The Brand Navigator

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Welcome to the Legacy Leavers series on Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV. The series showcases experts, changemakers, and disruptors leaving a lasting legacy with those sharing their wisdom and stories. Join us next week for our interview with

Good morning, good evening, and welcome to the Success Secrets Exposed show. Today on our Legacy Leavers series, we're going to be talking with the Brand Navigator, Lauren Clement. Lauren is an international award-winning personal brand specialist and the managing director of the Audacious Agency. Hi, I'm Lauren Clement. She has over 30 years of experience in brand management. She's also a 5-time bestselling author, and she's known as the Brand Navigator. And she helps entrepreneurs and leaders build outstanding profiles to become well-known, well-paid, and in demand. And she empowers changemakers to leverage their expertise and gain recognition through personal branding and awards. So please help me welcome to the show Lauren.

Thank you so much, Sally. It's so awesome to be here.

Thank you. I'm super excited to be sharing your wisdom with our audience and the expertise that you bring to winning awards and really standing out as that go-to person. So thank you very much for joining us today. Can I ask you, and we'll kick off with, you know, A little bit about the backstory. How did you get to become known as the Brand Navigator?

That's a really great question, Sally. So I grew up in New Zealand, hence the weird accent that people can hear. And I lived in the bush in New Zealand. My dad ran a YMCA camp. And so we were out in the middle of nowhere. And every week of the school holidays, 300 and something children would arrive on buses and they'd land in our beautiful part of paradise. and enjoy a week of camp, and then they'd go home again, and another busload of kids would arrive the next weekend. So we went from having really hectic, crazy times when camps were on, and I hardly got to see my mum and dad because they were working and running the camp, to weeks where we were just us, this little family of 5 in a log cabin at the camp with the bush right there on our doorstep. And we spent a lot of time chasing pigs and swimming in the creek and building huts and all sorts of things in the bush. And I learnt to be a Girl Guide when I was there, which I think in the States are Girl Scouts. So we did jamborees, we did camping, we did cookouts, but we also did a lot of orienteering. And that's the whole thing with the map and compass, which I loved that part, right? I love the map and compass part where you sort of align everything together and you know where you're going and you go to the next point and you navigate your way around this course. I hated the running part, Sally. Never into running at all. But I love the map and compass bit. And I guess My backstory is that if you— I don't like doing difficult things, right? I just, I don't do difficult at all. And so I want to make it really easy for people to understand the difference between branding and positioning yourself as the go-to leader and expert in your space and marketing and promoting yourself. Mm-hmm. And the difference really is that map and compass. So your compass is your brand. That's your personal brand. That's what you want to be known for. It's the recognition that you want from awards. It's deciding what's your unique profile position in the world. That's your compass and that keeps you on true north. And it's really important to have that because if you don't, you get very easily distracted. Bright shiny objects guide us, you know, it's always, I should be doing this or I should be doing that. So yeah, it keeps you on track and your marketing and your promotion and knowing where your audience is and which channels to reach them and what time of day is best and so on. That's your MAP, your marketing action plan. And on their own, none of them work, right? So if you're lost in the bush and somebody says, oh, go southeast, it's like, well, where, where do I go? It just doesn't help you, does it? So a compass is useless on its own. And a map is also useless if you're lost. You just don't know where you are on the map. So where would you start? But if you put the two of them together, if you put your brand and your marketing together and you align them, it's very easy to figure out where to put your attention, where to invest your time and your effort and your budget to make sure you're making progress and getting out there and getting seen and noticed. So the Brand Navigator came out of my background living in the bush.

Yeah, fantastic. And such a great analogy. And it's so true. And what I loved out of that was the bit, you know, they don't work unless they work together. And we don't realize that when we get into our own business and we go down the marketing avenue and we go down all of these different avenues, We don't realize how the interplay needs to be between all of them. Otherwise, you are almost rudderless or compassless. So that was, yeah, great, great, great way of explaining it. So as it's the Legacy Leavers series that we're talking about, what's your ideal legacy that you're wanting to leave the world with?

Oh, look, that's a great question. And it's a difficult question because everybody's legacy is different, isn't

it?

And

I

think your legacy also changes as you age because when you're younger, it's about, you know, the mark you want to make on the earth and the career that you have and so on. And then when you become a parent, it's about your children and the legacy you have for them. And then as you're older, and it's funny, I'm just going through a time in life now where my father's at final stages of dementia and we're, you know, really struggling with that. And thankfully my beautiful sisters are caring for him in New Zealand so well. But you talk about the legacy, and if I think about it, when you leave this mortal coil, when we all eventually shuffle off, regardless of what you believe in, Yes. there's a memory of you. There's an imprint and an impact that you made. on the lives of others. So I guess legacy to me is what do you want to be remembered for? But more importantly, how do you want to make people feel? And not waiting until it's too late, doing it now and figuring that out as a leader or a changemaker or a speaker or an author. You know, what is the feeling, the emotion that you want people to have when they remember you? You know, what are the joyful moments or the sad moments or the engaging moments? How do you want your brand, your personal brand, to weave its way into their lives? In such a way that they not only remember you, but they remember you with an emotion. Because we know that emotion really ties to the brain and the memory and everything else.

