- Why she believes that every person can build a professional business doing what they love and make buckets of money at the same time
- The mission she is on to empower everyone who has a business dream to professionalize it and make it profitable
- How her entrepreneurial journey started as a small child
- How she helps businesses succeed and spend zero on advertising
- How she gets 80% of new clients by word of mouth
Links:
The link to Estie’s 5 Day Challenge is estierand.com/freegift
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estierand/
Exceeding Expectations links:
Facebook Group
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
How to leave a podcast review:
https://tonywinyard.com/how-to-leave-a-review-for-the-podcast/
Please could I ask you a favour? Would you mind sharing this episode with one person you feel will get value from the content?
Transcript:
Transcript:
Tony Winyard 0:01
Exceeding expectations Episode 66. If you’d like to take your business into earning comfortably six, seven figures, then this week’s guest Estie Rand gives you ideas on how to succeed without doing any advertising, and to really tighten up your marketing. That’s this week’s guest Estie Rand. This is the podcast where we give you ideas on how to have a business where you deliberately set out to exceed people’s expectations with the aim of getting better referrals and testimonials and also just enjoying what you do more, enjoying the customers you work with more and just having a better business. If you like this podcast and this particular episode; if you know anyone that you think may get some value from some of the some of the nuggets that Estie shares. Please do share this episode with anyone who you feel may get some value from it. It’ll be great if you could leave a review for us on iTunes or one of the other podcasting platforms. And hope you enjoy this week’s show.
So another edition of exceeding expectations. And my guest today is Estie Rand, How are you?
Estie Rand 1:14
I am fantastic. How are you?
Tony Winyard 1:15
I’m very good. Thank you. And we’re sitting here in London, but you’re not from London.
Estie Rand 1:20
I am not. I’m from Los Angeles, California.
Tony Winyard 1:23
And how long have you been in London?
Estie Rand 1:25
Four days.
Tony Winyard 1:26
So the temperature must be killing you?
Estie Rand 1:29
It’s a little chilly over here. Yeah.
Tony Winyard 1:33
Originally you were telling me you’re from from New York.
Estie Rand 1:34
I’m from New York originally. So I am used to this. Yeah, the damp the rain, the wind and cold stuff.
Tony Winyard 1:40
And so what’s brought you over to London?
So I came in for a private event over the weekend, and that’s really it just kind of was brought out to present over here.
So you were speaking at an event?
Estie Rand 1:54
Yeah. Right.
Tony Winyard 1:57
Is that what you do quite often?
I do speak a lot. My primary job is helping business owners earn more money with less headaches.
Okay, so tell me about that.
So I run a full service creative consulting firm. So anything you’d imagine that like a fortune 500 company gets from a Deloitte McKinsey big consulting firm we do for micro businesses. So anywhere from solopreneurs freelancers to like 20-30 person companies, we get people to that stable 5, 6, 7 figure, profit number. That’s, that’s my day job. And we’re multinational. So I’ve got clients out here also, that I’m seeing while I’m here, and new clients that are approaching me since I’m here, put it out on social. So yeah, I love love what I do.
So what’s the backstory? How did you get into that?
So I was working as a CEO of a multinational nonprofit, and love my boss, love my job, have flex time, which was insane because I at the time had three children now I have five. And that was so important to me as a mom to have a high level job and still be able to be present for my family. And they hired a middle manager at some point. Because nonprofits aren’t really run by the people who run them, they’re run by their board of directors for directors wanted a middle manager, great. He was toxic, super toxic, made my life absolutely miserable. And it just it got to the point where I either had to cry every day, and I’m not a crier, or I had to leave at ages was that was actually lived in Jerusalem for about 10 years between New York and Los Angeles. So it was out there. And it all came to a head one night and I quit. I left the job and I had this dream I had been harbouring for a while, because it was 2011 beginning of the Small Business boom. And I was just watching everyone try to give it a go. You know, after 2008 recession, so many people weren’t getting the work. They wanted work in the rates they wanted. The internet was almost at that tipping point where people could work remotely and get easy access. etsy was super hot. And I’m just I’d be sitting in cafes, and he’d be like, like, good no idea what you’re doing. I’m running businesses profitably since I’m 10 years old. Oh is this like side gate? always had a real job because that’s a real job, right? Like running a business like it’s a hobby. But I know I can help them and I so badly wanted to. So I was harbouring this dream and and if I go back, it really started even earlier because I, I had when I worked in the nonprofit, they had hired this consulting company. And those guys came in. And they said, all the same stuff that I said, but they got paid more than I did. And they got listened to more than I did. I was like, I’m in the wrong line of work. And I think that that started germinating the idea. I started doing a little things on the side, but when I left my job, I took on a few things at the same time, but also kicked off my business and it’s grown since then.
