Stand-Out Strategies That Make a Difference in Business | RR265

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's

episode of relationships rule. My special guest today is

Chantel Cornelius, from Apple Tree marketing all the way from

England, and I am so excited to talk to her today. Please,

welcome, please let me just welcome you first to the show.

Thank you, Janice. It's lovely to be here.

You're most welcome. I wanted to tell my

audience that, you know, Chantal has been around for a long time

in doing the work that she does. She's a pro. She is She founded

Apple Tree marketing in 2000. The year 2000, which seems like

it was yesterday, but it really was a long time ago now. Oh, my

goodness. And and you work with coaches, consultants and

speakers that want to grow their business and achieve their goals

through making strong emotional connections with their clients?

Correct? Yes, absolutely. It? Yeah,

I think I think the thing that that when I first

came, was introduced to you and your work. The thing that hooked

me immediately was that you it says in your bio, that the key

to that you believe that the key to standing out from competitors

is to build strong, long lasting relationships with clients.

Well, obviously, you know what I do my, my podcast is called

relationships rule. I couldn't agree more. And so I felt the

need to find out more and how you work with that. So please

tell me, where did that come from for you.

That all came about, because I spent a lot of

time looking at HR, I spent a lot of time listening to clients

saying I'm really struggling to show people what makes me

different to know coaching and speaking, it's a really

competitive industry. And so my clients were struggling to stand

out from all of the other coaches, consultants, speakers

that are out there. A lot of people use USPS unique selling

points unique selling propositions. And I just I

started listening to what my clients were saying. And they

were all saying the same thing. I'm different, because I've been

doing it for 20 years, or I, whatever it was, and it was all

the same. And I thought there's got to be a better way of doing

this. So I started digging and researching. And this was back

in 2015, that I started doing this. And what I discovered is

that what really makes people stand out in business is the

relationships that they build with their clients. And the fact

that the relationships are built on emotions. Now that might

sound fairly obvious. But the next level that I got to was

that these emotions are not what we feel as the the coach, the

consultant, the supplier, but it's what the clients want to

feel. And there's a there's an important point here that we

can't make anyone feel anything, you know, I can't, I can't make

you feel happy, Janice, do things that might make you feel

happy, but I can't make you feel happy or sad or anything. So

it's very much about understanding the emotions that

our clients want to feel. And then using that to build the

relationship, because the need there needs to be there needs to

be a match. So if I have clients who want to feel safe, and

looked after, when I deliver that to them, or when I promised

that in my marketing, they go, Oh, yes, I want that. Whereas if

I had a potential client, and I do get this potential clients

come and say, I want to I want to feel inspired and challenged

and motivated. And I go, that's not really me. That's not the

type of marketing that I do. And I refer them to somebody. It's

about it's about it's about finding, finding that common

ground that relationship it's it's all about relationships,

and you know that

yeah, it totally and it's interesting, though,

because when you when you first meet people, it's it is a

feeling, right? It's it's the connection is either there or it

isn't for me right away. And and that's not the same with

everybody. Because some people guard their feelings, right? And

they're, you know, they're testing the waters before you

can get in there and see what they're really like. So, right

so how do you how do you break through that? Like, is it

through the right kind of questioning? Is it how do you or

do you have to teach your clients how to do those those

things? It's,

it's a bit of both. When I when I started

doing the research, I realized that I could quite quickly tell

what somebody was wanting to feel by gut feel. You know, I

would get a feeling and you may get this you might meet somebody

at an event apart. Tea and really quickly you go, Oh, I

really like this person, I want to spend more time with them or

you get oh, no, I don't want to spend time, right. And a lot of

it is because the research that's been done by other people

is showing that 95% of our decisions are made

subconsciously. So our subconscious brain, before we've

even consciously realized what's going on our subconscious brain

is going, I don't like this person, or I do like this

person, or I don't like what they're wearing. You know, we

talk a lot about first impressions being so important.

And they are because the subconscious brain is the one

that is checking you out. So I might go, Oh, I love your

glasses. I love the color of your of your sweater. But my

subconscious brain has already gotten I don't like that color.

