In this episode, we welcome Nicole Osborne, founder & coach at Wunderstars. She’s a coach specialized in one-on-one business development and marketing coaching for digital agency owners. We talk about the importance of telling your story, how that helps you stand out and much more.
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[00:00:00] Morayo: Welcome everyone to the Go WP digital agency podcast, where we conversation with members of our community and go behind the data and behind the curtain, other agencies to find out the secrets to their business and their lives.
[00:00:20] Joanne: Yes we conversate, before we started conversating, um, conversing, I would like it’s.
[00:00:28] Morayo: Think it’s a word. Yeah. It’s officially, we’re not done. I looked it up.
[00:00:33] Joanne: I just want to, I would like to say a few words about GoWP.
[00:00:36] Joanne: In case anyone here is fully familiar with what we do. So I at GoWP, we create happiness for digital agencies and we help them become more profitable.
[00:00:45] Joanne: How do we do this? Whether it’s joining in our incredibly valuable weekly happiness hour calls on Fridays, or if you’re looking to grow your team with a developer, a copywriter, a designer, a project manager, we [00:01:00] got you. So we also have services like case studies, blogging, website, maintenance care plans, content edits, and page builds that you can completely outsource to our team.
[00:01:14] Joanne: Whenever you, whenever you want, whenever you like.
[00:01:16] Morayo: Whenever they like. And so Joanne, you mentioned some people may not be aware of us, those poor souls. So, how can they find out about GoWP and more if they want it to more about the amazing array of outsource services that help their company scale and grow?
[00:01:31] Morayo: While giving them greater peace of mind and freedom in their day. How do they do that? Where did they go?
[00:01:35] Joanne: Yeah. So they can go to go to gowp.com or any of our social media channels. So on Twitter, (@) GoWP support and GoWP everywhere else. So on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and you can get any updates of what’s going on and they can also join our community.
[00:01:51] Joanne: That’s also on Facebook and you can find that on our website as well. So, yeah. And another thing. This [00:02:00] podcast is sponsored by GoWP.
[00:02:03] Morayo: The crowd goes wild! So let’s get to our wonderful.
[00:02:09] Morayo: This is a guest who I could not be more excited to tell our listeners and viewers about today, Nicole Osborne. She is a marketing coach for digital agency owners based in London with Wunderstars. With Wunderstars. She helps entrepreneur fast track their marketing and their social media results. Originally from Eastern Germany, Nicole works with digital agency owners and entrepreneurs to increase their influence and visibility on social media with standout personal brands and engaging content marketing.
[00:02:39] Morayo: She’s a charted marketer and has successfully delivered marketing plans for leading brands, including the Institute of directors, the association of colleges and mighty social. Which is one of Europe’s fastest growing and tech startups. He’s a regular marketing events speaker, so today we have her here with us on go WP digital agency podcast.
[00:02:59] Morayo: So [00:03:00] without further ado, welcome Nicole.
[00:03:03] Nicole: Ah, dankeschön! So excited. You’re having me today. It feels like we’re having our own happiness hour! Our viewers and our listeners are totally in for treat. Right.
[00:03:14] Morayo: They totally are. They totally are. This is, I mean, you know, we’re not ashamed. We’re a good time. We’re a good trio.
[00:03:19] Joanne: So yeah, we’re good.
[00:03:22] Nicole: And, everyone who’s listening. We are all wearing our lovely GoWP t-shirts and if you haven’t got one of those yet, you’ve got to come to one of your happiness hours. Maybe you will get on.
[00:03:32] Joanne: Yeah. And join our group. It’s a wonderful time. And you can learn a lot. Of course. That’s, that’s just like a, a wonderful, a nice thing. A nice thing to have.
[00:03:43] Nicole: Well, I want to really expand for European representation in the happiness hour. So everyone who’s listening in Europe. There’s some people there come and join us.
[00:03:54] Joanne: Yeah.
[00:03:55] Morayo: Bring, come Europe come so awesome. [00:04:00] And let’s speaking of Europe, I’d like to start there. In Europe where your story begins while you’re still, you’re still in your eventually your story where your story continues.
[00:04:10] Morayo: There was a quote of yours that I found that I would, I would like to share with our listeners and viewers. You said if the Berlin wall hadn’t come down, I’d be a teacher or a translator today. Let’s, let’s start there, the Eastern, the Eastern side of the Berlin wall. That was your reality, Nicole, for years, I want to know listeners want to know that that.
[00:04:30] Morayo: That’s heavy, the, the Berlin wall. So how did, how did the Berlin wall, how did society in the way of doing life in east Germany at time? How did that impact you during your formative years and, and lead to the amazing woman that you are today?
[00:04:45] Nicole: Oh, thank you, but do you know, the thing is at the time, I didn’t know any different, right. We all grow up, baby, grow up, but looking back, it was so highly restrictive. So you quoted me saying that if a wall hadn’t come down, I would have either become a [00:05:00] teacher or a translator. And that’s absolutely reality because you weren’t really given them a choice.