And so how do people find out about you? How do you normally get new customers?
Estie Rand 4:44
It’s pretty much word of mouth and social media. Honestly, I built the company to six figures and under two years with zero adspend. We’re aiming now to do seven figures and we’re on track pretty well actually. So I don’t advertise, I do speak a lot. So I travelled to speak to wherever. I’m visiting South Africa in a couple of months as well. And but so a lot of speaking, that’s how I built it in the first place. And just word of mouth. And what I know this show is called exceeding expectations. And I would say the biggest thing that I do that has built my business is exceed people’s expectations purposely. So what I do, what I preach what I teach what I live, is, strategically lowering people’s expectations. Don’t tell people every single thing you can and will do for them, because the chances of you over performing that are nil, you know, and so I’m always so careful. And it’s also I think, part of my own personal integrity to be so careful. When I tell a client what we can and can’t do for them. I’m always very careful again, I’m a marketer, and a salesperson at heart. So I am telling them that we can help them obviously, but I don’t make any kind of big promises. I never make a false promise. I never guarantee something. I can’t do it. And we have strategically built in bonuses and everything we do. And so over the years, I think of constantly over performing again, not because I’m such a superstar, because I purposely under promise, promising enough to sell, but under promising. I would say 80% of my clients have come just from word of mouth. And we’re talking hundreds of people over the course of the years.
Tony Winyard 6:26
And so are you able to give any examples of where you’ve exceeded someone’s expectations?
Estie Rand 6:30
Sure. So a great example, I think, is in our online programme. We have an online programme called marketing magic, where you learn how to never waste money on marketing, again, teaches full marketing strategy to small business owners. And one of the things we do because many online programmes people get lost, and then they know they buy them, they never take them. They never open them, they show up a little bit, they don’t show up at all. And for me, it’s so important to be able to replicate the results we had with our private clients in the online programme, otherwise, I’m not going to do it. It’s not worth it. And so we built in a lot of bonuses. lot of a lot of strategically and promised things show up in the programme once you come in, and we don’t promise it to people, it just it shows up and I think that’s part of what hooks them and it’s part of what have them stick through the entire thing. Like I’m not gonna say all of them because people come but then they’ll know but just as an example, trying to think what I could share. So one of the examples is where middle of one of our programme launches. And something we got from previous course participants was they wanted to have like a group session not even with the strategist or with myself just with each other do the homework because it is an intense programme, you are really learning marketing in a way that you never expected. You know, I took my entire for your marketing degree and then all my 10 years of experience in the field and I boiled it down into an eight week programme that really overhauled your business, your life your ideas about what marketing isn’t, isn’t so you can be successful in it. And they say no, we’d love to have a way to communicate with each other. And so one of the surprises that everyone One is going to be finding out about this week is we’ve built in calls with other graduates to moderate, where all the participants can kind of do their homework together, say that shared space. So that’s just like an example of a surprise bonus every time people give us feedback we listened to and we try to next level it. So they just asked to have a group call, which means like, we could just have, Hey, everyone have a group call, which means that we’re hosting it on our on our software. We’re bringing graduates to moderate and strategists to kind of oversee and those kinds of things always having those special surprises. makes such a difference.
Tony Winyard 8:35
it’s like you were saying before, most courses, the percentage of people that complete the course is pretty low. And you’ve got quite different figures?
Estie Rand 8:42
We’ve got very different figures. Yeah, we have. We have like a 60 70% show up rate on our weekly coaching calls with the groups and we have like 85 – 90 we have a very high percentage that show up at graduation. Because one of the things we do even at graduation is even if you haven’t managed to get through the course graduation, I wrap the whole thing up for you, we walk participants through their entire strategy. So you see the entire map, we offer, you know, discounts and ongoing support if you haven’t been able to complete with us and life happens, take an online course, life came up. You know, one of the things this is actually great star I hadn’t even thought about this. So a participant in our last cohort signed up for the course and then had a health issue. And a refund policies are such that like, it’s not so simple. You have lifetime access to material to come back whenever you want. And she was gonna miss the coaching though. And so I said, Listen, no problem. Next cohort jumping on the coaching with pleasure, you know, totally fine. And I think that and the fact that I got on the phone with her and like kind of talked her through it. I think those two things combined, she joined this cohort but not just as a free participant. She upgraded to VIP VIP is where we take our online programme we Marriott’s our consulting company, and people do a one on one strategy with our team. So This woman who had paid for the course who would want us to drop out because of a health issue now upgraded into our next level and I think that is what exceeding expectations does. You know people are like, Oh, they asked for their money back. I should give it back to them. I cannot tell you countless stories because you don’t know it’s going on someone’s head why they asking for their money back. Listen, if legitimately whatever you’re doing isn’t working for them, please give it back. Every time I would do that, typically that they got stuck somewhere they’re unhappy with something sorted out I had a client who came to me one of our premium clients doing a one on one with me and somewhere towards the end she said listen, st this isn’t doing what I wanted. It isn’t it isn’t working for me and I’m so big on exceeding expectations at home.
