraid of the process,

Unknown: 00:30:30

and always say, we have to learn how to respect the process, we

Unknown: 00:30:33

have to respect the process, right? And then we'll get there

Unknown: 00:30:35

quicker and save some money while we're doing it.

Guy Powell: 00:30:38

Yeah, absolutely. And I, you know, and I like your

Guy Powell: 00:30:41

point, you know, that concept of the leaky bucket, you got, you

Guy Powell: 00:30:44

know, marketing, maybe it's bringing in new clients, but

Guy Powell: 00:30:47

they're leaking out the bottom, we were working with a big

Guy Powell: 00:30:50

insurance company, and they had almost a 40% loss rate in the

Guy Powell: 00:30:57

year of their customers 40%, you know, that would be, you have to

Guy Powell: 00:31:04

change that by a couple of percent. And you can figure you

Guy Powell: 00:31:06

know, your revenue growth is met, you know, what are you

Guy Powell: 00:31:10

doing wrong, and then being able to really figure that out, and

Guy Powell: 00:31:14

then make some changes to it. I also, like your point about, you

Guy Powell: 00:31:18

know, diagnosing what's wrong, what sometimes, you know, if you

Guy Powell: 00:31:21

do a number of different marketing things, some things

Guy Powell: 00:31:23

work, and some things don't and, and I'm the ROI guy. So I that's

Guy Powell: 00:31:27

kind of the first thing I look at, well, what's working and

Guy Powell: 00:31:29

what's not. But the second real pieces, well, it's may not be

Guy Powell: 00:31:33

working, but maybe you're doing something wrong there.

Unknown: 00:31:35

You're not doing the process, you're not following

Unknown: 00:31:38

the process. Right. I love it. Yeah. And that's usually what we

Unknown: 00:31:41

find, though, right guy, like, we usually find that every once

Unknown: 00:31:46

in a while, we'll find that you're right, this isn't

Unknown: 00:31:48

working, it's not working, because it's not for your

Unknown: 00:31:51

industry. It doesn't match your business, it doesn't match your

Unknown: 00:31:54

clientele. I always find that sometimes people don't know

Unknown: 00:31:59

their clientele, they don't know who their their audience is. And

Unknown: 00:32:02

so they're, they're using any method to talk to their

Unknown: 00:32:07

audience, but they don't know who the audience is. So they

Unknown: 00:32:09

can't hit a target. There's no target. They don't know what

Unknown: 00:32:11

they're doing. So they're trying anything. And so there is a

Unknown: 00:32:16

method for every industry and for every business, it just has

Unknown: 00:32:19

to be perfectly and specifically prescribed. And that's what we

Unknown: 00:32:23

find. And you know that you know, you hear mailers don't

Unknown: 00:32:26

work, email doesn't work, email is dead, social media doesn't

Unknown: 00:32:29

work, this doesn't a third, advertising doesn't work. This

Unknown: 00:32:33

doesn't work. That doesn't work. Well, it may be it may not work

Unknown: 00:32:36

for your industry, or maybe your type of business at the stage

Unknown: 00:32:39

your businesses, but it does work. So how about we find

Unknown: 00:32:42

something that actually will work for you that you can stick

Unknown: 00:32:45

with. Another thing is some people try to use marketing

Unknown: 00:32:48

strategies and brand well, not even brand positioning, but

Unknown: 00:32:52

marketing strategies to position their brand without counting the

Unknown: 00:32:56

costs. Certain marketing strategies costs way more money.

Unknown: 00:33:01

And it requires a certain level of manpower. So you have a

Unknown: 00:33:04

business that maybe they only have a team of 10, and maybe

Unknown: 00:33:08

their marketing budget capped at 50,000 for the year, but they

Unknown: 00:33:13

want to step into territory where this marketing strategy

Unknown: 00:33:16

would require you to have a team of 50. And you would have to

Unknown: 00:33:20

have a marketing budget of 200,000. You're right. It's not

Unknown: 00:33:23

going to work.

Guy Powell: 00:33:25

Yeah, absolutely. And in that case, what you're

Guy Powell: 00:33:28

doing is you're generating demand for your cut your

Guy Powell: 00:33:30

competitors, because they're

Unknown: 00:33:33

generating demand for your customers. I love it.

