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Navigating the Customer Experience

Join host Yanique Grant as she takes you on a journey with global entrepreneurs and subject matter experts that can help you to navigate your customer experience. Learn what customers really want and how businesses can understand the psychology of each customer or business that they engage with. We will be looking at technology, leadership, customer service charters and strategies, training and development, complaint management, service recovery and so much more!
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Now displaying: January, 2017
Jan 31, 2017

This episode with Yanique Grant will be the first solo episode after doing 38 interview based episodes and we will be sharing with you some tips, nuggets that we have collected over the last 38 weeks of releasing 38 amazing interview based episodes. We want to give a shout out to all of our guests locally and internationally that has come on board to support and share the wealth of knowledge that they have shared and we are amazingly inspired by each and every person that we have come in contact with as a result of starting this podcast

 

Highlights

Today Yanique will take about customer experience and are some of the different opportunities that exist for a business going forward in 2017, what are some considerations that they need to take into account. Whether or not a business plans for it, your brand provides a customer experience to your customers; customers collect experiences throughout their journeys with your brands, regardless of your effort investment or intent to deliver cohesive and satisfying experiences. It’s important that your brand and your advertising and your marketing that they are cohesively connected and they are all singing the same song, we’re all on the same page, singing the same verse at the same time, singing the same chorus at the same time because if not, that’s where the disconnect occurs. 

People base their decisions based on what they experience and hear about your brand, every experience you provide to your customer can provide encourage or discourage, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy and for those who are familiar with the book Customer Satisfaction Is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless: How to Make Customers Love You, Keep Them Coming Back and Tell Everyone They Know by Jeffery Gitomer, you would know that if a customer leaves satisfied from your business, that does not guarantee that they are going to remain loyal to your business and so because of that, you have to consistently deliver on quality experiences, if you’re not, then it’s quite possible that the customer will switch and customers these days have choices. 

The Internet has given everyone the opportunity to do their research before they come into your business. They go online, they go to your website, they go to your Facebook page, they look at what other customers are saying about your business, if they ask their friends and family about your products, they read reviews, they are fully informed at least by 60%-75% statistics say, before they even interact with a member of your organization, so with all of this in mind, you have to consistently deliver on whatever it is you’re advertising that your company is going to deliver and that is seamlessly what your brand is all about. People like to have simple experiences, that’s the reality. Yanique stated that she loves to go to a business that when she walks in, she doesn’t need to try and figure out what the business is trying to offer, what should she do, where she should go, she knows exactly what to do and where to go. 

They have this index called The Global Brand Simplicity Index and in it, it talks about what simplicity is. Each year this company called Siegel and Gale, they survey thousands of consumers from around the world as it relates to evaluating hundreds of brands and how the brands deliver on their experiences. Simplicity by definition is freedom from complexity, intricacy or division into parts. This is the definition by www.dictionary.com and it is freedom from deceit or guile, sincerity, heartlessness, naturalness. People want to do business with companies that it’s very easy to transact business with them in all the channels that they provide service through whether it’s online, whether it’s face to face, over the telephone; it’s a seamless and a simple process, a simple experience. 

According to the 2017 Global Brand Simplicity Index, simple to the consumer in 2017 means being clear, it means being human and it means being useful. It's is powerful and if those are the 3 things that simplicity means, it means that in everything that a business does, they need to figure out, “Is this process clear, is this product delivery or service delivery human and are my consumers valuing this experience as being useful?” because if you’re not meeting 2 or 3 of those options, then you are loosing out on all of the money you are leaving out on the table for not creating that simple experience for customers, so we cannot implore enough why it’s important. It is so important as well for your brand or people that interact with your brand to recognize that you are real, a lot of companies say in their marketing advertising that, “We are offering quality service, our customer service is the best, we take care of you.” They use all of these endearing terms that when you listen to the advertisement whether it’s on TV or on the radio, you feel a sense of emotional connection, however, when you go to the business and have the interaction - it’s a completely different experience, so your brand is what people feel and say it is, not what your brand believes or says it is, "Perception is reality to the person that perceives it", this is a popular quote that she gives in all of her workshops all the time. A lot of people believe that service delivery or the service that they offer is based on what they feel it is and it’s not what you the company feels it is, it’s what the customers says it is, it is their feedback, it’s their perception that matters, that’s what determines whether or not you’re a great or a good company, so your brand is owned by the customer not you, it is created and fashioned in the minds of your customers and prospects. You are what they think you are or what they hear from others, sometimes people form a perception of a brand just based on what their husband says to them or what their girlfriend says to them or what their co-worker says to them, they have never interacted with the business before but they are basing their thoughts or giving feedback to other people based on what someone else said, with that in mind, you have to remember that your brand is what others say it is. What your brand does is more important than what it says, action speaks louder that words and because body language is 55% of the communication process, it’s so important that your leaders, team members, everyone is walking the talk, your brand will be ultimately evaluated by it’s customers and what it does for them, not what it says in the ads, emails or on its website, so again, if your marketing is not congruent with the actual experiences that your customers are having, then at the end of the day, it’s not what you believe your service experience is but is what your customers are actually experiencing. 

Brands that cannot retain customers, they just won’t win in this world that we are living in, if you are not able to really recognize that the customers that you have currently are your gold mind, those are the ones you need to be nurturing and ensuring that they’re satisfied, ensuring that they want to come back, so that they can go out there and be evangelists of your business, then you lose right there, as said before, it’s money you’re leaving on the table, so your brand, acquiring customers is a costly activity, it requires you to go out there and tell people what you’re about and spend money to woo someone that you really don’t have a relationship with, rather you could be nurturing and building up existing relationships and having those persons woo people you are trying to get because it would be an easier sell because that customer who you’re trying to get would be persuaded by someone who has had an experience with your business and the acquisition of that new customer would be based on what that existing customer shares with them. 

