Latest / The Sharon Francisco Show / They’re Not Buying Your Service — They’re Buying You First

Transcript

They’re Not Buying Your Service — They’re Buying You First · The Sharon Francisco Show

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Sharon Francisco show.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are going to be talking about something that is close to my heart.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're not buying your service, they're actually buying you first.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does this mean?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about the practicalities of this, why is it that some people can charge a certain amount per hour or however they charge?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And other people feel like they can't charge that.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So in the bookkeeping and accounting industry, if you think about bookkeepers, have you ever wondered why some bookkeepers charge 60, 70, 80 bucks an hour?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And some charge very confidently when they talk about it, charge over 100, 110, 120, 130 for compliance work, basic compliance work.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big, wide range, isn't it?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So what does all that mean?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not uh claiming to understand all of this, but I think the way that I see it, and working with business owners for many, many years, it's not always about qualifications, like how qualified you are for the profession.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it isn't always about experience.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it certainly isn't always the fanciest website, the podcast, the socials.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what is it then?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: We know famously, Simon Sinick said, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that then comes up with a question in your head around, well, what's the purpose here?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I doing what I do?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to take that one step further for today's podcast.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: People also buy who they believe they are.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're talking to somebody about a proposal or what you do, people are buying who they believe you are.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So two bookkeepers, say, for instance, can offer almost exactly the same service at completely different prices.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the client does not necessarily choose the cheaper one or even the one who appears to be the most technically qualified.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: They choose the person who makes them feel understood.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: They choose the person who makes them feel safe and that they can kind of open up to.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: They choose the person who gives them the confidence that things will be handled well and in the way that they've sort of feel that it should be handled.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps most importantly, they choose the person who they feel the most comfortable enough to tell the truth to.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: When I first turned up, the experience was, it felt okay.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel completely comfortable.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't um I don't get this particular service done on my face regularly.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of was a little bit nervous because I knew it was going to hurt a little bit, and it entailed pulling out hairs in places that probably I wasn't really excited about having them pulled out on my face.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But that there just didn't feel like a connection, and that's quite an intimate thing.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got somebody doing things on your face, it's quite intimate, and especially it was like an hour-long appointment, and she was alone in her studio, so it's just her and I.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: A kind of connection that I personally need.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I need to have a connection with those sort of people.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that not everyone does, so it's just my personal preference.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm telling this story is because everyone has their own little needs and everyone has their own personal brands in their businesses.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what you're trying to do is create an experience for your clients that are attracted to your personal brand, and not everyone will be attracted to that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm telling this story about my experience based on as a client what I like.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And not everyone's gonna like that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Her experience, the way she operates, will be completely fine for a lot of people.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, it just didn't feel as connected as what I would like.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I um we chatted politely to begin with, and as I said, the treatment took about an hour.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I re-booked at the end through the way that she works is through a booking app.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And when you re-book, it takes half of your money for that next appointment in three or four or five weeks' time, whenever it is.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the second appointment was for two beauty treatments to do with my face.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, like exfoliation thing and um eyelashes and eyebrows and what have you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there were two treatments that I was having.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Again, half was taken.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So about a hundred bucks was taken.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then the following morning, I got this text and it was at 6.29 in the morning.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd already made the appointment for I think it was about three and a half weeks' time, and I got this text at 6.29 in the morning that this particular beauty expert wanted to change my appointment because it didn't work in with her schedule or something.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure why she wanted to change it.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the second time she'd done that.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: She'd already done that previously.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the second time that she changed the appointment.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And again, some people wouldn't even bother, but for me, I've got two sons that live overseas.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I leave my phone on.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's ways that you can filter out people that don't ring, you don't hear their texts and things like that.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Irrespective, I don't have any of those filters on.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I just let my phone be my phone.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody texts me at 6.29 in the morning, I can hear it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I need to explain that anymore.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just have my phone on.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't generally have texts that early, unless it's from my boys, and I don't mind taking those, of course.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the combination between me not feeling connected to her, because I like to chat and connect with people in those sort of situations.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: She was very silent throughout the whole hour, like not any conversation at all.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: There was a little bit at the beginning and a tiny bit at the end, but nothing in between.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So laying there, um, suffice to say, uh, on I I tend to fall asleep in those sort of uh situations, which I did with this one as well.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I also like my appointments when I book them because I try to book myself.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for those of you who know, I have a very uh strict process that I work by called my default diary.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm quite on it with my times and when I book things in, and I I like to be quite organized when it comes to my time management.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't really like to have my appointments changed very often.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mind every now and again, but I don't like my personal appointments to be changed very often because I'm I like to work them around my most important appointments, which are, you know, family, friends, and my business.