About Natasha:

Over the past 15 years, Natasha has coached and consulted hundreds of executives and companies on using the power of agility for profitable brand positioning. She is affectionately referred to as “The Chief Visionary” by her clients and business community.

Natasha developed and launched the predictive model CRM tool for consultants, The Profit Enhancer Analysis, in 2019. She was awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award by President Barack Obama in 2016 & appointed as the State of Georgia Small Business Economic Development Leadership Committee member by the National Small Business Association (NSBA) in 2019.

She is a published author, writing about the power of personal branding. Her most recent book is #BeUnleashed: Unleash Your Millionaire Mindset to Build Your Brand.

We discuss the true ROI of branding in this episode of The Backstory on Marketing.

Links:

Natasha Davis Amazon Author Profile 

Nataha Davis Linkedin

Impact Branding Consulting 

Natasha Davis Speaking Website 

Guy's Special Offer

Subscribe to Guy's Newsletter

Video of Interview

Hi, I'm Guy Powell and welcome to the seventh

episode of the backstory on marketing. If you haven't

already done so please visit pro relevant.com and sign up for all

of these episodes and podcasts. I am the author of the upcoming

book the post COVID marketing machine. Prepare your team to

win. You can find more information on this at marketing

machine dot pro relevant.com. Today we'll be speaking with

Natasha Davis. She is a brand strategist and visionary. Over

the past 15 years she has coached and consulted hundreds

of executives and companies on using the power of agility for

profitable brand positioning, Natasha became determined to

help uncomplicate the most complicated aspects of branding

and strategic planning. She is affectionately referred to as

the Chief Visionary by her clients and business community.

Natasha developed and launched the predictive model CRM tool

for consultants to profit enhancer analysis in 2019. She

has numerous accolades such as having been awarded as the

entrepreneur and executive professional of the 2011 year,

excellence in marketing and 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award by

President Barack Obama in 2016. And appointed as a state of

Georgia, small business economic development leadership committee

member by the National Small Business Association in 2019.

She's also a published author writing about the power of

personal branding. Her most recent book is hashtag be

unleashed, unleashed your millionaire mindset to build

your brand. Welcome, Natasha.

Thank you so much, guy. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Looking forward to hanging out today.

Absolutely. I look forward definitely to talking

with you as well. And you've got a great background. So tell us

how you got into marketing. What's your backstory on

marketing?

Well, you know, I took an untraditional route to where

I am today. I started as a registered nurse, a trauma rule

nurse and I function as a registered nurse in the

emergency room saving lives for many years. And the

entrepreneurship bug came up in Bitney as it had with my father

and my grandmother. So it's in my blood. And I tried to shake

it off, I really did. I tried to shake it off. And like, don't be

ridiculous, you're a registered nurse, you went to school, you

got the student loans to prove it, and the degree so just keep

going. And then I couldn't shake it. And then I realized I was

tapping into certain tools that I didn't realize I had. And so

where it was very natural for me to see something and to, you

know, make a decision about something or to analyze

something around business and around marketing, it was a

little bit more challenging for others. And while working in the

emergency room, I started to dip my toe into entrepreneurship.

And that's where I got sucked in like a vacuum. You know, I

realized, oh, my gosh, I really have something going on. As I

said, I worked in the trauma room. And at the time, there

were medical providers and other other medical professionals that

wanted to start businesses, and they would ask about some

business things and I just rattle off things you're

supposed to do. And they were like, how do you even know this

stuff? I'm like, Well, who doesn't? It's common business

sense, right? Apparently it wasn't. I didn't want it. I

didn't get that. And they started referring to me as the

business nurse in the ER. So when colleagues were saying,

hey, they're trying to do some all you gotta go talk to the

business nurse in the ER, and apparently everybody knew it was

me. And so I realized, Okay, wait a second, there's some time

to transition here. And a few years went forward. And I

realized, hold on, you know, I'm loving this business side. I'm

loving this other me. And I'm starting to not love as much the

nurse side of me. And I started to struggle with that. And I

remember, at one point, I had hit a really difficult place

where I had to choose I had to choose not because it was

mandated upon me, but it was myself inside of myself. I was

no longer happy with what I was doing. And I had to choose to

cross over 100% into business. And I tell you guys, that was

the best decision that I made. It was not an easy decision. It

was hard. And it came with the challenges because as a nurse, I

did not have to market I did not have to go outside and wave and

beg patients to come in. I just sat there and poof, they showed

up. So my Rude Awakening, the reality check happened. My first

full four years in business as a full time entrepreneur. I

remember the first year I was sitting in my office and I was

doing what good business people do. I had the Rolodex on that,

you know, y'all know about Rolodex and y'all know about

that, right? So I had my rolodex, I had an actual office

phone, you know, I had my computer, I had my file cabinet.

Everything was perfect. I had a beautiful clean desk, because

you know, I didn't have anything going on. So why wouldn't my

desk be clean? And I sat there, and I'm wondering, did I pay the

phone bill? Because the phone isn't ringing? Why isn't the

phone ringing? I pick it up, I got a dial tone. I'm on point.

I'm like making sure. And it hit me. Hey, ding dong. If you don't

go tell them you're here. How do they know? And that's when I was

like, Okay, there's a little bit more to being in business than

just looking good in business. And that's when I took on the

the challenge to understand what does it really take to run a

business to get people through the door to keep people in the

door to look respectable out in the business community? And

that's when I sunk my teeth into marketing and into branding.