[00:05:05] Nicole: So my parents would go to parents evening and it was like, well, clearly Nicole likes to communicate and you know, she talks a lot, so you can either be this or that. And how terrible is that? Right. When you don’t have a choice. Um, another thing. Well, certainly, there are certain things I was allowed to talk about at home.
[00:05:21] Nicole: Let’s say politics where we lived. We were actually really fortunate to be able to watch all the Western German TV stations. So we were pretty much in the know and we could discuss it at home, but I was never, ever, ever allowed to mention that outside my home. So perhaps my friends at school or while we were playing, because my parents could have really gotten into trouble.
[00:05:39] Nicole: And that’s terrible when you, when you know, you have to be so careful now, now we have a finger which absolutely got to me and you know, that’s really understandable. It didn’t have any Barbie dolls. Didn’t have any, no fancy pass. And that’s all the things I used to see on TV, all the good TV commercials.
[00:05:57] Nicole: So do you guys, the reason why I’m nowadays and in [00:06:00] marketing, but, but, you know, um, I feel like I was generally around while the history was made. I went demonstrating with my parents. We wanted for Germany to be unified and you know, my mum, she never loved public speaking. Like this was such an important course that she actually.
[00:06:17] Nicole: I spoke at a local meetings and our village. We like to call it a town. And how impressive was that? So, yeah, exciting times. And then also seeing Germany going for all the transformations. We’ve all came down, everyone lost their jobs. We had to get used to different currencies. It was tough, but it was also, we really appreciate it, all the things we were gaining.
[00:06:36] Nicole: So, yeah, special time. Sorry. I could really go on about this, but I’ll worry. Don’t worry. But that’s why I love talking about it because, you know, it’s real history and it impacts where we are today.
[00:06:47] Joanne: Yeah. And it’s such an interesting, also and unique perspective. And because if you don’t know, or have an understanding of where you’ve come from and of your past moving forward makes it all the more difficult.[00:07:00]
[00:07:01] Joanne: So it’s thank you so much for sharing that with us. It’s so it’s so just so fascinating. It, I feel like just like seeing you and hearing you tell that story, it’s like, you were this little flower that like was, it was so hard to bloom, but then like the Berlin wall came down and you just kind of like exploded.
[00:07:18] Joanne: I don’t know. It’s kind of like what I was visualizing. Maybe it’s a little weird, but oh, well that’s just me.
[00:07:22] Morayo: How did you end up in London from East Germany?
[00:07:26] Joanne: Yeah.
[00:07:27] Nicole: So. My original plan was to come to England for a year to learn the language.
[00:07:33] Joanne: Oh boy, that’s how we all start, Nicole, until we all start to go study a little bit, please tell us more.
[00:07:43] Nicole: And then genuinely six months into my stay. Lovely London. I met this fairly rather handsome young dashing man.
[00:07:55] Nicole: And we, some are found madly in love. After six months we had a huge choice to make I’ve. I [00:08:00] would go back to Germany to start studying, or I would apply over here and the UK to go to university, but I had to move in because I couldn’t afford to do both. I mean that our toys were very. Matt. I don’t know which one I’m very naive and I’m 25 latest.
[00:08:15] Nicole: I’m still in London and loving it. So it wasn’t all planned not to at all. I really just wanted to improve my language skills.
[00:08:23] Morayo: Well, I’m sure you can keep him humble. Every anniversary, happy anniversary, honey. It was really about my language skills, not the love that kept me
[00:08:35] Morayo: about the language. Not the love.
[00:08:37] Joanne: So what were your, some of your major, like culture shock moments?
[00:08:40] Nicole: Oh boy,
[00:08:41] Joanne: especially learning a new language. It’s, there’s so many, you know, in our pre-interview we experienced a little bit of that. Morayo trying to, say a German word that I will not repeat just because I will completely butcher it.
[00:08:57] Joanne: So did you experience any, any of that in your [00:09:00] kind of like coming of age story with the English language? And if you give us an example…
[00:09:06] Nicole: so yes, I didn’t say I’m a hamburger, great to speak to my race, but I’m perfectly
[00:09:14] Nicole: I, um, for me, the biggest transition really was the need and really softening things out. The British culture is very much known, they’re known for their sense of diplomacy. Right. And we typically we get feedback. We do this whole sandwich stuff. Oh yeah, you great. What you could work on, but really you’re great. And so many just say, well, it hasn’t worked so well, I suggest we do that. No, I don’t want to do this, but if on England you’d probably say, oh, awesome. Sounds like a great idea. Let’s look into that. So if ever anyone says that to you, you kind of know if I don’t like the idea now I’m really generalizing it, but you know, I was fairly young. I was, I was 19. I applied to university.
