STAND OUT From the Noise, and get NOTICED

Do you have a completely unique business? What I mean by that is, do you have a unique business to the point where you don't have any kind of competition? No one is dipping into your market share and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. I think it's fair to say that that's probably not your reality. You're probably in a storm of competition. Every day, you fight to get noticed. You fight to get more relevant. And you want to get it before the next guy does. And you fight for every one of your customers' dollars. But how can you stand out? How can you stand out and get noticed? And that's coming up next on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to Marc Haine Live. where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up some core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in their business. I'm your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. And I am so glad that you made time today to join us. We're broadcasting here on YouTube every Tuesday at noon Eastern Time. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and I was going to say TikTok. But who knows what's going to happen with that with What's going on in the States? Since you're here, feel free to hit the button down below and subscribe to this channel. Go ahead and ring the bell and that'll give you first dibs whenever I bring you some fresh content each and every week. And of course, please, please, please feel free to drop your own fabulous insights in the comment box below. I really want people to benefit from your experience as well. Every one of us is different and every one of us has our own story. Your content, your information can be shared to help make other small business and entrepreneur owners better. In the past episodes of Marc Haine Live, we've talked about the need to pivot our businesses. We've talked about changing our mindset. We've talked about dealing with employees. But let's face it, unless you can stand out in your marketplace, unless you can get people to sit up and take notice, Well, I guess sometimes it just feels so futile, doesn't it? Recently, I spoke with a local hardware store owner who has been so frustrated with the competition that she gets from internet shopping. Her big question is how does she compete? How does she stand out and get noticed? Well, today we have a really special episode and a guest with quite a portfolio of accomplishments. But first, before we get started, I want to go full bore and talk about the question Question of the day. So, in a post-COVID world, what is the toughest thing for you about competing in your marketplace? It's always been tough. Now, with COVID coming in, it threw us a whole new reality. And by the time we're ready to relaunch, that reality can be entirely different. Our guest today is a serial entrepreneur, a phenomenal business strategist. He's a real estate investor. He's a speaker and he's a best-selling author of 5 books centered around being able to make more money while working less. He has appeared with Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington. He's interviewed the likes of George Ross, Bruni Suren, and even the Canadian Olympic gold medalist, Mark McCoy. He has been a subject matter expert on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, which I think is amazing for a local guy. And in case that wasn't enough, he is also the host of Peak Potential Success Podcast and has a weekly series on YouTube called Make More Mind Bites. You know, it's so funny because they say that you are the average of the 5 people you hang around with. And I know just With him being with me today, he's just boosted my average. So, welcome Phong. How are you?

Thank you very much for that intro. Wow! I'm very, very surprised and honored for that intro that you just gave me. Thank you very much.

You're very welcome. It's well deserved. But before we get into today's topic, could you tell us a little bit about what you do for your clients?

Well, what I absolutely love doing is to add value and impact as many people as I can. And when it comes to my clients, I help them unlock their potentials. I help them find out what they can do and how can they actually profit from it and then make a business out of it. Now, once they go into business or go into entrepreneurship, I help them strategize their branding, their marketing, how do they present themselves, how do they go out and find clients, how do they Make themselves different from the sea of sameness that everybody else is doing. So, find out that strategy as to how to get more exposure, get more credibility. And that's all what branding is all about. So, that's what I absolutely love doing with my clients.

But it sounds like it's deeper than just branding. It seems like this is about strategizing the businesses forward.

Well, yeah. So, when it comes to branding, it's really who— it's not who you know. It's who knows you. How do you get exposure? How do people think of you first, or if at all? Right? There's this saying, it's like, if I wake you up, Marc, at the middle of the night at, let's say, 3 o'clock and go, what do you think about Fong? What's the first word that comes to mind? If you go, oh, he's smart, then, ah, that's my brand. I tried that with my wife once. I go, what do you think about Fong? She goes, are you clean? So I think I'll go get in the shower or something. So yeah, so It's one of those things. What's the first words that people think about when they think about you when you're not in the room?

Right.

So, and that's what branding is all about, because we go talk about, let's say, Apple, Disney, Starbucks. What's the first words that come to mind? And they can't control what you say. They can't control what you think. They can't control what you say. So it's what, what's that message that they put out there? What's the exposure that they're getting? And those are the messages that people are receiving, and that's what they're thinking. So when we're talking about branding strategy and the strategy that goes behind it. It's talking about what can you do to increase your exposure? What can you do from a public standpoint?

