The latest Superstar Communicator podcast is an interview with the excellent Chantal Cornelius from Appletree Marketing She shares top tips for marketing. Listen to the podcast at the link below.
Key learning points:
1. Ask for referrals and recommendations
2. Pick up the phone; leave voice mail messages to reconnect with clients
3. Speak or network in real life and online to raise visibility.
Download the Transcript here:
the Superstar Communicator Podcast
“Susan’s podcasts are unmissable.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — to make more of an impact and raise their credibility in business conversations. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the podcast. I’m adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed and, if you’re not subscribed, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out. Subscribe now!
Read the Transcript here.
Welcome to the superstar communicator podcast. My name is Susan Heaton-Wright, a leading impact speaking and communications expert. My aim is to show you how to make an impact. So you will be heard or listened to and respected for career success. Listen weekly to the podcast, and go to our website, www.superstar.communicator.com.
Hello, everybody, this is Susan Heaton-Wright. From superstar communicator, I hope you’re keeping well. And I hope you’re looking forward to this particular episode. Because we’ve got another good one. You know, as well as I do that this podcast is all about spoken communication, and how we can make an impact, whether we’re actually speaking, or whether we’re listening so that we can raise our visibility and impact in business conversations. I’m very, very pleased to have on the other end of the internet, the wonderful Chantal Cornelius, who is a marketeer, and she is a friend of mine, and she is a really, really good egg. She set up her business Appletree marketing in 2000. And since then, has helped hundreds of coaches, consultants and trainers to grow their businesses. She does marketing very differently to most people by providing simple, practical and down to earth advice to help small businesses grow.
2020 has been her most successful year so far. That’s incredible. And she has spent the year adapting her business to new ways of working and showing her clients how to do the same. So welcome, Chantal. Thank you, Susan. It’s lovely to be here. Thank you for having me. That is my pleasure. So how on earth in 2020? Have you had your best year ever tell us the secret? Well, well, aside from working my socks off. So I decided back in back in March, when the world started going into lockdown. I noticed a lot of people in running small businesses going or we’re just we’re just going to hide for a few months, we’re going to sit this out and wait for it to go away and wait till we go back to normal. I’m not very good at sitting still and waiting for things to get better. So I thought right, what can I do to actually make this work. And also I’ve got clients who, who rely on me to help them with their marketing to guide them and to be coming up with ideas. And I knew that if I didn’t do anything, pretty soon they’d be going, what should we be doing? So I took it upon myself to adapt my business, learn what I could do to make my business work in this kind of new online world. And then also share that with with clients. So it was things like Well, I have a I have an ABC of marketing. That works brilliantly for anyone who runs a service businesses, so coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers, and I looked at how I could take my offline ABC and move it all online, for me to try to I run through the ABC routers, yeah, that would be really useful actually.
Okay. Okay, so A is asked for referrals and recommendations. So when you provide a service people buy from you, because they trust you. One of the best ways for them to trust you is by getting a recommendation for somebody else. I was interviewing a new window cleaner only this morning. And I actually put a post on we’ve got a really active village Facebook group and I posted on there a while ago. So I need a new window cleaner, who’s got recommendations, and three recommendations came up to that one chap contacted me and turned up at the wrong house to do a quote. So he’s not getting the work. Phil became this morning. absolutely lovely. You know, he’s got the job. But he came through a recommendation from a friend at the road. So we’re much more likely to buy from somebody who was in was recommended to us, you can still do that online, particularly with things like LinkedIn. So getting LinkedIn recommendations is really, really powerful. And I have a game that I play every month I asked for a recommendation. And every month I give a recommendation. I think that is really, really, really important. So that’s that’s A and also in terms of spoken communications. Just get on the phone and talk to people and ask them for recommendation. And I had an email from a client the other day saying, well, I’ve emailed this person three times and they haven’t responded. No, get on the phone, talk to them. So that’s that’s A,
B is business networking, and this It’s been the big shift for me this year. So in within networking I am also includes speaking, and I do a lot of speaking to groups of organisations of coaches and small businesses. Yes. And last time I’ve measured 53% of my clients have come to me because they’ve heard me speak. Wow. And so I love, I love doing it. But I’ve learned how to do it online. I love speaking anyway. And I’ve learned that I can’t do it in a room full of people. So I’ve had to learn how to do it. And if you can see behind me, I’ve got I’ve got a banner up there. And I put that there so that it’s kind of made me keep my office tidy, but I’ve got the banner there so that when I’m online, people can see and there’s some branding. But you know, I’ve learned, I’ve learned how to do it, I’ve watched them some some of the best, I’ve watched some of the best and learn from them. So networking online speaking online, really, really powerful way of growing a business, and I’ve been doing loads of it. I’ve noticed companies and business owners earlier in the year going, Oh, no, it’s not. It’s not gonna, it’s not gonna last, we’ll just hunker down and wait it out. Don’t, you’ve got to get out there and do it. And again, it’s about building relationships with people, if you if you’re speaking at an event, you can share it, it’s not about saying I’m gonna look at me, I’m great. But it’s about saying about sharing advice. But like I’m doing now with my ABC. And that way people get what she’s saying I might get in touch with her.