Brands that cannot motivate their customers, to share positive sentiments will ultimately diminish the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. The aim is to ensure that when your customers leave your business, they feel like they’ve just done business with the best company on earth, if you cannot absolutely say that, then it means that there is room for improvement. People trust each other more than they do brands and word of mouth is a powerful force for improving awareness and consideration, that’s why social media is so powerful, there are all these brands out there that basically, you can go online and you can read up about where you’re going and what kind of experience to anticipate, you can even get a rating and so if your customers are not speaking positively about your business, even if you have the most upgraded building, the best uniforms, the mission and visions on the wall, state of the art technology, state of the art equipment, machinery, if the experience is not congruent and people are not leaving feeling like they are valued and appreciated, then you are definitely going to experience a diminishing return in the long term. 

Your brand can’t be all things to all people, customers have different needs, expectations and values so the better your brand can understand and reflect these through focus, segments, personas and personalization, the more powerful the experiences it can deliver, you have to know who your customers are, what’s your marketing segmentation, who represents that 80% of your business, what 20% of your customers gives you 80% of your business and how can you have those 20% become evangelists of your business so that you can continue to increase on that percentage. It’s a work in progress but it’s possible, it’s all about making that experience very simple. 

You listen to your customers to understand them, marketers spend a lot of time and money studying what gets people to buy too often and sometimes they ignore what gets them to be satisfied, loyal and willing to tell others, listening is important in the whole customer experience process and the voice of the customer programs are essential to defining and measuring customer experience performance. When you hire someone like Yanique to train your team members or hire her company to do market research, it’s very hard to see a return on investment the following day and that’ what a lot of businesses fail to realize that customer experience is a very tangible measurement and because of that, it’s so important to continually be engaging and hearing from your customers because if you’re constantly getting positive feedback and recommendations that you get from customers are actually improving on them and customers can see that their feedback is not just being put in a box and no one is taking it into account but they are actually using it to make changes, then that’s when you see repeat business over and over.

 

 

 

Jan 24, 2017

Joseph Michelli is an Internationally sought after Speaker, Author and Organizational Consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the total customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and front line workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their lives. Dr. Michelli is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Neilsen Book Scan and New York Times number 1 bestselling author. His latest book is Driven to Delight: Delivering World- Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way, some of his other titles include Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products and Your People, The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW, Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System, The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary and The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, as well as When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace from the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market. Joseph holds a certified speaking professional designation from The National Speakers Association and is a member of The Authors Guild; he received his Masters and Doctorate from the University of Southern California and he has won the Asian Brand Excellence Award as an Editorial Board Member for The Beryl Institute Patient Experience Journal (PXJ) and is on the Founder’s Council of Customer Experience One, he is also named one of the top 10 Thought Leaders in Customer Service by global gurus.

 

Question

  • Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
  • Could you share with us from one of your favorite books, what are these 5 principles that seem to be a constant in most of the books that you’ve authored?
  • What are some of the limitations that leaders may face? Do you think they are more internal or external? Why is it that leadership seems to be a big challenge for a lot of organizations, why are they not getting it right?
  • How do you think a business owner or a leader should approach service recovery?
  • What are some important considerations that you would recommend to a business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful?
  • 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?
  • 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?
  • 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

  • Joseph Michelli shared that he has been in this business of customer service which has transformed into customer experience enhancement for so long that he has had many great mentors and guides along the way and if anything, he has been excited to see how many people have started to appreciate that it’s not just the products they have that makes a difference in the market place but it’s really the way those products to marketing, he thinks that changes in the global economy have cost us all to realize that you can get a lot of very similar products very easily today but the service dimension is something that very few have mastered and it is a differentiator.
  • Joseph stated that it starts with leadership, entrepreneur, a small business owner, a large company, having a leader who has the vision to realize that people are the most important aspect of business, that all business are personal, that you have to understand the wants, needs and desires of people in order to create, innovate and to deliver in ways to meet their wants, needs and desires. It’s an overarching commitment to utilizing both technology and the human capital within your organization to create memorable or crave able experience that people will talk about on social media. He thinks that there are dimensions of driving culture, a culture of service excellence as well as operational excellence, getting it right and making it right and obsessing about that and most of these brands are on a journey to decrease the amount of effort that customers have involved in getting their needs met, currently there are all these making sure and understanding that this is a long game, that this is about lasting significance not just short term sales or profitability for the next quarter, it’s really about understanding relationships and multi generations of consumers who are going to support your brand.
  • Joseph shared that he thinks they see excellence within silos, they build organizations that have silos and they are not looking at the journey of the customer across the organization, so instead of looking down from the top of an organization and seeing your marketing silo and your sales silo and seeing your after sale silo, your customers look from a horizontal vantage point and they see the brand and they see it when they encounter it inconsideration of a product, they see it when they walk into a store or when they attempt to purchase something from the online store front, they see it when they make a return, they are seeing the same brand in a horizontal walk. Unfortunately, a lot of organizations reward people for success in each of the verticals silos as they look down on it from the top, so a lot of this gets to helping organizations create opportunities of handing the customer from one point of the journey to the next part of the journey seamlessly instead of just celebrating success within a silo.

Yanique shared that she found that the companies that really understand their journey also recognize that things are not going to go smooth all the time so service recovery is so important.

  • Joseph stated that it’s one of the greatest differentiators, everybody do a good job until they get your money, as soon as they get your money, they treat you differently, some take you for granted and never speak to you again or when it’s time for renewal, try to get you constantly to buy something from them. Those who after the sale respond very ably to the consumer, the better, the first formal part of this is understanding that service recovery is an investment in future marketing so rather than seeing it as a lost leader, it is a part of your advertising strategy and saves you money from having to advertise and recover customers who are soiling or contaminating the market place with their negative reactions to your poor recovery. It’s a mind shift on what recovery is, it’s a fundamental opportunity to decrease future marketing costs and actually leverage that which is so valuable the customer you’ve already acquired in having them be a repeat purchaser, it is so much easier to get them to buy a second time than to get somebody to buy the first time and the cost associated with retaining a customer is so much less even if you have to invest money in a recovery moment than it would be to try to require a replacement customer.