Yeah, absolutely. In branding? Well, marketing is, is

critical, that's for sure. And, you know, it's so it's, it's so

easy, you know, to think about going into business, but it is

so hard to get that first client or the first clients and what

have you. And so you've been doing this for a number of

years. So let's see, what is the most thing? What is the the best

thing that you're most proud of?

Wow, you know, here's the thing, I'm proud of so many

things because I'm I'm I am a Jamaican woman, in an industry

that is not dominated by Jamaican women, to be honest,

right? And so I'm really proud that I made it, you know, I'm

really proud that I made it, I'm proud of all of the businesses,

I've been able to help the business owners, I'm proud of

the companies I've helped, I'm proud of. I'm just proud of me.

And a lot of times business owners don't take a chance to

sit back and just say, be proud of you. Like you've made it. You

know what I mean? You made it through, and you're going

onward. So there's so many things that I am proud of, I'm

always proud of the success that we get for clients. I have a

heart for for my clients. I said we I actually love my clients, I

really do. I love every last one of them, even the ones that give

me extra gray hair. Okay, I love them. So it's one of those

things that I find it hard to always answer what am I most

proud of, but I'm really proud of the effect and the results

that I've been able to bring to the table, being able to package

and use my gifts and deployed in the universe to help other

people. And actually being able to witness that help, you know,

is one of the things that I'm super, super proud of. Yes, it's

always nice to get an award, I was very excited about the

awards. And once I realized I was being awarded with the

Lifetime Achievement Award by President Barack Obama. I was

like, Oh my God. I'm not even 60 or 70 Yet, like you know, and of

course, you know, you step back. And the first thing you think

right guy is how the heck you know, how did that happen?

You're like, am I even like worthy of such a thing? And then

you start thinking, you have to be like, Heck, yeah, I'm worthy

of it. Give me my Lord. So the awards are great. But to me, the

awards are byproducts of all the things that I'm proud of.

Because without those without the the outcomes of results, the

people I've helped the lives I've saved, the companies I've

saved, those awards wouldn't even come to fruition. So the

awards are, like, you know, public recognitions that I'm

proud of like, oh, yeah, this is really cool, you know, but it's

a byproduct. But I'm really proud of the work that I've

done. And being a positive role model and an example for other

people in business, not just not just Caribbean women, but all

people in business men, women, mature, you know, young season

new entrepreneurs, old entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter

just being a positive role model and like a being like, like,

listen, she can do it. Anybody can do it, right?

Well, know that know what you can do? I'm sure not

everybody can do. That's true.

That is true. I'm very specific. That easy. No, it's

actually not not at all. Not at all. It's not it's not easy at

all. But it's really fun. My father, may he rest in peace was

my best friend. He passed away just about three years ago. He

used to say to me, and it used to just get under my skin. Oh

sweetheart businesses and hard. You're just making it hard. And

I'm like, Would you please stop saying that the phone does not

ring? You know, you know? And he would just say no, honestly

business and my dad was been in business for himself since the

age of 19 until he passed away at 70 years old. And he always

would say we make it complicated businesses and hard. There's

basic principles and you just got to feed the principles and

that thing used to just get under my skin so hard on the

political ones. so easy that How come this is this is happening?

You know, I had the only attitude, but he's absolutely

right, I've come to learn that business actually is not hard.

We complicate it, we put billions of layers and nuances

and corners and curves and turns on basic things. For example, we

take marketing, marketing is a very clear cut simple roadmap to

follow, yet, somehow, society has completely complicated the

whole thing and has added 55 layers plus another 1000. It's

like, it's not that hard, you know, you have a product that

has a price that you need to promote to certain people in a

certain place. That's it. It's simple. Yeah, yeah. That's it

clean roadmap, just figure it out and run with it.

You four Ps, I use the four Ps all the time. I

mean, somebody people come out with a 10 PS, the 14 days, the

12 PS,

I can't I can't even remember that, first of all, and

half of those Ps are duplicates of the first original piece. So

yeah, right. Like, let's not reinvent the wheel, I actually

love traditional just can traditional marketing and

business principles. Now, there obviously, is times that you

have to use, you know, contemporary, but I actually am

an old soul, I do not believe in 100% contemporary methodology, I

believe that there is a very healthy blend of traditional and

contemporary, but I also believe that you cannot have successful

contemporary business approaches, marketing and

branding without understanding traditional.

Yeah, you know, and let me go back to a point that

you made I really liked this, is that where you said, you know, I

love my clients. And, you know, I think marketers also need to

love their customers. You know, and companies, you know, as, you

know, how many times and I hate to say it, I'm guilty of it, you

know, I, I love my clients and I hate my clients at the same

time. Sometimes. It is it is them and their challenges and

understanding their challenges that I think, you know, really

makes a difference as an as an external consultant, just like

what you're doing. And, you know, it really does, if you

can, you know, take to heart what they're going through and

what they need to do to be successful in the marketplace.

It really, really makes a difference.

It really does. I think that we we as business persons

and even even as an expert, right, you're you stand in a

subject matter expertise, arena, you don't stand to say I know

everything. So even as a subject matter expert, I still need to

lend my my ear, and I have to lean on other experts, because

you don't know everything is one person. So when when I approach

a business, and they say listen, we need help. Here's the reality

of it. It is the hardest thing to admit, as a business owner,

I'm not doing something right. I'm failing the business, I'm

failing the mission. I'm hurting the clients because I'm hurting

my team. It is the hardest thing to admit, right that I'm messing

this up, I'm really messing this up and then to go get the help.