And that's a really good point. This point about exposure is really what we're here to talk about. But you know, Phong, as a small business consultant, I am constantly working with entrepreneurs, especially in small communities. And these could be businesses that have been around for 20, 30 years. And they've been They've been the definition of the shop local idea. They've thrived in their community as local businesses and are now at the mercy of big box stores. I mean, they have been for the last probably 20 years. And of course, those big box stores are conveniently located a short drive away. And then compounding all that, now they have to compete with internet stores, Airbnb, Uber. I mean, the list is so long and it's getting harder and harder to get the customer's attention in the foray of the internet as we see it today. But before we take a deep dive into our topic, I'd like to remind everybody that this episode is brought to you by the Speaker Presentation Timer app. It's an app that I created for professional speakers or anybody doing presentations. It helps speakers and presenters who want to develop great stories and compelling presentations without ever breaking the fourth wall. It is available on iOS and Android-powered devices. And it is on the Apple Store and the Google Store. So, go ahead and visit www.speakerpresentationtimer.com. Okay, so Phong, let's get into the down and dirty. Let's start off by talking about how small business operators can start differentiating themselves.

Well, I believe that for those small business owners, Yes, they have to compete with the big box names, but what they have that's a little bit different is their attachment and their connection to the community. So they could use that a little bit more. They can talk about the history, they can talk about giving back to the community, they can talk about all the engagements they get with the local suppliers and the local vendors and all that kind of stuff. How do they add value back to the community and how much history they have with the community and how they're basically family dynamic? And they can use that as part of their branding tool. The thing is, all the big box names, they started somewhere too. They started off being a small business, they started off being a small entrepreneurship, and they had to build up their brand to become who they are now. So for the smaller businesses right now, yes, they have to compete with them, so how do you compete with them from a different level and still be able to get people to come back to you? So for instance, giving back to the community. Maybe you could start a charity event or a fundraiser event that's localized at your place or your retail area. Or you could talk about that wow experience that you give to your clients and your customers and focus on those stories. Get the testimonials. Get those interviews and expose yourself that way so that you can gravitate more people over to your stores.

And having grown up in small— or having grown up, I've been in Alberta for 20 years now and I've worked in small businesses in small businesses. I've worked in small communities and live in a small community. And part of the challenge that we see happening is that the small businesses typically, because they're entrepreneurs within the community, are really pretty active inside their community when it comes down to doing fundraisers and all this sort of stuff. But then, when it comes to actually getting that buyer's dollar, they're challenged because people want maybe a cheaper price, maybe a bigger selection, and so on, which is something that they just cannot compete with. Any suggestions? I mean, obviously, what you're talking about now is creating this human connection. How far can a small business go in making those relationships?

Well, you can go as far as you really want to because you can keep on. The thing is once you build the relationships stronger and stronger, you develop that advocacy kind of brand, right? People will start recommending you to other people. They're just going to recommend your business to other people and go, hey, you got to come back to this one. Yes, It might be cheaper with the big box stores, but wait, you're gonna get a better quality, you're gonna get better engagement, and you're gonna get better care from these people because they're gonna know you by name. They're not gonna know you like another customer, another number. They know you by name, they know your family, they know your history if you wanted to share all that stuff with these people because they have that capacity to really build that relationship with people.

Mm-hmm.

So that's the thing is the stronger the relationship, the better your brand's gonna be, and the more people would like to come work with you Because they feel that attachment. They feel that friendship, that family feel.

And in a previous episode, we talked about pivoting the business and we talked about looking for opportunities in this unprecedented time. And one of the things that came out of that was this idea of building connection the same way basically internet stores are building connection. And what comes to mind is this one idea where a bakery saw a drop in volume. And so, they started setting up their place like a little mini grocery store because they realized people wanted to do bread at home. And then, they compounded that by doing little home-based videos where they were teaching people how to bake their own bread. So, not only do you go in and get a kit but then, you can get at home and you can watch the video and you can push forward. All of a sudden, these people started playing like the big boys.

Yeah, and that's what the biggest thing that this COVID situation has encouraged is people to start thinking more creatively, to think what else can we do instead of just what we're all used to. Lots of people are so comfortable with what they're doing that they were too afraid to jump out of that comfort zone. So now lots of people are stuck in this situation, they have to break out of the comfort zone and think of more creative ways of building their businesses and And working with different people online.

So, would you have any advice to this idea of breaking out of their comfort zone? What are some of the things they should be looking at? Like when you look at the business model, are there any kind of generalities that most businesses could do to shake out the comfort zone?

