Not-So Kind Regards

How to ditch your marketing excuses

• Maddy Birdcage & Caroline Moss • Season 5 • Episode 2

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In this episode of Not So Kind Regards, Maddy and co-host Caroline are back together after six weeks, diving into why taking marketing seriously is essential for business success. They share candid insights on juggling parenthood and entrepreneurship, exploring how neglecting marketing can stifle growth. The duo tackles common challenges like balancing work-life demands, overcoming limiting beliefs, and moving beyond excuses in marketing. You will walk away with practical tips for consistent content creation, handling customer questions, and building resilience in business. The episode wraps up with an inspiring reminder: prioritize your marketing to fuel your business’s growth. 

Episode Highlights: 

  • The Spooky Truth About Marketing
  • Taking Control of Your Marketing Strategy
  • Creating Content That Resonates
  • Balancing Business and Self-Care
  • Handling Feedback and Building Resilience
  • Juggling Business and Parenthood
  • Embracing Parenthood in Professional Life
  • Balancing Work and Family Responsibilities
  • The Reality of Working with Kids
  • The Importance of Self-Care and Realistic Goals
  • Overcoming Perfectionism in Business
  • The Essence of True Marketing
  • Building a Successful Business for Greater Good

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Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Not so Kind Regards podcast. I'm Maddie Birdcage.

Speaker 1:

I'm Caroline Moss. We are done with the digital fluff and pleasantries and we're here to talk straight about brand building, digital marketing and personal growth. This episode is, of course, brought to you by Birdcage Marketing, the forward-thinking digital marketing brand that started this all. We have a special birthday offer running now until the end of the year to celebrate Maddie Birdcage's birthday. Our no BS birthday blowout special is for the action takers who don't need more advice and want actual, practical steps to take your business forward fast.

Speaker 1:

You get a foundational strategy, valued at $6,000. We'll build the bedrock of your marketing plan, so you're not constantly chasing trends, but creating a strategy that works. We will complete a website audit for you, valued at $1,250, where we'll pinpoint exactly what's slowing your site down and give you the actual recommendations to improve it. We will complete copywriting for a welcome flow and one times EDM, valued at $1,500, so you can nail your customer's first impression with powerful, converting email copy. We will give you one week of content done for you on Instagram. That's three reels and three static posts, valued at $1,250. You can stop stressing over content creation. We'll handle it so you don't have to. And then, finally, we will throw in one 40-minute coaching session with a coach of your choosing from the Birdcage team. That is valued at $1,250. So you can get laser-focused advice on your most pressing business challenges. You get all of this at a value of $11,250 and you only pay $6,000. We only have six available until the end of the year. So to get started, book your discovery, call at birdcagemarketingcomau and let's do this.

Speaker 1:

Now back to the episode. Welcome to another episode of Not so Kind Regards. Yay, so happy to be back. Me too.

Speaker 2:

This is the first time Maddie and I are back together in probably six weeks hey, yeah, it's been a while I've been overseas in Europe and then we got to spend the weekend in Melbourne together, but no time for podcasting there. So I'm excited to actually sit down and have time to do this and to talk and to give some really solid advice me too and we're coming to you guys on Halloween.

Speaker 1:

I know most of our listeners are Australians who might not really care about Halloween, but actually used to be my favorite holiday in America.

Speaker 2:

We just don't get the same vibes here no, it's definitely my kids favorite, like I know we're in Australia. But, yeah, like my son, he's just so into the most obscure spooky stuff. And then my daughter she just loves to dress up and play pretend, just like I did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you guys have made a really good costume for book week. You're going to have to back that up, for.

Speaker 2:

Halloween. I bought a costume because we're actually going to be shooting client content over in New Zealand for Halloween.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, that'll be interesting to see how they do Halloween as well. Yeah, probably even less than us, even less exciting. So the topic for today I was like how do we make this spooky? The topic today is if you're not serious about your marketing, you're not serious about your business, and I think that's pretty spooky in itself. If you're not taking your marketing seriously, nobody's going to know about you, nobody's going to care about your business. You might have gotten to a certain level from word of mouth, but you need to start taking it seriously, otherwise, the spookiest thing is no one's going to find you and your business is going to go under.

Speaker 2:

For sure no-transcript. And so it wasn't until we started taking our own marketing seriously that if my financial controller comes to me and says, hey, we need to fill the pipeline up, we need some more revenue coming in, I used to in the past freak the fuck out because I didn't know how to do that, but now it doesn't bother me. I just say, okay, sweet, let's get the machine working.

