You already have your business or growing it, why don’t you try to get it to the high level? It’s not a one day process, but let’s look at what you can start with to grow up to the world-class brand level.
In this episode, we will talk with Kelly Roach about selling through serving to build a world-class brand.
Kelly is a powerhouse, business growth strategist and peak performance coach that helps teams, companies, and individuals increase their profit, accelerate growth and have fun doing that!
As a Corporate Executive Kelly received 7 promotions 8 years charging to the top of one of the World’s Global Fortune 500 Firms.
She is the founder of the Freedom Formula coaching programs, which combine business mastery and personal growth to achieve everything you want out of life!
In this episode, we will cover:
- [00:22] About the episode and Kelly Roach
- [01:28] Kelly shares her mission to help entrepreneurs to grow quickly but with the strategy
- [01:54] Who can build a world-class brand
- [03:20] The difference in what you do if you want to have just a small local business or build a world-class brand
- [04:22] What to focus on when you’re building a world-class brand: selling, service of building a brand
- [05:37] When you aim for building a world-class brand then it should go to your every decision from working with the clients to sharing the value to people every single day
- [06:40] If you want to grow big get yourself in front of new people every day
- [07:47] Your first steps if you want to build a world-class brand
- [09:30] Growing and selling in business through serving
- [10:59] Important three hours a day to grow your business
- [12:39] What to teach and create content about when you growing to the world-class brand
- [15:11] Show up every single day and be patient
- [16:27] Look at different media channels to show up and share your message
- [17:18] Start developing the relationship with local businesses.
- [17:58] The process of maintaining the connections with local businesses
- [21:31] What Kelly would do if she would want to build a world-class brand, but she would need to start everything from zero
- [24:09] Where to find Kelly and her show Unstoppable Success Radio online
- [24:38] For the show notes go to marinabarayeva.com and subscribe to the Marketing for Creatives show
3 Steps to Take If You Start Building a World-Class Brand from Zero
- Step 1: Leverage nowadays trending technologies live streaming and YouTube videos
- Step 2: Reach out to as many people as possible to be the guests on their platforms
- Step 3: Collaborate with people on social media to get you out there as much as you can
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Download podcast transcript [PDF] here:
Resources from this interview:
- Learn more about Kelly Roach on kellyroachcoaching.com
- Follow Kelly on Twitter, Facebook
Connect with Marina Barayeva:
- marinabarayeva.com
- Follow Marina on Instagram
- Follow Marina on Twitter
Selling Through Serving to Build a World-Class Brand – Interview Transcription
Marina Barayeva:
It’s so awesome to have you here. Please tell us about yourself.
Kelly Roach:
Absolutely. I run a company called Kelly Roach Coaching and we do business growth strategy. We help entrepreneurs and business owners to make six and seven-figure leaps in their business.
Our core focus is on helping business owners to grow quickly, but to do it with systems strategy and through building a winning team so that they don’t compromise their quality of life or their health in the process of achieving their financial goals.
Marina Barayeva:
Wow, that sounds fantastic. Let’s jump to that. Today we will talk about selling through serving by building a world-class brand. What will be the difference in the strategy if you want to be just a local business or you want to build a world-class brand?
Kelly Roach:
I think any business can build a world-class brand. Whether you’re a small boutique on main street, or you’re an internet marketing company, or you want to build up the next big financial giant.
I think any business owner can and should be thinking about a world-class brand because let’s talk about what’s really behind that.
It’s a brand that stands in integrity that goes above and beyond for its customers, that shows up in a meaningful way to make a difference in people’s lives and to provide a superior product, program or service that surprises and delights everyone that they come in contact with.
When I talk about building a world-class brand, I think that’s applicable to each and every one of us.
Marina Barayeva:
We have a lot of solopreneurs, creatives and small business owners. So what will be the difference for them if they want just to be a small boutique or they want to aim for something like a world-class brand?
Kelly Roach:
I think the difference is just in how you position what you do and the way that you go to market, the way that you price.
Whether you’re focused on a very small handful of customers at a high price point or a very high volume of customers at a lower price point.
I think really the thing to be thinking about and talking about is what is your vision? Where do you want to go with this and what is most important to you?
Is it most important to you that you and your company become globally recognized, that you become the leader in your niche or your space?
Or is it most important to you that you build a lifestyle brand that allows you to go really deep and wide with a small handful of customers and provide a very high quality of life for you and your family?
Kelly Roach:
I think there’s no right or wrong and there’s no bad or good. It’s just aligning your vision with what you want for your life.