Yeah, very much so. And yeah, that's just given me goosebumps listening to it because I know the difference between with what we do, the emotive content versus content that falls flat. It needs to have that emotional engagement, but you've taken it to that next step of, you know, yes, we've got the emotional engagement, but that feeling that you're leaving people with, that inspiration, that, you know, possibility of transformation and all that for themselves, but there's also the emotional connection that they've had with you as well. So you talked about finding the true north, and how can individuals combine that true north and these emotional elements of their personal brand and bring that to fruition online?

Yeah, I love it, Sally. So this is very much my passion, which is neurobranding. So I was very fortunate. I got to work in world-leading advertising agencies before the internet. So that shows you how old I am. But I got to work at Saatchi's and Ogilvy's and these amazing creative, you know, world-leading agencies when they were top of their field. And in that world, I got to learn a lot about how a brand can create an emotion, but it can embed itself into our psyche and into our memory and create that long-lasting loyalty that you're after. Because it's it's harder and harder to win over a customer, especially online, right? So you've got to make all these points of contact, you've got to create engaging content, you've got to surround your audience, you've got to do all these things to try and get someone into your world and then convert them into being a client to give you the money to earn the services or the products that you're selling. Yeah. So to do that, it's quite a bit of effort, right? The last thing you want to do is then lose them out the back door because they bought that thing from you, that was lovely, thank you very much, and they're off. So you need to create that lasting legacy with your brand so that you are constantly engaging and retaining those clients and then having them talk to other people. One of the best forms of marketing is word of mouth, and it's, it's perfect for 3 reasons. Number one, it's free, and all the advertising agencies I worked for hated it because they couldn't charge for it, right? They created these amazing brands and created brand awareness and couldn't charge for that. that free marketing that was created through word of mouth. Secondly, it's a third-party endorsement. It's somebody else saying how awesome Sally is or how great Bill is or how fabulous John was, you know, at what they did and what the great results were that I got from working with them. So it's that other person giving you that testimonial. And the third reason why word of mouth marketing is so good is that it's a ripple effect. So it's somebody who knows someone who knows someone who used to use that person and now they're a great mechanic or they're an awesome hairdresser or whatever it is that you do. Yeah. And you've earned that by referrals. And my hairdresser, everyone comments on how fabulous my hair is, and it's wonderful, thank you very much. But my hairdresser does not advertise. She's got a little studio at the bottom of her house and she just works off referrals, and she is constantly busy because she only takes people who've been referred to her. And you can't just cold call and walk up to her door. So it is about that whole idea, Sally, of positioning yourself and knowing what it is that you want to be known and liked and trusted for and making that decision. And it's very difficult when you've got an entrepreneur and we've got entrepreneurial brains, right? Entrepreneurial brains are different, right? We've overcome that fear center in our brains that keeps people tied to a safe, steady corporate job, right? Yes. It's called the amygdala in our brain, our fear center. And we're basically, we've got superhuman brains. We've overpowered that fear center and said, no, I'm gonna go out on my own. I'm gonna be a leader. I'm gonna be an author. I'm gonna be a thought leader. This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be an entrepreneur. So you've overpowered that fear center. You're a superhuman, which is awesome. Yeah. The trouble is with superhumans, you also get the kryptonite, and the kryptonite is that bright shiny objectitis, right? That, oh my goodness, I can do all this stuff. We're very adaptable. We're very agile. We make these spur-of-the-moment decisions. So I guess it comes back to that true north. That does it fit with my brand? Is this where I want to be going? Is this getting closer to my goal or is this just a distraction? So, and when it comes to awards, it's the same thing. What do I want to be known for? Is it for my innovation? Is it for my Entrepreneur of the Year or Mum of the Year or Solo Business Person or Maverick or, you know, what you— Wow, yes. Yeah, choose that. Put a line in the sand, choose your true north, and then absolutely nail down and go for it. And it's not easy to do, Sally. A lot of people go, oh, FOMO. If I choose that one thing, I'm going to miss out on all this stuff.

The others, yeah.

But it's interesting, isn't it? When you do that, when you make that decision, this is what I want to be known as, this is what I want to be known for, you shut all these doors, these opportunities, and massive doors open and huge opportunities and partnerships and affiliations. And all of a sudden you're in a whole realm where everything is easy. And it's just in flow. So yeah, absolutely. It's finding that true north.