Speaker 1:

Back to that marketing machine and we have an episode on that. I will tell you what episode that is by the end of this episode. I'll get that number for you. But that's exactly. You have to start looking at your marketing as a machine and if you're like, I'm not even thinking about my marketing at all. This is where we need to start. So I guess let's go through some of the well, can I bring up what this was inspired by? We won't name clients or anything, but we came up with the idea of this topic because our other senior strategist, our general manager, maria, was having a conversation with a client. Marketer was there from the corporation and one of the big wigs from the corporation was there and the big wig was saying can't we just post? Didn't you say, can't we just post happy hump day on Wednesdays and call it a day? And as marketers, our jaws are just on the floor. What people still think like this? So that's just one example of someone just completely not taking their marketing seriously.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it just blows my mind. We used to post that in 2015 and it didn't get engagement back then, so why would that be enough?

Speaker 1:

I feel like there was an ad that did really well with the happy home day, do you?

Speaker 2:

reckon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but we're throwing it out as a social media post. Can you just delete that off your content calendar now please? Yes, absolutely so. Let's talk about some of the more excuses and limiting beliefs that people go through when they're not taking their marketing seriously, and maybe how they can self-identify. I think you're going to know if you're not taking it seriously, but if you need a little roadmap to go like I'm taking things off the list but I'm not actually taking it seriously, these guys help me identify that. Yeah, I guess a time thing like staying busy in your business but not actually putting any of that time into marketing, that's a big one, we hear.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, actually that is a really good point. So when people tell me I don't have time for marketing and I actually gave another keynote speech yesterday at a large business event here in Mackay and that was a big question from one of the delegates that were there how do I? You know, I said to them you need to be posting daily at the very least, and everyone's jaws always drop when I say that. I actually think you should be posting three times a day. But their jaws dropped and they said well, how do I find the time for that? You know, I'm so busy.

Speaker 2:

I'm the only person that's working in my business or I don't have a dedicated person in my business to do this. How do we do it? And a huge, huge game changer for me was a few years ago when I said to myself what are the three most important needle moving activities I need to do in my business to keep moving forward, even if it's a tiny little jelly bean step? And the answer for me it was following up on sales, it was creating content and it was actually self-care. And I know people argue that self-care is not a business practice, but they obviously haven't been listening to me long enough if that's what they believe.

Speaker 1:

And if you are the only one in your business, then you're the most important asset in your business, so why wouldn't you?

Speaker 2:

take care of yourself Exactly. And so what I then started to do was say, okay, first thing I do when I wake up I exercise. First thing I do when I go to the office in the morning is I follow up on sales, and then I usually used to use that as fuel to create the content. And so by 9.30 in the morning, I had exercised and looked after myself, I had followed up on sales and often closed, and I had created content that I could then post as my marketing by 9.30 AM, and then I had the rest of the day to go ahead and put out all the fires. There were a lot of fires back then. Put out all the fires or be reactive in the business, and I think that this is the difference between being proactive and reactive and being in that winner's mindset versus that victim's mindset. If you're saying I don't have time to do this, you're not taking control, you're leaving it up to chance. You are.

Speaker 1:

Can you go back to? You know you have a sales call, then you create content. I think like I, I know where people should go find their content and sometimes I say like look at your FAQs, look at your homepage, look at your copy, they're like oh, I never thought about that. So can you break that down on how you can take a sales call and turn it into content for someone who's never heard that concept before?

Speaker 2:

This is where your content should be coming from your customers, your prospective customers, all of these conversations that you should be having with people. That is how you create content that people actually want to watch, because you are directly answering their questions. So, for example something that's very important to me I host most of the discovery calls, most of the sales calls in the business, and I've tried to hand it over a number of times, and it's not that the people I've handed it to aren't capable because they absolutely are but what I have found is that it helps me keep my finger on the pulse, to understand where people's thinking are at the time. And so if I'm on a call and people are saying to me things like I had a discovery call this morning and they said we've worked with four agencies in the past and they just didn't get it. And I said let me guess you showed up and they said we can grow your sales. It's an e-commerce business. We can grow your sales. We're going to run some ads, send it to a landing page.

Speaker 2:

It didn't work. And then the client says why isn't it working? And the agency says oh well, your website needs work. Pay us another 20 grand and we'll fix your website for you, and it's that ongoing cycle like that, right, and so that's exactly what has happened with this brand, and so what I should then go and do is go and film content that says exactly that, literally repeating what I said to that client. Let Let me guess If you've worked with agencies in the past. This is what happened, this was the result, and this is why you're not getting anywhere, and that would be a killer piece of content, and it's the same with clothing.

