Investing in a marketing strategy to make sales and promote your business!

Speaker A: I remember it so distinctly.

Speaker B: I had this moment where I was

Speaker A: like, if I can't learn to sell, I can't run a business because sales is like oxygen in your business and

Speaker B: if you cannot sell, you don't have a business. I really believe there are two big areas that every single founder, regardless of what industry you're in, regardless of what type of business you run, as the founder, as the, uh, like owner of the business, it is your job to be involved in marketing and sales.

Speaker C: Welcome to Tradewinds. I am your host, Tara Solberg, the founder of Few and Far and Indigo Love. Two halves of one thriving business. I am a South coast girl from a small town and when I launched my business over 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. What I did have was passion, drive and a commitment to learn as much as possible on my way. I will take you through each chapter of my unique business story. You will get real insight into the lows and highs, the trials and triumphs and the many, many lessons learned. In fact, I will share all of the things I wish I knew when I was starting out all those years ago. So consider this your personal invitation to take the first step on the journey of a lifetime towards owning your own business.

Speaker D: One of the best in the business of online marketing. A successful founder of not one but two businesses, an online course creator and popular podcast host, all before the age of 30. Yes, I'm talking about Laura Higgins. You're most likely already following her on Instagram and can relate to her witty and down to earth approach. That's why I'm so excited to bring Laura onto the podcast today so we can learn from her invaluable marketing know how. Nowadays there are so many social media platforms and marketing channels to choose from, but all of that doesn't matter if you don't get the fundamentals right. That's where a marketing strategy comes into play and is an essential foundation for any marketing your business undertakes as founders and entrepreneurs, often wearing all the hats. Marketing is one of those necessary yet very overwhelming areas of the business that we so desperately want to get right in order to grow and attract the right customers. If this sounds relatable to you, then you don't want to miss this interview with Laura. She shares how businesses can market themselves more effectively and really stand out in their niche while providing some practical strategies that you can start implementing straight, straight away in your own business. Laura Higgins is a multi talented online marketing strategist, coach, creator of the online course My Marketing Playbook, plus Host of the Must Listen podcast, My Business Playbook. Her mission is to help creative service based business owners cut through the noise and attract their dream clients with simple and effective marketing strategies, all while having some fun along the way. Let's dive into today's episode and welcome.

Speaker E: Laura.

Speaker D: Um, welcome to the Tradewinds podcast.

Speaker E: I'm so excited to have you here and I've been following along on your journey for so long now. So it's so nice to be able to have you face to face, having a conversation today. Thanks for taking the time out.

Speaker A: Hey Tara, thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here with you.

Speaker E: It's going to be fun. For those who don't know you, um, like I said, I've been following your journey for quite some time now and been feeling very inspired. I think, you know, your energy and your enthusiasm and drive and determination is very inspiring to me. But for those who don't know you, can you tell us a little bit more about you, what you do, what you focus on, that sort of thing?

Speaker A: Yeah. So I am a marketing and business coach and I work specifically with creative service providers. I work with a lot of women in business. Um, we do have a few, few guys that come into our programs, but I mostly work with creative women in business. And the thing I found is that most creatives are amazing at their craft. They're really good at what they do, but when it comes to the business side, they really struggle, they feel overwhelmed, they don't have a plan. And so I work with them on really focusing in on their marketing and, and how they sell their systems and really helping them to grow their business in a way that helps them to feel confident and gives them flexibility, but also is sustainable. So it's sustainable growth. It gives them more freedom and ultimately, like, I really believe that running a business should be fun. So we really work with people on like, hey, let's how can we make business more fun for you? So that's essentially what we do.

Speaker E: Yeah. And I know coming from a creative business myself, like it's, it can be hard, like, especially when you've got that creative head and you've got to all of a sudden introduce structure and you know, all of that sort of thing that doesn't quite work with the creative brain sometimes, but you obviously have the proven formulas and I guess ways of working that are really effective.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I think, I think as a creative myself, like I, I started my business when I was 23, I was good at my craft, like Uh, I am exactly the person that I, I work with now. You know, I'm good at like when I started I was like good at my craft, I was good at social media, I was good at creating content, but learning how to sell, learning how to like make money, how to price my services, how to onboard clients, all of these things I had no idea how to do. Now I've been doing this for um,

Speaker B: over six years now.

