Vision Pros Live Podcast
Original podcast
Vision strategy and marketing with Naomi and Jackson.
10,338 words · 2 speakers
Okay, UK, other side of the world, um, not that side of the world. Perfect. So you're over in the UK. And um, you had a bakery. Is it still open or or do you sell it or what?
I closed it. So I closed it in two years ago, really. It was quite a, because obviously we had.
I don't want to backstab. Let me let me tee you up more fairly than that, because it's a really cool long story, right? And you went from corporate, from what I understand, or from like employment to launching this bakery, winning some pretty big awards regarding it. You know a lot about strategy and marketing, which is one of our favorite subjects. Because a vision without strategy and marketing is like a haphazard waiting to explode in people's face or never take off. So what you have is such a gift. Um, and so I went right for, well, wait, do you still have it or not? Uh, now you guys all know watching in, like, we have real, raw, authentic conversations as we go. Uh, so Naomi, tell tell me about the bakery, because that is one of the hardest business models, restaurants and bakeries that there is. And you succeeded quite fast with it. And yeah, where'd it go?
Oh, it, do you know, it was quite a roller coaster. So I used to, like you said, I used to work in sort of the corporate. I also worked in charity and nonprofit, which is a really interesting industry to be in from a marketing perspective, because you have to be very creative with very little budget, but it taught me an awful lot. And often the things I was trying to get people to support were quite tricky things. So I'd have to turn very technical data into something that would appeal to a wider audience on social media and in emails and tell that story. So that would be what I was doing. And I like my team. I led digital teams. So I did everything from brand and marketing, but it was a nine to five job.
And I'm a creative by nature. I love data. I love analytics, but I also like being able to go off and just do my own thing. And I want, I really want to do something that I love, and I love baking. So an opportunity came up to open a, initially a cafe and a bar, a, a local building came available. I had this incredible history, but being left derelict, it formerly been a nightclub, but originally it was opened as a.
Um. It was called the Bedford Hunts and Cam's, which is my local district. Electricity company showrooms. It was where electricity had come into the town. I'm like, how do I not know this story? I've lived here for like six years and I didn't know what this building did. And it was a perfect building for a cafe bar and I'm a musician. That's my background. Um. That's where I started and I'm like, oh, the the show we could put on here would be incredible and my mind just kind of ran. And the idea ran away with me at that point and I kind of got myself into a point where I committed. So I quit my job and did this. It was kind of like an opportunity that's like, I don't want to be that person at ninety. Sat in my chair, thinking about the sugar, could have with us. So that's how I did it.
And I thought, okay, I haven't really got any experience of running a business and I'm certainly not a professional baker. But I know how to plan, so I'm going to put a plan in place to get me there. And the, I mean, the plan obviously went well out, truly out the window, because I didn't know what I was doing. But it gave me, it gave me that direction.
Motivation.
Exactly. And I saw the vision. I had that vision of what I wanted to create. I know how I wanted people to feel. And I knew what I wanted the place to be. And that was really the driving force. It wasn't really about. What I was selling. It wasn't about, I didn't know the menu until about two weeks before. If I'm completely honest, I certainly hadn't been sitting there practising baking. Um. But I knew I needed a team. I needed a a team of people that were friendly. I wanted people to feel welcomed. I wanted them to feel belonged. And it was really about what I wanted people to feel rather than what I was going to sell. And that was a vision I saw and it was named after my grandmother because of, she always wanted a tea room.
But mainly because her attitude was about solutions. So she saw solutions rather than problems. So she went blind at eighty seven. She also looked after the elderly until she was eighty seven. So she was older than most of them. But because she lost her sight, she couldn't continue to do that. But she loved baking and wanted it because she wanted a tea room. That was always her dream. But it didn't stop her from baking because she hadn't got any sight. She just found ways around it. So that was how. I wanted to build my business was on that ethos, but being able to be welcoming and warm. So that was how it got created. And. Then, obviously, this was about fifteen months before the pandemic hit, so no one could see that one coming, right?
So that was a really interesting, from a strategic point of view, I mean, it was fascinating watching the change in customer behaviour from a kind of business point of view, not so great for my financial bottom line, but I had to have a completely flexible strategy, it completely changed the way I worked. And what I learnt of how people behave, their buying patterns, the way to market was out the window, it didn't matter, there was no plan, it was a day to day plan. It had to be like that because the rules kept changing here in the UK.
Yep.
And then I realised there was this opportunity to have a bakery. And that's when I got this idea and started making the bread in the cafe, because we only had a small, we had a home oven, so we had a very small space in our kitchen, it wasn't a massive oven for the cafe. And I started making bread for the bakery, for the cafe, because we didn't have a reliable local supplier, they were having staffing problems and had done for a long time. So we'd get bread like midway through the day, which is no use when people want breakfast. So I thought, well, I'll just start making it, because I like baking bread, it was a passion, but obviously running a full time cafe and bar didn't give me time for that, so I brought that in.
