This week, Asha and I were battling some gremlins in the podcast system.
Turns out, Awesomely Off-Topic managed to unpublish itself a few hours after going live, resulting in a fair few messages from people telling us it hadn’t appeared on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
(Lesson #1 – Breathe. Don’t panic. Calmly find the glitch and get it fixed).
Within the hour, we were back online in all the important places and thanking people for letting us know.
One of those lovely people was our ever-awesome PA, Dee, who told us we were always in her favourites.
From there, the conversation took a bizarre turn. Dee said she’d listen to us the next day, we joked about her listening to us at night, then Dee explained she only takes true crime/murder podcasts and Viking music to bed with her.
Dee, Asha and I have been working together now since 2017, and it’s now definitely a soulfam/friendship relationship first, business second. Just to frame this properly for you, there’s a level of smutty humour and teasing that only comes after knowing someone for years and having bombproof, utterly safe boundaries and understanding of one another.
(Lesson #2 – not that any of you lovely lot need this one – learn to flex your style; what’s great for your mates isn’t always so brilliant for a prospective client!)
I don’t think we need to go into the details of that particular conversation’s progression, but let’s just say there was lots of laughter and a fair bit of good-humoured blushing.
Which brings me to lesson #3 – and the reason I wanted to write about this today.
You need to have a really good understanding of what your clients actually want and need (which are often two very different things!).
I see people totally screwing up pitches all the time, flooding a potential client with everything they offer rather than having a proper conversation first to establish what’s actually needed.
You’ve got to think about what’s in it for them, far more than what’s in it for you. Don’t assume you know what they want or need (to assume makes an ass out of U and me, remember?!). Be human. Ask the questions. Find out about their business, what makes them tick, what would make everything feel easier and more profitable for them. That’s where you might be able to offer some solutions.
It’s the same with networking pitches. People in the room don’t need to know how long you’ve been in business, or even that your company is called XYZ, they just need to know if you can get them from A to B.
In short, the stuff that feels important to you might feel boring AF to them. Check in with yourself: why do you want them to know that thing you’re burning to share? Is it because it will help build rapport and serve them, or is it a bit of an ego trip on your part? Will it really show credibility? Will they really want to know? Or will it create an invisible barrier you really don’t want in the way of business.
Make sense? Good. Put your clients’ – and potential clients’ – desires first. Show you care. Serve first, sell later.
Which brings me back to Dee…
If you want to get in her bed, don’t go barging in there with offers of sleep meditations, calming tones, whale song or lavender pillow spray, when what she’s actually after are battle cries and gruesome storytelling.
Never assume. Now, go apply that to your business networking and client pitches. Apart from the bed bit, obvs.
Let me know how you get on!
#UnleashYourAwesome