Speaker A: I've kind of realized, okay, how do

Speaker B: we do this in a way that feels aligned and feels really kind of. I don't know, I think of like

Speaker A: a slipstream for creatives.

Speaker B: How do we make it feel so simple and so easy to run a creative business? And I think for anyone listening, you've got to find the flavor that works for you. And for me when I started I was looking around and I, I was investing in coaching and I was investing in courses, but I really struggled to find a uh, framework that, that worked for me and for how I, as a creative, how I'm wired. I found that a lot of the strategies I was seeing online were felt

Speaker A: a little bit salesy or felt a little bit uh, like not big picture enough. And I really like wanted to have something that I felt sick of going to like, oh, this person helps you with Instagram, this person helps you with uh, selling, this person helps you with email marketing, this person helps you with ads. And I, I got a bit over that. And so what we did is we built out a framework that is designed for creatives. It's designed for solopreneurs who really are uh, like, I want to do good work, I want to make good money, but I also want to have freedom as well. So it's really about all of those things. It's not scale, scale, scale at all costs. It's actually like how do we build a really beautiful lifestyle business that also makes you epic money as well?

Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. Which would obviously include automating a lot of tasks and all of that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I guess like you've touched on that a little bit. But what, what inspired you to start this business?

Speaker A: I think when I think about when I started my business I kind of fell into it. Like I didn't, I didn't study marketing

Speaker B: or anything like that.

Speaker A: I, essentially what I did was I

Speaker B: got a job working for my brother in law and my sister's coffee, they're

Speaker A: coffee roasters and they had this coffee company based on the central coast in

Speaker B: New South Wales and I was a barista. So I was like, great.

Speaker A: I know coffee.

Speaker B: And they were like, can you come in and can you train other baristas on how to make coffee? And I was like, sure. And they're like, can you also sell our. Sell our coffee as well? And I was like, sure.

Speaker A: I've never done that before, but I'll give it a go.

Speaker B: And I was really terrible at selling at that time.

Speaker A: Like, and now I'm. Now I'm actually really good at selling. But at that time, I was terrible. Like, I would.

Speaker B: I would go into cafes, and my

Speaker A: job was literally to go in and try to get them to switch from,

Speaker B: like, whichever, um, coffee provider they were using to our coffee.

Speaker A: And so I was like, do you want to try the coffee? And then, like, I would essentially kind of, like, run out the door and be like, never mind. Forget I was here. And, like, I would, like, smoke bomb and just leave.

Speaker B: Um, and so they were like, listen,

Speaker A: we might move you into something different. And so graciously, they were like, hey,

Speaker B: we reckon this, maybe this Instagram thing is. Is kind of a cool opportunity. And I was like, sweet.

Speaker A: And because I. I've always loved writing. I. I was a journalism, ah, dropout. Um, I love writing. I've always loved creating. I've always loved design. I've always been interested in photography and. And, like, so it was kind of this mixture of all of these different skills, and social media was all of those things in one. So when that first came out, it was like, oh, okay, this is awesome. And so I worked with them, grew their following. It kind of all took off, figured out how to design websites, figured out, okay, this is how we do email marketing. And then from there, people started approaching me and going, oh, I've seen what you've done with these guys. Can you help me? Can you help me? And I was like, sure. Like, I'll give it a go. So that has been kind of the. That's how my whole business started. And then one day I had a friend of mine, um, who was starting a podcast. And at that time, um, the podcast is called My Millennial Money. And at that time, it was, like, a tiny idea. And he was like, laura, can you help me with building this brand and building this social media and, like, do the things? And I was like, sure. And he's like, I'm gonna. I'm going to pay you enough that

Speaker B: you can quit your day job.

Speaker A: And I was like, perfect, done. Um, I'm in. And so that was when it all kind of took off from there. So it's been super fun and like now kind of fast forward to today. I, instead of doing done for you social media management, I actually coach people on how to not only market their business, but how to grow and scale their business. So we look at sales, we look at, of course we look at marketing. That's a huge piece of it. We look at their website, we look at how they're communicating, we look at how they can do paid ads. Then we look at how can you hire a team, how can you automate more in your business, how can you systemize your business as well? So it's this really beautiful little bundle of all the key things that, that you connect.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely all connects. And I think one of the thing probably that resonates with a lot of people in there too is when you said when I first started out I wasn't very good at selling. And um, yes, coffee, you can, you know, felt awkward, all of that kind of thing. And I know that that is the case for so many people, whether you're service based, product based, you know, anything. So how did you kind of overcome that fear and how did you. Well, you're now very good at selling. So how, how did you make that switch and did it take a lot of time? Yeah.