Yeah, I love that because with that true north and the example of the shutting of the doors, because as you were talking about shutting the doors, I sort of had my own reflection of, yes, when you shut the doors, things speed up. But speed's one of my things. But it's actually not just this. It's not actually speed. It's actually the everything magnifies because you've shut the doors and you've just got this magnification of you standing in your place, in your spot, in the spot that you want to be known for. And it's that people are knocking on your doors. And as you said, it's those big doors are opening for bigger opportunities. Um, and when you have that, uh, that stance of, of that true north, it's very easy for them, for partners to recognize you. And, you know, everybody, every entrepreneur wants joint venture partners and partnerships, but they're not— they're too all over the place. And I remember this my own experience, you've got all these things happening. So you have the conversation, but nothing lands because you don't have that pillar piece that cements it all together and then amplifies it. Yeah. Wow.

There's nothing worse than getting a business card from somebody that's got one business on one side and you turn it over, it's got a different business on the other. And it's like they're hedging their bets and, you know, just, it erodes trust so fast. I know when I do keynote speaking at conferences, I've actually got a business card that came through my letterbox from a Cheap Man in Ute, which is like a guy with a pickup truck. And it's got all the things he does from like, he does Elvis tribute, he does lawn mowing, he'll take your pets, pet sitting, he'll take your kids to the dentist, he'll do lawn mowing. It's just this whole long list of all the stuff that he does with his telephone number and the fact that he's open 24 hours, 7 days a week, right? It's an actual business card that I received. You know, it's just, he's always going to be cheap and he's always going to be at the beck and call of anybody. Whereas if he just chose, I don't know, what if he chose to mow lawns dressed as Elvis? I don't know, he would get in the media for that, right? He'd get interviewed, people would know about him, he could grow his business, he could have Marilyn Monroe doing your house cleaning for you and James Dean doing your cars for you. Do you know what I mean? He could do all sorts of stuff to be known, but instead it's like, I just want to help everyone. There's a saying in New Zealand, um, you can't help every Mary in the dairy. Oh, I like that. That's that you can't. It's just exhausting and it comes from people pleasing and all that sort of stuff. But I guess that's the power of neurobranding is inside our brains we have a way of remembering things. And there's, you know how if you ever wanted a particular make or model of car and you went, right, I want a BMW or I want to whatever it was, I want a Mazda 3 or whatever. All of a sudden you would see lots of those around the place, right? Yes. So there's a process in our brains because our brains can't deal with all this content that's coming at us left, right, and center. We filter stuff out. The minute you tell your brain, this is what I'm interested in, it'll tell you, oh, look, there it is over there. There's the ad for it. Yeah. That's what happens, right? And it's the same as what we were just talking about when you've got that pillar, when you've decided this is what I want to be known for. All of a sudden, oh, there's podcasts that want authors. Oh, there's people who want authors to come and speak. Oh, there's someone who wants authors to run coaching sessions and workshops. There's all this stuff out there I didn't even know existed. But it's because you've basically told your brain, I'm interested in that, that's where I want to position myself. And now those opportunities and all those doors open for you.

Yeah, reflecting back and I'm having a giggle. When I started, I'm gonna say 20 years, we won't go any further than that, and I was the thing for everybody. I remember people, and I used to get, I did used to get referred a lot, but I'll tell you what the referral message was. And as a result, there wasn't a lot of uptake because of. And that was, Sally's really— sorry, as a referral, it would be, Sally's really great. I don't know what she does, but she's a really great person. So that's nice for coffee and kisses, but it's not nice when they can't explain you. And the reason they couldn't explain me is because I couldn't explain me either at the time. But when they go to try and help you, because people do love to help you, people love being that word-of-mouth service for you. If they like you as a human being, they want to be able to talk about you. But when they don't know what to talk about you because there's no North Star, yeah, they'll still try to do something to help, but it's not helpful because we haven't helped the helper because we don't have that, that piece.

I love that, Sally. Do you want coffee and kisses, or do you want to earn an income from doing what you love? I mean, hello, there's no-brainer, isn't it? The same thing happened to me once, Sally, when someone once introduced me to speak at an event. It was very early on in my speaking days in Australia. And stupidly, I hadn't really given her a bio. And now everyone gets a bio. And she basically said along the lines of Lauren's an entrepreneur. And the word she used was she's dabbled. Lauren's dabbled. And I never dabble. Dabbling is not my thing. I'm 110% focused on doing what I'm doing and doing it really well. So when I heard that, I went, right, I have to change. I'm never again going to go to a situation and not go, here's, here's what I want you to say about me. So that's a good point, Sally, is when you do decide this is what I want to be known as, this is my thing, this is my identifier as a personal brand, then it's really easy for people to refer to you. And it's really easy for you to say, hey, here's what I do. Yeah. Here's what I'm an expert in. Here's my specialist niche. This is what I love doing. Therefore, do you have people who need that? Because I'm the right person for that job. And yeah, those referrals, that word-of-mouth marketing is like, it's like steroids. It's just amazing. And if you can build that as, um, I call it an avalanche of influence. So really what we are as experts is we are here to help people climb a mountain, right? And we want to target the people who are already on our mountain. So we're not dragging them up and we're not chasing all over the countryside after people. It's just the people who already want what we have. Right. And all we're doing is giving them a hand up to say, yep, I can help you do that. And the way to do that is by just, as you say, choosing what your mountain is and going, this is what I'm here for. And then at the very top of your mountain are the people I call the KOLs, the key opinion leaders, the influencers out there in your market and in your industry. You probably only need maybe 6, maybe 10 really awesome people, and they're not in your industry. Or they're in your industry and they don't do what you do and they have your clients. So you're somewhere in the food chain. So maybe you mow lawns dressed as Elvis. So you'd be talking to the local real estate agent, you'd be talking to the guy who cleans the pools or paints the houses or washes the dogs. So you would be talking to those people to say, hey, I do this, I don't do what you do. I know people who need what you have. You have people who need what I have. Let's do some referrals together.