Joseph stated that it is simple as Starbucks has a promise that, “If you don’t like your drink, we will replace it for you no questions asked.” Joseph gave an example, he stated that there was a prankster, a person who pranks corporate America, so he bought a Starbucks drink, he brought it home, it was a milk based drink, he put it in his garage, he left it there for a week and a half, he brought it back extremely rancid inside of a plastic bag and he brought it into a Starbucks and handed it to the Barista and saying, “Look, this drink does not meet my satisfaction.” They have been trained so well by this brand simply said, “Let me take this take this to our back dumpster and in the mean time, what drink might I prepare for you that you might like today?” It was that simple, many people would say, “come on, obviously this is not a freshly made drink that we are in any obligation to replace” In truth, this prankster went on to write a blog about the fact that he had hoped that they would fail their recovery promise and they did not do so and he was the one who got pranked and that advertising and that promotion and the fact that he’s telling the story today has far more value to the brand than the $4.00 they would have saved had they argued with the customer in suggesting that he was not entitled to the recovery.

Yanique stated that she lives in Jamaica and most of the stores already have a sign on the door that says, “No exchanges, no refunds” so you as a customer, once you enter or start to browse that store, you know, “If I purchase this, clearly it’s a final purchase, if I have an issue with it, I can’t take it back.” It’s truly amazing to know that the promise is that they are going to replace it for you no questions asked, that takes real guts, real courage.

Joseph stated that there will be those who abuse it and this would have been a case of abuse, clearly it went well beyond the perimeters but most people will not. There is a speaker in the USA who at the beginning of every presentation hands out a bowl of quarters and he says, “Please take all the quarters” and no one has taken all the quarters in any audience that he has ever put that out to and the message largely is, most people will self regulate, most people are business owners, most people have a sense of fairness, there will be those who abuse it but assuming the entire population is out to get you creates an animosity between yourself and the customer that’s hard to recover from and as a world traveler, he has been to countries in the Caribbean that are open and warm and he has been to ones that are locked down and he knows which ones he doesn’t want to go back to.

  • Joseph stated that online is a very self service oriented deliverable, it’s a lot about speed, and it’s a lot about convenience so you clearly should maximize those dimensions. The more speedy and more automated this becomes, the more you need people around in case something goes wrong because he become lulled into the sense that everything is perfect and so if you’re going to have online, you also need to have some level of Call Centre or human response that can deal with any break downs that happens in the automated space and so you have to be very mindful that you’re going to move in and out of brick and mortar, in and out of call centre, in and out of online app deliverable and so it really is a multi channel mindset that you have to start thinking about and the customer can start in one spot, jump to the next and needs to be able to jump back to the next. If you go purely online and it’s difficult to get people to solve a problem or answer a question that you can’t get answered on a frequently answered questions page online then you end up with a lesser experience and you may end up churning customers so doing online development means you also have some talented human capital that bolts into this multi channel journey.

Speed and Convenience for todays customer - Joseph stated that we have to maximize the speed at every turn and we do have to manage customer expectations because there are certain expectations that have gotten ahead of customers and in order to have everything that fast you also give up some tradeoffs on artisanship and quality so it is an educational on tradeoffs that with speed comes some compromises and we are willing to make them in these regards because we know what’s best and in delivery of this particular product you know you need speed, we know you need speed, we are working to maximize that but you also need quality and if you compromise and buy something very hastily crafted in order to meet the speed, it probably won’t last long, so it’s baiting what is value and speed is a part of the value equation but there are other dimensions that you have to education. Sometimes we can do things while they are waiting for those 5 days for a product, we can educate them, and we can stay in relationship with them. The art of Disney if you go to Walt Disney World, you are in massive lines, it is not speedy at all to go through the experience but they often distract you, entertain you, transform you with other things happening while you’re in line and he thinks that’s the art sometimes, how else can they add value, “The product will be there in 5 days but in the mean time I want to give you 5 days of information about how maximize the use of your product as soon as it arrives so there isn’t such a learning curve.” So maybe there is a not speed to delivery but there’s a speed to use because he has done something in that delivery time that adds value.

Beta Brand – company that did not have a product but they provided their prospects with entertaining stories.

  • Joseph stated that that particular journey with the owner was a co authored book with Johnny Yokoyama who created Pike Place Fish Market, he had the good fortune of working with him and he’s inspirational to him. He stated that Yanique and himself shared many of the same journeys, they go in and help leaders create better experiences to drive loyalty and engagement of their people and of their customers and that’s just a life giving journey that he’s on, to deal with the Johnny Yokoyama’s, to deal with the CEO’s of these corporations to help them lead these initiatives, to watch small business owners change the way they treat their people and the way their people treat the customers, it is so life giving that it’s easy to do what he does in life and because of that, it’s easy for him to stay motivated.
  • Joseph shared that he is on the road all the time so most of the airline apps and almost all the hotel apps have incredible value to him. This morning he walked to his local Starbucks and he used his mobile order app, he was able to have enough time to sit down and enjoy his coffee because the coffee was waiting for him. Anything that makes his life easier is something he tends to continues to give real estate to his phone, otherwise he downloads a lot of apps and then they are gone 72 hours because he doesn’t use them, they look good but they don’t’ give his life ease or pleasure.
  • Joseph shared that the book that has had the biggest impact is Man’s Search for Meaning By Viktor E. Frankl, it is the message of a Psychiatrist who survived the concentration camps in World War II, the beauty for him is that he inspires him to realize how great he can be and his classic section is where he’s talking about people who are near starvation, who gave up the food they have, a small portion of that to someone else who are worst and Frankl says, “there are not many people who did that but the fact that we can is inspiring to all of us” and that’s how he looks at the world, we can all serve better, we can all do more to be in service to one another and that’s the kind of books he tends to like to read.
  • Joseph stated that right now they trying to figure out to create product, he thinks he is at a point in his career where he has written enough books, he has done enough consulting and he has been on the road a lot, so he is trying to figure out how to monetize and create a platform of training courses and things that keep him from having to go on planes so in 10 or 15 years he can spend more time with in the islands enjoying life while still creating value as best he can.

 

  • Joseph stated that it starts with you, we can identify the generation Y and Z and the millennials, reality says, “If you’re not a hundred percent in every single day, why should anyone else in your organization be, you are the owner, you are the leader, you set the standard, what shows up in your business is probably in part a reflection of who you are.” It is harder today to find motivated people so it takes more discipline to select, you should be looking for them everywhere you find them, you should be offering them an opportunity to consider employment with you, stealing the best from the rest but ultimately it is how do you show up every day because that will show up in the life of the customer.

