At the request of one of my Instagram followers, I am going to talk about the important of authenticity in social media. Whether you’re running a business or you are your business, being authentic is essential if you want to grow. This is going to be a jam-packed episode filled with lots of tips and tricks, so make sure you have your notebook handy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- Authenticity is the quality of being real or true. It’s a bit of a buzz word in marketing, but for very good reason.
- Social media changed everything in marketing because consumers became even more powerful. They had bigger choices and the lines to communication between consumers and brands were opened. It allowed brands to build trust and gave consumers a voice.
- User generated content is great when it comes to authenticity because it allows you to show that other people think you’re great too.
- Social media was a blessing and a curse, as people could manipulate the content that they show people. Fake marketing, unclear advertisements, paid influencers, celebrity endorsements and clickbait all led to people stop trusting brands.
- If you can build trust over time with authenticity, your customers will be loyal for years to come.
- If you are your business it is easy to show your personality within your business. If you don’t want to show your face, you don’t have to.
- Listening and responding to your audience is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to authenticity. If it helps, put people in groups and categories so that you can respond to them easily.
- Being open and honest with your audience is really important when it comes to authenticity. We are all human and mistakes are okay.
- In order to relate to your audience, you need to know who they are and how you can relate to them.
- It’s okay to admit you were wrong and it’s important to say sorry.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
It is so important to have someone who supports everything that you do. Whether it’s a friend, a family member or your partner – having that support is vital when it comes to success.
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
- What Does Authenticity Mean? – 07:30
- #1 Show Your Personality – 15:28
- #2 Listen and Respond – 18:00
- #3 Be Transparent – 24:30
- #4 Relate to Your Audience – 28:40
- #5 Say Sorry – 34:07
Transcript below
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How the devil are you? So this is the first episode of recorded since we did the hundredth episode and it was such fun. I have to say it had so much nice feedback. So many of you messaged me and talked to me about what you thought of the episode and how different it was and how fun it was for you to get a bit of an insight around I guess my family and my home and my husband and yeah, I loved it.
I was really, really pleased at the feedback and also Paul and I did a live on Facebook on my Facebook page. I'm going to link it up in this show notes and that was so much fun and honestly the people who were online were like, please can you do this as a regular thing, which I don't want to give my husband too much of a big head. He'll be taking over the business before I know it. But it was so much fun and it was really great to chat about work and answer questions and just how it all works. And again, I've got some really nice feedback from people in terms of how it might work with them and their relationships and what support networks they have.
So just really quick on this, actually, I really want to encourage you to make sure you have that support network because honestly, if I didn't have the faith of my husbands that I can do this and this is going to work and we're going to be amazing, then I don't think I would have as much. I don't know whether it was motivation or determination or tenacity to go after it. I just think if you haven't got that person at home, and it might be because they don't understand it might be because it's such a different world to theirs.
It might be cause you haven't explained what the possibilities are. And I know in the early days Paul didn't get it. You know, he, he supported me, but he didn't get it and he couldn't see what I could see. And then I started getting him more involved. He started to come to some of the events that I was speaking at. He started listening to some of the podcasts I would listen to or some of my episodes. And honestly it was, it was a real changing point for him cause I then think he saw, actually, not that he ever thought I was playing at it, but actually, Oh man, you could make something out of this. And, and the more he could see the lovely feedback I was getting and the podcast episodes increasing in terms of downloads, that's what really helped encourage him, I guess to, to be more supportive about it.
But like I said, not everyone has that. And I think you need to have that. I think you need someone somewhere supporting you in what you do because this is a lonely place at the best of times. If you don't have that, it's incredibly lonely. So actually I wasn't turning this into a sales pitch for the Academy, but that's kind of one of the reasons why the Academy is so good and why I am part of other memberships. And I'm part of other mastermind groups because even though I have a supportive husbands and and supportive children, I still like to be able to talk to someone who might be in my shoes or might have done the thing that I'm trying to do or feel the way that I might feel. So for instance, this last week, my husband and my stepson have been skiing for the week and my daughter has been with her dad and I've been on my own the entire week.