I think one of the biggest things is that people are afraid to get their face out there, afraid to put themselves online and do videos and do content. The thing is, content is really king when it comes to social media and building businesses, going on Instagram and all that kind of stuff. They're afraid to put things on there to get that engagement from potential clients or potential customers. So one of the things is seek out somebody else who's doing it and ask them how they do it, right?

Mm-hmm.

So many people are thinking about one business or one business strategy, and they ask other people who, one, may not be doing it, 2, family and friends who have no idea what they're talking about. Or 3, somebody who's tried it and failed. So obviously, you're gonna get suggestions or advice back that says, no, don't do it. It's not gonna work. Stay away from it.

Yeah, it's like, I have to ask for help? And this is the challenge I've seen in small businesses is small businesses pride themselves. I started my business with nothing and I brought it up. And this whole thing now of You mean I should be talking to people who have different capacity than me? And the response is, yeah. And I mean, and I think you hit the nail on the head because I think when it comes down to this idea of staying on top of a changing landscape, this is exactly part of the solution process, isn't it?

Well, yeah, for sure. Like, yes, you should go and ask those people and see What are they doing to make it work? But you should also look at what's happening in the world. What is gaining that type of engagement, gaining that type of business, getting that type of connection? I think there was a story where the owner of Blockbuster was at home and his wife loaded up Netflix and he goes, yeah, Netflix is going to work. So even his wife was using Netflix at the time and he still believed that Blockbuster is still going to survive. So you have to just open up your eyes and see what's going on in the world. If it's online, guess what? If that's not within your comfort zone, find somebody who's comfortable with social media and ask them how to do it.

Yeah. You know, it's really interesting because we just had a comment from Anna on the page and she said that she's always taken pride in treating her customers like they were coming into her living room. And that is really one capacity that Amazon can't do.

That's true.

Right? And Bill, so thank you, Anif, so much for that comment. I really appreciate you reaching out like that. And it's a great, great observation as well. Before we dig any deeper, I just want to give the audience a heads up on how can people get a hold of you to tap into your expertise?

Oh yeah, sure. So, they can always reach me on my social media, on Facebook, My LinkedIn. I have Instagram, Twitter, and also my website is fongchua.com. So, anywhere of those you can find me.

And the links are down below. So, anybody can click on one of those links and get to you. This African proverb keeps coming up into my head. And I'm sure that you've probably heard it a gazillion times. But it basically says, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. So for you, what is your interpretation of that kind of a proverb?

My interpretation is surround yourself with the people who can support and guide you and challenge you towards what you want to achieve and complete. It's like, ask any successful person whether it's in business, in sports, in music, in art, whatever it is. They were able to become successful and famous and credible because of the people that they surrounded themselves with.

Right.

Whether it's their trainers, their teachers, their coaches, family and friends to support them, you need that dynamic in order for you to succeed in anything. You can't do everything alone. Eventually, you either run out of 1, time, 2, money, and 3, energy.

Right, right. I think we're giving a lot of good advice here on people standing out. Ultimately, This idea now, we've kind of talked about being different than what the offering is on the internet or what the box stores can do. So, you can differentiate yourself. And that's where Anna's comment came in about she treats her customers as if they're coming into her living room. She's that hospitable. And the big box stores and the internet can't compete with that. You mentioned being part of the community as being able to stand out. Make sure that you are a contributor to your community. Make sure that you stand out and you're top of mind because people would rather do business with people who care about them rather than dealing with some big entity. And then, you mentioned this idea that people, we can't really do it alone. That if you don't know how to do it, if you don't know how to pick up that capacity, then tapping into somebody who has that capacity could really be of help. I think though, letting people in on what they shouldn't do is as important as what they should do. Would you have any cautionaries as to what entrepreneurs should avoid doing?

I think entrepreneurs should— one of the biggest things right now I advise a lot of my clients is to treat your social media like a live resume. Okay? So, if you're building your business brand, if you're building your own brand, or your company brand, whatever it is, and you have a certain message or a certain type of qualities or characteristics that you want people to think of first, make sure that the stuff that you're posting is congruent with that stuff that you're putting on there. I've been— I've talked to a few people, some of my coaches, and they've had stories where a person who is a motivational speaker would actually post on their social media, hmm, I'm having a bad day. That's like saying, if you were a dentist, And one day you decide to post up on social media, oops, I missed that tooth. Well, that's not really congruent. So would you post something like that that's detrimental to your own brand or your own business brand? Probably not. But there's so many people out there who treats their— if they were in business and they're promoting their business, they're promoting their expertise on social media, and all of a sudden they go, hey, look, I just cooked— I just baked this cake. Well, that doesn't mean anything. And for people who are following you because of your expertise, because of your business, well, that baking a cake adds no value to them. Right.

