Coffee & Coaching: Importance of Social proof in marketing & Scarcity mindset.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and coaching on this beautiful Monday. I'm just checking a couple of things because this is the first time that I'm going live using this new kind of look here. So just having a look to see that it's all working. Okay, let me just have a look if. If I'm coming on. All right there. All right. Yes, we are on and we're happening. Beautiful. Okay, so what's happening in the world right now? Hey, it's all going a little bit crazy. So I have been. Oh, I'm just looking at this here. It looks like it is stalling a little. Let me just check that there, see if it's coming across. Okay. All right, are we on? All right, how does it look there? Okay, just trying to see. This is the first time I have used this new, new thing here. So just seeing how that's working and if that is. It looks like there is a little bit of a delay. So not sure if that is going to work. Okay, let me know if you can see and hear me. Okay. Or if it's just on what I'm trying to check it on. That's on a bit of a delay there. So just let me know. Yes. If you can see and hear me okay. On there. Yes. Hi, Carla, how you going? So can you. Carla, can you see and hear me without any delay on there or is it all. All being delayed? Can you. Can you do that? Can you let me know while you're on there? Because on what I'm looking at. Okay, you can see and hear me fine. All right, I am going to just turn this off then because the screen that I'm looking on makes me look frozen. So let me get rid of that. Beautiful. Thank you. Because, yeah, I'm doing it through this new system, I guess you could say, so that the logo and coffee and coaching comes up, which looks pretty cool, right? It looks okay. So let me show. Click on a comment, show it on the screen. Okay, so I'm just gonna. Oh, yay. Look how cool that is. Okay, that's really good. Good morning, Francis. So trying new technology today, which is sometimes good and sometimes a little scary because you have to wait for the start bit there to kind of go through to go. Okay, how are we gonn? Alrighty. So how do I then get there? There we go. Working it out as we go. So yeah, at the moment the world is going a little crazy. I did say just before coming on today that I'm feeling a little flat. I'm feeling a Little overwhelmed because of everything that's going on with coronavirus and everybody going batshit crazy over it. And, you know, I had this moment because I go to America on Thursday, so in a couple of days. And this moment of going, you know, to me, it's actually not that big a deal. Is there something that I'm missing that everybody else is getting? And so I went on and I started because I don't watch the news, which is probably a really good thing because after watching a couple of clips of the news, I remembered why I don't watch the news. But, yeah, so I went on and read a whole heap of things from different doctors. And it's like the general consensus seems to be this is something we're going to have to get used to. It's going to come around like the flu and a lot of people are going to get it and we're going to be just fine. But it is scary in the way of going, you know, we can't maintain this level of fear over influenza because it's been around for years and years and it's something that's kind of gonna happen. But for this, like, coming, especially in Australia, where we had the bushfires, and now coming into this whole virus scare and this whole toilet paper thing that's going on, it's exhausting. It's really emotionally and psychologically damaging. And there's so many ramifications. And for me, the fear isn't so much around the virus because everything shows that if you're not immune compromised, you're going to be totally fine, but it is going to spread. But the fear for me is everything else that's happening in society and the way that we're behaving, right down to the economic impact. So nearly every single person that I've had coaching with in the last week or two is already feeling the effects and going from the bushfires and the ramifications of that into the virus. And the ramifications of that is huge. And so, you know, obviously I'm not a doctor, so I can't give any advice to anyone about anything relating to that. But, you know, my thing is just. Just pay attention to the doctors and not the media, because the media is making it out to be the end of the world as we know it. And as much as we can sometimes laugh at that and go, man, I know for me, I'm like, well, I'm not buying into that shit. It can get you down. It can get exhausting because you're kind of going, okay, but what does this mean for the way we live? And what does this mean for our future? And what does this mean day to day, in the days and the weeks and the months and the years to come? And that level of uncertainty is scary. Does anyone else. Is anyone else feeling that at the moment, feeling that kind of uncertainty, exhaustion and going, okay, what are we supposed to do in this? And what is actually going on? Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are on that as well. And so I kind of wanted to use it as an example, though, because it has been amazing to watch as humans, the toilet paper buying, for one thing, and going, there's no direct correlation between the need for toilet paper and catching the virus. And if people are concerned about lockdown, then really we should be buying up on all of the fresh food, all of the canned food, all of that sort of stuff, which is all still in supermarket shelves. Stacy saying, just hoping Fiji conference is not canceled. Yeah, a lot of people are hoping a lot of things aren't canceled. I mean, I know I go to America on Thursday, as I said, totally going, totally think I'm going to be fine. Totally think everything's going to be fine. It really seems to be if there's just congregations of thousands of people. So south by Southwest that I was going to is now canceled. But it's kind of understandable because I think they're expecting about 470,000 people. So, you know, very concentrated amount of people. But hopefully for little things, we just continue on as normal