Speaker A: Do you know what? I had this moment where I realized I kept avoiding selling. I was like, I don't know how to price my services. I was definitely undercharging. And I was like, listen, I don't know how to do this. And so I kind of put my head in the sand a little bit

Speaker B: and was like, I'm just, I'm, uh,

Speaker A: just going to create and the right people will just come along. And the turning point for me was when I realized it is not my dream client or my dream customer's job to sell themselves into my services. It is my job to sell them. And selling, like, uh, I realized, I

Speaker B: remember it so distinctly.

Speaker A: I had this moment where I was like, if I can't learn to sell, I can't run a business.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: Because sales is like oxygen in your business.

Speaker B: And if you cannot sell, you don't have a business. Like you. If you. I really believe there are two big areas that every single founder, regardless of what industry you're in, regardless of what type of business you run, as the founder, as the uh, like owner of the business, it is your job to be involved in marketing and sales, because those are the two things. Without those two things, you can have the best systems in the world, you can have the best product in the world. But if you don't know how to market it and if you can't sell it, if you can't convert people into it, you know you're going to be the world's best kept secret. Those two areas I realized, okay, I'm good at the marketing thing, but I really had to learn how to sell. And it's a skill.

Speaker A: Yeah, like anything, I reckon, like, of course we have a bias towards things that we're naturally good at and things that are effortless for us. But I believe that running a business is a skill. I believe that marketing your business is a skill. I believe that selling is a skill. And if you're going to invest in something that's going to have a, like that you really want to have a great return on investment. Investing in marketing and investing in sales, learning how to sell, those are, uh, two areas where you always see a return on investment because it's a, uh, skill. And the more skill you have, the more confident you feel in those areas. The more money you can make, the more people you can help and just, it impacts everything. Like, I have found that anytime my clients fall off the marketing bandwagon, they're like, oh, uh, man, why is business so hard? Why is like, why am I not making as much money as I did last month? And my question is always, are you marketing and are you selling?

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: And they'll be like, oh, I got a bit busy with like xyz. And it's like, you must be marketing and selling every single day. Like you have to be doing it. It has to be part of the rhythm of running your business. And I, I just, I feel like for some of us, we, and um, I don't know if this relates to anyone listening, but for some of us, we can kind of think, oh, it should, it should be easy and it should come naturally and, and like, oh, I'm just not good at that. So I just, you know, I should answer that because I'm not, I'm not confident in that. And I want to challenge you that, hey, if you believe that this is a skill and if you have, if

Speaker B: you invest in learning the skill, you

Speaker A: know, you will feel much more confident and then you'll actually like selling or you'll like marketing if you have a,

Speaker B: if you have kind of, um, a

Speaker A: basic skill level in it. I guess so just for anyone who thinks, oh, that's not me, I could never do that, or whatever it is, whatever belief we have around selling or marketing or running a business, I want to challenge you Everything is a skill and it's something that you can learn.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely. And I think it's also something that you have to almost turn into or thinking about that, creating positive habits, you know, like I think sometimes or particularly for me and even just um, you know, speaking to a lot of the people who our ah, team who works in our stores as well, like when it comes to having conversations with customers, it's just like, just put yourself out there. You've just got to make that, start establishing that habit so that it's something that you do each day and then it just part of your routine and then it doesn't actually feel like you're trying to sell or you know, all of those sorts of things. It becomes more of a natural thing for you. Because I know like when you put it off, because I do, I'm not great at selling. And it is like you said something that I am trying to get better at and to learn and all that sort of thing. And it's like, you know, you go through that whole like pep talk in your head before you video or something like that and it's like, I hate this. But then it's like, no, hang on a second. I'm here to provide value for my customers. It's not about me selling to them. I shouldn't have to sell to them. It's you know, they're um, you know, if with. By me having the guts to kind of speak up and to, you know, offer my advice or to sell them the product that I truly believe that they need rather than something that they, they want, then they're actually getting so much value for that right from that. So it, yeah, it's kind of changing your mindset in terms of how you think about approaching that.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And I think the minute we start thinking of selling as taking, as us taking something from them, us taking their money, that's when the game's over.