 

  • Joseph shared listeners can find him at –

www.josephmichelli.com

Joseph Michelli Twitter

Joseph Michelli Facebook

Joseph Michelli LinkedIn

 

  • Joseph stated that Peter Drucker once said, “We are not in business to create a profit, we are in business to create a customer, it is through customers that profits come.” So for him, Joseph is less worried about whether or no they are going to be profitable, he’s more worried about customers and if he takes care customers, the profits will follow.

 

Links

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Jan 17, 2017

Isabel Hundt is the author of The Power of Faith-Driven Success: A Journey Toward Living Your Dream by 30 and certified vision and Transformation Coach and International Speaker. She’s a world visionary and an ambassador of Global Presence Leadership. She travels all over to share her enlightening message of tuning in to our true selves by understanding the connection between our heart and our brain. She is also teaching how to use our emotions as a powerful guide for success in all areas of our lives instead of experiencing emotions as a distraction. She’s a proud Christ follower, wife and a mother to son Jonah. Isabel enjoys kick boxing and body combat.

 

Question

  • Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
  • How do you feel about customer experience in your own life, the things you’ve experience and what role do you think that plays in you being able to help people transform into their best selves?
  • What are some everyday solutions that you believe can help improve customer experience?
  • How do you feel about leadership in a business? What role do you think leadership plays in the whole customer experience process and the emotions around that as well?
  • As a Visionary, as a Coach, what are some important considerations that you would recommend they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful?
  • 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?
  • 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

  • Isabel Hundt shared that she that when she was young, she had a lot of out of body experiences, at some point she had a head trauma and when she had the head trauma, she was out of her body and she could watch herself and there are other times where she felt like she could leave her body which was weird and she always reacted weird to other people that were in pain. For example, she laughed when they were hurting and she know why, she would say, “oh my god, it’s so embarrassing, I shouldn’t be laughing, it’s not funny, they are hurting” and looking back she knows it was a coping mechanism for her to not take on their stuff but when she was 12 years old, she had a vision that she would be moving the United States of America, she is originally from Germany where she grew up and her family is there. She had the vision and that she would be speaking in front of a lot of people and she didn’t quite know how it was going to happen because she didn’t have any connections and she also got into psychology and sociology around the same time, she grew up in the so call DDR, East Germany and they grew up Christian and so her dad wasn’t allowed study because he participated in church activities so when the walls came down he was finally able to get his Degree and that was when she was about 12 years old and that time she studied with him which was fun and when she was 18 years old, she went to the USA for an exchange year which was interesting because she really sucked speaking the language, she didn’t know what, “you’re welcome” meant. She then had to go back and she didn’t feel at home anymore, something didn’t feel right, it was just off and her dad would always say, “one day we’re going to do something together, we’re going to work together” and of course when you’re 19 years old you’re like, “heck no, I’m independent now.” She studied economics and failed, they kicked her out after 2 years and she started to have really bad depressions and she didn’t care if there was a car coming or not, she was just done with the world, everything was noisy and loud. When they kicked her out of university, she had to figure out what she wanted to do next and she finally admitted that she probably should go into the social science field because that’s what she was always been interested in, so she did that and started over and somehow she got into a really bad relationship with an American guy but that’s how she really came over so she is kind of grateful to him but that ended too after she finished her studying and she still came over and worked as a nanny. In that process she got to know her now husband and because he didn’t want to get married right away, she almost got deported and that was interesting. She had to go to Canada which was quite the experience and all that up and down and she didn’t what she wanted to do, she never felt like she really trusted her intuition and that’s when through a friend of a friend she started to get into the coaching world and she participated in a training, “This was exactly what I need to do because I need to understand who I am. I don’t feel German, I don’t feel American, who am I?” and within that journey of becoming a certified coach, she also realize that she is an empath which means that she experience the world more intense, she can see through people, she sees color around people, it’s a lot of stuff that she takes in and never knew how to trust that intuition or to work with it and throughout the journey she got to where she is today.
  • Isabel Hundt stated that she used to do a presentation at Ball State University about customer service and they would look at like she’s crazy because nobody really understands that the customer service starts with you and they believe that customer service is the foundation to success in whatever you offer in your business, customer service is nothing different than creating relationships and being open to the experience with the other person. The problem that she sees often with customer service is that we don’t not have that self awareness, that often we don’t understand is what we focus on we create more of, what is going on inside of us is being reflected on the outside, that’s what’s happening around us. For example, if somebody comes into work and already has a crappy day and you have someone call you and they need help or support, you would react differently to them than if you had a happy or great day and even though the other person’s reaction wasn’t any different, you just experience it differently so if we have that awareness of what’s going on. For example, you can simply acknowledge, “oh shut, I have a crappy day today, I don’t know what’s going on, I feel frustrated, I feel angry, I’m not sure why” but if we just simply acknowledge it, you don’t have to go through the whole process of analyzing but just acknowledge it, we are able to take that apart from what we experience in relationship type of setting and we can say, “okay, I hear them differently, it’s nothing personal what they’re saying, I don’t have to react to it, I can set my stuff aside to be available to them” and that’s why she thinks self awareness is the foundation to great customer service, yet customer service is the foundation to successful life and business.

Isabel stated that emotions aren’t just emotions; they are what we make them, who would determine that anger has a certain chemical reaction in your body, we define it and we can acknowledge, “oh, that’s what’s going on, it’s okay, I am okay, I just don’t have to act on it react to it by pushing it on someone else”