because we can't stop life. Yeah, it's not the apocalypse. We don't all want to stay inside our houses. But in terms of the toilet paper. So from a business point of view, I want you to think DeAnn said, I'm going to be stuffed if I need toilet paper. Clearly didn't get the memo, I hear. And so, yeah, from the toilet paper point of view, it's brilliant from a marketing. So if we can look at it from a business perspective and go, okay, what actually happened there and how can we learn from that to implement into our businesses? So there was two things that kind of did this run on the toilet paper so quickly and to the level of hysteria that was almost comical, but also very concerning is social proof and scarcity. So these two things came into play massively in terms of the way that we changed people's behavior. Tamsen said, an Asian man I spoke to said to me, there is toilet paper shortage in China. People are sending toilet paper to China. That's why it's about the toilet paper. Yeah. And I think that a lot of people are saying that's what kind of started the run. And then because of that scarcity mindset, it now got everybody to have to go to buy the toilet paper. And so this is why when we're marketing something, you know, you see all the time on. I mean, I know with online courses, you know, we open and we close them. Because. Because having a course always open takes away that scarcity mindset. It takes away that deadline and that rush, which means people have no incentive to actually jump in and purchase there. And so always, I kind of think, you know, as humans, we know that's what marketers are doing. We know they're creating the limited time offer. We know we're creating early bird specials, all of this sort of thing. But the thing is, it works. And the reason that it works is exactly the reason people are buying toilet paper now. And so when you're going to market your product next time, think about the toilet paper. Think about how this has become so effective and how you can also implement those scarcity tactics into what you're selling, because unfortunately, it works really, really well. Sammy said, what is this fancy overlay you've got going on with brand logo and come up comments popping up. I know. Thanks, Sammy. So for those who are on here live, for people watching the. Listening to the podcast later, this is not going to be helpful at all, but you might want to jump onto Facebook and check it out. So I am Facebook living through a service called Streamyard. And Streamyard is something that I've seen people use a little bit lately and was kind of like, oh, this is cool. Because in one top corner I've got the logo, and then down the bottom I have coffee and coaching and my name. And then when people write a comment, I can make that comment show up on the screen, which is really, really cool. And I can invite people on to join me too. So I could also, like, put half the screen of me and someone else that I'm interviewing. So from, from a marketing point of view, it's great. So if you want to use that in your own businesses, look up streamyard.com if you were here on the beginning, you can see when you first hit play, it's a little blundery, but I think the next time I do it, it'll be a bit smoother for that. So there's a lot of different things you can do with branding and changing and doing that. So the second thing that I want to talk about, so we've got scarcity mindset when it comes to marketing. And the other thing is the importance of social proof. And so people that go through my programs and all of that sort of thing, I always talk about when you're marketing your business, the importance of having credibility and social proof so that someone can differentiate you from the noise that is out there. And so in doing things like, like building your profile, getting in media. The reason that I like to do PR and media is mainly because of that social proof that by appearing on the Today show, by being in the Sydney Morning Herald, by being on Sky News, that's all social proof that lets people know that you know what you're talking about a little bit more than someone with the absence of, of social proof. And I thought this whole thing that's happening is also a brilliant example of social proof. While it isn't credibility logos, it's also going, okay, so you're seeing everybody online buying mass amounts of toilet paper, so you know that that scarcity is there. And then people that have total rational thought that are totally going, you know, I know I'm not going to head for doomsday. I know I'm not going to end up in my house never leaving for the rest of the year. We know that rationally. We also know we can purchase online. But people are going out and doing this because of the social proof. You start seeing other people doing it and you start going, good morning, Donna. And you start going, okay, well if they're doing it, maybe I've missed something here and maybe I need to get onto that as well. I know that's very much what I have been in in the last couple of days with travel is going. I know there's plan landing everywhere all day, every day and they're full and everyone's totally fine. But then I have a couple of people saying to me, you're going to America still? Aren't you worried? And I'm going, well, no. And then enough people say it to me and I go, well, am I missing something here? Should I be worried? And that's where the social proof comes in and all of the pressure into doing that. And so when it comes, if we can translate that into our own businesses as well, this is the social proof. Logos, getting testimonials, getting all of that social proof in that shows that the business that you're operating is a credible one and is something that other people should get onto as well. Because I think it's so people like me do things like this. Yeah, exactly. So Sammy said that in terms of social proof, people like me do things like this and that's what people are seeing. When you see kind of the crazy people out there doing things, you think, oh, okay, you know, they're different to me. But when you start seeing people like you doing it and buying into that, you start thinking, oh really, should I be paying