Speaker B: But if we can, if we can switch it to, hey, I'm serving them and in exchange there's a value that they are willing to pay. And I think when we start thinking about it like that, it becomes so much easier because we're like, hey, do

Speaker A: you need help with this area? Or like do you need this thing? Because it sounds like you really have wanted this thing for ages and you've been thinking about it a lot. Why don't you just get the thing like it sounds like you really want

Speaker B: it and, and actually being able to. It's almost like mirror back to them, hey, like from what You've said this feels like a really good fit for you. Like, why don't you just go get it? I even think, you know, in a retail shopping capacity, I, um, recently turned

Speaker A: 30 and I was like, I want to wear a, like, fun dress for my 30th. And I, I went into age this glorious store in, in Paddington. And I was like, said to the girl, listen, I want to wear something that's fun. I wanted to be short. I wanted to be like, I'm 30. I'm having a glamorous 30, you know, all the things. And so I started trying on all these different dresses and I told her what I wanted from the beginning. And I walked out of the change room and she looked at me and she's like, no, that one is not for you. No, you can do better. And. And I kept coming out with different things. She's like, no, you can do better than that. And it was actually, I was so relieved because I didn't have a girlfriend there to be like, no, Laura, that is not for you. Having a salesperson there to actually also not just try to sell me stuff to make her quota of sales that she needed to make, but to actually be honest and go, yeah, you don't want that. That one does not look so good. And like, she wasn't being, she wasn't being rude, she was being honest. And I was so grateful. So I think also, we need to also remember that if we're selling from a place of serving and if we're selling from a place of integrity and honesty, it also means that we're empowered to go, hey, you don't. That's not going to be the right fit for you. That's not going to be the right thing for you. So why don't you go look at this thing? And so that actually wins a lot of, um, respect from your customer in that moment. Because all of a sudden I'm like, oh, she's actually just trying to help me. And she really was. So I think as well, we need to think about the, the right people and who really need our product or service.

Speaker B: We owe it to them to sell to them.

Speaker A: But if they don't need our product

Speaker B: or service or if it's not the right fit for them, we also owe it to them to say, this isn't for you.

Speaker E: Yes.

Speaker A: And we do that all the time.

Speaker B: We say to people, hey, look, like, we only work with creative service providers. I love people who run e commerce businesses or brick. Brick and mortar businesses, but. And like, maybe I could help. But our thing is, right, we work with creatives, so that is we, we say no to people who aren't the right fit. And I think it really empowers you when you do that because all of a sudden you're going to, hey, I'm only going to sell to you if it's going to be an awesome fit. And it just means that you can sell more confidently.

Speaker A: You can sell with like a lot of integrity and a lot of confidence because you're like, this is going to work for you. Um, because I say no to other people all the time. So kind of, I think shifting that thing of, oh, it's icky and it's salesy, it's actually like, no, this is a, this is a really, if you do it well. Yeah, you can do this with so much integrity and honesty as well.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely. And I, uh, that's what it comes down to. It's not about selling as such in terms of pushing something onto somebody. Yeah, yeah. For us it's always been about that, you know, asking questions. If somebody wants to come in and buy a piece of furniture, is it the right piece that they're looking at, you know, all of that sort of thing. And I guess it is the same thing with service based providers like providing that value. It's so, yeah, so important. In terms of your marketing strategies, how important do you consider email marketing?

Speaker A: I love that you smile as you ask that question because I feel like you know my answer to that. I love it. So if I were to think about, ah, social media versus email marketing, I really see the way I see your marketing and your sales process working. It's not a, um, firstly it's not a one size fits all model. So it's not a, oh, TikTok will work for you. Like TikTok will work for everyone and Instagram is dead. It's not actually like that. It's actually about finding out where your people are, how they like to consume content and how they like to, how they make their buying decisions. So first off you need to actually identify, okay, where, where are your people and then we need to actually think about our marketing as like this beautiful puzzle.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker B: And if we think about Instagram as

Speaker A: a piece of the puzzle, maybe TikTok is a piece of the puzzle. Email marketing is a really important piece of the puzzle as well. Because what happens is with Instagram, we don't own that audience. So you know, we, we can build, we can put so much intention, so much time, so much energy into building this Audience on Instagram. And you know, we can, very quickly we can lose access to those people. Someone could hack our account. Oh my gosh. Turn on two factor authentication right now because it's really important that you do that. But like, there are so many variables with Instagram. They can change the algorithm. They can say, do you know what, we don't like reels anymore and we're going to cut them, you know, so you can actually, you're not in control of that. So what we want to do is we want to leverage that to build something that we do own, which is your email list. So that's why I'm so passionate about people. Like, that's why I always say posting on Instagram is not a marketing plan. Actually need all the pieces of the puzzle. Yes, it's an important part, but it's not your whole thing. So we need to use Instagram to build our email list so that we can drive traffic to our paid offers that we have.