“What do you mean it’s not working for you? No one says that to me!”
Tony Winyard 10:41
Like Listen, how about I just you know I paid you you know a bunch of money already have it I don’t pay the rest and we just call it quits and you know, not upset you but it’s not what I wanted. And I kind of said no, a that’s under contract. And, you know, be let’s just talk about what isn’t working for you guys. I did a full free session. Talk to me. What is going On. And we had a breakthrough, which was that the business we had been working on the whole time for her when she had come to me the next level she didn’t want to do. And so we’re working this whole time trying to next level of business that she didn’t really want to next level. But she had just felt, I guess, uncomfortable saying it because she had kind of had everyone down there on their path. And we came to what she really wanted us to automate that business which basically run by itself, which is something we easily can do, and help us help restart something else. That’s a great, she’s a really we could do that. I said, Sure, sure. But we’re already almost out of time. I said, don’t worry about it will extend the contract, free of charge. I want you to finish this off. So not only did she stay, finish that contract, but she’s opening another contract now to build the next business. And that is how you can turn you know, I guess, upset customers into raving fans.
So do you keep in touch with any past graduates and find out how they’re doing?
Estie Rand 11:52
Oh my gosh, yes. When we did our launch recently, before I did a launch every out to all my past graduates from the past year or so. And so this is, this is another good one another good I live this I breathed this, I think that’s how we got introduced to each other. Most people will go in, they’ll try to survey their past graduates, you know, try to call them up and they’ll ask them for something. What did I do? I said, Hey, grads, I want to do a free training for you. What do you still want to learn from me having graduated the programme, here’s five, six different options, different tools and strategies. You know, one of the options was more of the same, like, just give me more of this, give me a review. Give me more on, you know, finding my ideal versus non ideal client, give me some next level strategies. Give me some more basics on social media, I give a couple options, different things. And I said, survey answer the survey. Now the survey included feedback on the programme. So you’re going to complete the survey, you’re going to tell me what you thought of it, what you were satisfied with what you’re satisfied with, what you think we should have for the future, which is how we got this idea to do these homework calls that we’re adding in You know what we can do better what you already loved about it that we can just you know, a feel good about and be keep doing more of, and I’ll do this training for you. We had 70% or more answer the survey. 70% already and this was not a free question.
Tony Winyard 12:03
And typical survey responses are about 10%.
Estie Rand 12:15
Yeah, something crazy like that. Yeah, no, we had because what did I do? I offered something. I exceeded expectations from the outset. And then I did the training, and people came on and we had a nice show rate on the training people came on thinking like okay, like I already heard so much from Estie the feedback we got I next level that training I give them stuff I’d never taught them before stuff that I’ve learned myself cuz I’m always next level. I’m always learning growing up my own mentors, my own studies constantly, and people came off that training going, like, wow, and part of what we use that training for, okay, you know, all my secrets are always secrets. We use that training to launch our graduates as partners in selling. And so a bunch of our graduates then became salespeople. For us, and they went out there to promote the programme, right? Because on that call, I gave them their training, thank them, obviously, for the survey results, told them all of the upgrades to the programme that we’re doing because of them, a lot of which they get because people have lifetime access to our programmes have lifetime access to any upgrades in the material. So they said, you know, we want all the worksheets to be fillable PDFs, they were printouts, you got it all the words eternal fillable PDFs, you know, so kind of giving them Hey, your feedback matters. Everything you tell us we do. And by the way, if you know someone who you think would benefit from the course, here’s a link that you can share with them. And we did a massive launch just on that.