I do, by the way, I love I love the color. So we have to be

really careful in listening to our subconscious brain. And

it's, it's 95% of what goes on. And it's emotional. Yeah, the

conscious brain then chips in with the final 5% of rational

decision making of going, well, actually, I think I will talk to

this person. But quite often if your gut feel is I don't want to

talk to this person. And then your rational brain goes on,

we'll give it a go. Actually, the subconscious the gut feel is

what's is what's right. A lot. Yes.

So we think that, you know, when you said that,

Oh, I love your glasses or the color of your glasses or

whatever. If it's not coming from a true place. Can you tell?

As in?

Well, you talked about it. Well, you talk about

you know, the majority of the of the feelings come from the, the

subconscious. Yeah. And if, if you are a phony about how, Oh,

you look lovely today to see and you tell? Yeah,

sometimes I can Yeah, I'm getting, I'm

getting better at it. And I'm fascinated by people. And by

watching people, and I've, I've learned in the last four or five

years, I think, to really let go of my barriers, I used to spend

a lot of time worrying about what I thought other people

thought of me. So I would always be I would always put on a kind

of a business face and a front like no, this is this is the

this is the business way of doing it. And for various

reasons. Over the last five or six years, a lot of those

barriers have dropped away and I am much more you know, this this

is who I am, if not tough.

Well, I think that comes with age. I hate to

say this, but yeah, I guess and experience and experience. Yes.

And feeling more comfortable in who you are. Right? No. And

always, for sure. Because I think I remember those days to

back when it was really important what shoes I wore.

Yeah, you know, I'm

still I am still very conscious of what

shoes I wear. You know what I'm speaking on stage. I'm known for

wearing a short dress and a pair of knee length boots.

Oh, isn't that funny? Okay, yeah. So yeah,

that's kind of my uniform.

I do it when it's hot. But I still turn up at

events and people go, where are you boots? Or the boots you

wearing tonight? Yeah,

that's cool. So I know that. Sorry. Go ahead.

That's right. Gone. No.

So um, I know that you work a lot with service

based business owners, and you have your system of standout

strategies that you use to help people make that emotional

connection with their clients. Can you would you share those

with us? Would you would you both? Oh, okay. Excellent.

Because I'd love to know, how you what they are and how you

show people how to use them in order to stand out from the

competition.

Okay, yep, love to so these these

strategies are five that I identified as a result of all

the research that I've been doing into the emotional

connections and the emotions that clients want to feel. And

you did ask me earlier if if I just kind of guessed this or if

there's a way of doing it well, there is and this this is it. So

the strategies I'll run through them quickly, and generally

every business will have one of the five that is the one that

makes their business stand out. So anyone who's who's listening

to this this episode and actually janitor you can do this

too as you're listening to how I explain them out of any any of

the fives that really resonate with you any of that you feel I

gave a talk about this just yesterday and one of the people

in the order He said to me, as I got to number three, he said he

felt the hairs on the back of his neck. So that that for him

was a real way of knowing that was for him. And once I've run

through them, then I'll show you the way to really work out which

one it is perfect. Okay, number one is called certainty. And

this is where this is about being a safe pair of hands for

your, for your customers. I am known as a safe pair of hands in

terms of marketing advice for clients, they don't want me to

say, Oh, what do you think you should do in your marketing,

they want me to tell them, and I'm very strict talking. And I'm

very bossy, especially with my boots on. So so that that for me

is safe pair of hands. It's about it's where clients want to

feel safe and secure and informed and peace of mind. They

want it black and white, basically.

And they totally trust you. They do Yeah, yeah.

And it's because I will say to them,

don't do that marketing, do this instead. And then it works. So

so they like that. The second one is called connection. This

is about when this is when clients want to, they want to

feel something, they want to feel part of something bigger,

they might want to feel part of a family or an association or a

tribe. So networking organizations, this is a great

strategy for them. It's not about selling services to people

in the room, it's about bringing people together, it's about

bringing people of a birds of a feather together so that you can

meet the right sort of people that that you that you need to

meet. I don't see this very often for people like coaches

and consultants, and speakers, it happens more with network

with larger organizations. But I did meet an accountancy firm

recently. And for them connection is really strong.