Guy Powell: 00:33:36

Yeah. And but you can't fulfill it, you know, you

Guy Powell: 00:33:38

can't answer the phone, or you can't do whatever it is, and

Guy Powell: 00:33:41

they're just gonna call somebody else. So you just wasted all

Guy Powell: 00:33:45

that money and, and you hope your competitors do better.

Unknown: 00:33:48

I love that as a good one to generating demand for

Unknown: 00:33:51

your customers. I used to say you're negotiating against

Unknown: 00:33:53

yourself, but that one sounds even sexier. You're generating

Unknown: 00:33:56

demand for your customers, your competitors, I should say.

Guy Powell: 00:34:00

Exactly. Although, you know, it's funny, and I'm so

Guy Powell: 00:34:03

glad to hear, you know, you'd like a mix of contemporary

Guy Powell: 00:34:06

versus traditional media. We've seen in with some of our clients

Guy Powell: 00:34:10

kind of a resurgence of some of the traditional media. And I

Guy Powell: 00:34:14

think that's because they're just getting overwhelmed with

Guy Powell: 00:34:16

all these messages. And then everybody is ignoring like

Guy Powell: 00:34:19

print, you know, or billboards, because they're just not using

Guy Powell: 00:34:22

them anymore. And now you put something up there, and all of a

Guy Powell: 00:34:25

sudden they start to really work so

Unknown: 00:34:27

quickly. Exactly. Well, you know, here's the other

Unknown: 00:34:29

thing, too. Anything that's new is always exciting, right? And

Unknown: 00:34:34

so many years ago, social media hit the scene, right? So social

Unknown: 00:34:38

media showed up and hit the scene. And that was the new and

Unknown: 00:34:41

exciting, hoo rah thing of the business time and everything

Unknown: 00:34:46

right like that, right? But what happened is, it's technology.

Unknown: 00:34:53

It's technology. So the technology has to keep up with

Unknown: 00:34:58

the times And so when we have different social media

Unknown: 00:35:03

platforms, the technology has to significantly advance, which

Unknown: 00:35:09

means that it's ever changing. So between once you finally

Unknown: 00:35:13

figure out an algorithm for one platform, within a year or so

Unknown: 00:35:18

that whole entire algorithm and the process is changed, it

Unknown: 00:35:21

completely changes. And then you have to figure out how this

Unknown: 00:35:24

works and how that works. Right? So we have been in this this

Unknown: 00:35:28

space where we have been exposed to social media since like, what

Unknown: 00:35:34

the to 2000, or something like that. So we've been exposed to,

Unknown: 00:35:39

you know, early 2000s, that we have had this social media rave,

Unknown: 00:35:45

right? So we have to

Unknown: 00:35:47

now look at how could the

Unknown: 00:35:52

platform that we were exposed to in like 2004 and 2006 function

Unknown: 00:35:58

the same way, 1820 years later, it can't. And so when we look at

Unknown: 00:36:03

a business, if you don't evolve with the times as well, this is

Unknown: 00:36:07

where businesses are getting stuck. They think, well, I'm

Unknown: 00:36:09

old, this happened when social media kicked in, and they

Unknown: 00:36:12

thought everybody was going to be on social media, you had a

Unknown: 00:36:15

bucket of businesses that were adamant, we're not going on

Unknown: 00:36:18

social media, we don't need it. We'll continue to do our door

Unknown: 00:36:22

hangers, and we'll send mailers and they didn't even do email,

Unknown: 00:36:26

we'll put it in a in a newspaper. That's what we're

Unknown: 00:36:29

gonna do. That's, that's how we got here. That's how we

Unknown: 00:36:32

succeeded, then that's how you succeeded, then in order to

Unknown: 00:36:37

stay, you have to evolve with it. So when 2004 and six and

Unknown: 00:36:41

eight kicked in, and all these platforms, and after that, I

Unknown: 00:36:44

mean, they just popped up every three, three or three seconds,

Unknown: 00:36:46

another one pops up, you have to figure out okay, we do have to

Unknown: 00:36:50

align with a platform. Which one? Or which two of them? Are

Unknown: 00:36:55

we going to align with? Most people get themselves into a

Unknown: 00:36:59

tizzy? Because they think they have to be on every single

Unknown: 00:37:02

social media platform, when that's really impossible,

Unknown: 00:37:05

because there's well over 300 plus social media platforms.