  • Isabel shared that for one, it depends on the setting but if you have a small business and it’s just you, definitely having a ritual every day, if it’s in the morning or before whenever you start working and for her, it’s usually around lunch time because she has a 3 year old when he’s finally asleep. Before she really start getting into work or connecting with people, she sits down and either meditate in her case and sometimes just a reflection yourself is really important just to understand, “okay, what’s going on today, what do I have to work through today that could get in the way for me to create successful connections with people that I really want to be of service to?” that’s the one thing that she really stretch with everyone. When she teach that at universities, the staff always looks at her like, “yeah, can we have a little more business like instead of all the psychology behind it” they don’t really want to take that responsibility, so it’s a little tough. If you can be compassionate with yourself and understanding and acknowledging it, you are more likely to show more compassion to those who you serve, if they have a bad day, you’re not jumping on board, you can just say, “hey, do you having a bad day? I’m sorry if you do, it’s okay and I still see you” so feeling seen creates the connection, the connection again is the foundation of a successful business. So the most important if you remember anything from this conversation, self reflection is the first thing someone should do to have a successful business.
  • Isabel agreed that leaders have their own emotions and depending on your mode, your energy can manifest into the physical space and that can have a positive or negative impact on the staff and then eventually spill over to the customers. She stated that she used to work in corporate America for a year and she didn’t like it because she was the Administrative Assistant and was responsible for all those people and sometimes she would sit there and listen to people talk to customers and would say to herself, “do you actually want to work with that customer or you don’t? Because right now it sounds like you don’t” and even with each other. She thinks that customer service starts with the group itself, if there is tension within the people that work for you, those tensions come across with the customer, so for everyone that is a leader who is leading a group of people needs to stretch on team building and team building is the focus on self that’s why really successful companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook as well as Amazon, they all have life coaches, so their employees, most of them have at least one session a month or they have free access to a life coach and there is more of team building going on as their foundation than the actual growth of the business. If your team feels valued and seen, automatically your business will grow too because they do whatever it takes to grow this business because that means they feel a part of a big team, a mission, something that’s really important and that as a leader of a company if you have employees, for one you need to do the work yourself, that’s something she has realized, they usually send their employees to her workshops and expect that they will change the environment they are working in but they don’t want to do the work and that’s what hurts most companies.

Isabel stated that most of her clients are online. She said that for one, it is more convenient with a child at home that young but it allows her to work with people from all over the world, from France, Sweden, and India and all over the USA and she found and it depends on where you live. She stated that where she lives people are very conservative so it takes a lot to break through that wall and outside of it people are more open to what she’s talking about and what she teach and coach on. She does work mostly online but when she speaks, then she is travelling.

  • Isabel stated that if you want to take everything online, the most important for her is authenticity, if suddenly you come across online differently than in your physical store, that will distract from your brand and people get confuse and when people get confuse, they will not buy from you. Authenticity, really understanding what you want to bring across online, what you want people to understand about who you are and your business that you can also implement or that you have already implemented in your brick and mortar business. Especially if you have a store and you want to take it online she really believes in help from people that have a lot of knowledge like Web Designers, they understand how to use different colors that really reflect your personality and your work because callers also have frequency as well as emotions where they create emotions or support certain emotions so people have to be aware of what they use even there online, what do you want to bring across, how you want people to feel when they look at what you represent. That goes back to personal development, Who are you? What is your message? What do you want to bring across? How do you want to serve people? What do you want other people to take away from it? And you can’t really answer those questions unless you are really aware of who you are and your purpose.

Isabel share that sometimes we take My Why a little bit too easy, it’s not just, “my WHY is to support my family financially” it needs to serve for the greater good. She stated that her WHY is to create a deeper connection inner culturally to understand that even though your background is different or the way you grew up or the traditions are different, it doesn’t make you any different as a human being. Her big Why is to bring people together to really connect on such a deep level that we can understand that without each other we can’t do anything and even if we live a thousand miles away from each other, we still impact each other in the way we think, in the way we operate, it has a ripple effect, that’s her greater purpose, that’s greater vision that she has so if you start with the WHY and only say, “my WHY is supporting my family” that’s not enough, that keeps it too limited and you don’t think outside the box.

  • Isabel stated that what keeps her motivated is one, her Why, the essence of what she do what she do, she can’t just let it go, there’s too much at stake to not to do her work and she would be responsible. She always remind herself that if she doesn’t do the work that she is call to do, she is responsible for the people she could have impacted or that she could have supported and served if she had stuck with it, so the moderation is to keep that vision in mind, “Who am I impacting and what are the consequences if I succeed?” that is her biggest motivation and music helps her too. Music changes your vibration energy which the frequency of your body either increases or decreases depending on what you listen to and when she feels really demotivated, she listens to inspiring music and it feels like she is able to conquer everything, she is a leader and once she gets to that she feels she can move forward and stay motivated.
  • Isabel stated that she was thinking about that question and she couldn’t quite find an answer, she was looking though everything that she is using but what she could not live without is her Virtual Assistant or her Web Designer the two people, she knows that they are not a tool or something that she uses online but those are the two things that if she didn’t have them her business would not be where it’s at or where she wanted it to go. She stated that they take such a load off her shoulders, it’s incredible. She stated that if you have an online business she would recommend that you get a Virtual Assistant and have a Web Designer always on your side. If something happens, within 2 minutes they can check, “okay, I got it” without you having to try and figure it out or make it even worst. Isabel stated that the other online resources that are really helpful like Buffer or Hootsuite are important if you want to save time and one thing that she learnt is focus on a few social platforms, don’t try to get into everything and get on board with everything new. Focus on 2 or 3 things that you are comfortable with and do whatever it takes to get your name out on those social platforms.
  • Isabel shared that the book she read over the last year that really impacted the way she thinks and the way she experience things is The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You by Karla McLaren, it’s more written for empathy so if you’re not really an empathy and don’t want to get too deep into it, don’t read it but if you’re really interested in it then it will definitely help in coping with a lot of things and understanding a lot of things.
  • Isabel stated that the advice that she would give is the advice that she gives herself everyday and that is trust. If you are in alignment, if what you do, what you send out is in alignment with what you have on your heart, that dream that really fires you up every single day, you need to trust. You can’t go out and follow everyone strategy and try to make everything work and sign up for every program that you can find just to make something happen, you need to trust and with every decision you make, ask yourself, “is that in alignment with who I am?, does this really work for me? And is it in alignment with my greater purpose?” If it’s not trust that you don’t need it at this time or ever but really trust. Trust, reflect and listen from within, those are the small advice points that she always give that she always give to herself as well.
  • Isabel stated that the one thing that she is really excited about is doing sessions that are called Releasing Trapped Emotions because those are really important for us to be able to move forward otherwise we will always ending up where we started. Those are the 2 things that she is really excited about but she is also excited about working on a Ted Talk and that’s something she is doing right now and she got a lot of support from people who have done it before, who have the connections so she is super excited and nervous. In the near future she wants to create a more specific course about emotions and how to identify them and work through them with getting all wrapped up in it and that’s something she going to be working on in the spring and those are the few things she is working on right now.