Speaker E: Yes, definitely. And in terms of building your email list, I know there are various different ways of going about that. Obviously service based and product based are slightly different. Uh, but do you have any kind of like winning formulas for that? Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay, so I, and I think this applies to both, um, whether you're product based, service based. I think this, this process really applies. We have like three big phases. So the first phase is the opt in. So you need to give someone a compelling reason to opt into your mailing list. So for e commerce it might be, hey, sign up to our mailing list to get 10% off.

Speaker E: Right?

Speaker A: Yeah, compelling. And the reason everyone does it is because it works. So like, that might be a really, like a, a really simple way to get started with email. M. Marketing for product. For a service based, you might go, okay, I'm going to put together a checklist of five steps to help someone achieve X.

Speaker E: Yes.

Speaker A: And it might be a freebie, like a downloadable PDF kind of thing.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: Whatever it is, we need to give people a reason to sign up to our mailing list because people are not going to sign up to stay in the know or to get a monthly newsletter. Like people don't care about that. They actually want something. Like there has to be a value exchange at the front end. So that's the opt in then. And, and that's kind of called a lead magnet, essentially. But essentially it's a free offer. Um, that where your prospect puts in their name and their email. Phase two is the onboarding. So what we then want to do is we Want to. We don't just want to kind of go, hey, here's your 10% off, or here's your freebie. See you later. We actually want to, like, m. It's almost like you're hosting a party and someone walks in the door and you're like, hey, here, let me, uh, take your coat. Let me get you a drink. Come in, I'll introduce you to some people. I'll show you around the house. We can sit down, we can have a chat. That's essentially what your welcome sequence is doing, rather than someone coming to your house, knocking at the door and you letting them in and being like, see you later, fend for yourself. Don't ask me where the bathrooms are. You know, like, we actually want to make sure that we, we welcome people into our world really well. So that's the onboarding. And so that's what we like to do is we like to have a really simple automated welcome sequence where they get a drip of emails. Whether it's, you know, we like to do it within two weeks.

Speaker B: We've onboarded them, so we're sending them

Speaker A: a little bit more about you, some other offers that you have, some other value, all those fun things. So that's the onboarding. That's phase two, and then phase three is the ongoing.

Speaker B: And so what happens after we deliver the welcome sequence?

Speaker A: Well, from there, we want to keep

Speaker B: contacting them, whether it's once a week or once every two weeks. Like really any. If you start pushing out to once a month, that starts to feel too, um, infrequent. So we want to do once every. Like my goal for our clients is if you can do once a week. That's awesome. Once every two weeks at a minimum, if you can.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: And that's where we want to continue adding value. We want to continue, um, really making offers. Um, and if you know the cadence that we teach all of our clients inside our programs is value. Value offer. Email 1 is value. Email 2 is value. Email 3 is offer.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: And for E commerce, that might look a little bit different because you're kind of just showing, hey, we've got this awesome new brand in shop now. Hey, we've got this cool thing shop now. Hey, we've got this promo shop now. So for E Comm, it's a little bit different, but. But the premise is we want to be adding value. We want to be connecting in our email list and we want to be making. Making offers frequently.

Speaker E: Yes, definitely. And, uh, email marketing is also, again, one of those things where it's like, you know, content is just sometimes be a killer. So it's like being super organized with them. Even, you know, if you can batch some of them so that they kind of, uh, they're scheduled and they're ready to go out and all of that sort of thing. But I think like you said, once you've got that customer signed up, making sure that you keeping them interested as well, like you can't just send out content for content sake because that, yeah, you know, you'll lose it, you'll lose all of that hard work that you just put in to get them. So yeah, making sure that that content is always relevant.

Speaker A: Absolutely.