Unknown: 00:37:08

More than that, now, there's no way you can be on all of them.

Unknown: 00:37:11

Right? So a business has to step back, right. from a strategic

Unknown: 00:37:14

standpoint, where are our customers? So that's why it's

Unknown: 00:37:17

important, I got to know my customer first, because then

Unknown: 00:37:19

I'll know what platform we need to be on.

Guy Powell: 00:37:22

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to one

Guy Powell: 00:37:25

of the things that companies don't realize, as well as those

Guy Powell: 00:37:28

platforms evolve, in two ways, one of them the technology

Guy Powell: 00:37:32

underlying it evolves, and then there's new like tools and how

Guy Powell: 00:37:36

to use it, and what have you. And, you know, we cookies came

Guy Powell: 00:37:39

about, and then now their cookies are going away, but

Guy Powell: 00:37:42

there's new tools to be able to get around that. And the second

Guy Powell: 00:37:46

thing is, though, I think there is, with any of these new

Guy Powell: 00:37:49

platforms, there is a first mover advantage, if it's really

Guy Powell: 00:37:53

you know, like, let's say, let's say your audiences on tick tock,

Guy Powell: 00:37:56

if your first person or the first company in your

Guy Powell: 00:37:59

competitive set to be on tick tock, you're gonna get really

Guy Powell: 00:38:03

great results out of that. But as soon as the competition gets

Guy Powell: 00:38:06

in there, then you know, now you're fighting again. So now

Guy Powell: 00:38:09

you have to do something different. And there's, you

Guy Powell: 00:38:12

know, those two dimensions of the dynamics, and each one's of

Guy Powell: 00:38:14

the in each one of these platforms is really, really

Guy Powell: 00:38:17

critical. And so then when somebody says, well, we've been

Guy Powell: 00:38:20

doing print for the last 30 years, or door hangers, or bus

Guy Powell: 00:38:23

wrappers or something like that, and it's always worked for us.

Guy Powell: 00:38:26

But you know, life has changed, you know, there's new ways to do

Guy Powell: 00:38:30

this kind of stuff.

Unknown: 00:38:31

You're right, well, and they say, it always worked for

Unknown: 00:38:33

us. And then you say, Okay, let's look at some numbers. It's

Unknown: 00:38:37

always worked for you. But over the past five years, you've lost

Unknown: 00:38:40

30 something percent of your customer base. Yeah, he didn't

Unknown: 00:38:44

realize it. Right. So that's to your point, you know, knowing

Unknown: 00:38:47

the numbers understanding where we are, I'd like I always like

Unknown: 00:38:49

to know, where are we? Where are we going? How are we going to

Unknown: 00:38:52

get there? And who do we need to get there? Right, who do we

Unknown: 00:38:56

need? And how much is this going to cost us? You know, how are we

Unknown: 00:38:58

going to be able to start something stabilize something

Unknown: 00:39:01

and and then scale it? Right? And that's that's the whole

Unknown: 00:39:03

essence of business. So I agree with you 100%, knowing where you

Unknown: 00:39:07

need to be and at what time and then also, knowing when to exit

Unknown: 00:39:11

stage left? Yeah, yeah, leave it like if you're on a platform,

Unknown: 00:39:16

and it's become oversaturated. And you find out that your

Unknown: 00:39:20

customers have shifted, you got to shift with your customers.

Unknown: 00:39:23

That's where they are. You can I always say, don't keep asking

Unknown: 00:39:26

the island to uproot and come to you, you need to go to the

Unknown: 00:39:29

island.

Guy Powell: 00:39:32

Yep. How true how true, how true. So we all are,

Guy Powell: 00:39:37

hopefully, hopefully, hopefully now emerging out of COVID. What

Guy Powell: 00:39:41

have you kind of learned now that we're kind of coming out or

Guy Powell: 00:39:46

what are you seeing now that we're coming out that will be a

Guy Powell: 00:39:50

really good advantage to help your clients with?