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So there was the text early in the morning, there was this changing of appointments a couple of times, and other things that I guess I can't really put my finger on.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I there just wasn't a connection.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel connected, I didn't feel there was a real relationship there or a real sort of connection with her.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I just didn't feel very comfortable, which all good, no problem.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't feel comfortable.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I rang and I cancelled my upcoming appointment and said, if you could just refund the money, that would be great because it was a hundred bucks.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And she said um she'd just keep the money until next time that I that I booked an appointment.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, look, I'm I'd just like my money back if that's okay.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And she will I'll just keep it on file here.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'll keep it for your next appointment.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a bit of oaks because I didn't want to say, Oh, I'm not gonna rebook because of my little things that, you know, they're not that big really, are they?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you sort of think about it, it's like texting at 6.29 in the morning, not much connection in the appointment, no conversation, and changing my appointments.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, they're all just business things, whatever.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: But this thing that I couldn't really put my my finger on was really holistically that I just didn't want to do business with her again.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So then I said, no, no, I actually won't be rebooking.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even really want to say any of that, but I did because she said she wouldn't give my money back.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, or she said she was going to keep my money on file.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, long story short, she said, no, sorry, when you when you book that appointment, you ticked a box that said that I'd be keeping the money.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, But but the appointment's like three and a half weeks away.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's plenty of time to rebook an appointment.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's my money anyway.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: The service hasn't been done.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I just want my money back.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, again.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, you're going to give my money back.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just know I want my money back.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So then something that just went from this awkwardness actually went into a full-on conversation about me trying to get my money back for an appointment that I hadn't had in three and a half weeks' time.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it just felt weird.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: The whole thing then just got really, really weird.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I didn't even know I ticked a box to say that I was giving her half the money that I would never get back if I didn't attend the appointment, or if I tried to cancel it and didn't ever go back, that I wouldn't be getting my money back.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would never have ticked a box like that if I knew that was the case.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But apparently that was the case.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, long story short, I got my money back, but that whole experience just wasn't nice.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: The whole experience just felt a little bit off.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's experiences I think everyone has that with.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I give you a negative one because I couldn't really put my finger on it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was a few little things that you could quite possibly think, Sharon, that's nothing.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of think it's nothing to.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then when we got to the money side, that wasn't nothing.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really thought that I should have got my money back for that.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if we flip that to the other side where people working with you can't quite put their finger on why they want to work with you and why they'd pay you, for instance, an extra$50 an hour or$30 or$50 an hour, then the person offering the same service that perhaps doesn't have that connection.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's who you are that will initially attract your potential client, the way you communicate your service and how you allow the service to unfold and that connection with.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know for me, when I was um building the bookkeeping business with my sister-in-law, I would talk with clients quite quickly about how the service that we do, we we intend to do it in a way that makes them feel really safe.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to quite often say to clients or potential clients that if you don't understand the deeper understanding of the financial side of your business, like reading a PL or a balance sheet or understanding money in the bank doesn't equal profit and all that sort of stuff, hey, you know what?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably in a larger percentage of business owners than you would maybe think.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's completely fine.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what I want you to feel is really safe that we kind of understand that about business owners.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't get it, the the biggest thing we want you to do is put your hand up and say, if you want to understand more about that, that's why we're here.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we do what we do, to make you feel like you can understand your numbers and that you feel more empowered around your numbers, but also to not feel embarrassed about that because that's fine.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it doesn't matter if you don't understand that.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of that sort of thing, I would think that people would see that as critical non-essentials.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: The critical thing is that we understand your numbers.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not essential.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not essential that you explain that to them, but when you do, they kind of feel a lot safer to open up to you about not understanding or not being really clear about, okay, so what is it that you do again on a dental?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people don't understand what bookkeepers and accountants are doing behind the scenes.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: We know that it's important and we know that it needs to be done, but a lot of business owners don't really know what you're doing.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: If like going to the deeper level, I guess the surface stuff we do, but the the next layer that we don't.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where this thing you can't put your finger on of why you would work with somebody and feel safe and that they're trusted and things like that is the undercurrent of continuing to work with you and continuing to pay you the money that we know that a lot of uh service owners um deserve.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: So let's have a look at this pricing connection.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So bookkeepers and accountants often think they need another qualification.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've coached a lot of bookkeepers that have said, I just need to get like another whatever, like a higher certification.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot believe that they have to be studying to be a CPA as well.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's like the next step if they they think that they need to do that, amongst a bunch of other sort of um qualifications.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they need to, you know, have a better package to offer their clients.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: They need to explain, often think they bookkeepers often think they need to explain everything that's included in that package, and they they need to prove why they're worth what they're worth.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But that endless explaining can actually communicate uncertainty that you're not really sure about what you're doing.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's like over-explaining why they'd want to be with you.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So your pricing is not only a number, it actually tells people what to believe about your value.