And it's interesting that you say that as well because one of the philosophies I think in online presence is that you can't also go onto social media and just talk about everything that you sell. You'll just shut people down, right? So, there's this 80/20 rule where 80% of the content should be something of interest to the audience that is not selling. And then, only 20% of whatever you post should really be about you.

Yeah, totally agreed. Yeah, lots of people forget that having a business is no different than dating. You're not going to go online and message that special girl or that special guy and go, do you want to go out? You want to go out? You want to go out? Well, that's not going to happen. So, you're just going to come out looking like a creep.

Yep. Yeah, I got a ring. Marry me now!

That's the same thing as, hey, buy this right now.

Well, isn't it though? You know that whole thing of where we used to walk onto a car dealership lot or used car lot and right away, the people come jumping down your throat to push the best deal that they have and you haven't even found out what I need yet. Right. So, on 2 fronts, we've hit this idea of relationships. On 2 fronts, we talked about small businesses within their communities creating relationships inside their communities. Now, we're talking about when you're talking about social media, we're talking about creating relationships on social media as well. It's not just sell, sell, sell.

You are correct. Like something else I tell a lot of my clients to do is Follow on social media, let's say Coca-Cola. See what they do for their posts. Do they keep on posting up saying, hey, buy Coke, buy Coke, buy Coke? No, they don't. They post questionnaires, they post surveys, they post funny videos, whatever it is to get that engagement and build that relationship. So follow those companies and see what they do, and then if they post up a questionnaire, hey, guess what? You could post up a questionnaire that's related to your business and your company. And this is one thing that I also tell a lot of my clients is find out what other big successful people are doing or companies are doing that may or may not be in your field or in your industry. For instance, for that bakery shop that we were talking about, what if they followed a person, let's say Disney. They look at Disney and go, hey, they posted this up, they did this, they did this differently, they're creating this experience. How do I take that? and apply it to my bakery business. So now, when everybody else in the bakery business is thinking, okay, I need to do this, this, and this, and everybody in bakery business is doing the same thing, guess what? You got something that you've learned from Disney that you put into your bakery business that separates you from everybody else.

Right. And that's a really good point because I think all too often as entrepreneurs and small business owners, we think about this is what we do. This is— we don't think about. And we talked about this when it came to talking about pivoting and so on is that sometimes small business owners get into this mindset. I've been doing this for 20 years. It was successful 20 years ago. It should be successful today. And the reality is that reality's changed.

Exactly. Well, you're not going to go buy a car that's created 20 years ago even though it was brand new. You're probably not going to drive that brand new 20-year-old car. Because it's not how we do things anymore.

But now, it's a classic. So, this is really super. Like, this is really great information. I think anybody watching this can really benefit from some of this insight. But what is in your impression seeing what we're seeing today with COVID-19 and the struggles that some business owners are having? What are some of the steps do you think that they need to do today? Like, as soon as they Not right this second because they're watching this video, but as soon as they're finished watching this video, what could they do?

I think depending on the business that they're in, and the thing is, I think you should be able to create this for any business that you're in, is to get that engagement with people online. That's the very first thing. Start doing video podcasts or doing a podcast or just posting images online that represents what you want people to think about. That's— it's free and it's easy to do. The thing is, the only thing stopping you from doing it is yourself. It's that mind saying, oh, I'm too afraid to be in front of a camera. I'm too afraid to record my voice and put it up onto a podcast. But the thing is, those are all things that you can start talking about, giving you a reason to talk about something online that's of value and that And then you can start building up that fan base, building up those leads so that, and building up that relationship so that once you do have something that you want to offer, then people might go, hey, I want to try this out. The relationship is built. They've been adding so much value every single day. Whatever they're offering must be of great value because now I'm actually paying for it. Right.

And it's interesting, this idea of perfectionism. One of the most compelling things I did was actually with Anna. Anna and I were working together and Anna is a chef. And she was making pasta for the first time. Fresh homemade pasta. And I decided at that point that I would take out my cell phone and I recorded her making her pasta. And she was so excited by the process of never having to do it and watching it as she was pulling out, twisting out the pasta machine and pulling out the pasta. I just thought it was so compelling. And it was amazing the amount of hits she got on that video. That wasn't perfectly filmed. It wasn't framed right. The sound was horrible. But it was just all of a sudden, people could see the passion of the person doing this.

Right.

And so, it's not about perfection. It's not about, oh, we need to get lights. No, you have a cell phone. You carry a camera around in your pocket. Shoot something that you're passionate about. Shoot something that is authentically you and have fun with it. You know, don't take yourself so darn seriously.