Speaker 1:

Don't do that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know, Write it down and it's the same with you. Know, if you're. I think it's easier if you are a service business that does sales calls, because you are having that one-on-one conversation. But I guess the question is, if you're an e-commerce brand, for example, and you know you're from home and you're not in the store even and how do you have those conversations? Look at your DMs, look at the questions people are asking, it will be around. You know, if you're fashion, it'll be around sizing sizing is such a confusing thing. You could create endless content about sizing, about showing how things fit on different bodies or what sizes you should go up or down.

Speaker 1:

In all of that information is valuable content yeah, and even like your customer service like if you aren't answering your own customer service emails, like if you aren't answering your own customer service emails make sure you're getting those summarized for you so you know exactly what's the after purchase process and what are people getting hung up on there, because that's where pre-customer's head is. Before they purchase, they're already thinking about after the purchase, what are the annoying things that are going to bother me, and those are the reasons I'm hesitating or putting objections up from buying this. Am I going to have to return it? Am I going to have to ask for a different size? All of those things I was thinking of.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that sparked this episode, too, and that was so Maddie's been on a bit of a roll. Her Savage Marketing Reviews are back on TikTok. If you haven't checked them out, go check them out. And her Savage Marketing Reviews are back on TikTok. If you haven't checked them out, go check them out, and you can submit yourself for her to do a review of your business savagely but, honestly, because friends tell friends the truth.

Speaker 1:

But you were DMing someone, weren't you, and you offered to do a Savage Marketing Review and she was like I'm not ready for that. She was already like I know there's blind spots in my business, but I'm not ready to take the blinders off. Basically, I'm not ready to lift the sheet off my eyes. I want to just keep operating and in my safe space.

Speaker 2:

So to that I say that you are tying too much of your own personal self-worth with your business and it's very difficult to separate it. And I know myself, especially when I was on my own before I hired Jess, my first staff member when I was by myself and I got a bad email saying we don't like the website they were wrong, by the way but I would just spiral into this, this, like I would cry and cry and I'd get so upset and it would derail me for an entire week and I'd get so upset and it would derail me for an entire week. And it's because them saying I don't, I'm not happy with the work I took, that, as I'm not happy with you, I don't like you, and so you need to make sure that the work that you do on yourself, you are able to separate what people say or think or how they feel about your business. You need to separate that from yourself. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's like how do we, how do we even do? How do you do that? If you're such like a sensitively wired person or you know, like people call their businesses their babies, they are Like imagine someone criticizing your actual physical human child Like I would have a meltdown too and I would go. I would get very angry yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean that's a really good point, I think what it is it's? It's two things. It's one, it's the inner work, it's the your own inner self-worth, which is something that I have. Honest, like most people, including myself, including yourself, caroline, including everyone that I know. Basically, we all started off with quite a low sense of self-worth until we started doing the work on ourselves right, especially women.

Speaker 2:

I feel like there's so much expectation for us to be absolutely perfect, and when that isn't achieved because perfection can never be achieved, there is no such thing we are so hard on ourselves and then we start to feel so sad and down. And then I also think that when we've seen women who do have a high sense of self-worth, they are labeled as arrogant or up themselves, or they love themselves too much, or there's something wrong with them for having that high sense of self-worth that we then see that as, oh, it's not safe to feel like that, to act like that, and so I think 99% of the population have a very low sense of self-worth, which is something that we all collectively need to improve on, and that's actually something I'm really, really passionate about, and I feel like, within our team, our collective sense of self-worth has absolutely gone up because everyone is doing the work, and I think when we show each other that it's safe for us to step up and be our authentic selves and be confident with what we do, it's proof to other people in our team. Okay, I can do the same, because I see it rubbing off. It's like a domino effect within the walls of our office. Even though you're working virtually, I can still see that.

Speaker 2:

The walls of teams, yes, exactly. So I think the number one thing is you need to be working on your own self-worth and that can be done through neural reprogramming, so meditations and hypnosis, and that's part of why we have audio activations in the mindset, part of the full library, because it is such an important part of anything that you do in your business, in your marketing. You need to have that sense of self-worth. So we help you work through that, through the mindset. The second thing is putting yourself out there and realizing you can actually deal with rejection and failure. That's what I was going to say.