And people kept saying, oh, where'd you get your bread from? I'm like, well, we make it. Can I, can I have some? Like, well, not really, because I haven't got a big enough oven. But then I, I realised I created this side hustle, so I thought, I haven't got the cash flow, because I haven't been long in the business. The bank who were giving out loans at the time to help support businesses, I only wanted to support businesses that were profitable, and I was breaking even, which in the hospitality world, in the middle of a pandemic.
Two and a half years in was incredible. And the fact that I kept all my staff employed was even more incredible.
Oh my gosh.
And they still said no. So I couldn't get that. I was like, well, what my other option? So I went to crowdfunding. That was where someone said, well, have you thought about that? I'm like, why haven't I thought about that? It's like the ultimate marketing campaign because not only does it give me investors, so people invest in crowdfunding, but it also gives me a customer base from day one. And it also makes people feel part of a community. If it fails, I know it's the wrong business offer. So from a marketing perspective, if I, if it fails, it's wrong. So I put together a whole marketing plan. And it was completely, I didn't expect the response I got from it, but I had over three hundred people support it, which raised
seventeen thousand UK pounds, which was well over our target. And then it was, it was incredible. So after I'd done that and we opened the bakery, three months later, I entered the team without them knowing into Britain's best local awards. So I, I put them into awards, which are national awards, partly because I just wanted to see how we compared and to also go to a food event. Because why wouldn't I want to hang out with the, well, the UK's best bakeries? And then we won it, which completely blew our minds. Because we're like, we're three months in, we're not professional bakers. We were literally making it up as we go along and then we won.
So it was really rewarding to be able to give that back, not only to the team, because they'd worked so hard, but to the community that had invested into something. And it was just really incredible. But going on to the, I don't have the bakery now, we had the um, cost of living crisis hit in the UK where. After Covid and after the pandemic, having got through that, we one had, we were massively affected by the war in Russia and the Ukraine. So like getting supplies of things like flour went from three daily to fourteen days overnight. So I couldn't get flour. And the cost of living just sent our energy prices through the roof and running bakeries is expensive.
So even though you sell like loaves, I had sourdough loaves, so they would go to like four, five dollars in the US. That's how much I'd sell them for. But the amount of work that would go in to get that on the shelf was quite a lot. Um, and it just became financially unviable and it was really heartbreaking to have to go through that. But I had to be real as a leader and at the time it was that I fought tooth and nail to keep it open. But the customers had changed their behaviours. It wasn't anything I could have done without a lot more investment to complete. We changed the business into maybe going online, but then the location wouldn't have been right. So I had to make that really difficult decision a year after going through all of that to close it.
And sometimes that's just the reality of business of we, there are some things inside our control, there are some things outside our control. That one, I had to go through all the options. So it was such an incredible experience having done that. And it's got me a little bit to where I am now, really. It's helped me with that journey. But it's sometimes that's the nature of business. Not everything works.
You said a little bit, but that is a lot of it to help, um, right? Everything that you did there that built up the muscles, um, right? The strength, the emotional, the resilience, like there's so much there. You just give a masterclass on strategy, marketing and leadership, which is so often overlooked when it comes to these realities. Uh, that was just beautiful. For those of you wondering, seventeen thousand in UK pounds is about twenty one thousand US dollars. Uh, what an injection for a brand and, and it's not easy to launch those campaigns either, I know, because I've been involved in them. And so the, the, all of the Ts that have to be crossed, the Is that have to be dotted, the pieces that have to come into play to that. And the fact that you have all the capacity that you have as an individual visionary,
yet you also have a complete respect and admiration for the team. Like, that's huge. You're going so far in so many ways, Naomi. It is so exciting to have you on Vision Pros Live. So, we're gonna dive into a few resources real quick and we'll come back and dive into this vision even further. But for the other visionary leaders out there listening in, along this whole journey and path, what are three of the best resources that you've come across that have helped you get to where you are today?
There are so many things, I think, that have helped. And I think it's about finding the right ones for you. One book I've read quite recently, actually, and in a way, it helped me realize that there is so many ways to run a business. I knew this anyway, but it kind of reiterated that, was Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. So, he is the founder of Nike, the brand Nike. It's well worth reading that book because you realize what some people will go through for their vision of their business. And what he went through is incredible. How he got it to where he did is just... There were times where I was like, I don't know if I could... My heart was in my mouth from
him living on the edge of, literally, there was sometimes where he was on the edge of financial ruin in the blink of an eye. That was 20 years of his career. So, it's an absolutely fascinating book. But it also is really powerful because if you've got that really strong vision and that really strong drive, it shows that you will find solutions and you will find ways around it because that's what you really want to do. So, that is a brilliant resource. So, go have a read of that book. And if you've watched the film Air as well,
this is the prelogue to this. So, this is the prelogue. So, read that and then watch the film. The film is also very good.
I'm glad you said that. I'm glad you framed that for those of us who are like, I saw the movie, I'll be fine. But no, it's a totally different story.
Totally, it's before, it's before Michael Jordan. So this is from the sixties onwards. This is from the very, very, very beginning stages of Nike when he used to go around in the back of his car to run meets. So, and he's written it himself. So it's completely come from his perspective in a really honest way. So really good to see that, yeah, not, not a way I could run a business. It would, I'd be pure panic for like the whole time. And I think he was some of it, but again, a great story.
