Betsy Talbot helps businesses explain what they do so they can get more sales from the right customers. If you've ever wondered why people who obviously need your services aren't buying, then you're in the right place. Betsy is a bridge-builder between customer problems and business solutions, and today she's going to to tell us how we can make it easier for people to see the value in our offers and click the buy button.

• CEO Hack: Setting boundaries- I stop working on Thursday afternoon
• CEO Nugget: Know more about your market than your customers know
• CEO Defined: Identifying opportunities, learning from failures, and taking risks in small ways

Website: http://www.betsytalbot.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/betsytalbot

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:30.50] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. Betsy Talbot of Betsy Talbot dot com. Betsy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.70] – Betsy Talbot

Thank you for inviting me. I'm glad to be here.

[00:00:43.20] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. Before we jump in, I wanted to read a little bit more about Betsy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Betsy helps businesses explain what they do so they can get more sales from the right customers. If you've ever wondered why people obviously need your services and aren't buying, then you're in exactly the right place. Betsy is a bridge builder between customer problems and business solutions. And today, she's going to tell us how we can make it easier for people to see the value in our offers and click the very important buy button. Betsy, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:18.40] – Betsy Talbot

I am ready.

[00:01:19.70] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to kind of rewind the clock a little bit, and hear a little bit more about what got you started. Can you tell us your CEO story? We'll let you get started with your business.

[00:01:30.50] – Betsy Talbot

Alright. Great. Well, my CEO started story is a little bit convoluted, but, you know, I think that's true for a lot of people, especially if you come to be your own CEO at midlife like me. I've always been someone who can see opportunities, and I've always been a bit of a risk-taker. Small ways, and big ways, and I would much rather learn from failure than live with regret. So I already had that going for me. So when I was thirty-seven years old, my younger brother had a heart attack. And within a year later, a good good friend of mine who was also thirty-five had a brain aneurysm. Now both of these people recovered. Everything was fine, but it brought up a lot of questions. And so my husband and I kind of looked at each other and said, you know, if we weren't gonna make it to our fortieth birthdays, what would we do differently with our lives? And we both, of course, wanted to travel which was something we thought we'd have to wait for retirement for. So, again, that whole see the opportunity, take the risk, we decided to start saving. We saved money for two years, sold our house, sold our car, sold everything we owned, and went traveling for four years.

[00:02:38.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yes.

[00:02:39.09] – Betsy Talbot

During that time, we started our own kind of lifestyle media business. We had a podcast. We had a bunch of other things going on. And I took a ton of training on how to better communicate what we were doing. How to make more sales. Really dove into that. And a lot of my entrepreneur friends started asking me for help. And what I found in pretty short order was that I loved the variety of helping all these other businesses more than I liked working on my same business all the time.

And so it got to the point where finally my husband and I made the decision that we were just going to close down the business that we were doing, and I was gonna hang out my shingle and see if this thing was gonna work. Again, that whole opportunity risk thing.  And I was shocked. It picked up right away, and I was quickly earning more than we had been doing in our other business. And I think it just goes to show when you click into something that you're good at, that feeds you, that also helps other people, you know, it's kinda hard to mess it up. I mean, I still mess up occasionally. Don't get me wrong.

[00:03:43.09] – Gresham Harkless

No. We all definitely mess up, but there's definitely, you know, so much power in being that in kind of that zone of genius, so to speak, where you are not only, you know, able to make an impact as you've been able to on your business, but I think you've been able to help out so many other people as well too. And you start to know that because these things sometimes will take off, not because you haven't been working, you know, hard and you haven't been doing things, but because, like, it's, like, that perfect kind of alignment. And when that happens, it just triggers that incredible kind of growth.

[00:04:11.40] – Betsy Talbot

Well, you know, there's not many times in life I mean, I wish there were more times in life like this where you just really feel like you're you're tuned into to what you're supposed to be doing. You know, you can feel the You can just reach out and kind of just kinda touch the live wire and you're you know you're on it. And that's how I feel about this business and have since day one. And I'm really glad that I'm able to do it. I mean, I live in a cave house in the middle of rural Spain, and I am able to make a great living and really have a fulfilling life and still look outside and see sheep grazing in the pasture. So, like, for me, this is an ideal life and it's made possible because of the internet and because of the way we work now and because I have a unique skill set to be able to offer to other people. So, again, I just you know, it's that knowing that you're in the right place and it feels really good.

[00:04:59.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I love that word, that you said, you know, possible and the possibilities that sometimes we don't know are aware to us, especially due to the Internet, And that we can, you know, live the life and rewrite our script, so to speak. And a lot of times, if you don't know that, if you don't hear that, you don't realize it's something that can be a reality. So that's why I love, obviously, that you're doing it, but as well that you're telling so many people how you've been able to execute and be able to do it as well.