Their clients work with them because they can connect them to

other businesses as what they love about it. Oh, interesting.

Okay. Number three is called contribution. And this is where

clients want to feel part of something beyond just

themselves. A lot of charities use contribution really nicely.

And it's about if I, if I want if I support a charity, if they

say to me, Oh, just pay me some money. There's no There's no

emotional connection there. But if they talk to me about, oh,

there's a fabulous charity called lend with care. I don't

know if it's a charity, but it's a it's an organization where you

can make a small donation and you you lend money to people in

developing countries who need I often, I usually pick the

projects where it's usually a woman, and she's usually wanting

to buy another cattle or a goat

is saying, No, that's not Cuba. No, it's

called lend with care. All right, I'm just

kidding, right? Okay, and I get psyched. So I was first

introduced to it by a friend who gave me 30 pounds worth of

donation to give to people. And what's really lovely is I get

regular updates from the people to whom I've lent money, and I

get repayments. Now, repayments might be tiny, it might be $1 a

month. But I've supported a lot of people where they've paid off

their loan, because they bought the cow, the cow is producing

milk, the milk is the milk is going for butter and cheese,

whatever, and they're selling it and then they can afford to pay

the money back and then buy another cow. So I get this kind

of warm, fuzzy feeling. Every time I get a response or an

email from from somebody and then with care to say, this lady

has you know, she she's doing things. It's just it's fab. So

that's, that's an example of contribution. The fourth

strategy is growth. Growth is about personal or professional

growth. It's often about both. I see this a lot with coaches, you

might have a coach for whom growth is a really strong

strategy because their clients come to them saying, I need to

develop myself, I need to be more assertive or braver or more

courageous. And they are attracted to that coach because

that coach is all about helping them to grow. I see it a lot

with coaches and speakers as well for for corporates. So

there might be an organization that says we want to grow, we

want to become bigger, so a business coach or consultant

might come in to help them grow financially. There's often a

link between personal growth and business growth. You might have

an organization that says I don't know our team isn't

working well together, can you come in and fix them? And the

coach will go in and work with the individuals because it's

actually the individuals who need support, and then they

become a more and more cohesive team. So that's growth. And the

final one is called significance which is all about got clients

who want to make more of an impact, who want to stand out, I

actually see this a lot with restaurants, top class

restaurants, I've just written about this in my newsletter,

there are a few that I love going to the food is amazing.

But what is almost better is the service. They, you know, when

you walk into a top class restaurant, and there's somebody

there, there's a host there on the door, and they take your

coat, and they take you in, and they see you in a beautiful

table. And they're just there and they're attentive. And they

might even know you, because you might be irregular, you drop a

fork on the floor. And within moments, another one appears on

the table without you having to say oh, I've dropped my my

thought. And it's all just beautifully slick. And Oh heaven

and you feel special, you feel really cared for and looked on.

So that's that significance. I see it a lot with service

businesses, with individuals, but also with things like yeah,

restaurants, expensive cars, they're not sold on the car,

they're sold on how it makes you feel. Yeah, those those are the

fives that

so I'm trying to think I'm trying to think what,

yeah, so what's the struggle I'm having is that I'm seeing it as

the client, but then I'm seeing it as how you work with how you,

you're helping them do that for their clients. So, right, so. So

it's that it's really important, Keep

it keep it keep it simple to start with.

Because if we if we take, if we take me as the marketing

consultant, I have worked out that my clients want certainty.

