75: How to start your internal marketing with Bec Chappell
Building an online business (or any business) takes marketing…there is no shock there. So while this podcast blends the strategy and energetics in business, marketing is one of those strategies.
We don’t often cover marketing tips in this podcast, as a dedicated topic, so this week I’m bringing on a special guest, Bec Chappell to be our expert marketer.
Except, in this episode, a no B.S. take on how to stand out with authentic marketing as purpose led businesses.
Together we co-create a beautiful conversation on the importance of going inside and connecting with your WHY when working on our marketing.
Ready to do marketing you love as it starts with YOU?
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KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS
What is marketing?
How are marketing and advertising different
The danger of comparing your marketing with big brands like Coca Cola or Virgin
Why it is difficult to market a brand externally if you don’t align with it internally
The importance of your WHY for your marketing
SHOW RESOURCES
LEARN more about Bec - HERE
FOLLOW Bec on Instagram - HERE
CHECK the book recommendation mentioned in the podcast: The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer - HERE
Download the FREE guide to building business foundations and say no to burn out - HERE
BUILD the business foundations now - HERE
FOLLOW me on INSTAGRAM - HERE
FREE tools and guides to support your journey - HERE
CHECK out the blog for this episode (uploaded every Thursday) - HERE
Join the FREE FACEBOOK COMMUNITY - HERE
Find out more about how to WORK WITH ME - HERE
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift.
Bless it be.
With love, Laetitia!
ABOUT THE GUEST
Bec Chappell is an effervescent whiteboard lover, a brand gatekeeper, and a marketing strategist whose mission is to amplify brands, create clear strategies and magnify messaging without adding to the overwhelm, or underwhelm people feel about the whole marketing part of their business.
With over 14 years of experience working within a marketing department, heading up one, or forming one in a business that grew too quickly and forgot that whole brand and marketing piece, she knows a thing or two about planning and executing strategies that work.
Her why is to remove the stress and overwhelm; and demonstrate that marketing strategies don’t need to be over-complicated, over-budgeted or over fluffy, they need some humanity and consistency.
She lives in Sydney where she loves to trail run, swim, and spend time with friends and family she is always seeking out new experiences and new adventures and is a dog mum to pooch Toby.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Laetitia Andrac
Welcome on the essential shift podcast.
Bec Chappell
Hello, thank you so much for having me.
Laetitia Andrac
I'm really excited. For this conversation back so before we get started talking all about internal marketing and how we market ourselves as human being from the inside out. I would love for any listener here to know a bit more about who you are as a human being. So can you share with us about your energetic blueprint so what is your sun sign anything you know about yourself?
Bec Chappell
So I am an Aries CUSP Taurus. So I think that says a lot about me and it probably says a lot about why people call me a bullet or gate but also say that I'm very grounded and intuitive. I've been told that I'm very intuitive and I feel like that's probably the tourists coming through. But the bullet the gate is definitely obviously the area's profile bless.
Laetitia Andrac
Yeah, definitely. You have you have in us is mix of fire and earth. You know this sensuality that at the same time, he's very clear and driven. You really have those two in you and I'm so grateful that you know anyone listening to this can access this wisdom that you have within yourself. So as we get started on this episode, I would love for you to share a bit more about what is marketing, because we speak quickly about marketing on this podcast. But it's not a marketing podcast, which is your zone of genius. So can you share a bit more about what is marketing and then we'll get started and weaving the thread from there.
Bec Chappell
So I think traditionally, marketing has always been looked at as almost advertising. I think there's a real confusion around what is marketing's purpose in business. And I think most people think oh, marketing is all that advertising stuff that we I do the fluffy stuff that I how I show up and all of this like external stuff. That's just like, Okay, how do I get my brand out there? We think of marketing we think of Coca Cola and we think of the Superbowl ads, and we think of all of that stuff. And I think a lot of the time we do go to the advertising space. And that's what you know, I think that's what marketing has always been seen as rather than the branding or the business as a whole. It's just been the external fluffy stuff and you know, I used to get called fonts and colors a lot. Because people would think that it was all about oh, what font or color rather than all the other stuff that I think is important in marketing rather than just the external stuff.
Laetitia Andrac
Hmm, I love that and it is so true because you know a lot of people think of the confuse also marketing with selling, which is what you said with marketing and advertising. Like, there is a lot of confusion between, you know, each of the parts of the puzzle and in business. But indeed, marketing is more I'd say an enabler for you to share what you have to share in a way that he's structure and strategized and intuitive as well.