Yeah.

So it's just building that avalanche of influence with a few key people. If you're an author and you want to get on stages speaking, it might be that you talk to someone who's a publisher. You might talk to someone who does radio shows. You might talk to someone who does marketing or SEO to go, hey, here's what you need as part of what you do. Here's what I do. Let's do something together. It's a really awesome way. You only need to identify, like I say, maybe half a dozen people and build those relationships.

And that's where the magic and the The amplification absolutely totally occurs.

Yeah, for sure.

So let's talk about awards, something that is incredibly amplifying as it relates to building credibility. I know some people are frightened of putting themselves out there to win awards. So let's talk about awards in general. What can it do for a brand and what do the regular people in the audience listening to us that are going, oh my God, awards, what do we need to overcome to be able to nail this opportunity?

Absolutely. So I'll take you back to when I was working with Saatchi and Saatchis in Wellington before the internet. They had a little room called a creative lounge, and it was where all the creatives could go and have a cup of coffee, and they'd meet with the account managers and get a brief. And I'd often, as a production manager, be there making sure everything was right and getting the budgets right. and so on. And it was a tiny little room and it had this beautiful kidney-shaped old-fashioned coffee table, you know, like from the '70s. And it was inlaid with paua, these beautiful abalone shells. It was just gorgeous, this beautiful table. And on the, um, there were these big lounge chairs and then there were these big, big bins, like, like, um, is it Grover from Sesame Street lives in a trash can? Yes. Like those sort of big bins, yeah. And they were full of trophies like these ones behind me, absolutely overflowing with cans, lions, and D&D pencils and, you know, these big trophies and awards. And on the walls, they had all these certificates like what I've got, but there was no room left. They had so many awards that all the certificates were like right next to each other. And they'd installed these spikes on the wall and they were basically impaling the certificates onto the spikes because they'd run out of room to put them into frames, right? Wow. So this was the level of the awards that the agency was winning. They were right at the top of their game. Kevin Roberts was on the show and it was just a phenomenal time to be in advertising. It was great. But it gave me the impression that awards were just a bit of an ego trip, right? They were just this thing that was like, what's going on? This is just a big wig. No one really takes this seriously. It's just, you know, it's too much show. So I had a really bad impression about awards until when I was working with the direct marketing part of that business. we won an award for effectiveness of one of the campaigns, and that really sung to me. That was, ah, okay, so this is an advertising effectiveness award. This isn't just, hey, it's a nice looking ad and it's created brand awareness and so on. This was an ad that created X number of calls that converted into X number of sales. Yes. So there was a definite chain of effect, right? And that got me thinking. And when I went for my first ever award for myself, It was a Stevie Award for women in business. I've got it here somewhere. It's a 2016 little thing in a box I've got. And to me, I thought, oh, I'll give it a try and see what happens, right? No real deal. Just let's see what happens. When it actually occurred that I won a Silver Stevie Award for my neurobranding process, which was something I had created from nothing other than my expertise and my passion for helping people, and I got the judge's feedback. that was saying, this is amazing. You're making accessible stuff that would normally, you know, they'd have to go to a big agency for. You've got amazing results. People are doing incredible thanks to your guidance and your mentoring and your coaching. And I was like, oh, I did that. It was awesome and goosebumps and there was swelling of pride and it gave me the confidence to say, you know what, I've got something here. And that was like 10 years, what was that, 2016 that that happened? So yeah. So a long time ago. So I then built my agency and then I got into awards with the Audacious Agency and we started to just get addicted to awards because what we've seen with them is not just the fact that it can give your business or your coaching or your book or whatever you're creating that level of credibility and visibility, but also from a tangible point of view, we've seen people increase their prices, they've increased their turnovers, they've got speaking gigs, they're being invited to business deals that they never would have been able to have access to before. Peers in their industry are starting to recognize them. One woman that we worked with had a mission to help 1 million and 1 people. She's now upped that. That's now 1 billion and 1 people. Wow. So the whole confidence level and the impact and the personal development that we see, the personal growth. Awards are very tangible, Sally. They're not like some airy-fairy SEO and digital stuff that's happening. They're very tangible. You can physically put your hands on your trophy and give an acceptance speech. And we've seen people literally grow on stage as they give these acceptance speeches and their self-confidence. And now they're confident to be out there on Instagram and on live video and speaking and talking about their business and really promoting what they do. So, so awards have really changed my life in terms of my attitude towards reflecting on what you've done and stepping up for that recognition, but also in the ability to grow self-confidence and grow personal brands. And I do know that there's definitely a difference between how we treat them here in Australia and how awards are treated in the US. And it's a different mindset. We have imposter syndrome here in Australia and New Zealand. I believe in Europe a little bit as well. It comes from that class, you know, don't get out, don't step outside your class and all that sort of stuff. It comes from that system, I think. But when I last visited New York for the International Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards, we arrived on a weekend. It was the Sunday of the New York Marathon.