Tony Winyard 14:33
And so these programmes we’re talking about are these typically online programme or is it in-house workshops…
Estie Rand 14:39
So right now, these are online programmes. I don’t do, live events I travel to myself. “This Marketing Magic” is an online group coaching programme. We have one-on-one clients as well. And in our group programmes, like I said, they upgrade kind of promote people into the consulting company, elements of what we do where we do one on one and we write their business plan or marketing strategy for the And we do their web analysis, we give them the recommendation. So kind of they have a do it yourself option at a lower cost and many done with you done for you option, you know, at a higher cost because I always want it to be affordable for people at the same time. Independent programmes don’t work for everybody. So giving everyone an option that they can be successful.
Tony Winyard 15:19
Do you concentrate on a particular industry niche?
Estie Rand 15:22
So it’s interesting? I do and I don’t, I concentrate on service based micro businesses. So again, you’re solopreneur Freelancer anywhere up to 20-30 people in your company. You were in my world, if you’re trying to get to a stable 5, 6, 7 figure profit. You’re in my world, if you’re providing any sort of service, even a, like a product service, right? So food service, we get a lot of people we actually get a lot of people from the custom apparel, which is interesting, because because of my background in fashion a little bit, but overall we’re talking photographers, lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers, and a lot of graphic designers a lot of other marketers, coaches. consultants, a lot of people who are just talented who are trying to make a go of their own creativity. We get a lot of nonprofits, I think because my background is a nonprofit which saying, What 85 90% of nonprofits or service businesses, very few sell any, any actual things. Those just like construction industry, healthcare, real estate, boards, these are my people. But part of the benefit, I find a for myself, I’ve worked to pretty much every industry at this point over 10 years in the business. So I’m able to transfer across industries, you know, great, great person on my show. I have podcast Business Breakthrough with Estie Rand. And so one of my guests said that he purposely goes to conferences that are not his industry conferences, because he already knows all the issues and all the solutions in his industry. He wants to hear from other engineers how they solve that problem. And so not only from me being in other industries, but putting those people in our group programmes they share. Well, you know, yeah, and the accounting will do into that, but you know what, in design, we just don’t like this and it’s like, wow, Mind blowing, you know, insight, because when we share across industries, the business principles are essentially the same. You’ve got a very small percentage that’s so industry specific when you have the proper business foundation works across all the industries.
Tony Winyard 17:17
Are there any particular issues or problems that is quite common to a quite a few different industries?
Estie Rand 17:25
Very much so in service. And this is one of the things we address in our five day marketing success challenge, which is still free miraculously. And and I’ll tell you at the end how they can get a hold of that. One of the first things we do is giving people not only the clarity but the confidence to market themselves successfully. And I find in micro business because most people don’t have a business background or a business degree, either got a talent or skill or certification or passion or just a drive or an idea that they want to bring to the world. They don’t necessarily have the confidence to do it. And so they’re afraid to charge their friends It to under promise, which is the key to strategic word of mouth. And so they over promise and under deliver. And I see this again and again. And again, it’s one of the foundations of the programme when we get into our module seven of sales, that you need to promise just enough to make the sale and no more, and then surprise them again and again, surprise and delight your people. So if you are like in our consulting packages, we let’s say have a range of meetings, right? So let’s say it’s a six or 10 meeting consulting package. I do that because if it goes to 12, I have no problem. But if I say 12 I go to 14 it’s a little overboard, right? it’ll it’ll start costing me more than it’s worth with with members of our team. So I’m going to say six to 10 which is reasonable that is about how long it takes us to do it. And if it stretches a little longer, I got you and so people are happy Wow, I still always go over what I will, but I do it on purpose I plan in advance to go overboard and and I wish people would just be Little more confident and the benefit of what you all of you listening, be a little more confident in the competence of what you have to offer here. Don’t be so afraid to under promise, you know, give example one of my clients photographer constantly promising that let’s have the proof delivered in a week, week and a half. And he knew that it was two to three weeks minimum, he knew, but the clients would say all but I really need them. And he just he feel under pressure. He feel nervous. He’d be like, well, if I tell them longer, maybe they won’t go with me. And so he’d always say no problem and a real nice guy, real sweetheart. So it was a no problem. And he was always late. So what was his reputation? This guy’s never on time. Great guy, sweet guy, good photos, but always late. All he knew how long it took. All he would have to do is muster up the courage and the confidence in his ability and how good his work was to say, Listen, I love to, it’s going to be three weeks and then give them in two.
Tony Winyard 19:53
And so was that easy to change that mindset?