C is for content. And that in terms of spoken word, that best way is about is about videos. So using videos of tips, and advice and interviews and share them so that when somebody is recommended to you or they see you speak online, we’ll see you at a networking event, they can then go to your website, your LinkedIn profile, and actually see real examples of you of you speaking, and examples of you sharing sharing your advice. So that’s, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve done loads and loads of that this year. And I’ve got all my clients to do it too. So that’s incredible. And it’s interesting you say about interviews only today, one of my business friends asked me to be on a LinkedIn live with her. Which is, and I always say yes to those things. Yeah, I think I think that’s a great idea. My I guess my one, my one caveat, and I mentioned this to somebody on your own is make sure that the audience you’re going to be speaking to is relevant. Yes, you’re not being paid to speak. You can still you can use that to promote your business. But make sure that whoever’s listening, I’ve been asked to do a lot of interviews and podcasts this this year, and I’ve turned quite a few down. So you’re lucky that I’m here. I’m joking. I’ve turned ones down where there was one lady who said, Would you come and speak to my health and wellbeing group? Because they’re all I think they were all mums. And I said, it’s not really my market. Give me business owners give me coaches and speakers. And I’m there. So yeah, if somebody asks you to speak and so on a LinkedIn live or a podcast like this? Yeah, absolutely. Do it. Just check the check that the the audiences is relevant than Yep, go for it. A great fun.
And I’m glad you said that, because I’ve been invited to do lots of virtual workshops. I’ve done a lot of paid ones in the last eight months. But I have done very carefully selected virtual workshops to audiences that that I knew were an area that I wanted to be seen. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. I think I think it’s really important because otherwise you can spend it spend an awful lot of time doing an awful lot of speaking and interviews to people who are never gonna buy from you. And you might get a warm, fuzzy feeling on doing it. If you’re looking to practice your speaking, great, go for it. But if you’re looking to use speaking, to promote your business and your services, then you do need to be talking to the right to the right people. Definitely. And it’s great that you mentioned about podcasts as well, because there is an opportunity if it’s within the right market for you to be known elsewhere. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s Yeah, it’s a nice way of spreading of widening your your market. So you’ve probably got a lot of people listening to this podcast who I don’t know. And oh, look, now they’ve heard about me. So yes, it’s marketing. So, but I think I think you’ve still got to this is where the see the content comes in. You’ve still got to share something useful. If you if you just wanted to interview me about my fabulous business. Well, nobody would listen to that they want they want tips and advice, which is why I would much prefer sharing my ABC of marketing so that it’s really interesting because I obviously get lots of pitches for my podcast, and with respect there are a lot of people Hold that contact me, or I’ve got a great story to tell. And it’s not really relevant. And listeners, I want to serve you the very best I can, with great content that will be relevant to you. And the reason why you listen to this. Yeah. And that and that’s really important for you, Susan, in terms of your reputation, because if you were just interviewing people who had a nice story, people want nice stories, fine. But actually, you’ve got to be selective, because what you don’t want is for somebody to come on and start pitching them themselves to your listeners, because that doesn’t look good for you know, I have to be honest with you, Chantal.
And listeners, there are two interviews that I have not used over the years. Because despite keeping warning them giving them yellow cards. The pitching continued throughout every sentence. And I just refuse to use them. It’s not fair on the audience. Know that. And then like I said, and it doesn’t look good on you, because you’ve got to be thinking about your education. So well done you. Did you tell the people that you haven’t used? Yeah, I did. I gave them the option to re-record and they they scuttled away. Interesting. Yes.