[00:09:57] Nicole: Didn’t get in straight away because I guess [00:10:00] the German missed the deadline. I listened to that. Oh, wow. Vitality come on immediately. So far. Yeah. I ended up working at a German travel agency. I speak only German, but I made it work! I had to run to Heathrow to pick up tickets, but it’s a different story.
[00:10:21] Nicole: So. I guess it was just, I had to adjust like really softening up the way I communicate, because particularly in marketing any, any business function, but particular marketing, where often you need to get people to do stuff for you. And you’re not necessarily my boss. You really have to influence, you have to manage upwards.
[00:10:36] Nicole: You have to manage sales teams. We really don’t get marketing at least at that time. So it’s about influencing, communicating, right? I couldn’t be German. I mean, parts of me. Yes. But I really had to really soften it up and got my poor husband. I think I practice a lot on him.
[00:10:51] Joanne: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:10:54] Nicole: And he in turn taught me to get an airline ticket if we were arguing. So, you know, it’s kind of both [00:11:00] ways each spend four hours.
[00:11:01] Joanne: It’s a win-win situation.
[00:11:05] Nicole: So, yeah, that was one of the things I can’t actually remember specific situation other than me being at university. And openly complaining about electro making our life as students so hard because he kept on insisting and always changing the slides to be very last minute yet expecting us to have a lecture special.
[00:11:20] Nicole: So I just put my hand up and said, but it would be so much easier if you just wouldn’t change the slides to knows that’s not a very British thing to do at all.
[00:11:30] Morayo: What was his response to your suggestion?
[00:11:34] Nicole: Yeah, he wasn’t too pleased. Nevermind. I knew I had to readjust my communication style and I did, hopefully over the years.
[00:11:44] Morayo: It was all a learning process that has served you. Well, lessons that have served you well, they became a part of your story and storyis a term that you bring up frequently when you are presenting or when you are part of the conversation [00:12:00] in our weekly happiness hours with GoWP.
[00:12:02] Morayo: Whenever I see you, you, you always are encouraging people to tell their stories. You advise your clients and audience to embrace their unique stories. So my question for you is why is that personal story so crucial? Right now, because right now we live in this social media age where truthfully, anyone can create and project any persona, any story that they want.
[00:12:26] Morayo: But why do you insist that owning your personal story and sharing that is so important for. Individual or business owner.
[00:12:35] Nicole: Yeah. I particularly find often with digital agencies that the tendency often to is to, to, to talk a lot about tech, but different page builders, um, different new plugins, and, and to really focus that on the data on, but on the site speed on the latest plugin.
[00:12:52] Nicole: Now, when you have a website build or you commission digital product, you know, [00:13:00] but there’s going to be things for, to might go wrong by it. So you want to know what it’s like to work that team with that past, in that team, to, to resolve these issues because often it’s, it’s joined problem solving, which will help you to, to smooth out these blips and still make it to that line on time and on budget.
[00:13:16] Nicole: So for agency owners in particular, by, by using our stories, at least the bits of stories, they’re happy to share, but they give a glimpse of what it would be like to work them. And also, it makes you more unique. So what a great marketing asset. Now I know from personal experience, how hard it is to start sharing stories.
[00:13:36] Nicole: Um, I’ve worked in corporate life for a long time where they lead you to you fit in behind corporate brand guidelines. And you know what you have to say, because as a marketing director, you probably wrote for brand guidelines. Um, so then coming out as an agency owner, a smaller company, so hard to actually let go of that facade and to be more yourself.
[00:13:54] Nicole: But once you start doing it, You get success moments and it encourages you [00:14:00] to do more of it because there’s only one version of you, one version of your team. So it makes you more remarkable and memorable and it, and at a time. Everyone essentially offers same sort of services. It’s important to stand out.
[00:14:12] Nicole: So storytelling is great for that, but also if you think about it, you know, great events talks, or when you learn something it’s usually because you related it to a story, you probably didn’t so much get convinced by listening at the data or seeing an amazing graph. It’s probably something. The story revealed like an emotion at foster.
[00:14:32] Nicole: So that’s their storytelling is it’s really, really powerful and yes, I’m sorry. I must sound like a broken record. I always encourage people to consider the stories they love to share, and it makes a huge difference in their marketing.
[00:14:43] Morayo: That’s that’s so true about, you know, I’m thinking about. After you attend one of his promises or you hear a dynamic speaker, what is it that you share with your colleagues and your friends?
[00:14:52] Morayo: You don’t share the data, you share the stories that you walked away with the information within that. Totally. Right. Absolutely. [00:15:00]
[00:15:00] Joanne: The data is kind of like those pillars of support that kind of just like give you a little bit of more “why you should care about this”, why, in more of a business context, because at the end of the day, you know, when we are attending any of these, events, whether they’re really big or they’re really small, it’s the story is so important.