So once a consultant comes to the to the table, the consultant

is there really to support and so we know that if the company

didn't have an issue, a challenge or a need, we wouldn't

even be there. Right? And so when that when they come with

all their their luggage, I call it a little seven piece Louie

baton set when they come with their seven piece Louis Vuitton

set that's fully packed, and they hand it off and say thank

you take it, they they hit a brick wall. They don't know what

else to do. And it is us as consultants that have to learn

how to do what we need to mobilize that seven piece Louis

baton set and how do we do that with our skills and our

expertise? Okay, well, let me go get this person and grab that

suitcase, you grab those two suitcase because you know, you

do that. That's what we're there to do. So they every client

comes with past issues. And also perceptions that are completely

wrong. Like, I love it when people say I don't understand

why you have to post on social media several times a day. Why

can't we just get away with three times a week? Okay, let me

explain some things to you. Right? Or I love it when you

when they say after 30 days, how come none of the marketing is

working? I expected this and this should have been happening

right? We should have had a 10x by now. Okay, let me explain to

you how this actually works as opposed to what you saw on

Google. You know, let's look that up. So it's sometimes it's

it's just displaced perception and understanding. And as a

consultant, you have to be able to educate. That's another thing

as a consultant we have to educate. We're not there just to

show up right? We have to educate in our area of

expertise, but also as a consultant. truly loving your

client also means knowing when it's time to cut them off, or

when it's Time to get someone else on the team. That's what

truly loving your clients mean as well. Because sometimes you

got to learn when to cut the umbilical cord but like, Okay,

you're gonna fly because you've added seven more pieces to your

existence seven piece Louis baton set, and we're not

carrying it. So we love you so much, we're gonna let you be

you Yeah, that is very true. And and that's a

tough as a consultant, it's always tough to find that time

to let go. And but nevertheless, you know, if you've taught them

right, and you've given them kind of the infrastructure that

they need, then they should be able to fly on their own and,

and that actually is also a moment when you can really say

we have succeeded in doing in doing something valuable so that

they can, you know, actually, you know, move further and

potentially even faster. So,

agreed, agreed. I think just like with marketing, if you

have a marketing strategy we have what we're starting with

and what we want at the end, right? As consultants, you still

as you are marketing as a consultant, or you are putting

marketing plans, we still have to also know there's a beginning

and there's an end, right? Sometimes consultants come in

with a mindset like this indefinite mindset. No, you want

to have a start time and an end time. And at some point, if as

long as you know, there will come an end. Just like in

marketing, we have to we have a start, we're trying to achieve

something when we achieve it, we'd hit the goal. We have to

know when it's time to let go, as opposed to holding on to

clients long past when it's time for them to be free.

Yeah, absolutely. So tell us about impact brand

consulting, what what kind of clients do you have? And what

kind of problems do you typically run into?

So impact branding, works primarily with healthcare

works in the healthcare industry, we do a work with

government agencies, local city, we also do, you know, federal,

we work with service professionals, other

consultants, other service providers, we do some work with

product based companies, but primarily service based

businesses, and are in logistics, also certificate

Trucking, we do logistics. So the type of problems or I don't

want to say problems, the pain that our clientele typically

experience is, I know there's something wrong, but I can't put

my finger on it. And it has to be fixed. That's usually that's

usually what happens. Like, I've been three o'clock in the

morning and two o'clock in the morning, I am awake, stressing

because something's wrong. And I don't know what's wrong. And

I've thrown everything plus the kitchen sink at it, trying to

fix it, and it won't fix other problems or challenges that

clients have come to come to us with is we have had this

strategic plan that we wanted to roll out, and it never rolls

out. We don't know why we start the year fired up ready to roll.

And by the time we get to the third month of the year, is like

we forgot where we started. And by the time we get to the end of

the year, we are back where we started. And this has been a

vicious cycle. So we tend to get people that are in a place where

they are looking for enhanced performance and efficiency. And

they have not been able to accomplish that for whatever

reason, and they're looking for some fresh eyes, they're looking

for outside view to come with a strategic lens, so that we can

go ahead and close that gap in order for them to see the

performance and efficiency they're looking

for. Yeah, I think and that makes a lot of sense,

too. I think, you know, even for myself, you know, you put

together a plan for the year. And and it is it is hard. I

mean, you know, you get stuck on doing the day to day things and,

and you know, we're kind of in the same in a similar business,

and we have clients as well and you get, you know, kind of

bogged down in what they need. And then it's very easy to put

off and put off what you need to do on business. And it is nice

to bring in an outsider, it sounds like in your case, you

know, just help to get past that and but not only get past it,

but really identify, you know, some of the obstacles and

challenges so that you can help them to more easily, you know,

get past that and then accelerate and enhance their

overall business.

Right. Here's one of the things too. I tell you, when

we come to the point where someone's like, we need help, I

always reaffirm our clients, there's nothing You're not

stupid, you're not a bad person. You just this is not your

wheelhouse and it's okay to get help. There is a there is a

significant difference

between

writing the plan and implementing the plan. And I

usually have two two sides of the table. I either have people

that have been able to write very elaborate, beautiful plans.