So through my marketing and my sales, I promised them

certainty. I talk about being a safe pair of hands about telling

them what to do. I say, in my marketing, I'm going to be

really bossy and challenging. And they say, I love that I want

it. Where can i Okay,

so that makes me think that that's somewhat

similar to me, because as a teacher, my background is

teaching and, and corporate training. And so I when people

say to me, are you a coach, I always say no, I'm not. I'm a

trainer, right? Because there's a difference. And there is. And

the difference is why I'm leaning towards the certainty

piece that you were talking about. Because I tend to teach

my clients my way of doing things. So in a sense, I'm

bossy, right? And I'm showing them that this is a way that

will improve what they've got. Now, let's say I'm talking about

training them on LinkedIn, and what to do there. So it's weird,

because that doesn't, I'm not sure if that's me, but that's

what I that's what I'm leaning towards interests. Yeah. And

this is this is all about what our clients

want to feel right. And of course, when when I was first

digging into this, I thought that my business strategy was

growth, I thought that clients came to work with my business

because they wanted to grow their companies, because they

thought that marketing was a great idea. And they wanted to

truckloads of money at it in order to grow their businesses.

And I started asking them, why do you work with us? And they

were saying things like, well, because you're a safe pair of

hands, because you tell me what to do. You don't you don't leave

me guessing. It has nothing to do with growth. Most of them.

Most of my clients have fabulous reputations. They've been doing

what they do for a long time, and they're brilliant at it. I

am more about reputation management for them. So that

definitely is a safe pair of hands. And what I what I found

was that the marketing that I was using, wasn't working

because I was going yeah, we can grow your business. And I wasn't

meeting the right sort of clients. As soon as I switched

the marketing to certainty, peace of mind informed bossy.

People People were flooding in. And now I say to potential

clients, I'm going to be really bossy and they go, good. I want

that. I need accountability. Tell me what to do. Yes. It's

it's a bit of a mindset shift that we have to make that it's

not about us as the suppliers and the consultants and the

trainers. It's about how the client would want to feel. So if

your clients are coming to you, Janice and say, just tell me

what to do show me how to make LinkedIn better than 70. Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah. And

it's interesting when you look and analyze your

clients and see how many are like this and how many are like

this or even and so on, you start to do see things do stand

out in that you you've enjoyed that experience, perhaps

differently with one client versus another. There's been

referrals that have come from right. And so you start to see

where, where you fit, but how you how you are seen by those

clients. And that's your client, your best client, supposedly.

Yeah, that's, that's fascinating. It's really

interesting. I know you have a new book coming out, or no, your

book just came out.

It's not it's not out yet. It is. As as we are

doing this recording. We're all it's June 2024. The book is with

the proofreader, it should be out in the next month. Okay,

do we have a name, what's the name of your

new book,

The the working title is standout

strategies, because that's what it's about. It's about what we

just talked about strategy last year, and it goes into, it goes

into a lot more detail. It talks about how to identify the

strategies, and we'll come on to that in a minute. It talks about

how to use it in your sales and marketing, but also how to use

it in your delivery. Because if you sell to a client saying, I'm

going to promise you certainty, and then you deliver something

else, they're not going to stick around. And again, that's,

that's where it strengthens the relationship where you build on

what they what they bought from you what they wanted to buy from

their feelings they wanted when they first signed up with you.

So I had an interesting thing happened just

recently, where someone reached out to me as I was a referral,

actually, someone that I knew years ago, and she had said, I

guess they were looking for someone to do a presentation for

one of their clients for LinkedIn. And it was to start as

a lunch and learn as an intro. And when this person reached out

to me and said, You know, I need to I'm looking for this for this

type of client. And what would you charge? Well, for me, I

can't just like, I want to know all the details first, like

who's the audience? And, and, you know, and she said something

in her email about how there was a possibility of more work. But

the the management team had to buy in to this whole thing about

LinkedIn first, as well. She said, as well. And I thought,

well, if I'm going to be talking to the, the employees, and the

management haven't come on side yet, there's, there's a

disconnect, right? And all of this stuff. So before I could

even talk to her, I did ask her a bunch of questions. And then

she says, Oh, we've decided not to do this right now. And now I

don't have to talk money at all. But now I want to talk to her to

just to give her an idea of that, like that would have

probably been a waste of money. Because, right, do you see? So

there's so much around connection? And emotion? Yeah,

don't worry about the strategies, because I think it

would be speaking to a group of people that weren't ready.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it often

happens as well, you know, I might be referred to a company.