[00:15:24] Joanne: I would say it would be like a 97% of everything that other, maybe like 98. I say the 2% is that. The pillars of support of data. Of course, this makes no sense if you visualize a 2% and then 90%, and I get 2% carrying a 98%, it may, may not. Any sense at all, but it is those details that really drive the context of business home.
[00:15:54] Joanne: I think because there are, you know, there are many people in, especially in our industry who are not, [00:16:00] they’re not going to bite if you don’t give them like a little bit of data information, but yeah, I do think that I, I fully agree that stories are there. So there’s, they’re so important because. It’s not, how are people going to relate to you?
[00:16:18] Joanne: How are people going to believe you? If you’re just like, okay, yeah, anyone can read an Excel spreadsheet. Anyone can do that. But how are you truly going to relate to someone, especially in this day and age, where, as Morayo said, before, you don’t know what’s real and you don’t know what’s, what’s a facade.
[00:16:35] Joanne: You don’t know what, what is a whole narrative created behind a marketing strategy to sell whether it’s. An artist or a new ebook. I don’t know if people are doing that for eBooks, but you know, you know what I mean.
[00:16:54] Nicole: I think, I think we do. It’s a balance, isn’t it? And everyone’s graph to 98% would probably be slightly [00:17:00] different because we all have such different communication styles and starts to be learning.
[00:17:03] Nicole: Um, you know, someone, who’s a really great example. I always enjoy Chris Lema stories. Um, you know, when you hear talk by him, you will really learn something, but he’s probably really entertained. You’re drawn you end with a great story. So I think he’s just an absolute master storyteller.
[00:17:18] Joanne: He is such a great storyteller.
[00:17:19] Morayo: I was just thinking that same phrase, master storyteller, and isn’t that the human evolution too, before we had webpages and books, we had stories and that’s what survived the generations. Let’s get back to that. Everyone tell your staff.
[00:17:34] Joanne: We had a webinar with you a couple of weeks ago. So you encourage agency owners to include socially responsible local companies in the networks that they built so what does socially responsible mean for an agency?
[00:17:51] Nicole: Yeah. So, so many different opportunities for showing how you socially responsible. Do you know whether that’s a hue work from [00:18:00] home or you have a small office where you kind of. You know, environmentally friendly equipment you use. It’s how you train your staff.
[00:18:08] Nicole: How perhaps in the UK, we have an apprenticeship scheme, which means you give someone an opportunity to learn at your company, but also have some formal training. Maybe it’s about investing in our staff. It’s also how you work with your local community. So let’s say that H H a semi, you know, we’re coming, leading up to the holidays.
[00:18:24] Nicole: When you have an opportunity to arrange some presents for your clients, your suppliers to show your appreciation. Yeah. Could you be tapping into some, some local suppliers and really support them. It’s also giving your staff an opportunity to, to support nonprofits and where UK we call them charities.
[00:18:40] Nicole: So could they choose a project a year? They could get involved in. So giving our teams would have the opportunity to be socially responsible. I think it came up a lot because during lockdown people really struggling to call, should I still be selling my services? Should I be posting on social media? And I said, well, We spend [00:19:00] most of crisis show, empathy, celebrate companies who are really socially responsible because you can’t go wrong with this because this is really what matters, right?
[00:19:09] Nicole: Are we looking after we planet on behalf of our kids, and right now here in the UK, we have this huge conference, all about the environmental improvements. We need indigenous fish talk less and do more. But if you think about it, especially as owners, we have the opportunity ourselves to do small bits. Um, I think in the U.S. You have a concept B corporation.
[00:19:30] Nicole: I think that’s brilliant companies get certified here. We have things like ecology. So there are lots of ways you can get involved. Do you know the best thing to do? If you have a small team around you, let your team come up with ideas of what they really care about. I think that the best opportunity for you to get everyone involved and to be socially responsible because
[00:19:49] Joanne: Crowdsourcing those, those ideas is such a great way. And also you can have a better understanding and engage better with your team in addition to engaging at large with [00:20:00] your, your local community, for lack of a better word. Yeah. I’m really into engaging and being more present. So I think that’s such a powerful way of doing that in a more of a, of that business. Like high-level business context.
[00:20:17] Morayo: Absolutely. Because ultimately it takes a community, it takes a village, it takes
[00:20:21] Joanne: a village, takes a village.
[00:20:22] Morayo: And I love Nicole when you speak, you’ve often use those phrases that Joanne just mentioned about showing up about being. Present, engaging, engaging, engaging with the community.
[00:20:33] Morayo: That one is a part of, but inserting one’s voice in the public arena, it can be intimidating for a person, whether it’s meeting with strangers who might turn into clients or peers, word camps, and other conferences, or even online forums and groups. So you have a very strong and confident voice, but when did you know you had something special, you had a voice or an opinion [00:21:00] that you wanted to add to this somewhat of a crowded space? When did you have that confidence or is it something that you’ve always had?
[00:21:08] Nicole: That’s a good question, Morayo. So I guess, I guess I worked on it over a years and I knew when I set up my own business, I knew this was a fear I really had to work on because.