Number two.
Number two, another book, I think this was I read, and this person is now my mentor as well. I read this book when I came out of having closed the cafe bar and bakery because I was at quite a pivotal moment and also quite a low moment. Because I was feeling like I'd really failed. It was something that I had not set out to do was failure wasn't an option for me. But that was the card that I had been dealt at the time. And I'm, after having worked eighty hour weeks on my feet for a little while to keep the business going. I wanted a business that then worked for me. I wanted to change the way that I did business because I'd learnt a lot about what I didn't want to do. This book helped me realise that there is more than one way to do your business.
And it was called Make Money Online by my mentor Lisa Johnson. She is the queen of passive income. So she's done a lot around passive and semi passive income. I don't like the term passive income. There is no such thing. But what it teaches you is you get to choose how much you earn. You just need a plan to get there and you can do it in the way that works for you. And a lot of the games that we play with ourselves is to do with mindset. So it's a really great book and she's really, she's really good at being quite structured and very process led to make business simple. Because we over complicate, as human beings, we like to over complicate and overthink things, particularly when it comes to business. So she gives really simple solutions as to how to do that.
I'll play devil's advocate on that. You and I are the types of people that like to over complicate things. I can see that and tell that most people who hear us can, can understand it too. There's a whole subsector of human beings, I shouldn't say subsector, there's a different lie aside that I think is far more prominent that loves to oversimplify things. Um, right. And the key is finding the balance, right? Not doing either of those realities. What was her name again?
Lisa Johnson.
Lisa Johnson. And what's your third resource?
So my third resource was. It's a podcast, actually, and this is an Australian money mindset coach called Denise Duffield Thomas. She wrote a book called Chill and Prosper. Um, but she talks a lot about money and I never really understood my relationship with money until I came out the cafe. I didn't really know what mindset was, if I'm completely honest. I worked in hospitality. It was like, it's a world, and particularly in the world of music, is you get stuff done regardless of who you are and what you do. You know, it's kind of like you power through because there's a show to put on. And
And the most of music is emotional, not that it all is, but a lot of it is extremely emotional. And so that's what carries you day to day.
Absolutely. So you, I, when I came out that, and the reason why this podcast really resonated with me, partly because she is quite straight talking and she talks very realistically about her life and what she wants. But being a musician, the choice I had as a child was you choose passion, you choose profit, but you can't have both.
Right.
The, you can't have them together because
That's pretty universal. In the US, they taught us the same thing.
Yeah, and it, and it's not true. And I followed my heart. I did music. I'm still, like, I'm still a musician now. It's not my main business, but
it, it was so wrong. And I've had to do a lot of unpicking of my beliefs around money and what I feel about that. And I talk a lot about, I don't talk a lot about money on my social channels, but I talk a lot about money outside of that. And I talk about being comfortable with having money and being able to do that because it's okay to earn what you want to earn. It's your choice of what you earn.
Yes.
That's what she helps with and being able to kind of put things into very practical perspective. So it's a really great, a really short podcast as well, and she's quite fun. So she vibes with me.
Absolutely. Visionary is a law of attraction, big, big time here. Same thing with religious beliefs too. Money's a resource.
Right. However, we treat our resources, if we disregard the water we have, that's not going to be good for our life, right? If we disregard the food that we have, same thing. If we disregard the money we have, if we take care of our resources, though, then they have an opportunity to to help us have more of what it is that we want. So also, that was a huge shift for me. And I think most visionaries are like the two of us, right? If I had to choose, which is just such a dangerous game anyway, but of like, passion or profit, I'd choose passion. Like, I wouldn't go the other route. And so I'd rather know that I live my life passionately and live under a bridge than live my life with a ton of riches and completely like turn my back on the things that are most
important to me. You know, that that just I can't see a world where I would I would do that. And so the good news is, we don't have to choose. Nobody's asking you to choose between one or the other that's that's healthy and that's successful. They all know that. So thank you. These were phenomenal resources. This has been a wild on fire episode. We're going to take a quick break so I can clear my throat. We'll be right back and dive into Naomi Rose's vision further. We're going to be talking about strategy and marketing as well for your visions. Unfortunately, my friends, the best vision almost never wins. It's the best strategy and the best marketing that typically does. And so if you're hanging on to vision and hoping for luck to be the thing that that drives
your success, or just a little bit more oomph, there's more variables to pay attention to. And we're going to try to unpack as many of those as we can to help you have the most rock solid path possible for the vision you want to bring to life. And we will see you on the other side. All right. Welcome in to Vision Pros Live. With Jackson Callum, I'm your show host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic visions
What's up Vision Pros? It's so good to be back. My name is Jackson Callum, the founder of First Class Business and one of the hosts of Vision Pros Live. I'm so excited to have Naomi Rose on the show today. We're going to be diving into two of my most passionate, passionate subjects, and that is strategy and marketing. And it's so important to discover the vast, the vast reality of what is strategy and marketing, because marketing cannot be limited down to a gal or a guy. It is called a department for a reason. And if you have a vision that you are hoping to scale at some point, then getting ahead of the curve and understanding that will really, really help you on your journey to establish a great vision.