They are very sexy, very sexy, but when you look at it, it's

missing substance, and it also had never gets implemented. Then

I also have another end of the spectrum where people are

implementing, implementing all the time without a plan. That is

a perfect recipe for madness. Because there's no destination,

we don't know where we're going. We don't know how we're getting

there. We don't know how we measure if we're in the right

place, is, it's the same thing as getting up in the car and

just hitting the road and just going and someone's saying,

Where are we going? Oh, I don't know, we're just going I know,

but where we're going up there, but where, and then you make all

the stops. With with the price of fuel, you're burning through

fuel. It's like, you don't know where you're going. So I end up

getting people on two ends. And here, here's the, here's the

thing that I can say, because it's true. The hardest clients

are the ones that implement without a plan, they are the

hardest group to get back on track. Because most people that

implement without a plan, they know they need a plan. But

they've convinced themselves that they don't need to stop,

develop the plan first, then implement, they think that they

can plan upon and implement at the same time, and you really

can't do that. So those are my more challenging clients, the

ones that implement without a plan, it's kind of like shooting

from the hip, you know, they're trying to create this microwave

thing. So it's very important that even in marketing, I mean,

even as something as basic as we want to increase our customer

acquisition by 10%. Perfect, how, how and why those are

questions, we have to ask ourselves, right, how and why.

And then when we go through our keys, okay, what's the product?

Who are the people? What's going to be the price? What's going to

be the place, right? How are we going to promote it, we have to

go through that. Because then otherwise, we're going to be

doing things haphazardly. So when we know what we're doing.

And he's okay, the way we're going to do our 10% acquisition,

increase of clientele is we're going to do 123, stop, we're

going to do 123 consistently. The people that tend to do the

planning without the web, do the implementing without planning

don't do anything consistent, like one hit wonders, right?

They show up, they disappear, they show up, they disappeared

and make a post. They send a mailer, they do a event, and

then they just keep it moved. Oh, that didn't work. That

didn't work. Let's go try something else. And you're like,

Well, you didn't even land yet. Like, wait a second, like, let's

make sure. Like, did we even go back to see why it didn't work?

Because then what will happen is you'll repeat, you become a

vicious cycle, you repeat the same thing. And what do they

always say? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting

something different? Is insanity is madness. Right?

Absolutely. And to your point, you know, when they

The other thing that I found too, is that, you know, hey, we

did that, we did that. And then we did that two years ago, and

it didn't work. We didn't, you know, and then all of a sudden,

you know, all of that. And you know that execution and

implementation and just consistently building upon what

you're trying to do. And, and in that respect, really helping

them to build their brand, and helping them to be consistent in

how they build it and consistent with the customers that they're

trying to target. And, and that I think that's that's really

hard. A lot of, you know, a lot of businesses don't, you know,

they do they do want to just jump from one thing to the next

because it didn't work within the first you know, three days

or three months, right?

You're right. It's like, oh, that didn't work next.

It's like, no, wait a second. You know, I and that's why I

said I love traditional business methodologies and traditional

marketing blended with contemporary because back in the

day, right guy businesses knew how to make you know, they had

staying power, they knew that it took time they knew, listen, if

you want me to address 100,000 people and get their loyal

attention, that is not going to happen in three days, three

months at all, you know, they had staying power. And the

problem they didn't have why the ones that disappeared that

should still be here is they didn't have vision for the

future. They started lacking future vision. They just thought

we're stuck. And that's where complacency becomes the great

demise, right? Because now we get complacent. So I do believe

in meant mixing traditional and contemporary and being very

clear about how you're going to make the appropriate adjustments

at the right time. So we have to monitor things pay attention to

it. If it's not working. Let's see why. And I went and that's

perfect. I've had that response before. We did that already. Oh,

great. So tell me how did you do it? And what part of it did not

work? Well, it just didn't work. No, no, I get that. I totally

get that. But I'd like to know specifically what about it

didn't work. because it don't tell me the whole thing didn't

work. That means that they never tracked it. And so that's where

education comes in. The only way you can say something did not

work, is that you did everything right about it. And it did not

work. And that's what we find, right? We'll find, oh, that

didn't work. Because, you know, email doesn't work anymore.

Okay. Well, let me see. Let me see your stats. Let me see what

you did. Okay. You did one email every six months. Yeah. And you

said it didn't work. So how did you have your strategy strategy

said you are going to do an email a month for 12 consecutive

months. And you were going to do this, this and this. But based

on the stats of this campaign, you did two emails, one every

six months. So how is it that it's not working? What no one

opened? Uh huh. Okay, let's educate you on how this thing

works.

Right? Well, you know, you're right about the,

the measurement piece and how important that is, and the

tracking and making sure that, you know, you do the email, and

then what happened, then diagnose what went wrong and

what what went, right. So I'm on the, you know, as you know, I'm

on the ROI side. And, and that's, that is critical, you

know, to be able to make sure that your numbers and your

tracking is done, so that you can really see whether there has

been an effect. And to your point, you know, so many people

don't want to wait long enough to see that it's working. You

know, you've got this plan, we had the plan, and then you know,

not to follow it or not to follow it long enough is, is

pretty critical.

It is it is you know, in law, they say words matter

and marketing. They say numbers matter. numbers matter. It

matters. How many emails did we do, how many opens did we did?

How many posts did we do? What time of day? How many people

saw? I mean, we have to really go down the line. Even direct

mail, you know, we did a direct mail. Okay, great. It didn't

work. Okay. How many mailers did you send? Well, we sent one, we

sent it to 100,000. People. Oh, okay. And, and what were you

expecting to happen after that? So it's always interested in

numbers matter. So building the numbers pre, as you know,

projected and then tracking the actuals. It's really important.