[00:21:22] Nicole: But when you essentially, when you’re selling, you know, the services yourself or your, your, your, your team, you, you have to be up and visible showing what you can do all your potential clients. So I thought it was really worth leaning into it. I had a really transformational moment that actually I met Lee Matthew Jackson, who at an event quite a few years ago.
[00:21:42] Nicole: And as a result, he went, invited me to his event his transformation, I think, three or four years ago. GoWP actually sponsored is actually how I met Brad and Emily in the meeting. I turned out I wasn’t meant to be, but, but we said hello. And, um, at the time I was talking a lot about personal branding and becoming [00:22:00] more visible.
[00:22:00] Nicole: And I said to Lee but Lee, do you know you are inviting me to talk about this topic? You could have asked a, another personal branding hero of mine Chris Docker from a Youpreneur summit. And he said to me in a car, but if you think. Many agency owners who are my target market, I’d going through exactly the same journey you went through with your own company, or all of a sudden it might just be them.
[00:22:19] Nicole: Perhaps they’re outsourcing a few services, but essentially they are doing it by themselves. So if you can create this level of noise and getting noticed, and we can encourage them to do something similar because not everyone will be right now at the state of ever have a team of 10 to 20, perhaps free marketing people internally.
[00:22:36] Nicole: And that really gave me a lot of courage. Okay. The other thing we did. And I know, you know, we now, but at the time I was really intimidated to be talking to so many digital agency owners at the time. It wasn’t what I had specialized enough to them, but I just realized they’re just people. So if we have real conversations, the kind of conversations I would have at a, at a normal party, a gathering of [00:23:00] friends, well, I will ask them, you know, what do you enjoy?
[00:23:02] Nicole: What do you hope to achieve? But what what’s getting you excited right now, and we can start having real connection. So, bring it back really right back to the basics. So if you had to go to a party and every not going to many parts of that moment, but the example we really used to work, you know, you wouldn’t go into a room and say, hi, I’m Nicole Osborne and then you disappear.
[00:23:21] Nicole: You know, you make an effort to ask good questions and to be interested and to listen and. Going to a networking event and being on social media is similar and also realize what are your energy levels? You know, funny enough Lee and I be reconnected because we were both at this huge event and we were both a bit exhausted.
[00:23:37] Nicole: So we both had to take some time out. So give yourself those breaks. You know, don’t go from, I never networked to I network and I’m expected to come back with 10 new clients, just be gentle. Don’t have too many expectations. Just go with your energy. Find something you comfortable talking about and ask lots of questions because while people are interesting, right?
[00:23:54] Nicole: And I think if you’re generally interested in people, you will be fine.
[00:23:58] Morayo: And listening. That’s what [00:24:00] that stood out. What you just said. I think we take good listening, healthy listening skills for granted, but that’s all part of connection connecting to another human being and learning their story. Just simply listening is very important.
[00:24:13] Morayo: I think too, for one. Grow their business. How do you solve problems for someone to keep? If you’re not effectively listening to what their problem.
[00:24:21] Joanne: Yeah. If you’re not actively listening to your clients, to your potential clients, to your community, to your audience, how, how do you even know what’s like, what’s going on and how do you know what your next steps are?
[00:24:35] Joanne: If w H w just the thought of this, I’m kind of like a little bit of a loss, for words, just thought that there are people out there that. Are kind of just like, you know, here I go again again on my own…
[00:24:52] Morayo: She was into eighties music and I do, she said, I do. Can I insert white snake? Where are you not, if I do not been a good listener, [00:25:00] wouldn’t know the right moment to insert Whitesnake.
[00:25:02] Morayo: So
[00:25:03] Joanne: 100%
[00:25:06] Joanne: it was, it was, it was in my agenda.
[00:25:11] Nicole: No, no,
[00:25:13] Joanne: like for real it takes like a lot of courage to actually listen because to be an active listener and to be a vulnerable listener where you can relate to your clients where you can relate to your audience, it’s it takes a lot of putting aside your ego and just putting yourself out there.
[00:25:36] Joanne: So for those moments, do you ever feel like your, that courage or that bravery was kind of just. Flickering away or were there moments where you were kind of just like, oh, I don’t know if this is for me. I don’t know. What can you share of any of those moments?
[00:25:54] Nicole: Yeah know, I think everyone has to be some moments all the time.
[00:25:59] Nicole: I [00:26:00] certainly do, but at that time, when he asked me to speak up. I think I had about six months of sleepless nights. I’m not saying consecutively, but I was nervous because I didn’t want to let Lee down. And I was also really excited about it. So yeah, absolutely. I have moments when I doubt myself, you know, I feel that’s actually one of the negative things.
[00:26:20] Nicole: Social media. You kind of go on on Instagram, you go on YouTube, any of the ALS and I don’t want to always, and that moment seems to be doing so much better than you, right. And we compare ourselves, but let’s say we have YouTube. Many people struggle with it that say video video myself. And I used to be really nervous about it.