It took us a while it took a lesson in this the Yeah, it definitely took us a while. But I pointed out to him, I showed him the feedback he was getting from people, you know, we showed him in his testimonials. We showed him verbal feedback, you know, I had him you know, service most previous clients be like, Hey, you know, we’re doing some promotion. Can you tell me like what you like best about the work and what frustrated you, you know, just ask people and they said, Listen, we think you’re amazing, we love your work will hire you again and again. But Dude, you got to speed up your process. And he said, You got to get faster, it’s wrong. You just got promise slower. People think that they have to deliver exactly what the client wants. Close, but you can only do the best you can do so if you can’t get your promise your process faster. You’ve got to under promise. And so we started doing that and started promising three weeks and delivering in you know, two and a bit, changed his life in his business dramatically because instead of dealing with irate people all the time and feeling constantly under pressure, and then it’s a vicious cycle because that feeds the lack of confidence because people are constantly complaining and hounding him and criticising and no one built to put him Within months, life was just so much better for him.
I liked what you were telling me before we started recording about your approach to this is sort of like how you are as a mum? Tell us about that.
Estie Rand 21:13
Sure. So my approach to really all of business I have this like class in my head called like the business of parenting we can kind of learn like parenting and client management strategies the same time when we teach our client management method module I base it on parenting frameworks, I have five kids so how a lot of parents and so you know from trying to get a kid to go to bed chasing them around the house and go to bed go to bed go to bed it’s really energy draining foolish way to do it. You know and many people do and they do that with their clients also need to paint need you may need you may need to participate need you to show up I need you to do this be part of my programme. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. And I was a Beatrix box, not a cornflakes box. So instead, I’ll say Sweetie, you can already hear the marketer and me coming out sweetie. You’re ready for bed on time. Mommy will read you a book from the special box of beds. books that you only get read to when you’re ready for bed on time now, all that requires is that I buy books that are only read a bedtime when they’re ready for bed. It does not require me chasing them around the house. And you know, I was asked in a different interview once, you know, how do you get your participants in your programmes to kind of hang with you, as it’s those strategies. It’s, you know, if you do this, then you’ll get this benefit. And if you show up here, you’ll get this benefit. And if you don’t, you won’t, and that’s cool. You don’t have to, but you might want to, instead of like, you know, helping them with emails or how Why would you? Why would you work harder when you can work smarter and taking those parenting strategies, flipping it, right instead of what do I need from you? What can I offer you that would make you want to give me what I need. What I need from all of my clients and participants is for them to win for them to really learn to change to grow their business. Their one is my when I like to say only like to work with good testimonials. You’re not gonna be good testimonial, we shouldn’t work together. And it’s not an ego thing. It means if I can’t be successful with you don’t come. So I need you to win. For me to get you to win without exerting a tremendous amount of energy on my part,, you’re a solopreneur you can call your client up be like, hey, you missed the meeting What’s going on? You know, building I call them tyreslasher rules. I don’t know what you have here in Britain, but where I come from parking lots, you either got an attendant at the gate, who’s gonna you know, stop you and watch you and you’ve got a whole machine system but then even if no one’s watching people breaking and so you got to put in steps and systems and or you have tyreslashers where it doesn’t the road be where severe tyre damage if you go out this way, and then no problem. It’s really simple. You have built in place, automated, quote unquote, right system where people can self regulate within your world. So you know, again, so so much of what what we do what we teach, but building in a cancellation, no show policy and sticking to it. So if you ever really have a 24 hour cancellation policy, really charged someone if they don’t honour it now emergencies or emergencies, but someone shows up and says Yeah, I’m tired today I changed my mind. No problem. Can I get a refund? No. What do you mean? Oh, yeah. And for that you can have to charge in advance always part of the money, right? So just putting these things in place where the money is already paid or partially paid, and the refund policy in place that it’s signed, and agreed upon it, and you’re a human, someone has an emergency. I will always I’ve had clients show up because, you know, they know that I stick to my policies, and I have sent them home to bed. If they’re sick, like I had a client Oh, she looked but I did want to miss the meeting. You want to cancel I said, Honey, I will honour this. You please but But promise me you’re going to go back to work. You go back to bed because you look off. Then we will reschedule this and she’s gone bad. You know, you’re human about it. But as a rule, you have your rules in place with your tyre slashers that if people violate it, their tyres got slashed.
Tony Winyard 24:51
You’ve got the this mindset of trying to give people an amazing experience. And I get the impression that’s been in you for a long time. Where do you thing that came from originally?.