[00:05:24.39] – Betsy Talbot

Yeah. Well, and let me tell you, I grew up in a small town in a very conservative background. So if I can do it, anybody can.

[00:05:33.19] – Gresham Harkless

There you go. That's even more of a reminder. So, I know you touched on it a little bit. Can you take us through exactly, like, what you're doing with your clients, how you serve your clients, and how exactly, that process goes?

[00:05:45.00] – Betsy Talbot

Well, generally, I help my clients explain what they do so that they don't have to compete on price. So they're competing on value. They're law firm clients as well. And what I like about this is that we start from the business goal. You know, we start from, you know, what is it that you're trying to achieve? And then we use content and automation and all kinds of, you know, strategies to help accomplish those goals. We don't just say we need an email campaign or we need to update the website. It's all in service to a bigger goal. And I think that's kind of the head turner for a lot of my clients is that they look at that and they say, oh, well, I never thought about it that way. And in my way of thinking, there's no reason to create any piece of content or any marketing activity that's not feeding the bigger goal, if it's not part of something. Otherwise, it's just busy work. And if you wanna do busy work, you might as well get a job working for somebody else.

[00:06:45.10] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. That makes so much sense, and I love kind I think sometimes we can, you know, lose sight of that quote-unquote North Star, so to speak, You can't call it in the kind of the day-to-day or even the shiny objects as well. It's like, oh, I heard that I need to do this, or I need to implement that, or I need to do this. But if you're not really kind of keeping it keeping alignment to that North Star, you can get really lost and start, as you say, in doing that busy work that you could be doing for somebody else.

[00:07:10.60] – Betsy Talbot

Exactly. And, you know, this is the thing. I think most people who have the idea of being a CEO, whether you're still working on it or, you know, you know, you're already there, you're in the corner office, you know, whatever. We don't want to do busy work. We don't want to do somebody else's agenda of, you know, you have to stay here from eight to five whether you have anything to do or not kind of a thing. You know, we all kinda wanna, you know, make our destiny. And so, there's no room for busy work in that.

[00:07:39.10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I think that's, like, kind of a human thing. You you wanna be a purpose. You wanna feel like what you're doing is of value, as you said as well. And I think the more that you're in alignment with that, the more you feel excited about, you know, every minute and every aspect of life because you know it's all for something that's sometimes greater than ourselves.

[00:07:57.10] – Betsy Talbot

Right.

[00:07:57.80] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for yourself personally or your business. But what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:08:07.89] – Betsy Talbot

Well, the thing that sets me apart from other people who do what I do, is that most of them would call themselves a copywriter or a marketing strategist. The thing that sets me apart is that I do have quite a bit of a business background. You know, I didn't get into this until mid-midlife. And so I have a lot of business background. So when I'm talking to a CEO or a founder or, you know, an executive, I can speak the language that they're talking about when they're talking about their goals and the things that they wanna do with their business. And I can tie what I do to those goals so that they can clearly see it. And that's something that not every, person who does what I do, they don't have that background. So when I'm able to do that, it helps me, it helps me forge relationships at a higher level and with maybe bigger businesses than an indie person like me would normally be able to attract. That's what I like about it, and it's probably why I end up working with so many manufacturers engineers, and lawyers.

[00:09:08.89] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:21.29] – Betsy Talbot

Well, I am the boundary queen.

[00:09:23.79] – Gresham Harkless

Mhmm.

[00:09:24.10] – Betsy Talbot

So this is a funny thing to say because most people think that it's counterintuitive, but this works so well. I stop working every Thursday afternoon, and I do not work. I do not check my email. I do not check LinkedIn. I do not check anything until Monday morning.

[00:09:38.50] – Gresham Harkless

Mhmm.

[00:09:39.10] – Betsy Talbot

Now I'm not saying everyone should do that. What I'm saying is that if you don't set boundaries for yourself as a CEO, you will not have the energy for the long run.

[00:09:50.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanna ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or something you might tell yourself if you were to happen to a time machine.

[00:10:00.10] – Betsy Talbot

Oh, wow. This is a good one. You should always know way more about your market and your customers than they know about you. Mhmm. If you do not know them inside and out, you cannot serve them. You cannot make sales. You cannot make money. You cannot grow your business if you don't know. So I see so many times when clients come to me and they want to basically have a one-way conversation, you know, broadcast out how great they are, all the things they can do.

And again, there's a there's a place for that. Obviously, you need to put your credibility out there. But if you aren't spending at least as much time, if not more time, getting to know the pains, the goals, the feelings, the changes of your clients, then, you know, you're in a bad place. You know, right now, as we record this, we are in the midst of most of us quarantining for the coronavirus. And what I'm seeing from a lot of clients is they're not adjusting their messaging at all. They're not looking at how their clients' lives have changed. Everyone's life has changed. So even if your offer hasn't necessarily changed, the messaging around it probably should.

[00:11:07.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Because time is one of the most precious gifts that we all have. So, I now wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Betsy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:11:22.00] – Betsy Talbot

Let's see. Being a CEO means identifying opportunities taking calculated risks and being comfortable with doing that. And this is why I mentioned at the top of the show, that taking those risks every single day in small ways makes you prepared for those bigger risks when something comes along and you know it's there, you no longer have to freak out like, oh, can I do this? Because you've done it a hundred times in small ways before. So to me, being a CEO is being a leader, and you can't always play it safe. And you do have to take risks, and you do have to fail and learn from those failures.

So being a CEO is not the kind of thing where, you know, all of a sudden you're there and you're at this position and you do everything right going forward and you play everything safe. It should actually be the opposite of that. You're a leader. You're someone who's trying to do something in this world, whether you're a one-person shop or a big organization. And if you really want to leave your mark, you're gonna have to embrace some opportunities and take some risks and, recognize that you're gonna fail and be okay with that.

[00:12:28.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. You have to make sure that you definitely, you know, respect the process. And it kinda sounds like you're you're talking about and definitely correct me if I'm wrong, like, it's kind of a muscle. As you said, you have to take those small risks and kinda see things turn out great. Sometimes, they don't turn out so great. They don't turn out great. But you still have to continue to kinda flex that muscle so that when that opportunity comes, you're in, I guess, shape, so to speak, so that you're able to kinda make those decisions.

[00:12:52.00] – Betsy Talbot

Well, you know, I talked earlier about being the boundary queen whenever I said I, you know, don't work on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But the boundary is also when you become really comfortable doing things, the so much bigger. Because you're you're strengthening it every day just like going to the gym. And so once you have that, you'll be amazed to see how many more opportunities you see on a given day, week, month, year than you do when you're playing really small and trying to keep it safe and, you know, not ruffle any feathers.

[00:13:26.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:13:27.50] – Betsy Talbot

Not risk looking bad.

[00:13:29.00] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And understanding that's part of the process as well too is definitely a huge thing. And when when you're able to kinda be in that zone, as we kinda talked about, that position of power, provides some really phenomenal things. So, Betsy, truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on. Well, I love what you're doing here, Gresh, and everyone is awesome things you're working on. Well, I love what you're doing here, Gresh, and everyone is awesome things you're working on.

[00:13:57.60] – Betsy Talbot

Well, I love what you're doing here, Gresh, and everyone is awesome things you're working on. Well, I love what you're doing here, Gresh, and everyone is the CEO of their own business. One thing I'd like to leave people with is to know that there is no certification or test or permission being granted to you to be a CEO. You just get to jump in and do it. And you don't have to be perfect and you are gonna make mistakes. And, you know, the goal is to make yourself comfortable with this role, and you can do that whether you are a CEO now or whether it's still a few years down the road for you. But the biggest tip of all is that you should be the CEO of your life. Whether you ever take this into a business, perspective or not, once you take control of that way of your life, you'll see it go off in all kinds of crazy directions. And you may end up in the middle of Spain surrounded by sheep like I am. I don't know. I couldn't have predicted how my life would have turned out, but I can tell you I'm not mad about it.

[00:14:48.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And you shouldn't definitely be mad, and I think you wanna be able to make sure that you are flexing those muscles and you are taking those risks, no matter what your quote unquote position is, but you are the CEO of your life, and you can kinda paint the picture of your life and how you want to be.

[00:15:02.70] – Betsy Talbot

Right. Well, people can find me at Betsy Talbot dot com. And if you go there, Betsy Talbot dot com slash shop, you'll find that I have a couple of, DIY resources. One of them is a template kit on how to write a welcome series for your visitors, and it helps to tie what their pain points are with what you offer because I know lots of people struggle with making that connection. And then the second one is a case study kit. So if you ever wanted to have your customers brag about you, this tells you exactly who to pick and why what questions to ask how to write it up, and everything. And both of those are pay-what-you-can pricing. So if anyone's interested in that, hop on to Betsy Talbot dot com slash shop.

[00:15:45.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Betsy. We will have the links and information in the show that was just so that everybody can do that. And I appreciate that reminder as well too. Again, going back to why we do what we do to try to solve problems. It doesn't sometimes matter how well you can do it if you can't communicate it. So I appreciate you for creating that kinda easy button. I guess you can call it to make it a little bit easier for us in our lives. So appreciate you, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:09.20] – Betsy Talbot

Thank you.

[00:16:10.50] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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