So there's no such thing as perfect. No, because no, once you want perfect, you're going to delay your— you're going to delay your launch, you can delay your decisions, and then eventually you lose the time and you completely forget about it. Absolutely. Can I share something very quick? Sure. So for instance, perfectionism. Who— if lots of people are saying, wow, Joe Rogan is a great podcaster. Look at how many hits he got. 9.4 million subscribers on YouTube right now. And he got— he signed that big contract with Spotify. And then people was like, well, but look how crisp and pristine it is. Well, go back to his YouTube channel before it shuts down, because I think they're taking it off in September, and look at the very first video. It's nowhere close to being perfect. It's just the fact that he put it up there and he started growing it. Once you start growing it, once you start putting it up there, Then you're going to start making small modifications and changes. You might start adding music, you start adding backgrounds. You have to start sometime. You might as well start now and start building it.

Absolutely. And it's just like this channel. Anybody who saw my first episodes where I couldn't get the technology to work and I stood in front of my green screen and I did my presentation, and all the ones who sat through all the times that I had the technical glitches and it was so embarrassing and it was so But you know what? At the end of the day, every time you do something new, you learn something. And I think it's foolhardy when our kids are learning to ride bicycles for the first time, we tell them, or skateboarding, we tell them, you're never going to be perfect the first time you do it. Right? But then, as adults, it's like, oh my God, if I fail, it's going to be the end of the world. So, I think it's so funny. So, Phong, we're coming up to the end of our time. Could you remind our listeners one more time how they can get in touch with you?

Well, you can come to my website. That's www.phongchua.com. There's my podcast, The Peak Potential Success Show. You can find that on Spotify or Apple. And there's also my YouTube channel. You can find it as Your Area TV. So, those are the best ways to find me. And then, you can always email me at phong.chua@ Awesome!

And then, you told me that you have a rather special offer for anybody watching this broadcast.

Yeah. So, anybody who's watching this podcast and is a fan and friend of Marc here, just email me. Put in on the subject line Marc Haine interview and just let me know which of the items that you would like. I have a couple of books that I can give away as a free giveaway as a thank you for everybody watching here. You can have a free 30-minute session with me. Then I also have a book writing course that you're working one-on-one with me. Within 3 to 4 months, you can actually be a published author after those 3 months. I'm offering that for 50% of what I usually charge.

Bong, thank you so much. You're saying 50% off. I have it up on the screen. It's at $2,975. You're saying basically $1,500. They get all that's listed right there.

Yeah.

That's awesome. That's very generous. And of course, the free book is extremely generous as well. Thank you, Phong. Thank you so much for your time today. Hey, no problem.

I love this. It was actually a lot of fun.

Well, it's been a lot of fun having you as well. I mean, I think we covered a lot of diversity and it's almost like I'm having you sitting right here and we're sitting down having a cup of tea and just shooting the stuff and just brainstorming stuff. So, I really appreciate— yeah, there you go. I really appreciate you taking time.

Thank you very much for having me.

So, that's all the time we have for today. I hope that you got a lot of information from this. Of course, my purpose is I want to be able to provide you information and strategies and stuff that you can use today in your business. Like you can actually turn around and change your thinking and start thinking about different ways that you can apply this knowledge. And as always, I offer you as well 30 minutes free of my time with the proviso that we set up a time to meet with you and your team. I'm a big fan of brainstorming. And so, if you have an angst, if you have a challenge, if you have a problem that you want to challenge, I encourage you to click the link below in my schedule. That's the meetme.so link down below and schedule some time. Schedule a half hour. Well, and I promise you. I promise you. I know what it's like to be sold to. I will not sell anything. It'll be entirely up to you. The 30 minutes is your time. Okay? And I'd love to know what you think of today's episodes. Please, please, please drop a comment in the box below. Let us know how is this for you. Is this something you can use? Is this information that you find valuable? And please go ahead and hit the share button. I am a I'm a true believer that information is power. But it's only powerful if we are sharing it and making other people better. So, if you haven't done so yet, please hit the subscribe button and ring the bell. I would really appreciate your support in building this channel. As Phong was saying, it takes time to do this. And every time that we do this, we learn something new. And of course, if you have any ideas, any questions about your small business, Or being an entrepreneur that you would like me to address on this show, please drop it in the comment box below as well. I think it's really important. Again, I'm here because this is to be of service to you. My name is Marc Haine and I'll see you next week when we will be sitting down with reinvention specialist Daniel Silverman. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and dare To be the exception.