Unknown: 00:39:54

Well, there are a lot of different things that have

Unknown: 00:39:57

emerged so far. example, I'll try to be somewhat specific to

Unknown: 00:40:03

give some hard examples, right. So for our clients, one of the

Unknown: 00:40:06

things we notify notice with our restaurant clients, because we

Unknown: 00:40:11

had a fair amount of restaurant clients, is we had to completely

Unknown: 00:40:15

shift and change the entire business model. One thing we did

Unknown: 00:40:19

with all our clients, when COVID hit, the first thing we did was

Unknown: 00:40:21

notify them, we have to have an emergency meeting, because you

Unknown: 00:40:24

need to change your entire business model. We Yes, we had

Unknown: 00:40:27

our plan that we mapped out, but it's a completely different

Unknown: 00:40:31

world. So now we have to go back and adjust the strategic plan

Unknown: 00:40:34

and just the business model. And what we did with even, for

Unknown: 00:40:38

example, our restaurant clients, we had to completely change the

Unknown: 00:40:40

business model, you're not going to have the same capacity in

Unknown: 00:40:45

house. And so really looking at ramping up the takeout ramping

Unknown: 00:40:51

up outdoor space, but then also what do you have to do when you

Unknown: 00:40:54

start doing that your technology, adjusting your, your

Unknown: 00:40:58

manpower, the numbers, because now you don't have the same in

Unknown: 00:41:01

house, you're gonna have to remove at least five of the

Unknown: 00:41:04

tables, because here's what will happen. If you leave the tables

Unknown: 00:41:08

packed in here, the way it is, you're going to lose more

Unknown: 00:41:10

customers because some people are not going to come because

Unknown: 00:41:12

it's too close. Now you've got now we have to start accounted

Unknown: 00:41:16

for social distance and spacing. So now where you might have had

Unknown: 00:41:19

10 tables in this one particular area, you can only get five.

Unknown: 00:41:24

Those are some changes that have come down for our clients. Some

Unknown: 00:41:27

other things that we've come down to technology has been a

Unknown: 00:41:30

bit thing, we've had to redo all the financial projections,

Unknown: 00:41:33

because the cost of technology is significantly changing. And

Unknown: 00:41:36

it's probably going to keep changing for another two years,

Unknown: 00:41:39

until things begin to kind of settle a little bit. So we had

Unknown: 00:41:42

to make sure our clients could account for the change in the

Unknown: 00:41:45

cost of technology to operate the business across the board,

Unknown: 00:41:48

even just to the economic rise of things, right. And then also

Unknown: 00:41:53

standing back and looking at how people work. So when we have

Unknown: 00:41:57

people that have to work inside, we have to start looking at

Unknown: 00:42:00

okay, does your staff have to be in the building? And do you

Unknown: 00:42:05

actually need this building? Because some people are holding

Unknown: 00:42:09

on to it like, oh, what's coming back? It's coming back. I wish I

Unknown: 00:42:12

wish, I wish no, no, it's not coming back starting to change.

Unknown: 00:42:17

There's no need to have this large space and building when

Unknown: 00:42:19

90% of the time it's empty. So making those hard adjustments

Unknown: 00:42:24

are some things as well, that needed to be done. In terms of

Unknown: 00:42:27

servicing clientele. Two things have to happen. Speed and

Unknown: 00:42:32

technology. Customers now are not as a weight from their

Unknown: 00:42:39

devices. So when a customer or a client reaches out, it's not

Unknown: 00:42:47

okay that it takes you two and three days to get back to them.

Guy Powell: 00:42:52

Not okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Unknown: 00:42:55

Okay. Before it was okay. Because they were on the

Unknown: 00:42:57

street. They were moving around and everything's new. Not

Unknown: 00:43:00

anymore.

Guy Powell: 00:43:01

wasn't okay. It was marginally okay. But you have to

Guy Powell: 00:43:06

respond immediately. You really?