 

  • Isabel shared listeners can find her at –

www.isabelhundt.com

Isabel Hundt Facebook

Isabel Hundt Istagram

Isabel Hundt LinkedIn

Isabel Hundt Twitter

Isabel Hundt YouTube

 

  • Isabel shared that she usually reverts to Matthew 17:20 and usually people say that you can’t bring the Bible into your business but for her it’s faith and science. It says, “So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” And especially when we know the science part about it that we are able to just with the way we think, that we really can move mountains in that sense, just knowing that keeps her going. We are here, we are destined for something greater and we as a human world society, we have a responsibility to do better than what we’ve done so far.

 

Links

 

Jan 10, 2017

Louie La Vella’s clients are entertainment personalities, night clubs, concerts and festivals and he creates brand and marketing strategies to engage and connect with their audience. Working within the shark infested waters of the night life and music industry as a Marketing and Branding consultant, La Vella has been delivering high profit solutions to live entertainment events, musicians and venues for years. With over 20 years in the night life industry, an extensive development and production experience with national television projects, authors, speakers, event producers and coach. La Vella has produced and marketed over 30 live music concerts in the past few years. Winner of the Niagara Music Awards Promoter of the Year in 2012, The Junior Awards Canadian Music, Dance category committee. He has been called a “Mediapreneur”, combining a successful television executive producer and host role with being sought after marketing and branding consultant in the night life and in the music industry. In his television days, he had the opportunity to interview the likes of Lady Gaga, Richard Branson, Backstreet Boys and more.

 

Question

  • Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
  • What has your customer experience been like in terms of being a service provider as well as being a customer yourself and receiving services from people you may have to interact with at the events?
  • 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 one or two things with us that you’ve taken away from interviewing people that have celebrity statues that has really helped to mold your personality and make you a better business leader?
  • 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

  • Louie La Vella shared that he start at about 17 or 18 years old as a Night Club Promoter working for other event companies and venues. He stated that everyone has that part time job when they are getting into college whether it’s retail, grocery store or even a bartender and his love was business, of course going out and having fun and parting at the bar and clubs was a huge interest for everybody usually in the college scene. He wanted to put those two together and see if he could make money from it and it was a fantastic start. He got to forge some great relationships with venue owners, managers, bands and deejays and of course learn the trade but he thought being a Night Club Promoter wasn’t exactly his career path, he knew the entertainment industry was going to be something he wanted to be in so he quickly learned to level up and have a long term goal of working on a global scale with festivals and musicians and celebrities; so it has been a 20 year journey to get where he is today but in between, he has seen all these different opportunities to increase his personal brand and always level up and growing from that first start as a night club promoter and very quickly into booking venues and running his own events and then getting on television and radio and now to this day, it has been a fun journey.
  • Louie stated that as an entrepreneur, he has two arms to the business. One of them is B-2-B which is him getting clients and getting to work with musicians or record labels or festival owners and it is really showing them that he can connect and engage their audience to them because now a day’s everybody gets the same feeling of social media being such a big player in marketing, if not the player in marketing depending on your demographic but it’s very noisy and you have to do a lot of hustle, it was a little bit easier back in the day to just either pay radio for events or do print ads or flier or television and you have that marketing there. Now there is so much more involvement, you have to understand the user behavior of your audience and with that said the second arm of what he has to do is connecting them and even himself to the consumer audience, so that’s selling tickets, getting people to download music and that’s really understanding what the consumer wants to see on Social Media for them to engage, no longer that it works for us to just put a nice looking flier on Social Media and boots that post, you really need to come up with a campaign, some with music, you can’t just drop a track on Facebook and get couple of your friends to share it and hopefully your fan base runs with it. You need to create a strategy 4 weeks, 6 weeks and get them engaged, get them listening to the teaser or get them feeling what the event’s going to be about and eventually get to the ticket launch and then they’ve already bought into the message and you have them a little more excited and they are raving fan ready to support you. Now a day’s a lot of people get scared of that and they think, “that’s a lot of work” and it is and you trade a little bit of hustle for maybe writing cheques to traditional media for ad spend because the ad spent on social media is a lot less but it works well and that is the sandbox where everybody is playing so we really need to take that seriously and not just say back in the day it was easier, we don’t have time machines, we can’t go back in the day and go back to where we knew what we were doing and we were successful at it, things change consistently now and very quickly so we have to be on top of that.

Louie stated that talking about events whether its festivals or night club events or smaller concerts, going to the events are always great for him to either wine down and enjoy the event or do a little bit of research on what everybody else is up to and he fine that a lot of the places that either spend too much money to market to fill their room or just not filling their room is because they are stuck back in the day. Louie shared he was on a panel at the International Night Life congress a month ago and everybody was talking about Millennials and how they’re on their phones all the time and it’s ruining the experience going to a club or going to a venue to have their phones out and they just want to be on social media and he sat there and thought about his experience going in and he said, the usual behavior is not just because they are on social media and need to tell their friends or talk, it’s their documenting, they’re documenting everything they do and we do the same things, maybe not as much as the generation because depending on our age demographics but we want to tell our friends what we are up to, we want to share what we are eating, we feel like we are all media companies and we need to document. He told them going back to the experience of him experiencing a night life venue, “What are you guys doing differently than 20 years ago? You have a concert hall or a night club with a nice deejay or a band with some lights and a bartender but that’s the same concept as 20 years ago.” He was trying to poke fun by saying that he doesn’t use VHS tapes anymore, we have all changed, why have you not changed if you think about 20 year old concept of the night club, it’s exactly the same, and we have different sounds and different lights but that’s not a huge step in the experience. When he walks into a club and its dead and the bartender is on their phone and it’s the same old, same old for 20 years, he’s thinking well no wonder nobody’s here or it’s too busy and the promoter and the venue owner thinks, Hey, Louie look how packed it is, look how great it is here, it’s over packed” and he’s thinking, “Go ask 6 girls right now what they think about your club and I bet you 4 or all 6 of them will say it’s too busy here, I can’t get a drink, I wanted in line too long, I Iost my friend when I went to the bathroom” and you think that the over capacity of the club is your success but I bet that you’re even losing money because they want to leave early, they get frustrated to get to the bar to get a drink. He has seen that with his own experience by going to these places and thinking….these are issues that are going to bite them or already bit them.