Estie Rand 25:02
Such a good question. I think for me sales and business has always been about overperform. I’ve always been an overachiever. So I’ve always been about over performing, you know, how, how can I surprise and delight you? Right? So much more fun than just having to be satisfied. So I feel like that’s ingrained. But my mind is also going to when I worked at that nonprofit when I was that CIO for six and a half years, so my boss was just incredible. So much of who I am as a leader really comes from him. And that genuine caring for people and performing above and beyond, I think I really got from him and it’s not only for the clients, it’s for your staff, like one of the things we do is not just next level service for our clientele, it’s for our staff. We’ve never lost someone that we wanted to keep ever people come to work for us. They just up level they don’t really leave. We’ve had people that sometimes they come in and out quick, you know, we hire fast fire fast. Some people they look like they’re good match will give them a try. And if it’s not a go, no problem. We’ve we’ve upgraded our system. Six months even that hasn’t happened, and we’ve scaled up pretty rapidly. And but in general, where can I please you? And it just, I know where it comes from. I’m thinking out loud as you guys know, the ocean, I think comes from genuine caring. I genuinely care about every person that comes into my world, whether as a client or staff member, and so, I’m always looking for Where can I overperformed like, I remember when I made a birthday party for one of my kids, not only did my boss come, but all of the top steer staff came to a birthday party for my kid, and they stayed the whole time. blew my mind blew my husband’s mind. I was never live I only left because they had that middle manager and I was dying. But oh my gosh, like my original Boss, I would have never stopped work and I would go to the ends of the earth for him. You know, and, and recognise that and I think it comes just from genuinely caring for the human being. In this situation, you know, they look at their staff as minions they look at their clients as money and and that’s what they see these minions and money and and I see people how can I please you How can I overperform for you? How can I make you smile today?
Tony Winyard 27:12
There’s a connection there with why you are where you are now I mean, not interested in in terms of success but physically, geographically
Estie Rand 27:20
yeah like what am I doing sitting in London?
Tony Winyard 27:22
But no I mean living in LA know what you were talking about before?
Estie Rand 27:26
Yes because I I’m from New York’s I feel like I get justification to not like it super much. But I feel like in New York, just the general energetic signature of the city, the general feel of places like you have to do more, you have to be more you can do anything you want, but you gotta work for it and it’s hard work and just very burdensome, so much pressure, so much weight, whereas in LA, anything is possible. You know, and the difference between you can do anything and anything’s possible is enormous. LA like, what the sunshine I’m just, you can do anything and the ambition and the hopefulness different than the drive and the bitterness. And that’s why we landed in LA.
Tony Winyard 28:08
So from what you’re saying then and I don’t really know LA, I’ve been to New York, I haven’t been to LA Well, I’ve only passed through in transit but it sounds I guess there’s a lot less stress?
Estie Rand 28:18
it feels like I’m not gonna say there is less but almost by, like cars are legs in Los Angeles, whereas in New York, you know, all my years living there, except for maybe one or two. I never had a car, right? You take buses, and trains everywhere. You can do 15 things in a day and you’re just constantly moving to move to LA. And cars are like so we obviously had to get a car and we obviously had to get two cars. And even with the cars, Max, you could do two three things a day. It’s insane. Everything just moves slower. And native Angelenos my clients who are native Angelenos, like I got to talk slower. Everything Is it is it is more relaxed. It is that’s the truth.
Tony Winyard 28:52
And there’s also an element of I mean, so I lived in Jakarta in Indonesia for seven years on the equator and I’ve been in a few other places, similar kind of temperatures, when you’re in places like that, in Jamaica, and so on, and there’s that whole attitude of like “Soon come, soon come”, it’s like, just take things easy, take it easy, because you can’t be running around in those sort of temperatures. So you’re going to be more relaxed and not just rushing around all the time.
Yeah, and I guess, you know, every city is built on its history, you know, whereas where New York came from and how was built and it’s built on the money and the markets and all of that, like California was built on dreamers and dreams and it’s built on gold rush and Hollywood and you know, it, it takes a whole lot longer to make a movie than just a close to stock trade. And I feel like everything that’s done in a place is part of what builds the energy there. And, and yeah, now and it’s not just the warm helps you do take a little slower. But listen, Los Angeles is pretty temperate. It doesn’t get that bad. It’s it’s just the air and I think it does come from the history of the city where you’re going through a process of that take longer, but build bigger results.
Where do you see your business going the next few years, what would you like to happen in the next few years?