Unknown: 00:43:09

Yeah, you got you got 10 hours. I've not heard from

Unknown: 00:43:12

you all month. I just spoke to you two days ago. It feels like

Unknown: 00:43:16

a month. So communication. You know, policies had to be

Unknown: 00:43:21

changed. How do you how do you communicate things of that

Unknown: 00:43:23

nature, you can't, you cannot wait two and three and four days

Unknown: 00:43:27

to respond to a client. Another thing is because technology

Unknown: 00:43:30

shifted, we had to really incorporate a policy, you must

Unknown: 00:43:34

check your your junk folder, you have to check your junk folder,

Unknown: 00:43:37

the way that our technology, the half of our emails get sucked

Unknown: 00:43:41

into junk folder, which never used to go there before. So now,

Unknown: 00:43:45

you can't not check it, your spam folder, your junk folder

Unknown: 00:43:49

has to be checked on a regular routine basis to sometimes to

Unknown: 00:43:53

two times a day, three times a day, depending on the volume you

Unknown: 00:43:57

have. So those are some things like really going for, like

Unknown: 00:43:59

infrastructure place and how an operations is what we've spent a

Unknown: 00:44:04

lot of time this is what's turning and what's changing.

Unknown: 00:44:07

Thanks to COVID

Guy Powell: 00:44:08

Yeah, well, you know, it's there's a really good

Guy Powell: 00:44:11

case study with, with Chick fil A and, and what they've been

Guy Powell: 00:44:14

able to do I what a what a, what a company.

Unknown: 00:44:19

That company, I love that company. I mean, if I was a

Unknown: 00:44:22

vegetarian, I think they'd make me eat meat. I'm just, I'm just

Unknown: 00:44:25

saying it's crazy. They have such a heart space. And they

Unknown: 00:44:30

have such good, good business, good business. And one of the

Unknown: 00:44:35

things that there was a report that came out they make

Unknown: 00:44:38

decisions that are for the greater good. They really make

Unknown: 00:44:41

heart heartfield decisions. I mean, when we look at the Chick

Unknown: 00:44:44

Fil A's they make they're not afraid to invest now for future

Unknown: 00:44:50

benefit. Yeah, yeah, notice, right. All of the Chick Fil A's

Unknown: 00:44:54

they're changing it. They're making double lanes. Quad lanes

Unknown: 00:44:57

simple.

Guy Powell: 00:44:58

Yeah, quad. It's amazing. thing.

Unknown: 00:45:00

I mean, it looks like a darn airport in there.

Guy Powell: 00:45:06

It looks like a taxi lines at the airport, you are so

Guy Powell: 00:45:09

right. And you know what's interesting, I was reading the

Guy Powell: 00:45:11

statistic that they have like four lanes, and like Donald's

Guy Powell: 00:45:17

might have one. And if they're lucky, they might have to. And

Guy Powell: 00:45:21

the wait time in the Chick fil A is less than it is than it is in

Guy Powell: 00:45:25

McDonald's. It is

Unknown: 00:45:26

and the quality, the quality of food, they're very

Unknown: 00:45:29

focused on quality and efficiency, the the quality,

Unknown: 00:45:32

when the Chick fil A app was launched, they they launched

Unknown: 00:45:37

with such care and precision, they actually wanted to hear

Unknown: 00:45:40

from customers. And as soon as you heard, they actually had a

Unknown: 00:45:43

team that all they did was look out for customer feedback, or

Unknown: 00:45:47

complaints or issues, right. And the app is so efficient, if you

Unknown: 00:45:53

forget to pick up your order. And this happened to me just the

Unknown: 00:45:58

other day, I placed an order and I was at the wrong location

Unknown: 00:46:01

because like they got the Chick fil A it was like five miles

Unknown: 00:46:04

apart and I didn't pay attention. So I've placed the

Unknown: 00:46:06

order on the app and I'm at the wrong location. I walked in

Unknown: 00:46:09

there and I'm like, What is taking so long I gotta go you

Unknown: 00:46:12

know, whatever it is like you don't have an order feels like I

Unknown: 00:46:14

placed in I showed the app and they knew the store and I'm

Unknown: 00:46:16

because oh my gosh, was Davis. That's the wrong store. But you

Unknown: 00:46:19

know what, let me see what you ordered. And I said, Well, how

Unknown: 00:46:22

do I refund it? There was like, well, let's just get you going

Unknown: 00:46:27

to get the refund. Let's just get you moving. Right?