Or I might have a connection with one person. But they said,

Well, I'm not I'm not the person who makes the decision. But if

I've got, if I've got a really good connection with them that

that's a good start. Sure, they might then pass me on to the

finance department, and I don't have a connection with them. And

that's, it's about building connections and relationships

with everybody in the organization, who is involved in

making the decision. This is what I love working with, with

coaches and speakers, because there's just them in the

business. They're the ones who make the makers agree, I want

this. Yes, cuz otherwise, yeah, it can get get tricky when

somebody says, I'd love to work with you, but I have to pass you

on to the management team. Yeah, in those situations, there's

more relationship building to be done. But it's also about using

the relationship you've got with whoever you have that

relationship with because they'll champion you. And

they'll there'll be a raving fan, right? Getting to know them

even better and helping them effectively sell you into the

into the rest of the business.

Right. So I also know that you happen to be that

to have a designation that is coveted by amazing speakers like

yourself and very difficult to get and that is CSP right. Is it

called that over there?

It's not no I'm I'm a I'm a member of the

professional speaking association in the UK. Yes. And

we have a level called fellow. So

sounds so British. That's so it's

beautifully brilliant. Yes, I'm a fellow of

the PSA. Okay, isn't quite on a par with CSP. Oh, okay.

Professional. is a it's a it's an international standard. It's

something I am Working towards I'd love to I would love to get

to CSB I need to do more international speaking.

Oh, okay. Yeah. But I know how huge it is. Yes,

yeah.

It's massive. I am always looking for what

next? What can I do next? I was I was talking to one of my

coaches earlier today who saw me speak. I said, right, what next?

What do I need to work on next to keep improving? And she said,

You did a great job. I said, I know. And it gets even better,

even if it's just a tiny little thing, a tiny little step. So

always looking to always looking to improve. So

when you when you speak for that purpose for, you

know, as a keynote speaker correct, because I can't speak.

So do you speak on the success strategies, or the standout

strategies? Or do you that? Yes. Is it a keynote speech

that most of the time I speak about stand up

strategies, and I do some keynote, I love running

workshops as well, though I love like, Yo, I'm a trainer, I give

people worksheets and saying, Hey, you are do do this. Let's

have a play with it. I do also sound out strategies. And mostly

when I speak about, I've just been invited to speak at a

conference in Paris later this year. And I spoke for them

recently on the stand out strategies, and they've said,

right, we want you to come back to the conference in Paris in

December, November. What next? So I'm actually I'm doing

something different for them. But it's actually going to be an

ABC have marketing for speakers and businesses because that's,

that's really important, too. But mostly, mostly, I mean, I

can I'm speaking at an online event in Malaysia in a couple of

weeks time about networking. I'm flying out to Switzerland later

on this month to run a masterclass on presentation

skills. I do all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. It's all

around marketing. Sure. Because if a client says, Oh, we know

that you're really good at this, can you do it? Okay. Standard

strategies is was

about Okay, so let's say it's not standout

strategies. Now you're talking about some other different

things that you just mentioned? How long is the is the run up to

getting ready? What does that involve? Oh,

that's a fabulous question. Love that.

It's something that I realized I don't do enough of I don't do

enough preparation. And for that person to that's why I'm asking.

Okay, the last time I spoke, I came off stage thinking, I did

not do a very good job. Didn't get a properly I didn't get

enough engagement from the audience. It just it just didn't

feel like I'd been on my A game. And I reflected and thought,

like, what what do I what do I need to change? And what I

realized was that I'd gone into it thinking, Oh, I know my

stuff. I'm okay, I can get up there and do it. And I hadn't

spent enough time Pindell in a warm up for a start. So if I can

the half hour before I go on stage, I'm backstage somewhere

doing vocal warm ups and flailing my arms around really?

Yeah. And I don't I don't do enough of that. Sometimes at

smaller events, you can't do that. You can't go and hide.