Estie Rand 30:03
Well, first of all, we’re on track to do our seven figures with zero adspend. So that’s you after I did six figures in under two years with zero, and then it became just like a goal. Maybe it’s an ego thing. But like, it’s more than that. I want to show that it can be done past seven figures, I even even with my clients, I hold that then you do need to spend money to make money, but until then, you really don’t. So I want I want to show everyone so that’s one thing we’re going to do. But we’ve got two other programmes launching, we’ve got something called business idea Bootcamp, which so marketing magic, our current signature programme, where you never waste money on marketing, again, is geared to help business owners who are already in business or they just want that really good Kickstart to hit that six figure mark, because that’s the marketing piece. What about people who are you know, just getting started could just have an idea who haven’t even hit like a stable five figures. They’re just kind of fluctuating and maybe they’re not making any money. So business idea bootcamp puts your business idea through boot camp, to see if it has what it takes, and then If it does or doesn’t give it those skills, so it can be successful. So that’s something we’re looking to launch, hopefully December of this year. And then we have a top tier programme called becoming boss business owner success story, because so many businesses that passed their five year mark, and that past their six figure profit fall apart when they try to scale because what gets you from A to B doesn’t get you from b2c. And so part of where I’m looking to take the company and where we’re, we’re really already headed is, you know, you’d asked me a year ago, I would have said, I’m looking to stop trading hours for dollars, and start getting more strategies on the team and maybe launch an online programme. So we did that. We’ve got more strategies on a team, and we have our online programmes and I am not really trading hours for dollars anymore, because I don’t have any hours left straight. Pretty much. I still take some private clients, but mostly it’s more worth it for me to get them into the system. So where I’m looking to go is marrying all of our online programmes with our consulting so that at every level of your business, whether you’re just getting started whether you’re trying to get that six figure profit or that seven figures profit, you have either a low cost, do it more yourself with like a group option, or you have the one on one option with our team. And I filter my people, I spend almost as much time now with clients and content as I do on staff training up levelling guiding, because to me, that’s the best way I can make the biggest difference. And so that’s kind of where I’m going and you know, TED talk and all the fun stuff and more fun travelling and more speaking, but just more people doing what they love, earning buckets of money and having time for the life and family. That’s my dream.
Tony Winyard 32:33
So if there’s someone listening in from London, or in Germany or in Australia, and they’re thinking, it sounds really good, but maybe it’s all going to be to American focused and American regulations…
Estie Rand 32:47
I don’t do regulations at all. I don’t know law. Like we even when we teach how to build a contract if a contractual agreement from like a Terms and Conditions perspective and I always say check with your lawyers. Most of my clients are not in LA, A lot are in New York, but we have people in London, hence that’s how I landed here, have people across Europe, have people in South Africa have people in Australia, we are multinational, we have staff in four time zones.
Tony Winyard 33:11
So everything you teach is relevant to everywhere?
I’ve seen it apply everywhere. And part of what I love with that is I get to know the different cultures, especially the more I travel, the more I get a sense of each space and the differences. But one of the skill sets that I have and that I train my staff in is how is the coaching skill, which is how to pull out of people the stuff that they know. And so part of what we do is we give the frameworks and the principles and we pull out of you, how do you fill that in with the stuff that’s unique to you in your world? And so let’s say my British clients, when I first my first British client, I was nervous, I’ll be honest, I was nervous, because I know what I know. And until I had worked out of America, I hadn’t now we’re going back years already. And when I was successful with him, and when everything I did worked, like I didn’t say anything until I was like, by the way, you know, I love that this stuff works. But I have seen that it works everywhere.
What would you say is a big difference between a British and American client as a generalisation?
So the culture is a bit different, you know, I feel like American culture is a little more relaxed, a little more in your face, I find the Brits to be a little more reserved. There’s this whole like, queenly culture element, like your food has stamps on it that like this goes on the Queen’s table. And that’s like special food is like, what? It’s just you drive on the other side of the road, like, got into a car in the passenger seat. I’m like, what’s in the driver’s seat? There’s no steering wheel. Like it’s so weird. But the real differences I find, culturally is it’s those subtleties, right? So I find Brits to be a little less openly communicative. So the sales strategies that will build with people are a little more reserved, a little more of a slower build, whereas in America, you can be much more in your face. And it’s those kinds of nuances that we find across cultures.
And what about, Brits, are a lot more cynical than Americans?
I haven’t found that so much. I haven’t done that so much. You know what I would I would agree with you overly cynical, but Americans are more like, undercurrent cynical like they’ll pretend to agree with you. But then they’re like checking out whereas the Brit will just come in your face and be like, really? Oh, really darling.