Mm-hmm.

And we had to train into the city because all the roads were busy and all the rest of it. And when we got into the city, we dumped our bags in the hotel and off we went to get something to eat. And everyone was wearing these medals around their necks in the streets. And this is November, so they've got jackets and things on, so it's on the outside of their jackets. Now, this is in the afternoon and evening after the marathon. People still had these on. 3 days later, people were still walking through the streets of New York with their medals around their necks.

That's so cool.

Now, in Australia, when people run a marathon— and I've seen it, my husband's run marathons, I've seen him do it— He gets up the marathon, gets through, he's all sweaty and nice, gets the medal around his neck, gets a photograph, takes it off, puts it in his pocket, and no one sees it again. So there's this definite difference between, you know, building up success and celebrating success and saying, I'm a winner, and being very proud of that and displaying it openly in the States versus where we are in Australia and New Zealand and so on, where you don't talk about success as much. So I agree with you, Sally. There's definitely a mindset shift that I'd love to see take place as well.

Yeah, I've definitely seen that aspect with my clients, the difference in that— I'm going to call it the pride. And I think pride can be seen as a negative word, but I see, for me, when I'm in that US market, you can feel the pride ooze. It's It's got a— it's just different. It is actually celebratory. It is camaraderie. It is that growth that comes out of the people. Whereas here, as you said, and I've seen my son do it too when he's won an award, and I've done it myself, you know, takes it off, puts it in your pocket or hides in the corner. I know with the very first award I won, it took me ages to actually display it. And I think it was 3 months before I mentioned to anyone that I'd actually done anything with it. And then you sort of mention it to the right person. And then there was, for me, it was a, I mentioned it and then there was a ripple effect and it was like, oh, we can call you that. And I was introduced as an award-winning and it was like, oh my God. And I had that cringe element and then grew through that as we all do. And then just started to really see how from a credibility and positioning piece and just setting you apart in a crowded marketplace, what that did when one person, which wasn't me, said she's an award-winning X.

Yeah.

And how that just transfers into that growing that trust. So yeah, I'd love to hear some more stories around, you know, the overcoming of that, that we— that you've seen here in Australia, because I think we're missing an opportunity for other people to actually celebrate our success So we need to grow into that. I feel that for myself. And with the celebration of others is where this, obviously, this magic happens.

Yeah, absolutely. And it is funny, we talk about leveraging awards. It's not just entering awards because there's no guarantee. We don't go with awards to help people that are pay and win. Do you know what I mean? We go with very authentic awards that have a judging process and so on. So there's no guarantee to get a win. We've got a 97% success rate at getting people through to finalist status. Which is awesome. Never guarantee a win, but we always guarantee that regardless of the outcome, you can leverage this journey. And it's, as you say, Sally, it's that growth journey. It's what you've learned. Not very often do we sit in our businesses and reflect on what we've achieved. Quite often it's about what's next and what's in the future. Mentoring Awards gives you that amazing ability to just collate everything from the past couple of years and go, well, why am I here? You know, what is my How have the team grown? What's the results we've got for our clients? You know, what's some of the impacts that we've had? And to reflect on that. And then when you're entering those awards, a lot of people go, submit, there's my thing, it's in, and they go, right, I'm not going to think about that until they're announced. I'm not even going to hope. We actually are starting now with our clients to start promoting the fact that they've even been submitted into awards. So as soon as it's in, we give them graphics and so on with the award details because it's as you say, it's branding by association. You know, the minute you've got an award logo or something on your footer or on your social media, regardless of whether you've won or not, it's still that branding by association. People go, oh, you've got— you're involved with awards. And I'll tell you another funny story. I met Matt Alderton the other day. I was speaking at a conference with him, and he started the BX Networking here in Australia, and he's now got the BX Awards. And he said before BX, he used to have a Subway franchise. And he was at a conference for Subway and they had an awards evening and everything else. And he got his photograph taken sitting at one of the tables at the conference and he just grabbed the centerpiece off the table. So it's like a candle and whatever stuff. He said, grabbed it and was posing with the candle and I'm so pleased to be here at the awards. He was having a bit of fun. That was posted to social media and within seconds he had people congratulating him on his win. And it's just the centerpiece from the table, you know. So that's the thing, it's the idea that you are surrounding yourself with successful people. The logo, the award. I always suggest, again, a neurobranding tip here, use those laurel leaves. You know those beautiful laurel leaves that you see a lot on logos? Yeah. They translate into any language in terms of success. There was a beautiful billboard that I saw when I arrived in Guangzhou in China once. I don't speak Chinese, it was total Chinese, but it had these little laurel leaves on there. Oh, that's an award-winning company. I don't speak the language, but I know that they've won awards. So, so yeah, absolutely. There's so many different ways of leveraging. It's like appearing in Forbes or on the ABC, you know, and you can use that logo. It's like that credibility that you're worthy of being on a media channel. Same with awards. You've won these awards, you're top of your game, you're top of your industry, and even if you're not top, it's fine. I mean, you've watched Oscar-nominated movies. Yeah, we've all bought a bronze-winning bottle of wine, you know, so you don't have to win, you just have to associate yourself with winning.