Speaker E: Over the. You said it was six years that you've been operating. Now over the six years that you've been in business, obviously the landscape has probably changed quite dramatically. Even though it's not really that long a time between, uh, when it's in the digital world, it's quite a long time. Have you seen things change and how have you had to adapt and because I know that you've gone through quite a massive change recently in terms of your branding and all of that sort of thing. So what kind of triggered that and yeah, quite a few questions on there.

Speaker A: No, I love it. I feel like in the, in the online world I'm like a dinosaur. I feel like, I feel like the um, the way that like particularly Instagram, how quickly it moves, you feel like you're constantly like, okay, cool, we're doing this now. We're, this is our strategy. Nope, we're not doing that anymore. So I feel like um, it feels like I've been around for like, it feels like dog years. Maybe that's a better way to put it rather than calling myself a dinosaur. But any, uh, for me I feel like the big transition. We've had a huge change recently where when I started my business, as I said earlier, I started my business as a social media manager and then I kind of moved into more consulting and now um, as of last year we completely cut all one on one and we only do um, group coaching because that's just what I found to be the way to help as many people as possible, um, to also get really awesome results. So we kind of changed. Our ah, business model completely changed and our branding was still the same as um, like it was when we kind of started.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: And I felt like the look and feel was getting a bit tired. That was like one thing, um, just from a like, creative perspective. I was like, um, we're not really, we're not pushing the boundaries anymore because, you know. Yeah, I really wanted, because I work with so many creatives, I needed my brand to lead and I felt like we weren't leading anymore just in terms of the look and feel. So that was kind of thing number one. And then the second thing was we, we had so many different websites backend things and we know, we knew we needed to simplify and I, so I really wanted a more simple way of running the business and our business model was much more simple, but our back end was still all over the place and I didn't want to change all that knowing that I was going to rebrand. So I kind of was like, we're still piecing it together. And then at the end of last year we decided, yep, let's do it, let's rebrand. Um, we decided to change the name from Lala Social Club, which was my, um, name when I was really running a social media agency, into just my name, which is Laura Higgins. And it, we did that at the time of this recording. It was a month ago. And it's been amazing. Like our message feels stronger, our, the brand feels really fun, it feels really fresh. Our website is all consolidated so it just all feels like this culmination of this six year evolution and, and like all these changes that we've been making and now it feels like really focused and so it's been awesome. Um, I'm loving it.

Speaker E: Yeah. And so you've sort of steered away obviously, like you said, from the social media a bit more and you're focusing on that whole marketing strategy as a whole. Is that, is that right? That's, yeah.

Speaker A: And social media is a huge part of that. Like, uh, content strategy is a huge piece of that. You know, the way you engage, the way you sell on Instagram or social media, that's a huge piece of what we teach. But I really believe that to grow your business you need a really holistic marketing, um, plan.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely. And I guess from that, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see or business owners making when it comes to their marketing plan or lack of?

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I think mistake number one is just not having one. I think, I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking of treating everything in a silo. So what I mean is like Instagram strategy lives over here, email strategy lives over here. If we're doing paid ads, that lives over here. And none of those things connect.

Speaker E: Yes.

Speaker A: And what that means is from your customer perspective, they're not viewing what you do in that way they're just viewing you like.

Speaker B: Yeah, like it's all connected.

Speaker A: And from your perspective, like from our perspective as business owners, if we don't have a consistent strategy across all those things, it means that it's multiplied efforts for diminished returns.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: So it means we're doing double the work or triple the work sometimes because we're creating something over here for Instagram, something over here for TikTok, something over here for email, and they're all different. Rather than actually going, what are we

Speaker B: talking about this month? What are the key messages that we need to share? And let's put that into our ads,

Speaker A: let's put that into our emails, let's

Speaker B: put that into our social media content. And, and let's just pull it all into one thing. And what that means is you can create. Like there's less time and effort needed to create. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I think first mistake is a, uh, not having a plan and the second mistake is not having, like, treating everything like it's all separate when actually it's all connected.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely. There's always a lot involved, obviously, in creating a marketing strategy, and you do have to be smart about it as well, which is what you're teaching people to do. But for me, marketing, it's a huge umbrella, obviously, but it's very time consuming or it can be very time consuming as well. How do you kind of teach your clients, you know, the most effective way of managing this time? I know a lot of it has to do with what you just spoke about in terms of, you know, repurposing content and all of that sort of thing. But. So how much time do you sort of suggest that they should put aside each week, month, however you like to plan it out for things like marketing? Yeah.