Before we dive into details of, and then again, Naomi's, what she's brought to the table is the wisdom of having gone the corporate route, having opening, having opened a bakery and also shut that down and understanding the value of the long-term vision and her demeanor, her cadence, her value of team. She's showing all of the greatest signs of the greatest leaders that I interview. So this is a true treasure and treat to have her on today. A couple of other value points for you guys right up here in the sponsor section. We've got Oportunidades de Trabajo para Latinos. That's Opportunities for Work. And I said Latinos, but we've now launched this in Pakistan. We've launched this in the Philippines. We've launched this in India and we continue to expand and grow.
This is an opportunity to help Latinos and other people throughout the world find work. And we do this all for free, by the way. We bring them in, teach them about becoming virtual assistants. You're welcome to hire any of them on your own accord. You're also welcome to see how we go through the 90-day training program to help them become great leaders. The whole thing is just, it's my heart and joy. That's what I love to do. So we just went to Panama and did a huge thing down in Panama. I'm headed to Puerto Rico this coming month, and I'm headed to Colombia the month after to do the same thing in person. This has been 14 years in the making, my friends. Thanks for letting me put it out there and help the world understand. If you're a Latino who would love to be on that show, or you know a Latino who would be inspiring, please send them to be
A guest on Obradias Latinas, that's Opportunities for Latinos. And they can be a guest to tell their inspiring story. We've got so many millions of people in the world to inspire with that. And Cynthia and Luisa do an excellent job as hosts of that show. Then we have Learn and Grow Rich, which ironically Zach Holman lives in Colombia in Medellin, even though he doesn't speak Spanish, but he is now our Chief Financial Officer. And I want his program continued to grow, but we, we invest in him for both our brand and Effortless Vitality. And we'll continue to do so for other brands that we work with. He's got the financial version of pretty much everything we've built on the CEO, CMO and COO side of things. And, and it's, it's been so cool to see how our bridges are coming together and what we're up to.
I've loved working with him. His structure is amazing. It is so important to have somebody by your side who can help you forecast, plan, see over the hill, have all the tax stuff figured out as well, and also the diversification of income opportunities. Zach is an amazing soul. Go check his community out. It's free to check out and learn about as well. If you feel inspired, feel free to work with him directly or through First Class Business. Then there's the Water Project. The Water Project, we do not have any affiliation with, but it captured my heart, mind, soul, everything when I learned about it because I've never been thirsty in my life. Like most of you, I've never been truly without when it comes to hydration. These kids, these people, they do not have access to even a local water well.
They're people who have to walk sometimes three to five miles in order to find a source of water that may or may not be safe. And the, you can imagine the disasters that creates. You can imagine the challenges that creates and the risks for the family. It also limits their ability to get a stable job. It limits the ability for the kids to stay in school. So when I saw that the Water Project. Allows us to literally pick which community we want to help and how many people will be helped by that. And then when you contribute, you know, even five to $20 to this, they will send you the social media update, or rather pictures, proof, social proof of what happened. Um, you know, was the sand dam built, was the borehole well constructed?
And you get to see these individuals celebrate water the way my kids celebrate Christmas Day. Um, and, and my hope is to continue to bring that to more and more people. I hope you join me on that. If there's another cause that is near and dear to your heart, then please don't hesitate to add the cause in the comments so that we can look at it and contribute to it. You never know the ripple effect of what you do. Maybe you're not in a financial position to help, but maybe you can share this with a couple of friends over dinner. And you never know, maybe one of them ends up donating 10,000 and opening more than 100, um, you know, of these different communities up to access to clean water. So we got eight billion people to help in this world, my friends. Let's get after it. It's a lot of opportunity there and I'm going to get right back to that with each of you
by diving into strategy and marketing for your visions with Naomi. Naomi, welcome to Vision Pros Life.
Hello.
All right. Tell us, Naomi, we, we talked about the past. We talked about the journey and almost even a little bit of the present, um, that you work on strategy and marketing to help small businesses with their growth. What's your vision? Where are we, where are we going with all this?
Well, I think for me, having had my own business that didn't quite go to plan. It didn't, you know, it didn't end the way I wanted to. But the one thing I did know was strategy and marketing. And I see so many people going into business, feeling quite isolated, feeling like they've got an idea of what to do. Get a couple of years in down the line and think, I don't think this is going in the right way. I don't really have a clear plan. They come in with an idea. They've got a bit, they have got a vision. They've got an idea of what they want to do. They've seen an opportunity, but actually where they miss that knowledge. And it is knowledge and skill because I have been doing this for 20 years. I have been training for this for a very long time.
They then don't know how to do that bit and it's it's hard. It is not easy. Running a business isn't all sunshine and day.
Oh gosh.
It can be really challenging emotionally, mentally and actually physically doing the work. So for me, that's what I want to be able to do is take everything I've learned from my career and from running my own business and use that to help other people get the businesses that they want. They can have a business that works for them that they love. We shouldn't have to work in a world where we go to work because we just need to earn the money. I don't want to be that person and I don't want that for other people. So for me, that's what I'm trying to do is help give people what they need so they can get to where they want to be. And a lot of that, a lot of it, the strategy and marketing, business strategy and marketing overlap in so, so many ways.
