Latest / Be Locally Loved / 026 - Serve Before You Sell: The Power of Being Neighborly in Business

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026 - Serve Before You Sell: The Power of Being Neighborly in Business · Be Locally Loved

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to a Be Locally Loved mini episode where we bring you practical advice and big ideas from our full-length conversations in just a few minutes.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do this.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I will use no one being fair priced, great reputation, his rates are reasonable, and he went above and beyond.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: That above and beyond is what what a new business needs to do when they move in.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: They need to do above and beyond.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Whether with the consumer or if you're trying to get your name out there, get involved in the community.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the things is that you can uh, you know, for every hundred bucks we spend, we get over 10% of our money we give to local.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we where we want to contact the high school and find out what they need.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we raise the money and provide that.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Food shelters, food shelters, food pantries, things that are important to the community that are also, you know, important to you, whatever that may be, get entrenched in it.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Put that in your ad.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Get the get connected with people.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Chamber of Commerces, um, uh a lot of, so you're in a city, I'm in a bunch of towns, so known as Metro West, we have uh business associations.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Each town, or many of the towns have business associations, get entrenched in them.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're trying to get their town recognized.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if you do business in that town or you live in that town, be part of that community.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Help the towns, help those businesses be recognized, and that will just, you know, snowball or domino effect and be able to come back to you.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get recognition.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what you give tenfold will come back.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, and find what you're passionate about, whether it's it's, you know, homeless dogs, homeless people, whatever you, you know, it could be any anything that's philanthropy that pulls up the strings of your heart that you can tie your business to, make a difference, making a difference, good rapport, and then get your name out there.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: We'll all help together to actually create a an existence.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love that so much.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what you've just described is what I call serve before you sell.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when a local business asks me that same question, you know, they're brand new, they want to get their name out there.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: They really don't have a lot of resources to advertise or they just they have to be kind of grassroots and bootstrap it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I say, serve, find a charity that I had a landscaper say this to me.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said, find a charity that you can go do some landscaping for to show people what you can do and then gift that.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then that charity will take a picture and share on their social media, which shows you as a generous man, that brand that clicks the word of mouth thing.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that you have that same point of view, like serve.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Before you're asking for a transaction, you're you're asking, you're trying to build a relationship.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that also uh reinforces who we are at Be Local.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are not a coupon group on direct response.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Here's 50% off your first month.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like we are a relationship builder.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are a first impression.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are meant for you to be seen as a local business that people can trust, right?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So your electrician that you described, I bet you tell everybody that you that will that wants to know about that.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So um do you think that's a good one?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I will add one more thing, Lars.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the the missing part of that is I think that people who are giving back to the community need to add that to their website.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to stand out against, you know, plumber A, Plumber B, Plumber C, you need to on your website, you know, you have your about, you have your services, and you should have something to say, our beliefs, or what we really do for our community, of who we are, or what's important to us.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like create another line.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I rarely see that out there, like because they're they're templates, you know, but have that as another drop down of what you're doing for the community or what you're doing, what you're passionate about.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't even need to be like just necessarily in the community.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: People may connect with you because, you know, you want to help someone in Zimbabwe or you, whatever your your your passion is, put it on there.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Make yourself that's what's gonna make you stand out.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's what people are gonna connect with because it humanizes you.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: It shows that you care more about that, more about other things besides your business, which you obviously should care about, but it does give a little bit of a round edge where people can connect with and want to use you versus the next plumber.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you put your values and your beliefs, your mission, your vision out there and people resonate with that, that will help you be trusted.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I often say we're kind of in a trust recession.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much out there right now online that makes us skeptical, that makes us question, especially now with AI, we have to worry about is this even a real person talking?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the more that we as local business owners can put out trust signals to let people know we are real, we are here, we are serving, we do love our community, the more people will feel like, okay, this is an authentic, generous brand, and I want to serve and support authentic, generous brands, right?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you zoom out, what do you see as essential ingredients to a thriving community?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: What does a community do to become a place that people want to live and work?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so when I saw that question, I kind of was thinking about one specific community.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it really needs to support.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have to support.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like you have to support each other um as as neighbors.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, you know, you're you're from the south, so maybe it's very different here.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: In the north, when I moved here two years ago, people don't knock on doors with pies anymore.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: They just don't.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Which I think is sad.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's needs to be some connectivity of going back to supporting each other.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I have lovely elderly neighbors and they had some water issue things and what whatnot.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: They came over to me and they said, Listen, we're not going to be here for a bacon.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Of course I'll wash your house.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I watched their house.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: We had a huge snowstorm.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I plowed their driveway because I knew people coming to do some repairs.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like we need to go back to connectivity in with helping each other.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: That in itself is is an essence of a community.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just because you have small children and they're in school and so you know everyone from the school system.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people who live in a community not that don't have that connection to the schools, which is usually what gives you that community feel.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: We need to be neighborly.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: I guess that's the big thing.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, neighborly, not only for your neighbors, but neighborly through business.