Honestly, I felt like a bit of a hermit. I felt like I literally hid in the house the entire time. But when you work on your own, and I know obviously I have calls with my team and I have calls with, uh, you know, 90 day programme people and coaching calls. So I have all that when I do talk to people. But that's a very different energy from sitting down in your house and talking to your husband or your kids or, so honestly, it was so lonely this week and it was just, it was really sad. And I'm being really honest about that. But literally you'd wake up and you would perform when you're on the calls or whatever, and then you'd just be sat there and you'd make a meal for yourself and then you'd go to bed on your own. And, and it's a really lonely place.
And like I said, I think if you haven't got someone to support you in the business, you need that community. You need people around you who can go do you know what? You're doing an amazing job and you are brilliant and you can do this. And I, I am thinking of people who I know who will listen to the broadcast, who've reached out to me and I swear you can, I wish I could just name all these names right now, but I don't embarrass you. Um, but I know you listening to this, you know, I know you, I know you're going to be brilliant at this and sometimes we just need that bit of support around us and just that help in mindset to help us shift into believing in ourselves. Because if we don't believe in ourselves, then you could have the best everything in the world.
You could have the most perfect product, the most perfect marketing, and you could still fail when actually, and I've said this before, but when I look at the people who are super successful, when I look at the people I look up to, like Michael Hyatt and James Wedmore and Amy Porterfield, they just literally were the most tenacious people and they just kept going for it and going for it. And they had a good support network. Amy Porterfield, Amy Porterfield's first ever webinar, a main webinar was done with, um, um, well not in conjunction with, but with the support of Louis Hayes, who it well is now is massive, but you know, we're still very big then. So she had that support. So you need those supports too. And the people who are around you and your community they had growing with you. So I urge you, if it's not the Academy, that's fine, but I urge you to make sure you've got someone or some people or, and it's not just about having the support of your husband or your partner or your wife or your, you know, best friends.
It's about having people who can understand what you're going through too. Because like I said, my husband is so, so very supportive, but he doesn't get what it's like to be doing what I do all the time. He does understand a huge amount of it and I don't want to take that away from him. He's, you know, he's fantastic like that. However, he hasn't run his own business, so he might not know what it's like that your brain never actually turns off and you can't stop thinking of things. And some days you wake up and you're ready to kill it and other days you wake up and you're like, I just want to hide in bed today and I don't want to do it. And who did I think I was? And you know, who am I to try and do this for my audience? So I just, I just wanted to, I didn't mean to take up so much time talking about this, but honestly I was really touched by all the feedback and then by the honest feedback of some people that were saying, I don't have that.
And and how important that is. So anyway, I just thought I'd talk about that because I thought that was really important. But today what I'm going to talk about at the request of someone on Instagram, so it was actually PIP, social pip on Instagram who saw me post about an event I was speaking at last year and my title of my talk was the importance of authenticity and social media. And she said, Oh, that's a real shame. I'd love to have seen that talk. So I thought, I know, I'll share it with you today and I will go through what that talk was and tell you why it's important to be authentic on social media. So what do we mean by authenticity? Well, if you give it a Google and you have a look at the dictionary, it will say the quality of being real or true.
What Does Authenticity Mean?
And it feels like a bit of a GoTo buzzword, if I'm honest. Like in marketing, you hear a lot about being authentic and authenticity in marketing, but what does it actually mean to be authentic in your marketing and why to consumers crave it so much? Because they do. So if you're thinking, well, I don't want to be, not, no one wants to be not authentic, I hope not. But if you're thinking you'd want to put yourself out there and show that through our authenticity, it's not just the you that you're doing it, it's for your customers. So basically, you know, little bit of a, a kind of background, social media changed everything in, in marketing. Literally being in marketing for like 16 years now I might even be 17, I'd need to do the maths. Um, it did, it changed everything. What I started doing, what I did my degree in was not like we do today and I've had to move with the times because of that.
And that's great. I'm happy to do that. But basically social media changed for the consumers because suddenly the consumers became powerful. The consumers had the opportunity to see so many more options. You know, obviously really, really long ago it literally used to be you would go down your high street and you would buy whatever was off your high street. You didn't have the option, you couldn't do the comparisons. And then obviously the internet came along and Amazon prime in all its glory and people could have much more bigger choice. They could look at reviews. But what social media did for customers was it actually opened the lines of communication. So it was a two way conversation. So it put a face behind the brand and even the big brands. So even the likes of, you know, your Coca-Cola's and your McDonald's and your, it opened this communication that you never had before and it validated who these brands were.