Bec Chappell
Yeah, that's actually the perfect way to describe it. I think he did a way better job than I did. Oh, we
Laetitia Andrac
were entering a space of co creation. What I love to say on the podcast is we're entering this space of deep listening, where we both co create together and what I love about what you said and building on it, it's the fact that a lot of people think about marketing with Coca Cola, which is a totally different budget and a totally different game than we have as impact driven small business owner. And when I say small business owner, it's like under hundreds of employees and you know, a hundr the billion marks like this is for me a small business and we do marketing differently than the Coca Cola. Yeah,
Bec Chappell
completely. And I think that's a really important point because we do and yes, you can. Coca Cola obviously has such different goals for their brand to right like they literally want world domination. So they have to you know the end that in their mind their limit their their ideal client essentially is limitless. They want someone from the minute they're born essentially is their ideal client to the minute they leave this planet. So I think, you know, when we think about brands like that, of course, it's completely unachievable for a smaller business to have that because they're not going after everyone unless they have a product similar that can literally capture someone from the moment they're born to the moment that they leave. And I think it's really important that we come back to the fact that we're not trying to get world domination, we're trying to have impacts in our circle of influence. And, you know, there's so many different ways that we can do that and be just as big as the cokes of the world in our circle of influence. And I think, you know, a lot of businesses get caught up in comparing to these big brands and, you know, they're like, Oh, well, how did Richard Branson do it and, you know, unless you have something like Virgin that you're trying to, like, you know, take over the world. Be Virgin Money, be a plane, like whatever it is. You don't need to be thinking you can think big and think big for your brand, but think big for your brand in a way that's impactful for you. And I think everyone listening is probably similar to me and similar to you in the fact that we're in purpose led businesses. Yeah, we want to leave our mark on the world and you can leave your mark, just as well as Richard Branson does in your circle of influence. And there's no reason you can't but it's about not getting stuck in that comparison with people that we don't even want to compete with. Hmm,
Laetitia Andrac
yes, yes, yes. And everyone that is listening to this podcast, like it's about impact driven business owner, so we're all here to have a positive impact either on people or the planet. So does they relate to that and some things that you you know, we we've discussed about this offline, and you've mentioned to me it's like the way we market is evolving, depending on what we are marketing and who we are, as a person with marketing our business. Would you mind like diving a bit deeper into that for those listening because I know you support big brands, but you also support small impact driven businesses. So you have like you see both aspects of the spectrum.
Bec Chappell
Yeah, I I love working with bigger brands and smaller brands for totally different purposes. The reason I love working with bigger brands is because I think I can help people that are stuck in that corporate machine. Because the way I look at marketing is your whole business. And this is also relevant for anyone starting out too because it's the same structure regardless of the size of your business. It's about human based marketing. So how do we build businesses that are based around marketing and good marketing? Like we can't sell a brand externally, if we don't leave that internally? So you know, so many people think that marketing is that external stuff, it's that I need to post to social media five times a week I need to be creating reels. I need to be showing up on my stories. And you might end up hating this business that you've built because your marketing is making you hate it. Let's be realistic, because you're thinking the only way I can get sales is by doing x y Zed. When actually the truth is, if you take it back to why you started, the people that you want to influence how you want to be in your business. And you look at well my marketing actually starts internally and it doesn't matter the size of your business because also if you employ 10 to 50 People tend to 100 or 1000 people, your brand starts with your people. And that starts with you and the vision and the dream that you have the reason that we we relate so much to the to the Richard Branson's of the world is because of who he is person. And the reason that we don't feel like his brand is tarnished, is because he's continued to try and keep himself in a good light as person because that's his brand and I think yes, there is definitely a difference between our personal brand and now the businesses we build if we are external to our business, as in our business has its own lifeblood, but we have to create that and why did we create that? So for me, I created my business because I wanted to empower people to feel like they could get sales and build the business they wanted to build, not because it's like, ah, marketing's cool, it's a great way to make money, you know, like, because it is, uh, you know, and I think a lot of the feedback I get about marketing is, oh, I'm doing all this stuff. It's just not working. And it's not working because people are following trends. Or there. You know, the hearing the noise and there are a lot of noisy marketers out there telling you to do a lot of things that will suck a lot of your energy. And for what, because if you're not watching the results, and it's not making you happy, why are you doing it? We've got to be happy.