Marina Barayeva:
What should we focus on? Should we focus on selling, serving, or building a world-class brand? How to combine those things together?
Kelly Roach:
That’s exactly it. You hit the nail on the head, Marina. I mean, I believe that each of those things play a critical and really unremovable piece in building a great business.
Because selling through serving means that your approach to building your business is in adding value for your customers and your potential ones.
It means that you’re utilizing effective content and the way that you’re showing up online and offline is focused on adding value at every touchpoint. That’s all that selling through serving is.
And I think that each of those things that you just mentioned are just an integral part of building a business that’s going to last, building a business that is going to stand the test of time versus something that’s just writing a short-term wave that’s ultimately going to crash.
Marina Barayeva:
Ok. You approached us. We decided to aim very high and build a world-class brand. How to do that and how to grow your business there?
Kelly Roach:
I think if you’re looking to build a world-class brand that goes into every decision that you make. It goes into how you interact with your clients, what you do to deliver on your promise and how committed you are to consistently share the value that you provide with new and different people every single day.
Marketing has really become more about adding value through great content, then it has become about direct response ads. Which in the past it was very much about direct response ads.
Now it’s much more that people become engaged with you and become engaged with your brand overall. That is going to be the integral piece of people beginning to follow you and then engage with you and ultimately buy from you.
Marina Barayeva:
How can we change our interaction with people if we want to build something big?
Kelly Roach:
I think it’s what you’re invested in and getting new eyeballs on your business every single day.
If you want to build something big, then the number one thing that you have to be asking yourself when you wake up in the morning, every single day is, how am I getting my content, my business, my services, my products in front of new people today?
And how am I getting my content, my product, my services back in front of all the people that it was in front of yesterday?
If you want to build a big company, you have to be very, very invested in driving a volume of traffic. And that’s going to be leveraging things like Facebook advertising or Google Adwords or YouTube or live streaming or a combination of all of the above.
But the bottom line is if you want to build a big business that is making a significant impact in the market, you have to be willing to put a lot of your time, attention, and focus on driving traffic and leads.
Marina Barayeva:
If we want to start doing that, what would you recommend to start with?
Kelly Roach:
I would start with really focusing in on selecting a key mechanism that you are going to use to push your content out.
If you’re going to select live streaming, for example, I would get really, really consistent with live streaming. I would pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. I would focus heavily on engagement.
I would really work with people to get feedback and see what your market responds to and adjust accordingly.
And most importantly be committed to never-ending improvement and be committed to both the consistency and the persistence of the time that it will take to become successful.
I think that’s one of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs out there today making is that they do something for a very short time at a micro level and they’re not actually investing long enough or in enough volume to get the results that they want to see for it. Then they hop from one thing to the next, to the next.
Marina Barayeva:
So basically, the foundation is going to be to pick one of the platforms or one of the forms of communicating with people and focus on that and really be good in that and delivering your message. Right?
Kelly Roach:
Exactly. And then continue to expand into new and different things that you can also leverage to tap into a new population and tap into traffic in a different way.
Marina Barayeva:
We’re talking about growing and selling in our business through serving. What do you think about this? How can we serve more people? What should we do with that?
Kelly Roach:
I think understanding that getting to serve more people comes down, you putting time and attention and focus every single day on producing superior content that makes an impact.
Then 10x the time that you spend creating the content on the distribution of it. Many times, people miss the mark with that and they’re only focused on creating content, but they’re not necessarily focused on the distribution.
And if you only focus on creating the content organically your content is going to be seen by almost no one.
So most of the benefit that you can get from selling through serving is going to come through you focusing very heavily through on distribution, on pushing your content out to new and different people, on using every channel in every mechanism you possibly can to not only get exposure to new people, but to be pushing our content to the people that have already expressed interest in the topic, the strategy, the methodology that you teach.
Marina Barayeva:
Our listeners are mostly solopreneurs or entrepreneurs who work by themselves or in the small team, just a few people and there’s a lot of work. You need to create content. You need to distribute, you need to market it somehow. How would you find a balance in that?
Kelly Roach:
I think that when you’re just getting started and you’re a solopreneur there are really kind of three hours a day that are really essential and in building and growing your business and hour selling, an hour for marketing and an hour for serving.
That’s why I said those things are really inextricably… they’re linked, right?
So in our marketing, you’re creating and distributing your content. You might create one core piece of content for the week and that might take you 30 minutes or an hour and then the rest of the week you’re taking that hour a day to focus on distributing that content. So that’s number one.
Then you have an hour for selling and the selling is the relationship building and the direct connection that you make with people that have expressed interest in what you do, want to learn more from you and have reached out in some way, shape or form.