It built trust and it gave the consumers a voice ne, I will happily admit that not all consumers should have a voice because sometimes people just want to say mean things for mean sake. And that's not really my bag. But obviously it gave them that voice. So if they had bad experience they could go on and tell the world. But brands, it also opened the line of communication. So no longer were they having to do really ridiculous research through um, questionnaires and online forums and focus groups. When I was at uni, we were made to do a focus group. So obviously being at university and a bit of a scaredy pants, I just got people I knew it was the hardest or most stupid thing I've ever done because I remember my brother in law who to this day is still a bit of a fool and hilarious, but he just wouldn't take it seriously.
And I was like, come on, I'm into doing this. Seriously. But anyway, it was brilliant. So yeah, they don't have to do any of that now. If they want to know about something, they just put it on social media and go, what do you think? All the feedback they get off social media is massive. So you can really kind of get to know who your customers are without having to do big research. Also, it creates a community. It creates a sense of belonging, which again, for big brands, I know lots of you listening aren't big brands, so don't, don't worry, I'm getting to to ask stuff. But for those bigger brands, it did help that community, but also for the smaller brands, but for small businesses, for solopreneurs because like I just said, I didn't intend this to match it. So wow. But it is lonely.
It is lonely being in business when you work for yourself on your own, in your office even, you know, I have a team but they're virtual and again it is different, you know, so, so it sense, it gives you that sense of community. It's nice that your customers reach out and they feel part of what you do. It's a great way to get testimonials and also use a generated content. So I know that there are people listening here that I've got products, I know that obviously you guys listened to the podcast, you post on Insta stories, which I love and I share every single one of them. User generated content is brilliant because your content is saying, Hey, look how good I am. However their continent content is, Hey look how good she is. And that holds a lot more weight to it than necessarily you just saying, I'm brilliant.
So, you know, that's another great thing, which we didn't have back then. However, it was a beautiful, lovely thing for a long time and it kind of went all a bit wrong because brands and influencers decided that they could, Mullin manipulates and see this is authenticity, want to get the word wrong and manipulate social media. So they started to see that this was an amazing tool for them. But then what they started to do was manipulate that and, and make it work even harder. So instead of just being so grateful for the lovely new things that social media brought to them, it actually then started to try and make it work even harder. So fake marketing came up, unclear ads, paid influences that weren't being clear about the fact that their main paid for it. Celebrity endorsements, click bait, fake news. All of these things led to consumers, not trusting brands.
And in the presentation, because it was an academic presentation I gave, it was mostly university lecturer type people. Um, and in fact, actually, can I just say just a little bit of a fangirl moment, uh, when I went to university, and I think I might have said some on the podcast, the book I learned from was Philip Kotler you like he's the, they call them like the father of marketing. American guy wrote a gazillion books on marketing. Like I said, if you're in university, you do marketing and learn from him. And it was his event and I spoke on the same stage as him. Unbelievable. Anyway, slightly digress there. So in the presentation I put like loads of examples of marketing week saying consumer trust in brands and social media fools, um, as uh, between marketing and noncommercial blurs trust and social media platforms is eroding, you know, customer trust and social media is declining.
So I gave loads of examples as to why, um, you know, this was actually really happening and then checked in some stats that was like, you know, 54% thing that companies don't operate with their customer's best interest in mind. And 78% of consumers trust each other more than they trust advertising. And like I said, it wasn't just the brands, it was the fake influences. You can buy followers on every single platform. And luckily this is being clamped down on, which is brilliant news. And secondly, if you're smart enough, you can, you can see what's fake. You can see whether if they've got like a know 10 20,000 followers and they're getting 50 likes on a post and two comments, they're not real followers or they might be real followers, but they're not the right followers because you would engage. So yeah, so they were able to do that.