Yes, and creating that top of mind and that celebratory leveraging and networking that happens when people get behind you and start to tell the story from there. I think you've also just touched on a word there that I've written and put 2 big circles around, so that's sort of something significant when I've got it in my notes, is that ability to reflect. And I think again the US market do this very, very well, and we in the Australian market, and I'm totally guilty of this myself, what's next, what's next, what's next, and you forget to celebrate and recognize and review all of the little small steps that have accumulated to where you are. So I think the awards process, yes, helps you reflect that. But what I'm hearing too is that those stories behind the stories, you know, that, you know, I was up and it was agonising to write the awards, or I finally got this work, got it written, and you come up with this one-liner where you wondered where it actually came from because you've never actually said that before, but it it's gold. All that stories is juicy, juicy emotional content that your audience will absolutely gravitate to because you're sharing a little piece of you. They've got, you know, you've got that opportunity to, providing you're willing to share it of course, you've got that opportunity to share more of that backstory of the journey that you've actually been on, not just the thing that you're doing.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And it is about sharing the journey as well, talking about where you've come from, talking about your team, your own personal growth, the growth of your clients. I mean, that's the nicest thing about sharing your awards journey with people. You are exposing yourself to the world a little bit, and I think that's where the fear comes from, that you might go, well, you know, you're just upping yourself and so on. But I think the importance, as you say, Sally, is of reflecting on this is where we started and this is where we are now. Look, it hasn't been easy. It's been— no one expects business to be like that. You know, it's not all unicorns and rainbows. At least for the judges. You know, but, and this is another tip as well, is when you're writing your award entries, include the challenges. It's not just I did this and I did this and I did this. The judges want to know how resilient you? How did you adapt? How did you change? What impact did you make by changing that in your business? You know, and it might not be that you've got fabulous financials, and not every award needs those, but they do need some metrics. They do need to know, look, this is what happened in our business, and we had to regroup, we restructured, and this is what we're doing going forwards. You know, there's— don't let failure hold you back from entering awards. It's more important that you choose The right award and the best category, and then you tell your story and you back it up with some really meaningful metrics. That means the judges go, you know what, these guys are worthy. They're worthy of putting through.

Yeah. And I thank you for sharing that because that's just given me a lightbulb moment. I hope that's given the audience a lightbulb moment that it's actually, it's the journey that is of interest to the judges. It comes back to that north, the North Star. So let's unpack some of that. We've talked sort of about FOMO, we've talked about the bright shiny objects, and we've also talked about the compass and that, you know, North Star. So let's bring all of that together as it relates to finding the place for somebody to start, even if they're not yet as successful as they think they need to be. Let's give them some steps. I

