Donna Hann
Hayley Osborne is a marketing superhero. She helps service based businesses become the number one in their local community both online and offline through her membership superhero marketing. She's a multiple six figure marketing business coach and strategist, the host of the Hayley Osborne Show podcast speaker and Mama Bear have two young boys. She's on the show today to chat to me about ways that you can become the number one in your local area. So grab a notepad and a cuppa and let's get started.
Donna Hann
Hello, I'm Donna Hann, a business coach, and an online course creator. And this is the She's in Business podcast. You can think of me as your business bestie, who's a few steps ahead of where you are right now. As a monk fueled with ambition and determination, I've created and sold three businesses. I've learned the lessons made mistakes, and I understand the daily juggle in the hustle. I also know what it's like when relationships fray and burnout taps you on the shoulder. That was my world until I reshaped and transformed the way I ran my six figure business. Today I help women to transform their businesses and go from being the overwhelmed entrepreneur to becoming the thriving entrepreneur feeling energized, empowered and fulfilled within their business lifestyle. I want to inspire your business journey and help you to stop spinning your wheels, because I want you to burn bright instead of burning out. And I'll invite other entrepreneurs to share their real life stories too, because I want you to know that you're not alone. You can be the savvy entrepreneur that you were born to be, and enjoy the freedom to do the things and be present with the people that mean the most to you. So if you're ready to rise to the next level and build a business by design, this is the shears in business podcast for moms who are made for more
Donna Hann
Welcome to another episode of the She's in Business podcast. I'm your host, Donna Hann, and today I'm joined by the lovely amazing superhero Hayley Osborne. She's a marketing business coach, and a strategist who is here to share her journey with us share some tips about becoming the number one in your local area. So welcome to the podcast, Hayley.
Hayley
Thanks for having me, Donna. I'm really glad to be here with you today, hopefully share some of my knowledge with your guests.
Donna Hann
Yeah, I'm sure you've got so much to share with us. I'm excited. It's going to be so much fun, especially as we're doing a podcast swap today. So I'm interviewing you and me and it's always so much fun. I love talking about marketing. And I've been watching you build your business and your superhero marketing membership for a couple of months now. So for the listeners who maybe don't know who you are, and aren't aware of you, can you please share a little bit about you and your business journey. Tell us about why you're so passionate about what you do.
Hayley
So my name is Hayley Osborne, I run a business called Hayley Osborne. But I have a marketing membership called Superhero Marketing. I've been in business now for around 15 years that is over obviously, just having this business I had a fashion label and a candle business. I've worked in corporate, but everything all roads kind of have led to Rome for this point, I have a marketing degree. And I would always be giving advice to the business owners that I met along the way on their marketing, which kind of in turn led to starting this business where I pretty much help service based businesses become the number one in their local community, both online and offline. I do one on one coaching. And then I have the membership. I also have a plethora of retainer clients that are bigger businesses that are come in as their strategic advisor. Right marketing strategies, social media strategy. Yeah, that's a lot. And I have to under two that sort of summarizes me as an introduction. I think, although you know, the business started prior to the babies. So the business is my first baby. And I absolutely love what I do. And I found the more and more I started off. As you can probably see, this used to be my old business day and behind me and I started off base, basically in social media management, but my background is really in marketing.
Hayley
And I found that time and time again, every one on one coaching session that I would do with clients that would come in, we would always lead to more than just social media because marketing is really the bigger picture. Social media is such a massive part. Part of that, but overall, it's marketing. And so it always ended up being more than that it always ended up being more around marketing. And that's kind of where my business is going now. So my aim is to reach and help as many small businesses as possible, because I know it sounds sort of cliche, but there's superhero marketer in their business. Because as business owners and as your audience would know, you come in as the expert in your field, your zone of genius, that's your thought leadership, but you have to be the marketer, you have to be the accountant, you have to be the bookkeeper, you have to be like everything. And I, it's my goal to make it really easy for, you know, the businesses that work with me and I, there's lots of pieces of pie for everybody. I often like to use the analogy, you know, if you are just starting out, like you said, most of your audiences are on the way to their six figures. I always like to think don't forget how many coffee shops there are in, you know, all across the world, there's room to coexist for everybody. So really, if you see that something is being done that you're doing, take that as a positive, which means that there's a market, right, but come at it from your own angle. Yeah, that was a really nice introduction.
Donna Hann
And tell me about how you're going now that you've got two under two because it is I know, I've had multiple businesses where at the beginning, it was pre kids, and then kids came in and the difference, like I it felt quite different. How's that feeling for you?
Hayley
One word, it's mental, is honestly crazy. And I never, I feel very, I don't want to say I always say, I feel so lucky, I feel so grateful. But my mum always picks me up. And she's like, No, it's not luck, you've built that yourself. It's not luck. But I am in a position where I get to do what I love and be a mum and be present. At the same time. The only way that works for me now is to be meticulously organized, and have the systems and processes in my business where, you know, some of the things that I don't have to touch can be automated. And I just have less for days. And you know, I think that getting to that six figure mark is hard. And if you see people online saying that so easy for them. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to swear or not on here, but I can call bullshit. Yeah, no, it's not because like some nights, I have to work until midnight. But then the flip side of that is I get to be running around with my kids during the day. And then what I do, obviously, you know, I have an almost two year old who will be to at the end of the month, and I have a six month old. And I am so clear during the day that when it's their nap time, if I have one task that I need to do in my business, I come in, I get it done. I don't sweat the small stuff, there's no time for that. And I do the thing, it makes me feel better. And it's taken I think a lot of trial and error. I used to be that person pre kids that would get up at five, you know, I'm up at five, I'm you know, out the door, I'm either doing something quick in business, I'm out the door exercising training, I'm home smoothing, I'm law, law, I run a fast ship, I don't have you know, time, it's everything is tight, tight, tight, business, business business. And then you know, it's easy, but then add kids, it's like, not everyone has the same 24 hours. Now, if you want to have a successful business and be you know, a great mom with young children, you've got to ask for help. You got to have your systems and processes in place, and you've got to be organized.
Donna Hann
Yep. And I 100% agree with everything that you said. And it's working when you can and then the season changes, like now my kids are 10 My eldest turns 10 On Saturday, and my little one is now seven. And so I'm able now to wake up at five and start to do things differently. And whereas I remember when my kids were really small, like your age, and I was reading the miracle morning and going there's no fucking way I can make this work for me like this is not a realistic like i That's not saying that the Miracle Morning, the whole concept is is not a good thing. Like it's amazing if you can do it, but just depends upon the season of life that you're in. And at that point, I wasn't there whereas now I could probably go back and read it again and be like, I can make that work for me now. So I love that you You are just appreciating and grateful for where you are and what you're doing. And knowing that things will constantly change and evolve and being okay with that. And you know if right now it's about sticking to a really strict schedule as such and making the most of those tiny pockets of time, then that's what we do.
Hayley
I think the strict schedule is around when they are asleep, because when they are away, oh, man, you can just chuck that out the window. And like a miracle morning, imagine me going to the gym now at 5am. Yeah, they might be asleep. But I would have milk dripping down my talk. Yes, not physically possible. Even if I was to wake up, like, there's no way that I could do it. Like I just couldn't, because my body wouldn't let me. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, look, it's a season and you just move through it. And then when they get to the next stage, or whatever, but I'm trying not to think like that, too. I'm trying to think I need to be in the moment, and enjoy all the moments in little ones and in business. And, you know, just one day at a time, honestly, will say I get to the end of the day now. And I think to myself, How am I doing this? Number one? How am I going to do this all again tomorrow? And my answer is, I honestly don't know. But then you have asleep, you might get woken up a few times, but you slept ish. And then you wake up and you're like, right, I've got the energy of doing it. I'm doing I'm passionate about this. This is why I'm here. And that's the driver.
Donna Hann
You talk a lot about the being number one in your local community. And I think lots of people think about local community as being their town or their city. You think a bit differently on this. Right? So tell me about your thoughts around what a local communities is.
Hayley
So local community, in my world is online and offline. So it is your online audience, that is your local community, right? They're the people that are in your world, and your offline audience, so out and about in your local community, local community, like physical, local community, but I think in this day and age 2023, you need to not discount that online community as a local community as well. I think it's, you know, important to kind of morph them together and think about, you know, marketing is great, but I feel like there is such a huge push for social media, social media, social media, and that's fine. And it is the most powerful tool that we have at the moment that is free, but it is not the only one. So I want to pause there because it's it's important to remember that.
Hayley
But just in terms of talking about like ideas, I guess on Well, that's all very well and good, hard, whatever, like words or words, but how to become the number one in your local community, it's big to do that, I think there's three, I like to think of it as three key pillars that you need to kind of organize around your business in order to achieve that goal of becoming the number one in your local community, both online and offline. And the first one would be to develop a word of mouth strategy. That is the number one thing that I recommend. And it's all very well and good. Like, we can say, Yeah, but I'm an online business. I don't have a bricks and mortar store. So how am I going to do that? Well, if you don't know what a word of mouth strategy, it's where your customers refer you and talk about you. Right? So this when you think about it, can be achieved both in your online and our offline worlds. It's word of mouth, think about how you can go the the way that you want to develop this is how you can go the extra mile, how you can be generous, how you can be friendly, how you can exceed expectations, doing things differently, ways of showing up in your clients lives unexpectedly. So, you know, an in an online world, you would give more than you take. And that feels good, right? And so when people join, think about like, what's your X Factor? What does that look like? So when people join my membership, for example, I send out a welcome pack in the mail. And that includes a beautiful things that I've put together, and everyone gets one but I don't promote that because I want to that to be some sort of like surprise and delight. That's lovely.
Hayley
And then when as another example for me in terms of word of mouth, because people talk about that, oh my god, she sent me this thing and then got confetti all over my floor and I got this, like superhero mask, oh my God, and this and this. And it's talking right? Even if you are a digital business, and there's so many ways that digital businesses can do this. Another example of a word of mouth strategy is when I host a free webinar or a masterclass and I do that when I launched the membership. So only open doors three times a year. It's coming up on the 21st of March. I'll do it again. But I have a small business marketing pack that I put together. And for those that join, you know, in certain amount of time after the webinar finishes, they go in the draw to win this, and it's epic. But I don't promote that on my social media as a reason to join the masterclass, it's again an element of surprise and delight, and oh my god, she did this. And it's got cool stuff in it like a frank green drink, drink bottle, lip balm, like the things that I consider to help me every day in my business. So but I don't tell people about that. So there's so many ways that you can do that. But the idea is to what's your X Factor, surprise and delight? If you have a bricks and mortar store? You need you need to think hard about what your word of mouth strategy is, is it something like what's behind me where it's a neon, or it's a throne? Or I don't know something where you, well, people, and they want to take a photo in front of you. They want to share it on their social media, they want to tag you. Yeah, that's your word of mouth strategy. But what does that look like for you? And how can you blend that into your like brand, and you know, just, I guess, to help increase that brand awareness, so everything is an extension. So that is the number one thing.
Donna Hann
Thinking up content, ideas, spending hours, trying to create the images to go with your content, ideas can be the worst, and it can often be a really big time suck, be super draining, and super stressful. And I'm sure you're listening going. Yes, I agree. So to help you with that, to help you save time on social media, I've created some content, inspiration, 50 different ideas, and also some Canva templates, 50 different templates that you can use as the ultimate shortcut to capture your audience's attention, to build online presence and to save lots of time. So I definitely know the struggle of being a mum in business and juggling the business and the family. And it can always feel like time is against us. And the hardest thing can sometimes be really maximizing our time for optimal productivity, and discovering new ways to get things done. And so this is why I've created this package, I guess, of different social media tools, that's going to save you hours and hours of time, so that you can do other things, do the things that you like to do best or unplug. Enjoy that cheeky glass of vino. So instead of creating all of your social media content from scratch, you can take my content ideas, you can take my Canva templates, and you can personalize them for your business. If you want to grab them, all you need to do is head over to donnahann.com/savetime, and you can grab everything on that page for just $27.
Donna Hann
I love the way that you're giving examples for both online and mortar. Because I've had both styles of those businesses. And like you said, the strategy for building that word of mouth awareness and building that strategy into your business is quite different for both. I know that when I had my bricks and mortar dance studio, we were very, very big on how do we make opportunities to show the beautiful culture that we have inside of the dance studio, which was always our point of difference. And how do we create opportunities for people to take photos of that and share it on social media and tag us and all of those kinds of things. And that I do believe is where you can build that brand strength and get people talking about you for all the right reasons, rather than the opposite of that, which is where you see businesses spiraling down rather than building up with success and growing and growing.
Hayley
Yeah, and I think you can't control if the negative comments come you can't control that if you're trying to develop a really great word of mouth strategy, but what you can control is how lovely you are, how nice you are, how genuine you are, how much you give people good experiences and how you make them feel. You've got those things right, then, you know, I think you're setting yourself up for some pretty good but wins which in my book. That's great. So I think the second thing that people really need to consider is obviously social media is not going anywhere. So if you can develop some really consistent content that is a win. And by a way to do that is to figure out what your content pillars are right across your business. So content pillars for me separate into two areas.
Hayley
One is caption categories. And the second is photo topics. So if you can have a think about what they look like for you, you will always have something to talk about in your social media that will not revert to selling because selling on your socials is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine. I didn't make that up. But I just love that. Thanks so much. I don't know who made it up, someone like really famous in the world made that up. And I just have taken it. And I always say it because I absolutely love it because it makes people remember that you need to be great storyteller.
Hayley
So my caption categories, I've just read them off quickly, because I know them very well is obviously me, my neon brand is very strong. So I do tend to talk about that family a little bit. I have a weekly series called Marketing gossip superhero styles. Superhero jokes is another one, my podcast quotes, testimonials, freebies, which is my lead magnet. So I do talk about that. And sports, because sport, for me has a huge correlation with mindset, which makes me you know, a better business owner. So they're mine. And obviously, you know, if you want to look back, I'm sure Donna you these shownotes will be somewhere for people are amazing at what you do. And then have a think about photo topics. So you always have clear content pillars, you always have a story to tell and what I do see a lot of people doing wrong, and I mean, there's no right or wrong, but it's falling into that sales sort of mentality is like, register for this buy my webinar, like why am I this didn't come to my webinar, like, listen to this, whereas the story is what pulls people in. It's not that the call to action is important, but it's how great a storyteller you are. And to be a good storyteller, you've got to figure out what the pillars are that you want to talk about, and what you don't want to talk about. So that is, I think, fundamentally the second most important thing.
Donna Hann
How, if people are like, okay, so that sounds great. Where do you guide people for them to what sort of questions they need to be asking in regards to building out the pillars that make sense for them, but also make sense for their audience.
Hayley
I think in the early days, it's a little bit like for me to get to that many different content pillars, it's taken time, it's taken, like and I didn't realize that these things would come into play until they did right. So my podcast gives me something extra to talk about. I have added a so the marketing gossip superhero styles, it is a live I guess I go live on Instagram once a week and teach on a particular topic. But I've added that value add into my business. So if you fall short, so if you are right, I've got want to talk about me, I'm going to talk about my lead magnet, which is my freebie, you know, how, where, why what? I'm going to showcase testimonials of clients that I've worked with, because nothing screams like, how you're amazing, like somebody else saying it. And then Okay, so I've, you know, I don't really want to showcase my family. So that's not an option for me. I don't do a lot of that myself, I talk about it. But I don't share a lot of photos of them because I just don't think it's necessary. And if you fall short there, you've got to do your research on what else is important to you. How can you add that flavor into your business? And how can you bring value to your audience? Because it's the value that will get the sale? Right? Yeah, that answers your question.
Hayley
And once you have your audience's attention, right, you got to put in the work once you've got their attention, you can have their sale, because it kind of doesn't want one doesn't happen without the other. So yeah, consistency is everything and, and having the right foundation is everything. And then yeah, the last thing I want to say too, is give them what they want for free. So I know this is gonna Yeah, give them what they want for free. So when I say that, I think that 80% or even it's even a higher percentage now of people's content is free and then it's that little bit leftover that you get paid for right because you've got to showcase your zone of genius for someone to want to work with you. And then when I say give them what they want for free in exchange for their email and their name, because their email and their name is your golden nugget. So think about the way I like to work it out is what is my what is my service, what do I so my membership for example, so it is it is called superhero marketing and teaches you how to become the number one in your local community. So how can you peel that back to bring someone in on the journey before For they come into the membership, what do they need from you to go into the membership. So I have a free resource. And it's the 10 Essentials, every local area marketing plan needs checklist that's on my website if you want to go and download it, but that's kind of like the lead into the membership. So this is the checklist that you need to if you wanted to create a marketing plan, here's the things that you need to start thinking about. So what does that look like for you what is how can you give them what they want for free that is, adds as the foundation to your house, right? So you can't build a house unless you've got a great slab, unless you've got a great foundation. So think about what that looks like for you. And then build on that, what is the first layer look like and then peel it off. And right in the middle is the juicy goodness, that is your paid content. So I hope that kind of sums up.
Donna Hann
That's amazing, so much juicy stuff in that. And then once people have built that out for themselves, and obviously that takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of thought takes a lot of maybe trial and error. I don't know if that's quite the right words. But you know, we play with it, we experiment with that all the time. And whilst also being consistent, like giving things enough time to embed, and then measuring those things and making sure that they're getting the kind of results that you're aiming for. Once a business has perhaps built themselves up to be the go to, I think it's really important to make mention that we need to maintain that level of presence, for your brand and for your business. Because, you know, if you don't another person and other business will jump into that hot seat. So thinking of that, what kind of things do you guide your clients? We've what kind of things do you think are really important to stay top of mind? Do you have any tips specifically around that?
Hayley
I honestly believe on continuing to upskill yourself, because again, you know, we hear this a lot, what got you here won't get you there. And so I read a lot to help me. And I recommend that my clients do the same. With my one on one coaching clients, I always send them a welcome gift as well. And usually at the start, that's a book that I'm reading, because I want them to also continue to learn. So I think that that is a great way and also trying to I don't have a lot of close friends that are in business. My friends are not in business, and you know, close friends in business with babies. So I think, putting yourself in those right groups of people where they can help to uplift you and question your thinking and helping to upskill you as well. So if you want to sit at the table, you have to pay for it. And that is the quickest way for you to learn.
Donna Hann
Yeah, I 100% agree with that. And I know that the people that I get to work with within my community, the benefits of being able to have a business coach that they can reach out to ask questions, also be surrounded by other like minded, isn't there? How good is that? It's so great. I mean, you and I are both in a group like that. And I've invested 1000s and 1000s Over my career as a business owner in professional development, reading books, attending courses, and you know, going to conferences, and all of those things. And I don't think I would be here, unless I've done those things. And like you said, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, you've always got to be upskilling. So I'm so glad that you brought that up.
Hayley
And your trajectory is a lot faster. And I do talk about this a lot, especially in my podcast is that I could not have grown in such a steep way had I not invested. Because you don't know what you don't know. I tell you what, my business, I was just doing everything at the start. And now I'm so glad that I made those investment decisions because it helped me to narrow things down, you know, figure out what I liked what I didn't like. And even if you look at my website now, it did not look like that at the beginning of my business.
Donna Hann
Okay, and I don't know any business owner who's like starts ends up where they started, like when you look back through the very first iteration of a website, or if your social media marketing, it is so different. And I think that's a beautiful part of the journey. And sometimes you look back on stuff and go, Oh, it's a bit cringy but that's where you were at that point in time.
Hayley
Yep. And I just want to say to if people were listening and they're in that situation, don't you can't compare your one to someone else's 20 And we all have that. And also you doing it it's better that it's out there. It's better that it's live. It's better that you done is better than perfect. is a big saying of mine. Yes. Oh, was, then you can change it. But don't wait until it's perfect to get it live. Just do it and then fix it up later.
Donna Hann
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I also really attest to that done is better than perfect. Because otherwise you can just stop yourself from ever moving forward. If you don't just give it a go put it out there as it is, like, do your best, but it's never going to be perfect. So don't hold yourself to that incredibly high standard, because it's just not reality. Like we know that. So, yeah.
Hayley
Yeah. Cool. Lots of lots of things. Yeah, there's lots of things
Donna Hann
Um, this has been an incredible chat, I could talk to you for days and days. So much, but I am conscious of time. Now I'm going to put all of the different things that you have spoken about in summary form in the show notes, right, and going to make sure that the amazing checklists that you mentioned, is also going to be there as well. But if people want to go to your website and check out your Instagram, can you share those places with us as well?
Hayley
Yes, so you can find me at hayleyosborne.com. And that's hayleyosborne.com, or my Instagram, which is where I hang out the most. And that is Haley K. The letter K. Osborne. Great to have you.
Donna Hann
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. It's been incredible. And I know that everyone who's been listening with their notepads would have taken lots and lots of tips doubt. So thanks so much for your time.
Hayley
Donna, thank you for having me.
Donna Hann
Thank you for listening to this episode of the She's in Business podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on Instagram and Facebook and I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a review on iTunes. Be sure to include your business name and your Insta handles so I can give you a shout out to if you want to know more about what I do the programs that I offer and how you can work with me then head over to donnahann.com and follow me on Instagram at donnahann_coach. I hope this podcast inspires you to be courageous to step into your potential and take action on building a successful and profitable business beyond what you thought was possible.