Guy Powell: 00:46:30

They were so good. They are so my entire

Unknown: 00:46:33

order as I ordered it. And then the store in which I

Unknown: 00:46:38

was supposed to be at apparently the time kicked in. I get a

Unknown: 00:46:42

phone call. Miss Davis, your orders ready. I was like I feel

Unknown: 00:46:46

horrible. I'm so sorry. I feel like a dork. I'm at the wrong

Unknown: 00:46:49

store. I didn't know. Oh, well do you? Are you on the way we

Unknown: 00:46:52

can meet you outside? And we I was like, I'm sorry, I'm lost

Unknown: 00:46:55

the time I can't get there. Like, okay, we're so sorry. And

Unknown: 00:46:58

I was like, um, you don't have to give me a refund, it was my

Unknown: 00:47:01

mistake. Or mistake is we'll take care of it. How about they

Unknown: 00:47:05

pushed a free order to me for my inconvenience. I'm the one that

Unknown: 00:47:11

made the mistake. We're so sorry, you didn't get to come

Unknown: 00:47:15

here come and get a free sandwich.

Guy Powell: 00:47:20

They are such a good company. And you know, and even

Guy Powell: 00:47:23

even what's more incredible is their, their locations are so

Guy Powell: 00:47:29

enormous and the level of sales, and they're only open six days a

Guy Powell: 00:47:33

week.

Unknown: 00:47:35

I love it. I respect it. I've never gotten cold food.

Unknown: 00:47:39

I've never gotten poorly prepared food there. I mean, the

Unknown: 00:47:42

quality is always good. And two, this just kind of culminates

Unknown: 00:47:46

everything that we're talking about good business businesses

Unknown: 00:47:50

and hard people just make it complex. And I remember where

Unknown: 00:47:53

people were trying to shame Chick fil A for not being open

Unknown: 00:47:56

on a Sunday and so forth. And it's like, no, that is not our,

Unknown: 00:47:59

that's not what our beliefs, and I that was another level of

Unknown: 00:48:02

respect that I have for them. You know, that's another thing,

Unknown: 00:48:05

right? Guy, when you're in business, you've got to hold

Unknown: 00:48:08

your beliefs, right hold to your beliefs, just because you can

Unknown: 00:48:11

doesn't mean that you should. And that's something that in

Unknown: 00:48:15

business, we all have to learn to let lean on. Just because you

Unknown: 00:48:19

can doesn't mean that you should, right. And sure they can

Unknown: 00:48:22

be open seven days a week, but that doesn't mean that they

Unknown: 00:48:25

should, right. And even we, as we are in business, whenever we

Unknown: 00:48:30

go to either take on a client or take on a project or whatever,

Unknown: 00:48:33

we have to step back since and say hold on a second. Sure I can

Unknown: 00:48:36

do this, but should I

Guy Powell: 00:48:39

Right? And it comes up in every business and it is

Guy Powell: 00:48:44

it makes so much of a difference for the whole the whole business

Guy Powell: 00:48:48

all of the employees and how to make a decision. And you know

Guy Powell: 00:48:52

and especially nowadays when you think about you know PII

Guy Powell: 00:48:55

personally identifiable information and how you you

Guy Powell: 00:48:59

know, track that and how you guard that and protect it.

Guy Powell: 00:49:03

There's so many things that you could do, but you know, should

Guy Powell: 00:49:05

you do it is is is a really tough, and I think that's coming

Guy Powell: 00:49:09

up, gonna be coming up more and more here as we as as the

Guy Powell: 00:49:13

technology just kind of take over just about everything.

Unknown: 00:49:16

Agree, Agree technology is going to it does dictate a

Unknown: 00:49:20

lot of how we do things when we do things and stuff and things

Unknown: 00:49:24

like that, like what should we do? What shouldn't we do?