Yeah, and then they go out on speaker. So I have I have tricks

where I'll be at the back of the room doing breathing exercises

where nobody can see me. So that's kind of the half hour

before. But what I actually need to do a lot more of is is the

day of and the day before and the week before of looking at

the next talk and going okay, right, I need to sit and

rehearse this. Not so that I know it word for word, but so

that if I do lose my way, or if I'm using slides, and the power

goes, I still need to be able to get through the session without

using slides as prompts. Or if somebody says and I have again,

I had this recently, they say I know we promised you 40 minutes,

but can you do it in 20? Back back? Yeah, yeah, I get that I

had I had that recently. I literally as I went or as I went

onstage, they said, Okay, you've still got an hour to do this.

We're starting half an hour late, but we still want you to

do an hour. And I had a timing screen with me that the audience

couldn't see. And I got to 40 minutes. And the emcee walked up

to me and said, You've got two minutes to go. You've got to

close in two minutes. What Okay, so yeah. Hey, you're the client.

I'll do what you say. So

do you ever take that personally, like I

used to? Yeah, I've learned not to Yeah,

because actually you get more brownie points by closing in two

minutes and having the organizer go. That was amazing. Thank you.

You got up on time. I have seen speakers go No, I'm sorry. I'm

here for an hour. Yeah, I saw I saw one last year who started

late because there was a technical issue. And I think, I

don't know, I think he had 14 minutes. And there was a timing

screen in front of him. And after the technical hiccup,

which took about five minutes to sort out, he said to the

organizer, um, could you reset the timing screen for you? So I

get my 40 minutes? No, yeah. Yeah. So there are there are

there are there are ways of shaking up look good. And having

the organizers love you. So so the preparation, the rehearsal

is all about being able to cope with that so that when something

goes wrong, let's throw something extra, or even they

say, I know, we booked you for 40 minutes, but our next speaker

hasn't turned up? Can you do another? 40? It's my favorite I

love I need I need to have more rehearsal time is okay. Yeah, I

need to do this. There's no set amount of time for preparation.

But it's, well, it's often a decent amount definite. So let

me ask you this, then you have a loose idea of

you know, where things are going to land in the timeframe that

you're supposedly have. And then you want to involve the

audience, you want to engage with the audience? So I'm

guessing I know that I think I know the answer to this. But But

I'm curious. What you will say in that. When you start

something, when you do that, when you then reach out and ask

a question or, you know, get people to raise their hands or,

or whatever. Yeah. Does that ever throw you off in the

timing? does it send you sideways? Because something

happens with you know, somebody's answer or anything

like that?

Oh, all the time. Yeah. All the time. There

are so many there are so many things that can go wrong. You

can ask a question, and nobody puts their hand up. Can you get

Tumbleweed? You can you can ask a question where you think you

know the answer. And everybody gives you the opposite answer.

So how many of you experienced this? And they'll go, No, never.

We experienced that. Instead. Audience members contradicting

you get no that's not right. That's that's a that's a fun

one. Audience members asking questions that take you take you

off the tangent and they go, Well, I've got a question. It's

not actually about the strategies. It's not LinkedIn.

Can we talk about LinkedIn? Okay. Yeah. So So again, it's

about it's about being prepared for that. And it's, if it's a

complete tangent question, I'll say, I'm really sorry. We don't

have time to cover that today. Find me afterwards. Yeah. I'll

I'll I'll be in the bar on Yeah. Yeah. There's an awful lot of

thinking on your feet. Exactly.

Yes. And and have you done much speaking in the

US?

Not yet. No, no, I haven't. I am. I'm coming

to a conference in Denver in August 24. That will be my first

adventure into the states. No, at the moment, I'm doing a lot

in the in the UK and in Europe. And I've also been to South

Africa and Singapore. This is

well, I was just curious, because every audience

in every nation is going to be different, right? And I imagine

the US audience will be very different from the UK audience

very different. Yeah, very different.

The The other thing I'm noticing is that I

deliver in English. And I've been asked to present at

conferences in France and Germany, where the majority of

the audience speaks French or German. Oh, and I did one in

Portugal for a Brazilian company, who was who speak

Brazilian Portuguese. Now they had translators in the room. So

I had to speak slowly and clearly in my best English.