Speaker 1:

I was like you have to start being rejected for it to hurt less too, and to realize, oh actually I'm okay and oh actually, yeah, can you talk about? I think you were telling someone about this recently how you used to like ruminate on a bad comment or bad thing and then all of a sudden, oh, that's right, you said you just read it over and over and over again, don't you?

Speaker 2:

So it's basically exposure therapy. It's this idea. You know. If, for example, you have a fear of of spiders, the fastest way to get over that is to probably sit down in a room of spiders for an hour and realize, I know it sounds terrible, but realize that actually it's fine.

Speaker 2:

And I know, with myself living in North Queensland, I had a real fear of snakes for a really long time. We were gardening the other day and this giant python came out of nowhere and in the past I reckon I would have vomited, I would have felt so sick, but I just kind of saw it go past and pythons aren't dangerous. And so it was just like, hmm, because I've seen so many snakes now, and so it's the same thing as when I used to get emails. My inbox used to be super triggering for me and I heard this thing on a podcast once that was just saying read the email over and over and over until it no longer gives you any physiological effects or mental negative effects, until the power of the negativity of that goes away completely. It's like I don't know what's the analogy. It's literally like stepping up on stairs, you know, or like building things up gradually. Yeah, it is a muscle.

Speaker 1:

That's right. It's like that muscle is atrophied because you've been so afraid to like go out there and be seen and all of a sudden it's like this being seen. Muscle, isn't it. It's like resilience and all of these things building up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Like I remember when I first started posting on TikTok two years ago, if I got one comment, I used to fight back in the comments and da, da, da. And then I had someone who was a bigger creator than me. They basically said just be mindful that your audiences are watching you how you respond there, and so handle it with grace, Maddie. And now if I get a negative comment, I don't even notice it anymore. I don't even notice it. So I think it's just yeah, it's.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of it's a weird cycle as well, because when you're new in business, you're going to make more mistakes, right, and so you're probably going to get more negative feedback. But then, as you get better in business, you make less mistakes, but in turn, you're also better at dealing with any negative feedback you get. So we don't get negative feedback anymore, we don't. But at the same time, if we were to, I know that I would handle it more from a perspective of okay, I want to make sure you're a hundred percent satisfied, rather than from this really reactive emotional place. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Also because you know now that you are bringing in like top tier clients. It's not like a desperate energy bringing in desperate clients Like you're like okay, this is somebody that we've really built a relationship up with and now they're giving us some feedback where we can improve what. We respect that, rather than they don't know what they're talking about and we've tried the best we can and their business is difficult to work with or something like that.

Speaker 2:

For sure, and I just I think everything in your life gets better when you start inviting in that radically honest feedback in all areas of your life.

Speaker 2:

And I know, within our team, I expect my team to give me radically honest feedback. Where in the past I would really I would, I'd kind of dig myself feedback, where in the past I would really I would I kind of dig myself my head in the sand. If I knew someone was unhappy about something or something was going on, I would try and ignore it as much as I could because I just wanted it to go away. That would spiral out of control and that's how we ended up with a team that was completely a culture. That was not what we wanted it to be, a team that was of control, whereas now I know if there's a problem I tackle it head on and sometimes it's hard to hear. You know, sometimes when, especially the people I care about most, which is my team and my family, when they give me hard feedback, it is hard to hear, but if you then take, you take the emotional charge out of it by realizing it's actually got nothing to do with your self-worth, it's got to do with growing and learning.

Speaker 1:

That's how I was going to say. It's an opportunity to learn and improve your relationship with that person, whether it's a client, a customer or someone in your family.

Speaker 2:

We need to make a distinction here, though, because sometimes there are just fuckwits on social media that want to say mean things, and it's usually user 57395 with no profile picture. Right, yeah, block them, block. There are people that you may have in your life that actually don't want you to succeed, because if you succeed, they see it as an attack on their lack of success. Right, but when you start inviting in more of this radical transparency and this radical honesty, you will start inviting in more high quality people that actually do want you to succeed, and then that's when you have to listen to that feedback that's when you have to listen to that feedback.

Speaker 1:

So it's first identifying is this someone who I need to value or is it someone I can just write off? And I think it's really easy to spiral sometimes from the user one, two, five, nine, 27, than sometimes from the real people in our lives, because we know they care about us, versus like, oh my gosh, my biggest fear, a stranger is attacking me and they don't know anything about me. So it must be true. It's really like a weird mindset we get into.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so some other like limiting beliefs, excuses, ways people are not taking their business seriously. So we work with a lot of women, like a lot, a lot of women, always room for more men in our universe, in our school, in our clients. We've worked with some really brilliant men as well, but we're an all women team and we like working with women too. But a big excuse that comes up is I'm a mom, and how many business owners are also the full-time carer? Maybe don't even have their kids in childcare yet, which is no judgment, but you are doing the job of like 20 people. So what? How do we approach?