[00:26:39] Nicole: I was then told, protected, just look at the creator and look at watch. They have first videos and when you can see the journey, so it’s realizing we all start somewhere and we have our own journey ahead. And, you know, particularly when your coach is aspiring, make sure you join the right kind of networks.
[00:26:55] Nicole: Like we GoWP happiness hour because, you know, we can also share our struggles. [00:27:00] So I think that’s really important. We all have our personal network might be the less hours, our spouses, our families, our friends, and really learn how to, to reach out, um, in terms of developing your business, you know, join memberships, join free communities, arrange coaching.
[00:27:16] Nicole: There are things you can do to, to help you for these moments when you’re not feeling particularly brave and just. Really normal to doubt yourself. And sometimes it stops can be really crippling. Right. So how can you then neutralize it? Remember? So when I did arrange those speaking gigs, I’m like, yes, I’m going to be wearing my Bridget Jones’ brave pants.
[00:27:35] Nicole: That’s usually what I visualize. I don’t know why, but I always visualize that I have a bat. I have one of my coaches sitting on my shoulder. I reached out to a local ecologist and I said to her, look, I’ve got respect talk. I would love to offer you two free sessions for your media students who I know don’t want to talk about LinkedIn, but I will deliver this for you free of charge, because it’s really valuable experience for me.
[00:27:55] Nicole: And boy, it was because maybe he didn’t want to know about LinkedIn. So I had to like [00:28:00] use all the tools, tricks, possibly where to hold that attention as I gave out sweets and whole sorts of things, but it really allowed me to become more confident and I could see the transformation from a first time I had the session.
[00:28:10] Nicole: Remember the second I adjusted things. I became slightly more. So just allow yourself to, to learn things and realize you will never be perfect, actually, frankly, I don’t think anyone wants perfect. You know, if we want it to be relatable. So it’s okay to talk about you being nervous, you know, it’s, it’s fine.
[00:28:29] Nicole: So, yeah, but it’s, you know, I think nothing worth fighting for, you have to fight for something if it’s worth having. And I’m not mean that in a materialistic sense, I mean, this end. Creating a business. You love creating a life-work balance. You like, whatever is your version of success. You know, I think fighting the struggle is as part of it, the journey, gosh, I wish sometimes it was easier.
[00:28:51] Morayo: And, you know, having that persistence to keep going. One of my favorite things about you, Nicole, is your willingness to [00:29:00] be just bare and vulnerable.I love your bloopers and your outtakes on, on Instagram. They just cry. Like I, whenever I was good, I just, I sit down and I watch it and it’s so it’s so humanizing and it’s so inspiring and listening to you for 30 seconds.
[00:29:18] Morayo: Shows anyone that you are so capable and so knowledgeable, and no one can deny that, but you’ll, you’ll have a prop fall or you’ll flub a word or whatever, and you laugh about it and you keep going and you still achieve the success, the level where you are now. I love it. There, keep those coming. I love those outtakes.
[00:29:40] Nicole: And you know, sometimes it’s a cliche, but done is better than perfect because I remember that particular one you were referring. It was a difficult week. My son had been off sick. I’d left things to the last minute. Even somebody as a German, I do this, I really wasn’t in the mood to record a block and you could see, I was really struggling to come up, [00:30:00] but it was still a valuable video.
[00:30:02] Nicole: At least I hope it was. This is what I’m meaning about sharing the story. So I don’t just present you with a perfect version. I actually tell you how I got that, because that might inspire someone else to keep trying and to not give up because boy, you know, sometimes we all need one to give up. Right. But if you see someone else’s struggles at colleges, I just touched my microphone there.
[00:30:21] Morayo: It’s encouraged us. You fine. Keep going. Be
[00:30:23] Morayo: persistent. It’s all right, we’ll talk about it.
[00:30:28] Morayo: Paul mentioned LinkedIn recently performed audits. One of those profiles that you audited was Brad Morrison, who to those who don’t know is the CEO of our company Go WP and you, and you encourage everyone should really treat their marketing like for themselves, for their own agencies, just like they treat the marketing for the client, but then we know how life is.
[00:30:53] Morayo: Everyone has the intention. Or the idea that they will look after themselves, but you know, life and responsibilities [00:31:00] happen. So when you’re coaching in your one-on-ones just in general, when you’re conducting business, how do you encourage and coach your clients to actually reimagine and alter how they treat themselves?
[00:31:12] Nicole: Um, so everyone learns differently, but one of the first exercises I. And asked my clients to do. And often we do it together to really dig deep it’s to talk about their goals. And, you know, we are individuals, we have our families, our lives. So business goals, fam family lives. What do they envisage their ideal week to look like that ideal yet to look like that ideal income level.