They could show inflated popularity and they were doing unclear ads. And again, you can buy engagement. So, so all of this added to the fact of being authentic was so, so important because the more I can show you my true and honest self, which I hope I do, um, I won't show you with like makeup because quite frankly, no one needs to see that. And not even my husband like me. I'm definitely one of those people that seek makeup, uh, and need it anyway. Um, you know, they need that authenticity. They need to know that you are real because the more they can see that, the more that they can trust you and the more that they're likely to do business with you. And although we can take some time to build that trust when you've got it, as long as you don't mess it up, they're going to be your customers and fans for life.
So this isn't a quick win type thing for marketing. This is definitely a slower process, definitely a longterm burn. But when you get it, it's going to add up and it's going to pay dividends. Okay? So how can you actually be authentic on social media? So I'm going to give you five ways in which you can be authentic so that you can start to build that trust in your audience.
#1 Show Your Personality
So number one, show your personality. Now this is really easy to do as a person, as in if you're, you are your business because your personality is you. And luckily you don't need to train for it. You don't need to learn anything, you don't need to do anything. It's entirely you.
Now, there are people out there who run businesses in my world who I'm not keen on and I'm, my personality doesn't relate to their personality and they're not for me and it's not, I don't do it that way or I don't like it that way and that's absolutely fine.
There are people that don't like me and that's absolutely fine because what you're going to do is if you show your true personality, if you show the real person behind the brand behind the business, then you're going to attract like minded people and especially if you are selling a service where you're part of that service, you want to attract like minded people. If people don't like you and don't like what you do, you don't want to work with them. So being honest about who you are, and I don't get me wrong, you know, there is still an element of, there's a Teresa that's in my lines in what I was going to say in like joggers, but that's a lie. I have never worn joggers. I'm like, you know, relaxing or slightly drunk on a Friday night with too many gins that isn't the Theresa I'd show online obviously.
So obviously I'm tempering it a little bit, but what you see of me is absolutely, genuinely me. And I think what was lovely about the episode was, um, the fact that actually biz Paul said that the Teresa you see on stage and you see on the podcast is the Teresa that he experienced when he came around my house and we had dinner and he stayed over. So, and that's what I want because that means that's I'm being authentic. So think about the authenticity. Think about how are you showing your personality now you don't have to physically show you. I know there's lots of people out there who get nervous about putting their face on their, or talking about their opinions or whatever. It doesn't actually have to be that kind of that far. If you're not, come to putting your face on there then don't.
But show you maybe you know, a dinner play of or a dinner table of a Sunday lunch that you're talking about having with your family and your children or you know, show that you're going for a walk with them if that's what you do on a weekend or whatever it might be. That's why one of my nine categories, my Instagram is alcohol because that's often what I do. You know, I love it. I love a good gin as you all know. If you followed me when I um, so just show elements your personality and people also think it's frivolous, they think, well what's the point in doing that? Because it's not selling the business but no, people are getting to know unlike you. Okay.
#2 Listen and Respond
Number two, listen and respond. Like honestly, this is the most important thing to do because remember I said right at the beginning about social media being a two way thing.
People who go on to social media and just shout at the world and not making the most of what the platform is and they're probably not going to get many great results. The whole point of social media is going on and having a conversation with people. So listen to what people are saying. Don't just go on. And I've talked about how I manage social media. I use lists a lot. I put people in groups that I'm interested in so I don't get lost in the feed looking at inane stuff that I'm not interested in. But I do focus on the people who I'm like, yeah, that's a great conversation. I love hearing what you have to say, even if it's not work stuff, but have that conversation with people jump on. In fact, I had the most amazing testimonial from an Academy member, um, that basically she put in our Facebook group that I had done some training for them and talked about the fact of you want to talk to your audience, even if they're not your customers.
If you've profiled your audience perfectly and you know this type of person is perfect for you, you want to go and find them on. And this was Twitter for her. She went onto Twitter and she find people in her local area. She's a PT and she decided, start talking to people in their local area that she felt fit her profile and she spoke to someone on Twitter and she liked that picture and they had a conversation and they became a customer like that is amazing. And she put this amazing testimonial in the group saying, I can't believe this actually worked. A Teresa said I should do this. I did it and I got an actual paying customer. But that's the point. And then the responding bet. Well that's just like ludicrous. If you're not responding, I try so hard and it, granted it's getting harder as as the more I'm getting more DMS and more comments and stuff and I do try hard and I might take a little while to respond, but I got, I hope I have responded to everyone listening or you're going to be like, you liar.