It’s the relationship building and the ongoing dialogue and the direct connection with those people.
So step one is create a piece of content. Step two is focus on an hour a day on distributing it, pushing it out on different platforms, sending it out to people, working to gain exposure for that piece of content.
Then you have an hour a day for selling. Selling is that direct connection where you’re having real-life conversations with real-life people.
That can either be a referral source for you, that can be a client of yours, that can be a center of influence, whatever the case, but you’re following up with the leads that you already have to move them forward in the process.
And then, of course, an hour of serving. An hour where you’re actually delivering on your promise to the people that are already paying you.
Marina Barayeva:
Kelly, if you would start teaching and sharing your expertise to build a world-class brand, how would you decide what to teach about? We need to create this content.
Kelly Roach:
I think you need to focus on:
- Where do you want to be?
- Where do you want to be three to five years from now?
- Who Do you want to be serving?
- What problem do you want to be solving?
- And ultimately where do you want to be going with this?
Because the content that you create today should be speaking to whatever it is that you feel your greatest passion and your greatest talent is, and helping people to learn from what you’ve already experienced or achieved in order to get the result that they want as well.
You have to think about creating content that obviously is a passion for you and is in alignment with what you believe and who you are and how you feel you’re meant to serve in the world.
But you also need to be thinking about who is your target market? Who do you want to be serving? Who do you want to be communicating with? What do you want to be? What aspect of your market do you want to be serving?
And that’s so important because if you don’t speak to the problems that are in line with the people that are at the level that can invest at the level that you want to be at, then you’re going to attract the wrong people.
It’s really a combination of A:
- What are you the best at?
- How can you help people?
- What topics are relevant that connect directly to your offer or your product or your program or whatever, the keys?
That’s that on one side.
But on the other side, it’s really making sure that you’re speaking to problems that are at the level of the person that you want to be serving.
- You do have to be thoughtful.
- You do need to be strategic.
- You do need to think this whole cycle through.
Because you want to create content on topics that are relevant and timely. You want your content to lead into your product, program or service and you want to make sure that it’s attracting the quality and the level of a person that you truly want to be working with.
Marina Barayeva:
When you create that content you teach, you share, where are we going to sell? Where are we going to get to this world-class brand position?
Kelly Roach:
Years, years and years and years and years.
Marina Barayeva:
Come on! Give us a shortcut! (Laughter)
Kelly Roach:
I know. (Laughter) There’s no shortcut. I mean, there’s really no shortcut.
The shortcut is to show up every day and be your best and do your best and do it for years.
I think that the biggest thing that’s been a disservice to entrepreneurs out there today is that they see these ads on the Internet, they see this Facebook stuff, they think that it’s going to happen overnight and all these people share these stories of what they did in six months or a year or whatever the case, but what they don’t share is that they failed eight times, went bankrupt and had three other businesses before they started this one.
You have to realize there’s no one out there that’s going to build a timeless business of substance and value that’s going to stand the test of time and truly become world-class without there being years, and years, and years of consistency and persistence in showing up and being your best self and doing everything you can possibly do to serve at the highest level possible.
Marina Barayeva:
That sounds like a long-term goal, long-term plan. When we aim to build a world-class brand, how to define those goals? How to transition from the small local business or from solopreneur to this big brand?
Kelly Roach:
I think the first step is to really open yourself up using tools like live streaming, webinars, Facebook advertising, and podcasting so that you can reach an international audience and so that more people can more easily discover you, becoming discoverable.
And becoming discoverable happens because you put yourself out there and lots of different ways which makes it easier for people that are searching for someone that can add value for them in a certain way to find you.
Marina Barayeva:
Do you have any tips on how to attract other either businesses or organization to your business or to your brand so they can help you to grow to get to this world-class brand?
Kelly Roach:
If you want to work with local companies or organizations that obviously many times if you get a corporate client, for example, it’s going to be 20 times the income that it would be working with a local consumer.
So there’s huge value in diversifying your business and developing a hybrid model where you have a little bit of both there.
I think the biggest thing is to think about Ok, find a couple of companies that are right in your own backyard and start sending them materials, putting your brand in front of them, emailing them, calling them, dropping by materials.
I had someone that literally just started this process a month ago and already is getting all kinds of meetings with local organizations that are interested in working with her.
There aren’t as many people that are willing to do the work to close those companies anymore. So if you’re one of the very few that are actually sending things out in the mail or dropping things off at the front desk for a decision maker or willing to make a phone call, you’re going to really stand out and chances are you’re going to start getting responses pretty quickly.