And some people get nervous around this right guy, they get

nervous. They're like, Oh, my God, that's too much. That's

numbers and spreadsheets, and not the mathematics and all that

stuff. Actually, just like dad said, business isn't hard. We

just overcomplicated. Yeah, yeah, basic business principles.

Right. Money in money out?

Absolutely. And I will admit, there is, for some

reason, there is sometimes a fear of the spreadsheet, but I

think that's going I think it's getting less, I've been

surprised that people that actually, I wouldn't have

thought they know how to really wield a spreadsheet, and they're

just whipping through stuff. But I think I think, to your earlier

point, I think it's more of a kind of a staying power and not

just doing one email and expecting that blast to get you

something. It's that consistent kind of brand building and

brand, you know, getting getting your face in front of their

clients so that you can be seen and be remembered. And then all

of a sudden, you know, they go Yeah, you know, I do have a need

for that. And let me give them a call or let me respond to this.

Right. Exactly. Exactly. And you know, to your

point. There was a big company, they were doing a massive event.

And they just thought because we're a big company, we can just

show up and is that we have to do anything. And after probably

about just under a million dollars in marketing, they had

to pull back. It's like something's not right. We're not

we're this is not working. How could this be? We're this big,

amazing company, how could this be and they had to pull back.

And what happened is they were choosing to enter into a new

territory. They didn't have brand recognition, let alone

brand loyalty. So when we talk about branding and positioning

and marketing and tying it together, the first thing we

always have to remember is that before a brand can earn loyalty,

there has to be a place of awareness. If I'm aware of you

and aware of your brand, then I will recognize you when you

begin to show up. If I can recognize you, then I can patron

you I can use you. If I use you. And I like you then you you I'll

start shifting to a place of preference, because I'll prefer

you over the other and then there will come a point then I

can go ahead and give you my loyalty right. So we look at

branding, a lot of people or smaller businesses, medium sized

companies and every once in a while a large company, they try

to jump from brand zero to brand loyalty like that, and it does

not happen because loyalty can never be achieved. until we at

least reached a point of patronage or usage. That's it,

because it's not the point of usage that you either like or

dislike them. And then we can start shifting down. So that's

one thing that's really important. And that's that stay

in power, right? That's like, looking at the companies that

were here. And, you know, now they're gone, like the Buster

Browns of the world, and Woolworths and, you know, all

that stuff they had, they understood what that meant. So,

understanding of the journey and not being afraid of the process,

and always say, we have to learn how to respect the process, we

have to respect the process, right? And then we'll get there

quicker and save some money while we're doing it.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, you know, and I like your

point, you know, that concept of the leaky bucket, you got, you

know, marketing, maybe it's bringing in new clients, but

they're leaking out the bottom, we were working with a big

insurance company, and they had almost a 40% loss rate in the

year of their customers 40%, you know, that would be, you have to

change that by a couple of percent. And you can figure you

know, your revenue growth is met, you know, what are you

doing wrong, and then being able to really figure that out, and

then make some changes to it. I also, like your point about, you

know, diagnosing what's wrong, what sometimes, you know, if you

do a number of different marketing things, some things

work, and some things don't and, and I'm the ROI guy. So I that's

kind of the first thing I look at, well, what's working and

what's not. But the second real pieces, well, it's may not be

working, but maybe you're doing something wrong there.

You're not doing the process, you're not following

the process. Right. I love it. Yeah. And that's usually what we

find, though, right guy, like, we usually find that every once

in a while, we'll find that you're right, this isn't

working, it's not working, because it's not for your

industry. It doesn't match your business, it doesn't match your

clientele. I always find that sometimes people don't know

their clientele, they don't know who their their audience is. And

so they're, they're using any method to talk to their

audience, but they don't know who the audience is. So they

can't hit a target. There's no target. They don't know what

they're doing. So they're trying anything. And so there is a

method for every industry and for every business, it just has

to be perfectly and specifically prescribed. And that's what we

find. And you know that you know, you hear mailers don't

work, email doesn't work, email is dead, social media doesn't

work, this doesn't a third, advertising doesn't work. This

doesn't work. That doesn't work. Well, it may be it may not work

for your industry, or maybe your type of business at the stage

your businesses, but it does work. So how about we find

something that actually will work for you that you can stick

with. Another thing is some people try to use marketing

strategies and brand well, not even brand positioning, but

marketing strategies to position their brand without counting the

costs. Certain marketing strategies costs way more money.

And it requires a certain level of manpower. So you have a

business that maybe they only have a team of 10, and maybe

their marketing budget capped at 50,000 for the year, but they

want to step into territory where this marketing strategy

would require you to have a team of 50. And you would have to

have a marketing budget of 200,000. You're right. It's not

going to work.

Yeah, absolutely. And in that case, what you're

doing is you're generating demand for your cut your

competitors, because they're

generating demand for your customers. I love it.

Yeah. And but you can't fulfill it, you know, you

can't answer the phone, or you can't do whatever it is, and

they're just gonna call somebody else. So you just wasted all

that money and, and you hope your competitors do better.

I love that as a good one to generating demand for

your customers. I used to say you're negotiating against

yourself, but that one sounds even sexier. You're generating

demand for your customers, your competitors, I should say.