more attention to this? And so I think it's super important to take what's going on now and to really learn from that. Because now I don't want to contribute to the scaremongering. But we're going to see really tangible business ramifications for what's going on right now. And the snowball effect is huge. Just even with canceling of events and different things and people not going out to meetings and people not buying and spending already retail is down. And it's going to be even more important to promote our business as well and to get out there and to really spread that message that we're going to be okay, life will go on. We will not hit the apocalypse and all live inside. And I think there's only so long that we can like, if we look at human behavior, there's only so long we can sustain this period of intense fear and depression around it because it's exhausting, it's really emotionally draining. And so it will die out. And it usually lasts a couple of weeks. And so I think the media is about a week into this massive hype and so we probably have another week to go and then they'll have to move on to something else because it's not sustainable. Which is why every day we're not hearing about how many people are dying of influenza related, how many people are dying of heart attacks and stroke and alcohol related violence and domestic violence is because it's not sustainable. Sustainable to talk about that ongoing again and again. But I want you to promote your business as well. I want you to support other businesses the way that you've all always supported the other businesses. Because that's what's going to keep our economy moving and that's what's going to allow us to continue life as we know it without it all coming crashing down like this massive apocalypse thing that some people are alluding to. So that's kind of my little rant in terms of how we can translate the lessons that we can get from this outbreak into business lessons. Because I mean, I've never seen anything like it from a marketing point of view in going, oh my gosh, this is actually incredibly interesting to watch human behavior and the way it's all working. So let me know in the comments. What business questions have you got this week? Is anyone feeling the effects of this in their business or is everything going as normal for people? You can have any unrelated business questions in there if you want to ask me anything. But I will be heading to the US on Thursday morning and I will be there for two and a half weeks. So I'll be in LA for a bit because south by Southwest got cancelled. And then we'll be doing my Palm Springs retreat, which will be amazing. And for anyone wondering, I am not worried about that at all. There's 10 people, which is not enough people to warrant any sort of panic and we shall wash our hands. So we will be fine. So any business questions to come up? Everyone's a bit quiet this morning. I can see lots of people on here. Is anyone feeling a little bit tired from everything that's going on in there as well? Yeah. Okay, so we're always. We're packing up on the screen now. Okay. So Donna said, what's your thoughts on oversaturation for online business? My long term plan involves moving into the online space. However, I feel like with my current business responsibilities, it may not happen for a year or two. By then, would the ship have sailed? I don't think so. Everything is really saturated. We've got 7 billion people on the planet. There is a time to get into things. There's that beautiful Chinese proverb that says the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The second best time is today. I totally believe that. So I think that, you know, when you are wanting to embark on something, if you've got massive value to be able to share, if you've got a really great product, a really great offer and can add value to your community in doing that, do that. If somebody else is doing it at the same time, that shouldn't deter you. I mean, there are thousands and thousands of people in the world doing what I am doing that have been doing it for five years, 10 years, 20 years. And no, I don't think that there is a limit on how many people can actually be doing that. Somebody somewhere needs your flavor of the way that you do it. So I think do what you can, when you can, and when it is time to actually step into that and go for it, it will be your time. I mean, I've heard the same thing said about podcasts at the moment. There's, I think the last statistic I read was there's about 800,000 podcasts in the world. And so a lot of people go, well, if there's already that many, is it worth doing? But again, podcasts are fantastic and you don't need everyone. So if I use the podcast as an example, because it's a good example into your question. Johnna is in Australia. The average is 117 downloads per week on a podcast. So for me, you could say, well, that's not a very big number, but that's 117 people that will be tuning in to what you have to say, say and paying attention to that. So is it worth it? Yes, absolutely. Do you need thousands of people to run a really good, profitable business? Absolutely not. You need your right amount of people for your right audience to do that. So, yeah, you're totally, totally on. So Deanne said her business is running like normal, but I think in the back of my mind, you question what the economic effects will be. Yeah. And that's, I think that's what playing on my mind the most is because I get to talk to business owners every day. It's always that fear around that, which is why I want people to kick ass as much as possible. Because the more we all do well, the more that snowballs onto everybody else as well. So. Yeah, okay. So Deanne has said I have a book with 70 to do items listed. It is very overwhelming at the moment. I think with how much I need to get done, I don't know where to start. And then procrastination sets in. Thoughts? Yes. Welcome to every human ever who's trying to achieve great things. I think everyone would relate with Deanne. Right? Just, just give me a yes if you relate to that. If you also feel like you have 10 million to do list items listed and don't know where to start. So this is