You need both. You absolutely need both. I see a lot of people have an idea. They might have a bit of a plan. But then they don't do the marketing bit, which is actually a one hundred percent essential to do in your business. Word of mouth is lovely, but it's not going to get you a consistent business and we want sustainability. We want to be reliable. We want to build businesses that are strong that can help us get to where we want to be. So we can have the lives that we want and we have the fortune to do that. So I often help people figure out what it is that need, what and often.
Here's a secret, Rose. I'll give you a secret. All you visionaries out there, if you ever hear somebody, even yourself, you're gonna hate me, those who hear this, say, well, we grow through word of mouth. We grow through referrals. Uh, that is somebody whose blind spot is marketing. They are terrified of marketing. They don't want to talk about marketing. They're just using that as a buffer to escape marketing conversations. And that silo is going to one hundred percent uh stranglehold and cinch their ability for growth. Um, it is not saying that it's not important, but most of the time when people bring that phrase up, it's because they're trying to shut down or avoid conversations about marketing tactics or marketing campaigns that they don't want to pay for,
don't want to do because they've been burned too much in the past or they haven't figured out in the past. They feel like they wasted money and stuff, but while word of mouth is important, if you're using that as a shield to get yourself out of conversations regarding growth. That only exposes your weakness. Um. So I'm with you 100% on that reality. No, business is not easy. As an optimistic realist, 96% of businesses fail within 10 years, 4% barely survive. And we can get to the strategies of growth that work, but we have to be able and willing to talk about it. So I love that you serve people on that niche. You've got a theory on this. You've got not just a theory. You've got a very simple map. The tech people will love this. The non-tech people will still love it.
They just won't understand it as much, but I think what you did here with API. Let's talk about your version of API Audit, Plan and Implement. What a brilliant reality. Let's walk through that.
Yeah, well, I came up with it because my background, I've been doing marketing. I also went into digital. It was kind of by accident because when I first went into marketing, I was the only person that understood online and tech. So, and it was also at the era where social media was just appearing on the scene. I should not showing my age, but that was when I started. So I started at a very infinite stage of when social media, and I could see the opportunity social media had for marketing because it changed. It was going to change how we did marketing. Suddenly it became from broadcast to conversational. And we had to learn how to listen and communicate in very different ways with our customers to understand their needs and wants, which was a massive resource because we could get smarter with our marketing.
So that was where I started. So hence, so I then got everything to do with digital, basically from there on in. So whether it's website, email, anything like that, it came through me and I ended up heading up digital teams, which as a digital leader, you tend to manage everything from content through to brand, through to training staff, through to digital transformation. So you do an awful lot. That's where the API method came from. So that was a play on a word of API, which is a system within digital. So API stands for audit.
So this is, we've always got to know where we are right now. Where are we now? Because unless we know where we are, we don't know where we're going to get to. So we need to be real honest with where we are right now. So that is the first part of our method. So when I work with people, I start with, right? Let's get into the nitty gritty. What's going on right now? Let's get it all out on the table because once we know where we are, I can get an idea of where we can go.
Auditing is huge. And if any of your marketing strategists, your agencies are skipping that step, you are diving in with the wrong type of yes men or yes women. And auditing is critical. Give one tiny example on that. Nautical Dental, back in the day, I went in, I audited what they were up to. They had billboards, they had snail mail newsletters, and they had a social media manager who's doing custom posts. The social media manager's personalization and custom posts, when looking at that report, led to a whopping three new likes and a grant in a month. Um, no, it was two new likes, two new likes and a grant in a month. There was three others who were part of the team who were continuing to like. And I said, look, I can go around this office building right now and gather you likes.
All you gotta do is pay me $350 per like. Um, because that's what you're paying right now for these social posts that are absolutely wonderful looking, but garbage from a strategy standpoint. Um, and so auditing, they, they then had $700 they could commit to other important growth mechanisms. And notice, uh, everybody is listening. I'm not crucifying digital marketing, but I'm also not hanging out to dry traditional either. The traditional components that they were using were massively producing great results for this company as well. We can't oversimplify this. We've got to work with people who understand how to audit, who understand how to evaluate, and then understand how to plan and implement.
So I love that you start with audit. I wish more people, Naomi, would focus on that. Please continue on with audit or feel free to jump into plan.
Yeah, well, with the audit, the other big thing though. I spend more time talking about it's who the people are we're talking to, who are the customers, who are gonna buy from us. This evolves over time, so you'll probably start with one ideal customer in mind or ideal client. And it will probably evolve as you grow. That's just a natural attrition of business.
Yeah.
But you need to know who they are, because if you don't, you're talking to nobody. You are putting, you're going in the wrong places. You can't get a real clear idea of what you should be doing. And a bit like you're saying, you you got two likes. But that's probably because they were talking to the wrong people in the wrong places. So.