Unknown: 00:49:26

Technology, any business that runs from check technology is

Unknown: 00:49:30

looking for trouble. You can't run from technology, you cannot

Unknown: 00:49:33

run from technology. I tend to do what's called a like a simple

Unknown: 00:49:39

series of five simple steps series. And I'll post posted on

Unknown: 00:49:43

my YouTube channel and just to educate, give people something

Unknown: 00:49:46

to think about and I said okay, if anyone is still sending out

Unknown: 00:49:51

an attached Word document as an invoice to clients, asking

Unknown: 00:49:57

people to print it, write a check I put it in the mail,

Unknown: 00:50:01

snail mail it, we have got to talk, something's wrong, okay,

Unknown: 00:50:05

you cannot do this thing. This is the year, you know, send a

Unknown: 00:50:09

link, click a button, send a link, click a button, right? Or

Unknown: 00:50:14

when people start doing the back and forth something as basic as

Unknown: 00:50:18

booking time. Why do we have to have six different emails

Unknown: 00:50:22

exchanged about time? How about you just send a calendar link

Unknown: 00:50:26

booked time, but the time is efficiency and, and technology

Unknown: 00:50:29

and living in that when you start coming across businesses,

Unknown: 00:50:32

what customers and the marketplace gets exposed to

Unknown: 00:50:37

efficiency, in that matter, it now becomes an expectation. And

Unknown: 00:50:42

so when they come back to a company, or they go to a

Unknown: 00:50:45

company, and they don't have that same level of efficiency

Unknown: 00:50:48

and streamlining, they're like, oh, man, these guys are archaic?

Guy Powell: 00:50:53

Well, not absolutely. And that's where

Guy Powell: 00:50:55

Amazon has done. They have done such a good job with their user

Guy Powell: 00:51:00

interface and Chick fil A the same way. And sorry, I'm not

Guy Powell: 00:51:03

going to do a commercial for Chick fil A but but their their

Guy Powell: 00:51:07

methods are affecting everybody. Because when I go to Joe, you

Guy Powell: 00:51:11

know, Joe Blow down the street, and he doesn't have something

Guy Powell: 00:51:14

that's close to what Amazon is. I'd rather just buy it from

Guy Powell: 00:51:17

Amazon.

Unknown: 00:51:18

Yeah, that's what's happening. And that's that's the

Unknown: 00:51:21

struggle, right? You have businesses that they think that

Unknown: 00:51:25

they can get away with not rising to the occasion. Now a

Unknown: 00:51:30

mom and pop can't meet the demands or meet the level of

Unknown: 00:51:34

Amazon. But you can offer quality good service, you can

Unknown: 00:51:38

say, Listen, I can't I don't have it here. But I can order it

Unknown: 00:51:41

for you. I can get it for you. And case in point. My fiance and

Unknown: 00:51:46

I, we went to a store the other day. And the first person we

Unknown: 00:51:50

engaged with, see this is also marketing. This is branding,

Unknown: 00:51:53

right? The first person we engage with was very Oh, yeah,

Unknown: 00:51:57

we don't have that in here. I mean, if you want, listen to the

Unknown: 00:52:00

words correctly, right? If you want, you can go online and

Unknown: 00:52:04

search it up and order it. I mean, your store, you sell the

Unknown: 00:52:09

product. And so of course we were I was like, first of all,

Unknown: 00:52:13

my whole branding brain is like, who owns this joint? Like, what

Unknown: 00:52:18

in the world? What kind of what kind of customer service

Unknown: 00:52:21

training do we have? Like, anything is going off and I had

Unknown: 00:52:25

my coffee, I was sipping on my coffee. I was literally like

Unknown: 00:52:29

meditating on the way out. I was like, this makes no sense. So on

Unknown: 00:52:32

the way out, I said to my friends, so Oh, look at that

Unknown: 00:52:35

over there. And he was like, yeah, and there was another

Unknown: 00:52:37

young lady. She was hey, can I help you guys? And my sister was

Unknown: 00:52:41

like, no, because I'm the guy. And I'm like, well,

Unknown: 00:52:44

actually, you can.

Unknown: 00:52:47

Here's what we're looking for. Let me see. And let me tell you,

Unknown: 00:52:50

the experience was completely different. Let me go look and

Unknown: 00:52:55

see what we were back there already. And they got so we

Unknown: 00:52:59

appreciate all the help that you're doing. And she went back

Unknown: 00:53:01

there. And she looked and she checked. And then she went and

Unknown: 00:53:04

she goes, you know something? We don't have this one. But I can

Unknown: 00:53:08

order it. Give me a second. Can you guys wait until I get it

Unknown: 00:53:12

ordered? We'll have it in here if you want me to deliver it to

Unknown: 00:53:14

you whatever she got on her computer and took care of

Unknown: 00:53:18

everything. Yep, yep. As I sat there sipping my coffee.