[00:31:35] Nicole: How do they want to feel. We talk about, so where they’re currently at and do you usually end up with some kind of gap to some could be really, really overwhelming, but what we do, then we break it down into the two small steps into actual stacks and, you know, Lee Jackson, the one set something, and it really resonated with me.
[00:31:55] Nicole: He said, small achievable actions lead to big [00:32:00] changes. You know, I like to add to that our future. So something was just going to happen to us. We have a power to make a happen. So I encourage people to work on the future. They may envisage themselves to have. Now sometimes it’s mood board. Sometimes it’s very practical.
[00:32:17] Nicole: This is how many hours I want to work. This is how much income I want to have. And when we split that down into, into goals for. But month, we won’t have weekly accountability because we all, sometimes when doubt ourselves. Right. But I, I really am a huge believer in accountability and, and encourage people to do it.
[00:32:33] Nicole: Perhaps someone’s, you know, doing little treats that have competition as well. If you manage to tackle your LinkedIn profile that you have been wanting to do for two months, but you really hate doing, if you do it by that bad. You got Amazon voucher. How about that? And just looking at incentive, slap bath, or sometimes I send flowers or books just to make it fun.
[00:32:51] Nicole: And, and also just to encourage people to see it’s, it’s, it’s very rarely when we make a mistake that we can’t undo. Right?, you know, let’s say [00:33:00] LinkedIn profile, it’s a digital platform. You can change things it’s okay to evolve as you get to know your clients better and what you are about. So it’s always bringing it back.
[00:33:09] Nicole: So it’s what could really happen. So worst case scenario here and often that makes you realize, okay, no one is going to die. It’s okay. I can track this up.
[00:33:17] Morayo: That’s one heck of a LinkedIn profile. If someone does, if someone’s life is lost
[00:33:21] Joanne: 100%
[00:33:23] Nicole: And you knows it’s also digging into my emotion. Often why? Well, why have you actually set up your agency? What was the original thinking behind it? And just to remind yourself of that, because often that’s a positive thing I’ve faced the redundancy, or you said, fight. I want to work for myself, or I really want to work kind of projects and clients I enjoy most back and be creative, but also earn well.
[00:33:43] Nicole: So, so what is your why? And that usually, can I help you for remind me of when you really just want to give up. So it’s a combination. Everyone is different, but I liked it to be quite structured. So we have our goals, we break them down, we keep track of them. You know, we celebrate when may have been achieved, but review [00:34:00] why that might have not been achieved or we could do definitely. So it’s a mixture of things.
[00:34:04] Joanne: Yeah. And I think it’s something you said is so important is the coming down to the why, why are you doing this? Is it, are you doing it for money? Are you doing it for personal fulfillment? Are you doing it because you started and now you feel like you have to finish it. So coming down to the why is so, so important in, in terms of, you know, timing.
[00:34:27] Joanne: How do you time things correctly? If you don’t even know why you’re doing something, if you’re just going through the motions, if you’re just on autopilot, you can’t be fully present if you’re not.
[00:34:40] Nicole: Absolutely. I’ve been interviewing really successful agency owners, and many of them I’ve actually met in GoWP community.
[00:34:47] Nicole: And I asked her about, um, milestones in the agency growth when the first consider myself as successful. And it’s really made me realize that everyone’s version of success is so important. So Joanne, just like you said, if you are aware of what’s your, why that [00:35:00] usually is linked to your version of success and it’s a really powerful driver and yeah, it’s, um, I’m sharing those tips on my YouTube channel and it’s absolutely fascinating.
[00:35:10] Nicole: What’s tools and tips, people have used to really grow and to make some stupid things. Essentially, I didn’t want to do because I’m success a little bit of success. Is that, isn’t it doing? The thing we don’t want to do.
[00:35:24] Morayo: You contribute so much to that space, that community, and you shape it and make it talking about defining success.
[00:35:33] Morayo: Your contribution is what makes that, that community, that those weekly calls successful. Without a doubt, when I started with GoWP, you were already involved on those happiness hour calls. So, you know, you are more of a veteran than I am, and I am so thankful for you. And so many others who somebody mentioned ego awhile ago, when I joined GoWP, the WordPress space was new for me.
[00:35:58] Morayo: And I’ve been just [00:36:00] floored at how. Egoless. So many members, agency owners are with each other on these happiness hour calls, so willing to share best practices. It’s just amazing every week. So thank you for helping us.
[00:36:15] Nicole: It’s my pleasure. Do you know? I totally agree with you. I know last time you had Kondra that talking about how she’s managed this lead magnets fight and how old email marketing. And I haven’t listened back to it, but I would imagine she would have been really, really generous with her insights and that would have helped other agencies to implement the same technique for their agencies. So that’s really wonderful to see us in that.