Exactly. Although, you know, it's funny, and I'm so

glad to hear, you know, you'd like a mix of contemporary

versus traditional media. We've seen in with some of our clients

kind of a resurgence of some of the traditional media. And I

think that's because they're just getting overwhelmed with

all these messages. And then everybody is ignoring like

print, you know, or billboards, because they're just not using

them anymore. And now you put something up there, and all of a

sudden they start to really work so

quickly. Exactly. Well, you know, here's the other

thing, too. Anything that's new is always exciting, right? And

so many years ago, social media hit the scene, right? So social

media showed up and hit the scene. And that was the new and

exciting, hoo rah thing of the business time and everything

right like that, right? But what happened is, it's technology.

It's technology. So the technology has to keep up with

the times And so when we have different social media

platforms, the technology has to significantly advance, which

means that it's ever changing. So between once you finally

figure out an algorithm for one platform, within a year or so

that whole entire algorithm and the process is changed, it

completely changes. And then you have to figure out how this

works and how that works. Right? So we have been in this this

space where we have been exposed to social media since like, what

the to 2000, or something like that. So we've been exposed to,

you know, early 2000s, that we have had this social media rave,

right? So we have to

now look at how could the

platform that we were exposed to in like 2004 and 2006 function

the same way, 1820 years later, it can't. And so when we look at

a business, if you don't evolve with the times as well, this is

where businesses are getting stuck. They think, well, I'm

old, this happened when social media kicked in, and they

thought everybody was going to be on social media, you had a

bucket of businesses that were adamant, we're not going on

social media, we don't need it. We'll continue to do our door

hangers, and we'll send mailers and they didn't even do email,

we'll put it in a in a newspaper. That's what we're

gonna do. That's, that's how we got here. That's how we

succeeded, then that's how you succeeded, then in order to

stay, you have to evolve with it. So when 2004 and six and

eight kicked in, and all these platforms, and after that, I

mean, they just popped up every three, three or three seconds,

another one pops up, you have to figure out okay, we do have to

align with a platform. Which one? Or which two of them? Are

we going to align with? Most people get themselves into a

tizzy? Because they think they have to be on every single

social media platform, when that's really impossible,

because there's well over 300 plus social media platforms.

More than that, now, there's no way you can be on all of them.

Right? So a business has to step back, right. from a strategic

standpoint, where are our customers? So that's why it's

important, I got to know my customer first, because then

I'll know what platform we need to be on.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to one

of the things that companies don't realize, as well as those

platforms evolve, in two ways, one of them the technology

underlying it evolves, and then there's new like tools and how

to use it, and what have you. And, you know, we cookies came

about, and then now their cookies are going away, but

there's new tools to be able to get around that. And the second

thing is, though, I think there is, with any of these new

platforms, there is a first mover advantage, if it's really

you know, like, let's say, let's say your audiences on tick tock,

if your first person or the first company in your

competitive set to be on tick tock, you're gonna get really

great results out of that. But as soon as the competition gets

in there, then you know, now you're fighting again. So now

you have to do something different. And there's, you

know, those two dimensions of the dynamics, and each one's of

the in each one of these platforms is really, really

critical. And so then when somebody says, well, we've been

doing print for the last 30 years, or door hangers, or bus

wrappers or something like that, and it's always worked for us.

But you know, life has changed, you know, there's new ways to do

this kind of stuff.

You're right, well, and they say, it always worked for

us. And then you say, Okay, let's look at some numbers. It's

always worked for you. But over the past five years, you've lost

30 something percent of your customer base. Yeah, he didn't

realize it. Right. So that's to your point, you know, knowing

the numbers understanding where we are, I'd like I always like

to know, where are we? Where are we going? How are we going to

get there? And who do we need to get there? Right, who do we

need? And how much is this going to cost us? You know, how are we

going to be able to start something stabilize something

and and then scale it? Right? And that's that's the whole

essence of business. So I agree with you 100%, knowing where you

need to be and at what time and then also, knowing when to exit

stage left? Yeah, yeah, leave it like if you're on a platform,

and it's become oversaturated. And you find out that your

customers have shifted, you got to shift with your customers.

That's where they are. You can I always say, don't keep asking

the island to uproot and come to you, you need to go to the

island.

Yep. How true how true, how true. So we all are,

hopefully, hopefully, hopefully now emerging out of COVID. What

have you kind of learned now that we're kind of coming out or

what are you seeing now that we're coming out that will be a

really good advantage to help your clients with?

Well, there are a lot of different things that have

emerged so far. example, I'll try to be somewhat specific to

give some hard examples, right. So for our clients, one of the

things we notify notice with our restaurant clients, because we

had a fair amount of restaurant clients, is we had to completely

shift and change the entire business model. One thing we did

with all our clients, when COVID hit, the first thing we did was

notify them, we have to have an emergency meeting, because you

need to change your entire business model. We Yes, we had

our plan that we mapped out, but it's a completely different

world. So now we have to go back and adjust the strategic plan

and just the business model. And what we did with even, for

example, our restaurant clients, we had to completely change the

business model, you're not going to have the same capacity in

house. And so really looking at ramping up the takeout ramping

up outdoor space, but then also what do you have to do when you

start doing that your technology, adjusting your, your

manpower, the numbers, because now you don't have the same in

house, you're gonna have to remove at least five of the

tables, because here's what will happen. If you leave the tables

packed in here, the way it is, you're going to lose more

customers because some people are not going to come because

it's too close. Now you've got now we have to start accounted

for social distance and spacing. So now where you might have had

10 tables in this one particular area, you can only get five.