Very interesting. I think that in itself is really, really useful advice, isn’t it? That that actually people want tips? And then that I suppose that’s part of the listener being able to build up trust? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Because if I was just sitting here, raving about how brilliant my business was, that’s not going to build up trust with anyone. Whereas if I can say, here’s what I’ve done, or here are my tips, people might go one thing I quite like, satellite, like the sound of what she’s saying. But there’s also an element of generosity in them. And I’ve built my business over the last 20 years on generosity. If somebody wants advice, I’ll give them advice. Not for hours, but you know, I’ll share whatever tips and advice I can rather than saying, well, you’re not a client, therefore, I’m not going to do anything for you unless you pay me. Because it when you’re when you’re generous, and you give of your time and expertise to somebody, they’re much more likely to remember you and come back and say we’re actually getting ready to ready to pay now. So or recommend you to somebody else. So yeah, that’s how it works. So the type of organisations that you’ve been speaking at, what sort of sort of organisations are they?
So because I specialise in working with micro businesses, who are all coaches, consultants, trainers, so there’s a fabulous organisation called the International coaching Federation. And they, they have groups all around the UK, that are all online at the moment, but they they’re basically their regional groups. And I’ve been invited to speak to a lot of those regional groups and one of one of one of the one of the nice ones I was originally booked to speak in May this year to the Bath and Bristol group, and it was going to be an actual in the room drive down to bath or go on the train down to Barton and go and speak. And as soon as we went into lockdown, I started contacting people who I’d been booked to speak or saying, let’s do this online. Yeah, it and we had, I don’t know, 30 odd people there who weren’t even necessarily from the bar from Bristol area. So that was that was nice. So that’s then the professional speaking Association, the PSA, which is how you and I met? Yes, I speak at various events for them around the around the countryside, their regional meetings, because their members are all speakers and coaches and trainers. I do do stuff for them. Well, I’ve spoken to organisations like the FSB, the Federation of small Businesses, so if if anyone’s listening, who is a company with fewer than 250 members of staff, you can join the FSB. And I do recommend you do it my my dad told me to join about 18 years ago and because I always do what I’m told, I joined and it was brilliant because they have they’re doing a lot of online networking at the moment, but they have a lot of other perks and benefits like free banking and legal and with the FSB, as well look at the good they’ve been.
They’ve helped me and a few clients out over the years with their their free legal helpline. But, you know, I’ve spoken I’ve spoken I haven’t done any online events for them, but I’ve done in the room events, I’ve run workshops for them. Yeah. Again, it’s it’s that because they’re members of small businesses, that’s that’s what six that so listeners if you are thinking about speaking, maybe there are some professional organisations that you could offer to do a speech for or to share some tips or if they’re having a panel discussion that you could be one of the people on the panel discussion. And then you’re demonstrating how you how good you are and you’re building up trust.
One of one of the things the key is a really good eye, this is one of the key things to do would be to, if anyone’s listening and they’re a specialist in a particular area, let’s say there are an HR specialist or organisational development specialist. organisations like the cipd Chartered Institute of personnel and development, they run all sorts of events. So you could contact them and say, Look, I’m a specialist in this, would you like me to come along and run a webinar or a talk or something for some of your members? If you’re an industry, and one of my clients is a health and safety consultant, so there are conferences about health and safety, and he can he’s, he’s brilliant. He’s really, really knowledgeable. He’s doing it for a long time. He can easily find them and phone up conferences and say, Would you like me to come and speak? Or, you know, would you like me to come and be on your panel? So yeah, look, look for look for events where your clients are going to be that will really show off your, your expertise and your experience. So what a great idea. So one of the things that we always have in this podcast is for the guest to share three top tips. Now obviously, for you This is related to marketing, and spoken communication rather than other methods of marketing. I hopefully you do have three top tips. Oh, I’ve got far too many. That’s all I do. That’s the challenge. So, okay, three topics. Well, I’m I’m going to link them back to my ABC of marketing. Okay, I think that works really well. So “A “asking for referrals. So in terms of spoken communication. Oh, here’s one. Okay. So video, video testimonials.
They are avail Great. So if, if, in the olden days, when I went and actually spoke at events, if they were being filmed, I would ask somebody, if they would give me a quick video testimonial or recommendation. It’s almost easier now. Because if you’re on zoom with somebody, you can ask them, you could be recording the session. And you can ask them to do your quick video recommendation, testimonial, great idea of that onto your website. Because it’s totally authentic, you know, you can’t look at the video and go, Oh, they’re lying. Somebody else wrote that for them. And quite often I’ll say, just tell me what you liked about the talk. And then you can talk and tailor it you can put subtitles if you if you want to get a get get get video, video testimonials and recommendations. So that’s A ask for recommendations, “B” business networking. Tip around that is if you’re at a networking and online networking event, do something to stand out.