something I talk about a lot because it's a very common problem for people and it's something that I have to consciously focus on all the time. So for me, I use a program called Monday.com for my task list, and I don't know how many are on there, but I reckon there'd be close to 70 on there. And so if I was to open that every day and kind of go, okay, what am I doing next? And I looked at that list and then went to the next thing. You're actually looking at the entire list, which means that that overwhelm is going to come up straight away and affect you absolutely hugely. And so you don't, you don't look at it. And so how we actually get over the procrastination and the overwhelm is to make a plan. And you know, I love a plan. And so that is at the beginning of the week. So, like right now, when you get off this call, the first thing that you should do is get that gigantic list and go through and work out what's important. And so you put them in order of importance, and then you work out how long they're going to take you. And so say, say example of one of them is, what's an example of something I have to do this week? Do a team review. So do a review with a team member. So, you know, that's going to take about 10, 15 minutes to set up everything that you've got to do in that meeting. And then the meeting's going to go for about half an hour. So you got 45 minutes. And so you get that off your list and you put that into your calendar and you block out that 45 minutes. So usually a lot of people will use calendars just as meetings, but you also should use your calendar as preparation time for your to do list, all of that sort of thing. Because perpetually we're ending up saying, you know, we've got all of this stuff to do, and we start at the top of our list and go for it. And at the end of the day, you're going, oh, my gosh, did I even get anything done? Often the list is longer than it is shorter. And so that usually happens when we don't work out what time it's going to take us and allocate the time properly in our calendar, because we don't have time to do everything. For us overachievers, we're always going to think of more things to do than the actual time that we have available. And so with that, we've got to work out, okay, what. What's most important to the goals that we're trying to achieve and what's most important that's going to make a difference to our bottom line. And sometimes we have to say no to the things not only no to the things that we don't want to do, but no to the things that we do want to do as well. Because sometimes we can spend a lot of time on things that are really fun things to do, but they're actually not necessary and we're wasting a lot of time. We could be spending time on the things that we don't necessarily want to do, but things that are going to make a very big difference to the business, like working out cash flow projections and going over our P and L and working out marketing plans and out our team plan and all of that sort of stuff that we have to do. So my biggest, Melina has said, yes, my biggest kind of advice for that would be to get that list, pull off the things, put them into your calendar and then park that list till the next week. Because every time you look at that, it's going to signal in your body all of that overwhelm. It's going to signal as soon as you get into that spot of overwhelm. It breeds procrastination because all you think about is all of the things that you want to do that you can't quite get to. And so prioritize plan and then that will ease that hugely. Donna said she loves the pop up comment box thing. Very helpful. Helpful as a listener. Yes. And it will be very helpful for people that are on live and watching later. But yeah, not so much for the podcast. So we'll see how that translates. Sammy has said for me it helps to break it down. Tasks that attract, tasks that convert and tasks that deliver, tasks that keep the trains running on time. Yep, totally. And then prioritize them with each category and decide what tasks are going to happen when exactly. Love the system. And that's the thing. You've got to just work out what system is going to work for you and do that over and over and over again. And it takes massive discipline. I mean, I know like it was a week or two ago that I fell into the same thing. So it's before I go away and I'm going away for three weeks. So before I go on a big trip, I always get that hit of overwhelm where I'm like, you want to do everything before you go away. Even though it's still going to be working when I go away, it's still going to all be here when I get back. I'm sure you can relate to that, that when you're going away, you're like, I must do this. Like a line of time in the sand go. I must do everything before I hit the fly off point. And so I get overwhelmed in that moment with going, oh my gosh, there's so much that I want to achieve in that time, but it's really important to sustain our energy, to be able to have realistic expectations and plan those things out. Otherwise we just feel disappointed all the time. Which then leads to procrastination, which then takes away our productivity. No one's got time for that. You are welcome. DM do we have any other business questions to come in? Any other business questions that we've got there? Nothing else coming in. So that I hope that my hope. I hope that everyone is able to keep a level head this week. Turn off the news is probably one of my biggest recommendations here because, I mean, I think the media should be held so responsible for what's going on right now. I think they abuse that power that they have quite a lot and I hope that they take some of that and actually contribute, contribute to helping people rather than planting more fear in everybody because the human behavior that happens as a result is far more scary than the virus. So I hope everyone has an absolutely fantastic week. Next week I will be coming to you live from America. I'm not exactly sure where I will be in the States, but I think it'll be somewhere around South California. So I will see you there then. Have an absolutely fantastic week and a great day filled with productivity and awesomeness. Bye, everybody.