Laetitia Andrac
Yes. And this is like if marketing is one thing that you must have or that you should do, then it's definitely not so nourishing. And as you said, it's like starting from the inside out. So for anyone who is listening to this and they need to earn learn everything's I've learned from those marketing guru telling them you can do dance on real and use these plans and post five times, you know, week and interact with this many people and do this and send this many email and law, all the noise. What would you recommend them to focus on to do great marketing?
Bec Chappell
Focus on you? I want I want you to go back and say why did I start this business and who do I want to help? And what is it that I offer? Because so many of the time so much so often? I find people don't even know what they offer, because they've gotten so confused about what the market wants. It's like we create our own markets, like the developer of Mati body, didn't know that we needed money body before she developed multi multi body, you know, like, like these, most of the market doesn't know what it wants until we put it out there. And we trial like we try stuff like I am not in the same business I created three years ago. No, I'm so far from it because I created a business three years ago that I thought the market wanted and it wasn't even my it. Yes, it was my experience. I was a coordinator at one point. It wasn't who I left corporate as and it wasn't the the growth and experience I'd had in my career that I was selling. I was selling something that I truly hated. And I wondered why I was like, Oh most most people I look at in businesses so happy and they're so free and yes, I've got yes, we've all got burdens because business ownership is really hard. And I think we make it so much harder on ourselves the minute that we aren't true to why we started our business. And be really honest with yourself if the market isn't there. Well, how do you create an appetite for it? Do you have the funds to do that? Do the people that you want to sell to have money as well? Because let's be realistic, you got to look at it. Am I going to make money from this as well? Because we cannot make impact without making money. We can't spread our wings without money. Unfortunately, it is the way the world works. Fortunately or unfortunately depending which way you look at it but you know I think come back to you come back to who it is that you are tuned out from the noise I've had to I actually put to my Instagram last night I'm taking a break because even me as a marketer listening to all this noise around marketing especially at the moment in an interesting financial era that we're in where the economy is a little bit sad right now. People are going hammer and tong and and they're doing it not necessarily on the right things because they're just following trends. They're looking at the competition and they're forgetting about who they are and why they started their business and if they're even happy in their business anymore.
Laetitia Andrac
Yes. And I'm so aligned with that. I love that you said that. And I always you know go back to the way I structured my accelerator course which is we start with y y what is our energy? Who are you? Why do you want to be a business owner like being a sacred CEO is actually, as you said, a life long journey. Unraveling who we are and learning and reopening some wounds and you know really kind of stepping into our zone of genius and all of that. So really starting with why why you started for who you started this for, apart from yourself and your wife, who was those people that you wanted to serve? And then the what? What are you developing and then the how and the How comes last yet too many business owner to die staff who is how which is a real dancing which is the you know the email sand which is the logo,
Bec Chappell
they like the
Laetitia Andrac
logo, like oh my god of color. Yeah. And it's like
Bec Chappell
it will come at that like when you don't and I think to cut you off sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. But I think what scares people is that why? Because you're being so vulnerable with yourself like I know me like someone said to me, I say what do you want from your life? I was like no one asked me that. Do not ask me that question. Because the minute that we we ask that question of ourselves or other people, we actually have to explore it. And we have to say, Well, what does it look like if I fail? There's no failures in life, but you know, for lack of a better word. What does it look like if I do fail at this? What does that mean for me? What does that mean for my ego? And you know, I think that it is really scary to explore why we do things in life and actually questioning ourselves. It's terrifying. So I don't blame people for wanting to start with that. I've seen other business owners be successful by doing this, or tell me that they're successful, by the way because we're still not seeing their p&l. That says, you know, let's do the how, and forget about the life journey and the self development because that shit is scary. Sorry for swearing. Yeah, and
Laetitia Andrac
I love what you said there because actually there is, you know, a lot of transparency and at the same time, a lot of a lot of opacity at the moment around business businesses, you know, unless there are public businesses and you have access to you know, their results. It's really hard to get the results around, you know, how much money they're making an average profit they're making and how much happiness they're actually having. as being the leader of this business. And it always goes back to the mission, the vision, the why, who you are as a business owner, and all of those kinds of things. And why did you started this business in the first place, because every time you go back there, you're gonna strip back to the essential of why do you start this journey, which is a rollercoaster and we're not always on a high. We have moments where very tired and very on the low and this is by doing this work of uncovering your why more and uncovering who you want to serve. That actually then you can speak from heart to heart and it's something you know that I know you stand up for as well which is really having this part led marketing or this, you know intuitive this authentic marketing rather than telling them something that is actually just a hook and being very authentic. So what would you so if any of the people that are listening here are like okay, great, so I need to do the internal marketing. So we spoke about the why and really uncovering the why I did about the mission and discovering their energy and things like that, but how can you like very practically advise them to do is it like what you're doing right now, which is cutting the nose like stepping away from Instagram for a few days making space? Is it like any practical tips and then again, we trust you as a listener to have yourself authority and decide which one feels right for you. But any tips to help them start this journey of unraveling from the inside out?