Speaker 2:

that. That is a really good question, because it is something that I used to struggle with so so much, even though I had a bit of childcare when my kids were younger. And something I also like to make really clear and be honest about is the fact that I have a lot of help in the home. My kids are now also getting older though, so I have a four and an eight year old, but my husband has been so hands on. I see it as normal, I see it as 50-50. But for a lot of other people they would say Jack is out of the ordinary with how hands-on he is. So this isn't something I ever had to deal with in a long time, but I do remember the pain of trying to take business calls when my son was at home and I thought he would be napping and then he wasn't. He woke up for his nap, and then you know the advice I wish I could give myself don't try and pretend you're a childless white man when you are not. Don't try and pretend that.

Speaker 1:

don't hold yourself or you're a man of the 1960s and you have a family, but you're every need and whim and everything is taken care of by your wife at home.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's, it's really. Don't. Don't try and pretend that you're anything but what you are, simply for the illusion of being professional or holding yourself to a standard that's unachievable or anything like that. Like there's no reason why you can't film content with your kids running around in the background. And I'm saying you know, like I understand a lot of people don't want to share their children on social media, which I completely support. You don't have to have them in the social media, but there are. There are little tricks. There are little, and I they didn't have them when I was had young kids, younger kids, but things like this microphone that I'm using right now the DJI microphone actually has noise cancellation built in, so all you need is even just a crappy little $40 mic that you can plug into your phone. By using that in your phone rather than just speaking to your phone, it will.

Speaker 2:

Your kids can go screaming in the background watching YouTube and watching annoying things, and you can still go and record content, right. So there's things like giving yourself the tools to be able to film the content that works in with your life. The other thing is, as I mentioned, youtube. Now I have very strict screen time rules with my kids. But there are times when sometimes the YouTube just has to go on or the TV just has to go on and I need to go and do my stuff, and as long as that's not 16 hours a day, give yourself some grace. And I mean, caroline, you've got a little baby. I mean, what is he? Two now? Yeah, still a little baby. How do you, how do you manage it?

Speaker 1:

Well, this is a good question, Cause I was, I had just come back from two and a half weeks off Cause I was in the U? S with my family. And then I get home, Levi goes to daycare for two days, Then he comes down with like all of the illnesses, conjunctivitis croup, and we were off. I was off work for a week and I actually really struggle with this because I'm such like a people pleaser and I have such high standards of myself, Like it's, does everyone think I'm disappointing them? Does every like, am I letting them down? And those are all the things going through my mind.

Speaker 1:

And then I just, you know, I have a really good boss, which is Maddie, you know, saying like don't wear yourself down, Like everything's going to get done. If there's any client stuff, I make sure I delegate that. But that's a lot easier to say because I am on a team. But I think, yeah, all I could do is just go. Well, my child needs me and that's the most important thing right now. So the work's going to have to wait, but if you're a business owner, that work never stops, does it?

Speaker 2:

So when I brought Jess on, our kids were. Our kids are basically the same age and we would quite often be working at night. You know that was that was when we worked. We would have our kids during the day and then me and her we'd be online until two in the morning and that was really shit. Like that was that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't know how you do that.

Speaker 2:

Well, I don't, I can't do it anymore. No, but I can't do it anymore. I really can't. And I know she can't do it anymore either. I know she is more of a night owl. I would prefer to get up at 4am and do the work then. That's how I like to do it, but it's.

Speaker 2:

I think you need to keep in mind that there is a season for everything, like this season of your two-year-old going through daycare illnesses. This happens to everyone, and if employers can't be cool with the fact that someone who is a very dedicated, hardworking, talented, valued member of the team, if they need to take time off yes, even if they've just come back from being away they need to take time off because their kid is sick. You can't get upset with that. You should not be angry about that, because it's not. If they could choose to fix that, they would. They would prefer not to have their child home from daycare. They would prefer to be at work.

Speaker 2:

I guarantee it. Yeah, so it's like. I mean, I'm the same as you where I, even today, I had to take I'm working from home and I even had to take a nap and I had to push this meeting back half an hour because I needed that time and I feel bad about that because I don't want to let people down. I get the same feeling, but I think, like how can we expect our best people to perform at their best if you don't give them the space that they need to be their best?