Well, they just, they weren't understanding that Facebook does not have a reach mechanism for businesses. And it's not designed to. Um. It's meant to retain an existing audience that already loves the brand. Um. And so the reach mechanism is advertising. Um. And advertising has its own reality of like, people don't want to talk about it, but in reality, it's like the Kickstarter campaign. If you want to know if you have a good offer, put it in front of people who are supposed to hate the offer. All right. If they like it, that's a really good sign that your warm market will like it too. I do wanna, I do wanna touch on your point here. So there's this thought process of who and like who you're reaching. I agree with it. We used to, we use as a big piece of what we did at videopower.com.
Um. And and running some of the most viral video ad campaigns of all time. However, I will caveat that with, we never ran campaigns for companies that weren't already incredibly well established at video power. And the reason why I mention that is a lot of you have opened business models where you're not really fully committed to the business owner or business model yourself. You're doing it because of some cerebral reality. And yes, you can find the demographics and the psychographics of that, but my hope is that as you get ready to audit the audience, that whoever's working with you also audits. Are you in the right business? Um. Right. Are you actually fully dedicated to this process?
And we can talk more about the the audit of who. If we want to, but the I'll also lead with Nick Therio, Facebook ad guru. He spent 10 million last year on Facebook ads, made 100 million. I'm a huge fan of his work. Him and I both believe very strongly that don't outsmart the AI algorithm or your own intuition. You know who you who you're designed to serve and the AI algorithm will get you in front of the right people. If you have the right ad, if you do not have the right ad, you will not reach the right people. But I'm definitely open to psychographics, demographics and other things, Naomi. If you have some pieces you want to put into that, if not, we can move to plan. Your call.
Yeah, no, completely, because when you understand your client, you know what's going to resonate with them. You know what stories you tell with them and you know how to connect. Ultimately, people buy from people or they buy from brands that they resonate with, they connect with. So they aren't looking for products or services, they're looking for solutions and outcomes. So we have to understand who the people are and the problems they have or the needs that they want to be served. So that we can get there. 95% buy based on emotion. 95% of the decisions we make are based on emotion and then we back them up with logic. That is the key thing when it comes to understanding how we market. We're not selling ideas, we're selling feelings. So it's about what we make people feel, not what we're selling to them. So that's.
I would agree with that with general pop, general pop for sure, 100%. However, those of you who are visionary leaders, leading other leaders, I would actually say it's it's dead wrong. But here's why we don't, I don't buy things based on pain or pleasure because I have an elite mentality. That doesn't mean that I'm an elitist, doesn't mean I'm better than people. But LeBron James, if somebody comes up to LeBron James and says, hey, don't do that workout. That's going to hurt you. You know, you're going to feel a lot of pain regarding it. He's not going to want them in his life. Two, if they come to him and say, hey, have the pleasure of ice cream today. He's going to say, no, I don't need the ice cream right now. Why? Because he's driven based on purpose. And people who are driven based on purpose, they have an automatic red flag sensor
for anybody who's manipulating pain and pleasure in their life. And so feelings, then, you know, if you want to, if you want to offend a doctor in your advertising and you're trying to get doctors to your workshop or something, put one exclamation point. In your ad, you put one exclamation point in your ad, you're toast. You ask one leading question, you're toast. You're not going to get into their heart and mind. So the tactics, the emotional intelligences that exist, they're a little bit more vast than than just the idea of pain and pleasure. I highly recommend conceding purpose and perhaps there's other mechanisms as well, but I think it goes back to your bigger point, Naomi, which is we've got to do enough
to connect with that audience, right? And know, well, wait a second, what does that audience actually look for? And I love that you turned, for instance, in your story to the bread competition, because that was a brilliant way of getting in front of the whole audience and your competition at the same time. And like, I was like, oh, my gosh, that is such a cool idea for market research for.
Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes it is about thinking outside the box as well and how we kind of get out there. So that kind of leads on to the plan section. That that's where from audit, we go into plan. So once we know where we are and we get an idea of who would who we want to help and what we want to do or where who we want to serve, we need to put that plan in place to get there. So we kind of covered this a little bit by talking about some of the tactics, but this is about the plan. You need a plan. I mean, it doesn't have to be a long plan. It could be on a post-it note, but if you don't know where you're going, then you're never going to get there. That's the thing. We will end up floating without really any parameters. So having that plan gives you a framework. And the majority of the time,
the plan you set out at the start isn't the plan you end with, but it's the start of your framework. It's being able to accept that not everything is going to go right. If I'd stuck rigidly to my plan and opening my cafe bar, it would have never opened because there were so many things I didn't know. There were so many legal things I didn't know. And it kind of grew as I went along, but I knew the timelines. I had that framework and that's what I helped. Well, when I see really successful businesses, they all have plans. They all have a plan to get to where they want to do and they know quite clearly. But they also monitor what they're doing. So this kind of goes then into the next section.