Guy Powell: 00:53:23

And you know, the funny part is that, even though

Guy Powell: 00:53:25

they have more or less good customer service, it was the

Guy Powell: 00:53:30

training that failed with the other employee and that getting

Guy Powell: 00:53:34

that across the whole organization is so difficult,

Guy Powell: 00:53:37

especially when you have a lot of turnover and things like

Guy Powell: 00:53:40

that. I have so many more questions for you. But I mean, I

Guy Powell: 00:53:45

think we could go on for another couple hours yet. I do want to

Guy Powell: 00:53:50

ask you one more question that is, so what is the what's the

Guy Powell: 00:53:54

most important thing that you'd like to get across today?

Unknown: 00:53:58

The most important thing that I would like to get

Unknown: 00:54:00

across today is number one,

Unknown: 00:54:04

in business. Stay focused

Unknown: 00:54:07

and be intentional. Stay focused and be intentional. Don't get

Unknown: 00:54:12

distracted by the noise. Stay focused and be intentional.

Unknown: 00:54:16

There's a lot of noise out there. And if you don't be

Unknown: 00:54:18

careful, you'll get sucked in like a vacuum 2 billion things.

Unknown: 00:54:22

So that's on the business side. On the marketing side, what I

Unknown: 00:54:27

would say is the same thing. Get focused and intentional. Before

Unknown: 00:54:31

very clear about who you want to work with what clients you want

Unknown: 00:54:34

to serve, and then study your customer. Study your clientele,

Unknown: 00:54:39

and spend time chasing the clients that want to be caught.

Unknown: 00:54:44

Don't spend time chasing clients who do not want to be caught

Unknown: 00:54:47

that is a waste of energy, wasted time wasted money. So the

Unknown: 00:54:51

thing is focus and intentionality on both sides of

Unknown: 00:54:54

it. But always pay attention to your customer study your

Unknown: 00:54:57

customer know what they want. You know it's okay Need to go

Unknown: 00:55:00

the extra mile without charging that customer an extra $2? Yeah.

Unknown: 00:55:06

Okay, right. But focus, study them. And then again, spend time

Unknown: 00:55:10

chasing customers that want to be caught, as opposed to

Unknown: 00:55:13

customers that do not want to be caught.

Guy Powell: 00:55:15

Yeah, I always prefer going catching as opposed

Guy Powell: 00:55:18

to fishing. So I have one other very important question. And

Guy Powell: 00:55:25

that is, where can people reach you?

Unknown: 00:55:27

Absolutely. So the best way to find me is go to impact

Unknown: 00:55:31

branding consulting.org. That's impact branding consulting.org.

Unknown: 00:55:37

And you can find everything you need to know about me and it'll

Unknown: 00:55:41

connect you socially Gaul you can schedule a call or chat

Unknown: 00:55:44

anything. Is there, impact branding consulting.org.

Guy Powell: 00:55:48

Fantastic. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you. You've

Guy Powell: 00:55:51

been awesome. And I really, I would love to be able to spend

Guy Powell: 00:55:55

another couple hours. So we'll have to do this again. And we'll

Guy Powell: 00:55:57

have to get through the rest of the questions that I've got.

Unknown: 00:56:02

Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. And

Guy Powell: 00:56:05

thank you, and thank you to everyone. Please stay

Guy Powell: 00:56:07

tuned for many other videos in this series of the backstory on

Guy Powell: 00:56:11

marketing, please visit marketing machine dot pro

Guy Powell: 00:56:14

relevant.com. And you can download the first chapter of my

Guy Powell: 00:56:18

upcoming book and also valuable other valuable excerpts.

Guy Powell: 00:56:22

Otherwise, don't forget to reach out to Natasha at impact

Guy Powell: 00:56:27

branding, consulting.org impact branding consulting.org And

Guy Powell: 00:56:32

otherwise, if you liked this episode, please rate it with

Guy Powell: 00:56:35

five stars. Thank you so much Natasha, and thanks. Thanks to

Guy Powell: 00:56:39

everyone.