Speaker A: And I think it really depends on how much A, like, how much you want to show up and B, whether or not you're doing it all yourself.

Speaker B: Yeah, I really recommend, you know, when people come to me and they're like,

Speaker A: oh, I'm just going to outsource everything, I'm always a bit like, yeah, you

Speaker B: can outsource elements of this for sure. Video editing or the actual scheduling and posting, or responding to comments, like, you can outsource those things, but the strategy still needs to be in your, in your tray as, as the business owner. So I would think, you know, when we're thinking about, okay, best ways, best

Speaker A: practices, I really like to think about, what can I do at a monthly level. Yeah, what can I do? How could I, you know, just A practical thing for me, I'm like, how can I batch this once a month? And, yeah, there'll be little, like, bits and pieces outside of that that come up short. But how can I do the bulk of the creative work once a month? And the reason I like doing it monthly is I am, um. Like, if I'm gonna put my makeup on and I'm gonna do my hair,

Speaker E: make it worthwhile, if I'm gonna be

Speaker A: on camera, I just want to do that. Like, so that is just like a really simple, practical thing. But for me, that's a barrier. If I'm gonna be on video, I'm like, oh, uh, okay. You know, and it probably shouldn't be like this, but I. In my head, I'm like, I wanna. Yeah, I wanna feel good being on camera.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker A: That's like one really simple thing that I've. I've learned, like, okay, cool. Is that. That you have one day a week where you go, great, I'm gonna batch all my reels. I'm gonna batch all my, um, stories. Me talking to camera. Maybe it's that when you feel creative, maybe you, you find that. Actually I'm. I'm really good at creating in the

Speaker B: mornings, so maybe it's going okay.

Speaker A: I'm gonna block out two hours once

Speaker B: a week on a Wednesday morning, and

Speaker A: I'm just going to write content.

Speaker B: I'm not going to be in my

Speaker A: emails, I'm not going to be in my tasks.

Speaker B: I'm just going to create captions. I'm going to figure out what. What collateral I need. And if I have a designer or a VA who can help me design some things, I'm going to give them a list of what I need. So you can just be in the bits that you need to be in, and then you can get support and outsource things that, you know, maybe you don't need to be in.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, so that would be where I would start if I were starting and it would just me. Yeah, I would do like two hours once a week. I would have a block of time on my calendar and I would say, this is where I'm creating content.

Speaker A: If it's filming videos, if it's writing captions, if it's turning those captions into an email. You can also use chat GPT and you can say, hey, this is a, um, this is my idea for the content. Can you create an Instagram carousel from this? Can you write me an email based on these key points? So repurposing has become easier than ever. Because of AI as well.

Speaker E: And so are you using that a lot now to help you? Because I know, you know, some mornings you sit down, you go, wow, I've got the biggest case of brain fog this morning and I just can't think. So. And, you know, obviously being in a creative business and having to come up with content all the time, it can so draining and so hard. So how do you kind of get over that hurdle? Is it through prompting with AI a little bit? Um, yeah. Do you have any tips or anything for content ideas?

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. Because there are moments where you feel like, I've got nothing, I have nothing. I like, I'm ready to work, but I don't know what I'm saying.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, so for me, I have a note on my phone because I'll have

Speaker B: ideas at like 10 o' clock at night and I'll be in bed and I'll be like, that's a brilliant idea.

Speaker A: Like, even last night I was like,

Speaker B: oh my gosh, I've got an idea of like, how. Of like an Instagram post. And so I just have a note on my phone of like those little

Speaker A: random moments where I'm like, oh, cool,

Speaker B: this would be a great podcast or this would be an awesome email or we should talk about this idea on with an Instagram post. So I have that. The other thing that, that we like to do is we, we like to actually plan when we're feeling that creative energy. That's when I actually like to plan what I'm going to say. Because you can go, cool, I've got an idea here. Yes, I've got an idea here. I'm going to flesh it out later. But I've got my ideas of what I want to do for the month. And then, you know, in your weekly content time, you're actually just sitting down and going, great, I've got to do these four posts. I've already figured out the idea of what I want to say. I've just got to create them now.

Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: So I think it's knowing yourself and going, okay, am I better to just plan all my ideas, put them all on paper and then when I have a content batching, two hours or an hour of power or whatever it is. Ah, then I'm just stepping into it and going, great, I've got to do this post today.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely keeping it fresh in the notes.