[00:36:35] Morayo: Absolutely
[00:36:37] Joanne: Yeah, without, the community, without you guys, honestly, without y’all the community, what Morayo says, I relate to that so much because coming as an outsider to the WordPress space can feel very daunting. And having that support that we were talking about earlier about having these personal support [00:37:00] systems and how for career, I think is so important to have that support system as well. You want to hear about people who are going through the same things as you are, or who already did go through that and can, they’re not going to lead you onto the right path. That’s not what this is about. It’s more of like them sharing their experience. Their valuable experience. We got really heavy hitters on those, on those calls. You never know how sharing your story is going to really impact someone else who may be going through the same thing you went through.
[00:37:33] Joanne: And that is just so incredibly powerful. Go ahead and plug the group where we have these weekly happiness hour calls that are so incredibly valuable for everyone in the community, whether you’re new to the community, the WordPress community at large, or you’re a seasoned agency owner, we’d love to have you.
[00:37:54] Morayo: Come on com and Nicole, I know that we have, you have been awesome and we have claimed so much of your [00:38:00] time. So I think there’s one more question. It’s Joanne. You’re cool with that, that I’ll ask and we’ll let you continue your life
[00:38:08] Joanne: Seriously.
[00:38:09] Morayo: Because your son is going to come banging on that door at some point, he’s going to want his mom back. So, and then we’ll have to, you know, fight with a kid. It won’t, it won’t be, it won’t be great. Um, so someone somewhere right now, they, they know it’s re it’s time to rethink their brand. So, what would you tell them to accomplish today before they go to bed?
[00:38:34] Morayo: If they’re serious about rethinking their brand and representing themselves?
[00:38:38] Nicole: Great question. I would just spend my half, our next coffee or tea break. Right? So I’m not going to lie to you rebranding as her all consuming kind of project. I know this because I went from name of lollipops. I shell to rebranding to Wunderstars just at the end of last year.
[00:38:56] Nicole: So one thing. To really help [00:39:00] you through that and to inspire you and drive you and to deal with the hiccups, you are very likely to experience no matter how good your plan is to, to, if you’re a visual person, visual person visualize what it would feel like to have a business within brand new brands. All the digital channels.
[00:39:16] Nicole: Exactly. Talking your vibe, attracting your kind of tribe, your clients. What did it feel like? So do that. And if you’re more, maybe more logical person have a whole long list of why you should be rebranding, because there’s going to be times then you actually struggle with, because you know, It’s an investment in terms of your time, but, but also monetary resources to get designed to, to, to revitalize your brand into, to get a new digital presence, to update all your social media channels and the list goes on.
[00:39:47] Nicole: So when you have a list like that, you can refer back to it. And then the final tip, I love incentives. So give yourself an incentive, your team. You know, if you do was by then, I’m going to take you out on this really lovely day. [00:40:00] I’d be going to go to an escape park or you’re all going to get chocolate, or you’re all going to get gin and tonic, whatever.
[00:40:06] Nicole: Offer some incentives, it’s totally, it’s totally worth doing by the way, because you know, you will evolve your story and how you want to be perceived by your audience, what you work on. So, everyone, I talked to and it was the same for my business. We are, I have rebranding is immense, immense, because you will get new clients.
[00:40:22] Nicole: You will be able to charge better. Doors will open for you. And it is really worthwhile doing.
[00:40:29] Morayo: Do it and incentivize, I want people to incentivize me just for no reason. It’s just throwing
[00:40:34] Nicole: incentives.
[00:40:38] Morayo: Thank you. Thank you so much, Nicole, for being as personally. And fun and professional as you always are. You’re just amazing. And I’ve enjoyed speaking with you today.
[00:40:48] Nicole: Thanks for being so welcoming to me and also for the communities to being so embracing of all the german-ness and remarketing advice I’d like to share. Thank you.
[00:40:56] Joanne: Thank you so much, Nicole. Oh, such a this was such a treat. We’ve recorded this podcast a little bit early in the morning for, for us Morayo and I, so I feel like.
[00:41:04] Joanne: I started my day in a very good note. So thank you so much for such a one for sharing all of your wonderful energy and all such great insight as well.
[00:41:15] Joanne: And thank you to everyone who was listening. So don’t forget to like, and subscribe, and you can get this episode of Go WP, digital agency podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:41:27] Joanne: And as a quick reminder, at GoWP. We want to help you become more profitable, whether it’s by listening to our podcast, joining our weekly happiness hours, viewing informative webinars, hosted by our friends in the WordPress community. And of course, by growing your team with our super-skilled developers, copywriters, designers or project managers, so go to gowp.com to read more about our services and to schedule a call.
[00:41:56] Joanne: So if even if it’s a quick discovery call, just to see if we’re [00:42:00] the right fit, go ahead and go to go wp.com to learn more. So thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you later. Bye guys
[00:42:11] Morayo: We’ll conversate later.
[00:42:14] Joanne: Conversate!
[00:42:15] Nicole: Auf wiedersehen!
Listen to episode 3 of GoWP’s Digital Agency Owners Podcast:
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