You didn't respond to me. But I'm, if that's the case, I'd have missed it and I'm so sorry and tell me and I will fix that. But I, the point is these people are talking about you. They're loving you. They're, they're interacting with you. And having conversations with you said the least you can do is do that back to them. The least you can do is acknowledge and respond and be thankful and grateful for that. So I gave a really good example and I'm wondering, and I'm going to tell you this example because it's pretty funny and I try and be a little bit funny in my talks. I'm not, I am not very good at like script putting funny like my sister, bless her, we were out on Friday night gin tasting and she was like, Oh my God man, he should be on the stage.
Like I think she was exaggerating, but it's when I've had a gin and I'm, and I'm off the cuff. So anyway, I do like to put a few funny bits in my presentation. So I went and searched a Tesco mobile. Now if you're not in the UK, you might not know Tesco you shared there are international. But anyway, it's a supermarket brand and they do loads of other stuff and they do obviously a mobile phone and their Twitter. If got a spare five minutes. And I know we're all very busy. So maybe just on an evening when you're chilling, chilling. I think to say that when you're relaxing, I don't know where that came. Well it's because I'm looking at an image on my screen of like someone calls. I don't know why I said chilling, but anyway. Um, so when you're relaxing at home, maybe going to check out Tesco mobile cause man it's hilarious.
Right? So this is, this is showing authenticity, which I think this is incredibly brave. I would have loved to have been on a fly on the wall when someone walked in to that director team or whatever and said we want to be like this on Twitter. And how are they approved or got approved? I don't know. So let me give you some examples. So Tesco mobile, put a tweet out. Can you believe Christmas is only six weeks away? We have the full squad in today, gives a shack you have. And if you have any questions, well that like, you know, the fact that these, the language, the full squad kind of gives you an idea of their personality. So some guy called King Kev replied is my boy Rob there and Tesco mobile came back going yo with a like fist bump. Um, and then Robert signed that off and then with a GIF of like this guy saying what's up or whatever.
So like really cool personality stuff. But this is even better. Right? So this is so, so good. So someone, and this is what I mean by listening and responding and look, Hey, they turn this into a negative thing into a really positive thing. So this woman called honey on, it's on Twitter, but you call it your MCM. And I had to Google that because I am not cool enough. Parently it means man crush Monday. Who knew? Um, it goes to voicemail and it says welcome to Tesco mobile, right? So she is dissing Tesco mobile because she's basically saying, Oh that's embarrassing. The first thing I need to tell you what you can't see cause you can't see the slide I'm showing is that that she doesn't tag Tesco mobile and she literally just writes the words. So they are obviously looking and searching for people just talking about them or talking about something that relates to them.
So that's like well done. Tesco big tick for you. She didn't even tag you in Tesco reply. So bearing in mind she's dissing Tesco's, uh, they reply to her saying, you realise he's out of your league. You buy 18 cats and start calling them your babies. So right. Which honestly, like this is a massive brand saying that kind of thing to someone, which is obviously dissing them back. She then comes back to Shea. I became a cat lady because I don't need no man. I'm trying to say this in a really cool way. It obviously isn't working. So then Tesco come back, you're strong and independent woman and you choose to be a cat lady. You go girl. So then she comes back. Tesco's always there for me. Heart emoji, Tesco. Then say we've got your back besties for life kiss face emoji. Like hello.
Could you hear what just happened there? She's dissing them. They say something a little bit cutting back. Now, I'm not suggesting you all go and start being a bit feisty because that would not work for me and that's not me, but because they bothered to listen and have a conversation and chat and show a personality, and I've said there are big brands, so that's an interesting personality that they chose. She's been turned it right. The Tescos are always there for me and they're like, yeah, besties for life. Like that's hilarious. Imagine like, well, first off, most brands wouldn't have even known to look or wouldn't have identified the fact that this woman had said something about them. Secondly, they would normally not respond to it because it's, it's a slightly negative comment, but they just took it on. I just think that's amazing. I love that example.