I'm gonna support you on this though, real quick, because they all, all those businesses have plans. But the key is the person who hates plans is not the one who created the plan. Right? So Henry Ford did not need to create the plans for the growth of his company. In fact, he needed his mind free to be a visionary. And most of you as visionaries need that somebody by your side who's going to help with the planning. And who's also going to help with the management of the past things that have happened. And they need people too. You're not going to be able to win at scale in most cases as a solopreneur. I've never met a solopreneur who is successful, ever. I've met a lot of pretenders. I've met a lot of people who say they're doing well, um, and then fizzled out and fail.
But I have not met that unicorn who can do it all by themselves. And so if planning is something that intimidates you, all the more reason to pick the phone up, talk to Naomi, talk to me, talk to Nick Theory, or like whoever you gravitate towards. And usually interview three to 10 different people for that process and then get somebody in charge who loves the idea of implementing plans. But I'm a big fan of the saying, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We've got to have plans. It's, it's super important. So then you were gonna go on to, I believe, implementation, but don't, don't let me.
Yeah. But I think, I think you're right. I mean, I'm gonna kind of reiterate that point because recognizing our skill set is so important. We need to know as a role as a leader, what we play in our business. What is it that we are going to do? And what is the things that only we can do as leaders? We have to think like CEOs. We have to think like that leader position. And recognizing where we are, where our weaknesses are, is the strength in your business. So knowing if something takes up your time and capacity, or there is something that you can't do, like tech, tech is one of the biggest holdbacks in business.
Yes, it is.
Someone else.
Yet, who, how many people do we talk to that are trying to fix their darn calendar settings, right? And it's like, what are you doing? Like, you're not a technology officer. Why are you playing with that? So go ahead.
I know. And it, but the thing, the reality is though. You are costing your business money by doing it when someone can do it in half the time and at half the cost. You're still a cost, even your time is a cost. And we have to think like that. That's where we've got to be different with our business. It's you think, well, it's free. It isn't. It's your time. You could be working with clients that you actually need to work with or finding the clients that you need to work with in that point. So work out what you need to do to delegate. I also will iterate that for people particularly starting up. Having the budget, often it comes down to financials. I can't afford to do that. That's often it's money.
Not a budget, though. That's a mindset, not a budget problem.
Yeah, there's a solution. There are always solutions to this. There are ways around.
You did it. You kickstarted. You you found a crowdfunding opportunity. You you found a way. When there's a will, there's a way. When there's an excuse, I wish I had something funny to say about the opposite of that. But when there's an excuse, like good luck, like you're, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna. You're gonna, you're gonna get exactly what you feel is your reality. And you have to be able to come up with ways to find the budget.
Please, please stop this. This is all yours. Never go on this one.
Yeah, absolutely. Not having the money is an excuse. It's not a solution. So let, you know. If you're determined to get there, figure out the ways of what you need to do to get there. It's there are so many options out there. There is more than one. So take. Have a look, work out what the solutions are and get.
I will say, for those of you who truly do not have the money, okay, because there is the truth on that. Stop with the whole entrepreneur thing and go to a church and ask for help financially. If that is where you are at, if you literally do not have the money, then go get help. Entrepreneurship is not for broke people. It is not something that that is easy. It is something that is incredibly hard. And you either have to have the backing and people who can give you the money, other people's money is how most entrepreneurs grow. You need that or you need to go get help, right? That is so that there is a there, but most of you are just using the mindset.
Because again, you want to escape the marketing conversation. You want to escape talking to consultants. You want to escape actually putting things, resources towards it. You got fear of success or fear of failure going on. All of that is mindset reality. Again, unless you're in a position where you need money, go get help, please, one.
Yeah, absolutely. I'd agree with that. And I think on that point, it's about being really realistic on where you are. Business is not a quick win. You're not gonna get, the journey from getting clients is longer than you think. You might get lucky and get one very quickly, but business growth is a long term game. We're not, we're not here for the short term wins. Sometimes, yeah, we can get those. They are great, but they're also.
The problem with luck, right, is the downfall is tragic. Oh, right. And then it's like, woo.
And we've seen that in the last 12 months where people were able to ride high on the online world of COVID and the pandemic, where businesses changed and then everybody had this slight dip where the world started to kind of try and normalize itself again.
I feel so bad because I wanna, I wanna do like three hours of conversations about A and then B and then I like completely separate three hours because you just, you got so much greatness to unpack. So let me move you on to implement because I keep interrupting you.
We have kind of, so the implement bit is a bit which we find hard. It's doing the plan, is actually sticking to it and doing it. Being consistent, showing up, monitoring, putting in nice strategies so you can see what is and what isn't working. One of the biggest things that I see business owners not doing is not looking at what's going on, not seeing the results, really understanding what it is, because that will give us more information that we can learn and grow from.