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a community here in one of the one of the publications I have that the businesses connect with each other and feed business to each other.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it's Main Street.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have like you go into the Met Spa, the Met Spa has coupons for the flower store, the flower store has brochures for the frame shop.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: They are all entrenched in helping each other get business.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And when they talk to the consumer that comes in, the consumer says, I'm looking for this, I don't have it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Go down the street to go see Joe.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: So there's that neighborly impact, not only to realistically your neighbor that you live in, but neighborly for businesses.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And when businesses and that community is thriving, that community got it.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: They got the purpose.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, do they support the flower, you know, the garden club?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because the garden club goes and makes these beautiful flower pots that is all around downtown.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So part of the money that they raise goes to the flower.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: So again, it's all at which those ladies don't have children.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Most of them are elderly ladies.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have children in their in the school systems, but they're supported.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And those businesses get support from those ladies shopping, and vice versa.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the town is beautiful, you know, beautiful with all these flowers, but all the businesses help each other and all the neighbors work together.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that to me is the essence.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's very, very simple.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's the be neighborly, be neighborly in business, be neighborly in as a neighbor, and it will come back and you'll support, they'll support, and it works.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, I think in today's society, we're so fast and running and knee world that we kind of need to step back, breathe, smell the roses, cut the roses and bring them to your neighbor.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Type of thing.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that so much.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, human connection is one thing that AI cannot replace.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, there's actually an amazing, I don't know if you've seen this ad.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's an amazing ad out there for one of those, you know, those things that they bring food.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's a, it's a, it's a little compute, it's a little, they have them on colleges.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a on wheels, and it's it's probably like two feet by two feet with an antenna, and it rolls on around and it delivers food to different people.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen that, yes.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Or whatever.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: They they you lock in whatever you want, it goes.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So this this machine is at is at a light.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's at a light waiting to walk, you know, to to cross the road.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: But you got to hit the button because it's just sitting there.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the guy walks by and he looks at it and he walks by, he comes back and he hits the button so that it will turn green so it can go.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it knows that it can go.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the the tagline is even with technology, we need humans.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I just loved it because there's just feelings, emotions, things like that, thought process, just our process of thought in general.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some things you cannot replace with electronics.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what I'm talking about, the neighborly aspect.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it makes me remember when I was ramping up my Bee Local, Georgetown at the time was the fastest growing city of its size in the nation.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so many people were moving here, and the locals were not excited about it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, they wanted to stay the sweet little town that they were, and they knew that that was changing.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, I know we can't stop the growth, but this is, you know, creating Be Local for Georgetown is my contribution to helping us manage the growth well.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I promised to pass on the history, heart, and culture of this city to the new mover through this guide.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So at least we can show them who we are and invite them to be a part of who we are and not let them struggle out there on the fringe trying to change who we are.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that goes back to what you were saying about human connection.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even when we can't shake a hand or make eye contact or have a one-on-one conversation with another human, be local helps to be that surrogate connecting people with humans in the town through the collective word of mouth from what we love about our city.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: We package that up in be local.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: We get it into the intimacy of the home and hopefully people feel connected.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I think the word connection is the word of the day.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: What advice would you give to leaders or entrepreneurs who want to make a meaningful difference where they live?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurs or what?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: What was the uh leaders, community leaders?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, again, I I guess it just goes back to become part of your the fabric of your community.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, get to know, get to know people, get to know people's needs, see what you can do to help through your business, through your services, through your personal passions, through, I mean, people want to talk.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: People need people.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Being alone is is not super fun.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's great to have alone time, but no, we're not wired that way.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think getting entrenched into a community by uh participating, find things that you love, and then people will want to know what you do and what you do.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And once they start to ask, it's not the first thing you start talking about, but when they start to ask, the questions come.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So will the business.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: So again, if you go back to the Rs, if you have a good reputation and good response and good rates, uh, people will use you because you built that rapport.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the other problem.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: So Well, go ahead and finish your thought.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say that that's that's what you need to do to be able to be successful in leadership.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you're working for somebody and you want to, you know, climb the ladder or if you want to have your own business in any aspect, human in the business world or in your personal life, those are the things that you kind of have to engage in.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be sure to put your three R's into the show notes for this episode because I think those are great.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can see the business consultant in you coming out.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I love your advice about getting involved.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know people that are listening to us can't see what's behind me, but if you're watching us on video, you can see that I have a sign that says, be local.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you love Georgetown, it will love you back.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that was actually authored by my director of community relations, Ann Kaiser.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And she essentially said, if you want to thrive in Georgetown, get involved, become a part of what we're doing, show what you're passionate about and start serving, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of get connected.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just all comes back to that word connection.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the word of our day.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us on Be Locally Loved.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and share this conversation with someone who believes in the power of being locally loved.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep showing up, serving others well, and building the kind of trust and connection that makes communities stronger.