Obviously Susan and I are both coordinated and our pink jumper was it. But if you’re at an online networking event, you might there might be 30 other little thumbnails on the screen, you’ve got to do something to stand out. So I will quite often wear a bright pink jumper or I’ve got some really gorgeous coloured scarves and I love dangly earrings might put some makeup on. But also I’ll think of houses an event a while ago and that the organisers said, Here’s something to celebrate this week, right? Yeah, me. And he said, Great. What is it? Oh, heck, think of something. So always, always do something to stand out yet ask a question, give some feedback so that you’re not just a little square in a corner that nobody sees. Really, that’s the brilliant tip one and then content around spoken communication. It goes it goes back to back to videos. So and again, it’s really easy to do these days I used to struggle I used to have a member of staff in the office with me who’s long gone and I used to get her to point the camera at me and she’d kill me when I was if I want to do a minutes video tip. I just sit in front of my computer and turn on zoom and record myself. Yes. So just make sure the backgrounds nice and tidy and the windows are closed and whatever. So yeah, really, really easy. These days.
The videographers will hate me for saying it. You can still pay people to have it done really nicely. But if you just want to do a quick series of tips and I could do my ABC spoken to camera light like we’re doing now and put that out and you can put that put out on Facebook on LinkedIn you can put it on your website. So share, share your share your knowledge and your tips through videos. What a fantastic group of have tips there. And I am absolutely certain that there are going to be some listeners who are going to be very interested in your business, and how possibly they could work with you. Well, that that would be lovely. I’m very busy at the moment, I’m actually not taking on any new clients until until January next year. But if I could add that this will be coming out in 2021. I’m taking on new tires. That’s good. I’m open for business again, though this year has been fabulous and busy, but I need to I need to ease off but and know if anyone wants more information they can they can go to my website, which is apple tree uk.com. I’ve written a couple of books, and one of them is called one in 10 is how to survive your first 10 years in business. Susan, you and I will work out somehow how to how to give everyone link but there’s a there’s a hidden page on my website. If you’d like a free copy of one in 10, then go to that link. And all you have to do is pay two pounds 50 for UK postage, pay through PayPal, and that will that will give me your postal address. And I will pop copy in the post. But brilliant. So what I will do is that I’ve got that link. Now, I will make sure that I won’t put it publicly I’ll try and work out a way that well, I’ll put it on the notes for the podcast, so that people can contact you directly in order and also in the transcript for this particular podcast as well. That sounds wonderful. Thank you very much. So is there anything else that you’d like to add, given that your 2020 has been so incredible? Oh,I suppose my big tip is looking after yourselves. Because I’m very good at working my socks off and sliding down the slope into burnout. Which is why I yeah, and I have some really good friends around me who every now and then we’ll go are you working too hard. So while it’s important to run brilliant businesses and make money and earn a living, just watch out for yourself. Because if if if you are the only person in your business, if you’re not okay, then your business is gonna is going to suffer. So please make make time make time for yourselves. Definitely the biggie. That’s a very, very good piece of advice. Thank you very much for reminding us that there’s that real balance. And particularly since everything is so uncertain, we’ve got to work harder to rebalance the stress that we’re all experiencing. Some somebody told me a long time ago that there is no such thing when when you run your own business, there is no such thing as work life balance. Its work life integration. And it’s about working out how best to integrate your your work and your life so that you don’t spend all hours it’ll be very easy for me to carry on working in the evening and have to learn and learning to switch up. So look at look at how to integrate it and how to make sure that you you get the balance and that you look after yourself. What good advice. So before we finish, well, is there anything else that you would like to add? Yeah, thank you for having me. It’s been lovely. Oh. And next time, we will definitely make sure we called and that dress code coordinate jumpers again, because I think it’s very important. That’s fantastic. Thank you so much. Please get in contact with Chantal. And make the most of the offer of getting a copy of her book. Because it could be a really, really useful thing for you to read, particularly at the beginning of 2021 if you deciding to start a business or you’re growing your own business. So thank you very much for coming on this podcast. Remember everybody that I will be producing a transcript of this. My website now has got posts for each of the individual podcasts as they come out with a summary. You can download the transcript. And also remember to subscribe because it would be lovely to for you to subscribe so you can get these podcasts automatically. And since I’m asking for referrals because of the ABC, if you want to write a testimonial, I would be so grateful because it’s up to you. And by you sharing this sharing what I do, it means that more people will get to hear about it. So thank you very much for listening and Until next time, this is Susan Heaton-Wright. From superstar communicator. You have been listening to the superstar communicator podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe and review the podcast on iTunes and all that. Please contact us if you want to discuss any topic would suggest a topic for us to include, or a guest who could come on to the p
How to Self Lead in the Office