Category Small Business
Get Found, Get Chosen, Get Paid
Last night in Victor Harbor, I ran a 2.5-hour workshop for Business Victor Harbor on one brief: more money in the till. This post is the record, capturing key ideas, examples, and action, in the order I covered them. Every…
A Super-cali-fragilistic-expi-ali-docious Marketing Insight From A Māori – As Inspiring As A Glow Worm In The Dark
I’m just back from a fascinating trip to New Zealand ahead of MCing the South Australian Visitor Information Service Conference later this month, and one offhanded comment by a Kiwi tourist operator has stuck with me. As we were driving…
What’s It Like to Be One of Your Customers? The Theory of Mind That Changes Everything
Here’s what my electrician never wondered: What’s it like to be one of my customers? He never imagined the anxiety of trusting someone with three thousand dollars. The frustration of rearranging schedules around his promises. The cascading disruption when he…
Customer Service Lessons From The Road
This past week, while delivering a series of workshops titled Designing Better Customer Service in Tourism on behalf of TiCSA across South Australia’s Mid North and Southern Flinders Ranges, I encountered two markedly different customer service experiences. We started the…
Google Has Become A Lying Pile Of Horse Manure: Unpacking The True Cost Of “Added Value”
In an era where digital tools are extensions of our professional and personal identities, the recent move by Google to hike the prices of Workspace services under the guise of “added value” feels, at best, arrogant, and at worst, outright…
We Thought This Was Going to Be Easy”: Reflecting on the Small Business Journey
The spark for this reflection was ignited by a simple act: sharing a meme that carried a message many of us in the small business community felt in our bones—”We are not doing this because it is easy; we are…
Last Car Wash Then I’m Outta Here: Will Ending Loyalty Cards Cut The Cord And Set Your Customers Free
On Sunday, I went to the family owned and run service station I’ve used for 17 years to get some petrol and to run my car through the car wash. I told the attendant that I just finished my latest…
A Question For Marketers: Why Do We Need To Belong To A Community?
We’ve noticed all the makings of “community” within the hundreds of business owners and managers who are clients (and friends) of Talked About Marketing, which has our reflecting on why humans need to belong to a community. You’ll be hearing…
Y Natural: The Inner Beauty Of Buying Local When You Say You Will
There is a resigned sadness among many small business owners like Barbara Gare from Y Natural, when they hear friends say they believe in buying local but don’t actually follow through. As small business owners and leaders we are right…
Learn More By Expecting Things To Be Harder
We can learn more by expecting things to be harder, according to Oxford professor of mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy, which is one of two small insights I shared on my regular small business segment with Richard Pascoe on FIVEaa last…