#3 Be Transparent
It's like I said, when you get a second, go check it out. Okay. Number three, be transparent. So being open and honest is really important. Now, the podcast is a really good one as an example, because in the early days of starting the podcast, I used to be like, if I messed up my words, if I like ums or did anything, I would delete it out and I would think, Oh, I can't put that in there. And the podcast probably not that I go back and miss them because I don't think I want to, I just cringe. It was probably a little bit stiff about it. And then I then started getting into the fact of what do you know what I want it to be like a conversation. And if we're having a conversation, if I'm sat down and having a coffee with you or you're on a coaching call with me, I'm not editing myself.
I do mess up. I do make mistakes. I stumble over my words, I talk fast and I forget what I'm going to say sometimes. And that's okay because you know what? I'm a human. I'm sorry if you didn't realise that, but I am a human and so are you. So the transparency for me now, yeah. I'm not going to show you the times where I'm flipping. You know, this is so open and honest. See this is, I am really transparent. My husband, like I said, went skiing on holiday. I sat here on my own all week and was feeling a little bit sorry for myself and he sent me a picture of the beautiful blue skies, which in the UK at the moment is just literally constant grey and raining and the lovely white Chris snow and I literally opened the image and sobbed. Now I'm not going to show you that.
I'm not going to like do an Instastory going, Oh my God, I'm so fed up. I want to be in the snow. Like obviously not. So I don't necessarily mean that side or I wouldn't, you know, that's kind of up to you and to what level you want to go to, but I would definitely, definitely think about how transparent can you be. No. One of the really good ways of doing this and actually a book that I finished and put on my Instagram, which I am loving, is I need to check the actual title. Hang on. Um, Oh. Can't even see it. I can't even see the book. I'm sure it's you ask. No, no it's not. They ask you answer by Marcus Sheridan. I can remember his name but I couldn't remember which way round it went. Anyway, it talks about answering the awkward questions that people don't want to.
So his example is he sold a certain type of pool, um, a fibreglass pool and he did content around, well why would you have a fibreglass pool over having a, I don't know anything about pools, but I presume or decayed warm with cement and whatever. And it was a really unbiased look at it in terms of, well, you'd have that one because of this is the benefits that, or you might have this one cause this is the benefits of this. And it wasn't trying to steer them in any way into buying his products. It was just saying really openly and honestly and transparent. These are the good things and these are the bad things. And I love that approach. And that's why I'm so honest that not everybody will like me and how I am. That's also why I'm very open and very confident, I guess to say share other people's stuff that do very similar stuff to me because do you know what, if you like this stuff, you're going to go with them and that's cool.
And if you're like mine, you're going to come with me. And that's cool. So for me, I think the transparency is a really, really important thing in our business. The other thing I did, um, that I really want to do, but I'm trying to convince these people is, uh, there's a client I used to it with a very long time ago and he was saying to me that he wanted to do videos and I was like, do you know, it'd be brilliant if you did a video going, why do people think estate agents are a waste of money? What is the difference in an online agent and a high street agent and you know, and all these kinds of things that people think about when they think about estate agents. Cause if you just call it [inaudible] then then kind of any objections or any kind of negativity, you've just cleared it straight away.
And if at the end of like your content, they don't want to buy from you because actually they do want a pool that's brick. Well they would never have done that anyway. They would never have come to you. But the respect for you and your company is so much high if your business, okay, I feel like this is really long one today. I feel like I could talk for ages, but I try not to.
#4 Relate to Your Audience
Number four relate to your audience. So as I go on all the time and you're sick to death of hearing it, you need to know who your customer is because if you don't know who your customer is, how can you relate to them? So I am very much a lot of my customer. So when I look at who my customers are, they are often um, people in business. They're often solo preneurs or have a small team.
They are really good at what they do, but they are struggling with the overwhelm of trying to manage all the marketing stuff. They get scared and when they get scared, they're not scared that they're not gonna be a marketing genius. They're scared that the business is going to fail and they're gonna have to get a job. Honestly, if one thing motivates me more than anything is I could not ever, ever imagine having to get a job because I, it would be hell on earth. I would hate it. So I can relate to my customers. So that really helps me understand who they are. But how do you relate to them through social media? It's basically putting stuff out there that you know they're going to like. So you know how I talk about having nine to 12 categories from Jasmine stars episode, which I'll link up to in here, um, in the show notes.