Bec Chappell
So a few things, definitely a step back like 100% Step back, step back from your business step back from Instagram step back from any noise and ask yourself, what do I want? And it's a really scary question because they're all okay. The other thing that I got told last Tuesday that I feel was very helpful if what do I want feels too heavy and hard, which for a lot of people it does I know for me, it does. It's very scary question, right? Because then that opens up the possibility that I can have what I want, right? No one wants what they want. And it's very scary when we get what we want, right? Because then we have to level up and decide what we want next. But what don't you want? So what don't you want? What don't you want to be doing what? And then so that would be my first ones to taking journal on it. reiterations are your best friend, like you're going to you're going to reimagine reiterate a million times, and it's okay. I think the biggest thing for me was when I stepped out into my own business was this acceptance that I could change and it was okay. This acceptance that I might do some trials and marketing and it might flop and that's okay. We need to get really comfortable with when something doesn't go the way that we hypothesized or the way that we had hoped. Because of you know, we've done the research to trial this thing. It's okay. And I think that's the other thing like research. So many of us don't do research and I think you know, we just assume that there's a market there because someone told us there is but ask you like if you're already got a business and you've got clients, ask them questions that they already they can already tell you everything you need to know about where your business should go and what you should focus on and what where they are. Because a lot of the time I see you know, I had really talked about this a lot. And maybe I shouldn't because it could make me some enemies but I was talking to a potential client and she said to me, she's in b2b business, so business to business and someone had told her not to waste her time on LinkedIn, because Instagram is the only place businesses make money now. It's very scary advice, and it came from online. Yeah. And I think if she had asked her clients where they hang out where they look for knowledge, where they look to build a relationship, they would have told her LinkedIn, because that's where they are buying, and that's where they're at. It's not even when they're buying, it's where they're building relationships. And I think that's the big thing we've lost with social media, too, is the fact that it's social media. It's not just media. So let's bring back that social thing. And actually start being social on there. Again, and not just trying to sell. I actually wrote something controversial on a post the other day when someone you know, there's a lot of people out there that are like, we don't care about your personal stories. We don't care about your personal life on social media. And I'm like, actually, it's when I've done personal posts that people have reached out to me and been like, I want to work with you because you're a human. Why from humans, not brands. Yeah. So I think I don't know if I really answered your question with the scene away there but we got there. I think it's step away. Ask yourself these questions like journal on it, and be okay to revise and review and trial and error. You got to trial and error and research. Before you do anything before you invest a lot of money in anything if you're going to outsource your marketing if you're going to outsource anything or you're going to pay a lot to get reels created or whatever it is that you're you're spending money on. Do the research first. Ask your current clients and if you don't have current clients, the thing I always say to people is have a look at people that already have got your market, not your competition. But like so for example, if your market was beauty, and you knew that there was another business that sold a different element of beauty or sold fitness gear to the same clients, go have a look at what they're doing what's working for them, because that'll give you an indication of what would work for you to
Laetitia Andrac
definitely thank you for those elements because a lot of people shy away from asking, you know themselves, always question and stepping away, and you know, reclaiming their own authority in marketing and a lot of people make the mistake of outsourcing without doing the inner work first, like oh, I don't want to do my marketing. I'm just going to outsource straightaway. Whereas if you outsource to a marketer without having a vision as a CEO, having a mission knowing what you want do, what do you want to be known for? Who do you want to serve and all of that, then the marketer is not going to solve your problem. It's going to be just the same problem. Just put on someone else's shoulder and I'm telling you they won't stay for long in your business nor
Bec Chappell
and they will also you will feel like they're failing. And it's actually it's gonna be a really bad relationship. And I actually wrote a lot of posts around this on LinkedIn recently. I'm like, the thing I love doing my clients is making them super uncomfortable. And I do it early on, because I ask those hard questions and a lot of the time, you know, we'll be in a room and I'm like, so what do you sell? Who do you like who what is it? Why do you do it? And they're like, instantly, like, you can tell they're on the backfoot they're like, Oh, I never thought of that. I'm like, You need to be thinking about this stuff. Because that's how we're going to be successful in your field. Like, that's how we're going to be different as well.