So what are your general thoughts on exceeding expectations? What does that phrase mean to you?
To me, exceeding expectations is something that you do strategically to light people up, to give them the best experience, and to shine your light as much as possible because that’s to me what we do in business, what we should be doing, do what you love, because that’s how it’s going to work best and to exceed expectations is to always look for that place, that you can light people up on purpose, by promising lessons delivering more.
So if people want to find out more about you, and about courses you do?.
Estie Rand 36:02
I have a free five day marketing success challenge, which I mentioned earlier. And so if you go to www.EstieRand.com/freegift you’ll not only see more about me, but you will get access to the challenge. We built it as a mini course, a $300 course. And then we launched it as a beta, and went viral. Like, within two days, we had 600 people inside was insane. And we’ve gotten such tremendous feedback on the lives that it’s changed that for now, we might close down in it. And then if you go there, you might see something different there. There’s always something cool. But at the moment, you get free access to the five day marketing success challenge, and that’s it’s five days, it’s mini trainings. You watch it on your own time. You don’t have to queue in at any given time. It’s pre recorded and You get the clarity and the confidence to market the market successfully. So you learn about building that confidence. You learn about who your best clients are, and how to find them. You learn about social media, how to do it organically. It’s one of our biggest wins, you learn basic sales strategy, like how do you say and what should you say? So it’s, it’s really comprehensive for something so tiny.
Tony Winyard 37:21
So if someone’s really struggling at the moment with aspects of their business, who do you do you think this would be most useful for?
Estie Rand 37:31
We’ve had a five day challenge help anywhere from freelancers, you know, I actually this is a super cool story. This really happened. I couldn’t make it up. If I tried. I was getting like a therapy like a physical occupational type therapy for one of my children. And I reached out to a local therapist in Los Angeles that came recommended by a friend, and I call him up and I say, Hi, my name is Estie Rand, and I, you know, was recommended to you and he said, Estie You don’t know who I am. And I said, so sorry, but I don’t and So he said Estie I took your five day challenge and it changed my business. I said no way he’s I guess you don’t check her and so I apologise I don’t know every person who’s taken the challenge. I know every person in my programmes but not everyone in the challenge. He said you should just know as the that I said to my wife, you know, this is so good. I would pay money for this. And I told my wife I really want to find you and offer you payments for this this course that I got for free. And he said to me, I’d like to offer you a free session for a few days. I’ve never done this before. I don’t do this but I’m so grateful to you for the change it made in my business. I’m so much clearer and how I communicate now to my potential clients. I’m closing more deals. I’d like to offer that to you. And he did and he’s great.
Tony Winyard 38:41
Estie I believe you’ve got a quotation, you like?
I do. I’ve got a lot of quotes that I love but I’ll tell you my favourite one of all time probably comes from Helen Keller. And it is “Keep your face to the sunshine and you’ll never see the shadows” and that is something that I have indelibly like burned into the back of my eyelids, you know, because life can be tough business can be challenging our business can be brutal, right? Especially, you know, at the point that it becomes your primary income your…panic! And there’s always ups and downs. That’s just how it goes. But if you keep your face to the sunshine, if you’re always looking at what is positive about this, what can I do positive no one ever again, like I said, with that example with my client, you know, when she came to me with a complaint, I said, What is positive that I could do instead? Not Oh, no. And if the shadows and the clients don’t like it, and my services being ruined, and what am I going to do and she wants her money back and that’s where people usually go, they go deep into the shadow. Now, can you face with sunshine? Listen, I hear this is a problem. What can we do to fix it? What can we do to make it better? What can we do to outperform an overperform so that not only are you satisfied paying what you’re obligated to pay anyways, but that exceed your expectation.
Estie, your energy’s been superb and thank you for everything you shared with the listeners.
Estie Rand 40:01
Oh, an absolute pleasure and guys grab that challenge while still there. Best of luck for the future. Thank you.
Tony Winyard 40:13
Next week is Episode 67 with Jessica Silverman. Jessica is a business startup coach who helps aspiring entrepreneurs, helping them get greater clarity and simplicity to live their lives true purpose and she does this through coaching and some other tools that she provides. That’s next week’s show with Jessica Silverman. If you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode from Estie Rand, please do share it with someone who you feel may get particular benefit from some of the pearls of wisdom that Estie shared in this week’s episode, and it would be lovely if you could leave a review for us on iTunes or one of the other podcasting platforms. hope you have a fantastic week. See you soon.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Leave a Reply