Translate, but I've also my most recent one was it was it was a

presentation in Paris to a French audience. And they had

translation running through PowerPoint. So it was on the on

the screen behind me. It worked quite well, because I've learned

to speak more slowly. And clearly, it has, but things like

like jokes, or various depending on you know, even I have I've

had jokes that I've tried that fall flat with an American

audience when I presented online in the States, and I've done the

same job to a German crowd and they love it. And yeah, so yeah,

I had to do a lot of research into what works and what doesn't

and what you know, when I'm when I'm taking a briefing from a

client from the organizers. Okay, tell me about your

audience. Yeah, the Singapore conference was interesting,

because we had we had people from India and Malaysia and

Australia and the states and Singapore itself is a

multinational company. So you've just got to be really aware of

what languages people speak how good their English is or not.

And I was with the with the French crowd, I translated the

key words from the strategies, I translated them into French with

some help from from a French speaker that goes down really

well, they, you and you try, and you try one of one of the words,

so I'm gonna, I'm gonna get this wrong. And my apologies to any

French speakers who are listening, because growth in

French sounds a bit like cross on that croissant is what I had

for breakfast in Paris. So I may because I said to them, how do

you pronounce this and they all shouted down to me, and I said,

but that sounds like croissant. I had that for breakfast. And

that that was a joke that work. They love that little spare part

of me. It's about relationship building.

Yes. And it's really a lot of just being

yourself and and, you know, trying things out and showing

that you that you know that they're different from you. And

you know that, but we're all the same in the end, you know, like,

so let me just ask you this. Before we wrap up a couple of

quick things that I like to ask my audience. Well, actually,

before I do that, no, I have one more question that came to me,

from what you just said. So how much of your time do you spend?

Speaking? And how much of your time do you spend working with

clients on their marketing based on your standout strategies? And

which do you like to do best?

Oh, I'm gonna answer the second bit of the

question. I love both. Okay, not doing both. I love being on

stage and running workshops. I also love mentoring one to one

with clients. Because when I see when I see them get it when I

see the light bulbs going off, and they go, oh, and now I

understand it. And then when they share their successes with

me, I get messages all the time from Oh, I got a speaking gig.

I've got new client, I've done this. I've done that. I love I

love that. So yeah, it's it's, it's and I love the mixture.

Because way speaking in Outer Mongolia, and if the Wi Fi is

good, I can still do mentoring calls with clients.

So you're speaking is your lead into

getting those new clients.

It's a mixture. There's some there's

some paid speaking work. And then there's also some I speak

to promote the business. So there's, there's a real a real

mixture, so but I love I love the variety. It's it's good fun.

Yeah, that's in terms of how much time is spent. I'm probably

doing more mentoring at the moment than speaking. Because

the actual speaking part, you know, I might be on stage for an

hour, 40 minutes. But that takes time is the traveling if I'm if

I'm flying somewhere. So that takes time. But I've also

learned to sleep on planes and get work done at airports.

Yes, I'm sure long

trains. I got loads of work done on a train

yesterday, I had a two hour train journey. And then an hour

between meetings sitting at a hotel. I got loads of work done

so well. That's good. If you Yeah, I'm beyond

that. Now. I think traveling is I used to travel a lot more when

I was young. So okay, so my two questions. One is my curiosity

question. I love that word in itself curiosity. And I'm a very

curious person. So my question for you is two part one, do you

believe curiosity is innate or learned? And what are you most

curious about these days?

I suspect I've always been very curious. I

don't think I've learned to be curious. I think I think I was

curious. Anyway, I was nosy as a child. I I'm still nosy I love I

love finding out about other people I want to know about

them. So I think I had it in me anyway, I've probably learnt to

use it more in business, particularly for building

relationships. If I'm having a sales conversation with a

potential client, I spend most of my time asking questions

about them and their business. And eventually they'll go Oh,

you're gonna tell me about your business. Oh,

that's perfect, right? Yeah. So

what am I curious about? I'm curious about

about potential clients. I love I love getting to know them. I'm

I'm curious about what makes a great speaker that's that's the

other thing and kind of how I'm curious about how I can can get

to the get to the top of my game. We Yeah, I haven't won any

awards yet for speaking and I need to do that. So yeah. I'm

curious for me for it for learning about about what next?