Marina Barayeva:
Can you share with us a little more about this example? What did she do and how she approached those businesses?
Kelly Roach:
Yeah. The process that I teach when you’re looking to pursue local clients is basically that you first start by identifying a group of local clients that you believe are employers of choice, that would be ideal for you to work with.
Then you have to qualify them. You have to actually go through a process. And I teach this in all my programs where you develop a six-set pillar of the questions that you’re gonna ask to qualify a business or individual to see if it’s someone that you should even be spending your time pursuing.
You basically are going to qualify them and make sure that you’re preaching to the converted. And what I mean by that is you only want to be selling to people that already believe in the value of what you do.
They already spend money in your space and it’s more a decision of who they’ll use than whether they’ll use. That’s a really, really important criteria here.
So, you go through the qualifying process. You make sure you have a good handful of somewhere between 20 and 50 local companies.
Then from there you start a three-touch weekly process where they’re hearing from you in three different ways every single week.
Typically, you put together a 13-week campaign where they’re hearing from you every week for 13 weeks in the three-touch point way.
They’re going to get a phone call, they’re going to get an email or LinkedIn message, and then they’re going to get something in person with marketing materials, some types of little goodie for them, whatever the case.
And typically, by the end of 13 weeks you’re going to have a steady stream of opportunities coming your way as a result of this campaign that you put together.
Marina Barayeva:
That sounds like a little strategy for the next few weeks or maybe a couple months. And what would you suggest to have the second step after that?
Kelly Roach:
After the campaign? Well, so you’re constantly going to reevaluate the progress that you’re making with the campaign, the people that you’re selling to and really determine whether or not they’re the right people.
You’ll always kind of be adding new people to the list, taking some people off, and really, you’re going to continue through that process until you get to the point that you have the number of clients that you want.
Then you’re going to raise your prices pretty substantially and you’re going to go back in for the next round.
At the higher price point, but you definitely can also do things like attending local events or conferences that are very niche and industry-specific so that you can get in front of owners or founders, decision makers, ops managers, whatever the case and the types of company that you want to work with.
Getting in person with these people can also have a pretty significant impact on the speed with which you can move them forward. Because of course anytime you can get face to face with someone. It’s going to have a pretty big impact on your ability to move them forward.
Marina Barayeva:
I see. What do you think if, for example, you would start a new creative business with no money, no connections, and you would aim for building it to a world-class brand? What would be your first three steps?
Kelly Roach:
My first step would definitely be getting started with live video and then creating videos that were really specific to a multitude of different platforms.
I would start live streaming on Facebook. I would start doing videos that were specifically created for YouTube. I would do the keyword research to understand what search strings and what and how people in my field were already searching for so that I would be discoverable.
And I would start just sending emails to as many people as I possibly could to do collaborations, to be a guest on people’s podcasts, to do join Facebook lives. I’ll go live on Instagram. I would really leverage social media and tap into connecting with people, doing collaborations and just getting out there as much as I possibly could online.
Because obviously, you can reach more people more quickly online then you can physically – getting in your car and trying to run all over the place to events or conferences or networking meetings.
Marina Barayeva:
So you think that online marketing and all new online media are much more effective than traditional offline media or connection and networking.
Kelly Roach:
I think they each have value. I think it really depends on your personality and what’s important to you, your lifestyle, your family situation.
It really depends if you enjoy being on the road all the time and can be productive and efficient when traveling. It can be very expensive also to attend events and conferences, especially if you don’t live in the local area where most of them are happening.
Even just to go, it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars. Whereas live streaming costs you nothing. You can start closing clients from that. Then basically redirect what you’re making from that into some of these other mechanisms that cost money to participate in.
Marina Barayeva:
That’s interesting, Kelly. Thank you so much for all of your tips and please share with us how can we connect with you and find more about you.
Kelly Roach:
For sure. Thank you so much for having me. My show is called Unstoppable Success Radio. We’re live three times a week.
The show is designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners that want tips, strategy, and mindset to grow their businesses more quickly with system strategy and team so that they can both be efficient and effective in achieving their financial goals without compromising their quality of life. So check out Unstoppable Success Radio.
And I go live pretty frequently on Facebook. You can find me at Kelly Roach International.
Marina Barayeva:
Fantastic. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to have you here.
Kelly Roach:
Awesome. Thanks for having me.
Marina Barayeva is an international speaker and coach who helps women entrepreneurs become recognized experts and confidently sell their services. She is also a TEDx speaker, has presented to audiences in Asia and North America, and has been featured in such media as ArtPeople, CCTV, China Radio International, and others.
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