Those are some changes that have come down for our clients. Some

other things that we've come down to technology has been a

bit thing, we've had to redo all the financial projections,

because the cost of technology is significantly changing. And

it's probably going to keep changing for another two years,

until things begin to kind of settle a little bit. So we had

to make sure our clients could account for the change in the

cost of technology to operate the business across the board,

even just to the economic rise of things, right. And then also

standing back and looking at how people work. So when we have

people that have to work inside, we have to start looking at

okay, does your staff have to be in the building? And do you

actually need this building? Because some people are holding

on to it like, oh, what's coming back? It's coming back. I wish I

wish, I wish no, no, it's not coming back starting to change.

There's no need to have this large space and building when

90% of the time it's empty. So making those hard adjustments

are some things as well, that needed to be done. In terms of

servicing clientele. Two things have to happen. Speed and

technology. Customers now are not as a weight from their

devices. So when a customer or a client reaches out, it's not

okay that it takes you two and three days to get back to them.

Not okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Before it was okay. Because they were on the

street. They were moving around and everything's new. Not

anymore.

wasn't okay. It was marginally okay. But you have to

respond immediately. You really?

Yeah, you got you got 10 hours. I've not heard from

you all month. I just spoke to you two days ago. It feels like

a month. So communication. You know, policies had to be

changed. How do you how do you communicate things of that

nature, you can't, you cannot wait two and three and four days

to respond to a client. Another thing is because technology

shifted, we had to really incorporate a policy, you must

check your your junk folder, you have to check your junk folder,

the way that our technology, the half of our emails get sucked

into junk folder, which never used to go there before. So now,

you can't not check it, your spam folder, your junk folder

has to be checked on a regular routine basis to sometimes to

two times a day, three times a day, depending on the volume you

have. So those are some things like really going for, like

infrastructure place and how an operations is what we've spent a

lot of time this is what's turning and what's changing.

Thanks to COVID

Yeah, well, you know, it's there's a really good

case study with, with Chick fil A and, and what they've been

able to do I what a what a, what a company.

That company, I love that company. I mean, if I was a

vegetarian, I think they'd make me eat meat. I'm just, I'm just

saying it's crazy. They have such a heart space. And they

have such good, good business, good business. And one of the

things that there was a report that came out they make

decisions that are for the greater good. They really make

heart heartfield decisions. I mean, when we look at the Chick

Fil A's they make they're not afraid to invest now for future

benefit. Yeah, yeah, notice, right. All of the Chick Fil A's

they're changing it. They're making double lanes. Quad lanes

simple.

Yeah, quad. It's amazing. thing.

I mean, it looks like a darn airport in there.

It looks like a taxi lines at the airport, you are so

right. And you know what's interesting, I was reading the

statistic that they have like four lanes, and like Donald's

might have one. And if they're lucky, they might have to. And

the wait time in the Chick fil A is less than it is than it is in

McDonald's. It is

and the quality, the quality of food, they're very

focused on quality and efficiency, the the quality,

when the Chick fil A app was launched, they they launched

with such care and precision, they actually wanted to hear

from customers. And as soon as you heard, they actually had a

team that all they did was look out for customer feedback, or

complaints or issues, right. And the app is so efficient, if you

forget to pick up your order. And this happened to me just the

other day, I placed an order and I was at the wrong location

because like they got the Chick fil A it was like five miles

apart and I didn't pay attention. So I've placed the

order on the app and I'm at the wrong location. I walked in

there and I'm like, What is taking so long I gotta go you

know, whatever it is like you don't have an order feels like I

placed in I showed the app and they knew the store and I'm

because oh my gosh, was Davis. That's the wrong store. But you

know what, let me see what you ordered. And I said, Well, how

do I refund it? There was like, well, let's just get you going

to get the refund. Let's just get you moving. Right?

They were so good. They are so my entire

order as I ordered it. And then the store in which I

was supposed to be at apparently the time kicked in. I get a

phone call. Miss Davis, your orders ready. I was like I feel

horrible. I'm so sorry. I feel like a dork. I'm at the wrong

store. I didn't know. Oh, well do you? Are you on the way we

can meet you outside? And we I was like, I'm sorry, I'm lost

the time I can't get there. Like, okay, we're so sorry. And

I was like, um, you don't have to give me a refund, it was my

mistake. Or mistake is we'll take care of it. How about they

pushed a free order to me for my inconvenience. I'm the one that

made the mistake. We're so sorry, you didn't get to come

here come and get a free sandwich.

They are such a good company. And you know, and even

even what's more incredible is their, their locations are so

enormous and the level of sales, and they're only open six days a

week.

I love it. I respect it. I've never gotten cold food.

I've never gotten poorly prepared food there. I mean, the

quality is always good. And two, this just kind of culminates

everything that we're talking about good business businesses

and hard people just make it complex. And I remember where

people were trying to shame Chick fil A for not being open

on a Sunday and so forth. And it's like, no, that is not our,

that's not what our beliefs, and I that was another level of

respect that I have for them. You know, that's another thing,

right? Guy, when you're in business, you've got to hold

your beliefs, right hold to your beliefs, just because you can

doesn't mean that you should. And that's something that in

business, we all have to learn to let lean on. Just because you

can doesn't mean that you should, right. And sure they can

be open seven days a week, but that doesn't mean that they

should, right. And even we, as we are in business, whenever we

go to either take on a client or take on a project or whatever,

we have to step back since and say hold on a second. Sure I can

do this, but should I

Right? And it comes up in every business and it is

it makes so much of a difference for the whole the whole business

all of the employees and how to make a decision. And you know

and especially nowadays when you think about you know PII

personally identifiable information and how you you

know, track that and how you guard that and protect it.