Well, one of my nine categories is quotes and another one is books and another one is Jen or fairs or whatever. And another one is my family. And the reason for me choosing these categories is because I love them. But the other reason is I know my audits will relate to that. I know they'll read a quote that I find inspirational, I find motivational I can relate to and the chances are they will relate to that too. So that's what I mean by creating constantly your audience can relate to. Now, does that quote or does that picture of a glass of wine on a Friday? Sell my staff. Does it say go to the Academy and join? It's ACE. No, of course it doesn't. But the point is, I want to show you that I'm the same too, that I feel that way or I've been through these things or I struggled with that in the past and I've come through it and I can help you do that too.
And that I can relate to you. So like have you ever followed someone? So it, Gary V, perfect. Perfect example gave is great. Some people love him, some people don't. So we're not, I'm not here to debate, you know, whether he's for you or not. But the point is, or Tony Robbins or any one of those big people, or in my world, Amy Porterfield or, um, Pat Flynn or Michael Hyatt, you know, you can look at those people and you can go, that's amazing. And I love you and you're brilliant. And I think he's smart and I love what you put out there. But let's take GaryVee. How relatable is your life right now to Gary V? Do you have a team of our DNA? How many does he have? Like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. Do you have the following that Gary V's? Do you walk around with a film crew filming you constantly?
Like, I can't relate to that because it feels like another world away to me. It feels like, don't get me wrong. Do I want it? Do I want to get to the point where I'm the size of Gary V? Oh my God. Like, wouldn't that be amazing? I everything that was amazing. I'm not sure I want a film crew following me around all the time though. Um, um, I don't think I can swear that much. Um, but you know, or Tony Robbins or whatever, you know, wouldn't it be amazing to help that many people to get in front of that many people and to support them in whatever course it would. But right now where I am, can I relate to him? No, cause it's so far ahead. So think about, you know, in terms of, especially if you're doing a service, it's kind of like, can you just step up one more point or can you just, are you just a step ahead of people or two or three steps out of people that you can show them.
You followed that journey, you've gone through that thing. And even if you have a product, can you just show them, you can relate to them. And I've got another great example, but this has a slight, um, warning on it that, uh, I can not be responsible for the content they're putting out. And eh, you might not find it appropriate, but I think it's quite funny. So there's the dollar shave club. Now I'm assuming you've heard about the dollar shave club. I've talked about their video before, which I think is hilarious. If you've never seen the dollar shave club on YouTube video, you want to go and Google their very first video. It was hilarious. Anyway, their target audience are, man, their stuff is very funny. They're very relatable. They're a little bit crude and rude, but they're hilarious. So they're content and if you go check out their Instagram is really funny and it definitely relates to their audience.
So for instance, I'm looking at my screen and I gave some examples and one of the examples was they put a quote up saying or a text post on Instagram saying your girlfriend is in denial about how much she snores. Um, but then they also put a quote, uh, some advice at that says if you cut yourself with a new blade, it's often the result of applying too much pressure and then like they do something else. Oh gosh. Like this isn't normally what I talk about, but what food gives us colourful poop like made. This obviously isn't for me. I'm not their target audience. I could laugh at it because it is a bit funny, but I'm not their target audience, but they are relating so, so well to their audience. Oh one more. That was really funny. Why does shove my hands down my pants make me feel more comfortable?
I just think that was brilliant. But again, if you're a man, as a woman woman, I can look about and thinking that men do do that. But you know, it's really relatable. So you want to relate to your audience. Okay.
#5 Say Sorry
And then finally say, sorry. So we, I think we are really lucky that not many of us mess up really a whole lot online. But if you have missed something or something went wrong or you get a a review, that's a negative one. Lots of people don't want to admit when they're wrong and I just think as an authentic thing to do. If you've messed up and you know you've messed up, then just say, I've messed up. I'm sorry. Like if a big brand can do it, then I think anyone can do it. Like I said, in lots of cases, hopefully we don't need to do that, but if you have to then do it.