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So your client will struggle to feel certain about your value when you sound uncertain about yourself.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get into the certainty conversation.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: People crave certainty, they want to know.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the tricky thing that they want to know, particularly around money, tax compliance, and things like that.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But absolute certainty doesn't exist.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: We can't promise absolute certainty to people because there's no such thing.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't promise there will never be an error or a difficult conversation or a staff issue or a surprise that's going to come up.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of the times, as we know, clients can do unpredictable things that will change the goalpost that will then change what you'll need to do to either rectify it or um do extra work to make sure that they get their outcome.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll respond to that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you'll you'll tell them the truth around what's going on, you'll not want to disappear when there's something that becomes difficult, you'll help them make sense of it and you'll take that ownership.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the certainty conversation that they want to know that if they need you, that you'll respond and that you'll tell them the truth around the situation.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if things aren't going as well as what they think it is, they want the truth around what their PL is telling them.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And not that they'll disappear when things become difficult or when they want to make sense of things that you'll be there.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And research links this intolerance of uncertainty with worry, avoidance, and delay in decision making.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is exactly what happens when business owners endlessly research pricing, but never actually change it.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you might have thought for years, gee, I need to put my prices up, or gee, I need to go from uh hourly rate to more package pricing or value pricing, and it just doesn't happen because there might be that worry in the background.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So certainty does not come before the decision.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Certainty does not come before the decision.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's something we build by making the decision and discovering we can handle what happens next.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's why little baby steps are really important.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it might be, in this case, if you're wanting to put your prices up, it might be you might do like a certain um group of your clients that you're going to put your client prices up that you know that, okay, I probably won't get pushback with these guys.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you could start with those, and that certainty will build if you do a smaller amount first that you feel comfortable with, and then you can build on that.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you think about the the stars that we know and love that really demonstrate this level of certainty.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I don't know about you, and again, I'm not sure if it's my background and where I grew up, but I just love Dolly Parton.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you listen to Dolly Parton, she is unshamably herself.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: What you see is what you get, and she's very open about all of her plastic surgery and things and her long fake nails that she plays music on and all of that.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: She is unmistakably Dolly.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: The hair, the humor, the values, the generosity all belong together.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: People are not merely buying her songs and her perfume and her music.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're buying a little piece of that dolly world.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: The the part that I think is her authenticity.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: We just love it when we, I do, when I hear her talk, and she just she's just so real.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we're buying into her authenticity and her honesty about the things that a lot of people try to hide.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: She's just open about it.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't it wonderful?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: The other one is Oprah Winfrey, who I think is just amazing.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched her a lot when I was younger, uh, not so much these days, but I just think what she's done is incredible.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: People followed her across television, magazines, books, interviews, because the product changed as she evolved from television to, you know, the other things that she had.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the emotional promise remained that she, the message that she was delivering, which was honesty, possibility, and human connection.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: She really liked to show that that we're all the same.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of her, I love watching her evolve as an entrepreneur and how she's grown, you know, a multi-billion maybe dollar business.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if it's up to the billions, but it's a large business and she makes incredibly good money by how she's done that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: The other one's Taylor Swift.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Her fans do not simply consume her music, they feel part of her stories, her reinventions, and her world.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: The relationship that she has with her supporters is her brand.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's the brand that she offers, and that's why they love her so much.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: This really hits home for when I was one of four owners in a business in my mid-20s.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it was my husband and I, and my brother and his wife.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: We had a coach in that business, and that coach really helped us understand the meaning of people by who you are, not what you do.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as somebody came through the door in that business, because it was a smaller sort of town, I would say, hello, how are you going?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one time.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And most people that I knew that came through the door, they knew me, they were regular clients, and they go, Hi Sharon, how are you going?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really cool in that business because we had my sister-in-law and I were having babies at the time.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so one, you know, I was I've got two children, so I was pregnant twice in that business, and so was my my sister-in-law.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it was so lovely because people go, Oh, how are you going?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: How's the baby growing, Sharon?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really just a nice connection and it felt really good.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then one time a guy came through the door that I didn't recognize, but I just did the same.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, how are you going?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he stopped.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like he just he he physically reeled back and he said, Don't sell me anything.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to buy anything.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, sure, no problem.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to try and sell you anything.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Please feel free to look around the floor.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was a furniture and interior design shop.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we had beds and furniture and we did custom-made curtains and things.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, just please please feel free to look around.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's no problem whatsoever.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you need anything, you just call out to me.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he just quickly looked around and then scurried out the door.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that was too much for him, my little happy hello, as I as he came through the door.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was another guy at a different time that I hadn't ever seen before.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he came in.