love that because so often I find people contact us and go, oh, I really like the idea of entering awards, but I don't think I've done enough. And some of the stories— tell me a bit about what you've done. I remember one woman told me, oh, you know, we were very poor when we were growing up, and, you know, I knew I needed to get my family out of poverty. I loved maths at school. I thought I'll go and be an accountant, but then I learned you have to go to university for that. We didn't have the money for me to go to university, so I decided to get a job McDonald's, and she never left McDonald's. She now owns 9 of them. Yeah. Oh, goosebumps. She hasn't done enough, right? And it's like, what are you talking about? That's an amazing story. So, you know, the thing is, there are awards for everything. When you start looking into awards, and we've got a list of about 270 different awards that we work with, there are categories for startup, there are categories for microbusiness, for solopreneur, for mum in business. Um, the lovely Kimberly Sumner came with us to New York that first year, I think it was 2017, and she won a Gold Stevie Award. So they're like the Oscars of business for a concept. Oh no, really? She hadn't launched the business, she just created the concept, and it was around closing the gender pay gap for women in corporate. And it was an amazing concept, she had everything plotted out, She had all the data and the facts around the impact it would make and so on, and she won a gold award for it. So, so yeah, don't think it's too early. If you've got an amazing innovation or you've made an impact or you've created something in your mind that you know is going to create an impact, you're a social changemaker, you're a force for good, whatever it is, there's awesome categories out there for you. There's categories for coaches, there's categories for finance, there's categories for every industry, there's categories for speakers, there's categories for authors. There's just, you can go and find, and the easiest way to do it is just to type into Google awards and then your industry or what it is you want to be known for or whatever. But yeah, it is about deciding right from the start, Sally, what award is going to make the most sense to you as who you are and the brand that you're building. But then also which category or which award is also going to make the most sense for your audience. So for me, winning Entrepreneur of the Year was a big one for me because that just means other entrepreneurs go, well, if you've won Entrepreneur of the Year, I want to learn from you. Speaker of the Year Award was a big one for me. I've done lots of bodybuilding awards because that was something I'm really interested in. So do you know what I mean? It's just find the thing that you really want to be known for that makes the most sense to your audience and you know you can leverage it and get it to leverage your profile up above your competition. And this is especially important for speakers and coaches and authors. Because if there's ever a comparison, like maybe a publisher is going, I've got all these manuscripts, which one am I going to publish? Or a committee is deciding on a keynote speaker for that conference, right? The speaker with all the awards and the books and the right marketing, they're going to get the gig every time, right? Because there's that level of trust that if I put you on my stage or I have your book and I publish that, you're actually going to have good Because you've got awards for what you do. So it is about deciding what you want to level up in and going, that's where I want to be, that's the target I've got. And you might not win, and that's okay. You can still leverage the fact that you were a finalist or a nominee or whatever in that category.

Yeah, and have all of that opportunity for reflection, because I find myself that reflection, that, and then re-looking at that that stuff, you know, gets all of the more the juices going and it creates more of opportunities or refinement, or you, you see new revenue opportunities, uh, regardless of the story behind the story that you can then share on social media as well.

Absolutely, Sally, for sure. And you'll love this as well, is what gets me a lot of the time is we write amazing award entries for our clients and we see them and the clients see them and the judges see them and no one else And when it comes to what you love doing most, you can imagine what you can do to repurpose that content and take it out of being an award submission into being blogs and articles and social media content. And it's just such good content that you already have there as well. Because as you say, how often do we take the time to sit and reflect on where our business has got to, or, you know, our progress as an author or speaker or changemaker?

Yeah, absolutely. And that, yeah, I just think of, you know, of children, our kids, when we're talking about what we've done, because how often do the kids go, I don't know what my mum does, but she does blah. But when you've got some more context around it, they actually become quite celebratory as well and they're curious and it helps them on their journey. So there's that ripple effect of different types of legacies as well. Yeah. That's a slight tangent there, but yeah, there's the opportunity, I think, when you are able to stand in your spot own your spot, win the awards and leverage it, you are actually— the ripple effects of that are so profound on so many people that you actually won't know the impact of those ripple effects. And that's the part of legacy. Yeah,

yeah. I remember one lovely Raquel Manning, she's in off-market property development and she's won multiple international awards now. And she said, what I really loved was when I got the trophy and I showed it to my dad. And my dad was so proud of me. And she's like the only daughter, and her brothers were in the industry, and she's the one who's been successful. And, you know, she's fought her way through to be where she is. But her dad was her, you know, he's her hero. So to have him really proud of her was amazing.

Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Oh, goosebumps, more goosebumps. Now, um, we've got to getting to the end of the show really fast, which is always good when you're having such a great conversation. So you've got a great resource on your website, which I'd love you to talk a little bit about and also then let people know the best way they can get in contact with you so you can assist them in getting into the awards process.

Absolutely, Sally. So yes, the award-winning workbook is available on our website. I believe there's a link here. So that's everything we talked about today. It's how to enter, win, and leverage awards. So it's not just how to enter them, but it's the whole process. There's checklists in there, there's templates, there's case studies, there's examples of support documents that you can use to give you ideas. Because another tip for you, if an award says the support document is optional, it's never optional. Definitely make sure you put a nice, beautifully created support document in with your entry. Because often with award entries, you've got limited word count. Yes. And it's really lovely to say we've done X, See support document, and there's where you put your photographs and your graphs and your images and your testimonials and all that other stuff.

That's great.