There's so many things that you could do, but you know, should

you do it is is is a really tough, and I think that's coming

up, gonna be coming up more and more here as we as as the

technology just kind of take over just about everything.

Agree, Agree technology is going to it does dictate a

lot of how we do things when we do things and stuff and things

like that, like what should we do? What shouldn't we do?

Technology, any business that runs from check technology is

looking for trouble. You can't run from technology, you cannot

run from technology. I tend to do what's called a like a simple

series of five simple steps series. And I'll post posted on

my YouTube channel and just to educate, give people something

to think about and I said okay, if anyone is still sending out

an attached Word document as an invoice to clients, asking

people to print it, write a check I put it in the mail,

snail mail it, we have got to talk, something's wrong, okay,

you cannot do this thing. This is the year, you know, send a

link, click a button, send a link, click a button, right? Or

when people start doing the back and forth something as basic as

booking time. Why do we have to have six different emails

exchanged about time? How about you just send a calendar link

booked time, but the time is efficiency and, and technology

and living in that when you start coming across businesses,

what customers and the marketplace gets exposed to

efficiency, in that matter, it now becomes an expectation. And

so when they come back to a company, or they go to a

company, and they don't have that same level of efficiency

and streamlining, they're like, oh, man, these guys are archaic?

Well, not absolutely. And that's where

Amazon has done. They have done such a good job with their user

interface and Chick fil A the same way. And sorry, I'm not

going to do a commercial for Chick fil A but but their their

methods are affecting everybody. Because when I go to Joe, you

know, Joe Blow down the street, and he doesn't have something

that's close to what Amazon is. I'd rather just buy it from

Amazon.

Yeah, that's what's happening. And that's that's the

struggle, right? You have businesses that they think that

they can get away with not rising to the occasion. Now a

mom and pop can't meet the demands or meet the level of

Amazon. But you can offer quality good service, you can

say, Listen, I can't I don't have it here. But I can order it

for you. I can get it for you. And case in point. My fiance and

I, we went to a store the other day. And the first person we

engaged with, see this is also marketing. This is branding,

right? The first person we engage with was very Oh, yeah,

we don't have that in here. I mean, if you want, listen to the

words correctly, right? If you want, you can go online and

search it up and order it. I mean, your store, you sell the

product. And so of course we were I was like, first of all,

my whole branding brain is like, who owns this joint? Like, what

in the world? What kind of what kind of customer service

training do we have? Like, anything is going off and I had

my coffee, I was sipping on my coffee. I was literally like

meditating on the way out. I was like, this makes no sense. So on

the way out, I said to my friends, so Oh, look at that

over there. And he was like, yeah, and there was another

young lady. She was hey, can I help you guys? And my sister was

like, no, because I'm the guy. And I'm like, well,

actually, you can.

Here's what we're looking for. Let me see. And let me tell you,

the experience was completely different. Let me go look and

see what we were back there already. And they got so we

appreciate all the help that you're doing. And she went back

there. And she looked and she checked. And then she went and

she goes, you know something? We don't have this one. But I can

order it. Give me a second. Can you guys wait until I get it

ordered? We'll have it in here if you want me to deliver it to

you whatever she got on her computer and took care of

everything. Yep, yep. As I sat there sipping my coffee.

And you know, the funny part is that, even though

they have more or less good customer service, it was the

training that failed with the other employee and that getting

that across the whole organization is so difficult,

especially when you have a lot of turnover and things like

that. I have so many more questions for you. But I mean, I

think we could go on for another couple hours yet. I do want to

ask you one more question that is, so what is the what's the

most important thing that you'd like to get across today?

The most important thing that I would like to get

across today is number one,

in business. Stay focused

and be intentional. Stay focused and be intentional. Don't get

distracted by the noise. Stay focused and be intentional.

There's a lot of noise out there. And if you don't be

careful, you'll get sucked in like a vacuum 2 billion things.

So that's on the business side. On the marketing side, what I

would say is the same thing. Get focused and intentional. Before

very clear about who you want to work with what clients you want

to serve, and then study your customer. Study your clientele,

and spend time chasing the clients that want to be caught.

Don't spend time chasing clients who do not want to be caught

that is a waste of energy, wasted time wasted money. So the

thing is focus and intentionality on both sides of

it. But always pay attention to your customer study your

customer know what they want. You know it's okay Need to go

the extra mile without charging that customer an extra $2? Yeah.

Okay, right. But focus, study them. And then again, spend time

chasing customers that want to be caught, as opposed to

customers that do not want to be caught.

Yeah, I always prefer going catching as opposed

to fishing. So I have one other very important question. And

that is, where can people reach you?

Absolutely. So the best way to find me is go to impact

branding consulting.org. That's impact branding consulting.org.

And you can find everything you need to know about me and it'll

connect you socially Gaul you can schedule a call or chat

anything. Is there, impact branding consulting.org.

Fantastic. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you. You've

been awesome. And I really, I would love to be able to spend

another couple hours. So we'll have to do this again. And we'll

have to get through the rest of the questions that I've got.

Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. And

thank you, and thank you to everyone. Please stay

tuned for many other videos in this series of the backstory on

marketing, please visit marketing machine dot pro

relevant.com. And you can download the first chapter of my

upcoming book and also valuable other valuable excerpts.

Otherwise, don't forget to reach out to Natasha at impact

branding, consulting.org impact branding consulting.org And

otherwise, if you liked this episode, please rate it with

five stars. Thank you so much Natasha, and thanks. Thanks to

everyone.