Speaker A: Oh yeah. And AI is so helpful, like if you, if you are really stuck for ideas.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: You know, AI chat, GPT particularly so long as you're giving it really good prompts and, and it knows who your audience is and all those things, um, that's a whole different conversation. But if you, you can really partner with, with AI to create, uh, to get you moving and if you're stuck, you can say, hey, give me five educational content ideas in relation to this topic for this audience. And I want it in this format. I want it as an 150 word, ah, email. I want it as a, an Instagram carousel. I want it as a blog listicle, like a bullet list. Telling it what you want is like half the battle. Um, but that, that could be super helpful as well if you're feeling the, the creative uh, juices are not flowing.

Speaker E: Exactly. And I, uh, guess finally, I mean, obviously coming to the end of our conversation now, what would be the most important piece of advice that you've ever been given in business? It's a tough one.

Speaker A: It's a tough one. I would say it's start before you're ready.

Speaker E: Yeah, Yeah.

Speaker A: I think there's always a gap between

Speaker B: where you are and where you want to be. And if you're ambitious, if you.

Speaker A: And ambition is a great thing, you know, if, if you're ambitious and if you're driven, if you're like, yes, I

Speaker B: want to grow this thing, there's always going to be a gap. Whether it's a knowledge gap, whether it's a, uh, financial gap, whether it's uh,

Speaker A: I don't have the infrastructure or team or whatever. Fill in the blank.

Speaker B: There's always a gap between where you are and your next level. And I think there's an element of you won't know until you give something a go. And I see too many people getting stuck in analysis, paralysis or fear.

Speaker E: Mhm.

Speaker B: And going, I'm just going to stay where I am because it's safe. When over the other side of that,

Speaker A: that hurdle, that fear gap that we're

Speaker B: facing is a really beautiful business for you. And I think you've got to start before you're ready. You're not going to know everything, you're going to make mistakes. It's totally fine. It's part of the journey. Um, and, and I think, you know, if you get caught up in what

Speaker A: everyone else is doing, just, just focus

Speaker B: in on what you're doing.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: And focusing on what the most, I think focusing on what is the most impactful, beneficial thing I can do to grow my business today.

Speaker E: M. And just keep doing that, keep working on it. And it's so rewarding when you see the results and you know that you've had a go. It's just the most unbelievably rewarding feeling in the world. So, yes, I can definitely agree with that one. That's for sure. Yeah, absolutely. So, in a nutshell, thank you so much for your time today, Laura. I really, really appreciate it, but can you just give us your elevator pitch and where we can all find you?

Speaker A: Yeah, my elevator pitch? Oh, my gosh, I don't know that I have one. Well, really, if you are a creative service provider, if you are a photographer, designer, coach, consultant, and if you are like, heck, yes, I want to grow my business, then come talk to me. Um, I mostly hang out on Instagram. You can find me at Laura Higgins. Um, I'd love to connect and chat with you more.

Speaker E: Thank you so much. And I love your videos, by the way. I'm very inspired by your videos. I'm like, I'm just. Because I know that I need to be doing more of those. And I just watch you and I. And I just think she's just got it all together.

Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Thanks, Tara. I'm glad it looks like that.

Speaker E: And I do love, obviously from a creative perspective as well, because I do like there are other people out there like me as well, who put a lot of pressure on themselves to do the right thing in terms of putting themselves out there and all of that sort of thing. And I love the way that you do that. You do come across so confident and professional, and all of your content is always really beautiful. So thank you so much for all of it.

Speaker A: Oh, um, thank you, Tara. That means the world.

Speaker E: Thank you so much. No problem. Well, thanks so much again for your time, Laura. And I hope that we get to meet up again one day soon. And good luck with everything and the rebrand and everything, and I'll continue watching along.

Speaker A: Thanks, Tara.

Speaker C: Thank you for joining me this week on the Trade Wins podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or have found value in this podcast, I'd love you to leave me a review on itunes or to share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends to see what special pieces of the world we've brought home. Make sure you visit our website@ah, fewandfar.com or pop into one of, uh, our beautiful stores located in Huskisson Bury or Bowral in New South Wales. And if you're thinking about starting your own retail business but aren't sure where to begin or you have an existing business you want to grow, head over to my website, tarasolberg.com for more information on my Tradewinds online course where I share everything I wish I had known when I was first starting out in business. I look forward to you joining me again for, uh, our next episode. Thank you for listening.