So yeah, everything in that one workbook helps you with checklists to decide which award's best for you, what you want to be known for, so that very early stuff, but also right through to how to give a great acceptance speech, how to leverage it, how to, you know, turn it into all sorts of other content and so on. So it's all in the workbook. And yes, to work with us, we normally start with people by creating a strategic plan. So we look at where do you want to be positioned in the marketplace, what's your unique profile position, and then we'll select a year's worth of awards for you and the specific categories to go for with the entry dates and entry fees and everything all mapped out. And then you can either go and do that yourself or you can ask us to implement it for you. We've got a team of writers and creators And we submit them all for you and then we help you leverage them as well. So it's the whole process. But yeah, we normally start with getting really strategic because you can waste your money and your time so quickly on stuff that doesn't work. We would rather you had a strategic approach to what you're doing so that you're leveraging every single step of your journey.

Yeah. And if we go back to the very beginning of our conversation and that you don't dabble, you're very strategic and you've got your map and you've got your compass. That's what you're providing people, which does save incredible time because if you don't have both and you're wandering around in the forest and you're going here, there, and everywhere, you are wasting an awful lot of time. So that strategic plan certainly would make such a huge difference, and then the opportunity for people to have a done-for-you solution as well. So awesome. And best place to contact you, Lauren?

theaudaciousagency.com, and you can find me online as well if you type in my name, I come up all over Google. If my personal branding wasn't out there, I'd be doing a really bad job of it, wouldn't I? So yeah, find me all over Google, LinkedIn. There's a LinkedIn newsletter we publish every week that gives people guidance and advice, a Facebook group called That's Audacious. But yeah, that's theaudaciousagency.com is probably the easiest place to go to.

Beautiful. And any final words or tips for the audience? They can be Lauren Nang because I'm very known for doing Sally Nang. So over to you for any last comments.

Yeah, the big thing around awards is just understanding that you as a leader have the most amazing natural gifts and talents that the world needs. You just need to get out there and shine. You deserve it. You deserve to be well-known, well-paid, and wanted. So don't hold back.

Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, can you just repeat that well-paid— say that same sentence again, please, just to finish off on that?

So the world needs what you have. You've got amazing gifts and talents, and you deserve to be well known, well paid, and wanted.

There you go, everyone. You've absolutely heard some fabulous tips today from Lauren. You do deserve all that is awaiting for you. If you want a game plan to execute and implement all of that, then do certainly reach out to Lauren and find all of the opportunities that are available to you in your niche and in your industry. I certainly didn't realize there was as many awards as what there are, and knowing how to navigate them and use them strategically to grow your profile is key. So thank you very, very much. Certainly learnt a lot. I think it also plays into that consistency piece too, as we wind up, because I remember you talking when we've spoken, just to finish off on, that building a brand is similar to going to the gym, which is that consistency piece. So if you want to just— flesh that out a little bit and we'll just close it off there.

Yeah, absolutely. So when you go to the gym, you pay a gym membership, but if you don't turn up and you don't actually do the reps, you're not going to see any results, right? So it's the same when you've paid a lot of money and invest a lot of time into building your brand or your business. If you don't then get out and market and promote it, no one's ever going to see it. You're not going to get the results. And the big thing is a lot of people sort of think, oh, that's up to somebody else. I'll get a social media person to do that, or I'll get get, you know, a publicity company to do that. It does come down to the business owner. You need to take control over where you want to see your business grow. And it's really important that you just take a step every day. And it could be as small as just writing a LinkedIn article or putting a post on something or commenting on someone's post or going on LinkedIn and finding someone to partner with, you know, following someone important. So just one little step a day, like going to the gym, just, or having a walk every day. One little thing to promote and market your business, sharing an insight, sharing an award win, sharing a bit of content, jumping on a show like this, you know, one little thing a day and you'll see amazing change quite quickly.

And I think too, just adding to that, that one thing a day is super easy and super simple when you have a solid North Star. When you don't have that solid North Star, it's like, well, what am I going to do? You've got too many choices, but narrowing it down is that shutting of the door, so to speak, to create that speed and that amplification. So yeah, well said. Thank you very much. So that was the last little piece on consistency. You know, that's one of my favorite words and my favorite Sally nags, and you've now heard it from Lauren, an expert in award-winning. So it is— business is all about consistency. It's all about how we show up and the winning awards and the opportunities around awards and all of the scenarios there are great ways for you to increase your visibility, credibility, and profitability, as Lauren has shared today. So thank you so, so much for sharing all of your wisdom with us. Much appreciated. And we do suggest that you jump on the link and grab that workbook if you're wanting to take advantage of winning awards, etc. Lauren, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks, Sally. It's been an absolute blast.

Likewise, thank you. Look forward to seeing you all again on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Till then, see you later. Bye.

Remember, if you want to be sought after and sold out, as well as being known as the obvious expert in your industry, you need to speak with Sally, our host of Success Secrets Exposed. Sally is the founder of Monetize Your Content, a done-for-you content marketing agency that helps you be easy to buy. See you next week on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV.