SPEAKER_01: 0:16

Well, hello, this is Kimberly, it's episode 322, and we are talking today about the biggest competitive advantage that you have right now in your business. And I know so many of you have been wrapped up in like your product or your service and making sure it has this or that that's better than the competition. But do you know in today's world what your actual competitive advantage is? We're gonna talk about it. You know what it is. I'm gonna go ahead and give you the spoiler alert before we start. So you know what we're talking about. We're talking about business integrity because there is so much lying going on in our marketplace, and I'm sick of it. And I thought I would talk about it today. So if you are new here, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's gonna help you along your business journey, whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, this is for you. And if you're starting some type of home-based business, you're gonna have a local business, whatever it is, these tips are gonna help you motivate you, get you going. I'm just so thankful that you are here and listening and researching. I think it's wonderful. Make sure you get my freebies that I have, I have free resources. So if you scroll down in the show notes, like I have a spreadsheet that has like the tools and software that I recommend for stuff that you're doing online with your business. So you can get that master spreadsheet. It's called my ultimate list of tools and resources and all that. Uh, you could get my 16-step checklist if you're thinking about starting a business or you're starting now just to make sure you're doing some important things. If you're trying to grow your business, if you're trying to start a podcast, it's all there for you. So make sure you grab it below. I'm so excited and honored to be helping you and I'm happy you're here. Make sure you hit subscribe right now. If you're listening in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever it is, hit the follow button. Whatever your button says, they often change them too. But whatever it says, follow because then you'll get a quick little notification in the app when I drop new episodes, usually on Thursday mornings. And I want to make sure you don't miss out on any of this good stuff that's going to help you along your business journey. And if you've been listening, well, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Y'all are amazing and awesome. I'm so proud of each of you for pursuing your dream. And I'm just so honored to be working with you. Shout out to my coaching clients, my grow getters, people that have jumped in the just getting started course. Y'all are just amazing. And I just look up to all of you because I know how hard it is starting a business. And I'm so honored to be a part of your journey. And if you ever have questions and you're thinking about, you know, maybe needing coaching or help or just even a one-hour consultation to go through your whole checklist of what you're doing and make sure you're doing things right, make sure you reach out to me. The information is all on my website. I would love to help you. Okay, that's it. On to the episode.

SPEAKER_00: 3:12

Well, hello, friends. How are you?

SPEAKER_01: 3:14

How is your business going? I'm so excited for you all. What a fun time. And here we are in the wintertime. And I know you're probably so busy with all your business stuff going on and holiday buying and all that. And I'm glad you're here today because we all need this straight talk. We need straight talk, right? We need someone who's going to be honest with us and really call us to our higher selves. And that's what I'm here to do. I know that you are meant for more in your life. And that's why you wanted to start a business. Maybe you're thinking about doing this full time and quitting your job. Maybe you've been a stay-at-home mom and want something all your own. However, it is, I'm just so glad you're here and you're actually doing this because yes, you are meant for more. If you feel that in your soul, then you're right. It's there for a reason. That's God nudging you, saying, Hey, I gave you these gifts. It's time to keep using them. Today we're talking about business integrity and how it is literally your competitive advantage right now. I was talking with my son about this too, and I've been talking to other people about just like the slimy stuff that goes on in the world of business. Like, have you ever been duped? Like you maybe ordered something online and it didn't come or it wasn't anything like what you thought. And it makes us all question everything that we see online, right? And now, especially with AI, we can't even believe videos anymore. We can't believe photos. Like it's all just so, I don't even know the word. It's just so unbelievable. Like, can we believe it? Like, we're skeptical. We are now skeptics. And I think we've learned even over the past six years that I've had this business. I have seen the distrust of online businesses increase. Like, literally increase because stuff is fake. There's fake reviews, there's fake claims. I've seen coaches that are kind of in my industry and other industries make huge claims, y'all. They will be like, I will help you get a million followers by next week. I you can make a million dollars in two months. I did. And we would love to believe them. And the problem is that we become desperate as buyers. Like we're business owners, we want our business to succeed, we care about it, and we will spend money on things that might help us more have certainty in terms of success. It's just like like pet products and pet foods. Like I recently got the farmer's dog for my dog. I have a little Maltese Shih Tzu mix. He's a Mal Shi, his name's Tucker, and I ordered the farmer's dog. So I got it at like a discount the first time I got it. And I, okay, let me say this first of all, too. He's seven. I've been feeding him Kirkland brand dry dog food since he was born. And then we kind of felt bad. We're like, he needs like some better food. So then, anyways, um, but I think the Kirkland brand is decent. Is it? I don't know. No one tell me that it's not because I've been feeding my dog that for seven years. Anyways, my son was talking to me. He's like, get him the farmer's dog or something. And I was like, okay, so I did the trial or whatever it was in the beginning, got a huge discount. I didn't really totally pay attention to the cost because it was so heavily discounted. And in my mind, I'm thinking I'm getting a great deal. Well, of course, then the next shipment comes, y'all. It is a fortune. It is a fortune, but my dog loves it. And I'm not even kidding. I'm not kidding. He has always been very unpredictable and a grouchy dog a lot of the time. Not all the time. With me, he's fine, but with guests and stuff. And his personality has a little bit changed. He's not as aggressive and all the stuff. And I'm like, was that just coincidence that maybe now he's seven years old and he's a mature dog, or does this have to do with the food? I really don't know. It would have been a great case study, right? But, anyways, my point was that with our animals, with our kids, with our health, with our businesses, we are willing to spend more money to get some certainty. And things that we're emotionally tied to, we will spend more money. So as consumers, as consumers, we can get sucked in. We can get sucked into things in the industry. Like I said, there's been coaches that say you can make this much money. All you have to do is buy my$1,000 horse and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's bothered me because I'm in the mix. I'm getting whumped in with all these coaches, right? And it's been very hard because I see that going on. I'm like, nope, stay in your own lane, Kimberly. You, you keep up with your integrity. You don't make these wildlandish claims. And to my knowledge, I've never don't recall ever making an outlandish claim that you'll make this amount of money or this. I've tried, I've tried to be very honest about like, hey, this is what can happen for you. Or, you know, you can do this course, you can finish it in, you know, a week, or you can finish it in a month. You can. Like, none of that is a lie. But I think that sometimes these things have been taken out of context, and there's so many business owners that lack integrity. And so I have been told, no, again, this part wasn't to sit here and say, I'm great, and I'm the most highest person of integrity. That's not why I'm telling you this. I'm telling you this as a perspective for someone who has a is a business owner that is selling something, and you are here listening. And my whole impetus for starting a podcast, too, was not only because it was fun and I wanted to share all these tips with you, and I wanted you to have a free way to get all these tips, but it's also to build trust so that people can listen and they may not know me, you know, personally, but they can hear and go, like, you know, after all these years, this is the same person talking on the podcast, and it sounds pretty reasonable and honorable to me. And then they'll reach out and I'll do coaching or they'll get a course and they feel good about it. I don't know if this is how you have felt, but you're like, hopefully you feel like you can trust me. But then again, who all can we trust online? It's it's scary and hard. And so I've tried my best to be real and honest so that I can stay in my level of integrity at all times. And today that's what I wanted to remind you of for your business as a business owner. Now, again, we've been talking about being a consumer. There's all this stuff online. There's, you know, it's gonna help your neck pain go away in 24 hours. This is gonna make you a million dollars. This is gonna help you lose, you know, a hundred pounds, all although all the GLP ones seem to be living up to their outlandish claims, right? It's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, maybe there's actually validity to that. But then again, all the GLP ones people are saying, wait, is there side effects? Is there long-term effects? I don't know enough about any of that to tell you for sure, but I will say that um the the claims that we hear online are very hard for people to understand, right? And and to navigate like, is it real? And people will plop their money down. And I've plopped my money down on courses and they some have been good and some have not been good, right? So as a business owner, I want you to realize that consumers don't trust us. Consumers are like getting extremely skittish, right? Like every video I see online of anything, I'm like, is this real? And then all the reviews are these fake reviews, are these real actual humans? Like it's exhausting navigating as a buyer, right? And so as a business owner, what can we do to build trust so that we can stay in integrity and be a business that lasts, that doesn't get badmouthed, that doesn't get berated online, that doesn't get a lot of returns, that people recommend to others. I mean, think about it. When you recommend other businesses, it's because you trust they have a good product, but you trust, it's like Chick-fil-A. We trust that every time, you know, almost every time, it's it's a it's a great ordering process. You go in, they're polite, and they're fast, right? And every now and then they're humans and they mess up and whatever. That's fine. But it's consistent and it's consistent from Chick-fil-A to Chick-fil-A. Except, y'all, one time I was traveling and there was an airport. What airport was it? There was a Chick-fil-A. It was terrible. It was terrible. The service was all backed up, they were rude. It was the weirdest thing. I was like, they have pulled in imposter Chick-fil-A employees. Like, what is going on? The only time I've ever seen it not consistent. Anyways, think about the businesses that you frequent. You have a certain level of trust, right? So we have to realize that the people that are looking to buy from us, whether you sell products, services, programs, whatever it is, may have been burned. They may have been burned by other people. And they may be skittish. They may be weary and like they may be suspicious of you, even though they may not have a reason, but they may be believing that your claims are not real. Right? We have contractors on our house who are redoing our laundry room and our pantry because they were very sad. They were very sad gross rooms, and we needed to like make them better so that I'm happy when I'm in the laundry room. Maybe I shouldn't be happy in the pantry because is that gonna cause me to eat more? Hmm, I should have thought that through before we redid the pantry. Anyways, like we are having to trust what the contractor says that his workers are gonna do. I'm having to trust my designer that she's gonna follow through on everything, right? Like, there is trust involved. So we have to realize as business owners that we need to have an approach, have a thought process about how we show up all the time in our business. Like, what's our approach? How do we do this? Because actually being someone of integrity is so valued and appreciated, y'all. That is why I have my decorator back. She was so trustworthy and awesome and amazing and been over backwards with everything, right? She didn't try to steal my money. She was very frank with the costs. Like, there's no funny business, right? And so think about it, even with doctors that you go to or or anything, like if they are trustworthy, that they will listen to you every time, they will follow up, they will answer your questions. Like, you keep going to them. So we, even though we are skittish as buyers, we are actually very loyal as customers because we end up sticking with who we can trust. So that is what your potential clients and your current clients are doing. They are assessing who I can trust in this world of complete chaos, this marketplace that is just like anything goes, people can make any claims, people can tell you any things. And so, what can we do? How can we build trust? What can we do? Because if we can build trust, then we have a competitive advantage. It is literally your biggest competitive advantage right now is trust. So let's talk about it. So, number one, here's the first thing you can do is always tell the truth. Be honest. If you screwed up, be honest. If you are, you know, saying, I think I can deliver this in five days, be as accurate as you can, right? We know there's situations that come up and something happens. Don't inadvertently and unknowingly fib. Be realistic, be honest about everything. And if you say, usually this takes about a week, but this one's more specialized and it may take longer, or, you know, I'm gonna deliver this or I'm gonna offer you the this. Let's tell the truth. And if you screw up, tell the truth on what you screw up on. Because if you're covering it up, people are gonna notice, they're not gonna trust you, and they're not gonna come back. And our businesses rely on repeat customers. They rely on repeat customers. This is how you will make a lot of your revenue is repeat customers, right? Assuming you have something that can be repeated. The other way that that you rely on it when you have a client that loves you is they'll refer you to other people. They will refer you. And those are the best sales because they're saying, I trust this person and I'm vouching for your business. And um, and you they tell their friend you should call so-and-so and you should look at our website. Like I'm so flattered. That happened yesterday. Someone else that I know sent someone to this web to my podcast, and then they were getting the checklist. And, you know, you never know. A certain percentage of those buy. Not everyone buys, but people will come in your corner. So, what can you do? Number one, tell the truth. Okay. Number two, make sure you have trust-building methods. And what are those trust-building methods for your business? So, for me, this podcast is a trust-building method because I reach people all around the world and they can listen anytime and they can hear me consistently over time. Do they 100% know that I'm trustworthy? No. But this content every week starts building trust. They get to know who I am and my values. Could I be lying? Could I be lying the whole time? Yes, I could be. But they are getting a feeling, you are getting a feeling when you listen, whether I'm trustworthy or not. You have to think in your line of business, what is it that you're doing regularly that would build trust? And it may simply be they find an ad of yours online, they see you post in a Facebook group and they reach out to you. The question is: do you call them back? Do you email them back, right? Do you give them the information they wanted? Are you trustworthy? If you said you were going to come give them a quote or an estimate, did you show up on time and do that? You have to realize that the even small interactions that you have with people, email, phone call, text, whatever, you responding and you talking to them is a trust building activity. And then when you maybe offer something for free, or you make some kind of commitment, or I'll have a quote by tomorrow, or I can send you a picture of that later today, anything like that is part of your trust building. Do you realize that? Like they are assessing right now. Can you pass the first simple test? Can you do that? So think about it here for a minute. What are you doing with your clients that even on a small basis is trust building? You need those trust building activities and you need to take them seriously. Take all those trust building activities and take them seriously. Think about it, what it is for your business right now in your head. Is it they just come to your website? Because that's what I had. I had websites for many years, online gift boutiques, and their trustworthiness at the time was just coming to my website, seeing, seeing what we offered, that it went through the checkout and we delivered, hopefully, on time, right? As much as we could. And that was our trust building. But the first phase was when they hit our website and they could look at our about me page. You would be surprised how many people look at your about me page. They would read about that and they get a feeling. And so now they're just trying to make a judgment, right? Okay. So the first one was tell the truth always. Uh, the second one was pay close attention to your trust-building methods and activities that you're doing because those are super important. Number three, deliver what you said you would deliver. Don't have people pay and you not actually fulfill that. Do not be that kind of person. Ship on time, come, you know, give the service, the delivery of the baked goods, uh, the quote. Um, whatever you're going to do, do it. Don't gaslight people. Again, that's part of your trust building activities, but those trust building activities do a lot more. But when you ask Actually, say you're going to deliver something, your product, your service, do it. Okay. Don't give it partial. Don't say I'm gonna send you this, and it's not not actually all of it, or I'm gonna send you the course that gives you this full complete thing, but really the course only has part of that and doesn't have everything that you actually said that they could, you know, receive their money should exactly match. Okay. If you're gonna charge shipping, if you are going to charge rest shipping, deliver on what you said you were going to do. I know this sounds silly, but some people don't deliver on what they said. They don't get the complete package, the complete product, they don't get everything that they asked for. You said it included, you know, a clear code of stain on it, or you said it was waterproof and it's not waterproof. Like deliver what you said it was. Make sure your product matches what you're selling, what you've told them they're getting, and make sure it's right because that's the last thing we want is like we get it and we're like, what? You said this was the softest shirt ever. This is not soft. Like, be honest about what you present that you're offering and deliver exactly what you said. I again, this sounds stupid. We shouldn't have to say this, but I'm saying this because this is actually a competitive competitive advantage for you because a lot of people don't deliver on what they say they're going to deliver, and it's so annoying. Right? Okay, number four, repair problems fast. Whatever problem you have, a contractor doesn't show up, um, they got it and it was broken, you sent them the wrong thing, your thing is now back ordered and you didn't tell them it was back ordered. Repair the problem as fast as you can and be apologetic and tell them I'm so sorry. Here it is. Here it is. They will feel so much better. Again, this is all going towards the trust factor, right? So repair your problems fast. Y'all know the story. I told this so many times on this podcast, but if you haven't listened to all the episodes, when I had my kids or fans too, you know, it was baby collegiate themed gifts like pacifiers, clothing, little onesies, blankets, so cute. It's all different college-themed ones. And um, we accidentally sent. Now I can't remember if it was the Michigan State person, the Michigan stuff or the Michigan stuff got the Michigan State. I can't remember what we did. We messed it up and it was terrible. And the person was yelling, like so mad, thought it was an intentional joke. I'm like, no, it's not intentional. We literally screwed up and I'm so sorry we had it tagged like wrong in the way that we were shipping. So, anyways, you rectify it and you say, Don't worry, I'm getting this out to you today. So, any problems that they have, a contractor shows up and does something wrong, someone, someone doesn't represent something well, like please, please, please make sure that if a problem arises, whatever it is, that you rectify it as soon as possible and show them that you care because a lot of businesses don't care. And a lot of businesses treat their clients as numbers, and you're not gonna do that. You're going to be hands-on, you're gonna be apologetic, and you are going to help them with whatever they need so they trust you, so they have a good experience, so you don't make their life worse, so that they refer you to other people as well. Okay. Y'all, I'm telling you right now, this is a competitive advantage. And if you don't see it as that, you're missing a huge factor because in today's market, nobody trusts online businesses. Nobody's trusting any business. They think everyone is bamboozling them. And I'm sure you can imagine if you're trying to buy something right now, there's certain things you don't trust. And you read reviews, you talk to people, you're trying to ask Chat GBT, you're doing all these things, and it's hard. And we all are just putting our faith in at some point because we never know 100%. But you have to be the one that no matter what happens, you are trustworthy. You are of a high level integrity. And I'm telling you, this is what will help you build a lasting business. It's what helped me for years in my online boutiques and in this coaching business because I am not like the other coaches who is telling you you will make a million dollars next week. It's super annoying. We've all seen it, and it's not fun. And I'm not lying when I'm telling you, oh, my podcast is in the top 1%. And I can share with you what I did to get there. I am. I shared you with you in the podcasting course exactly what I did that got me there. But I'm not saying you're gonna get a million listeners, you're gonna have the most successful business. I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you, I'm here and you can verify it online, but here is what I did. Here's the steps I took. And people love that because that feels real. That's not fake, that's not overinflated, it's not inflated at all. It's actually what it is. So we have to be like that in order for people to actually trust us and refer us. So I hope that makes sense. Y'all are awesome. I hope you have a great day. Remember, this is your competitive advantage, and don't ever sacrifice your integrity, my friend. Don't do it. Your business is better that than that, and so are you. Have a great day. Bye now.

SPEAKER_00: 25:33

Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.