I've got a great example that I shared in the presentation of KFC. Remember in the UK from the UK, KFC run out a chicken like kind of crucial for chicken restaurant, but anyway, they run out of chicken and it was a real uproar to shows our nation and what belike like that we have an uproar if we run out of KFC. Anyway, they put a post out about the KFC thing happening and it showed a bucket empty and it actually put the letters F C K instead of KFC, which then was pretty funny. So obviously you can draw your own conclusion as to what word they meant by that. And then underneath it it said we're sorry, at chicken restaurant without any chicken, it's not ideal. Huge apologies to our customers, especially those who travelled out of their way to find we were closed and endless thanks to our KFC team members and our franchise partners who worked tirelessly to improve the situation.
It's been a hell of a week, but we're making progress and every day more and more fresh chicken is being delivered to our restaurants. Thank you for bearing with us. Visit dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. That to find out data about your local restaurant. Okay. Now I know you're not the size of KFC. Uh, again, you know, most people listen to this, I know our, um, entrepreneurs and small business owners, however, I want you to take a few things from this. First off, somehow they managed to turn a very negative situation into a little bit of a joke because of how they did the adverts. So well done. The marketing agency did that. Secondly, they literally started it with, we're sorry. So they immediately apologise. They're messed up. They should apologise. But then listen to some of the things they say in that statement.
Obviously they've admitted a chicken restaurant without any chicken is not ideal. So they've said that they've apologised their customers, but then even more importantly, they apologise to their team because the marketing department is not the person on the end of, or they might be on the end of the Twitter or cane or the Instagram account, but they're not the person who's potentially in the restaurant going, we're closed and having customers kickoff at them. So for me that makes me feel like, well, well done KFC for actually thanking your staff because and appreciated, they were the ones who had to deal with this. And then what makes it even better is they show some personality, they show some authenticity by writing. It's been a hell of a week. Like can you not hear how for me when I read that, I look at that and go, Oh man, yeah, I bet.
And I actually feel a bit sorry for them. I actually think, Oh, I can only imagine. So I think they've done an amazing job there of saying and apologising and really showing the humanness in that considering this such a big brand. And then again, thank you for bearing with us. And then they give them details to go, right. You know, we lost your trust. So this is where you can go and make sure that you can be confident that your store is open and there's chicken in it or whatever. So again, just think about this things that don't necessarily, again, I'm not saying then you know, we're the size of KFC and that's, we're going to do the street fantasy out. That's pretty funny. But I want you to think about the fact that they said, sorry, they thanked their customers and staff and apologise to their customers and staff for what's happened.
And then they gave some emotion and said, it's been a hell of a week. It's been really tough and thank you for bearing with us and here's how you can sort this out. So let's say you have a product and it's late going out. Let's say you meant to deliver something on a service and something changed. Then be honest about it and just say, this is what it is. Now obviously you could only get away with that a number of times. It just want to say that it's a bit like pivoting. You can only pivot a number of times. You can only go, this is a new thing I'm doing. Oh no it is and I'm shutting it now and we're going to do this instead. So you don't want to try and wear that one eye. Okay. So hopefully I've given you some ideas there that authenticity doesn't just have to be a by showing you my face with no makeup when I get up in the morning.
Because if that's what it was, I would not be doing it. So it's about showing your authentic self a bite, showing your personality, being truthful and honest and transparent. Having a conversation, caring about the people who are interacting with you. So if you can do all these things, and the beauty of it is, like I said, no training needed, just be you. Just be the person that you are and relate to people in that way. And you will bring your audience and your tribe and the people who love what you do. So I'm going to leave it there because I've talked quite a lot for a solo episode. I hope it's been helpful. I've really enjoyed talking about it. Actually it came very easy, which was nice and think about what I said at the beginning because honestly this isn't true. This isn't tough. What am I about?
This isn't easy. It's hard work. It's hard work, running a business on your own and you need that support. And even when you have the support of your partners and husbands and wives and families and children, sometimes you need the support of other people who are going through exactly what you're going through. So a community and a group and people that are likeminded are great. So definitely think about that. Obviously I've happily promote the Academy because we have such an amazing team of business owners in there who are great at supporting each other. Actually I love how they get on. Um, and you are always very welcome. I would love to see you in there. So I'll link up to that in the show notes as well. Anyway, next week is an interview and I can't remember off the top of my head who it is, so it has to be a surprise. Anyway, have a really lovely week and I will see then.