I'll challenge that though. I gotta challenge that because it's, I don't want the business owners doing that. I want the business owners to have somebody who does that because they need, they can't be looking in the rearview mirror and driving forward at the same time, right? But you have to have somebody who does it. I see a lot of, a lot of entrepreneurs, they move forward on the marketing plan, but then they turn around and spend their whole time looking at, well, wait, what has the team done? Why hasn't the team done this? Right? And they lose their leadership capacity. They lose the ability to inspire the team because now they're micromanaging versus allowing the plan to move forward and flow, and they're not paying attention to where they're going anymore. So there's, I'm going to go back to the delegation principle of if you've hired a team and you feel they are the right team,
then for heaven's sake, trust them to do their job according to the timeline. And if you jump in in mile nine of a 10 mile race, throwing a fit and saying, we're never going to make it. This is a, you just ruined the ability for them to finish their race. We have to have more discipline than that in the implementation phase as entrepreneurs. So either commit to it and do it and fail, or commit to it, do it and win, but, but stop trying to get in, get like ruin the process. So what are your thoughts on that, Naomi? Am I wrong on this? Or is this something?
Into. I absolutely agree that delegate and let people do their jobs, but be, what I would say is think about how you're going to check the data. So when I'm talking about seeing what's working, you need to know what's not working and what is working because you are the visionary. So if something is working, then you need to figure out what, what's the next step. So API kind of goes around in a circuit. We need to keep doing it quite regularly.
So we don't need to do it daily. We need to put it in. So when you're looking, when I'm talking about monitoring, I'm not talking about the nitty gritty every single day. I'm talking about the, what's the top level report? What does that tell us? What's not working? What is working? What do we need to refine? Let's evaluate and then we can get it better. That's where I come. That's what I think. So delegation, absolutely. Let people do their jobs. Also, newsflash, you might not be the best person to know how to do that job.
Correct. I'm not.
So let, the biggest mistake I've ever made is interfere in what my team are really good at.
Yes, I love that. It is so, and I know a lot of you started out, we're like, well, it's just me. Why not start it by changing that mindset? Instead of saying, oh, I have to start this alone, right? You have an opportunity to say, wait, I can start this with people, all right? You don't have. To go to McKinsey and Company and pay $20,000 for consultation. I'm not saying you shouldn't. They're probably good at what they do. I'm not saying you can't go to Virgin startups. All right. And feel free to look it up. So at least you know what paths are available to you and see, okay, they take on 100 applicants every quarter. Maybe you qualify for Richard Branson's team to work with you. I mean, I would do it. You know, like, that's a great team to potentially work with.
So, but you have Naomi. Again, you got, you got, you got all sorts of opportunities out there. And if you evaluate well on the front end, right? If you, if you audit the person that you're trying to work with, and then you plan well with them, and they come up with a great implementation plan, then of course, let them implement. And that's where I see so many entrepreneurs go wrong is they bring somebody in who had a yes man nature, and they didn't audit well. They create some haphazard plan with some fake forecast of we need three months for this SEO thing to work out. And the entrepreneur within a month and a half is already freaking out and saying, well, wait, we didn't get the results and we're not there yet. What? It doesn't look like we're on the right thing? Well, that's not how it works. And so I won't work with companies like that, by the way.
We won't, you won't even pass our interview process on our end. But what Naomi's talking about, her brand presence as well, the energy that you bring Naomi, I'm just, I'm super honored by. I absolutely love it. So those of you who want to connect with Naomi, you can go to Google and search up Naomi C. Rose. And we've got the website right here too, which is Naomi, N-A-O-M-I-C-R-O-S-E dot C-O. So NaomiCRose.com. Just forget the M. Leave the M off of that and you'll get there just fine. And you can, you can have a strategist helping you on this process of building a vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
The same thing is true for brands. And there's no reason to do that. Start with people who can help you, take things to the next level. Naomi, is there any final thoughts? Anything that you'd like to share at the end of the episode?
I think one of the things that I found really hard when I first went into business is I compared myself to everybody else. I completely suffered from comparatonitis. It was, I was obsessed with reviews of everybody else and how I compared. And I was like, but how are they doing well and I'm not? And then I realized, well, people don't come to me because of what I'm selling. They come because of me, because of my story. So what I would say is, if you are starting out, there is, there is room for everybody in this big world. Whatever your idea is, you're probably not going to be unique. Someone would have already probably done what you've done. And that's great, but people
aren't going to buy your services. They're buying you, they're buying what you do. So just be confident in that. And just keep your vision. Your business is not cookie cutter. So just create the business that works for you.
I love that. I love it so much. Um, I got stuck for many years trying to be the best. It was a problem way back in high school, probably middle school. I wanted to be the best. And it made me justify when I was the best to just rest on my laurels, to sit back. I was never aware of the reality of being my best. Um, right. And just being the best that I can and allowing the right people to gravitate towards me and appreciate me at my best. And that same principle applies exactly what you're talking about with business. If you can go out there and serve people to the best of your ability, you will find and attract the people who will support you um, for your brand, for your vision, for your business. And you have people like Naomi and I in the world
who are constantly looking for people like you who want to be your best and want to create amazing things in the world. We are here to help and support that. We hope that if you have a vision, that you join us as well on the show in the top right corner, you're going to see a button that says be our guest. If you've got a vision, even if you're not an award winning baker, even if you're not an incredible strategist and marketer like Naomi, even if your vision is local and smaller, if your vision is to serve and help others, we would love to hear it on this platform and on the show. And we will see you guys all on the next episode of Vision Pros Live. Take care, everybody. Bye bye. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision.
Page updated November 13, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