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think because that guy was so repelled by my connection, I was always after that a little bit more careful.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want people to think that I sort of sold them something when they came in the door.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was just trying to be friendly.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: So this guy came in that I didn't know.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I was like quite cautious because of that experience before.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I just kind of waved and said, Hi, do you want any help?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Please just reach out.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just over here.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we had like a desk quite close to the front door.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I said, just reach out to me over here.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was quite, he just like kind of raised his hand as a bit of a high, and that was it.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was looking around the shop for a long time.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, eventually, I just went over and I said, Is there anything that I can do to help you with you know what you're looking at?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Look, I am looking at furnishing.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: They had a homestead, they just bought a property and they had a big homestead.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, We're looking to furnish the whole homestead.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we need beds, we need furniture, we need curtains, we need everything, we need all the things to furnish the house.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, my little mid-20s business brain was going, Wow, wow, because most people would come in and buy a duna cover or a pillow or you know, sometimes a couch or sometimes a bed, which was a larger purchase.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: But furnishing a whole home, like my little entrepreneurial brain was going, wow, this is going to be amazing.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, let's I'll go and get some paper and I'll write out some of the things that we're looking for and I'll I'll talk to you about what you can take on the floor and what we'll need to order in because it was a long way away from Sydney.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we the delivery was six to eight weeks.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to talk about that.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, long story short, I made a really nice connection with him because they were buying a property.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was more for a fun sort of weekender, or it wasn't, they weren't living there full time.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And because I grew up on a sheep and cattle station, I connected.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So what where is it?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: How far out of town is it?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And blah, blah, blah.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I was talking to him, and I really made a nice connection.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you could tell as he warmed up that it was a really lovely connection because I kind of shared a little bit about my background and and he shared a little bit about his background.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then we came to the desk to write up the order, which was in a ridiculous amount of money.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just was blown away by what he had decided to buy from us.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: He was just looking to begin with.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And while there were other furniture places where we were in that town, he decided, obviously, through our conversation to buy from us, which I was very, very grateful for.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: As it turns out, when we collected all of his details, he was a member of one of Australia's most successful retail families, the David family, was behind David's, the company that had introduced IGA, the IGA supermarket, to Australia.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So he was one of those people that had introduced that to Australia.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess I was completely blown away that somebody was buying all that furniture from us from that family.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it just felt, wow, how cool is that?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the point with this is you can't always tell who somebody is, what they have, or what they're what they're prepared to spend simply by an initial meeting.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I believe, and I'll never know, but I believe he felt safe with me.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: He felt like I understood the area, he felt like I understood what it was like to grow up in an old homestead.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: The house that he was furnishing was an old homestead, which I grew up in.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: The house that I grew up in was over 100 years old.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I believe all of that psychologically was little affirming things for him that he was buying from the right people, the locals, and it just felt right for him.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to put his finger on it.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I just chatted like I normally did.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, I just repelled that guy before.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you think about my personal brand, my personal brand is connecting and positive and hey, how are you going?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like reaching out and being connecting.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I get a little bit excited when I meet new people.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that's what happened.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know for sure, but I'm sure that that's possibly what happened in that interaction.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: I eventually realized people were not choosing us simply because of what we did.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: They were choosing how we made them feel about them and what they were doing in their story and why they were doing what they were doing.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all of that is my personal experience.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And who knows?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure, but there's research on this.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: So there is things to back this sort of stuff.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the research on this, a study involving 749 consumers found that authenticity, particularly individuality, consistency, and continuity increased perceived value and trust.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the things that do that is authenticity, individuality, so your uniqueness, consistency, so turning up, doing predictability essentially, and continuity that increases perceived value and trust.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I have not read all of these.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one I have read, Start with Why, by Simon Sinek.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I'm sure everyone knows Simon Sinek.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the other one is called Known by Mark Schaeffer, and I'll put all these in the show notes.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the last one there is The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: My closing thoughts on this is your personal brand is not a polished version of you, it's the clearest version of you.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to stop trying to sound like every other, if you're a bookkeeper, every other bookkeeper, if you're an accountant, every other accountant.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: The right clients are looking for someone who sounds exactly like you.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, this has been helpful.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know it was a bit of a long one today, but hopefully it was helpful around why your uniqueness and your individuality is what matters in business.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: And people buy that.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really understand why they're buying it, but they feel it and they feel it when they connect with you, and they feel it when they're having conversations with you, and it just feels right, and not everyone will feel right with you, and that's okay.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that do feel right for you will connect, and you'll be able to grow your business with those ones, and the other ones will go to somebody else, and that's okay.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Till next time.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, that's been helpful.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Talk soon.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.