THE POWER OF BEING AUTHENTIC

An Interview With Tasha Jennings

In this episode of “MAGIC MELBOURNIANS” I interview Tasha Jennings about the power of being authentic and why it is absolutely essential for businesses today.

You can watch the Periscope replay here or read Tasha’s excellent blog post below

Alternately, you can watch the video on Periscope itself if you prefer

www.Periscope.tv/KeithKeller

“THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY”
Sensational Interview With
Tasha Jennings!! #MagicMelbournians https://t.co/AYC2CCv3Cw @TashaJenningsND

— Keith Keller (@KeithKeller) March 15, 2017

THE POWER OF BEING AUTHENTIC

A Deeper Dive With Tasha Jennings!!

The online world can be pretty ‘unreal’ sometimes.

A sea of photoshopped images & copywritten scripts.

The power of being authentic is that it can help you cut through the clutter and really reach your audience in a way that scripted material can’t.

As a small business, it can be hard to stand out against the ‘big guns’ in your industry.

That is, if you try to play in the same marketing space.

Throwing your small budget into a big pool won’t get you very far and can be extremely expensive.

How do you get the cut through without a big budget?

Trust and loyalty is what we are all looking for.

Big business naturally have a certain level of trust, just for the sheer fact that they are big.

Fostering this further is something big brands spend huge amounts of time, effort and money on.

Celebrities and sports stars are recruited (and well paid) to help nurture this brand loyalty.

So how do you build that sense of trust and credibility without the big brand backing and the price tag?

“One of the best marketing assets you have is youself”

You may not be a celebrity but your drive, your passion, your authenticity can be even more powerful, if used well.

Telling your story and sharing your passion can create a sense of trust and loyalty even stronger than the bigger brands.

You don’t start a business because you’re average at what you do, or you’re not truly passionate about your chosen career.

You are generally pretty awesome at what you do and you have a fantastic product or service as well.

But shouting this at the top of your lungs (even if you do shout it on prime time TV) isn’t going to help.

Ask yourself these questions:

Who are you?

Why should people believe you?

Why should people trust you?

You don’t have a big brand behind you to create this trust, so how do you gain it?

It all comes back to the power of being authentic.

Your authenticity is something the bigger brands cannot replicate.

The difference between a small and large scale business owner is your investment in the customer experience.

Big company CEO’s will be invested in the customer experience so far as it impacts their brand credibility and bottom line.

As a small business owner, you are personally invested in your customer’s experience beyond the bottom line.

Personally, I’m a Naturopath and Nutritionist working in the fertility/pregnancy space.

My company Zycia sells a premium prenatal supplement called Zycia Natal Nutrients.

I also run a website www.ConceiveBaby.com.au where I have compile an expert panel including Gynaecologists, IVF and fertility specialists, fertility psychologist, Chinese medical practitioners, naturopaths, nutritionists, natural fertility specialists as well as a surrogacy lawyers and egg donors.

As a result, the site provides information on all aspects of fertility and early pregnancy health to help couples achieve their dreams of starting a family.

For me, seeing people through their journey from fertility struggles to having them send me pictures of their precious babies, is the reason I do what I do.

I’m sure this is something many business owners can relate to.

By sharing this passion you can generate such a strong sense of loyalty in your customers that they become more than customers, they become your brand ambassadors.

Consequently, you will find your brand mentioned in forums and shared on social media, which have helped establish trust and credibility in a way no amount of marketing dollars could.

How do you get your authentic voice out there on a larger scale?

We all know the impact video can have compared to written content.

Your audience gets to see the person behind the words to create that sense of trust and credibility.

But finding a good videographer, location, lighting (etc) can be so time-consuming and expensive.

Are Expensive Videos Really Necessary?

Interview With Fertility Specialist Dr Joseph Sgroi

Stress & Fertility (Google Hangout)

I have added both professionally filmed videos on You Tube as well as the DIY variety, in this case we used “Google Hangouts”

Both have been extremely successful marketing tools, however, I have personally found that the Google Hangouts platform is a much more effective way to be authentic.

Furthermore, it comes with the added bonus of being totally free.

Professionalism is something I’m very keen to establish and retain.

For this reason, I was hesitant to use an ‘amateur’ video platform.

I have found that you can still be professional through this portal as long as you provide professional and credible content.

For me, I do this by interviewing fertility specialists and this provides fabulous content for my audience.

These specialists can cost hundreds of dollars to see not to mention the 6 month waiting lists, so their advice and expertise is highly valued.

Their involvement also creates a second promotional channel through the specialist’s social channels and networks as well supporting my credibility by association.

If you haven’t used Google Hangouts, it did have a reputation for being a bit clunky and unreliable.

However much has changed.

Google Hangouts have merged to YouTube live with your finished webinar automatically uploading to your YouTube Channel.

The benefits of this being a free platform is that I give all this fabulous content away for free.

I also provide a free eBook ‘Finding your fertile window’ as well as a free introduction to my published hard copy and Kindle book ‘The Fertility Diet’.

I’m often asked why I give so much away for free.

The reason comes back to trust and credibility.

Providing this great free professional content that I know will truly help my audience, has enabled me to achieve a consistent 30 – 90% open rate on my newsletter and I’m now able to reach people all over the world from my laptop!!

There are plenty of sites which explain how to utilize this free platform.

The important message I’d like to convey here is that you don’t need to have any IT experience or video experience to run your own webinar, and run it well.