Cheri Farmer: The Brand Experience | The Business Blast Podcast #211

Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.

Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Cheri Farmer with us. She's a consultant at Grace Bay Group where she helps companies fulfill their brand promise. So welcome to the show, Cheri.

Thank you very much, Tyler.

Of course, thanks for joining us. We'll dive right in. The first question that I have for you is What's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

I really don't know if I have a best story. I've been really blessed and very fortunate, and I've learned a lot from successes and probably a lot more from misses. But I will share that when I was in school and early in my career and in my life, I was really career-focused. I worked really hard trying to be good at my craft. I was very serious about it and very dedicated, but I wouldn't say that I was in the moment. I had a tendency to look ahead, always trying to do it right, so to speak. I bypassed a lot of the silly, stupid things that you do when you are young, but the experiences that really make you eventually become who you are. Later on, I had friends that had taken a much more carefree approach to life than I had. And they had just been better at living their life than I had. And I saw that they had not imploded or wrecked their futures. And so over time, I think true success came for me whenever I learned to relax and embrace both the serious side of career and the more, dare I say, carefree part of my life. And I think when I stopped being so uptight, personally, I actually became better at business.

I love that. Thank you for sharing that, Jeri. And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

I would say, I would just remind people that we are in a market environment that is riddled with clutter and confusion. And I would advise companies and organizations to give serious attention to creating and aligning their brand with the experience that they want their customers to have. Let me tell you what I mean. Customers have a lot of choices, and don't ever cajole yourself into thinking that it's any different than that. And so for a company to be ongoingly relevant, they should take time to really deeply understand what their customer wants from that category of business. And then take that information and then really clearly, clearly define their positioning statement, making it really clear just at a glance, probably to the point where you feel like you're dumbing it down, and that's probably when you're just starting to get close to what a positioning statement really needs to be, and then design your marketing materials around that and train your team to speak easily to what the customer wants or desires. Be absolutely sure that when that customer interacts with your company, that their experience matches your brand promise and that the experience is exceptional.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?

Oh, I would say that again, competition is really fierce right now, so get your best team into place and do it as soon as possible. People are the foundation of a company, and if you've got the wrong people, Or if you have people in the wrong positions, then your foundation is shaky. And if you want to stay relevant to your customer, it's a mistake to only invest in the development of your top leadership. And I see this over and over, and I get it because you want to make sure that the people that you're committing to are really worth the investment. But remember that the foundation starts really close to the ground. And your ground forces are the ones that interact with your customer. But oftentimes customers, the companies think that they'll just, I think, almost organically get good at the customer level. Maybe it's because this is where people that are interacting with customers, it's often an entry-level position, but it doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it. I just, I think that's something really, really important. Get your best team into place as soon as possible.

And if you could give— and you've kind of touched on this, but I'm sure there's, there's other things you could say. So if you, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Well, like you say, I think I would say relax, relax, and don't worry so much. Enjoy the journey. I think I would also tell myself that there are going to be very few decisions that are going to be life or career defining, that What's really more likely is that it's elements over time that affect your life, or not moments in time. They're situations that kind of evolve.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

I'm a Christian, so I say that the key to joyfulness and real peace is a spiritual balance. I think that happiness is more like a labor. And happiness changes from day to day. And there are simply some times that are better than others and sometimes that stink. But real joy is ongoing. And if you have that, then it's present regardless of whether you're happy or not happy at the moment.

And what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Well, right now I am all about StoryBrand by Donald Miller. I'm Jennifer Miller. For years I've helped companies with their marketing and their positioning. However, it's really hard to see yourself and your own business objectively. StoryBrand provided me with a kind of like a guided tour toward defining, defining my business in a way that my customer could see and understand that what I do makes their lives or their companies better. And in turn, I think that experience made me a lot better at doing this for my clients.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Well, as I mentioned, faith is really important to me. And I think that the Bible provides a lot of, a lot of good business and career advice. And one verse that I gravitate to is Jeremiah 29:11. And it says, for I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. And so for me, that's a reminder that I'm not just floating around in this world by myself and that my path is a deliberate one. And, and especially when I, when I can't see it clearly.

Yes. Thank you so much for coming on, Sherri. There was a lot of value in this episode. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Well, you can go to my website. It's gracebaygroupllc.com. And then you can always find me on LinkedIn under Sherry, with a C, Sherry Spetz Farmer.

Perfect. Thank you again for coming on.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.