Speaker 1:

And then if you are a solopreneur, you are your best employee. So you have to step outside yourself and go. What would I say to, yeah, my best employee right now, I'll give them some grace.

Speaker 2:

That is actually really good, and I'm going to use that on myself, you know, because I do say that like Maria had to go home the other day and because she wasn't feeling well, you know, and it's like I'm sure she felt a bit like oh, I don't feel good about doing this, but it's like I always just say like, go, take the time, and I need to say that to myself as well definitely it's so hard because I think we're like conditioned in our like western world to just be a top productivity machine and anytime you're not, you feel like there's something wrong with me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like why can't I just push through this or do this thing? And it's like well, actually, if you just try to push through which we talk about all the time, you're going to make it worse, not better.

Speaker 2:

There needs to be a distinction and I want to really go back to the whole if you're not taking your marketing seriously, you're not taking your business growth seriously, because there needs to be this distinction between giving yourself grace and saying I can't create content today, I can't write that email today because I'm not feeling it and I'm not vibing and it's going to be terrible. But then there are other times where you just kind of need to put your big boy or big girl pants on and just do the thing, and that's happened to me before as well. You know, I could have easily cancelled this podcast recording today because I was not vibing it this morning, when I was not feeling my best. But I went and did something. I did a meditation, I did an audio activation and I had a little hypnosis session and then I woke up and I'm like I feel alive, I can't wait to do this, and so that's the thing you have to. You have to parent yourself, you have to boss yourself, you have to parent yourself.

Speaker 1:

That's a great point. That's what I was trying to think too. It's like that's something I've learned recently. It's cause I I also do Pilates and I work at a yoga studio, and it's all about you know, grace and balance, and I work at a yoga studio and it's all about you know grace and balance, but it's it's. You need ambition to keep moving, but you need grace to slow down and rest. It's like you. You constantly need these two things that are opposite, and that's that yin and yang. That's what you need in business. So you have to set realistic goals, but then you actually have to try to reach those goals. You know, if you, if you have your kids at home, then and that's your season you're in then you have to set realistic goals to go. Maybe I can't grow as quickly as I want to, but I'm still going to make progress every single damn day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and yeah, maybe my content won't be perfect. My house is not going to look amazing because there's toys in the background. Yes, my audio might have some mommy, I need some water. In the background. Or I've even posted videos where my youngest has come into the camera because she loves the camera just like me, and she's come in and be like what are you doing? And I've purposely left that in there because actually that's real and it's engaging, and sometimes kids say really funny things and if you don't want your kids to be on camera, edit that bit out, just edit it out and just even be like oh sorry, my kid just wanted a snack. It makes it relatable, Makes it relatable and it makes it real.

Speaker 1:

I'm so tired of, like us, everyone trying to be so professional all the time. I think like if that's what you're aiming for, that's probably not going to cut through in your content. Depends on your strategy and your audience.

Speaker 2:

But being perfect does not exist, so stop trying to be. Perfection is actually the lowest vibration you can aspire to.

Speaker 1:

I think we just listened to the same podcast episode James Wedmore Wonderful.

Speaker 2:

If you don't listen to James Wedmore, you definitely should. He is very much aligned. He's actually a huge expander for me. He's a huge inspiration to me. We have a very similar story and I hope to be on the same path that. He's actually a huge expander for me. He's a huge inspiration to me the way how we have a very similar story and I hope to be on the same path that he's on, because he seems to have built a really great community and really great life. But yeah, he said, perfectionism is literally the lowest vibration you can aspire to, because it's unachievable. And so you will. You're guaranteed to fail.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so people set that up for themselves to go. I'm not even going to start because I'm already failing, yeah, and so why would I even start that? Because that's uncomfortable and yucky. I'm probably not going to do a good job, so I might as well quit while I'm ahead. Yeah, so I guess, to wrap this up, if you're not serious about your marketing, you're not serious about your business. What are some steps people can do to identify? Like I said in the beginning, I think people know if they're not taking their marketing seriously, don't you? I?

Speaker 2:

don't know and I'm really trying to think back to yesterday where I gave that speech, because it was a very different group of people than who I would usually speak to. It was a lot of people in mining and construction and, in Makai, local businesses, and you know people that typically go to very serious business events, right, and then little old me walks in swearing and being ridiculous all over the place. Old me walks in swearing and being ridiculous all over the place, but actually I was told that my breakout session was probably one of the most engaging ones they had there and that they would love to get me on the main stage next year because of it.