I've been doing improv and stand up comedy and all sorts of

things as a way of developing my speaking so yeah, that's that's

my that's my big curiosity at the moment.

Fantastic. I love that. Thank you. Thank you for

sharing that. And would you say you in terms of how you get your

information or and or enjoy fiction even because I mostly

don't do fiction, but that's why I'm asking do you read? Do you

listen? Do you watch? Like, what? What is your thing? I,

I? I'm very old fashioned. I like reading

books. You know, the paper ones? Yes, yes. When I was, when I was

a kid, when I got a book for Christmas, the first thing I

would do is open it up and smell the inside of the smell of new

books. My first weekend job was at a bookstore in England. I've

always loved books. I love second hand books as well. So

I'm surrounded by books in my office. So yeah, I read. I'm

much happier reading. I don't like it when somebody says, Oh,

can I send you a PDF to read? No, no. I end up printing it out

sometimes. So yeah, paint paint paper books Am I Am I thing? I

tend to, I do listen to more podcasts now. Because I can do

that while I'm walking the dog or outside in the garden. And I

can I can take a podcast with me. And you can't you can't read

while you're riding a horse.

It's funny. Yeah. You reminded me that the very

first book I ever remember, as as a special book was one that I

went I was born in England, and I went to school in England from

age four to age eight, where I was nine, nine when we came to

Canada. And in England, in the school, I went to public school,

and they used to have as a teacher, I wasn't an elementary

teacher. I'm abhorred by what they did when I was in school.

So they they had us sitting in the classroom, in the order of

who was the smartest, who sat at the back of the room. And all

the way to the front where the less smart children were in our

classroom. Everybody knew it, like our kids, we all knew. And

it was it was I mean, I think about that now I you know, I

just anyway, so they gave awards, academic awards, each, I

don't know, each. They weren't semesters, but each year,

whatever. And I was always at the top of my class, I was

either the first or the second seat, like at the back. And I

won an award each time and they were always books, and the very

first book that I got was Wind in the Willows. Oh, no. And

inside, I've still got it. And inside the book, it was

calligraphy first place, Janice, and my last name, you know, and

when, what my form was, anyway, but it's, it's kind of

frightening in one way. But it was also something I'll never

forget, because that my love of books came from there. But I'm

with you. I love to read them too. But, but I also love

podcasts. And there's so many good ones out there. Thank you

so much for being on my podcast. Thank you for being an amazing

guest and for sharing your standout strategies. With me

very

welcome. I've realized that we haven't

actually talked about how people can find out what their strategy

is. That's

right. So go ahead and do it. So you'll have

to come back by the way, too, when that's the other thing that

we have so much to say. And so little time.

I know, I'll come back, but we lovely. So if

you go to my website, which is apple tree uk.com. And you click

on the take the test link, and there is a page there, where you

can take the test, follow the instructions, take the test,

send, send it send the form through to me and I put the I

run it through a little bit of software, and I will then send

out anyone who does it, I send out a report that says this is

the strategy of the five that will make your business stand

out. It also shows the language that you can then use in your

marketing. So we talked earlier about me using the certainty

language and it will be the same for you Jannetty and use

certainty language in your marketing. And that's what will

build the relationship with the potential client when they look

at it and go up. She gets me she understands me. So yeah, Bob,

pop on over to take the test on apple tree uk.com. And you can

go from there. Perfect.

And I will put that in the show notes.

Absolutely. And I will do that as well. I've got it up now so

that I can see it. Yeah. So thank you again, thank you for

being here and for sharing your wisdom with my audience. Thank

you to my audience for being here. As usual. I appreciate

you. And if you like what you heard, please leave a review we

always appreciate Keep that and remember to stay connected and

be remembered