He stated that it’s the same with Facebook likes, he has 10,000 likes. Likes do not equal sale at all. The amount of time that your organic reaches 1% you still have to target people, you might be targeting specific intricate ways of targeting like somebody that likes your page but also likes these certain items. A lot of people are just going for likes and it’s a visual thing and he understands as a branding play but that’s a small piece of the branding pot, you have 5,000 likes or 10,000 Twitter followers that never equal actual sales, you have to think outside of that, so you spend all of your money trying to get likes but he never do that, he tries to spend the ad budget on your actual target, let’s try to create a funnel, let’s sell tickets, let’s sell music, people will like your page indirectly because they see the ad and they don’t like your page currently and they’ll it like but that’s not the metric we go for so a lot of people are not thinking the new way of doing marketing and still thinking of the old mentality, we want more likes, we want to pack the bar, we want to do the old school way because it’s easier and it just doesn’t work.

  • Louie La Vella stated that one of the mistakes that many business owners and entrepreneurs make is that they forget that they are also a customer, he hears it a lot with musicians or bar owners or club owners on them complaining when they go to another bar or complaining about, “Why do these people want to message me on Facebook or text me, I want to be on phone” they are romanticizing bout the old school days and he sit there and say your audience is 21, they don’t care what you think and they forget about them as a customer sometimes, “Oh, I went to the bar and it was too busy, they couldn’t get a drink” and yet they do the same thing. The first thing that everybody needs to stop and realize is that you are also a customer and think about how you want that experience to be. A lot of people disconnect that, they think “This is how I want to be treated”, but I don’t do this thing to my customer and then they wonder why there is a disconnect there and that’s a massive thing that everyone forgets. Same thing on Social Media “Oh, I’m going to complain about my dinner and I expect somebody to respond right away” but on the flip side “That idiot made a one star review, I think I should delete all my reviews so nobody sees any of them” you are disconnecting yourself as a customer though, you’re not thinking about what you would want, they want to have someone respond right away, they don’t want it to be deleted and you would hate that to happen but now you want to do that to them so that’s massive tip number 1 on returning customer service and just thinking about how you would want to be treated. The second thing is Consistency, a lot of people give up very fast, they try something new and it doesn’t work a couple weeks in and they give up. Have a long term goal, at the beginning of the chat he said he had a 20 year span of cool stuff that happened to get to where he is today but all of it was fun and there were pivots everywhere, he went into radio, he went into TV, it was all to the same goal of music, music show, music television, everything was in the same genre so that he could keep building brand awareness and now he’s on the listening committee for their award show which is like the Grammys up in Canada which is great and is more branding too and it’s exciting to be a part of that community as well and all that is a long term goal and he has those sites. A lot of people create an event like a bar event or new business shiny object syndrome and then they give up fast, if that’s something that’s serious for your business and it’s going to grow your brand, have a realistic goal, nobody is going to pack your club in 3 weeks and nobody’s going to have a brand new division of their entrepreneur business and think in couple Facebook ads “I’m rolling”, you need to have a long term goal but you have to stick with it. You can pivot along the way a little bit because things need to be tweaked and at the end if it’s not working out, fine, you remove it, stop wasting your time but you have to stick to a realistic goal.
  • Louie stated that the celebrities that he interviewed are all down to earth people and he really like the fact that they are normal people and that people resonate with that and especially on Social Media where they can have Snapchat or Instagram stories or just respond as a normal person, it makes a human-to-human connection and that’s a common thread he saw with all of those people. There were a very few celebrities that he met that had that fake persona or were just rude and it may have been the industry that they went through and whatever path they went through just gave them that cold heart but 99.9% of them were all super down to earth and super nice and just appreciative of just being normal people which is amazing. A fun story that he likes to tell, he takes so many flights and sometimes flying on his own, you sit beside somebody it may not be in a first class and you go, “Hey, how are you doing? What do you do?” “I’m the president of this massive company” or “I’m the executive of this” and sometimes they ask him what he does and he would have a cool story and he’s always thinking on the plane everyone is such a normal person, you’re sitting beside who knows who and they are normal people and if you think about that with these celebrities, they really are. That down to earth groundedness is what is making them successful and holding onto their long term goals. You see some of them derail here and there and that’s when they lose sight of being themselves but to be real like that really helps in their personal branding, if you tweet at somebody and they tweet back to you or they do something on Ellen you laugh with them like, they’re just normal funny people, you laugh with them like, “Oh, I find that funny too, I would do something that crazy” and it really helps to be that kind of person and on his side getting those interviews of course being on television a lot of them were organize but Lady Gaga and Richard Branson, those were just last second accidental interviews. Lady Gaga was interviewing other people and she just got signed to Interscope Records like week before and that was years ago. She was a this rooftop party with her managers and all these other deejays were there and his TV crew was interviewing famous deejays and she was nobody and her managers came up to them and said, “Here’s this new girl that just got signed, we are ready to push her, she going to have a great album come this summer and she would like to get some media so would do an interview for her?” and he said, “I don’t know who she is and we have a lot of stuff going on but hold on this could be an opportunity” they listened to the song and it was “Just Dance” and they said, “Yeah, it’s a fantastic song, she has major backing, absolutely we will do the interview, not a problem” not knowing that she was going to be a superstar within a month or 2. These doors open in front of you and sometimes you may not be real person and think, “I don’t have time for this” this would have been a way different story saying the time he could have interview Lady Gaga and that was her first national TV interview as Lady Gaga just getting signed which is cool to have under his belt as well but you would have to try and see those opportunities as they open.
  • Louie stated that he likes what he does and that’s one big thing that keeps him motivated to wake up and know that this is what he likes, so when there is down times whether it’s working with clients that aren’t his favorite and you can decide “I can fire these clients and just move on” there are up times too, it just keeps him motivated to wake up and do something fun. He thinks that everybody needs to do that whether it’s a regular job or whether you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re an entrepreneur don’t create for yourself that you don’t like. Do something you love and that’s a huge factor and of course the idea as an entrepreneur that you can create money out of thin air or anything that’s a failure you don’t count it as a “Oh man, I failed, I suck” you just look at it like, “Find no problem, let’s pave it, let’s tweak, let’s continue, it’s all good, I will create something new, I can adjust” that mindset is really exciting to have.
  • Louie stated that he is fan of the dance genres, that’s what they did with the television network and radio like electronic music, dance music, house music and of course that was the music that was fairly strong in the mid 90’s when he was growing up but hip hop was strong too so that’s another favorite genre of his. He stated that it was funny because if he was asked what his favorite song is, he wouldn’t have had a good answer. There are so many new stuff coming especially that he has to listen to so many music and mix shows that he probably couldn’t give a straight answer on what his favorite song is right now but he would lean towards the club genres, the dance music and hip hop urban music is great and there are some pop rock songs that he loves too but he is not a fan of country or classical there are so many genre room in his brain to follow. Yanique asked him if he likes reggae and he stated that reggae is great.
  • Louie stated that the tool he couldn’t live without is Facebook. He has been able to get clients and return the favor by making them millions of dollars on the platform of Facebook and of course that same Social Media but majority of his business is on Facebook and Instagram very close but those are the two. He stated that within those 2 apps he can message people, he can be in contact, he can get on phone calls, he can do his advertising, those are the BIG monster players in his industry.
  • Louie shared that he is a big fan of audio books; he will listen to audio books like crazy. Especially when you’re driving or traveling. He stated that there are so many that he has gone through that are absolutely amazing and a few off the top of his head: Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek was a great one. Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk was a fantastic one. Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday was really cool. He was talking about how media manipulation happens and how groups of people can get in, utilize the media and reading that book years ago and being a marketing guy, you can start to understand how things are happening on advertising like self driving cars are going to be coming out stronger as the years go by but you’re seeing ads now like a Kia or Ford commercial. If your brain wonders a bit and you think about your kids and you move into another lane, don’t worry the machine has your back, just slowly getting us used to the idea how we are scared of we are better than the machine, “I don’t want the car to self drive, I’m a better driver” just slowly giving us a tiny step by step of training our brains to think, “No the machine is better than you” you wonder off, that kind of idea without being a hardcore. Have a little strategy, give yourself a 4 week campaign before dropping your track, this is a probably a 4 to 10 year campaign but you can see these little things happening and you can also look at the election. You can see how Donald Trump, how he used the media to his advantage, against his advantage and when you read a book like that and you look at what’s going on in the media and how we are all headline readers and we’ll believe anything on Facebook whether we click on it or not it’s scary and it’s extremely possible to do those kind of things which is scary.
  • Louie stated that he lives to level up what he does ever so often and he started to scale away from night club and bar and doing a lot more festivals which is very exciting and record labels and speaking as well. He has a book that he authored a few years ago and he’s coming out with a second one and he’s starting to do more speaking engagements around North America and that’s a new level of what he’s doing. The entire year (2016) as he called it The Year of Authority for him, he’s going to get on podcasts, spread his message and just shares what he knows and do a lot more of his own podcasts and articles and he’s going utilize Social Media to build authority and brand awareness so that he can bump up the next level and start doing a lot more larger scale things and do speaking. He has done speaking gigs now which has been exciting. So that kind of the new next level for him which he has already hit and he starting to grow that and explore, just in podcasts, he has done over 45 + in last 3 months as a guest host which has been really exciting and a lot of hustle and a lot of fun and he is on pace before the month’s over to hit over 50 podcasts and he’s going to keep on going so that’s going to be a lot of fun for continuing to release and share those again throughout 2017 because he’ll have one a week to share which is great and that’s really cool for authority building and brand building. People can listen; they have a great conversation, and it is a cool tool that he’s picked up.

Louie stated that the night clubs are your basic bar and night club, there can be a 500 person venue, 1000 person venue but through your typical night club every week they have events going on or students nights so it’s a different atmosphere all together where as a Festival your talking 30,000 people showing up a day or more or maybe less and it’s such a massive cool undertaking and you work on marketing for 8 months, right now he’s working on marketing, even in September 2016 he was working on festivals for June 2017 but it’s really cool. You have a tight nit team and they organize everything to do with the festival and when it finally comes to fruition and you’re on stage with 30,000 people in front of you and this massive production and you’re thinking, “I’m the marketing guy, I was a part of bringing in these people in that’s really awesome.” And that a cool feeling and it’s a larger scale and not everybody gets to do that, if you’re a good marketer and you have friends and you know deejays, you might be able to jump in as a promoter at a night club but that’s not something that he does anymore, he consult and train a lot of owners and promoters because he knows marketing but he has a small hand full of bars and clubs now just because he knows them well and they are friends now and he helps them out but for the most part he has expended away from that and there’s different monetary value between a large scale festival and a night club so he can do different business and not work so hard but work on 3 projects instead of 15. 

He stated that in festivals now you’re dealing with million dollar deejays, million dollar bands, some of the biggest of the biggest and you get to discuss with their management things, forge friendships and that’s just a whole other ball game as oppose to the night club which is still fun and great but you’re working with the local club owner or the local deejay and sometimes they bring in acts but not usually not the larger scale because there is no way they can afford someone of that caliber for a 500 person venue so it’s a completely different ball game but it’s a lot of fun. 

 

Louie shared listeners can find him at –

www.louielavella.com

Louie La Vella Facebook

Louie La Vella Twitter

Louie La Vella Instagram

Louie La Vella LinkedIn

 

  • Louie shared a quote that he has two quotes the first one for him especially is “Every day is a Friday” so whether it’s actually Friday or a Monday, if you feel like it’s a Friday it means that you are doing what you love, so if you can find something that feels like a Friday everyday then you’re doing well. The other one especially in the marketing sense he likes to always say, “Make sure you’re playing in the sandbox everybody else is playing in.” So whether your audience is on LinkedIn, whether your audience is on Twitter or Facebook or on radio or on print, wherever they may be, make sure you know where they play because if you’re in the wrong sandbox, no matter what you are doing over there you’re not getting the message across.

 

Links

Jan 3, 2017

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

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