Speaker 2:

And here I was thinking I was going to get in trouble because I was swearing. I referenced Kim Kardashian's sex tape like all of these things where I was kind of looking around me.

Speaker 2:

Am I about to get booted off stage? But it was really insightful to see the people that I don't usually talk to and I forget I think we all forget just how unaware people are about marketing, how much they are stuck in the old fashioned days where they think that they need to create TV style content or the only way to actually build a business is through one-on-one conversations or networking. You know these really old fashioned tools.

Speaker 1:

Or just pulling a flyer from Canva and posting it in your Instagrams, like all posters.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I'm not actually sure I'm going to see if this is the right thing I feel like it's going from. So, like I've worked in corporations, I've worked in local government and it's very marketing in those types of places are very much like marketing is a group of. It's a list of tasks. It's not a campaign, it's not a strategy, it's not a way to achieve goals. It's literally because they think they're two separate things almost. They're like oh, we just need to take these off the list to make us look good, to show that we're showing up in front of people instead of. This is a thing that's going to move me from A to Z.

Speaker 2:

I would even add to that and say I think true marketing is the part of the essence of the business, because it needs, it does need to flow through every aspect of what you do. And if you think of marketing like you think of how we write our strategies, how we literally go so deep into its target audiences and how we look at the mission and the values, the personality of the company, If you are siloing your marketing into just being ticks and boxes over here and you're not bringing that whole essence through your business, then there's problem number one 100%.

Speaker 1:

It's funny that you say that, because I'm going to reference some other podcast episodes that are related to this topic, and that was the first one. That stood out to me was just last month, in September how to create a brand that stands out and builds authentic connections. If you're not thinking about your brand and your marketing as a way to connect with your people, then you're not taking your marketing seriously or your business seriously or your sales seriously, most certainly.

Speaker 2:

I feel like there's something that I need to say, but I can't quite get my head around exactly the best way to articulate it, because I feel like all of these things that we've discussed are all relevant and people are going to resonate with a lot of these, everything we say, I have no doubt, because these are based on the conversations that we have with our clients and our students and ourselves every single day, right.

Speaker 1:

And our audience and all of that.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, but I think this is what I said to people yesterday. I said because someone asked me well, how do you get over being on camera? And I said what pain is greater the fear of getting on camera and putting yourself out there or the pain of your business not growing? What is the greater pain? And if you're letting the pain of your sister-in-law potentially seeing a video and thinking who does she think she is, you're basically saying that her opinion and what she thinks, which is grounded in her own insecurities, is more important than you achieving your goals.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's it. That's it, it's. What weight are you giving to this doubt or this thing that's stopping you versus achieving success?

Speaker 2:

stopping you versus achieving success. Yeah, everything is a choice. Everything is a choice in your life. You can choose to care more about your high school friends' opinions of you, or you can choose to care more about your business and the impact that you can potentially deliver for your customers, for your clients, but also, if you're able to build a successful business, clients. But also, if you're able to build a successful business, you are so much more powerful in terms of not just within yourself and having more money and having freedom and all of you know, being able to take your family on nice holidays like that is wonderful.

Speaker 2:

But what about things like, for example, I'm manifesting a second dog right now. Example I'm manifesting a second dog right now, but I'm a big believer in only rescuing dogs, right, so I will never go to a breeder or I'll never go to a pet shop or anything like that, because I think there's enough lives that need saving. Now I saw a post where someone is currently in a domestic violence situation and she's got this beautiful border collar who's literally her life and he sounds the dog, sounds exactly like Murphy, even down to the chasing the postman down the road situation and she basically said I need someone to take this dog by tomorrow because of the situation that she's found herself in, and she said she'd be happy to pay for de-sexing. She'd be happy to pay a weekly-sexing, she'd be happy to pay a weekly allowance. All she asks is that she can come once a week to come and walk the dog, right, because I have the resources that has been created out of building a successful business with a stable home life.

Speaker 2:

I basically responded and said I can take the dog. I don't expect you to pay for desexing. Like this is a young single woman who's going through something right? I don't, like I will get the dog desex, but I'm not going to make you pay for it. I'm not going to make you pay a weekly allowance. Like I will literally take the dog and give it a wonderful, very spoiled life and you can come and walk the dog whenever you want to walk the dog Like. This is just a very small. She hasn't responded to me yet, but this is a very small example of how, having built a successful business or a successful career because I know you could do exactly the same thing, caroline right, it's like maybe not with a two-year-old. That's just one example of how, when good, generous people with good hearts are more resourced up and in better places. That's how you can make the world better through being that.

Speaker 1:

I just had this conversation with my friend in Florida and she's very much into wildlife and like. So Florida if you don't know much about Florida it's just being rapidly developed and they're trying to like vote away some of the state parks to turn into golf courses, like just crazy stuff. And so she's like very frustrated. But she's like I feel like I'm at this point where I have to beat them at their own game and I just need to go and invest in more real estate so I can have the resources so that I can fight them and I go, but that's, I feel like that's the only way you can do it. Unfortunately, like a little I don't want to say little, but a protest can only do so much but if you can get into the rooms with the right people or have the right resources, you know that that's the game that you have to play.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and that's why that's why I do really struggle with things. Like you know, there are so many kind, generous people in the world, but because they're so kind and generous, they really struggle to charge their worth because they want to give so much. And you have to really come to this point where you have to realize I need, in order to do my best work at a most impactful level, I have to take my marketing seriously. I have to have an audience, I have to have money, because, unfortunately, that's how you get places a lot easier when you have the money to be able to do it, to hire solicitors, to hire experts, to buy property and have a wildlife sanctuary. That's how you can do it, and you can do that by building your own successful business. Well, or having a successful career, whatever it might be.

Speaker 1:

Just to wrap it all up in a nice little bow. It reminds me I've had a few clients and some students in birdcage schools say to me lately, like I just want to do the thing that they do in their business. I just want to do photography, I just want to do sewing, I just want to do this, and it's we have to say with love. Well, if you just want to do that, then you have to go be an employee. You're not a business owner, because business owners get into the game, because you're going to have to be seen, you're going to have to do scary stuff, you're going to have to connect with your people. You're not just doing the thing. And I think in their heart they know that they want to do all those other things and that's why they're in our universe. But that's the reality is you're the CEO, not the employee.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1:

So start taking it seriously guys.

Speaker 2:

And you have to do marketing. As the founder, you have to do marketing. Happy Halloween, happy.

Speaker 1:

Halloween, if you liked this episode topic and you want to binge some more related to this topic. Like I mentioned in September, we have how to create a brand that stands out and builds authentic connections as well. In September, we had a podcast episode called how to focus your creative spark as a multi passionate and in August, how to let go and be make messy progress as a perfectionist. Those two really speak to the ADHD multi-passionate person and then the more perfectionist kind of blocks themselves all the time because they want everything to be perfect. Let those speak to you If you feel like, okay, this is resonating. I need some tools now to get through this. And then another one was just this month. In our classic drops we have using psychology in your marketing and that really gets into the how to do your marketing and how to speak to your people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and guys, something we don't ask enough leave us a review, tell us if you'd like listening to us, because that is how we appease the algorithm gods, and I'm not all about that, but it's also if we want more people in our community, because we feel like we are doing big, great things, which is giving people who are generous and caring and passionate and wonderful and genius and artists, giving them the tools to be able to do more good in this world, and we want more people in our community so we can do that, and what you can do is just leave a review and tell us how wonderful we are and tell us what you'd love. Tell us, tell the people what they might get out of listening to us, so that they listen and so that we can all link arms across the world.

Speaker 1:

And anytime you listen to an episode, don't be shy. Share it in your stories Like tag us, let us know what you thought about it as well. Send us some DMs. I know people reach out to you, maddie. I but tag us, let us know what you thought about it as well. Send us some DMs. I know people reach out to you, maddie. I would love to get more feedback from people about what they learned in these episodes so we can keep creating episodes that are really valuable to you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, every single time I get positive feedback, I screenshot that shit and we share it in our wins, in our team's chat, in the office, but I also keep it in my own little folder because it's like you know, sometimes, even when, when I'm doubting myself, it's really nice to go back and just say, even if I've just impacted that one person today, I've done a good job.

Speaker 1:

So smart I need to go make one of those. All right, awesome. Well, thanks so much everyone, bye, bye.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Not so Kind Regards podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. If you did, we would really appreciate if you left a review, on whatever streaming platform you are using. It helps us to grow as a brand new podcast and to help many more business owners and content creators reach their goals, just like we hope this brought you one step closer to yours. Remember, connect with us on TikTok, at Maddie Birdcage and at Birdcage Marketing, and the same handles on Instagram again, and if you really want to learn how to work with us, make sure you head to our website and book a call. We would love to speak with you.